Fine day, but I was locked in the house writing my despatches and private letters until sunset. When I got through it always seems as if a weight was taken from both mind and body. Yet I am sensible how far I fall short of my duty, and how much information I might collect which I do not. When I set up this discouraging absolute standard; my relief is in reflecting that relatively no predecessor of mine since Mr Everett has ever done so much. Indeed since the day of Mr Monroe no person has ever stood in so critical a position here, when errors could make more mischief. Perhaps as much may depend upon avoiding to do as doing. Quiet walk with Mary. The town is getting over the panic about the garotte. Shopkeepers have however availed themselves of it by putting up for sale all sorts of instruments of prevention. One of them is a collar with spikes in it, apparently a penitence to the wearer. In the evening I had a visit from a man who has written me several notes of late under the signature of an American, disclosing some of the movements of the Confederate emissaries here and their associates. He has not given me much information that I had not before, and I felt a little on my guard against trusting him. His name is Gray, and his family are in Virginia. I did not discourage him however, and he left me promising that he would apprise me of Lieutenant Maury’s operations here.252