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R
R
MAGIC he promised to visit the stranger, as requested. Upon the fulfilment of his promise, he found the stranger was a Frenchman, tall, thin, hollowcheeked, and eamest and dignified in his speech and demeanour. By this strange individual
w as instructed in the secrets of the order, and entrusted with signs and passwords, as to the import of which he had at the time little comprehension. During their conversation,
w as assured that he need have no fear of being killed in the war; that he would pass through many battles without injury, and that no bullet would touch him. This afterwards befell as foretold, for though on many occasions R 's clothes were pierced by bullets, he received no bodily hurt. Some of his escapes were so remarkable that he became convinced that he was under the protection of some unseen power. At the close of the war R travelled north and opened a store.
In the year 1871 he felt an insistent and unaccountable desire to visit the town of C- , and following this prompting made his way there and went to a private boarding-house. He could assign no reason for going to this particular house, but at the first meal after arriving there, met with a Dr. Hamilton from Charlestown, South Carolina, with whom he immediately
