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consul, which made his interrogators laugh. After a night behind bars, Watson was taken to see General Butler on the charge of having used “treasonable language.” Years later, the memory of his interview still made Watson bitter. Butler’s head “was large and flabby,” he wrote, “and nearly destitute of hair—except a little at the sides, which was just the color of his epaulets.” The general jeered at him and asked if he knew why he was there. “I said I was a British subject, and would have counsel to attend to my case. ‘Oh, a British subject of course,’ roared he. ‘I know that they are all British subjects now in New Orleans.’ ”

Butler’s manner throughout the interview led Watson to expect a lengthy prison term. Instead, he was sent before a judge, who examined his certificate of nationality and then offered him some words of advice about incautious jokes in a city under martial law. “I was quite astonished at having got off so easily.” His pocketbook was also returned, with some of the money still there, “which was considered a most extraordinary and unaccountable circumstance.”3 Watson wondered if the presence of HMS Rinaldo, lately arrived on Lyons’s orders, had anything to do with his swift release. Butler, he thought, made a great deal of noise about foreigners and the interference of foreign powers, particularly “John Bull.” But it was all calculated to frighten, rather than eradicate, the foreign population. Nevertheless, Watson was determined to leave New Orleans. All he had to do was find a weakness at one of the checkpoints and sneak past the guards. One sultry summer’s day, Watson and two friends set off for a picnic and simply carried on walking.

—

On May 13, 1862, almost three weeks after Butler’s arrival in Louisiana, Henry Adams was surprised by the spectacle of his father performing a victory dance in the hall at London’s American legation. “We’ve got New Orleans!” his father shouted. Henry ran out of the house to look for Thurlow Weed. Finding him “near his hotel, I leaped out of the cab, and each of us simultaneously drew out a telegram which we exchanged.… I went round to the Diplomatic Club and had the pleasure of enunciating my sentiments.”4 That evening, Weed’s celebrations at the Reform Club were underscored by the shrill cry of newspaper boys who passed beneath the windows, shouting “Rumored Capture of New Orleans.” Even more gratifyingly, the next day The Times admitted that it had been “mistaken” in accepting Southern assurances that the city would never fall. William Howard Russell added spice to the mix by reminding readers of McClellan’s “magnificent army” that “hated them like the devil and would want to have something to do” once the war was over. Russell’s warning appeared to strike a chord. At a reception on May 15, John Bright wagged his pudgy finger at Henry, saying, “If you Americans succeed in getting over this affair, you mustn’t go and get stuffy to England. Because if you do, I don’t know what’s to become of us who stood up for you here.” Henry laughed and replied that Bright would be welcome as a member of Congress.5

News of the victory had reached London on the anniversary of Charles Francis Adams’s arrival in England. The coincidence seemed fitting; life in England had grown quite bearable of late. “There is just now,” Adams wrote to Charles Francis Jr., “nobody who professes to think well of the South.”6 It helped that they had moved to a new residence in Upper Portland Place. Situated between Regent’s Park and Regent Street, the house at No. 5 enjoyed unobstructed light that streamed through the full-length windows all day long. An invigorated Adams told his mortified secretaries that from now on they were going to behave like gentlemen and cease turning their offices into “slut holes.” Confident in her improved surroundings, and armed with a new cook, Mrs. Adams held her first “at home.” To the family’s relief, recorded Benjamin Moran, “it was quite largely attended.”7

With the social season in full swing and despite a house suitable for entertaining, Henry was disappointed