As they entered the building, Markowitz said, "You hear the latest? Christian Randolph was drugged by Confed insurrectionists. They took over his Compensation Army as part of a plan to stir up trouble in Washington and terrify the populace into looking south for salvation. The Confeds wanted to use the government’s failure to quell the riots as an excuse to nab North Virginia and the sub-Potomac region of the Federal District—for the safety of the people, don’t you know. Randolph had the poor fortune to become their puppet. The drugs induced megalomania and drove him over the edge. That’s where all that wild rhetoric he was spouting near the end came from, and it’s why he did that no-one-takes-me-alive immolation at the Block. Very sad story. He was an honest man, if somewhat naive."