our spirits began to pick up, and the men retreated more
slowly than ever, glancing over their shoulders to see how near the
head of the British column was.

At last we came to the foot of the first pass, with its hills heavily
covered with scrub pines. Behind us stretched the fields of broken
troops, and we could see the red line of the British as they debouched
upon the plain and drove the patriots before them.

It was a wild scene of confusion and disorder, of demoralised retreat
and rout; and then something happened.

There was a stir in the pass in our front, a clatter of hoofs, and
there appeared before us the General with his staff. He towered there
with his great figure, a veritable god of war and of wrath.

For a moment his eye swept the field, and his face flushed crimson
with indignation and anger, as he saw the best troops of his army
flying like sheep before the enemy. There was a storm in the air, and
then, as Lee rode up, it broke.

We heard his excited "Sir, sir!" and the General's angry tones, and
then dismissing him contemptuously, he called to Hamilton to ask if
there was a regiment which could stop the advance.

Ramsay sprang forward.

"My regiment is ready, General."

"If you stop them ten minutes until I form, you will save the army."

"I will stop them or fall," cried Ramsay, and, turning to us, he gave
the order to "About face," and then crying that the General relied on
us to save the army, he led us in the charge.

Not a moment too soon, for, as the press of the fugitives was brushed
aside by our advance, mingling in the midst of the disorderly mass,
came the red line of the British, cheering and victorious.

But suddenly the flying mass disappeared, and in their place came the
yell of the Maryland Line, the long array of their bayonets bent to
the charge, with all the fury and weight of their onset.

For a moment the red line hesitated; then an officer, who looked
strangely familiar, sprang forward, shouting:

"They are nothing but dogs of rebels; charge and break them."

The red line answered with a cheer, for their fighting blood was up,
and they dashed forward to meet us.

Then came such a clash of steel as is seldom heard, as the King's
Grenadiers and the Maryland Line met in the shock of the charge. For a
moment so close was the press that we could not wield our arms, and
men fell, spitted on each other's bayonets.

Then came a deadly struggle, as men fought desperatel