s clubbing
their muskets or grappling with the Union soldiers, each according to his
individual taste. As they were two to one of the Federals, they would
certainly have won the field if Captain de Banyan had not promptly come
to the rescue.

The excited rebel officer manifested a most persistent desire to revenge
his misfortunes upon Lieutenant Somers. After he had fired his pistol
twice, and one of the balls had passed through his opponent's cap, the
latter, by a sudden dash, knocked the weapon from his hand with his
sword. He then attempted to use his own sword, and, if Somers had not
been a "master of fence," would probably have run him through the body.
Some hard blows were struck with these weapons, and the age of chivalry,
when men fought hand to hand with trusty blades, seemed to be revived.
But the sword of the rebel officer was not so trusty as it ought to have
been. It was not a regulation sword; and, while its owner was flourishing
it most valiantly, the blade flew away from the handle.

"Now, surrender!" said Somers, out of breath with the violence of his
exertions, as he drew from his belt the pistol which, being so hard
pressed, he had not been able to use before.

"Never, sir! I don't surrender! I was sent here to fight, and not to
surrender!" replied the officer, as proudly as though he had been in
command of a beleaguered fortress, instead of a squad of two or three
dozen men.

Somers had him at his mercy, and it seemed but little better than murder
to shoot him in his defenseless state.

That was a bad mistake on his part; for the rebel officer at once
proceeded to prove that he was no effeminate character, who depended upon
a sword, pistol, or other weapon, to fight his battles with, but could,
if occasion required, defend himself with his naked arm. He sprang upon
Somers with the ferocity of a tiger. The latter fired; but the sudden
movement of the former impaired his aim, and the ball whistled harmlessly
over the head of the rebel. The desperate officer attempted to gain
possession of the pistol; but Somers, now thoroughly aroused to a sense
of his own danger, sprang at the throat of his antagonist, and, by the
fierceness of the dash, bore him to the earth. His victim struggled to
escape; and, being a stronger man than the other, would certainly have
succeeded, if Somers had not picked up his pistol, which lay on the spot
where they fell, and struck a blow with the butt of it on the temple of