they stood a moment consulting in whispers, then the
orderly ran for his saddled horse, mounted, and rode off through the
lanes of the cavalry camp.

From the tent door the Special Messenger looked out into the camp. Under
the base of a grassy hill hundreds of horses were being watered at a
brook now discolored by the recent rains; beyond, on a second knoll, the
guns of a flying battery stood parked. She could see the red trimmings
on the gunners' jackets as they were lounging about in the grass.

The view from the tent door was extensive; a division, at least, lay
encamped within range of the eye; two roads across the hills were full
of wagons moving south and east; along another road, stretching far into
the valley, masses of cavalry were riding--apparently an entire
brigade--but too far away for her to hear the trample of the horses.

From where she stood, however, she could make out the course of a fourth
road by the noise of an endless, moving column of horses. At times,
above the hillside, she could see their heads, and the enormous
canvas-covered muzzles of siege guns; and the racket of hoofs, the
powerful crunching and grinding of wheels, the cries of teamsters united
in a dull, steady uproar that never ceased.

From their camp, troopers of the Fourth Missouri were idly watching the
artillery passing--hundreds of sunburned cavalrymen seated along the
hillside, feet dangling, exchanging gibes and jests with the drivers of
the siege train below. But from where she stood she could see nothing
except horses' heads tossing, blue caps of mounted men, a crimson guidon
flapping, or the sun glittering on the slender, curved blade of some
officer's sabre as he signaled.

North, east, west, south--the whole land seemed to be covered with
moving men and beasts and wagons; flags fluttered on every eminence;
tents covered plowed fields, pastures, meadows; smoke hung over all,
crowning the green woods with haze, veiling hollows, rolling along the
railway in endless, yellow billows.

The rain had washed the sky clean, but again this vast, advancing host
was soiling heaven and blighting earth as it passed over the land
toward that beleaguered city in the South.

War! Everywhere the monotony of this awful panorama, covering her
country day after day, month after month, year after year--war, always
and everywhere and in every stage--hordes of horses, hordes of men,
endless columns of deadly engines! Everywhere, always, dea