to get the advantage of the
other.

Sheridan, they heard, was trying to curve about with his horsemen and
reach Richmond, and Stuart, with his cavalry, including Sherburne's,
was sent to intercept him, Harry riding by Sherburne's side. It was near
the close of May, but the air was cool and pleasant, a delight to breathe
after the awful Wilderness.

Stuart, despite his small numbers, was in his gayest spirits, and when
he overtook the enemy at a little place called Yellow Tavern he attacked
with all his customary fire and vigor. In the height of the charge,
Harry saw him sink suddenly from his horse, shot through the body.
He died not long afterward and the greatest and most brilliant horseman
of the South passed away to join Jackson and so many who had gone before.
Harry was one of the little group who carried the news to Lee, and he saw
how deeply the great leader was affected. So many of his brave generals
had fallen that he was like the head of a family, bereft.

Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike.
It was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong
position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and powerful
artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn.

Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen on
the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged to
certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field with
a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly melted
away before them and when the half-hour was over more than twelve
thousand men in blue lay upon the red field.

Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to anticipate
a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its disappointment as
best it could, and prepared for another campaign.

Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines
of Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the
victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he
kept his thoughts to himself.

The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and
Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire,
sitting in a trench, resumed their game of chess.

Colonel Talbot took a pawn, the first man captured by either since early
spring.

"That was quite a victory," he said.

"Not important! Not important, Leonidas!"

"And why not, Hector