wly rearward, some quiescent. Under the brow of the
ridge, decimated and broken into a mere skirmish line sheltered in knots
and singly, behind rocks and knolls, and bushes, lay the Fourteenth
Regiment, keeping up a steady, slow fire. From the edge above, smokily
dim against a pure, blue heaven, answered another rattle of musketry,
incessant, obstinate, and spiteful. The combatants on both sides were
lying down; otherwise neither party could have lasted ten minutes. From
Fitz Hugh's point of view not a Confederate uniform could be seen. But
the smoke of their rifles made a long gray line, which was disagreeably
visible and permanent; and the sharp _whit! whit!_ of their bullets
continually passed him, and cheeped away in the leafage behind.

"Our men can't get on another inch," he ventured to say to his
commander. "Wouldn't it be well for me to ride up and say a cheering
word?"

"Every battle consists largely in waiting," replied Waldron
thoughtfully. "They have undoubtedly brought up a reserve to face
Thomas. But when Gahogan strikes the flank of the reserve, we shall
win."

"I wish you would take shelter," begged Fitz Hugh. "Everything depends
on your life."

"My life has been both a help and a hurt to my fellow-creatures," sighed
the brigade commander. "Let come what will to it."

He glanced upward with an expression of profound emotion; he was
evidently fighting two battles, an outward and an inward one.

Presently he added, "I think the musketry is increasing on the left.
Does it strike you so?"

He was all eagerness again, leaning forward with an air of earnest
listening, his face deeply flushed and his eye brilliant. Of a sudden
the combat above rose and swelled into higher violence. There was a
clamor far away--it seemed nearly a mile away--over the hill. Then
the nearer musketry--first Thomas's on the shoulder of the ridge, next
Gildersleeve's in front--caught fire and raged with new fury.

Waldron laughed outright. "Gahogan has reached them," he said to one of
his staff who had just rejoined him. "We shall all be up there in five
minutes. Tell Colburn to bring on his regiment slowly."

Then, turning to Fitz Hugh, he added, "Captain, we will ride forward."

They set off at a walk, now watching the smoking brow of the eminence,
now picking their way among dead and wounded. Suddenly there was a shout
above them and a sudden diminution of the firing; and looking upward
they saw the men of the Fourteent