ull of blood."

An examination discovered a painful flesh-wound--the minnie ball having
glanced from the shoulder and passed out through the upper part of the arm.
In removing the coat to dress the wound, the doctor exclaimed--

"Here is a bullet-hole in the breast, which must have just missed your
heart! Was it a spent ball?"

A peculiar smile disclosed Russell's faultless teeth an instant, but he
merely took the coat, laid it over his uninjured arm, and answered--

"Don't trouble yourself about spent balls--finish your job. I must look
after my wounded."

As soon as the bandages were adjusted he walked away and took from the
inside pocket of the coat a heavy square morocco case containing Irene's
ambrotype. When the coat was buttoned as on that day, it rested over his
heart; and during the second desperate charge of General Beauregard's
lines, Russell felt a sudden thump, and, above all the roar of that scene
of carnage, heard the shivering of the glass which covered the likeness.
The morocco was torn and indented, but the ball was turned aside harmless,
and now, as he touched the spring, the fragments of glass fell at his feet.
It was evident that his towering form had rendered him a conspicuous
target; some accurate marksman had aimed at his heart, and the
ambrotype-case had preserved his life. With a countenance pale from
physical suffering, but beaming with triumphant joy for the Nation's first
great victory, he went out among the dead and dying, striving to relieve
the wounded, and to find the members of his own command.

But all of intolerable torture centred not there, awful as was the scene.
Throughout the length and breadth of the Confederacy telegraphic despatches
told that the battle was raging; and an army of women spent that 21st upon
their knees, in agonizing prayer for husbands and sons who wrestled for
their birthright on the far-off field of blood.

The people of W---- were subjected to painful suspense as hour after hour
crept by, and a dense crowd collected in front of the telegraph office,
whence floated an ominous red flag. Andrew waited on horseback to carry to
Irene the latest intelligence, and during the entire afternoon she paced
the colonnade, with her eyes fixed on the winding road. At half-past five
o'clock the solemn stillness of the sultry day was suddenly broken by a
wild, prolonged shout from the town; cheer after cheer was caught up by the
hills, echoed among the purple valleys,