draw the expressions I used that
night, and to apologize for them most sincerely."

My hand was in his in an instant.

"With all my heart," I said. "I have thought more than once since then
that we were both too hasty."

He laughed,--a short laugh, in which there was no mirth.

"I think there are many of us who have been too hasty in this campaign,"
he said. "It is easy enough to see now that regulars are worth little in
this frontier warfare, where their manoeuvres count for nothing, and that
the provincials should have been left to fight in their own fashion. It
is not a pleasant thought that all my work in drilling them was worse
than wasted, and that every new manoeuvre I taught them impaired their
efficiency by just so much."

"'Twas not quite so bad as that," I protested. "The Virginia troops have
much to thank you for, and we shall know better how to deal with the
enemy next time."

"Next time?" he repeated despondently. "But when will next time be,
think you?"

"Why, at once, to be sure!" I cried. "We have still, with Colonel
Dunbar's companies, over a thousand men. So soon as we join with him, and
get our accoutrement in order, we can march back against the enemy, and
we shall not be caught twice in the same trap."

He did not answer, and there was a moment's silence. I glanced at his
face and saw that it was very grave.

"You do not mean," I asked, with a great fear at my heart, "that you
think it possible we shall retreat without striking another blow?"

"I fear it is only too possible," he answered gloomily. "If the general
lives, he may order another advance; indeed, I am sure he will, in the
hope of saving some fragment of his reputation. But if he dies, as seems
most likely, Colonel Dunbar, who succeeds to the command, is not the man
to imperil his prestige by taking such a risk."

"Risk?" I cried. "How is this any greater than the risk we took at
the outset?"

"You forget, lieutenant," said Allen, "that all of our equipment was left
on the field. The men flung away their arms, many of them even the
clothes upon their backs. Everything was abandoned,--the general's
private papers, and even the military chest, with L10,000 in it. These
losses will not be easily repaired."

I could not but admit the truth of this, and said as much.

"And then," continued Allen, still more gloomily, "we have suffered
another loss which can never be made good. The morale of the men is
gone. They have no long