ening. Then the voice rose again slowly and
clearly: "Pass the mulatto woman!"

Thank God! she was saved! But the thought had scarcely crossed his mind
before it seemed to him that a blinding crackle of sparks burst out
along the whole slope below the wall, a characteristic yell which he
knew too well rang in his ears, and an undulating line of dusty figures
came leaping like gray wolves out of the mist upon his pickets. He heard
the shouts of his men falling back as they fired; the harsh commands
of a few officers hurrying to their posts, and knew that he had been
hopelessly surprised and surrounded!

He ran forward among his disorganized men. To his consternation no one
seemed to heed him! Then the remembrance of his disguise flashed upon
him. But he had only time to throw away his hat and snatch a sword from
a falling lieutenant, before a scorching flash seemed to pass before
his eyes and burn through his hair, and he dropped like a log beside his
subaltern.

*****

An aching under the bandage around his head where a spent bullet had
grazed his scalp, and the sound of impossible voices in his ears were
all he knew as he struggled slowly back to consciousness again. Even
then it still seemed a delusion,--for he was lying on a cot in his own
hospital, yet with officers of the division staff around him, and the
division commander himself standing by his side, and regarding him
with an air of grave but not unkindly concern. But the wounded man felt
instinctively that it was not the effect of his physical condition, and
a sense of shame came suddenly over him, which was not dissipated by
his superior's words. For, motioning the others aside, the major-general
leaned over his cot, and said,--

"Until a few moments ago, the report was that you had been captured
in the first rush of the rear-guard which we were rolling up for your
attack, and when you were picked up, just now, in plain clothes on the
slope, you were not recognized. The one thing seemed to be as improbable
as the other," he added significantly.

The miserable truth flashed across Brant's mind. Hooker must have been
captured in his clothes--perhaps in some extravagant sally--and had not
been recognized in the confusion by his own officers. Nevertheless, he
raised his eyes to his superior.

"You got my note?"

The general's brow darkened.

"Yes," he said slowly, "but finding you thus unprepared--I had been
thinking just now that you had been deceive