h,
if only the Army of the Potomac would come! If we could only stave off
battle long enough for it to reach us!"

"Don't you think we could do it, sir? Couldn't General Pope retreat on
Washington then, and, as they continued to follow us, we could turn and
spring on them with both armies."

But Colonel Winchester shook his head.

"It would never do," he said. "All Europe, eager to see the Union
split, would then help the Confederacy in every possible manner. The old
monarchies would say that despite our superior numbers we're not able to
maintain ourselves outside the defenses of Washington. And these things
would injure us in ways that we cannot afford. Remember, Dick, my boy,
that this republic is the hope of the world, and that we must save it."

"It will be done, sir," said Dick, almost in the tone of a young
prophet. "I know the spirit of the men. No matter how many defeats are
inflicted upon us by our own brethren we'll triumph in the end."

"It's my own feeling, Dick. It cannot, it must not be any other way!"

Dick remained upborne by a confidence in the future rather than in the
present, and throughout the morning he remained with his comrades, under
arms, but doing little, save to hear the fitful firing which ran along
a front of several miles. But later in the day a heavy crash came from a
ford further up the stream.

Under cover of a great artillery fire Stuart's cavalry dashed into the
ford, and drove off the infantry and a battery posted to defend it. Then
they triumphantly placed heavy lines of pickets about the ford on the
Union side.

It was more than the Union lads could stand. A heavy mass of infantry,
Colonel Winchester's regiment in the very front of it, marched forward
to drive back these impertinent horsemen. They charged with so much
impetuosity that Stuart's cavalry abandoned such dangerous ground. All
the pickets were drawn in and they retreated in haste across the stream,
the water foaming up in spurts about them beneath the pursuing bullets.

Then came a silence and a great looking back and forth. The threatening
armies stared at each other across the water, but throughout the
afternoon they lay idle. The pitiless August sun burned on and the dust
that had been trodden up by the scores of thousands hung in clouds low,
but almost motionless.

Dick went down into a little creek, emptying into the Rappahannock, and
bathed his face and hands. Hundreds of others were doing the same. The