l Brigade, five regiments, which
always had but two alternatives, to conquer or to die. Hill and Ewell
with fresh troops were coming up also on his flanks, and now the blue
and the gray, face to face again, closed in mortal combat.

"We've stopped! We've stopped! Do you hear it, we've stopped!" exclaimed
Pennington, his face a ghastly reek of dust and perspiration, his eyes
showing amazement and wonder how the halt could have happened. Dick
shared in the terrible surprise. The fire in front of him deepened
suddenly. Men were struck down all about him. Heavy masses of troops in
gray showed through the smoke. The Stonewall Brigade was charging, and
regiments were charging with it on either side.

The column in blue was struck in front and on either flank. It not only
ceased its victorious advance, but it began to give ground. The men
could not help it, despite their most desperate efforts. It seemed to
Dick that the earth slipped under their feet. A tremendous excitement
seized him at the thought of victory lost just when it seemed won. He
ran up and down the lines, shouting to the men to stand firm. He saw
that the senior officers were doing the same, but there was little
order or method in his own movements. It was the excitement and bitter
humiliation that drove him on.

He stumbled in the smoke against Sergeant Whitley. The sergeant's
forehead had been creased by a bullet, but so much dust and burned
gunpowder had gathered upon it that it was as black as the face of a
black man.

"Are we to lose after all?" exclaimed Dick.

It seemed strange to him, even at that moment, that he should hear
his own voice amid such a roar of cannon and rifles. But it was an
undernote, and he heard with equal ease the sergeant's reply:

"It ain't decided yet, Mr. Mason, but we've got to fight as we never
fought before."

The Union men, both those who had faced Jackson before and those who
were now meeting him for the first time, fought with unsurpassed valor,
but, unequal in numbers, they saw the victory wrenched from their grasp.
Jackson now had his forces in the hollow of his hand. He saw everything
that was passing, and with the mind of a master he read the meaning of
it. He strengthened his own weak points and increased the attack upon
those of the North.

Dick remained beside the sergeant. He had lost sight of Colonel
Winchester, Warner and Pennington in the smoke and the dreadful
confusion, but he saw well enough that his