re was no need to
hurry. Jeb Stuart, as Dalton had predicted, was making the most of his
chance. He was going not only to parade, but to have a mock battle as
well. As the sun rose higher, making the June day brilliant, General
Lee and his staff, dressed in their best, rode slowly to a little
hillock commanding a splendid view of a wide plain lying east of
Culpeper Court House.

General Lee was in a fine uniform, his face shaded by the brim of the
gray hat which pictures have made so familiar. His cavalry cape swung
from his shoulders, but not low enough to hide the splendid sword at
his belt. His face was grave and his whole appearance was majestic.
If only Jackson were there, riding by his side! Harry choked again.

Lee sat on his white horse, Traveler, and above him on a lofty pole a
brilliant Confederate flag waved in the light wind. Harry and Dalton,
as the youngest, took their modest places in the rear of the group of
staff officers, just behind Lee, and looked expectantly over the plain.
They saw at the far edge a long line of horsemen, so long, in fact,
that the eye did not travel its full distance. Nearer by, all the guns
of "Stuart's Horse Artillery" were posted upon a hill.

Harry's heart began to beat at the sight--mimic, not real, war, but
thrilling nevertheless. A bugle suddenly sounded far away, its note
coming low, but mellow. Other bugles along the line sang the same tune,
and then came rolling thunder, as ten thousand matchless horsemen,
led by Stuart himself, charged over the plain straight toward the hill
on which Lee sat on his horse.

The horsemen seemed to Harry to rise as if they were coming up the curve
of the earth. It was a tremendous and thrilling sight. The hoofs of
ten thousand horses beat in unison. Every man held aloft his sabre,
and the sun struck upon their blades and glanced off in a myriad
brilliant beams. Harry glanced at Lee and he saw that the blue eyes
were gleaming. He, too, sober and quiet though he was, felt pride as
the Murat of the South led on his legions.

The cavalrymen, veering a little, charged toward the guns on the hill,
and they received them with a discharge of blank cartridges which made
the plain shake. Back and forth the mimic battle rolled, charge and
repulse, and the smoke of the firing drifted over the plain. But the
wild horsemen wheeled and turned, always keeping place with such superb
skill that the officers and the infantry looking on