away. The covering fire of the
Southern cannon had ceased long since. It would have been as dangerous
now to friend as to foe. Harry, watching through his glasses, uttered
another cry. Pickett and his men were marching alone at the hill.
Half of them it seemed to him were gone already, but the other half
never paused. The fire of a hundred guns had been poured upon them,
as they advanced that deadly mile, but with ranks still even they rushed
straight at their mark, the Union center.

Then Harry saw all the slopes and the crest of Cemetery Hill blaze with
fire. The Virginians were near enough for the rifles now, and the
bullets came in sheets. Harry saw it, and he groaned aloud. He no
longer had any hope for those brave men. The charge could not succeed!

Yet he saw them rush into the Union ranks and disappear. A group in
gray, still cleaving through the multitude, reappeared far up the slope,
and then burst, a little band of a few dozen men, into the very heart of
the Union center, the point to which they had been sent.

A battle raged for a few minutes under the clump of trees where Hancock
had stood directing. There Armistead, who had led them, his hat on the
point of his sword, fell dead among the Northern guns, and Cushing,
his brave foe who commanded the battery, died beside him. All the
others fell quickly or were taken. A few hundreds on the slopes cut
their way back through the Union army and reached their own. Pickett,
preserved by some miracle, was among them.

Harry gasped and threw down his glasses. Now he knew that the words
Shepard had spoken to him the night before at the spring were true.
The Southern invasion had been rolled back forever.

He looked at General Lee, who on foot had been watching the charge.
The impenetrable mask was gone for a moment, and his face expressed deep
emotion. Then the great soul reasserted itself and mounting his horse
went forward to meet the fugitives and encourage them. He rode back and
forth among them, and Harry heard him say once:

"All will come right in the end. We'll talk it over afterward, but
meanwhile every good man must rally. We want all good and true men just
now."

His manner was that of a father to his children, and, though they had
failed, the spontaneous cheers again burst forth wherever he passed.
The wounded as they were carried to the rear raised themselves up to see
him, and their cheers were added to the others.

Harry neve