both sides paced the river brink: they
did not fire upon each other.

Our side of the Chickahominy was not less peaceful. A couple of
batteries lay below us, in the meadows; but the horses were dozing in
the harness, and the gunners, standing bolt upright at the breech,
seemed parts of their pieces; the teamsters lay grouped in the long
grass. Immediately in front, Gaines's Mansion and outhouses spotted a
hillside, and we could note beyond a few white tents shining through the
trees. The roof of the old mill crouched between a medley of wavy fields
and woods, to our right, and just at our feet a tiny rill divided
Gaines's Mill from our own. Behind us, over the wilderness of swamp and
bog-timber, rose Smith's redoubt, with the Federal flag flaunting from
the rampart.

"Townsend," said Heath, as he swept the whole country with his keen eye,
"do you know that we are standing upon historic ground?"

He had been a poet and an orator, and he seemed to feel the solemnity of
the place.

"It may become historic to-morrow," I replied.

"It is so to-day," he said, earnestly; "not from battle as yet; _that_
may or may not happen; but in the pause before the storm there is
something grand; and this is the pause."

He took his soft beaver in his hand, and his short red hair stood
pugnaciously back from his fine forehead.

"The men that have been here already," he added, "consecrated the place;
young McClellan, and bluff, bull-headed Franklin; the one-armed devil,
Kearney, and handsome Joe Hooker; gray, gristly Heintzelman;
white-bearded, insane Sumner; Stuart, Lee, Johnston, the Hills----"

"Why not," said I, laughingly, "Eric the red,--the redoubtable Heath!"

"Why not?" he said, with a flourish; "Fate may have something in store
for me, as well as for these."

I have thought, since, how terribly our light conversation found
verification in fact. If I had said to Heath, that, at the very moment,
Jefferson Davis and his Commander-in-chief were sitting in the dwelling
opposite, reconnoitring and consulting; that, even now, their telescopes
were directed upon us; that the effect of their counsel was to be
manifest in less than a week; that one of the bloodiest battles of
modern times was to be fought beside and around us; that six days of the
most terrible fighting known in history were to ensue; that my friend
and comrade was standing upon the same clods which would be reddened, at
his next coming, with his heart's blood;