en field beyond the Groveton wood with shot and
shrapnel. Morell fell back, Hatch fell back; the guns became deadly,
mowing down the blue lines. Stonewall Jackson rode along the front.

"General Hill, it is time for the counterstroke. Forward, and drive
them!"

The signaller wigwagged to the Warrenton turnpike:--

_General Lee. I am driving them. Jackson._

The signaller on the turnpike signalled back:--

_General Jackson. General Longstreet is advancing. Look out for and
protect his left flank. Lee._

* * * * *

Lee's great battle was over and won. Every division, brigade, regiment,
battery, fifty thousand infantry and cavalry brought by the great leader
into simultaneous action, the Army of Northern Virginia moved as in a
vast parade over plain and hill. Four miles in length, swept the first
wave with, in the centre, seven grey waves behind it. It was late. The
grey sea moved in the red and purple of a great sunset. From Stony Ridge
the forty guns thundered like grey breakers, while the guns of
Longstreet galloped toward the front. Horses and men and guns were at
the martial height of passion. To the right Jeb Stuart appeared,
magnificent. On swept the resistless sea. A master mind sent it over
those Manassas hills and plains, here diverting a portion of its waves,
here curbing a too rapid onslaught, here harking the great mass forward,
surmounting barriers, overwhelming a stubborn opposition, crumbling and
breaking to pieces. Wave on wave, rapid, continuous, unremitting,
thundered the assault, in the red sunset of the thirtieth of August.
Pope's Army fought bravely, but in the dusk it melted away.

CHAPTER XL

A GUNNER OF PELHAM'S

Major John Pelham looked at the clouds boiling up above Bull Run
Mountains.

"Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day!--"

he said. "What's the house they've burned over there?"

"Chantilly, sir."

Ruined wall and chimney, fallen roof-tree, gaping holes where windows
had been, the old mansion stood against the turmoil of the sky. It
looked a desolation, a poignant gloom, an unrelieved sorrow. A courier
appeared. "The enemy's rearguard is near Ox Hill, sir. They've driven in
some of our patrols. The main body is moving steady toward Fairfax Court
House. General Jackson has sent the Light Division forward. General
Stuart's going, too. He says, 'Come on.'"

The clouds mounted high and dark, t