on that had seized and
bound him had come with the force of an invader, of a barbaric horde,
from a world that he ordinarily ignored. It held him helpless, an
enslaved spirit, but around it vaguely worked the old habits of mind.
Now it interested him--though only to a certain degree--that, in some
subtle fashion and for some reason which he could not explain, the
gunner with the sponge staff could so make himself felt across space. He
wondered a little about this man; and then, insensibly, he began to
review the past. He had resolution enough, and he did not always choose
to review the past. To-night it was perhaps the atmosphere, the
commotion of the elements, the harp of the wind, the scourging rain--at
any rate, he reviewed it and fully. When the circle was completed and
his attention touched again the storm and the twilight hill near
Chantilly, and he lifted his eyes from the soaked and trodden ground, it
was to find the double shadow still before him. He felt that the eyes
of the gunner with the sponge staff were on him, had been on him for
some time. Quite involuntarily he moved, with a sudden gesture, as
though he evaded a blow. A sergeant's voice came through the twilight,
the wind and the rain. "Deaderick!"

The man by the gun moved, took up the sponge staff that had rested
beside him, turned in the darkness and went away.

A little later Stafford left the hilltop. The cannon had ceased their
booming, except for here and there a fitful burst; the musketry fire had
ceased. Pope's rearguard, Lee's advance, the two drew off and the
engagement rested indecisive. Blue and grey, a thousand or two men
suffered death or wounding. They lay upon the miry earth, beneath the
pelting storm. Among the blue, Kearney and Stevens were killed. Through
the darkness that wrapped the scene, Stafford found at last his way to
his general. He found him with Stuart, who was reporting to Stonewall
Jackson. "They're retreating pretty rapidly, sir. They'll reach Fairfax
Court House presently."

"Yes. They won't stop there. We'll bivouac on the field, general."

"And to-morrow, sir?"

"To-morrow, sir, we will follow them out of Virginia."

September the second dawned bright and clear. From Fairfax Court House
Pope telegraphed to Halleck. "There is undoubted purpose on the part of
the enemy to keep on slowly turning my position so as to come in on the
right. The forces under my command are unable to prevent his doing so.
Telegraph wh