and a minie ball struck
him, and he said 'Lay me down. Fight on.'"

"Fort Pulaski's taken! The darned gunboats battered down the wall. All
of the garrison that ain't dead are prisoners."

"News from New Orleans ain't hilarious. Damned mortar boats bombard and
bombard!--four ships, they say, against Fort Saint Philip, more against
Fort Jackson. Air full of shells. Farragut may try to run forts and
batteries, Chalmette and all--"

"What else?"

"Looks downright bad down t' Richmond. McClellan's landed seventy-five
thousand men. Magruder lost a skirmish at Yorktown. All the Richmond
women are making sandbags for the fortifications. Papers talk awful calm
and large, but if Magruder gives way and Johnston can't keep McClellan
back, I reckon there'll be hell to pay! I reckon Richmond'll fall."

"Anything more?"

"That's all to-day."

The village wag stepped forth, half innocent and half knave. "Saay,
colonel! The prospects of this here Confederacy look rather _blue_."

"It is wonderful," said Cleave, "how quickly blue can turn to grey."

A portion of that night he spent at a farmhouse at the western mouth of
Swift Run Gap. Between two and three he and Harris and Dundee and the
grey were again upon the road. It wound through forests and by great
mountains, all wreathed in a ghostly mist. The moon shone bright, but
the cold was clinging. It had rained and on the soft wood road the
horses feet fell noiselessly. The two men rode in silence, cloaks drawn
close, hats over their eyes.

Behind them in the east grew slowly the pallor of the dawn. The stars
waned, the moon lost her glitter, in the woods to either side began a
faint peeping of birds. The two came to Conrad's Store, where the three
or four houses lay yet asleep. An old negro, sweeping the ground before
a smithy, hobbled forward at Harris's call. "Lawd, marster, enny news? I
specs, sah, I'll hab ter ax you 'bout dat. I ain' heard none but dat dar
wuz er skirmish at Rude's Hill, en er skirmish at New Market, en er-nurr
skirmish at Sparta, en dat Gineral Jackson hold de foht, sah, at
Harrisonburg, en dat de Yankees comin', lickerty-split, up de Valley, en
dat de folk at Magaheysville air powerful oneasy in dey minds fer fear
dey'll deviate dis way. Howsomever, we's got er home guard ef dey do
come, wid ole Mr. Smith what knew Gin'ral Washington at de haid. En dar
wuz some bridges burnt, I hearn, en Gineral Ashby he had er fight on de
South Fork, en I cyarn think