d a trumpet out of it! The First Maryland's
getting out of the way--Now the Tigers!--Oh-h-h!"

He scrambled down. "By the left flank!" shouted Cleave. "Double quick.
March!"

The 65th, the Louisiana troops, the First Maryland, moved rapidly west
of the road, leaving a space of trampled green between themselves and
it. Out of the dust cloud toward the river now rose a thud of many
hoofs--a body of horse coming at a trot. The sound deepened, drew
nearer, changed measure. The horses were galloping, though not at full
speed. They could be seen now, in two lines, under bright guidons,
eating up the waves of earth, galloping toward the sunset in dust and
heat and thunder. At first sight like toy figures, men and horses were
now grown life-size. They threatened, in the act of passing, to become
gigantic. The sun had set, but it left walls and portals of cloud tinged
and rimmed with fire. The horsemen seemed some home-returning aerial
race, so straight they rode into the west. The ground shook, the dust
rose higher, the figures enlarged, the gallop increased. Energy at its
height, of a sudden all the trumpets blew.

[Illustration: bugle call music]

Past the grey infantry, frantically yelling its welcome, swept a
tremendous charge. Knee to knee, shouting, chanting, horse and man one
war shaft, endued with soul and lifted to an ecstasy, they went by,
flecked with foam, in a whirlwind of dust, in an infernal clangour, with
the blare and fury, the port and horror of Mars attended. The horses
stretched neck, shook mane, breathed fire; the horsemen drained to the
lees the encrusted heirloom, the cup of warlike passion. Frenzied they
all rode home.

The small cavalry force opposed, gasped at the apparition. Certainly
their officers tried to rally the men, but certainly they knew it for
futility! Some of the troopers fired their carbines at the approaching
tide, hoar, yelling, coming now so swiftly that every man rode as a
giant and every steed seemed a spectre horse--others did not. All
turned, before the shock, and fled, in a mad gallop of their own.

Kenly's infantry, yet in column, was packed in a road none too wide,
between ragged banks topped by rail fences. Two panels of these had been
taken down preparatory to deploying in the fields, but the movement was
not yet made. Kenly had his face turned to the west, straining his eyes
for the guns or for the reinforcements which happily General Banks might
send. A shout arose. "