he wind
blew the candle flame until his mother, stepping lightly, brought a
glass shade and set it over the silver stick. Small moths flew in and
out, and like a distant ground swell came the noise of the fevered town.
The house itself was quiet after the turmoil of the day; large halls and
stair in dimness, the ill or wounded quiet or at least not loudly
complaining. Now and then a door softly opened or closed; a woman's
figure or that of some coloured servant passed from dimness to dimness.
They passed and the whole was quiet again. Mother and son spoke low. "I
will not wake Miriam until just time to say good-bye. She is
overwrought, poor child! She had counted so on seeing Will."

"We will press on now, I think, to Harper's Ferry. But events may bring
us this way again. The 2d is bivouacked by a little stream, and I saw
him fast asleep. He is growing strong, hardy, bronzed. It is striking
twelve. Tullius is saddling Dundee."

"There will be no fighting in the morning?"

"No. Not, perhaps, until we reach Harper's Ferry. Banks will get across
to Williamsport to-night. For the present he is off the board. Saxton at
Harper's Ferry has several thousand men, and he will be at once heavily
reinforced from Washington. It is well for us and for Richmond that that
city is so nervous."

"General Jackson is doing wonderful work, is he not, Richard?"

"Yes. It is strange to see how the heart of the army has turned to him.
'Old Jack' can do no wrong. But he is not satisfied with to-day's work."

"But if they are out of Virginia--"

"They should be in Virginia--prisoners of war. It was a cavalry
failure.--Well, it cannot be helped."

"Will you cross at Harper's Ferry?"

"With all my heart I wish we might! Defensive war should always be waged
in the enemy's territory. But I am certain that we are working with the
explicit purpose of preventing McDowell's junction with McClellan and
the complete investment of Richmond which would follow that junction. We
are going to threaten Washington. The government there may be trusted, I
think, to recall McDowell. Probably also they will bring upon our rear
Fremont from the South Branch. That done, we must turn and meet them
both."

"Oh, war! Over a year now it has lasted! There are so many in black, and
the church bells have always a tolling sound. And then the flowers
bloom, and we hear laughter as we knit."

"All colours are brighter and all sounds are deeper. If there is horror,