of Fremont and Dick Taylor! It's all right. Those
Louisianians are damned good dancers!" A courier quitting the knoll
above the pike gave further information. "Skirmish back there, near the
Capon road. Just a feeler of Fremont's--his army's three miles over
there in the woods. Old Dick's with General Taylor. Don't need your
help, boys--thank you all the same! Fremont won't attack in force. Old
Jack says so--sitting up there on a hickory stump reading the Book of
Kings!"

"All right," said the Stonewall. "We ain't the kind to go butting in
without an invitation! We're as modest as we are brave. Listen! The blue
coats are using minies."

Down the pike, during an hour of dewy morning, the Louisiana Brigade and
Fremont's advance fired at each other. The woods hereabouts were dense.
At intervals the blue showed; at intervals Ewell dispatched a regiment
which drove them back to cover. "Old Dick" would have loved to follow,
but he was under orders. He fidgeted to and fro on Rifle. "Old Jackson
says I am not to go far from the pike! I want to go after those men. I
want to chase them to the Rio Grande! I am sick of this fiddling about!
Just listen to that, General Taylor! There's a lot of them in the woods!
What's the good of being a major-general if you've got to stick close to
the pike? If Old Jackson were here he would say Go! Why ain't he here?
Bet you anything you like he's sucking a lemon and holding morning
prayer meeting!--Oh, here are your men back with prisoners! Now, you men
in blue, what command's that in the woods? Eh?--What?" "_Von Bayern bin
ich nach diesem Lande gekommen._" "_Am Rhein habe ich gehort dass viel
bezahlt wird fur...._" "Take 'em away! Semmes, you go and tell General
Jackson all Europe's here.--Mean you to go? Of course I don't mean you
to go, you thundering idiot! Always could pick Caesar out of the crowd.
When I find him I obey him, I don't send him messages. ----! ---- ----!
They've developed sharpshooters. Send Wheat over there, General
Taylor--tell him to shake the pig-nuts out of those trees!"

Toward midday the army marched. All the long afternoon it moved to the
sound of musketry up the Valley pike. There was skirmishing in
plenty--dashes by Fremont's cavalry, repulsed by the grey, a short
stampede of Munford's troopers, driven up the pike and into the infantry
of the rear guard, rapid recovery and a Roland for an Oliver. The
Valley, shimmering in the June light, lay in anything but Sabbat