et found his heart. He fell without a groan, his
hand and arm wrapped in the red folds.

From rank to rank there passed something like a sobbing cry. The 58th
charged. Bradley Johnson with the Maryland Line dislodged the Bucktails,
captured their colonel and many others, killed and wounded many. The
coppice, from soaked mould to smoky treetop, hung in the twilight like a
wood in Hades. It was full dusk when Fremont's advance drew back,
retreating sullenly to its camp at Harrisonburg. The stars were all out
when, having placed the body on a litter, Ashby's men carried Ashby to
Port Republic.

He lay at midnight in a room of an old house of the place. They had laid
him upon a narrow bed, an old, single four-poster, with tester and
valance. The white canopy above, the fall of the white below had an
effect of sculptured stone. The whole looked like an old tomb in some
dim abbey. The room was half in light, half in darkness. The village
women had brought flowers; of these there was no lack. All the blossoms
of June were heaped about him. He lay in uniform, upon the red-lined
cloak, his plumed hat beside him, his sword in his hand. His staff
watched in the room, seated with bowed heads beside the open window. An
hour before dawn some one spoke to the sentry without the door, then
gently turned the handle and entered the chamber. The watchers arose,
stood at salute. "Kindly leave General Ashby and me alone together for a
little while, gentlemen," said the visitor. The officers filed out. The
last one turning softly to close the door saw Jackson kneel.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BRIDGE AT PORT REPUBLIC

The seventh of June was passed by the Army of the Valley in a quiet that
seemed unnatural. For fifteen days, north from Front Royal to Harper's
Ferry, south from Harper's Ferry to Port Republic, cannon had thundered,
musketry rattled. Battle here and battle there, and endless skirmishing!
"One male and three foights a day," said Wheat's Irishmen. But this
Saturday there was no fighting. The cavalry watched both flanks of the
Massanuttons. The main army rested in the rich woods that covered the
hills above the North Fork of the Shenandoah. Headquarters were in the
village across the river, spanned by a covered bridge. Three miles to
the northwest Ewell's division was strongly posted near the hamlet of
Cross Keys. From the great south peak of the Massanuttons a signal party
looked down upon Fremont's road from Harrisonburg, a