hile, holding the horses before the door, waited,
white-lipped, a knot of most anxious orderlies. One brought Little
Sorrel. Jackson mounted with his usual slow deliberation, then, turning
in the saddle, looked back to the shouting blue horsemen. They saw him
and dug spurs into flanks. First he pulled the forage cap over his eyes
and then he jerked his hand into the air. These gestures executed he
touched Little Sorrel with the rowel and, his suite behind him, started
off down the street toward the bridge over the Shenandoah. One would not
have said that he went like a swift arrow. There was, indeed, an effect
of slowness, of a man traversing, in deep thought, a solitary plain. But
for all that, he went so fast that the space between him and the enemy
did not decrease. They came thunderingly on, a whole Federal charge--but
he kept ahead. Seeing that he did so, they began to discharge carbine
and pistol, some aiming at Little Sorrel, some at the grey figure riding
stiffly, bolt upright and elbows out. Little Sorrel shook his head,
snorted, and went on. Ahead loomed the bridge, a dusky, warm, gold-shot
tunnel below an arch of weather-beaten wood. Under it rolled with a
heavy sound the Shenandoah. Across the river, upon the green hilltops,
had arisen a commotion. All the drums were beating the long roll.
Stonewall Jackson and Little Sorrel came on the trodden rise of earth
leading to the bridge mouth. The blue cavalry shouted and spurred. Their
carbines cracked. The balls pockmarked the wooden arch. Jackson dragged
the forage cap lower and disappeared within the bridge. The four or five
with him turned and drew across the gaping mouth.

The blue cavalry came on, firing as they came. Staff and orderlies, the
grey answered with pistols. Behind, in the bridge, sounded the hollow
thunder of Little Sorrel's hoofs. The sound grew fainter. Horse and
rider were nearly across. Staff and orderlies fired once again, then,
just as the blue were upon them, turned, dug spur, shouted, and
disappeared beneath the arch.

The Federal cavalry, massed before the bridge and in the field to either
side, swore and swore, "He's out!--Jackson's out! There he goes--up the
road! Fire!--Damn it all, what's the use? He's charmed. We almost got
him! Good Lord! We'd all have been major-generals!"

A patrol galloped up. "They've got a great wagon train, sir, at the
other end of the village--ordnance reserve, supply, everything! It is in
motion. It's tr