ground and uttered unintelligible remonstrances. His face, swollen
by blows and stained with gouts of blood, nevertheless showed white
beneath his disheveled hair--as white as that of a corpse.

"The man is not insane," said the surgeon, preparing bandages and
replying to a question; "he is suffering from fright. Who and what is
he?"

Private Tassman began to explain. It was the opportunity of his life; he
omitted nothing that could in any way accentuate the importance of his
own relation to the night's events. When he had finished his story and
was ready to begin it again nobody gave him any attention.

The general had now recovered consciousness. He raised himself upon his
elbow, looked about him, and, seeing the spy crouching by a camp-fire,
guarded, said simply:

"Take that man to the parade ground and shoot him."

"The general's mind wanders," said an officer standing near.

"His mind does _not_ wander," the adjutant-general said. "I have a
memorandum from him about this business; he had given that same order to
Hasterlick"--with a motion of the hand toward the dead provost-marshal--
"and, by God! it shall be executed."

Ten minutes later Sergeant Parker Adderson, of the Federal army,
philosopher and wit, kneeling in the moonlight and begging incoherently
for his life, was shot to death by twenty men. As the volley rang out
upon the keen air of the midnight, General Clavering, lying white and
still in the red glow of the camp-fire, opened his big blue eyes, looked
pleasantly upon those about him and said: "How silent it all is!"

The surgeon looked at the adjutant-general, gravely and significantly.
The patient's eyes slowly closed, and thus he lay for a few moments;
then, his face suffused with a smile of ineffable sweetness, he said,
faintly: "I suppose this must be death," and so passed away.

AN AFFAIR OF OUTPOSTS

I

CONCERNING THE WISH TO BE DEAD

Two men sat in conversation. One was the Governor of the State. The year
was 1861; the war was on and the Governor already famous for the
intelligence and zeal with which he directed all the powers and
resources of his State to the service of the Union.

"What! _you_?" the Governor was saying in evident surprise--"you too
want a military commission? Really, the fifing and drumming must have
effected a profound alteration in your convictions. In my character of
recruiting sergeant I suppose I ought not to be fastidious, but"--there
was a touch o