officer of his
own battery, who had ridden up in time to hear the order--"the general's
meaning is clear, is it not?"

"Perfectly."

The lieutenant passed on to his post. For a moment General Cameron and
the commander of the battery sat in their saddles, looking at each other
in silence. There was no more to say; apparently too much had already
been said. Then the superior officer nodded coldly and turned his horse
to ride away. The artillerist saluted slowly, gravely, and with extreme
formality. One acquainted with the niceties of military etiquette would
have said that by his manner he attested a sense of the rebuke that he
had incurred. It is one of the important uses of civility to signify
resentment.

When the general had joined his staff and escort, awaiting him at a
little distance, the whole cavalcade moved off toward the right of the
guns and vanished in the fog. Captain Ransome was alone, silent,
motionless as an equestrian statue. The gray fog, thickening every
moment, closed in about him like a visible doom.

II

UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES MEN DO NOT WISH TO BE SHOT

The fighting of the day before had been desultory and indecisive. At the
points of collision the smoke of battle had hung in blue sheets among
the branches of the trees till beaten into nothing by the falling rain.
In the softened earth the wheels of cannon and ammunition wagons cut
deep, ragged furrows, and movements of infantry seemed impeded by the
mud that clung to the soldiers' feet as, with soaken garments and rifles
imperfectly protected by capes of overcoats they went dragging in
sinuous lines hither and thither through dripping forest and flooded
field. Mounted officers, their heads protruding from rubber ponchos that
glittered like black armor, picked their way, singly and in loose
groups, among the men, coming and going with apparent aimlessness and
commanding attention from nobody but one another. Here and there a dead
man, his clothing defiled with earth, his face covered with a blanket or
showing yellow and claylike in the rain, added his dispiriting influence
to that of the other dismal features of the scene and augmented the
general discomfort with a particular dejection. Very repulsive these
wrecks looked--not at all heroic, and nobody was accessible to the
infection of their patriotic example. Dead upon the field of honor, yes;
but the field of honor was so very wet! It makes a difference.

The general engagement that al