dled and expired in every second of time. There were broad
flushings in the sky, against which the branches of the trees showed
black. Sudden flames burst out here and there, singly and in dozens.
Fleeting streaks of fire crossed over to us by way of welcome. These
expired in blinding flashes and fierce little rolls of smoke, attended
with the peculiar metallic ring of bursting shells, and followed by the
musical humming of the fragments as they struck into the ground on every
side, making us wince, but doing little harm. The air was full of noises.
To the right and the left the musketry rattled smartly and petulantly;
directly in front it sighed and growled. To the experienced ear this meant
that the death-line was an arc of which the river was the chord. There
were deep, shaking explosions and smart shocks; the whisper of stray
bullets and the hurtle of conical shells; the rush of round shot. There
were faint, desultory cheers, such as announce a momentary or partial
triumph. Occasionally, against the glare behind the trees, could be seen
moving black figures, singularly distinct but apparently no longer than a
thumb. They seemed to me ludicrously like the figures of demons in old
allegorical prints of hell. To destroy these and all their belongings the
enemy needed but another hour of daylight; the steamers in that case would
have been doing him fine service by bringing more fish to his net. Those
of us who had the good fortune to arrive late could then have eaten our
teeth in impotent rage. Nay, to make his victory sure it did not need that
the sun should pause in the heavens; one of the many random shots falling
into the river would have done the business had chance directed it into
the engine-room of a steamer. You can perhaps fancy the anxiety with which
we watched them leaping down.

But we had two other allies besides the night. Just where the enemy had
pushed his right flank to the river was the mouth of a wide bayou, and
here two gunboats had taken station. They too were of the toy sort, plated
perhaps with railway metals, perhaps with boiler-iron. They staggered
under a heavy gun or two each. The bayou made an opening in the high bank
of the river. The bank was a parapet, behind which the gunboats crouched,
firing up the bayou as through an embrasure. The enemy was at this
disadvantage: he could not get at the gunboats, and he could advance only
by exposing his flank to their ponderous missiles, one of which w