e should
follow or not, stood a minute or two before resuming his step. From an
upper window Gen. Stuart laughed heartily at the scene, and was loud in
praise of her tact and pluck.

But all this time our division has been moving through the streets of
Frederick, in fact has reached what was to have been its camping ground
for the night. The reader will excuse me; older heads and more exact
pens have frequently, when ladies intervened, made much longer
digressions.

The halt was but for a moment. An aide-de-camp, weary-looking, on a
horse covered with foam, dashed up to the division commander, bearing an
order from the commander-in-chief that the division must join its corps
at Antietam without delay. The fight might be renewed in the morning,
and if so, fresh troops were needed. The order was communicated through
the brigade commanders to commanders of regiments, while the subordinate
field officers went from company to company encouraging the men, telling
them that a glorious victory had been gained, that the rebels were
hemmed in by the river on three sides, and our army in front; that there
was but one ford, and that a poor one, and that the rebels must either
take to the river indiscriminately, be cut to pieces, or surrender. In
short, that we had them.

These statements were received with the most enthusiastic applause. As
the Division proceeded on its march, they were confirmed by reports of
spectators and wounded men in ambulances. What was the most significant
fact to the men who had seen the thousands of stragglers and skulkers
from the second battle of Bull Run, was the entire absence of straggling
or demoralization of any kind. Our troops must have been victorious, was
the ready and natural suggestion. The thought nerved them, and pushing
up their knapsacks, and hitching up their pantaloons, they trudged with
a will up the mountain slope.

That mountain slope!--it would well repay a visit from one of our large
cities, to descend that mountain a bright summer afternoon. A sudden
turn in the road brings to view the sun-gilded spires of the city of
Frederick, rising as if by enchantment from one of the loveliest of
valleys. Many of the descriptions of foreign scenery pale before the
realities of this view. When will our Hawthornes and our Taylors be just
to the land of their birth?

Scenery on that misty night could not delay the troops. The mountain-top
was gained. About half way down the northern slope