nds of that day. "This man is
sparing my life," he said to himself. "Would to God I knew how to
spare his!"

He found Bradley lunching on a gun caisson, and delivered his orders.
"Something to do at last, eh?" laughed the rosy-cheeked youngster.
"The smallest favors thankfully received. Won't you take a bite of
rebel chicken, Captain? This rebellion must be put down. No? Well,
tell the Colonel I am moving on, and John Brown's soul not far ahead."

When Fitz Hugh returned to Waldron he found him outside of the wood,
at the base of the long incline which rose into the rebel position.
About the slope were scattered prostrate forms, most numerous near the
bottom, some crawling slowly rearward, some quiescent. Under the brow
of the ridge, decimated and broken into a mere skirmish line sheltered
in knots and, singly, behind rocks and knolls and bushes, lay the
Fourteenth Regiment, keeping up a steady, slow fire. From the edge
above, smokily dim against a pure, blue heaven, answered another
rattle of musketry, incessant, obstinate, and spiteful. The combatants
on both sides were lying down; otherwise neither party could have
lasted ten minutes. From Fitz Hugh's point of view not a Confederate
uniform could be seen. But the smoke of their rifles made a long gray
line, which was disagreeably visible and permanent; and the sharp
_whit! whit!_ of their bullets continually passed him, and cheeped
away in the leafage behind.

"Our men can't get on another inch," he ventured to say to his
commander. "Wouldn't it be well for me to ride up and say a cheering
word?"

"Every battle consists largely in waiting," replied Waldron
thoughtfully. "They have undoubtedly brought up a reserve to face
Thomas. But when Gahogan strikes the flank of the reserve, we shall
win."

"I wish you would take shelter," begged Fitz Hugh. "Everything depends
on your life."

"My life has been both a help and a hurt to my fellow-creatures,"
sighed the brigade commander. "Let come what will to it."

He glanced upward with an expression of profound emotion; he was
evidently fighting two battles, an outward and an inward one.

Presently he added, "I think the musketry is increasing on the left.
Does it strike you so?"

He was all eagerness again, leaning forward with an air of earnest
listening, his face deeply flushed and his eye brilliant. Of a sudden
the combat above rose and swelled into higher violence. There was a
clamor far away--it seemed nearly