Washington they
wondered, but did not rejoice. They had not expected there any blow to
be struck in the dead of winter, and Lincoln demanded of his generals
why they could not do as well. Distance and the vagueness of the news
magnified Jackson's exploits and doubled his numbers. Eyes were turned
with intense anxiety toward that desolate white expanse of snow and ice,
in the midst of which he was operating.

Jackson finally turned his steps toward Romney, which had been the Union
headquarters, and his men, exhausted and half starved, once more dragged
themselves over the sleety roads. Winter offered a fresh obstacle at
every turn. Even the spirits of Harry, who had borrowed so much from the
courage of Jackson, sank somewhat. As they pulled themselves through the
hills on their last stage toward Romney, he was walking. His horse had
fallen three times that day on the ice, and was now too timid to carry
his owner.

So Harry led him. The boy's face and hands were so much chapped and
cracked with the cold that they bled at times. But he wasted no
sympathy on himself. It was the common fate of the army. Jackson and
his generals, themselves, suffered in the same way. Jackson was walking,
too, for a while, leading his own horse.

Harry was sent back to bring up the Invincibles, as Romney was now
close at hand, and there might be a fight. He found his old colonel and
lieutenant-colonel walking over the ice. Both were thin, and were black
under the eyes with privation and anxiety. These were not in appearance
the men whom he had known in gay and sunny Charleston, though in spirit
the same. They gave Harry a welcome and hoped that the enemy would wait
for them in Romney.

"I don't think so," said Harry, "but I've orders for you from General
Jackson to bring up the Invincibles as fast as possible."

"Tell General Jackson that we'll do our best," said Colonel Talbot, as
he looked back at his withered column.

They seemed to Harry to be withered indeed, they were so gaunt with
hardship and drawn up so much with cold. Many wore the blue Northern
overcoats that they had captured at Bath, and more had tied up their
throats and ears in the red woolen comforters of the day, procured at
the towns through which they passed. They, too, were gaunt of cheek and
black under the eye like their officers.

The Invincibles under urging increased their speed, but not much. Little
reserve strength was left in them. Langdon and St. Clair, wh