ter again, and silently the people saw him go. His staff followed
without a word. When they reached a high hill overlooking the town
Jackson paused and the others paused with him. All turned as if by one
accord and looked at Winchester.

The skies were clear and a silver light shone over the town. It was a
beautiful, luminous light and it heightened the beauty of spire, roof,
and wall. Jackson looked at it a long time, the place where he had spent
such a happy month, and then, his eye blazing again, he lifted his hand
and exclaimed with fierce energy:

"That is the last council of war I will ever hold!"

Harry understood him. He knew that Jackson now felt that the council had
been too slow and too timid. Henceforth he would be the sole judge of
attack and retreat. But the general's emotion was quickly suppressed.
Taking a last look at the little city that he loved so well, he rode
rapidly away, and his staff followed closely at his heels.

That was a busy and melancholy night. The young troops, after all, were
not to fight the enemy, but were falling back. Youth takes less account
than age of odds, and they did not wish to retreat. Harry who had seen
that look upon Jackson's face, when he gazed back at Winchester, felt
that he would strike some mighty counter-blow, but he did not know how
or when.

The army withdrew slowly toward Strasburg, twenty-five miles away,
and the next morning the Union forces in overwhelming numbers occupied
Winchester. Meantime the North was urging McClellan with his mighty army
to advance on Richmond, and Stonewall Jackson and his few thousands who
had been driven out of Winchester were forgotten. The right flank of
McClellan, defended by Banks and forty thousand men, would be secure.

There was full warrant for the belief of McClellan. It seemed to Harry
as they retreated up the valley that they were in a hopeless checkmate.
What could a few thousand men, no matter how brave and hardy, do against
an army as large as that of Banks? But he was cheered somewhat by the
boldness and activity of the cavalry under Ashby. These daring horsemen
skirmished continually with the enemy, and Harry, as he passed back and
forth with orders, saw much of it.

Once he drew up with the Invincibles, now a Virginia instead of a
South Carolina regiment, and sitting on horseback with his old friends,
watched the puffs of smoke to the rear, where Ashby's men kept back the
persistent skirmishers of the North.