loped forward. His whole cavalry force galloped with him and swept
down upon the defenders.

Nor did Ashby lack support. The Acadians led by Taylor swung forward on
a run, and a battery, coming at the double quick, unlimbered and opened
fire. Jackson had directed all, he had brought up the converging lines,
and the whole Northern rear guard, two thousand cavalry, some infantry
and a battery, were caught. Just before them lay the little village of
Middletown, and in an instant they were driven into its streets, where
they were raked by shot and shell from the cannon, while the rifles of
the cavalry and of the Louisiana troops swept them with bullets.

Again the Northern soldiers, brave and tenacious though they might be,
could make no stand against the terrible rush of Jackson's victorious
and superior numbers. They had no such leading as their foes. The man,
the praying professor, was proving himself everything.

As at Front Royal, the Northern force was crushed. It burst from the
village in fragments, and fled in many directions. But Jackson urged on
the pursuit. Ashby's cavalry charged again and again, taking prisoners
everywhere.

The people of Middletown, as red-hot for the South as were those of
Front Royal, rushed from their houses and guided the victors along the
right roads. They pointed where two batteries and a train of wagons were
fleeing toward Winchester, and Ashby, with his cavalry, Harry still at
his elbow, raced in pursuit.

CHAPTER X. WINCHESTER

Ashby's troopers put the armed guard of the wagons to flight in an
instant, and then they seized the rich pillage in these wagons. They
were not yet used to the stern discipline of regular armies and Ashby
strove in vain to bring most of them back to the pursuit of the flying
enemy. Harry also sought to help, but they laughed at him, and he had
not yet come to the point where he could cut down a disobedient soldier.
Nor had the soldiers reached the point where they would suffer such
treatment from an officer. Had Harry tried such a thing it is more than
likely that he would have been cut down in his turn.

But the delay and similar delays elsewhere helped the retreating
Northern army. Banks, feeling that the pursuit was not now so fierce,
sent back a strong force with artillery under a capable officer, Gordon,
to help the rear. The scattered and flying detachments also gathered
around Gordon and threw themselves across the turnpike.

Harry felt