on once more. He sought to put himself in
the place of Lee, receiving all the reports and studying them, trying to
measure space that could not be measured, and to weigh a total that could
not be weighed. Greatness and responsibility were compelled to pay
thrice over for themselves, and he was glad that he was only a young
lieutenant, the chief business of whom was to fetch and carry orders.

Shafts of sunlight were piercing the eastern foliage when the council
broke up, and shortly after daylight the Southern army was again on the
march, with Northern cavalry and riflemen hanging on its flanks and rear.
Harry was permitted to rejoin, for a while, his friends of the
Invincibles and he found Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel
Hector St. Hilaire riding very erect, a fine color in their faces.

"You come from headquarters, Harry, and therefore you are omniscient,"
said Colonel Talbot. "We heard firing in the night. What did it mean?"

"Only skirmishers, Colonel. I think they wanted to annoy us, but they
paid the price."

"Inevitably. Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance.
I fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until
we near the Potomac."

"They say it's rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross."

"That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility. Ordinary men yield
to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome only by
impossibilities. But the further we go, Harry, the more reconciled I
grow to our withdrawal. I have seen scarcely a friendly face among the
population. I would not have us thrust ourselves upon people who do not
like us. It would go very hard with our kindly Southern nature to have
to rule by force over people who are in fact our brethren. Defensive
wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be really better for us to
retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil from the tread of the
invader. Eh, Hector?"

"Right, as usual, Leonidas. The reasons for our retirement are most
excellent. We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might
prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the
chance of appearing as oppressors. It can never be said of us by the
people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants. It's an invidious task to
rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom.
It's strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it's a universal truth, that people
would rather be