n. He had other than
military reasons for applauding this measure. The opportunity was
afforded him--at least so he fancied--of recovering the treasure which
he had lost under the dark covered bridge, of seeing once more the
vision which, since that eventful night, had always floated before his
memory. Glorious illusion of youth! At that favored period of existence
so little appreciated while it lasts, and which, when it is gone, is the
object of bitter lamentation for the rest of life, even hardship gives
zest to enjoyment when the heart is buoyed--as what youthful heart is
not?--by the sweet potency of woman's love. Fatigue, hunger, thirst,
disease, and poverty are only trifles that are laughed at, so long as
there is seen in the background of it all the lambent light of tender
eyes speaking, as nothing else can, the language of the devoted heart.
For many of his brother officers, men with families, or already,
advanced in years, this American invasion was a dreary reality, made up
of a dismal succession of marches and counter-marches, parades and
bivouackings, attacks and repulses, privations of every description,
with the prospective of defeat at the last. But to Cary Singleton the
war had been, up to the present, a constant scene of pleasurable
excitement, as he will have occasion to testify himself in a subsequent
chapter, while from this point to its close it rose with him to the
proportions of a romance.

His single clue was that the beautiful girl whom he sought lived in the
neighborhood of his present encampment. Whether it was above or below,
on the line of the river, or somewhere in the interior, he could not of
course tell, but he was determined to find out. He knew that the present
quarters of the army were only temporary, that within eight or ten days,
at the furthest, they would be on the forward march again, when the
hurry of battle would ensue and his fate might be a bloody grave under
the walls of the old capital. Hence the necessity for diligence. He
thought he should be willing to die if his eyes were blessed only once
more with the sight of the object of his worship.

These thoughts were passing through his brain, as he slowly rode along
the road one quiet afternoon while the sun lay white on the frozen
ground, tinging the leafless branches of the beeches and birches with a
silver light. He little knew what was in store for him as he
mechanically pulled in the reins, and looked up an avenue of map