runk to vault it.

"Faith, and I don't know, redcoat; except that they've killed him.
Whereabouts is the General?"

"Who's killed?"

"The best man amongst us: Lord Howe!"

A second runner, following, shouted the same news; and the two passed
on together in search of the General. But already the tidings had
spread along the front of the main body, as though wafted by a sudden
wind through the undergrowth. Already, as John sat astride his log
endeavouring to measure up the loss, to right and left of him bugles
were sounding the halt. It seemed that as yet the mass of troops
scarcely took in the meaning of the rumour, but awoke under the shock
only to find themselves astray and without bearings.

John's first sense was of a day made dark at a stroke. If this thing
had happened, then the glory had gone out of the campaign. The army
would by and by be marching on, and would march again to-morrow; the
drill cries would begin again, the dull wrestle through swamps and
thickets; and in due time the men would press down upon the French
forts and take them. But where would be the morning's cheerfulness,
the spirit of youth which had carried the boats down the lake amid
laughter and challenges to race, and at the landing-place set the men
romping like schoolboys? The longer John considered, the more he
marvelled at the hopes he and all the army had been building on this
young soldier--and not the army only, but every colony. Messengers
even now would be heading up the lake as fast as paddles could drive
them, to take horse and gallop smoking to the Hudson, to bear the
tidings to Albany, and from Albany ride south with it to New York, to
Philadelphia, to Richmond. "Lord Howe killed!" From that long track
of dismay John called his thoughts back to himself and the army.
Howe--dead? He, that up to an hour ago had been the pivot of so many
activities, the centre on which veterans rested their confidence, and
from which young soldiers drew their high spirits, the one commander
whom the Provincials trusted and liked because he understood them;
for whom and for their faith in him the regulars would march till
their legs failed them! Wonderful how youth and looks and gallantry
and brains together will grip hold of men and sway their
imaginations! But how rare the alliance, and on how brittle a hazard
resting! An unaimed bullet--a stop in the heart's pulsation--and the
star we followed has gone out, God knows whither. T