geant's wife, Waldron came up, reined in his
horse violently, and asked in a furious voice, "Is that boy hurt?

"Ah--fainted," he added immediately. "Thank you, Mrs. Gunner. Take good
care of him--the best of care, my dear woman, and don't let him leave
you all day."

Further on, when Fitz Hugh silently fell into his escort, he merely
glanced at him in a furtive way, and then cantered on rapidly to the
head of the cavalry. There he beckoned to the tall, grave, iron-gray
Chaplain of the Tenth, and rode with him for nearly an hour, apart,
engaged in low and seemingly impassioned discourse. From this interview
Mr. Colquhoun returned to the escort with a strangely solemnized, tender
countenance, while the commandant, with a more cheerful air than he had
yet worn that day, gave himself to his martial duties, inspecting the
landscape incessantly with his glass, and sending frequently for news
to the advance scouts. It may properly be stated here that the Chaplain
never divulged to any one the nature of the conversation which he had
held with his Colonel.

Nothing further of note occurred until the little army, after two hours
of plodding march, wound through a sinuous, wooded ravine, entered a
broad, bare, slightly undulating valley, and for the second time halted.
Waldron galloped to the summit of a knoll, pointed to a long eminence
which faced him some two miles distant, and said tranquilly, "There is
our battle-ground."

"Is that the enemy's position?" returned Captain Ives, his
adjutant-general. "We shall have a tough job if we go at it from here."

Waldron remained in deep thought for some minutes, meanwhile scanning
the ridge and all its surroundings.

"What I want to know," he observed, at last, "is whether they have
occupied the wooded knolls in front of their right and around their
right flank."

Shortly afterward the commander of the scout ing squadron came riding
back at a furious pace.

"They are on the hill, Colonel," he shouted.

"Yes, of course," nodded Waldron; "but have they occupied the woods
which veil their right front and flank?"

"Not a bit of it; my fellows have cantered all through, and up to the
base of the hill."

"Ah!" exclaimed the brigade commander, with a rush of elation. "Then it
will be easy work. Go back, Captain, and scatter your men through
the wood, and hold it, if possible. Adjutant, call up the regimental
commanders at once. I want them to understand my plan fully."

In a