re they marched out of the ravine, had dismounted and
picqueted their horses under the winding shelter of the hills; and,
being now separated into detached columns formed in solid order, they
were put in motion to reach their allotted posts. The Amherst Rangers
were retained on horseback for such duty as might require speed, and
were stationed close in the rear of Campbell's own division, which now
merely marched from behind the shelter of the knoll and halted in the
view of the enemy, until sufficient delay should be afforded to the
flanking divisions to attain their ground.

Mildred, attended by Allen Musgrove and his daughter, still maintained
her position on the knoll, and from this height surveyed the
preparations for combat with a beating heart. The scene within her view
was one of intense occupation. The air of stern resolve that sat upon
every brow; the silent but onward movement of the masses of men
advancing to conflict; the few brief and quick words of command that
fell from the distance upon her ear; the sullen beat of the hoof upon
the sod, as an occasional horseman sped to and fro between the more
remote bodies and the centre division, which yet stood in compact
phalanx immediately below her at the foot of the hill; then the
breathless anxiety of her companions near at hand, and the short note of
dread, and almost terror, that now and then escaped from the lips of
Mary Musgrove, as the maiden looked eagerly and fearfully abroad over
the plain; all these incidents wrought upon her feelings and caused her
to tremble. Yet, amidst these novel emotions, she was not insensible to
a certain lively and even pleasant interest, arising out of the
picturesque character of the spectacle. The gay sunshine striking aslant
these moving battalions, lighting up their fringed and many-colored
hunting-shirts, and casting a golden hue upon their brown and
weather-beaten faces, brought out into warm relief the chief
characteristics of this peculiar woodland army. And Mildred sometimes
forgot her fears in the fleeting inspiration of the sight, as she
watched the progress of an advancing column--at one time moving in close
ranks, with the serried thicket of rifles above their heads, and at
another deploying into files to pass some narrow path, along which, with
trailed arms and bodies bent, they sped with the pace of hunters beating
the hill-side for game. The tattered and service-stricken banner that
shook its folds in the wind