rkness.
Harry felt the twigs and leaves, cut from the bushes, falling on his
face. The whining of the grape and shrapnel and canister united in one
ferocious note. Some of it struck in the roadway beyond them and fire
flew from the stones.

The general revived a little after a while and tried to get up, but one
of the young officers threw his arms around him and, holding him down,
said:

"Be still, General! You must! It will cost you your life to rise!"

The general made no further attempt to rise, and perhaps he lapsed
into a stupor for a little space. Harry could not tell how long that
dreadful shrieking and whining over their heads continued. It was five
minutes perhaps, but to him it seemed interminable. Presently the
missiles gave forth a new note.

"They're using shells now," said Dalton, "because they're seeking a
longer range, and they're going much higher over our heads than the
canister."

"And here are men approaching," said Harry. "I can make out their
figures. They must be our own."

"So they are!" said Dalton, as they came nearer.

It was a heavy mass of Confederate infantry pressing forward in the
darkness, and the young officers who had been so ready to give their
lives for their hero lifted him to his feet. Not wishing to have the
ardor of his men quenched by the sight of his wounds, Jackson bade them
take him aside into the thick bushes. But Pender, the general who was
leading these troops, saw him and recognized him, despite the heavy veil
of darkness and smoke.

Pender rushed to Jackson, betraying the greatest grief, and said that
he was afraid he must fall back before the tremendous artillery fire of
the enemy. As he spoke, that fire increased. Shells and round shot,
grape and canister and shrapnel shrieked through the air, and the
bullets, too, were coming in thousands, whistling like hail driven by
a hurricane. Men fell all about them in the darkness.

But the great soul of Jackson, wounded to death and unable to stand,
was unshaken. Harry saw him suddenly straighten up, draw himself away
from those who were supporting him, and say:

"You must hold your ground, General Pender! You must hold out to the
very last, sir!"

Once more the eyes shot forth blue fire. Once more the unquenchable
spirit had spoken. The figure reeled, and the young officers sprang to
his support. He wanted to lie down there and rest, but the youths would
not let him, because every form of mis