ilderness. They were so much oppressed with grief that they did not
have the wish to talk. Both were devotedly attached to Jackson, and
to both he was a hero, without fear and without reproach. They heard
behind them the occasional report of a rifle. But it was only a little
picket firing. Most of the soldiers, worn out by such tremendous
efforts, lay upon the ground in what was a stupor rather than sleep.

As they rode forward they met pickets of their own men who told them
where Lee and his staff were encamped, and they rode on, still in
silence, for some time. Harry's cheeks were touched by a freshening
breeze which had the feel of coming dawn, and he said at last:

"The morning can't be far away, Captain."

"No, the first light of sunrise will appear very soon. It seems to me I
can see a faint touch of gray now over the eastern forest."

They were riding now through the force that had been left by General
Lee. Soldiers lay all around them and in all positions, most to rise
soon for the fresh battle, and some, as Harry could tell by their
rigidity, never to rise at all.

They asked again for Lee as they went on, and a sentinel directed them
to a clump of pines. Wilbourn and Harry dismounted and walked toward a
number of sleeping forms under the pines. The figures, like those of
the soldiers, were relaxed and as still as death. The dawn which Harry
has felt on his face did not appear to the eye. It was very dark under
the boughs of the pines, and they did not know which of the still forms
was Lee.

Wilbourn asked one of the soldiers on guard for an officer, and Lee's
adjutant-general came forward. Wilbourn told him at once what had
occurred, and while they talked briefly one of the figures under the
pines arose. It was that of Lee, who, despite his stillness, was
sleeping lightly, and whom the first few words had awakened. He put
aside an oilcloth which some one had put over him to keep off the
morning dew, and called:

"Who is there?"

"Messengers, sir, from General Jackson," replied Major Taylor, the
Adjutant-General.

General Lee pointed to the blankets on which he had been lying, and said:

"Sit down here and tell me everything that occurred last evening."

Wilbourn sat down on the blankets. Harry stood back a little. The
other staff officers, aroused by the talk, sat up, but waited in
silence. Captain Wilbourn began the story of the night, and Lee did not
interrupt him. But the fir