me. He's been licked once. What right has he to come back into the
Valley?"

"He's there," said Harry, "and they say that he's riding it hard with
ironshod hoofs."

"He won't be doing it by the time we see you again," said St. Clair
confidently as they rode away.

Harry did not see them again for several days, but when Ewell's division
rejoined the main army, all that St. Clair predicted had come to pass.
St. Clair himself, with his left arm in a sling, where it was to remain
for a week, gave him a brief and graphic account of it.

"All the soldiers in the army that he had once led knew how Old Jack
loved that town," he said, "and they were on fire to drive the Yankees
away from it once more. We marched fast. We were the foot cavalry,
just as we used to be; and, do you know, that Cajun band was along with
our brigade, as lively as ever. The Yankees had heard of our coming,
but late. They had already built forts around Winchester, but they
didn't dream until the last moment that a big force from Lee's army was
at hand. Their biggest fort was on Applepie Ridge, some little distance
from Winchester. We came up late in the afternoon and had to rest a
while, as it was awful hot. Then we opened, with General Ewell himself
in direct command there. Old Jube Early had gone around to attack their
other works, and we were waiting to hear the roaring of his guns.

"We gave it to 'em hot and heavy. General Ewell was on foot--that is,
one foot and a crutch--and you ought to have seen him hopping about
among the falling cannon balls, watching and ordering everything.
Sunset was at hand, with Milroy fighting us back and not dreaming that
Early was coming on his flank. Then we heard Early's thunder. In a few
minutes his men stormed the fort on the hill next to him and turned its
guns upon Milroy himself.

"It was now too dark to go much further with the fighting, and we
waited until the next morning to finish the business. But Milroy was
a slippery fellow. He slid out in the night somehow with his men, and
was five miles away before we knew he had gone. But we followed hard,
overtook him, captured four thousand men and twenty-three cannon and
scattered the rest in every direction. Wasn't that a thorough job?"

"Stonewall Jackson would never have let them escape through his cordon
and get a start of five miles."

"That's so, Harry, Old Jack would never have allowed it. But then,
Harry, we've got to remember tha