with distinct advantage to his reputation for common sense, he might
have been in such security as is possible on a battlefield in the brief
intervals of personal inaction.

On foot, from necessity or in deference to his dismounted commander or
associates, his conduct was the same. He would stand like a rock in the
open when officers and men alike had taken to cover; while men older in
service and years, higher in rank and of unquestionable intrepidity,
were loyally preserving behind the crest of a hill lives infinitely
precious to their country, this fellow would stand, equally idle, on the
ridge, facing in the direction of the sharpest fire.

When battles are going on in open ground it frequently occurs that the
opposing lines, confronting each other within a stone's throw for hours,
hug the earth as closely as if they loved it. The line officers in their
proper places flatten themselves no less, and the field officers, their
horses all killed or sent to the rear, crouch beneath the infernal
canopy of hissing lead and screaming iron without a thought of personal
dignity.

In such circumstances the life of a staff officer of a brigade is
distinctly "not a happy one," mainly because of its precarious tenure
and the unnerving alternations of emotion to which he is exposed. From a
position of that comparative security from which a civilian would
ascribe his escape to a "miracle," he may be despatched with an order to
some commander of a prone regiment in the front line--a person for the
moment inconspicuous and not always easy to find without a deal of
search among men somewhat preoccupied, and in a din in which question
and answer alike must be imparted in the sign language. It is customary
in such cases to duck the head and scuttle away on a keen run, an object
of lively interest to some thousands of admiring marksmen. In returning
--well, it is not customary to return.

Brayle's practice was different. He would consign his horse to the care
of an orderly,--he loved his horse,--and walk quietly away on his
perilous errand with never a stoop of the back, his splendid figure,
accentuated by his uniform, holding the eye with a strange fascination.
We watched him with suspended breath, our hearts in our mouths. On one
occasion of this kind, indeed, one of our number, an impetuous
stammerer, was so possessed by his emotion that he shouted at me:

"I'll b-b-bet you t-two d-d-dollars they d-drop him b-b-before he g-gets