g there came a fearful sound, growing,
rising, falling, stopping the singing and the twitter of the birds.
Across the land there came a horrible procession, advancing with short,
uncertain, broken pauses--a procession which advanced, paused, halted,
broke into groups; advanced, paused, stopped, and stooped; a procession
which came with wailings and bitter cries, with wringing of hands, with
heads now and then laid upon the shoulders of others for support; a
procession which stooped uncertainly, horribly. It was the women of
Louisburg coming to seek their slain--a sight most monstrous, most
terrible, unknown upon any field of civilized war, and unfit to be
tolerated even in the thought! It is for men, who sow the fields of
battle, to attend also to the reaping.

Franklin stood at the inner edge of the earthworks, half hidden by a
little clump of trees. It seemed to him that he could not well escape
without being seen, and he hesitated at this thought, Yet as he stood
it appeared that he must be an intruder even thus against his will. He
saw approaching him, slowly but almost in direct line, two figures, an
older lady and a girl. They came on, as did the others, always with
that slow, searching attitude, the walk broken with pauses and
stoopings. The quest was but too obvious. And even as Franklin gazed,
uncertain and unable to escape, it seemed apparent that the two had
found that which they had sought. The girl, slightly in advance, ran
forward a few paces, paused, and then ran back. "Oh, there! there!"
she cried. And then the older woman took the girl's head upon her
bosom. With bared head and his own hand at his eyes, Franklin hurried
away, hoping himself unseen, but bearing indelibly pictured on his
brain the scene of which he had been witness. He wanted to cry out, to
halt the advancing columns which would soon be here, to tell them that
they must not come upon this field, made sacred by such woe.

The column of occupation had begun its movement. Far as the eye could
see, the way was filled with the Northern troops now swinging forward
in the march. Their course would be along this road, across these
earthworks, and over the fields between the wood and the town. The
rattle and rumble of the advance began. Upon the morning air there
rose the gallant and forgetful music which bade the soldier think not
of what had been or would be, but only of the present. The bugles and
the cymbals sounded high and