road; it is not so far to the Northern
pickets, and when we approach them I can leave you."

"And you?" she said, "What is to become of you?"

All save her eyes was hidden by the dark cloak, but she looked up and he
saw there a light like that which had shone when she came forth to meet
him in the house.

"I?" he replied lightly. "Don't worry about me. I shall return to
Richmond and then help my army to fight and beat your army. Really
General Lee couldn't spare me, you know. Come!"

They stole forward, two shadows in the deeper shadow, the dry snow
rustling like paper under their feet. From some far point came the faint
cry of a sentinel, announcing to a sleepy world that all was well, and
after that the silence hung heavily as ever over the city. The cold was
not unpleasant to either of them, muffled as they were in heavy
clothing, for it imparted briskness and vigour to their strong young
bodies, and they went on at a swift pace through the densest part of the
city, into the thinning suburbs and then toward the fields and open
spaces which lay on the nearer side of the earthworks. Not a human being
did they see not a dog barked at them as they passed, scarcely a light
showed in a window; all around them the city lay in a lethargy beneath
its icy covering.

Involuntarily the girl, oppressed by the loneliness which had taken on a
certain weird quality, walked closer to Prescott, and he could faintly
hear her breathing as she fled with him, step for step.

"The Baltimore road lies there," he said, "and yonder are earthworks.
See! Where the faint light is twinkling! that low line is what we have
to pass."

They heard the creaking of wagons and the sound of voices as of men
speaking to horses, and stopped to listen. Then they beheld lights
nearer by on the left.

"Stay here a moment and I'll see what it is," said Prescott.

"Oh, don't leave me!" she cried with a sudden tremour.

"It is only for a moment," he replied, glad to hear that sudden tremour
in her voice.

Turning aside he found close at hand an obscure tavern, and beside it at
least a dozen wagons, the horses hitched as if ready for a journey. He
guessed immediately that these were the wagons of farmers who had been
selling provisions in the city. The owners were inside taking something
to warm them up for the home journey and the horses outside were
stamping their feet with the same purpose.

"Not likely to bother us," was Prescott's unspoken comm