sparkled in the sunlight. But below this human dam--a mile away--where
the brook still crept sluggishly, the ambulance horses sniffed and
started from it.
The detail moved on slowly, doing their work expeditiously, and
apparently callously, but really only with that mechanical movement
that saves emotion. Only once they were moved to an outbreak of
indignation,--the discovery of the body of an officer whose pockets
were turned inside out, but whose hand was still tightly grasped on his
buttoned waistcoat, as if resisting the outrage that had been done
while still in life. As the men disengaged the stiffened hand something
slipped from the waistcoat to the ground. The corporal picked it up and
handed it to his officer. It was a sealed packet. The officer received
it with the carelessness which long experience of these pathetic
missives from the dying to their living relations had induced, and
dropped it in the pocket of his tunic, with the half-dozen others that
he had picked up that morning, and moved on with the detail. A little
further on they halted, in the attitude of attention, as a mounted
officer appeared, riding slowly down the line.
There was something more than the habitual respect of their superior in
their faces as he came forward. For it was the general who had commanded
the brigade the day before,--the man who had leaped with one bound into
the foremost rank of military leaders. It was his invincible spirit
that had led the advance, held back defeat against overwhelming numbers,
sustained the rally, impressed his subordinate officers with his own
undeviating purpose, and even infused them with an almost superstitious
belief in his destiny of success. It was this man who had done what
it was deemed impossible to do,--what even at the time it was thought
unwise and unstrategic to do,--who had held a weak position, of
apparently no importance, under the mandate of an incomprehensible order
from his superior, which at best asked only for a sacrifice and was
rewarded with a victory. He had decimated his brigade, but the wounded
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