"I've liked you from the first, Frank. Did you know it?"
"If you have, I don't know why," said Frank, deeply touched.
"Nor do I," said the private. "Some we like, and some we don't, without the reason for it appearing altogether clear. I liked you even when you didn't please me very well."
"You mean when——" began Frank, stammeringly.
"Yes, you know when. It used to hurt me to see and hear you—but that is past."
"I hope so," said Frank, from his heart.
"Yes. And I like you better than ever now. And do you know, Frank, I don't think I could say to you what I am going to, if you hadn't been in trouble yourself, lately? That makes me feel I can come near you."
"O! are you in trouble, Abe?"
"Yes,"—with another mild, serious smile. "Not just such trouble as you were in, though. It is nothing on my own account. It is onhers." And the soldier's voice sunk, as it always did, when he alluded to his wife.
"You have heard from her?" asked Frank, with sympathizing interest.
"Nothing but good news; nothing but good news," said Atwater, pressing the pocket where his letters were. "I wish you could know that girl's heart. I am just beginning to know it. She has blessed me! She is a simple creature—not so smart as some; but she has, what is better than all that, a heart, Frank!"
Frank, not knowing what else to say, answered earnestly, that he was sure of it.
"She has brought me to know this book," the soldier continued, his features tremblingly alive with emotion. "I never looked into it much before. I never thought much about it—whether it was true or not. But whether it is true or not, there is something in it that reaches me here,"—laying his hand on his heart,—"something that sinks into me. I can't tell how. It gives me comfort."
Frank, still not knowing how to reply, murmured that he was glad to hear it.
"Now, this is what I have been wanting to say to somebody," Abram went on, in a calm but suppressed voice. "I am going into battle to-morrow. Don't think I am afraid. I have no fear. But of one thing I am tolerably certain. I shall not come out of that fight unhurt."
The smile which accompanied these words, quite as much as the words themselves, alarmed Frank.
"Don't say that!" he entreated. "You are a little low-spirited, Abe; that's it."
"O, no! I am not low-spirited in the least. My country demands sacrifices. I, for one, am willing to die." This was said with singular calmness and cheerfulness. But the soldier's voice failed him, as he added, "It is only when I think of her——"
Frank, powerfully wrought upon, endeavored in vain to dissuade his friend from indulging in such sad presentiments.
"Well, we will hope that they are false," said Atwater, but with a look that betrayed how thoroughly he was convinced of their truth. "If I go through safely, then we can laugh at them afterwards. But much may happen in these coming twenty-four hours. Now, I am sitting here with you, talking by these fires that light up the woods so. To-morrow night, this which you call me,"—the soldier smilingly designated his body,—"may be stretched upon this same earth, and you may talk in vain—it cannot answer you."
"We don't know,—that's true," Frank agreed. "But I hope for the best."
"And that may be the best—for me. God knows. And for her, too,—though I dread the stroke for her! This is what I want you to do for me, Frank. If I fall,—ifI fall, you know,—you will write to her. Send back to her my last words, with the book she gave me, and her letters. You will find them all in this pocket, here. Will you?"
Frank could not refrain from tears, as he made the promise.
"That is all," said Atwater, cheerfully. "Now, my mind is easier. Now, whatever comes, I am ready. Stay with me, if you like, and we will talk of something else. Or shall we read a little together?"
"I'd like to read a little," said Frank.
And he opened the book to these words:—
"'Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.... Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows.'"
"How came you to read there?" said Atwater with a smile.
"I don't know," said Frank. "But it seems meant for you—don't it?"
"Yes, and it somehow makes me happy. Go on."
And Frank read,—
"'Think not I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.'"
"That is for both of us, for all of us, for all our people to-day," said Atwater. "I believe it is the struggle of Satan against Christ that has brought on this war. To attempt to build up a nation on human slavery—that is Satan. And I believe, wicked as we are at the north too, that the principle of freedom we are fighting for is the opposite of Satan. And whoever brings that into the world, brings a war that will never cease until the right triumphs, and the wrong ceases forever."
Frank was astonished. He had never suspected that in this stiff, reserved soldier there dwelt the spirit which, when their tongues are loosed, makes men eloquent.
Atwater had roused up, and spoken with earnestness. But his glow passed, and he said quietly,—
"Go on."
"'A man's foes shall be they of his own household.'"
There Frank stopped again, this time of his own accord. The words struck him with peculiar force.
"That is true too," said Abram; "of the nation, for a nation is a household; and of many, many families."
Frank studied the words a moment, and, after a struggle with his feelings, said in a hushed voice,—
"Did you know, Abe, I've a brother in the rebel army?"
"I did not know. I have heard you have one somewhere in the south."
"Yes, you have heard Jack twit me about my secesh brother. And I have been obliged to own he was a—traitor. And since I left home my folks have had a letter from him, in which he wrote that he was on the point of joining the confederate army, and that we would not probably hear from him again. So I suppose he is fighting against us somewhere."
"Not here, I hope," said Atwater.
"As well here as any where," said Frank. "I always loved my brother. I love him still. But, as you say, wicked as we are, Christ is in our cause, and——" Frank read,—
"'He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.'"
"And I," said the boy, lifting up his face with a patriotic, even a religious, fervor in it, "I love my country, I love the cause of right and freedom, better than I love my brother!"
"With that true of us, with that love in our hearts," said Atwater, "we can dare to fight, and whatever the result, I believe it will be well with us. See what the book says."
And Frank read on.
"'He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that looseth his life for my sake shall find it.'"
"That is enough," said Atwater. "I can bind that sentence like an armor around my heart."
"What does it mean?"
"It means, I think, that though wickedness triumphs, it triumphs to its own confusion, for it has no immortal life. But even the death of a saint is victory."
After that the soldier seemed inclined to relapse into revery. Frank thought he did not wish to talk any more; so he gave him back the book. Abram put it in his pocket, and took the boy's hand.
"Good night, Frank," he smilingly said. "We shall see each other in the morning."
"Good night, Abe."
Frank left him. And Atwater, stretching himself upon the ground, put his arm beneath his head, and with the fire-light on his placid countenance, dismissed all worldly care from his mind, and slept peacefully.
XXVI.
OLD SINJIN.
At the foot of a pine tree, on a pillow of boughs, lies the old drum-major. The blaze of the bivouac fire covers him with its glow as with a mantle. But his face looks haggard and care-worn, and his grizzled mustache has a cynical curl even in sleep.
At a sound he starts, opening wide those watchful gray eyes an instant, then closing them quickly. It is a footstep approaching.
Stealthily it comes, and passes by his side. Then silence—broken only by the crackle and roar of the flames. At length one eye of the sleeper opens a little, and peeps; and as it peeps, it sees, sitting on the pine roots, in the broad fire-light, with his cap before his eyes shading them, and his eyes fixed wistfully on him, Frank, the drummer boy.
The eye that opened a little and peeped, closes again. The old fellow begins to snore.
"Poor old man!" says the boy to himself; "how tired he looks. And to think I have done so much to hurt his feelings! I wish I could tell him how sorry I am; but I must not wake him."
Again the ambushed eye opens, and the little corner of the sleeper's soul that happens to benotasleep, reconnoitres. Frank is sitting there still, faithfully watching. A stream of electric fire tingles in that misanthropic breast, at the sight. But still the old man snores.
"I may as well lie down and go to sleep too," says Frank. And, very softly, so as not to awaken Mr. Sinjin, he lays himself down by his side, puts his cheek on the pillow of boughs, and keeps perfectly still.
The heart of the veteran burns within him, but he makes no sign. And now—hark! Patter, patter, patter. It is beginning to rain.
This, then, is what the dark canopy meant, hanging so luridly over the fire-lit forest. Patter, patter; faster, faster; dripping through the trees, hissing in the fire, capering like fairies on the ground, comes the midnight rain.
Sinjin thinks it about time to wake. But Frank is stirring; so he concludes to sleep a little longer, and see what he will do.
Frank takes some pine boughs, and lays them carefully over the old man, to shelter him from the rain. Hotter and hotter glows the old heart beneath; melt it must soon.
"There!" says Frank in a whisper; "don't tell him I did it!"
He is going. Old Sinjin can sleep—or pretend to sleep—no more.
"Hello! Who's there?"—awaking with amazing suddenness.—"That you, Frank? What are you here for at this time of night?"
"O, I'm a privileged character. They let me go around the camp about as I like, you know."
"How long has it been raining? And how came all this rubbish heaped over me?"
The pattering becomes a rushing in the tree-tops, a wild sibilation as of serpents in the fire, and a steady rattling and whizzing in the swamps.
"Well, well! this won't do, boy! Come with me!"
They run to the shelter of a huge leaning trunk and crouch beneath it.
"You're not so used to these things as I am," says the old man, shielding the boy with his arms.
"Let me bring some boughs to throw over you!" cries Frank.
"No—sit still! You have heaped boughs enough on me for one night!"
"Were you—awake?"
"One eye was a little awake."
"And you saw!"
"I saw all you did, my boy!"
Frank knows not whether to be happy or ashamed. Neither speaks. The storm is roaring in the trees. The water drips and the spray sifts upon them, At length Frank says,—
"I wanted to tell you I have the watch again, and I know who gave it to me, and I think he is one of the best old men in the world. And I wanted to say that I am very sorry for every thing I have said and done that was wrong."
The bosom of the lonely old man heaves as he answers, "Don't, my boy! don't say you are sorry—I can't stand that!" And he hugs the boy close.
"But why didn't you want me to know you gave the watch?"
"Because I am such a foolish old fellow, and have forgotten how to treat a friend. For twenty years and more I have not known what it was to have a living soul care for me."
"O, it must be so hard for you to be alone so! Have you no sisters?"
"Sisters! I would tell you of one so proud, and rich, and in fashion, that her great house has no room in it for a rusty old brother like me!"
Frank thought of his own sisters—of Hattie, who was gone, and of Helen, who, though she should wed a prince, would never, he was sure, shut her doors against him; and he was filled with pity for the poor old man.
"But you must have had friends?"
"I had one, who was a fast friend enough when he was poor and I had a little property. But I became responsible for his debts, which he left me to pay; then I was poor, whilst he grew rich and hated me!"
"Hated you?"
"Of course! We may forgive those who wrong us, but not those we have wronged. He never forgave me for having been robbed by him!" And the old man's voice grew hard and ironical at the recollection.
"Why didn't you ever get married?" asked Frank. "You have one of the best, biggest hearts in the world, and you ought to have loved somebody with it. Didn't you ever?"
The spirit of the old man shrank sensitively within him for a moment. Then he said to himself, "He will know of it some day, and I may as well tell him." For the heart that had been frozen for years this youth had had power to thaw.
"I never loved—any woman—well enough to marry her. But there was once a little girl that I had known from her cradle—for I was many years older than she. I used to pet her, and tell her stories, and sing and play to her, until I became more bound up in her than was very wise for one who was not her father or her brother. Well, she got to be of your age, and still ran to kiss me when I came, and never guessed what was growing up in my heart and taking possession of me, for it was stronger than I, and stronger than all the world. I saw her fast becoming a woman, and forgot that I was at the same time fast becoming an old man. And one day I asked her to marry me. I did not mean then, but in a few years. But she did not stop to hear my explanations. She sprang from me with a scream. And that ended it. She could never be to me again the innocent pet she had been, and as for being what I wished—I saw at once how absurd the proposal was! I saw that from that time she could regard me only with astonishment and laughter. I was always extremely sensitive, and this affair, with the other I have told you of, proved too much for me. I fled from society. I enlisted as a drummer, and I suppose I shall never be any thing but a drummer now. And this, my boy, is the reason I was never married."
Drearily sounded the old man's voice as he closed.
"It is all so sad!" said Frank. "But ought a man to do so, because he has been once or twice deceived? I have heard my mother say that as we are to others, so they will be to us. If we are generous, that excites them to be generous; and love calls out love."
"Your mother says that?" replied Mr. Sinjin in a low voice. "Ah, and she says true! If one is proud and reserved, he will find the world proud and reserved: that I know! Because two or three failed me, I distrusted every body, and was repaid with distrust. O my boy, do not do so! Never let your soul be chilled by any disappointment, if you would not become a solitary and neglected old man. Better trust a thousand times, and be deceived as often, better love a thousand times in vain, than shut up your heart in suspicion and scorn. Your mother is right, Frank,—in that, as in every thing else, she is perfectly right!"
"It isn't too late yet—is it?—to have friends such as you like. I am sure you can if you will," said Frank.
"You have almost made me think so," answered the old drummer. "You have brought back to my heart more of its youth and freshness than I had felt for years. I want you to know that, my boy."
Frank did not understand how it could be, and the old man did not inform him. It was now very late. The rain poured dismally. Frank lay nestled in the old man's bosom, like a child. For a long time he did not speak. Then the veteran bent forward so that he could look in his face. The boy was fast asleep.
"How much he looks like his mother! Her brow, her mouth! God bless the lad, God bless him!"
And the old man sat and watched whilst the drummer boy slept.
XXVII.
THE SKIRMISH.
The night and the storm passed, and day dawned on Roanoke Island.
No reveillé roused up the soldiers. Silently from their drenched, cold beds, they arose and prepared for the rough day's work before them.
The morning was chill and wet, the rain still dripping from the trees. Far in the cypress swamps the lone birds piped their matin songs—the only sounds in those dim solitudes, so soon to be filled with the roar of battle.
Ten thousand men had been landed from the fleet; and now ten thousand hearts were beating high in anticipation of the conflict.
The line of advance lay along the road, which run in a northerly direction through the centre of the island. Across this road the rebels had erected their most formidable battery, with seemingly impenetrable swamps on either side, an ample space cleared for the play of their guns in front, and felled trees all around.
General Foster's brigade took the advance, having with it a battery of twelve-pounders from the fleet, to operate on the enemy's front. General Reno followed, with orders to penetrate on the left the frightful lagoons and thickets which protected the enemy's flank. A third column, under General Parke, brought up the rear.
General Foster rode forward with his staff into the woods, and made a reconnoissance. The line of pickets opened to let the brigade pass through. Not a drum was beat. Slowly, in silence, occasionally halting, regiment succeeded regiment, in perfect order, with heavy muffled tramp.
Along the forest road they passed, the men laughing and joking in high spirits, as if marching to a parade. The still, beautiful light of the innocent morning silvered the trees. The glistering branches arched above; the glistening stream of steel flowed beneath. Wreaths of vines, beards of moss, trailed their long fringes and graceful drapery from the boughs. The breeze shook down large shining drops, and every bush a soldier touched threw off its dancing shower.
"'And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass,'" remarked Seth Tucket.
"Come, none o' your solemncholy poetry to-day," said Jack Winch. "I never felt so jolly in my life. There's only one kind of poetry I want to hear, and that's the pouring of our volleys into the rebels."
"The pouring of their volleys into us ain't quite so desirable, I suppose," said Harris.
"There wouldn't be much fun without some danger," said Jack.
"If that's fun, I guess Winch 'll have fun enough before we're through with this job," remarked Ellis.
"What a long road it is!" cried Jack, impatiently.
"We'll come to a short turn in it pretty soon," said Atwater, significantly.
"Well, Abe has spoken!" said Jack. "His mouth has been shut so tight all along, I didn't think 'twould open till the time comes for him to cry quarter."
"Atwater means to let his gun speak for him to-day," said Harris.
"What do we go so slow for? Why don't we hurry on?" said Jack. "I want to get at the rebels some time this week. I don't believe they——"
He was going to say that he didn't believe they would wait to fire a shot. But even as he spoke the confutation of his opinion resounded in the woods. Crack—crack—crack—went the rebel muskets; then followed a volley from the troops in advance.
"Why didn't you finish your sentence, Jack?" said Harris, with a smile.
"They're at it!" whispered Jack, in a changed voice.
"A little skirmishing," said Atwater, quietly.
Crack, crack, again; and—sing!—came a bullet over the heads of the men, cutting the leaves as it passed.
"Too high," laughed Gray, coolly.
"Halt!" come the command, which John Winch, for one, obeyed with amazing promptness.
"Hallo, Jack!" said Ellis; "who taught you to halt before the word is given?"
"Are they going to keep us standing here all day?" said Jack, presently.
"He's as wide awake now to be on the move as he was to stop," laughed Harris.
"Well," said Jack, nervously, "who likes to stand still and be shot at?"
"There's no shooting at us," replied Harris. "When it comes to that, we'll see the fun you talk about."
Fun! Jack's countenance looked like any thing but fun just then.
He gained some confidence by observing the officers coolly giving their orders, and the men coolly executing them, as if nothing of importance had happened, or was expected to happen.
Captain Edney deployed his company, pressing forward into the swamp. Bushes and fallen logs impeded their progress; the mud and water were in places leg-deep; and the men were permitted to pick their way as best they could. Suddenly out of a thicket a bullet came whizzing. Another and another followed. One tore the bark from a tree close by Captain Edney's head.
"Keep cool, boys!" he said; "and aim low."
He then gave the order, "Commence firing!" and the front rank men, halting, poured their volley into the thicket—their first shot at the enemy. Whilst they were reloading, the second rank advanced and delivered their fire.
"Don't waste a shot, my brave fellows!" cried the captain. "Fire wherever you see signs of a rebel. Always aim atsomething."
This last order was a very useful one; for many, in the excitement of coming for the first time under fire, were inclined to let off their pieces at random in the air; and the deliberation required to take aim, if only at a bush behind which a rebel might be concealed, had an excellent effect in quieting the nerves.
Yet some needed no such instruction. Atwater was observed to load and fire with as steady a hand and as serene a countenance as if he had been practising at a target. Others were equally calm and determined. There were some, however, even of the brave, who, from constitutional excitability, and not from any cowardice of spirit, exhibited symptoms of nervousness. Their cheeks paled and their hands shook. But, the momentary tremor past, these men become perhaps the most resolute and efficient of all.
Such a one was Frank; who, though in the rear of the regiment, with the ambulance corps, felt his heart beat so wildly at the first whiz of a bullet over his head, that he was afraid he was going to be afraid.
Was Jack Winch another of the sort? It was pitiful to see him attempt to load his piece. He never knew how it happened, but, instead of a cartridge, he got hold of the tompion,—called by the boys the "tompin,"—used to stop the muzzle of the gun and protect it from moisture, and was actually proceeding to ram it down the barrel before he discovered his mistake!
"Take a cartridge, Winch!" said Captain Edney, who was coolly noting the conduct of his men.
So Jack, throwing away the stopper, took a cartridge. But his hand shookaroundthe muzzle of the gun so that it was some time before he could insert the charge. He had already dodged behind a tree, the men being allowed to shelter themselves when they could.
"Dry ground is scarce as hen's teeth!" remarked Seth Tucket, droll as ever, looking for a good place to stand while he was loading.
"Fun, ain't it?" said Ned Ellis, who had sought cover by the same tree with Winch.
He stood at Jack's left hand, and a little behind him. Jack, too much agitated to respond to the unseasonable jest, threw up the barrel of his piece, in order to prime, when a bullet came, from nobody knew where, aslant, and put an end to jesting for the present.
Jack felt a benumbing shock, and dropped his gun, the stock of which had been shivered in his grasp. At the same instant Ellis dropped his gun also, and threw out his hands wildly, exclaiming,—
"I am shot!"
And both fell to the ground together.
"That's what ye call two birds with one stun!" said Tucket, a flash of ferocity kindling his face as he saw his comrades fall. "Pay 'em for that, boys! Pay 'em for that!"
And hearing the order to charge the thicket, he went forward with a yell, taking strides that would have done credit to a moose in his own native woods of Maine.
Ellis had by this time got upon his feet again. But Jack lay still, his neck bathed in blood.
XXVIII.
JACK WINCH'S CATASTROPHE.
Several companies were by this time engaged driving in the rebel skirmishers, and three or four men had been disabled.
It was impracticable to take the stretchers, or litters for the wounded, into such a wilderness of bogs and thickets; and accordingly the most forward and courageous of the carriers leaped into the swamps without them.
As soon as Frank heard that some of his company had been wounded, all sense of danger to himself was forgotten, and no remonstrance from his friend the drum-major could prevent his rushing in to assist in bringing them off.
Finding that the boy, whose welfare was so precious to him, could not be restrained, Mr. Sinjin plunged in with him, and kept at his side, scrambling through mud and brush and water, and over logs and roots, in the direction of the firing.
They had not gone far when they met a wounded soldier coming out. His right hand hung mangled and ghastly and bleeding at his side. A slug from a rifle musket had ploughed it through, nearly severing the fingers from the wrist.
"Ellis!" cried Frank—"you hurt?"
Ned swung the disabled and red-dripping member up to view, with a sorry smile.
"Not so bad as might be!" he said, with a rather faint show of gayety. "Jack has got it worse."
"Jack who?"—for there were several Jacks in the company.
"Winch," said Ellis, whilst the old drummer was binding up his hand to stop the blood.
"Is he killed?" asked Frank, with a strange feeling—almost of remorse, remembering his late bitter and vindictive thoughts towards John.
"I don't know. We were both hit by the same ball, I believe. It must have passed through his neck. It came from one side, and we tumbled both together. What I tumbled for, I don't know. It didn't take me long to pick myself up again!"
"And Jack?"
"There he lies, with blood all over his face."
"And nobody caring for him?"
"The boys have something else to think of!" said Ellis, with a pallid smile.
Mr. Sinjin, having tied up the wound, directed him how to find the surgeon. And Ellis, in return, pointed out the best way to get at Jack.
The company had advanced, driving the rebel skirmishers before them, and leaving Winch where he had fallen. Frank and his companion soon reached the spot. There lay the hapless youth under the roots of the tree, the left side of his face and neck all covered with gore.
"Jack!" cried Frank, stooping by his side, and lifting his arm.
No answer. The arm fell heavily again as he released it.
"Dead!" said the boy, a sudden calmness coming over him. "We may as well leave him where he is, and look for others."
"Not dead yet," said the more experienced Sinjin, feeling Jack's heart, which was beating still. In corroboration of which statement Winch uttered something between a gasp and a groan, and rolled up horrible eyes.
Frank was standing, and the old man was trying to find Winch's wound, in order to prevent his bleeding to death while they were carrying him out, when the report of a rifle sounded, seemingly quite near, and a bullet passed with a swift vehement buzz close by their ears. At the instant Frank felt something like a quick tap or jerk on his arm. He looked, and saw that the strip of red flannel, which betokened the service he was engaged in, and which should have rendered his person sacred from any intentional harm, had been shot away. A hole had been torn in his sleeve also, but his flesh was untouched.
The old drummer looked up quickly.
"Are you hurt?"
"No," said Frank, feeling of his arm while he looked around to discover where the shot came from. "It must have been a spent ball; for, see! it fell there in the water!"—pointing at a pool behind them, the surface of which was still rippling with the plunge of the shot.
Winch gave another groan.
"The wound must be an internal one," said Sinjin, "for he is not bleeding much now."
Frank assisted to lift him, and together they bore him back towards the road. It was a difficult task. Frank had neither the stature nor the strength of a man; but he made up in energy and good will what he lacked in force. Very carefully, very tenderly, through bogs and through thickets, they carried the helpless, heavy weight of the blood-stained volunteer.
"Frank! is it you?" murmured Winch, faintly.
"Yes, Jack!" panted the boy, out of breath with exertion.
"Am I killed?" articulated Jack.
"O, no!" said Frank. "You've got a bullet in you somewhere; but I guess the surgeon will soon have it out, and you'll be all right again."
"O!" groaned Jack.
Just then there came another rifle-crack, not quite so near as before, and another bullet came with its angry buzz. It cut a twig just over Mr. Sinjin's head, and grazed a cypress tree farther on, at a point considerably lower, and with a downward slant, as the mark revealed.
"Another spent ball," said Frank.
But the old drummer shook his head. "Those are no spent balls. Some murderous rebel is aiming at us."
"How can that be?"
"I don't know. And our best way is not to stop to inquire, but to get out of this as soon as possible."
"Frank!" groaned the burden they were bearing.
"What, Jack?"
"Forgive me, Frank!"
"For what?" said Frank, cheerily.
"For writing home lies about you."
"They were not all lies, I'm sorry to say, Jack. But even if they were, I forgive you from my very soul."
Jack groaned, and said no more. Assistants now came to meet them, and Frank, who was almost exhausted with the fatigue of bringing his comrade so far, was relieved of the burden. The road was near, and Jack was soon laid upon a stretcher.
"Frank!" he gasped, rolling his eyes again, "don't leave me! For God's sake, stay by me, Frank!"
So Frank kept by his side, while the men bore him along the road to a tree, where the surgeon had hung up his red flag, and established his hospital.
Ellis had just undergone the amputation of his mangled hand, without once flinching under the surgeon's knife, and he remained on the spot to encourage Winch.
"If I die," began Jack, stirring himself more than he had been observed to do before. "Frank, do you hear me?"
"What is it, Jack?" asked the sympathizing boy.
"If I die, don't let me be buried on this miserable island!"
"But you are not going to die," said the surgeon, kindly, cutting away the clothes from his neck.
Mr. Sinjin assisted, while Frank anxiously awaited the result of the examination. The surgeon looked puzzled. There was blood, but not any fresh blood—and no wound! Not so much as a scratch of the skin.
Jack in the mean time was groaning dismally.
"What are you making that noise for?" exclaimed the surgeon, sharply. "There isn't a hurt about you!"
"Ain't I shot?" cried Jack, starting up, as much astonished as any body; for he had really believed he was a dead man. "I was hit, I know! and I swooned away."
"You swooned from fright, then," declared the indignant surgeon. "Take the fellow away!"
Jack, however, gratified as he was to learn he was not killed, testily insisted that a bullet had passed through him, adducing the blood on his face as a proof.
Thereupon Ellis broke into a laugh.
"It takes Jack to make capital out of a little borrowed blood. I know something about that. When my hand was ploughed through, I slapped it against his face; and down he went, fainting dead away." And, notwithstanding the ache of his wound and his weakness, and the scenes of horror thickening around, Ned leaned back against the tree, and laughed merrily at what he called Jack's "awful big scare."
Frank felt immensely relieved, at first, on learning that Jack was not killed; then immensely amused; and, lastly, immensely disgusted. He remembered the severe struggle it cost to bring him out of the swamp, the rolled-up eyes, the lugubrious groans, and the faintly murmured dying request to be forgiven. And in the revulsion of his feelings he could not help saying, "Yes, Jack, I forgive ye! and if you die, you shan't be buried on this miserable island."
He was excited when he uttered this taunt, and he was sorry for it afterwards. Seeing the craven slink away, conscious of the scorn of every body, he felt a touch of pity for him.
"Jack," said he, with friendly intent, "why don't you go back and wipe out this disgrace?Iwould."
"Because," snarled Jack, goaded by his own shame and the general contempt, "I'm hurt, I tell ye!internally, I s'pose,"—for he had heard Mr. Sinjin use the word, and thought it a good one to suit his case. And he lay down wretchedly by the roadside, and counterfeited anguish, while the fresh troops marched by to the battle.
A fiery impulse seized the drummer boy. He glanced at his torn sleeve, from which the badge had been shot away, and thought there was something besides accident in what appeared so much like an omen. If it meant any thing, was it not that his place was elsewhere than in the ambulance corps?
He turned to Mr. Sinjin, and asked to be excused from going with the stretcher. And Mr. Sinjin, who prized the boy's safety too highly to wish to see him go again under fire, was only too glad to excuse him, never once suspecting what wild purpose was in his heart.
The battle was now fairly begun. The rebel battery had opened. The continual rattle of musketry and the thunder of heavy cannon shook the island. The regiments in line in front of the cleared space before the battery, returned the fire with energy, and the marine howitzers also responded. Soon a shell from the enemy's work came flying through the woods with a hum, which increased to a howl, and burst with a startling explosion within a few rods of the hospital. Nobody was hurt; but the incident had a very marked effect on Jack Winch. He got better at once, and moved to the rear with an alacrity surprisingly in contrast with his recent helplessness.
XXIX.
HOW FRANK GOT NEWS OF HIS BROTHER.
Frank was already moving off quite as rapidly, but in the opposite direction. He plunged once more into the swamp, and returned to the spot where Jack had fallen. The battle was raging beyond; the troops had passed on; the ground was deserted. But there lay Winch's gun; with his cartridge-box beside it. Near by was Ellis's piece, abandoned where it had fallen. There, too, lay the red badge which had been shot from Frank's arm. He picked it up, thinking his mother would like to have him preserve it.
Then he slipped on the cartridge-box, and took up Winch's gun; for this was the resolution which inspired him—to assume the poltroon's place in the company, and by his own conduct to atone for the disgrace he had brought upon it.
But the gun-stock was, as has been said, shattered; and Frank could not have the satisfaction of revenging himself and his comrades for Winch's cowardice with Winch's own gun. So he threw it down, and took up Ellis's, which he found ready loaded and primed.
While he was examining the piece, he remembered the shots which he had taken for spent balls, and bethought him to look around the woods in the direction from which they had come. Raising his eyes above the undergrowth, he beheld a singular phenomenon.
At first, he thought it was a wild animal—a coon, or a wildcat, coming down a tree. Then there were two wildcats, descending together, or preparing to descend. Then the wildcats became two human legs clasped around the trunk, and two human arms appeared enjoying an equally close hug above them. The body to which these visible members appertained was itself invisible, being on the farther side of the trunk.
"That's the chap that was shooting at us!" was Frank's instantaneous conviction.
And now he could plainly discern an object slung across the man's back, as his movements swung it around a little to one side. It was the sharpshooter's rifle.
Frank was so excited that he felt himself trembling—not with fear, but with the very ardor of his ambition.
"Since he has had two shots at me, why shouldn't I have as much as one at him?"
To disable and bring in the rebel who had shot the badge from his arm—what a triumph!
But he was not in a good position for an effective shot, even if he could have made up his mind to fire at a person who, though without doubt an enemy, was not at the moment defending himself. It seemed, after all, too dreadful a thing deliberately to kill a man.
Frank's excitement did not embarrass his faculties in the least, but only rendered them all the more keenly alive and vigilant. It took him but a moment to decide what to do. Through the swamp he ran with a lightness and ability of which in calmer moments he would have been scarcely capable. The exigency of the occasion inspired him. Such leaps he took over miry places! so safely and swiftly be ran the length of an old mossy log! so nimbly he avoided the undergrowth! and so suddenly he arrived at last at the tree the rebel was descending!
For he was a rebel indeed. Frank knew that by his gray uniform and short jacket. He had been perched in the thick top of a tall pine to pick off our men during the skirmish. It was he who had taken the bark from the tree near Captain Edney's head. It was he who had basely thought to assassinate those who were carrying away the wounded. And now, the advancing troops having passed him, he was taking advantage of the solitary situation to slip down the trunk and make his escape through the woods.
Unfortunately for him, he could not go up and down trees like a squirrel. He proceededhugginghis way so slowly and laboriously that Frank reached the spot when he was still within a dozen feet of the ground. Hearing a noise, and looking down over his arm, and seeing Frank, he would have jumped the remainder of the distance. But Frank was prepared for that.
"Stop, or I'll fire!"
Shrill and menacing rang the boy's determined tones through the soul of the treed rebel. He saw the gun pointed up at him; so he stopped.
"What's wanting?" said he, gruffly.
"I want you to throw down that rifle as quick as ever you can!" cried Frank.
"What do you want of my rifle?"
"I've a curiosity to see what sort of a piece you use to shoot at men carrying off the wounded."
And the "grayback" (as the boys termed the rebels) could hear the ominous click of the gun lock in Frank's hands.
"Was it you I fired at?"
"Yes, it was; and I'm bound to put lead into you now, if you don't do as I tell you pretty quick!"
"I can't throw my gun down; I can't get it off," remonstrated the man.
"You never will come down from that tree alive, unless you do!" said Frank.
"Well, take the d——d thing then!" growled the man. And unclasping one arm from the tree, while he held on with the other and his two legs, he slipped the belt over his head, and dropped the gun to the ground. "If it had been good for any thing, I reckon you wouldn't be here now, bothering me!" he added, significantly.
"No doubt!" said Frank. "You are brave fellows, to shoot out of trees at men carrying off the wounded. Wait! I'm not quite ready for you yet."
And he stood under the tree, with his musket pointed upwards, ready cocked, and with the point of the bayonet in rather ticklish proximity to the most exposed and prominent part of the rebel's person.
"Ye think I'm going to stick here all day?" growled the desperate climber.
"You'll stick there till you throw me down your revolver," Frank resolutely informed him.
"How do you know I've got a revolver?"
"I saw your hand make a motion at your pocket. You thought you'd try a shot at me. But you saw at the very next motion you'd be a dead man!"
"You mean to say you'd blow my brains out?"
"Yes, if your brains are where my gun is aimed, as I think the brains of rebels must be, or they never would have seceded."
Frank's gun, by the way, was aimed at the above mentioned very exposed and prominent part.
"Grayback" grinned and growled.
"Come, my young joker, I can't stand this!"
"You'll have to stand it till you throw down that revolver!"
"I'm slipping!"
"Then I'll give you something sharp to slip on!"
The man felt that he had really betrayed himself by making the involuntary movement towards his breast-pocket, which Frank had been too shrewd not to notice. The cocked gun, and bayonet, and resolute young face below, were inexorable. So he yielded.
"Don't throw it towards me! Drop it the other side!" cried the wary Frank.
The revolver was tossed down. Then Frank stepped back, and let the man descend from his uncomfortable position.
"Boy!" said the man, as soon as his feet were safe on the ground, and he could turn to look at his captor, "I reckon you're a cute 'un! A Yankee, ain't ye?"
"Yes, and proud to own it!" said Frank. "Keep your distance!"—as the man made a move to come nearer—"and don't you stoop to touch that gun!"
"Look here," said the man, coaxingly, "you'd better let me go! I'm out of ammunition, and can't hurt any body. I'll give ye ten dollars if you will."
"In confederate shinplasters?"
The rebel laughed. "No, in Uncle Sam's gold."
"You don't place a very high value on yourself," said Frank. "You are too modest."
"Twenty dollars!"—jingling the money in his pocket. "Come, I'm a gentleman at home, and I don't want to go north. Well, say thirty dollars."
"If you hadn't said you were a gentleman, I might trade," said Frank. "But a gentleman is worth more than you bid. You wouldn't insult a negro by offering that for him!"
"Fifty dollars, then! I see you are sharp at a bargain. And you shall keep that revolver."
"I intend to keep this, any way," said Frank, picking it up. "And the gun that shot at me, too," slinging it on his back.
The rebel, seeing his determination, rose in his bids at once to a hundred dollars.
"Not for a hundred thousand!" said Frank, who was now ready to move his prisoner. "You are going the way my bayonet points, and no other. March!"
The rebel marched accordingly.
Frank followed at a distance of two or three paces, prepared at any moment to use prompt measures in case his prisoner should attempt to turn upon him or make his escape.
"How many of you fellows are hid around in these trees?" said Frank.
"Not many just around here—lucky for you!" muttered the disconsolate rebel.
"Is that your favorite way of fighting?"
"People fight any way they can when their soil is invaded."
"What are holes cut in the pine trees for,—foot-holds for climbing?"
"Holes? them's turpentine boxes!" said the man, in some surprise at Frank's ignorance. "Didn't you ever see turpentine boxes before?"
"Never till last evening. Is that the way you get turpentine?"
"That's the way we get turpentine. The sap begins to run and fill the boxes along in March, and when they are full we dip it out with ladles made on purpose, and put it into barrels."
"O, you needn't stop to explain!" cried Frank. "Push ahead!"
And the rebel pushed ahead.
It was a moment of unspeakable satisfaction to the drummer boy when he had brought his prisoner through all the difficulties of the way to the road. There he had him safe.
He was now in the midst of shocking and terrible scenes, but he heeded them not as much as he would have heeded the smallest accident to a fellow-creature a few hours before. Already he seemed familiar with battles and all their horrors. Men were hurrying by with medical stores. The wounded were passing, on stretchers, or in the arms of their friends, or limping painfully, ghastly, bleeding, but heroic still. They smiled as they showed their frightful hurts. One poor fellow had had his arm torn off by a cannon ball: the flesh hung in strings. Some lay by the roadside, faint from the loss of blood. And all the time the deadly, deafening tumult of the battle went on.
To guard his prisoner securely was Frank's first thought. But greater, more absorbing even than that, was the wild wish to see the enemies of his country defeated, and to share in the glorious victory.
"Frank Manly! what sort of a beast have you got there?" cried a soldier, returning from the action with a slight wound.
Frank recognized a member of another company in the same regiment to which he belonged.
"I've got a sharpshooter that I've taken prisoner." And he briefly related his adventure, every word of which the rebel, who rather admired his youthful captor, voluntarily confirmed.
"It's just as he tells you," he said, assuming a candid, reckless air. "I am well enough satisfied. If your men are equal to your boys, I shall have plenty of company before night."
"You think we shall have you all prisoners?" inquired Frank, eagerly.
"This island," replied the rebel, "is a perfect trap. I've known it from the beginning. You outnumber us two to one, and if the fight goes against us, we've no possible chance of escape. We've five thousand men on the island, and if we're whipped you'll make a pretty respectable bag. But you never can conquer us,"—he hastened to add, fearing lest he was conceding too much.
"Can't, eh?" laughed Frank. "Where's the last ditch?"
"Never mind about that," said the prisoner, with a peculiar grin.
By this time several other stragglers had gathered around them, eager to hear the story of the drummer boy's exploit.
The rebel had looked curiously at his youthful captor ever since he had heard him called by name. At length he said:—
"Have you got a brother in the confederate army?"
Frank changed color. "Why do you ask that?"
"Because we have a Captain Manly, from the north somewhere, who looks enough like you to be a pretty near relation."
Frank trembled with interest as he inquired, "What is his given name?"
"Captain—CaptainGeorgeManly, I'm pretty sure."
"Yes, sir,"—and sorry tears came into Frank's eyes as he spoke,—"I suppose I must own he is my brother."
"Well, you've a smart chance of meeting him, I reckon,—if, as I said, your men are equal to your boys. For he's fighting against you to-day, and he's one of the pluckiest, and he won't run."
XXX.
THE BOYS MEET AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
Frank was anxious to inquire further concerning his apostate brother; but at this moment one of Foster's aids came up, and saw the prisoner.
"Where did you find that fellow?" The story was quickly told. "Well," said the officer, "you've taken the first prisoner to-day."
He then turned to question the captive, who seemed inclined to talk freely about the position and force of the confederates.
"I'll take this fellow in charge," he said, perceiving that it was in his power to give valuable information. "Come, too, if you like."
"I thank you; I want to join my company," said Frank.
"You'd rather do that than come and see the general?"
"I can see him any time when he wants me, but we don't have a fight every day, sir."
"Well, he shall hear of you. Can I do any thing for you?"
"If you please, you may take this gun that I have captured; one is enough for me."
The officer took it, saying, as he turned to go,—
"A spirited boy, and as modest as he is brave!"
In the mean time Frank's comrades in the fight were cutting their way through a thick swampy jungle in the direction of the enemy's left flank.
Relieved of his prisoner, his ardor inflamed rather than quenched by the evil tidings he had heard of his brother, he followed in their track, passing directly across the fire of the battery.
The hurricane of destruction swept howling over him. The atmosphere was thick with smoke. Grape-shot whizzed through the bushes. The scream of rifled shot seemed to fill the very air with terror and shuddering. Right before him a shell struck a forest tree, shivering limbs and trunk in an instant, as if a bolt from heaven had fallen upon it. He felt that at any moment his tender body too might be torn in pieces; but he believed God's arm was about him, and that he would be preserved. Deep and solemn, happy even, was that conviction. A sense of the grand and terrible filled him; the whole soul of the boy was aroused. He was not afraid of any thing. He felt ready for any thing, even death, in his country's service.
The mud was deep, and savage the entanglement of bushes on every side. But the troops, breaking through, had made the way comparatively easy to follow, and Frank soon overtook the regiment.
Great was Captain Edney's surprise at sight of him, with a gun in his hand and with the glow of youthful heroism in his face.
"What are you here for?"
"To beg permission to take Winch's place in the ranks."
"Your place is with the ambulance corps."
"I got excused from that, sir. I am not strong enough to carry heavy men through the swamps," said Frank, with a smile.
"But strong enough to take a man's place in the ranks!" said Captain Edney.
"I would like to have you try me, sir."
You may know that Captain Edney loved the boy to whom he gave so many words and such serious thought at a time of action and peril. Perhaps he had heard of Winch's pusillanimity, and understood the spirit which prompted Frank to fill his place. Certain it is he saw in the lad's eye the guarantee that, if permitted, he would give no cowardly account of himself that day. So, reluctantly, dreading lest evil might happen to him, he granted his request; and with a thrill of joy, Frank sprang to Atwater's side.
"I'm here, old Abe!"
"I'm glad—and sorry!" said Abe.
The company had halted, awaiting the movement of the troops in front.
"We are getting into a splendid position!" said Gray, who had passed through the undergrowth to reconnoitre. "We're fairly on their flank, and not discovered yet!"
"How far did you go?" asked Captain Edney.
"To the clearing, which is just there where the woods look lighter. I could see the guns of the battery blazing away, and rebels in the woods supporting it. They're too busy to notice us."
"We're discovered, though!" said Captain Edney as a bullet came chipping its way among the twigs above them.
"The sharpshooters are after us!" said Gray, gayly. "And now we're after them!"
The order was given to advance. The men dashed forward through the bushes. They soon made the clearing, and marching along its edge, opened fire by file upon the battery and the rebels in the woods.
"You do well, Frank!" said Atwater, seeing his young companion coolly loading and firing at his side.
"It's a perfect surprise to them! they didn't think we could do it!" cried Gray, elated. "Lively, boys! lively."
The firing, regular at first, running along the line from right to left, soon became a continual rattling, each man loading at will, and firing whenever an enemy's head showed itself.
"There! I popped you over, you sneaking rebel!" cried Seth Tucket, watching the effect of his shot. "Take the fellow next to him there, Harris! behind that stump!"
"Let him put up his head a little higher!" said Harris, taking aim.
He fired. The rebel dropped, not behind the stump, but beside it.
"You've saved him!" shouted Tucket. "That'll pay for Ellis and Jack Winch!"
The fire of the enemy in the woods was soon concentrated on Captain Edney's company, which happened to be most exposed.
"Fire and load lying!" rang the captain's voice through the din.
Frank saw those next him throw themselves down behind a fallen tree. He did the same. The trunk presented an excellent rest for his musket, and he fired across it. But when he came to load, he found difficulty. He had been exercised in the manual of arms, yet the operation of ramming the cartridge while on his back was beyond his practice. Give him time, and he could do it. But he felt that time was precious, and that every shot told.
He glanced at Atwater, resting on his left side as he brought his gun back after discharging it; taking out his cartridge; then turning on his back, holding the piece with both hands and placing the butt between his feet; and in that position, with the barrel over his breast, charging cartridge, drawing rammer, and so forth.
All which the tall soldier performed scientifically and quickly. Yet Frank saw that it took even him much longer to load lying than standing. What, then, could he hope to do?
What he did was this. He deliberately got upon his feet, and with the balls singing around him, proceeded unconcernedly with his loading.
"Down!" called Atwater to him; "down! You're making a target of yourself!"
Frank resolutely went on with his loading.
"Down, there! down, Frank!" shouted Captain Edney.
Frank shouted back,—
"I can't load unless I stand up, sir!"
"Never mind that! Down!" repeated his captain, peremptorily.
"I've got my cartridge down, any way," said Frank, triumphantly, dropping again behind the log.
"Why don't you obey orders?" cried Gray.
"The orders were to load and fire, and I was bound to obey them before any others!" said Frank, preparing to prime.
Just then Atwater, who was again on his back, suddenly dropped his piece, which fell across his left arm, and brought his right hand to his breast. The movement was so abrupt and unusual it attracted Frank's attention.
"Are you hit, Abe?"
And in an instant he saw the answer to his hurried question in a gush of blood which crimsoned the poor, brave fellow's breast.
"It has come!" said Atwater.
"How could it—and you lying down so!" ejaculated Frank.
"I don't know—never mind me!" replied Abe, faintly.
Then Frank remembered the mysterious shots aimed at him and Sinjin in the woods, and the subsequent solution of the mystery. He looked up—all around—overhead.
"What's the trouble, Manly?" screamed Tucket. "What do you see?"
"There!" Frank shouted, pointing upwards; "there! the man that killed Atwater!"
And in the branches of a tree, which stood but a few paces in front of them, he showed, half hidden by the thick masses, the figure of a rebel.
The sharpshooter was loading his piece. Frank saw the movement, and would have hastened to avenge the death of his friend before the assassin could fire again. But he was out of caps, and must borrow. Tucket's gun was ready.
"'Die thou shalt, gray-headed ruffian!'"
Seth shouted the words up at the man in the tree, and lying on his back, brought the butt of his gun to his shoulder, aimed heavenward, and fired.
Scarce had flame shot from the muzzle, when down came the rebel's gun tumbling to the ground; pursued out of the tree by something that resembled a huge bird, with spread wings, swooping down terribly, and striking the ground with a jar heard even amid the thunder of battle.
It was the rebel himself.
"'Rattling, crashing, thrashing, thunder down!'" screamed Seth Tucket, his ruling passion, poetry, strong even in battle.
The man, pitching forwards in his fearful somerset, had fallen within a few feet of Frank. The boy recovering from his astonishment at the awful sight, felt a strange curiosity to see if he was dead.
He looked over the log. There lay the wretch, a hideous heap, the face of him upturned and recognizable.
Where had Frank seen that grim countenance, that short, stiff, iron-gray hair? Somewhere, surely. He looked again, trying to fix his memory.
"I swan to man, ef it ain't old Buckley!"
Seth was right. It was the Maryland secessionist whose turkeys the boys had stolen, and who, in consequence, had made haste to avenge his wrongs by joining the confederate army.
A strange, sickening sensation came over Frank at the discovery. Thus the evil he had done followed him. But for that wild freak of plundering the poor man's poultry-yard, he might be plodding now on his Maryland farm, and Atwater would not be lying there so white and still with a bullet in his breast.
XXXI.
"VICTORY OR DEATH."
Where all this time was the old drum-major? He too had disappeared from the ambulance corps to assume, like Frank, a position of still more arduous service and greater danger.
Shortly after Frank left him, word came that the battery of boat-howitzers, which, from a curve in the road that commanded the rebel works, had been doing splendid execution, was suffering terribly, and getting short of hands. It must soon withdraw unless reinforced. But who would volunteer to help work the guns?
The old man had been familiar with artillery practice. At the thought of the service and the peril his spirit grew proud within him. But his heart yearned for Frank.
"Where is Manly?" he inquired of Ellis.
"I believe he has gone into the fight with our company," said the wounded volunteer.
The truth flashed upon the veteran. Yes, the boy he loved had gone before him into danger. He no longer hesitated, or lost any time in getting leave to report himself to the commander of the battery.
"What can you do?" was the hurried question put to him, as he stood in the thick powder-smoke, calmly asking for work.
Just then, a gunner was taken off his feet by a cannon-ball.
"I can take this fellow's place, sir," said the old man, grimly.
"Take it!" replied the officer.
The wounded sailor was borne away, and the old drummer, springing to the howitzer, assisted in working it until, its ammunition exhausted, the battery was ordered to withdraw.
During the severest part of the action Mr. Sinjin had observed a person in citizen's dress, with his coat off, briskly handling the cannon-balls. Their work done, he turned to speak with him.
"You are a friend of my young drummer boy, I believe," said the old man.
"Yes, and a friend of all his friends!" cordially answered the white-sleeved civilian.
"You can preach well, and fight well," said the veteran, his eyes gleaming with stern pride.
"I prefer to preach, but I believe in fighting too, when duty points that way," said Mr. Egglestone,—for it was he, flushed and begrimed with his toil at the deadly guns.
Even as they were speaking, a cannon-ball passed between them. Mr. Egglestone was thrown back by the shock of the wind it carried, but recovered instantly to find himself unhurt. But where was the old drummer? He was not there. And it was some seconds before the bewildered clergyman perceived him, several paces distant, lying on his face by the road.
The howitzers silenced, it was determined to storm the enemy's works.
Frank afterwards had the satisfaction of knowing that it was in part the information gained from the prisoner he had taken that decided the commanding general to order a charge.
Frank was with his company, where we left him, when suddenly yells rent the air; and, looking, he saw the Zouaves of Parke's brigade dashing down the causeway in front of the rebel redoubt.
They were met by a murderous fire. They returned it as they charged. As their comrades fell, they passed over them unheedingly, and still kept on—a sublime sight to look upon, in their wild Arab costumes, shouting, "Zou! zou!" bounding like tigers, clearing obstructions, and sweeping straight to the breastwork with their deadly bayonets.
"What is it?" asked Atwater, faintly.
"Victory!" answered Frank; for the firing ceased—the enemy were flying.
"That's enough!" And the still pallid face of the soldier smiled.
Victory! None but those who have fought a stern foe to the bloody close, and seen his ranks break and fly, and the charging columns pursue, ranks of bristling steel rushing in through clouds of battle smoke, know what pride and exultation are in that word.
Victory! Reno's column, that had outflanked the rebels on the west side, fighting valiantly, charged simultaneously with the Zouaves. The whole line followed the example, and went in with colors flying, and shouts of joy filling the welkin which had been shaken so lately with the jar of battle. Over fallen trees, over pits and ditches, through brush, and bog, and water, the conquering hosts poured in; Frank's regiment with the rest, and himself among the foremost that planted their standard on the breastwork.
There were the abandoned cannon, still warm and smoking. There lay a deserted flag, bearing the Latin inscription "Aut vincere aut mori,"—Victory or death,—flung down in the precipitate flight.
"They couldn't conquer, and they didn't want to die; so they split the difference, and run," observed Seth Tucket.
There too lay the dead and dying, whom the boastful enemy had forsaken where they fell. One of these who hadnotrun was an officer—handsome and young. He was not yet dead. A strange light was in his eyes as he looked on the forms of the foemen thronging around him, saw the faces of the victors, and heard the cheering. Success and glory were for them—for him defeat and death.
"Lift me up," he said, "and let me look at you once."
They raised him to a sitting posture, supported partly by a gun-carriage, and partly by the arms of his conquerors. And they pressed around him, their voices hushed, their triumphant brows saddened with respect for the dying.
"Though we have been fighting each other," he said, solemnly, "we are still brothers. God forgive me if I have done wrong! I too am a northern man,—I too——"
As he spoke, a figure in the uniform of his foes sprang through the crowd to his feet.
"O, my brother! O, my brother George!"
It was Frank Manly, who knelt, and with passionate grief clasped the hand that had clasped his in fondness and merry sport so often in the happy days of his childhood, when neither ever dreamed of their unnatural separation and this still more unnatural meeting.
"Frank! my little brother! so grown! is it you?" said the wounded captive, with dreamy surprise.
"O George! how could you?" Frank began, with anguish in his voice. But he checked himself; he would not reproach his dying brother.
"My wife, you know!" was all the unhappy young man could murmur. He looked at Frank with a faint and ever fainter smile of love, till his eyes grew dim. "I am going, Frank. It is all wrong—I know now—but it is too late. Tell mother——"