The line ran through the forest, among
the rocks and laurel thickets, the men fifteen or
twenty paces apart, all in concealment and under
injunction of strict silence and unremitting vigilance.
In four hours, if nothing occurred, they would be
relieved by a fresh detachment from the reserve now
resting in care of its captain some distance away to
the left and rear. Before stationing his men the
young officer of whom we are writing had pointed out
to his two sergeants the spot at which he would be
found if it should be necessary to consult him, or if
his presence at the front line should be required.
It was a quiet enough spot--the fork of an old
wood-road, on the two branches of which, prolong-
ing themselves deviously forward in the dim moon-
light, the sergeants were themselves stationed, a
few paces in rear of the line. If driven sharply back
by a sudden onset of the enemy--the pickets are
not expected to make a stand after firing--the men
would come into the converging roads and naturally
following them to their point of intersection could be
rallied and 'formed.' In his small way the author
of these dispositions was something of a strategist;
if Napoleon had planned as intelligently at Water-
loo he would have won that memorable battle and
been overthrown later.
Second-Lieutenant Brainerd Byring was a brave
and efficient officer, young and comparatively inex-
perienced as he was in the business of killing his
fellow-men.
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