A strongly defined shadow
passed across the face of the dead, left it luminous,
passed back upon it and left it half obscured. The
horrible thing was visibly moving! At that moment a
single shot rang out upon the picket-line--a lone-
lier and louder, though more distant, shot than
ever had been heard by mortal ear! It broke the
spell of that enchanted man; it slew the silence and
the solitude, dispersed the hindering host from
Central Asia and released his modern manhood.
With a cry like that of some great bird pouncing
upon its prey he sprang forward, hot-hearted for
action!
Shot after shot now came from the front. There
were shoutings and confusion, hoof-beats and desul-
tory cheers. Away to the rear, in the sleeping camp,
were a singing of bugles and grumble of drums.
Pushing through the thickets on either side the roads
came the Federal pickets, in full retreat, firing back-
ward at random as they ran. A straggling group that
had followed back one of the roads, as instructed,
suddenly sprang away into the bushes as half a
hundred horsemen thundered by them, striking
wildly with their sabres as they passed. At headlong
speed these mounted madmen shot past the spot
where Byring had sat, and vanished round an angle
of the road, shouting and firing their pistols. A
moment later there was a roar of musketry, fol-
lowed by dropping shots--they had encountered the
reserve-guard in line; and back they came in dire
confusion, with here and there an empty saddle and
many a maddened horse, bullet-stung, snorting and
plunging with pain.
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