I left him, found supper, and had been long asleep tinder a tree, when I grabbed savagely3 at some one for silently shaking me, and found it was Ned Ferry. His horse's bridle4 was in his hand; his face was more filled with the old pain than I had ever seen it; he spoke5 low and hurriedly. "Come, tell me what this means."
In an envelope addressed to him in the handwriting I had first seen at Lucius Oliver's I found a scripture-text, a heading torn from a tract6 which the chaplain may have sent in to Charlotte in the morning. I turned it to the light of my fire. Under this printed line she had pencilled her name.
I asked if he had seen her. "Ah, no! the Doctor has drugged her to sleep; but that woman who came with you was still in the parlor7, reading a book, and she gave me this. What does it mean?"
"Lieutenant8," I replied, choking with dismay, "why mind her meanings now? Ought you not rather to ignore them? She is fevered, dejected, overwrought. Why, sir, she is the very woman to say and mean things now which she would never say or mean at any other time!" But my tone must have shown that I was only groping in desperation after anything plausible9, and he waved my suggestions away.
"The Doctor says that woman has been reading her an exciting story."
"Yes, and that helps to account--"
"Richard, it helps the wrong way; I know that story. After hearing that story she is, yes! the one woman of all women to send me this."
I took it again. The signature was extended in full, with the surname blackly underlined. The first clause of the print, too, was so treated. "Keep thy heart," it read; "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.--Charlotte Oliver."
"Why, Lieutenant, that is just what you have done--"
"You think so? But I have done. I will keep it no longer! Ah, I never kept it; 'twas she! Without taking it from me she kept it--'with all diligence'; otherwise I should have lost it--and her, too--and all that is finest and hardest to keep--long ago. Give me that paper; come; saddle up; you may go with me if you want, as my courier." No bugle10 had sounded, yet the whole camp was softly and diligently11 astir. We rode toward the staff tents; the pulse of enterprise enlivened him once more, though he clung to the same theme. "I have her heart now, Smith, and I will keep that with all diligence, for out of that are the issues of my life--if I live. And if I do live I will have her if I have to steal her even from herself, as last night from the Yankees."
Three hours later the stars still gleamed down through the balmy night above the long westward-galloping column of our brigade, that for those three hours had not slackened from the one unmitigated speed. The Federal regiment13 of whose plans Charlotte had apprised14 Ferry had been camped well to southward of this course, but in the day just past they had marched to the north, intending a raid around our right and into our rear. To-night they were resting in a wide natural meadow through the middle of which ran this road we were on. Around the southern edge of this inviting15 camp-ground by a considerable stream of water; the northern side was on rising ground and skirted by woods, and in these woods as day began to break stood our brigade, its presence utterly16 unsuspected in all that beautiful meadow whitened over with lane upon lane of the tents of the regiment of Federal cavalry17, whose pickets18 we had already silently surprised and captured. Now, as warily19 as quails20, we moved along an unused, woodcutters' road and began to trot21 up a gentle slope beyond whose crest22 the forest sank to the meadow. We were within a few yards of this crest, when a small mounted patrol came up from the other side, stood an instant profiled against the sky, bent23 low, gazed, wheeled and vanished.
Over the crest we swept after them at a gallop12 and saw them half-way down an even incline, going at a mad run and yelling "Saddle up! saddle up! the rebels are coming! saddle up!" The bugles24 had begun the reveillé; it ceased, and the next instant they were sounding the call To Arms. It was only a call to death; already we were half across the short decline and coming like a tornado25; in the white camp the bluecoats were running hither and yon deaf to the brave shoutings of their captains; above the swelling26 thunder of our hoofs27 rose the mad yell of the onset28; and now carbines peal29 and pistols crack, and here are the tents so close you may touch them, and yonder is one already in a light blaze, and at every hand and under every horse's foot is the crouching30, quailing31, falling foe32, the air is one crash of huzzas and groans33, screams, shots and commands, horses with riders and horses without plunge34 through the flames and smoke of the burning tents, and again and again I see Ned Ferry with the flat of his unstained sword strike pistol or carbine from hands too brave to cast them tamely down, and hear him cry "Throw down your arms! For God's sake throw down your arms and run to the road! run to the public road!"
And still every moment men fell, and what could we do but smite35 while the foe's bugles still rang out from beside his unfurled standard. Thitherward sprang a swarm36 of us and found a brave group massed on foot around the colors, men and officers shoulder to shoulder in sudden equality. I saw Ned Ferry make straight for their commander, who alone had out his sabre; the rest stood with cocked revolvers, and at twenty yards fired low. Ferry's horse was hit; he reared, but the spur carried him on; his rider's sword flashed up and then down, the Federal's sabre turned it, the pistols cracked in our very faces, and down went my leader and his horse into the bottom of the whirlwind, right under the standard. I saw the standard-bearer bring down one of our men on top of Ferry, and as Ferry half regained37 his feet the Federal aimed point-blank against his breast. But it was I who fired and the Federal who fell. As he reeled I stretched out for the standard, and exactly together Ned Ferry and I seized it--the same standard we had seen the night before. But instantly, graciously, he thrust it from him. "Tis yours!" he cried in the midst of a general huzza, smiling up at it and me as I swung the trophy38 over my head. Then he turned ghastly pale, his smile faded to an unmeaning stare, two or three men leaped to his side, and he sank lifelessly into their arms beside his dying horse.
I was swinging from the saddle to my leader's relief, when a familiar voice forbade it, and old Dismukes came by at a long trot, pointing forward with the reddest sabre I ever saw, and bellowing39 to right and left with oaths and curses "Fall in, every man, on yon line! Ride to yon line and fall in, there's more Yankees coming! Ride down yonder and fa'--here, you, Legs, there! follow me, and shoot down every man that stops to plunder40!"
Now I saw the new firing-line, out on our left, and as the rattle41 of it quickened, the Colonel galloped42, still roaring out his rallying-cries and wiping his reeking43 blade across his charger's mane. Throngs44 gathered after him; the high-road swarmed45 with prisoners double-quicking to the rear under mounted guards; here, thinly stretched across the road at right-angles, were our horse-holders, steadily46, coolly falling back; farther forward, yet vividly47 near, was our skirmish-line, crackling and smoking, and beyond it the enemy's, in the edge of a wood, not yet quite venturing to fling itself upon us. We passed General Austin standing48, mounted, at the top of the rise, with a number of his staff about him. Minie balls had begun to sing about them and us, and some officer was telling me rudely I had no business bringing that standard--when something struck like a sledge49 high up on my side, almost in the arm-pit; I told one of our men I was wounded and gave him the trophy, our horse-holders suddenly came forward, every man afoot rose into his saddle, and my horse wheeled and hurried rearward at a speed I strove in vain to check. Then the old messmate to whom I had said good-bye at this very hour just a week before, came and held me by the right arm, while I begged him like a drunk-and-disorderly to let me go and find Ned Ferry.
But he said Lieutenant Ferry was in a captured ambulance ahead of us and of our hundreds of prisoners, that a full creek50 and a burning bridge were between us and the foe, and that the fight was over.
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1
beguilingly
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2
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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6
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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7
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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8
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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9
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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10
bugle
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| n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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13
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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14
apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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15
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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18
pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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quails
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| 鹌鹑( quail的名词复数 )； 鹌鹑肉 | |
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21
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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22
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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23
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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24
bugles
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| 妙脆角，一种类似薯片但做成尖角或喇叭状的零食； 号角( bugle的名词复数 )； 喇叭； 匍匐筋骨草； （装饰女服用的）柱状玻璃（或塑料）小珠 | |
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25
tornado
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| n.飓风，龙卷风 | |
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26
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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27
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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28
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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29
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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30
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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31
quailing
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的现在分词 ) | |
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32
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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33
groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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34
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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35
smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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36
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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37
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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38
trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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39
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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40
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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41
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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42
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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43
reeking
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| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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44
throngs
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| n.人群( throng的名词复数 )v.成群，挤满( throng的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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46
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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47
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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48
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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49
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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50
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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