“And here is an orderly with both your horses,” said St. Clair, “so, under the circumstances, we’ll sink our pride and let you ride with us.”

De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to his command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes beside the Invincibles.  Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and saluted them with warmth.

“We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry,” said Colonel Talbot, “but we did not know what had happened since.  There is always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army.”

“I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word ‘removal’ to describe our operations after our great victory at Gettysburg,” said Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire.  “I have been feeling about for the right word or phrase myself, but you have found it first.”

“Do you think it was a victory, sir?” asked Harry.

“Undoubtedly.  We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but this is the greatest of them all.  We have gone far into the enemy’s country, where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own choice—­ understand it is of our own choice—­we withdraw and challenge him to come and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can.  It is like a skilled and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly bids his foe come on.  Am I not right, Leonidas?”

“Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend.  Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface.  We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we chosen, but it was not alone a question of military might that General Lee had to decide.  He was bound to give weight to some very subtle considerations.  You boys remember your Roman history, do you not?”

“Fragments of it, sir,” replied Harry.

“Then you will recall that Hannibal, a fine general, to be named worthily with our great Lee so far as military movements are concerned, after famous victories over greatly superior numbers of Romans, went into camp at Capua, crowded with beauty, wine and games, and the soldiers became enervated.  Their fiber was weakened and their bodies softened.  They were quicker to heed the call to a banquet than the call to arms.”

“Unless it was the arms of beauty, Leonidas.”

“Well spoken, Hector.  The correction is most important, and I accept it.  But to take up again the main thread of my discourse.  General Lee undoubtedly had the example of the Carthaginian army and Capua in mind when he left Gettysburg and returned toward the South.  Philadelphia is a great city, far larger and richer than any in our section.  It is filled with magnificent houses, beautiful women, luxury of every description, ease and softness.  Our brave lads, crowned with mighty exploits and arriving there as conquerors, would have been received with immense admiration, although we are official enemies.  And the head of youth is easily turned.  The Army of Northern Virginia, emerging from Philadelphia, to achieve the conquest of New York and Boston would not be the army that it is to-day.  It would lack some of that fire and dash, some of the extraordinary courage and tenacity which have enabled it to surpass the deeds of the veterans of Hannibal and Napoleon.”