“Inevitably.  Our general is as dangerous in retreat as in advance.  I fancy that General Meade will not bring up his lagging forces until we near the Potomac.”

“They say it’s rising, sir, and that it will be very hard to cross.”

“That creates a difficulty but not an impossibility.  Ordinary men yield to difficulties, men like our commander-in-chief are overcome only by impossibilities.  But the further we go, Harry, the more reconciled I grow to our withdrawal.  I have seen scarcely a friendly face among the population.  I would not have us thrust ourselves upon people who do not like us.  It would go very hard with our kindly Southern nature to have to rule by force over people who are in fact our brethren.  Defensive wars are the just wars, and perhaps it will be really better for us to retire to Virginia and protect its sacred soil from the tread of the invader.  Eh, Hector?”

“Right, as usual, Leonidas.  The reasons for our retirement are most excellent.  We have already spoken of the fact that Philadelphia might prove a Capua for our young troops, and now we are relieved from the chance of appearing as oppressors.  It can never be said of us by the people of Pennsylvania that we were tyrants.  It’s an invidious task to rule over the unwilling, even when one rules with justice and wisdom.  It’s strange, perhaps, Leonidas, but it’s a universal truth, that people would rather be ruled by themselves in a second rate manner than by the foreigner in a first rate manner.  Now, the government of our states is attacked by Northern critics, but such as it is, it is ours and it’s our first choice.  Do we bore you, Harry?”

“Not at all, sir.  I never listen to either you or Colonel Talbot without learning something.”

The two colonels bowed politely.

“I have wished for some time to speak to you about a certain matter, Hector,” said Colonel Talbot.

“What is it, Leonidas?”

“During the height of that tremendous artillery fire from Little Round Top I was at a spot where I could see the artillerymen very well whenever the smoke lifted.  Several times, I noticed an officer directing the fire of the guns, and I don’t think I could have been mistaken in his identity.”

“No, Leonidas, you were not.  I too observed him, and we could not possibly be mistaken.  It was John Carrington, of course.”

“Dear old John Carrington, who was with us at West Point, the greatest artilleryman in the world.  And he was facing us, when the fortunes of the South were turning on a hair.  If any other man had been there, directing those guns, we might have taken Cemetery Hill.”

“That’s true, Leonidas, but it was not possible for any other man to be in such a place at such a time.  Granting that such a crisis should arise and that it should arise at Gettysburg you and I would have known long before that John would be there with the guns to stop us.  Why, we saw that quality in him all the years we were with him at West Point.  The world has never seen and never will see another such artilleryman as John Carrington.”