“What was I talking about—­you interrupted.  Oh, that march.  Well, we’d had a pretty rough time when the march back began.  For nine days we hadn’t had a real meal—­just eaten standing up, whatever we could get cooked—­or uncooked.  We hadn’t changed our clothes, and we’d slept on the ground every night.”

“Goodness!” I interjected with amateur vagueness.  “What about the horses?”

“Oh, they got it, too,” the General said carelessly.  “We seldom unsaddled them at all, and when we did it was just to give them a rub-down and saddle again.  We’d made one march toward home and halted, late at night, when General Stoneman called for his aide-de-camp.  I went to him, rather sleepy, and he told me he’d decided to communicate with his chief and report his success, and that I was to start at daylight and find the Army of the Potomac.  I had my pick of ten of the best men and horses from the brigade, and I got off at gray dawn with them, and with the written report in my boot to the commanding general, and verbal orders to find him wherever he might be.  Nothing else, except the tools—­swords and pistols, and that sort of thing.  Oh, yes, there was one thing more.  General Ladd, who was a Virginian, had given my chief a letter for his people, thinking we’d get into their country.  His family were all on the Confederate side of the fence, while he was a Union officer.  That was not uncommon in our civil war.  But we didn’t get near the Ladd estate, and so Stoneman commissioned me to return the letter to the general with the explanation.  Does this bore you?” he stopped suddenly to ask, and his alert eye shot the glance at me like a bullet.

“Stop once more and I’ll be likely to cry,” I predicted.

“For Heaven’s sake don’t do that.”  He reached across and took the poker.  “Here’s the Rapidan River,” he sketched down the rug.  “Runs east and west.  And this blue diagonal north of it is the Rappahannock.  I started south of the Rapidan, to cross it and go north, hoping to find our army victorious and south of the Rappahannock.  Which I didn’t—­but that’s farther along.  Well, we were off at daylight, ten men and the officer—­me.  It was a fine spring morning, and the bunch of horsemen made a pretty sight as the sun came up, moving through the greenness—­the foliage is well out down there in May.  The bits jingled and the saddles creaked under our legs—­I remember how it sounded as we started off.  We’d had a strenuous week, but we were a strong lot and ready for anything.  We were going to get it, too.”  The General chuckled suddenly, as if something had hit his funny-bone.  “I skirted along the south bank of the Rapidan, keeping off the roads most of the time, and out of sight, which was better for our health—­we were in Confederate country—­and we got to Germania Ford without seeing anybody, or being seen.  Said I, ‘Here’s the place we’ll cross.’  We’d had breakfast before starting, but we’d been in the saddle