“I can not answer you,” I said dully.  “Nor do I know how, of such a business, a man may be shriven, or what should be his amends....  It all seems pitiful and sad to me—­ a matter perplexing, unhappy, and far beyond my solving....  I know it is the fashion of the times to regard such affairs lightly, making of them nothing....  Much I have heard, little learned, save that the old lessons seem to be the truest; the old laws the best.  And that our cynical and modern disregard of them make one’s salvation none the surer, one’s happiness none the safer.”

I heard Boyd sigh heavily, where he lay; but he said nothing more that I heard; for I slept soon afterward, and was awakened only at dawn.

Everywhere in the rocky pass the yawning riflemen were falling in and calling off; a detail of surly Jersey men, carrying ropes, passed us, cursing the artillery which, it appeared, was in a sorry plight again, the nine guns all stalled behind us, and an entire New Jersey brigade detailed to pull them out o’ the mud and over the rocks of the narrowing defile.

Boyd shared my breakfast, seeming to have recovered something of his old-time spirits.  And if the camp that night had gossiped concerning what took place at Tioga Fort, it seemed to make no difference to his friends, who one and all greeted him with the same fellowship and affection that he had ever inspired among fighting men.  No man, I think, was more beloved and admired in this Western army, by officers and men alike; for in him were naturally combined all those brilliant qualities of daring, fearlessness, and gaiety in the face of peril, which endear, and which men strive to emulate.  In no enterprise had he ever failed to perform the part allotted him; never had he faltered in the hundred battles fought by Morgan’s veteran corps; never had he seemed dismayed.  And if sometimes he did a little more than he was asked to do, his superior officers forgave this handsome, impetuous young man—­ the more readily, perhaps, because, so far, no disaster had befallen when he exceeded the orders given him.

My Indians had eaten, and were touching up their paint when Major Parr came up, wearing a magnificent new suit of fringed buckskins, and ordered us to guide the rifle battalion.  A moment later our conch-horn boomed out its thrilling and melodious warning.  Far in the rear I heard the drums and bugle-horns of the light infantry sounding the general.

As we went forward in the early daylight, the nature of the ambuscade prepared for us became very plain to me; and I pointed out to Major Parr where the unseen enemy rested, his right flank protected by the river, his left extending north along the hog-bank, so that his lines enveloped the trail on which we marched, threatening our entire army in a most cunning and evil manner.  Truly there was no fox like Butler in the Northland!

All was very still about us as we marched; the river mist hung along the woods; a few birds sang; the tops of the Indian corn rustled.