So I walked up and down with a sore heart, as a child will when it has
been punished for no fault, and prayed that we provincials might yet
teach the regulars a lesson. Yet they were brave men, most of them, whom
I could not but admire. A kindlier, gallanter roan than Sir Peter Halket
I had never seen, no, nor ever shall see. I noted the sentries pacing
their beats before the colonel's quarters, erect, automatons, their guns
a-glitter in the moonlight, their uniforms immaculate. I had seen them
drill the day before, whole companies moving like one man, their ranks
straight as a ramrod,--tramp, tramp,--turning as on a pivot moved by a
single will. It was a wonderful sight to me who had never seen the like
before, they were so strong, so confident, so seemingly invincible.

I turned and glanced again at the sentries, almost envying them their
perfect carriage. Had they been men of iron, worked by a spring, they
could not have moved with more clock-like regularity. And yet, no doubt,
they had one time been country louts like any others. Truly there was
much virtue in discipline. Yet still, and here I shook my head, the
Virginia troops were brave as any in the world, and would prove it. From
the officers' quarters came the sound of singing and much laughter, and I
flushed as I thought perchance it was at me they laughed. I have learned
long since that no man's laughter need disturb rue, so my heart be clear,
but this was wisdom far beyond my years and yet undreamed of, and I shook
my fist at the row of lighted windows.

"What, still fuming, Tom?" cried a voice at my elbow, and I turned to
find Colonel Washington there; "and staring over toward the barracks as
though you would like to gobble up every one within! Well, I admit you
have cause," he added, and I saw that his face grew stern. "You may have
to bear many such insults before the campaign is ended, but I hope and