I looked with all my eyes. My vision was limited to a narrow latitude. I could see tents, their numbers increasing as perspective broadened the view. I could see many men passing to and fro.
"You see a little of it," said he; "the lines extend for miles."
I did not laugh. My hands for the first time went up to my face; I wanted to hide my eyes from a mental flash too dazzling and too false; at once my hands fell back.
I had found a beard on my face, where there had been none before.
XXI
ONE MORE CONFEDERATE
"Thy mind and body are alike unfit
To trust each other, for some hours, at least;
When thou art better, I will be thy guide--
But whither?"--BYRON.
I awoke from an uneasy sleep, superinduced, I thought, by the surgeon's repeated potions. My head was light and giddy, but the pain had almost gone. My stomach was craving food.
It was night. Candles were burning on a low table in the middle of the tent. The pallets, other than mine, had disappeared; my dream had changed; the tent seemed larger.