"You remember the position to which the four companies advanced as skirmishers?"
"Distinctly. We did very well to get away from it," said the Captain.
"And you remember the order to fall back?"
"Certainly, since I took the initiative."
"Well, I did not hear the order. I suppose that I fired at the very moment, and that the noise of my gun prevented my hearing it. At any rate, a few moments afterward I saw that I was alone, and retreated as skilfully as I knew how. The company was out of sight. I saw some signs of water, and soon found a branch, at a place which impressed me so strongly that for a moment I forgot even that the battle was going on. I am almost certain that I had quenched my thirst at that spot once before. Besides, there was an extraordinary--"
"Jones," interrupted the Captain, "you may have been in the first battle of Manassas. Why not? But if you saw the place in last year's battle, you came upon it from the east or the south. The positions of the armies the other day were almost opposite their positions last year. In sixty-one the Federals had almost our position of last Friday. It will be well to find out what South Carolina troops were in the first battle. By the way, General Bee, who was killed there, was from South Carolina; I will ask Aleck to tell us what regiments were in Bee's brigade."
"Captain," said I, "when I saw that spot I felt as though I had been there in some former life."
"Yes? I have had such feelings. More than once I have had a thought or have seen a face or a landscape that impressed me with such an idea."
"Do you believe in a succession of lives?"
"I cannot say that I do," he replied; "but your question surprises me, sir. May I ask if you remember reading of such subjects?"