“What is it, general?”
“Put that man out. He is disturbing me. How dared you let him in?”
“How in the dickens did he get in? Mercy me, it is the mad wizard! Come along here, old man; you are not wanted here.”
“Of course I ain’t. Misfortune ain’t wanted anywhere; but you have to take what the Lord sends, don’t you? I have taken the trouble to come here and I am going to stay with you—my spirit if not my body. I was with Beauregard at Shiloh, with Pemberton at Vicksburg, with Bragg at Chattanooga and—you know the result. I am sorry for you, General Johnston, for you are worthy of a better cause than which has led you into the field, but defeat is as sure to be your portion as night is to follow day. Adieu.”
As silently as a shadow he passed out, the spectators unable to throw off the spell which he had thrown over them by his burning words and wild manner.
When they did recover their self-possession enough to look for him he was gone as silently and mysteriously as he had appeared.
Though no one may have believed his words they were never forgotten; and later on they were recalled with a startling distinctness.
CHAPTER XII.
WARLIKE SCENES.
Fortunately for Mara Morland she had passed the pickets before the discovery of Cavalry Curt’s escape.
We doubt if she would have succeeded in doing so then.