Over and over they rolled, down the entire length of the hall. In their struggles they reached the landing at the head of the stairs, and the next violent turn sent them pitching down into the darkness.
[CHAPTER VIII.]
A GENERAL AMNESTY.
The two combatants, clasped tightly in each other’s arms, plunged into a party of teachers and cadets who were hastening upward in response to Brightly’s cry of “Fire!” In another moment Brede was secured; and when the fire, which had been confined to Brightly’s room, was extinguished, he was taken back to the guard-house, from which he had escaped by reason of a defective lock.
When they came to assist Brightly to his feet they found that he had fainted. They carried him to Mrs. Silsbee’s rooms, and after a little time he returned to consciousness. He was badly bruised, and his wrist and shoulder were sprained. Beyond that, he had sustained no bodily injury; but the shock to his nerves, already weak and disordered, had completely prostrated him. That night a fever came on, and the next day he was delirious.
When the boys marched into the schoolroom on the following evening, they all wore very sober faces. The events of the past twenty-four hours had been so dramatic, so tragic, that the impressions left by them on these young minds were little less than terrible. The lads were frightened, humbled, submissive; the rebellious spirit was utterly broken.
Colonel Silsbee saw this in their faces that night as he looked down on them from the desk; his sympathy grew strong for them, and he laid down his book and spoke to them.
“I had not thought,” he said, “to speak to you of the occurrences of the past few days until some later period, when the excitement attending them should have died out, and we could talk of them calmly and without prejudice; but the developments of the last twenty-four hours seem to make it fitting that something should be said to you to-night. I trust that the climax of the evil has been reached and passed. Indeed, I know on looking into your faces, that this is so. I cannot doubt that you realize that the painful events of the past three days have been the result of the folly of your own conduct. I speak to those of you who have been engaged in rebellion.”
He paused a moment and then proceeded: