“Good heavens, Mrs. Mason! You! How did you come?”
“I was at Danville, not so far from here. Of course I knew that the armies were about to meet for battle! And it was only two days ago that I heard the Winchester regiment had come west to join General Buell's army.”
A stalwart and powerful colored woman emerged from the darkness and put her arm around Mrs. Mason's waist.
“Don't you get too much excited, chile,” she said soothingly.
Juliana stood beside her mistress, a very tower of defense, glaring at the soldiers about them as if she would resent their curiosity.
“I thought I would come and try to see Dick,” continued Mrs. Mason. “My relatives sought to persuade me not to do it. They were right, I know, but I wanted to come so badly that I had to do it. We slipped away yesterday, Juliana and I. We stayed at a farmhouse last night, and this morning we rode through the woods. We expected to be in the camp this afternoon, but as we were coming to the edge of the forest we heard the cannon and then the rifles. Through three or four dreadful hours, while we shook there in the woods, we listened to a roar and thunder that I would have thought impossible.”
“The battle was very fierce and terrible,” said Colonel Winchester.
“I don't think it could have been more so. We saw a part of it, but only a confused and awful sweep of smoke and flame. And now, Colonel Winchester, where is my boy, Dick?”
Colonel Winchester's face turned deadly pale, and she noticed it at once. Her own turned to the same pallor, but she did not shriek or faint.
“You do not know that he is killed?” she said in a low, distinct tone that was appalling to the other.