"Stay here with her," was the prompt reply. There will be disciplined troops here in a few minutes."
"Yes, and a battle."
"As soon as Chambers gets up in force I can pass her back to the rear."
That seemed the safer plan to me, and I had no time to argue.
"All right, you and Bell are free to do as you please. Get your men out the same window you came in, Sergeant; I'll go last. Keep down behind the fence, and make for the ravine."
He flung open the door into the parlor, and we crowded after him, but were still jammed in the doorway when he sprang back from the open window with hands flung up.
"By God, sir, here come our men!"
They came like so many monkeys, leaping the balcony rail, plunging headlong through the opening, and crowding into the room. It was like a dream, a delirium, yet I could see the blue uniforms, the new faces. In the very forefront, flung against me by the rush, I distinguished the lad I had sent back into the lines the night before.
"What does all this mean, Ross? Who are these fellows?"
"Our men, sir," he panted, scarcely able to speak. "Here--read this," and he thrust a paper into my hand. My eyes took the words in a flash, and yet for the instant they were vague, meaningless. It was only as I read them a second time that I understood, and then I gazed helplessly into the faces about me, striving to grasp the full situation.