When the crash of battle burst forth, on the morning of the nineteenth, the colonel hurried forth to form his regiment. He met his men rushing pell-mell to the rear, and he ran back to his headquarters to gather a few things that lay scattered about his room. Although the bullets were flying thick, frequently striking the house itself, he found the little nurse standing on the porch, exultation in every feature. The whizzing of the rifle-balls seemed sweet to her ears. Confederate bullets would not hurt her.
“Get out of my way,” said he, in a gruff voice. “This is no place for women.”
“Nor for men, either, you seem to think!”
He gave her a black look.
“Why this unseemly haste, colonel?” said she, following him into the hall. “What! through the back door? The Confederates are there!” And she stabbed the air in the direction of the coming bullets with a gesture that would have made the fortune of a tragedy queen.
“Take that, d——n you!” And he brought his open hand down upon her cheek with such force that, reeling through the open door of her room, she fell headlong upon the floor.
“Coward!” roared a voice from the threshold of the hall.
Rising to her knees and turning, she saw the colonel spring forward with a fierce glare in his eyes and a cocked pistol in his extended hand. She shut her eyes and stopped her ears.
Had he killed the Confederate? No, for she heard no fall; but the clear ring, instead, of a sabre drawn quickly from its scabbard. The colonel stepped across the threshold of the room in which she was, cocking his pistol for another shot. He raised the weapon,—but she heard a spring in the hall, and saw a flash of steel; and the colonel fell at full length upon the floor, with a sword-blade buried up to the hilt in his breast. With such terrific force had the thrust been delivered that he was knocked entirely off his feet, and the whole house shook.
“Δούπησεν δὲ πεσών, ἀράβησε δὲ τεύχε᾽ ἐπ᾽αὐτῷ,”[[1]] muttered the victor, as the young woman, springing to her feet, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.