Farther away on the dark highway he could hear the swift gallop of cavalry and the thudding clank of light batteries, all passing in perfect darkness.  Then, leaning closer to the sill, he gazed between the curtains far into the southwest; and saw the tall curve of Confederate shells traced in whirling fire far down the river, the awful glare of light as the enormous guns on the Union warships replied.

Celia, her lovely hair over her shoulders, a scarf covering her night-dress, came in carrying a lighted candle; and instantly a voice from outside the window bade her extinguish the light or draw the curtain.

She looked at Berkley in a startled manner, blew out the flame, and came around between his bed and the window, drawing the curtains entirely aside.

“General Claymore’s staff has filled eve’y room in the house except yours and mine,” she said in her gentle, bewildered way.  “There’s a regiment—­Curt’s Zouaves—­encamped befo’ the west quarters, and a battery across the drive, and all the garden is full of their horses and caissons.”

“Poor little Celia,” he said, reaching out to touch her hand, and drawing her to the bed’s edge, where she sat down helplessly.

“The Yankee officers are all over the house,” she repeated.  “They’re up in the cupola with night-glasses now.  They are ve’y polite.  Curt took off his riding boots and went to sleep on my bed—­and oh he is so dirty!—­my darling Curt’ my own husband!—­too dirty to touch!  I could cry just to look at his uniform, all black and stained and the gold entirely gone from one sleeve!  And Stephen!—­oh, Phil, some mise’ble barber has shaved the heads of all the Zouaves, and Steve is perfectly disfigured!—­the poor, dear boy”—­she laughed hysterically—­“he had a hot bath and I’ve been mending the rags that he and Curt call unifo’ms—­and I found clean flannels fo’ them both in the attic——­”

“What does all this mean—­all this camping outside?” he interrupted gently.

“Curt doesn’t know.  The camps and hospitals west of us have been shelled, and all the river roads are packed full of ambulances and stretchers going east.”

“Where is my regiment?”

“The Lancers rode away yesterday with General Stoneman—­all except haidqua’ters and one squadron—­yours, I think—­and they are acting escort to General Sykes at the overseers house beyond the oak grove.  Your colonel is on his staff, I believe.”

He lay silent, watching the burning fuses of the shells as they soared up into the night, whirling like fiery planets on their axes, higher, higher, mounting through majestic altitudes to the pallid stars, then, curving, falling faster, faster, till their swift downward glare split the darkness into broad sheets of light.

“Phil,” she whispered, “I think there is a house on fire across the river!”

Far away in the darkness rows of tiny windows in an unseen mansion had suddenly become brilliantly visible.