The world was dead silent; not even a bird showed in the whole firmament.
Lower and lower we went, till the end of the ridge was before us, a slope which melted into the river plains.

A single shaft of bright sunshine broke from the clouds behind us, and showed the tumbled country of low downs and shallow vales which stretched to the Tidewater border.

I had a momentary gleam of hope, as sudden and transient as that ray of light.

We were almost out of the hills, and, that accomplished, we were most likely free of the Indian forces that gathered there.

I had come to share the Rappahannock men's opinion about the Cherokees.