"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.
"It--it must be Mr.Ruffin's house," she said in an awed voice.
"Oh, Phil! It _is_! Look! It's all on fire--it's--oh, see the flames on the roof! This is terrible--terrible--" She caught her breath.
"Phil! There's another house on fire! Do you see--do you _see_! It's Ailsa's house--Marye-mead! Oh, how could they set it on fire--how could they have the heart to burn that sweet old place!" "Is that Marye-mead ?" he asked.
"It _must_ be.