"But it's quite sure that we'll meet no enemy until we go through the gap.

Meanwhile we'll enjoy a saunter along the valley." But when they reached Front Royal a courier, riding hard, overtook them.
He demanded to be taken at once to the presence of General Sheridan, and then he presented a copy of a dispatch which read: To Lieutenant-General Early: Be ready to move as soon as my forces join you, and we will crush Sheridan.
Longstreet, Lieutenant-General.
Sheridan read the dispatch over and over again, and pondered it gravely.
The courier informed him that it was the copy of a signal made by the Confederate flags on Three Top Mountain, and deciphered by Union officers who had obtained the secret of the Confederate code.

General Wright, whom he had left in command, had sent it to him in all haste for what it was worth.
The young general not only pondered the message gravely, but he pondered it long.

Finally he called his chief officers around him and consulted with them.

If the grim and bearded Longstreet were really coming into the valley with a formidable force, then indeed it would be the dance of death.