There was risk enough in the former course,--which his duty made imperative.

He hardly dared to think of the past day's slaughter, which--there was no doubt now--had been due to the previous work of the spy, and how his brigade had been selected--by the irony of Fate--to suffer for and yet retrieve it.

If she had had a hand in this wicked plot, ought he to spare her?
Or was his destiny and hers to be thus monstrously linked together?
Luckily, however, the expiation of the chief offender and the timely discovery of his papers enabled the division commander to keep the affair discreetly silent, and to enjoin equal secrecy on the part of Brant.

The latter, however, did not relax his vigilance, and after the advance the next day he made a minute inspection of the ground he was to occupy, its approaches and connections with the outlying country, and the rebel lines; increased the stringency of picket and sentry regulations, and exercised a rigid surveillance of non-combatants and civilians within the lines, even to the lowest canteener or camp follower.

Then he turned his attention to the house he was to occupy as his headquarters.
It was a fine specimen of the old colonial planter's house, with its broad veranda, its great detached offices and negro quarters, and had, thus far, escaped the ravages and billeting of the war.