Chapter Xix.
THE youth stared at the land in front of him. Its foliages now seemed to veil powers and hor- rors. He was unaware of the machinery of orders that started the charge, although from the cor- ners of his eyes he saw an officer, who looked like a boy a-horseback, come galloping, waving his hat. Suddenly he felt a straining and heaving among the men. The line fell slowly forward like a toppling wall, and, with a convulsive gasp that was intended for a cheer, the regiment began its journey. The youth was pushed and jostled for a moment before he understood the move- ment at all, but directly he lunged ahead and began to run.

He fixed his eye upon a distant and promi- nent clump of trees where he had concluded the enemy were to be met, and he ran toward it as toward a goal. He had believed throughout that it was a mere question of getting over an unpleas- ant matter as quickly as possible, and he ran

179 desperately, as if pursued for a murder. His face was drawn hard and tight with the stress of his endeavor. His eyes were fixed in a lurid glare. And with his soiled and disordered dress, his red and inflamed features surmounted by the dingy rag with its spot of blood, his wildly swinging rifle and banging accouterments, he looked to be an insane soldier.