Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-11-27

! IN rough voice: LII yO~f oy''i
ye staring fools; don't you see them ar
ititlery-naen; avhy don't ye knoek them
on their haads2' 1
'Only then they fired-mlssed, and
Jumped behind the bank as if they were
! haunted.
/ sIneither was able to follow them
(nor 10 lift my rife, and if the enemy,n-
stead of being at seventy, had been st
seven PAGES from me, ] should have
not been able to DO it. The voice OF
The man had caused me such horrible
shudders With my eyes fixed upon
1.-THE vision, stood there as if the tomb
Of some one had murdered were
yawning before me, and the vision OF
my crime rising out Off, and coming up
TO me with his bleeding wound. My
blood was chilled inmy veins! | still
did not know who he was; his features
were obsurely floating before my mag
nation, but could not recognize him.
had somewhere seen these features,
heard this voice, and in circumstances
which, as now, had chilled my blood.
was fully conscious of having shud-
dered before at his sight, as | was
| shuddering now; that he had chilled
the blood of my heart, and moved me
Ito my Utmost being; but where and
when could not find out. The balls
of the enemy were falling like hail a
round me; continued standing there
like statue, until at last one of my
men came up, and pulled me down by
my arm.
sThere-no longer under the irfia-
ence ofthat dreadful reighbor, recov-
cred myself; and yet could not help
sending my timid looks towards the
! vision; and strange! with each look |
felt kind of desire-of wish, to see
the man fall.
'The artillery-men had turned the
cannon towards us, while we were yet
standing in the prairie; but before they
were able to fire it we had jumped
down the bank, and he had shot the
the third artillery man. The two re-
naming ones, to rid themselves Of
their dreadful enemy, fred the piece at
him. But neither their canister, nor
the musket-b balls of the infantry, which
had now approached TO within less than
! fifty PAGES, could hit him. With the
! most perfect nnconcern he reloaded his
rifle, shot down the fourth, and, final
ly, the last man, and growled down to
US: 'D-n ye, for logging felloacs! 'chy
don't ye take that ere big gun2'
But for all the treasures in the world
none of us would now have assembled
the bank. We had all loaded our
guns, but stood there like statues, sta
ring at him-at each other-question-
ing, as it were, whether he was HUI
man being, an inhabitant of this world,
or rather a prairie goblin who was hum
! ting lis.
But as he was thus standing alone
in the prairie, with his weather-beaten
features, his inch-long beard falling
like long moss around his neck, the
target at which hundreds Of balls were
fred, he resembled so completely one
ofthe numberIess COLLINS with which
the Spanish Catholic superstition so
richly endows the praires, that even at
this moment, in calling him back be-
fore my eyes, | cannot help doubling
but that all was not right about him
He really less resembIed an inhabitant
of the world, than an ugly forest or
prairie spectre; and as such one, he
| very nearly brought great mishap up.
on us.
Our small numbeg-tbe shots which
we had missed in our terror-but, e.
bove all, the apparent fear with which
we retreated behind the bank, encour-
aged the enemy beyond our expecta-
tons. The company placed at some
distance in the rear of the cannon was
ordered to advance at full speed, and
to keep up violent fire against our hi
ding place. Already body Of their
men was wheeling 10 cut US off from
our companions, while we continued
standing there as if we were paralyzsd,
when, before it was too late, Tanning
appeared with thirty Of our rlhemen.-
This night made us recover our con-
seriousness; joyful hurrah was heard,
and at the same time our men were on
the bank, but without joining Tanning
whether from sense of shame or
Ior the new coutage that was aroused
within them, / do not know. They
marched TO within twenty PAGES of the
enemy, took their aim, and shota do
zen men with tranquility and sang
troid SO desperate, hat the company,
terrified. FIRST hcsitated, but soon throw