Sentence:  The gunfire , which <WSD>was</WSD> so near that it seemed just a piece up the road now , stopped for long enough to count to twenty ; and in that brief interval , a redcoat officer came tearing down the road , whipping his horse fit to kill . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)