Sentence:  The gunfire , which was so near that it seemed just a piece up the road <WSD>now</WSD> , 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:  in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events