"It is right that you should come," he said a moment later, "but you will
see terrible things."
"I am ready."
She seemed all the more admirable and wonderful to Colonel Winchester,
because she did not weep or faint. The deathly pallor on her face
remained, but she held herself firmly erect beside the gigantic colored
woman.
"Come with me, Pennington," said Colonel Winchester, "and you, too,
Sergeant Whitley."
The two men and the boy led the way upon the field, and the two women
came close behind. They soon entered upon the area of conflict. The
colonel had said that it would be terrible, but Mrs. Mason scarcely
dreamed of the reality. It was one vast scene of frightful destruction,
of torn and trampled earth and of dead men lying in all directions.
The black of her faithful servant's face turned to an ashen gray, and she
trembled more than her mistress.
Colonel Winchester had a very clear idea of the line along which his
regiment had advanced and retreated, and he followed it. But the lantern
did not enable them to see far. As happened so often after the great
battles of the Civil War, the signs began to portend rain.
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