WAR PICTURES IN TIME OF PEACE. 37 



ing a strong position on the line of hills in front of that town, 

 where we in turn were attacked. This time, however, we had 

 the pleasure of not only repulsing our antagonists, but of pursu- 

 ing them, and taking possession of their lines of the day before, 

 they retreating across the railway, and making a retrograde 

 movement towards the north of their former position. Here 

 we again took the offensive, and again they retreated, but 

 checked us once more a day or two afterwards. 



As I had not been able to find accommodations in the little 

 hamlets occupied by my friends, I took leave of them for the 

 nonce one evening, and took up my quarters in a more impor- 

 tant town within the lines of the opposing forces, where I passed 

 the night. Bright and early the next morning I was up and 

 ready for my modest share of the day's work. Although it was 

 but a few minutes after five o'clock when I passed into the 

 village street, not a soldier was to be seen, nor was there the 

 slightest indication that, when I went to bed the night before, 

 there had been three or four thousand infantry and half a regi- 

 ment of artillery in the town. One early riser, a peasant, of 

 whom I inquired, informed me that the troops had left before 

 sunrise, almost without a sound, and had gone up the highway 

 back of the town, where, after a few minutes' walk, and with 

 the aid of my glass, I discovered their line, their force greatly 

 strengthened by the arrival of numerous other detachments 

 from the adjacent villages, extended for some distance on some 

 hills that ran nearly due east and west of the road. They 

 were strongly posted, their infantry occupying two villages and 

 all the outlying farms, and their artillery massed on their right 

 and left. With my glass I could distinctly make out their 

 guns in battery and the white shakos of their advanced cavalry 

 pickets. 



Knowing my friends would soon be on the move, I walked 



