If now you should turn your head you would see a simultaneous movement
among the spectators a start, as if they had received an electric shock
- and looking forward again to the now distant horseman you would see
that he has in that instant altered his direction and is riding at an
angle to his former course. The spectators suppose the sudden deflection
to be caused by a shot, perhaps a wound; but take this field-glass and
you will observe that he is riding toward a break in the wall and hedge.
He means, if not killed, to ride through and overlook the country
beyond.
You are not to forget the nature of this man's act; it is not permitted
to you to think of it as an instance of bravado, nor, on the other hand,
a needless sacrifice of self. If the enemy has not retreated, he is in
force on that ridge. The investigator will encounter nothing less than a
line of battle; there is no need of pickets, videttes, skirmishers, to
give warning of our approach; our attacking lines will be visible,
conspicuous, exposed to an artillery fire that will shave the ground the
moment they break from cover, and for half the distance to a sheet of
rifle bullets in which nothing can live.
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