De Langeais, with a cheerful farewell until the next day, returned to his
command, and Harry and Dalton, mounting, were in a few minutes beside
the Invincibles. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector
St. Hilaire turned their horses from the road into the path and saluted
them with warmth.

"We caught a glimpse of you just after our departure, Harry," said
Colonel Talbot, "but we did not know what had happened since. There is
always a certain amount of risk attending the removal of a great army."

"I am glad, Leonidas, that you used the word 'removal' to describe our
operations after our great victory at Gettysburg," said Lieutenant-
Colonel St. Hilaire. "I have been feeling about for the right word or
phrase myself, but you have found it first."

"Do you think it was a victory, sir?" asked Harry.

"Undoubtedly. We have won several vast and brilliant triumphs, but this
is the greatest of them all. We have gone far into the enemy's country,
where we have struck him a terrible blow, and now, of our own choice--
understand it is of our own choice--we withdraw and challenge him to come
and repeat on our own soil our exploit if he can. It is like a skilled
and daring prize fighter who leaps back and laughingly bids his foe come
on. Am I not right, Leonidas?"

"Neither Aristotle nor Plato was ever more right, Hector, old friend.
Usually there is more to a grave affair than appears upon the surface.
We could have gone on, after the battle, to Philadelphia, had we chosen,
but it was not alone a question of military might that General Lee had to