So he would delay and look at the letter that had come to him out of the
mysterious darkness.
The superscription was in a large, bold hand, and read:
LIEUTENANT HARRY KENTON,
STAFF OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A.,
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,
ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
He felt instinctively that something uncommon was coming, and, as most
people do when they are puzzled at the appearance of a letter, he looked
at it some seconds before opening it. Then he read:
MR. KENTON:
I have warned you twice before, once when Jefferson Davis was inaugurated
at Montgomery, and once again in Virginia. I told you that the South
could never win. I told you that she might achieve brilliant victories,
and she may achieve them even yet, but they will avail her nothing.
Victories permit her to maintain her position for the time being, but
they do not enable her to advance. A single defeat causes her to lose
ground that she can never regain.
I tell you this as a warning. Although your enemy, I have seen you more
than once and talked with you. I like you and would save your life if I
could. I would induce you, if I could, to leave the army and return to
your home, but that I know to be impossible.
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