So, I merely tell you that
you are fighting for a cause now lost. Perhaps it is pride on my part to
remind you that my early predictions have come true, and perhaps it is
a wish that the thought I may plant in your mind will spread to others.
You have lost at Gettysburg a hope and an offensive that you can never
regain, and Grant at Vicksburg has given a death blow to the Western half
of the Confederacy.
As for you, I wish you well.
WILLIAM J. SHEPARD.
Harry stared in amazement at this extraordinary communication, and read
it over two or three times. He was not surprised that Shepard should
be near, and that he should have been inside the Confederate lines, but
that he should leave a letter, and such a letter, for him was uncanny.
His first feeling, wonder, was succeeded by anger. Did Shepard really
think that he could influence him in such a way, that he could plant in
his mind a thought that would spread to others of his age and rank and
weaken the cause for which he fought? It was a singular idea, but
Shepard was a singular man.
But perhaps pride in recalling the prediction that he had made long ago
was Shepard's stronger motive, and Harry took fire at that also.
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