Fortune
seemed to have made him a favorite again, but he knew that dangers were
still as thick around him as leaves in Vallombrosa.
He tied his horse, climbed a tree, and used his glasses. Two miles to
the west the bright sun flashed on long lines of mounted men, obviously
the horsemen of Pleasanton. How was he to get through that cavalry
screen and reach Lee? He did not see a way, but he knew that to find,
one must seek. His desire to get through, intense as it always had been,
was now doubled. He not only carried the news to Lee about the possible
ford, but he also bore Meade's dispatch to Pleasanton, directing a
movement which, if successful, must be most dangerous to the Army of
Northern Virginia.
He descended the tree and waited a while in the forest. He found a
spring at which he drank, and he filled the canteen. It was a precious
canteen with the name of John Haskell engraved upon it, and he meant that
it should carry him through all dangers into his camp. But he did not
mean to use it yet. If he rode into Pleasanton's ranks they would merely
take his letter to the general, and that would be the failure of his real
mission.
Night was now not far distant, and, concluding that he had a much better
chance to run the gantlet under its cover, he still waited in the wood
until the twilight came.
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