This battle so strange, in which faces were seen only for a
moment, and which was now without the sound of voices, continued
without a moment's cessation in the dark forest. The fury of the
combatants increased as the time went on, and neither side was
yet victorious. Closer and closer came the lines. Meanwhile
dark clouds were piling in a bank in the southwest. Slow thunder
rumbled far away, and the sky was cut at intervals by lightning.
But the combatants did not notice the heralds of storm. Their
attention was only for each other.
It seemed to Henry that emotions and impulses in him had
culminated. Before him were the worst of all their foes, and his
pitiless resolve was not relaxed a particle. The thunder and the
lightning, although he did not notice them, seemed to act upon
him as an incitement, and with low words he continually urged
those about him to push the battle.
Drops of rain fell, showing in the moonshine like beads of silver
on boughs and twigs, but by and by the smoke from the rifle fire,
pressed down by the heavy atmosphere, gathered among the trees,
and the moon was partly hidden. But file combat did not relax
because of the obscurity.
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