TiiK MAIN fj(;ht. 293 The favourit(_' ricl(i of the General, when lie lell oil a P. his place on Home Ridge, was into the thick oi' " the tumult inviting liim on the line of the Post- ^-uv/iorf. 1 -ix- !•• i> ^ • 1 General road. During these expeditions of his, he never PennefaUiei had near him in advance of Home Eidge so much as a single battalion with which to encounter great masses ; but always undaunted, always kindling with warlike animation, he was a very power in himself. To the eye any liorsemau approaching the Barrier in the then state of the atmosphere was a blank, unrecognised phantom, and not even that radiant, exulting countenance — an ideal almost for the lineaments of a soldier truly loving the fight — could now shine out through the dimness ; but for men who had ears to hear there was comfort and even a smile when the shadowy form of the rider brought with it the sound of a familiar voice, and the
- grand old boy's ' favourite oaths roaring cheer-
ily down through the smoke. Irrespectively of the value attaching to any orders he gave, the mere energy he exerted in battle was of such a kind as to mask his numerical weakness, and trouble the heart of a column groping up through the dimness in ignorance of what lay before it. He had partly apprehended that truth which the enterprises of Burnaby brought still more clearly to light, and had got to perceive that the colunni, if met at close quarters by even a very small band of resolute men, may prove, after all, to be only a fragile and sensitive piece of mechanism which — especially under dense mist — can be trifled with
