"Gentlemen of the jury, or fellow soldiers, I should say, hem!" he resumed, "it may be that some day I shall have the honor of leading you to battle. Then, fellow citizens, I hope, nay, I verily believe, that not one in this camp will be found skulking or hiding. [Cheering, and cries of, "No, no!"] May that day come that we may all prove to the world that we have a principle, and that we can defend it. [Cheers and cries of, "Let her come!"] Gentlemen, hem!--comrades, liberty is in the very air, and the citizens of the South breathe it, and now that the tyrants of the North have seen fit to loose the war dogs, not one of the swords of Columbia's true sons shall be returned untarnished to its sheath. [Long continued cheering.] While this voice has power to speak, and this tongue power of proclaiming the truth, the wrongs of the South shall be told. [Cheers and cries of "You bet."] And while this eye has the power of sight to aim the gun, and this arm strength to wield the sword, they shall be used wholly for the South." [Cheers and cries of "Hurrah for Diggs."] Some scamp propounded the long unanswered question, "Why didn't you wait till I had shown you?" but the orator is unmoved by this attempt at ridicule. "Gentlemen of the jury, or, rather, fellow comrades, when I think of all our wrongs, I long for the day to come, when we may meet the foe face to face. Yes, face to face, with bristling steel between, and canopies of smoke rolling above and mixing with the clouds of the heavens. Then shall they feel the arm of vengeance. Oh, ye boasters of the North," growing very loud and eloquent, while his right hand, with fingers all apart, cleft the air, "if you would know with whom you have to deal, come on! [Cheers and cheers of "Come on!"] Cowards, boasters, how I long to meet you where the canon roars--the glad thunders of war. [Cheering, and one young recruit trying to stand on his head.] I tell you that we can now say with the poet: "'Hark, hark, the trump of war awakes And vengeance from the vigil breaks, The dreadful cry of carnage sounds, It seems that hell's let loose her hounds.' "My brave comrades, remember Marion and Washington of old, and be like them, ready to lay down your life for your country. [Wild cheering.] I am ready to die in defense of the land that gave me--" Bang, bang, bang! went three muskets about two hundred yards up the creek. "Oh, Lordy!" yelled Corporal Diggs, and he performed a leap which a frog might have envied, alighting from the stump on his hands and knees on the ground. _Bang_, _bang_, CRASH! went half a hundred guns in the same direction, and the air seemed alive with whistling balls. "What is that?" cried Seth Williams. "To arms! We are attacked!" shouted Colonel Scrabble. "Run for your lives," cried the four pickets who now came in sight, setting the example.