At almost every town along the line of march we were joined by reinforcements; so, by the time we neared the border, we had an army strong enough to take a considerable fortress. However, as we did approach nigh unto Berwick, which place was the object of our attack, we learned that it should require all of our forces to subdue so formidable a stronghold. When within a few miles of this place, that hath been so many times the scene of struggle between our nation and our ever irritating neighbours of the North, and which, some score of years before, had been turned over unto our enemies, by that gentle and weak-minded King Henry VI, Duke Richard of Gloucester, on this, his second expedition unto this place--his first having miscarried--sent unto the garrison a messenger, under a flag of truce, to demand the surrender of Berwick, unto the army of its rightful owner. Whilst he was gone, the army went into camp; for although it was still early in the day, our leader had decided, in case the Scots did refuse to surrender--which, in all probability, would be their reply--that we were not to begin the attack until the morrow, in order that his army might have an opportunity to rest after their long, hard, march. Oh, such a delightful evening did follow that long and weary day of labour. We were among that magnificent border scenery, where nature doth seem so busy with her work of carving herself into most fantastic, and yet admirable, ruggedness. How, in the evening, doth she cast her beauteous, drooping, eye aslant across her work; and her gentle breath dies out in hushed and satisfied, yet modest, admiration. The setting sun did seem to paint a hill, then step a vale and touch another with its golden brush. Here may be seen many a place where nature's liquid emery hath ground the rocks asunder, and still some sparkling remnant goes trickling down the groove. On this evening Harleston and I did take our usual walk through the camp and, as the night was glorious, it did tempt us to stray further from headquarters than might be considered safe. In fact, past the outposts did we go, and sat us down upon a hill that had seemed bolder than its comrades, so that we might the better see the surrounding country. As we sat there, our backs were turned towards the camp, and our faces were tinted with the fading colors of the western sky. To right and left were hills and hollows of varying height and depth, but all having in common, shrubs and trees in unfailing irregularity, growing side by side, above and beneath each other, in the same disorder as had their seeds been flung there by the hand of the hurrying angel which did sow the whole of the earth's broad face. At our feet, and betwixt us and the sister to the hill on which we now were seated, was a smooth and undeceiving mirror, set, with bashful caution, between these obscuring hills, that nature's pardonable vanity might not with ease be gazed upon by the ignorant eye of man.