At last he met Lee and the main body all in full retreat.

He rode straight at Lee, savage with anger, not pleasant to look at, one may guess, and asked fiercely and with a deep oath, tradition says, what it all meant.

Lee was no coward, and did not usually lack for words.

He was, too, a hardened man of the world, and, in the phrase of that day, impudent to boot.

But then and there he stammered and hesitated.