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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Horse-Shoe Robinson
+       A Tale of the Tory Ascendency
+
+
+Author: John Pendleton Kennedy
+
+
+
+Release Date: August 21, 2010  [eBook #33478]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mary Meehan and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/horseshoerobinso00kennrich
+
+
+
+
+
+HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON.
+
+A Tale of the Tory Ascendency.
+
+by
+
+JOHN P. KENNEDY
+
+Author of "Swallow Barn," "Rob of the Bowl," Etc.
+
+
+"I say the tale as 't was said to me."--Lay of the Last Minstrel
+
+
+Revised Edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+182 Fifth Avenue
+1876
+
+Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1852, by
+George P. Putnam,
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
+of New York.
+
+
+
+
+To WASHINGTON IRVING, Esq.
+
+DEAR IRVING:--
+
+With some little misgiving upon the score of having wasted time and
+paper both, which might have been better employed, I feel a real
+consolation in turning to you, as having, by your success, furnished our
+idle craft an argument to justify our vocation.
+
+You have convinced our wise ones at home that a man may sometimes write
+a volume without losing his character--and have shown to the incredulous
+abroad, that an American book may be richly worth the reading.
+
+In grateful acknowledgment of these services, as well as to indulge the
+expression of a sincere private regard, I have ventured to inscribe your
+name upon the front of the imperfect work which is now submitted to the
+public.
+
+Very truly, yours, &c.,
+JOHN P. KENNEDY.
+BALTIMORE, _May 1, 1885_.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In the winter of eighteen hundred and eighteen-nineteen, I had occasion
+to visit the western section of South Carolina. The public conveyances
+had taken me to Augusta, in Georgia. There I purchased a horse, a most
+trusty companion, with whom I had many pleasant experiences: a sorrel,
+yet retained by me in admiring memory. A valise strapped behind my
+saddle, with a great coat spread upon that, furnished all that I
+required of personal accommodation. My blood beat temperately with the
+pulse of youth and health. I breathed the most delicious air in the
+world. My travel tended to the region of the most beautiful scenery. The
+weather of early January was as balmy as October; a light warm haze
+mellowed the atmosphere, and cast the softest and richest hues over the
+landscape. I retraced my steps from Augusta to Edgefield, which I had
+passed in the stage coach. From Edgefield I went to Abbeville, and
+thence to Pendleton. I was now in the old district of Ninety Six, just
+at the foot of the mountains. My course was still westward. I journeyed
+alone, or rather, I ought to say, in good company, for my horse and I
+had established a confidential friendship, and we amused ourselves with
+a great deal of pleasant conversation--in our way. Besides, my fancy was
+busy, and made the wayside quite populous--with people of its own: there
+were but few of any other kind.
+
+In the course of my journey I met an incident, which I have preserved in
+my journal. The reader of the tale which occupies this volume has some
+interest in it.
+
+"Upon a day," as the old ballads have it, one of the best days of this
+exquisite climate, my road threaded the defiles of some of the grandest
+mountains of the country. Huge ramparts of rock toppled over my path,
+and little streams leaped, in beautiful cascades, from ledge to ledge,
+and brawled along the channels, which often supplied the only footway
+for my horse, and, gliding through tangled screens of rhododendron,
+laurel, arbor vitæ, and other evergreens, plunged into rivers, whose
+waters exceed anything I had ever conceived of limpid purity. It may be
+poetical to talk of liquid crystal, but no crystal has the absolute
+perfection of the transparency of these streams. The more distant
+mountain sides, where the opening valley offered them to my view, were
+fortified with stupendous walls, or banks of solid and unbroken rock,
+rising in successive benches one above another, with masses of dark pine
+between; the highest forming a crest to the mountain, cutting the sky in
+sharp profile, with images of castellated towers, battlements, and
+buttresses, around whose summits the inhabiting buzzard, with broad
+extended wings, floated and rocked in air and swept in majestic circles.
+
+The few inhabitants of this region were principally the tenants of the
+bounty lands, which the State of South Carolina had conferred upon the
+soldiers of the Revolution; and their settlements, made upon the rich
+bottoms of the river valleys, were separated from each other by large
+tracts of forest.
+
+I had much perplexity in some portions of this day's journey in finding
+my way through the almost pathless forest which lay between two of these
+settlements. That of which I was in quest was situated upon the Seneca,
+a tributary of the Savanna river, here called Tooloolee. It was near
+sundown, when I emerged from the wilderness upon a wagon road, very
+uncertain of my whereabout, and entertaining some rather anxious
+misgivings as to my portion for the night.
+
+I had seen no one for the last five or six hours, and upon falling into
+the road I did not know whether I was to take the right or the left
+hand--a very material problem for my solution just then.
+
+During this suspense, a lad, apparently not above ten years of age,
+mounted bare back on a fine horse, suddenly emerged from the wood about
+fifty paces ahead of me, and galloped along the road in the same
+direction that I had myself resolved to take. I quickened my speed to
+overtake him, but from the rapidity of his movement, I found myself, at
+the end of a mile, not as near him as I was at the beginning. Some open
+country in front, however, showed me that I was approaching a
+settlement. Almost at the moment of making this discovery, I observed
+that the lad was lying on the ground by the road-side. I hastened to
+him, dismounted, and found him sadly in want of assistance. His horse
+had run off with him, thrown him, and dislocated, as it afterwards
+appeared, his shoulder-joint.
+
+Whilst I was busy in rendering such aid as I could afford, I was joined
+by a gentleman of venerable aspect, the father of the youth, who came
+from a dwelling-house near at hand, which, in the engrossment of my
+occupation, I had not observed. We lifted the boy in our arms and bore
+him into the house.
+
+I was now in comfortable quarters for the night. The gentleman was
+Colonel T----, as I was made aware by his introduction, and the kindly
+welcome he offered me, and I very soon found myself established upon the
+footing of a favored guest. The boy was laid upon a bed in the room
+where we sat, suffering great pain, and in want of immediate attention.
+I entered into the family consultation on the case. Never have I
+regretted the want of an acquisition, as I then regretted that I had no
+skill in surgery. I was utterly incompetent to make a suggestion worth
+considering. The mother of the family happened to be absent that night;
+and, next to the physician, the mother is the best adviser. There was an
+elder son, about my own age, who was playing a fiddle when we came in;
+and there was a sister younger than he, and brothers and sisters still
+younger. But we were all alike incapable. The poor boy's case might be
+critical, and the nearest physician, Dr. Anderson, resided at Pendleton,
+thirty miles off. This is one of the conditions of frontier settlement
+which is not always thought of.
+
+In the difficulty of the juncture, a thought occurred to Colonel T.,
+which was immediately made available. "I think I will send for
+Horse-Shoe Robinson," he said, with a manifest lighting up of the
+countenance, as if he had hit upon a happy expedient. "Get a horse, my
+son," he continued, addressing one of the boys, "and ride over to the
+old man, and tell him what has happened to your brother; and say, he
+will oblige me if he will come here directly." At the same time, a
+servant was ordered to ride to Pendleton, and to bring over Dr.
+Anderson.
+
+In the absence of the first messenger the lad grew easier, and it became
+apparent that his hurt was not likely to turn out seriously. Colonel T.,
+assured by this, drew his chair up to the fire beside me, and with many
+expressions of friendly interest inquired into the course of my journey,
+and into the numberless matters that may be supposed to interest a
+frontier settler in his intercourse with one just from the world of busy
+life. It happened that I knew an old friend of his, General -----, a
+gentleman highly distinguished in professional and political service, to
+whose youth Colonel T. had been a most timely patron. This circumstance
+created a new pledge in my favor, and, I believe, influenced the old
+gentleman in a final resolve to send that night for his wife, who was
+some seven or eight miles off, and whom he had been disinclined to put
+to the discomfort of such a journey in the dark, ever since it was
+ascertained that the boy's case was not dangerous. I am pretty sure this
+influenced him, as I heard him privately instructing a servant to go for
+the lady, and to tell her that the boy's injury was not very severe,
+and "that there was a gentleman there who was well acquainted with
+General ----." I observed, hanging in a little black frame over the
+fire-place, a miniature engraved portrait of the general, which was the
+only specimen of the fine arts in the house--perhaps in the settlement.
+It was my recognition of this likeness that led, I fear, to the weary
+night ride of the good lady.
+
+In less than an hour the broad light of the hearth--for the apartment
+was only lit up by blazing pine faggots, which, from time to time, were
+thrown upon the fire--fell upon a goodly figure. There was first a sound
+of hoofs coming through the dark--a halt at the door--a full, round,
+clear voice heard on the porch--and then the entrance into the apartment
+of a woodland hero. That fine rich voice again, in salutation, so gentle
+and so manly! This was our expected counsellor, Horse-Shoe Robinson.
+What a man I saw! With near seventy years upon his poll, time seemed to
+have broken its billows over his front only as the ocean breaks over a
+rock. There he stood--tall, broad, brawny, and erect. The sharp light
+gilded his massive frame and weather-beaten face with a pictorial effect
+that would have rejoiced an artist. His homely dress, his free stride,
+as he advanced to the fire; his face radiant with kindness; the natural
+gracefulness of his motion; all afforded a ready index to his character.
+Horse Shoe, it was evident, was a man to confide in.
+
+"I hear your boy's got flung from his horse, Colonel," he said, as he
+advanced to the bed-side. "Do you think he is much hurt?" "Not so badly
+as we thought at first, Mr. Robinson," was the reply. "I am much obliged
+to you for coming over to-night. It is a great comfort to have your
+advice in such times."
+
+"These little shavers are so venturesome--with horses in particular,"
+said the visitor; "it's Providence, Colonel, takes care of 'em. Let me
+look at you, my son," he continued, as he removed the bed-clothes, and
+began to handle the shoulder of the boy. "He's got it out of joint," he
+added, after a moment. "Get me a basin of hot water and a cloth,
+Colonel. I think I can soon set matters right."
+
+It was not long before the water was placed beside him, and Robinson
+went to work with the earnestness of a practised surgeon. After applying
+wet cloths for some time to the injured part, he took the shoulder in
+his broad hand, and with a sudden movement, which was followed by a
+shriek from the boy, he brought the dislocated bone into its proper
+position. "It doesn't hurt," he said, laughingly; "you are only
+pretending. How do you feel now?"
+
+The patient smiled, as he replied, "Well enough now; but I reckon you
+was joking if you said that it didn't hurt."
+
+Horse Shoe came to the fire-side, and took a chair, saying, "I larnt
+that, Colonel, in the campaigns. A man picks up some good everywhere, if
+he's a mind to; that's my observation."
+
+This case being disposed of, Horse Shoe determined to remain all night
+with the family. We had supper, and, after that, formed a little party
+around the hearth. Colonel T. took occasion to tell me something about
+Horse Shoe; and the Colonel's eldest son gave me my cue, by which he
+intimated I might draw out the old soldier to relate some stories of the
+war.
+
+"Ask him," said the young man, "how he got away from Charleston after
+the surrender; and then get him to tell you how he took the five
+Scotchmen prisoners."
+
+We were all in good humor. The boy was quite easy, and everything was
+going on well, and we had determined to sit up until Mrs. T. should
+arrive, which could not be before midnight. Horse Shoe was very
+obliging, and as I expressed a great interest in his adventures, he
+yielded himself to my leading, and I got out of him a rich stock of
+adventure, of which his life was full. The two famous passages to which
+I had been asked to question him--the escape from Charleston, and the
+capture of the Scotch soldiers--the reader will find preserved in the
+narrative upon which he is about to enter, almost in the very words of
+my anthology. I have--perhaps with too much scruple--retained Horse
+Shoe's peculiar vocabulary and rustic, doric form of speech--holding
+these as somewhat necessary exponents of his character. A more truthful
+man than he, I am convinced, did not survive the war to tell its story.
+Truth was the predominant expression of his face and gesture--the truth
+that belongs to natural and unconscious bravery, united with a frank and
+modest spirit. He seemed to set no especial value upon his own exploits,
+but to relate them as items of personal history, with as little comment
+or emphasis as if they concerned any one more than himself.
+
+It was long after midnight before our party broke up; and when I got to
+my bed it was to dream of Horse Shoe and his adventures. I made a record
+of what he told me, whilst the memory of it was still fresh, and often
+afterwards reverted to it, when accident or intentional research brought
+into my view events connected with the times and scenes to which his
+story had reference.
+
+The reader will thus see how I came into possession of the leading
+incidents upon which this "Tale of the Tory Ascendency" in South
+Carolina is founded.
+
+It was first published in 1835. Horse-Shoe Robinson was then a very old
+man. He had removed into Alabama, and lived, I am told, upon the banks
+of the Tuskaloosa. I commissioned a friend to send him a copy of the
+book. The report brought me was, that the old man had listened very
+attentively to the reading of it, and took great interest in it.
+
+"What do you say to all this?" was the question addressed to him, after
+the reading was finished. His reply is a voucher which I desire to
+preserve: "It is all true and right--in its right place--excepting about
+them women, which I disremember. That mought be true, too; but my memory
+is treacherous--I disremember."
+
+_April 12, 1852._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
+
+
+The events narrated in the following pages, came to my knowledge in the
+progress of my researches into the personal history of some of the
+characters who figure in the story. I thought them worth being embodied
+into a regular narrative, for two reasons:--
+
+First, because they intrinsically possess an interest that may amuse the
+lovers of adventure, and,
+
+Second, because they serve to illustrate the temper and character of the
+War of our Revolution.
+
+As yet, only the political and documentary history of that war has been
+written. Its romantic or picturesque features have been left for that
+industrious tribe of chroniclers, of which I hold myself to be an
+unworthy member, and who have of late, as the public is aware, set about
+the business in good earnest. It shall go hard with us if we do not soon
+bring to light every remnant of tradition that the war has left!
+
+An opinion has heretofore prevailed that the Revolution was too recent
+an affair for our story-telling craft to lay hands upon it. But this
+objection, ever since the fiftieth anniversary, has been nullified by
+common consent,--that being deemed the fair poetical limit which
+converts tradition into truth, and takes away all right of
+contradiction from a surviving actor in the scene. The pension roll is
+manifestly growing thinner, and the widows--married young after the
+peace--make a decided majority on the list. These are the second-hand
+retailers of the marvels of the war; and it is observed that, like wine
+which has descended to the heir, the events have lost none of their
+flavor or value by the transmission. This is all so much clear gain to
+our fraternity; and it is obvious, therefore, that we must thrive.
+
+My reader will perceive that I have been scrupulous to preserve the
+utmost historical accuracy in my narrative: and I hope, when he has
+finished the perusal, that he may find reason to award me the
+commendation of having afforded him some pleasure, by the sketch I have
+attempted of the condition of things in the south during the very
+interesting period of the "Tory Ascendency."
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+_May 1, 1835._
+
+
+
+
+
+HORSE SHOE ROBINSON.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A TOPOGRAPHICAL DISCOURSE.
+
+
+The belt of mountains which traverses the state of Virginia diagonally,
+from north-east to south-west, it will be seen by an inspection of the
+map, is composed of a series of parallel ranges, presenting a
+conformation somewhat similar to that which may be observed in miniature
+on the sea-beach, amongst the minute lines of sand hillocks left by the
+retreating tide. This belt may be said to commence with the Blue Ridge,
+or more accurately speaking, with that inferior chain of highlands that
+runs parallel to this mountain almost immediately along its eastern
+base. From this region westward the highlands increase in elevation, the
+valleys become narrower, steeper and cooler, and the landscape
+progressively assumes the wilder features which belong to what is
+distinctly meant by "the mountain country."
+
+The loftiest heights in this series are found in the Alleghany, nearly
+one hundred and fifty miles westward from the first thread of the belt;
+and as the principal rivers which flow towards the Chesapeake find their
+sources in this overtopping line of mountain, it may be imagined that
+many scenes of surpassing beauty exist in those abrupt solitudes where
+the rivers have had to contend with the sturdy hills that nature had
+thrown across their passage to the sea.
+
+The multiplication of the facilities of travel which the spirit of
+improvement has, of late years, afforded to this region; the
+healthfulness, or,--to use a term more germain to its excellence,--the
+voluptuousness of the climate, and the extraordinary abundance of waters
+of the rarest virtue, both for bathing and drinking, have all
+contributed, very recently, to render the mountains of Virginia
+notorious and popular amongst that daintily observant crowd of
+well-conditioned people who yearly migrate in quest of health, or of a
+refuge from the heats of summer, or who, perchance, wander in pursuit of
+those associations of hill and dale which are supposed to repair a jaded
+imagination, and to render it romantic and fruitful.
+
+The traveller of either of these descriptions, who holds his journey
+westward, will find himself impelled to halt at Charlottesville, as a
+pleasant resting-place in the lap of the first mountains, where he may
+stop to reinforce his strength for the prosecution of the rugged task
+that awaits him. His delay here will not be unprofitable. This neat
+little village is not less recommended to notice by its position in the
+midst of a cultivated and plentiful country, than by its contiguity to
+the seats of three Presidents of the Union; and, especially, by its
+immediate proximity to Monticello, whose burnished dome twinkles through
+the crown of forest that adorns the very apex of its mountain pyramid,
+and which, as it has now grown to be the Mecca of many a pilgrim, will
+of itself furnish a sufficient inducement for our traveller's tarrying.
+An equal attraction will be found in the University of Virginia, which,
+at the distance of one mile, in the opposite direction from that leading
+to Monticello, rears its gorgeous and fantastic piles of massive and
+motley architecture--a lively and faithful symbol (I speak it
+reverently) of the ambitious, parti-colored and gallican taste of its
+illustrious founder.
+
+From Charlottesville, proceeding southwardly, in the direction of Nelson
+and Amherst, the road lies generally over an undulating country, formed
+by the succession of hills constituting the subordinate chain of
+mountains which I have described as first in the belt. These hills
+derive a beautiful feature from the manner in which they are
+commanded,--to use a military phrase,--by the Blue Ridge, which, for the
+whole distance, rests against the western horizon, and heaves up its
+frequent pinnacles amongst the clouds, clothed in all the variegated
+tints that belong to the scale of vision, from the sombre green and
+purple of the nearer masses, to the light and almost indistinguishable
+azure of its remotest summits.
+
+The constant interruption of some gushing rivulet, which hurries from
+the neighboring mountain into the close vales that intercept the road,
+communicates a trait of peculiar interest to this journey, affording
+that pleasant surprise of new and unexpected scenery, which, more than
+any other concomitant of travel, wards off the sense of fatigue. These
+streams have worn deep channels through the hills, and constantly seem
+to solicit the road into narrow passes and romantic dells, where fearful
+crags are seen toppling over the head of the traveller, and sparkling
+waters tinkle at his feet; and where the richest and rarest trees of the
+forest seem to have chosen their several stations, on mossy bank or
+cloven rock, in obedience to some master mind intent upon the most
+tasteful and striking combination of these natural elements.
+
+A part of the country embraced in this description, has obtained the
+local designation of the South Garden, perhaps from its succession of
+fertile fields and fragrant meadows, which are shut in by the walls of
+mountain on either hand; whilst a still more remote but adjacent
+district of more rugged features, bears the appellation of the Cove, the
+name being suggested by the narrow and encompassing character of the
+sharp and precipitous hills that hem in and over-shadow a rough and
+brattling mountain torrent, which is marked on the map as the Cove
+creek.
+
+At the period to which my story refers, the population of this central
+district of Virginia, exhibited but few of the characteristics which are
+found to distinguish the present race of inhabitants. A rich soil, a
+pure atmosphere, and great abundance of wood and water, to say nothing
+of the sylvan beauties of the mountain, possessed a great attraction for
+the wealthy proprietors of the low country; and the land was, therefore,
+generally parcelled out in large estates held by opulent owners, whose
+husbandry did not fail, at least, to accumulate in profusion the
+comforts of life, and afford full scope to that prodigal hospitality,
+which, at that period even more than at present, was the boast of the
+state. The laws of primogeniture exercised their due influence on the
+national habits; and the odious division of property amongst undeserving
+younger brothers, whom our modern philosophy would fain persuade us have
+as much merit, and as little capacity to thrive in the world as their
+elders, had not yet formed part of the household thoughts of these
+many-acred squires. From Charlottesville, therefore, both north and
+south, from the Potomac to the James river, there extended a chain of
+posts, occupied by lordly and open-hearted gentlemen,--a kind of civil
+cordon of bluff free-livers who were but little versed in the mystery of
+"bringing the two ends of the year together."
+
+Since that period, well-a-day! the hand of the reaper has put in his
+sickle upon divided fields; crowded progenies have grown up under these
+paternal roof-trees; daughters have married and brought in strange
+names; the subsistence of one has been spread into the garner of ten;
+the villages have grown populous; the University has lifted up its
+didactic head; and everywhere over this abode of ancient wealth, the hum
+of industry is heard in the carol of the ploughman, the echo of the
+wagoner's whip, the rude song of the boatman, and in the clatter of the
+mill. Such are the mischievous interpolations of the republican system!
+
+My reader, after this topographical sketch and the political reflections
+with which I have accompanied it, is doubtless well-prepared for the
+introduction of the worthy personages with whom I am about to make him
+acquainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO TWO WORTHIES WITH WHOM HE IS LIKELY
+TO FORM AN INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+It was about two o'clock in the afternoon of a day towards the end of
+July, 1780, when Captain Arthur Butler, now holding a brevet, some ten
+days old, of major in the continental army, and Galbraith Robinson were
+seen descending the long hill which separates the South Garden from the
+Cove. They had just left the rich and mellow scenery of the former
+district, and were now passing into the picturesque valley of the
+latter. It was evident from the travel-worn appearance of their horses,
+as well as from their equipments, that they had journeyed many a mile
+before they had reached this spot; and it might also have been perceived
+that the shifting beauties of the landscape were not totally disregarded
+by Butler, at least,--as he was seen to halt on the summit of the hill,
+turn and gaze back upon the wood-embowered fields that lay beneath his
+eye, and by lively gestures to direct the notice of his companion to the
+same quarter. Often, too, as they moved slowly downward, he reined up
+his steed to contemplate more at leisure the close, forest-shaded ravine
+before them, through which the Cove creek held its noisy way. It was not
+so obvious that his companion responded to the earnest emotions which
+this wild and beautiful scenery excited in his mind.
+
+Arthur Butler was now in the possession of the vigor of early manhood,
+with apparently some eight and twenty years upon his head. His frame was
+well proportioned, light and active. His face, though distinguished by a
+smooth and almost beardless cheek, still presented an outline of decided
+manly beauty. The sun and wind had tanned his complexion, except where a
+rich volume of black hair upon his brow had preserved the original
+fairness of a high, broad forehead. A hazel eye sparkled under the
+shade of a dark lash, and indicated, by its alternate playfulness and
+decision, an adventurous as well as a cheerful spirit. His whole
+bearing, visage and figure, seemed to speak of one familiar with
+enterprise and fond of danger:--they denoted gentle breeding
+predominating over a life of toil and privation.
+
+Notwithstanding his profession, which was seen in his erect and
+peremptory carriage, his dress, at this time, was, with some slight
+exceptions, merely civil. And here, touching this matter of dress, I
+have a prefatory word to say to my reader. Although custom, or the
+fashion of the story-telling craft, may require that I should satisfy
+the antiquarian in this important circumstance of apparel of the days
+gone by, yet, on the present occasion, I shall be somewhat chary of my
+lore in that behalf;--seeing that any man who is curious on the score of
+the costume of the revolution time, may be fully satisfied by studying
+those most graphic "counterfeit presentments" of sundry historical
+passages of that day, wherewith Colonel Trumbull has furnished this age,
+for the edification of posterity, in the great rotunda of the Capitol of
+the United States. And I confess, too, I have another reason for my
+present reluctance,--as I feel some faint misgiving lest my principal
+actor might run the risk of making a sorry figure with the living
+generation, were I to introduce him upon the stage in a coat, whose
+technical description, after the manner of a botanical formula, might
+be comprised in the following summary:--long-waisted--wide-skirted--
+narrow-collared--broad-backed--big-buttoned--and large-lapelled;--and
+then to add to this, what would be equally outlandish, yellow
+small-clothes, and dark-topped boots, attached by a leather strap to the
+buttons at the knee,--without which said boots, no gentleman in 1780
+ventured to mount on horseback.
+
+But when I say that Captain Butler travelled on his present journey,
+habited in the civil costume of a gentleman of the time, I do not mean
+to exclude a round hat pretty much of the fashion of the present
+day--though then but little used except amongst military men--with a
+white cockade to show his party; nor do I wish to be considered as
+derogating from that peaceful character when I add that his saddle-bow
+was fortified by a brace of horseman's pistols, stowed away in large
+holsters, covered with bear skin;--for, in those days, when hostile
+banners were unfurled, and men challenged each other upon the highways,
+these pistols were a part of the countenance (to use an excellent old
+phrase) of a gentleman.
+
+Galbraith Robinson was a man of altogether rougher mould. Nature had
+carved out, in his person, an athlete whom the sculptors might have
+studied to improve the Hercules. Every lineament of his body indicated
+strength. His stature was rather above six feet; his chest broad; his
+limbs sinewy, and remarkable for their symmetry. There seemed to be no
+useless flesh upon his frame to soften the prominent surface of his
+muscles; and his ample thigh, as he sat upon horseback, showed the
+working of its texture at each step, as if part of the animal on which
+he rode. His was one of those iron forms that might be imagined almost
+bullet proof. With all these advantages of person, there was a radiant,
+broad, good nature upon his face; and the glance of a large, clear, blue
+eye told of arch thoughts, and of shrewd, homely wisdom. A ruddy
+complexion accorded well with his sprightly, but massive features, of
+which the prevailing expression was such as silently invited friendship
+and trust. If to these traits be added an abundant shock of yellow,
+curly hair, terminating in a luxuriant queue, confined by a narrow
+strand of leather cord, my reader will have a tolerably correct idea of
+the person I wish to describe.
+
+Robinson had been a blacksmith at the breaking out of the revolution,
+and, in truth, could hardly be said to have yet abandoned the craft;
+although of late, he had been engaged in a course of life which had but
+little to do with the anvil, except in that metaphorical sense of
+hammering out and shaping the rough, iron independence of his country.
+He was the owner of a little farm in the Waxhaw settlement, on the
+Catawba, and having pitched his habitation upon a promontory, around
+whose base the Waxhaw creek swept with a regular but narrow circuit,
+this locality, taken in connexion with his calling, gave rise to a
+common prefix to his name throughout the neighborhood, and he was
+therefore almost exclusively distinguished by the sobriquet of Horse
+Shoe Robinson. This familiar appellative had followed him into the army.
+
+The age of Horse Shoe was some seven or eight years in advance of that
+of Butler--a circumstance which the worthy senior did not fail to use
+with some authority in their personal intercourse, holding himself, on
+that account, to be like Cassius, an elder, if not a better soldier. On
+the present occasion, his dress was of the plainest and most rustic
+description: a spherical crowned hat with a broad brim, a coarse grey
+coatee of mixed cotton and wool, dark linsey-woolsey trowsers adhering
+closely to his leg, hob-nailed shoes, and a red cotton handkerchief tied
+carelessly round his neck with a knot upon his bosom. This costume, and
+a long rifle thrown into the angle of the right arm, with the breech
+resting on his pommel, and a pouch of deer-skin, with a powder horn
+attached to it, suspended on his right side, might have warranted a
+spectator in taking Robinson for a woodsman, or hunter from the
+neighboring mountains.
+
+Such were the two personages who now came "pricking o'er the hill." The
+period at which I have presented them to my reader was, perhaps, the
+most anxious one of the whole struggle for independence. Without falling
+into a long narrative of events which are familiar, at least to every
+American, I may recall the fact that Gates had just passed southward, to
+take command of the army destined to act against Cornwallis. It was now
+within a few weeks of that decisive battle which sent the hero of
+Saratoga "bootless home and weather-beaten back," to ponder over the
+mutations of fortune, and, in the quiet shades of Virginia, to strike
+the balance of fame between northern glory and southern discomfiture. It
+may be imagined then, that our travellers were not without some share of
+that intense interest for the events "upon the gale," which every where
+pervaded the nation. Still, as I have before hinted, Arthur Butler did
+not journey through this beautiful region without a lively perception of
+the charms which nature had spread around him. The soil of this district
+is remarkable for its blood-red hue. The side of every bank glowed in
+the sun with this bright vermillion tint, and the new-made furrow,
+wherever the early ploughman had scarred the soil, turned up to view the
+predominating color. The contrast of this with the luxuriant grass and
+the yellow stubble, with the grey and mossy rock, and with the deep
+green shade of the surrounding forest, perpetually solicited the notice
+of the lover of landscape; and from every height, the eye rested with
+pleasure upon the rich meadows of the bottom land--upon the varied
+cornfields spread over the hills; upon the adjacent mountains, with
+their bald crags peeping through the screen of forest, and especially
+upon the broad lines of naked earth that, here and there, lighted up and
+relieved, as a painter would say, with its warm coloring, the heavy
+masses of shade.
+
+The day was hot, and it was with a grateful sense of refreshment that
+our wayfarers, no less than their horses, found themselves, as they
+approached the lowland, gradually penetrating the deep and tangled
+thicket and the high wood that hung over and darkened the channel of the
+small stream which rippled through the valley. Their road lay along this
+stream and frequently crossed it at narrow fords, where the water fell
+from rock to rock in small cascades, presenting natural basins of the
+limpid flood, embosomed in laurel and alder, and gurgling that busy
+music which is one of the most welcome sounds to the ear of a wearied
+and overheated traveller.
+
+Butler said but little to his companion, except now and then to express
+a passing emotion of admiration for the natural embellishments of the
+region; until, at length, the road brought them to a huge mass of rock,
+from whose base a fountain issued forth over a bed of gravel, and soon
+lost itself in the brook hard by. A small strip of bark, that some
+friend of the traveller had placed there, caught the pure water as it
+was distilled from the rock, and threw it off in a spout, some few
+inches above the surface of the ground. The earth trodden around this
+spot showed it to be a customary halting place for those who journeyed
+on the road.
+
+Here Butler checked his horse, and announced to his comrade his
+intention to suspend, for a while, the toil of travel.
+
+"There is one thing, Galbraith," said he, as he discounted, "wherein all
+philosophers agree--man must eat when he is hungry, and rest when he is
+weary. We have now been some six hours on horseback, and as this
+fountain seems to have been put here for our use, it would be sinfully
+slighting the bounties of providence not to do it the honor of a halt.
+Get down, man; rummage your havresac, and let us see what you have
+there."
+
+Robinson was soon upon his feet, and taking the horses a little distance
+off, he fastened their bridles to the impending branches of a tree; then
+opening his saddle-bags, he produced a wallet with which he approached
+the fountain, where Butler had thrown himself at full length upon the
+grass. Here, as he successively disclosed his stores, he announced his
+bill of fare, with suitable deliberation between each item, in the
+following terms:
+
+"I don't march without provisions, you see, captain--or major, I suppose
+I must call you now. Here's the rear division of a roast pig, and along
+with it, by way of flankers, two spread eagles (holding up two broiled
+fowls), and here are four slices from the best end of a ham. Besides
+these, I can throw in two apple-jacks, a half dozen of rolls, and--"
+
+"Your wallet is as bountiful as a conjurer's bag, sergeant; it is a
+perfect cornucopia. How did you come by all this provender?"
+
+"It isn't so overmuch, major, when you come to consider," said Robinson.
+"The old landlady at Charlottesville is none of your heap-up,
+shake-down, and running-over landladies, and when I signified to her
+that we mought want a snack upon the road, she as much as gave me to
+understand that there wa'n't nothing to be had. But I took care to make
+fair weather with her daughter, as I always do amongst the creatures,
+and she let me into the pantry, where I made bold to stow away these few
+trifling articles, under the denomination of pillage. If you are fond of
+Indian corn bread, I can give you a pretty good slice of that."
+
+"Pillage, Galbraith! You forget you are not in an enemy's country. I
+directed you scrupulously to pay for everything you got upon the road. I
+hope you have not omitted it to-day?"
+
+"Lord, sir! what do these women do for the cause of liberty but cook,
+and wash, and mend!" exclaimed the sergeant. "I told the old Jezebel to
+charge it all to the continental congress."
+
+"Out upon it, man! Would you bring us into discredit with our best
+friends, by your villanous habits of free quarters?"
+
+"I am not the only man, major, that has been spoiled in his religion by
+these wars. I had both politeness and decency till we got to squabbling
+over our chimney corners in Carolina. But when a man's conscience begins
+to get hard, it does it faster than anything in nature: it is, I may
+say, like the boiling of an egg--it is very clear at first, but as soon
+as it gets cloudy, one minute more and you may cut it with a knife."
+
+"Well, well! Let us fall to, sergeant; this is no time to argue points
+of conscience."
+
+"You seem to take no notice of this here bottle of peach brandy major,"
+said Robinson. "It's a bird that came out of the same nest. To my
+thinking it's a sort of a file leader to an eatable, if it ar'n't an
+eatable itself."
+
+"Peace, Galbraith! it is the vice of the army to set too much store by
+this devil brandy."
+
+The sergeant was outwardly moved by an inward laugh that shook his head
+and shoulders.
+
+"Do you suppose, major, that Troy town was taken without brandy? It's
+drilling and countermarching and charging with the bagnet, all three,
+sir. But before we begin, I will just strip our horses. A flurry of cool
+air on the saddle spot is the best thing in nature for a tired horse."
+
+Robinson now performed this office for their jaded cattle; and having
+given them a mouthful of water at the brook, returned to his post, and
+soon began to despatch, with a laudable alacrity, the heaps of provision
+before him. Butler partook with a keen appetite of this sylvan repast,
+and was greatly amused to see with what relish his companion caused
+slice after slice to vanish, until nothing was left of this large supply
+but a few fragments.
+
+"You have lost neither stomach nor strength by the troubles, sergeant;
+the short commons of Charleston would have gone something against the
+grain with you, if you had stayed for that course of diet."
+
+"It is a little over two months," said Robinson, "since I got away from
+them devils; and if it hadn't been for these here wings of mine
+(pointing to his legs), I might have been a caged bird to-day."
+
+"You have never told me the story of your escape," said Butler.
+
+"You were always too busy, or too full of your own thoughts, major, for
+me to take up your time with such talk," replied the other. "But, if you
+would like me to tell you all about it, while you are resting yourself
+here on the ground, and have got nothing better to think about, why,
+I'll start like old Jack Carter of our mess, by beginning, as he used to
+say when he had a tough story ahead, right at the beginning."
+
+"Do so, sergeant, and do it discreetly; but first, swallow that
+mouthful, for you don't speak very clear."
+
+"I'll wash down the gutter, major, according to camp fashion and then
+my throat will be as clear as the morning gun after sun rise."
+
+And saying this, the tall soldier helped himself to a hearty draught of
+cool water mingled in fair proportion with a part of the contents of his
+flask, and setting the cup down by his side, he commenced as follows:--
+
+"You was with us, major, when Prevost served us that trick in Georgia,
+last year--kept us, you remember, on the look out for him t'other side
+of the Savannah, whilst all the time he was whisking of it down to
+Charleston."
+
+"You call this beginning at the beginning? Faith, you have started a
+full year before your time. Do you think yourself a Polybius or a
+Xenophon--who were two famous old fellows, just in your line,
+sergeant--that you set out with a history of a whole war."
+
+"I never knew any persons in our line--officers or men--of either of
+them names,"--replied Robinson,--"they were nicknames, perhaps;--but I
+do know, as well as another, when a thing turns up that is worth notice,
+major; and this is one of 'em:--and that's the reason why I make mention
+of it. What I was going to say was this--that it was a sign fit for
+General Lincoln's consarnment, that these here British should make a
+push at Charleston on the tenth of May, 1779, and get beaten, and that
+exactly in one year and two days afterwards, they should make another
+push and win the town. Now, what was it a sign of, but that they and the
+tories was more industrious that year than we were?"
+
+"Granted," said Butler, "now to your story, Mister Philosopher!"
+
+"In what month was it you left us?" inquired the sergeant gravely.
+
+"In March," answered Butler.
+
+"General Lincoln sent you off, as we were told, on some business with
+the continental congress: to get us more troops, if I am right. It was a
+pity to throw away a good army on such a place--for it wa'nt worth
+defending at last. From the time that you set out they began to
+shut us in, every day a little closer. First, they closed a door on
+one side, and then on t'other: till, at last they sent a sort of
+flash-o'-lightning fellow--this here Colonel Tarleton--up to Monk's
+corner, which, you know, was our back door, and he shut that up and
+double bolted it, by giving Huger a most tremenjious lathering. Now,
+when we were shut in, we had nothing to do but look out. I'll tell you
+an observation I made, at that time."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Why, when a man has got to fight, it's a natural sort of thing
+enough;--but when he has got nothing to eat, it's an onnatural state. I
+have hearn of men who should have said they would rather fight than
+eat:--if they told truth they would have made honest fellows for our
+garrison at Charlestown. First, our vegetables--after that devil took up
+his quarters at Monk's corner--began to give out then, our meat; and,
+finally, we had nothing left but rice, which I consider neither fish,
+flesh, nor good salt herring"----
+
+"You had good spirits, though, sergeant."
+
+"If you mean rum or brandy, major, we hadn't much of that;--but if you
+mean jokes and laughs, it must be hard times that will stop them in
+camp.--I'll tell you one of them, that made a great hurra on both sides,
+where we got the better of a Scotch regiment that was plaguing us from
+outside the town. They thought they would make themselves merry with our
+starvation--so, they throwed a bomb shell into our lines, that, as it
+came along through the air, we saw had some devilment in it, from the
+streak it made in daylight; and, sure enough, when we come to look at it
+on the ground, we found it filled with rice and molasses--just to show
+that these Scotchmen were laughing at us for having nothing to eat.
+Well, what do we do but fill another shell with brimstone and hogslard,
+and just drop it handsomely amongst the lads from the land o'cakes? Gad,
+sir, it soon got to the hearing of the English regiment, and such a
+shouting as they sot up from their lines against the Scotchmen! That's
+what I call giving as good as they saunt, major--ha ha ha!"
+
+"It wasn't a bad repartee, Galbraith," said Butler, joining in the
+laugh. "But go on with your siege."
+
+"We got taken, at last," proceeded Horse Shoe, "and surrendered on the
+12th of May. Do you know that they condescended to let us go through the
+motions of marching outside the lines? Still it was a sorry day to see
+our colors tied as fast to their sticks as if a stocking had been drawn
+over them. After that, we were marched to the barracks and put into
+close confinement."
+
+"Yes, I have heard that; and with heavy hearts--and a dreary prospect
+before you, sergeant."
+
+"I shouldn't have minded it much, Major Butler, it was the fortune of
+war. But they insulted us as soon as they got our arms from us. It was a
+blasted cowardly trick in them to endeavor to wean us from our cause,
+which they tried every day; it was seduction, I may say. First, they
+told us that Colonel Pinckney and some other officers had gone over; but
+that was too onprobable a piece of rascality,--we didn't believe one
+word on't. So, one morning Colonel Pinckney axed that we mought be
+drawed up in a line in front of the barracks; and there he made us a
+speech. We were as silent as so many men on a surprise party. The
+colonel said--yes, sir, and right in their very teeth--that it was an
+infamious, audacious calamy: that whenever he desarted the cause of
+liberty, he hoped they would take him, as they had done some Roman
+officer or other--I think one Officious, as I understood the
+colonel--you've hearn of him, may be--and tie his limbs to wild horses,
+and set them adrift, at full speed, taking all his joints apart, so that
+not one traitorious limb should be left to keep company with another. It
+was a mighty severe punishment, whoever he mought'a been. The British
+officers began to frown--and I saw one chap put his hand upon his sword.
+It would have done you good to witness the look the colonel gave him, as
+he put his own hand to his thigh to feel if his sword was there--he so
+naturally forgot he was a prisoner. They made him stop speaking
+howsever, because they gave out that it was perditious language; and so,
+they dismissed us--but we let them have three cheers to show that we
+were in heart."
+
+"It was like Pinckney," said Butler; "I'll warrant him a true man,
+Galbraith."
+
+"I'll thribble that warrant," replied Galbraith, "and afterwards make it
+nine. I wish you could have hearn him. I always thought a bugle horn the
+best music in the world, till that day. But that day Colonel Charles
+Cotesworth Pinckney's voice was sweeter than shawns and trumpets, as the
+preacher says, and bugles to boot. I have hearn people tell of speeches
+working like a fiddle on a man's nerves, major: but, for my part, I
+think they sometimes work like a battery of field-pieces, or a whole
+regimental band on a parade day. Howsever, I was going on to tell you,
+Colonel Pinckney put a stop to all this parleying with our poor fellows;
+and knowing, major, that you was likely to be coming this way, he axed
+me if I thought I could give the guard the slip, and make off with a
+letter to meet you. Well, I studied over the thing for a while, and then
+told him a neck was but a neck any how, and that I could try; and so,
+when his letter was ready, he gave it to me, telling me to hide it so
+that, if I was sarched, it couldn't be found on my person. Do you see
+that foot?" added Horse Shoe, smiling, "it isn't so small but that I
+could put a letter between the inside sole and the out, longways, or
+even crossways, for the matter of that, and that, without so much as
+turning down a corner. Correspondent and accordingly I stitched it in.
+The colonel then told me to watch my chance and make off to you in the
+Jarseys, as fast as I could. He told me, besides, that I was to stay
+with you, because you was likely to have business for me to do."
+
+"That's true, good sergeant."
+
+"There came on a darkish, drizzly evening; and a little before roll
+call, at sun set, I borrowed an old forage cloak from Corporal
+Green--you mought have remembered him--and out I went towards the lines,
+and sauntered along the edge of the town, till I came to one of your
+pipe-smoking, gin-drinking Hessians, keeping sentry near the road that
+leads out towards Ashley ferry:--a fellow that had no more watch in
+him--bless your soul!--as these Dutchmen hav'n't--than a duck on a rainy
+day. So, said I, coming up boldly to him, 'Hans, wie gehet es'--'Geh zum
+Teufel,' says he, laughing--for he knowed me. That was all the Dutch I
+could speak, except I was able to say it was going to rain, so I told
+him--'Es will regnen'--which he knowed as well as I did, for it was
+raining all the time. I had a little more palaver with Hans, and, at
+last, he got up on his feet and set to walking up and down. By this time
+the drums beat for evening quarters, and I bid Hans good night; but,
+instead of going away, I squatted behind the Dutchman's sentry
+box;--and, presently, the rain came down by the bucket full; it got very
+dark and Hans was snug under cover. The grand rounds was coming; I could
+hear the tramp of feet, and as no time was to be lost, I made a long
+step and a short story of it, by just slipping over the lines and
+setting out to seek my fortune."
+
+"Well done, sergeant! You were ever good at these pranks."
+
+"But that wasn't all," continued Robinson. "As the prime file leader of
+mischief would have it, outside of the lines I meets a cart with a man
+to drive it, and two soldiers on foot, by way of guard.
+
+"The first I was aware of it, was a hallo, and then a bagnet to my
+breast. I didn't ask for countersigns, for I didn't mean to trade in
+words that night; but, just seizing hold of the muzzle of the piece, I
+twisted it out of the fellow's hand, and made him a present of the
+butt-end across his pate. I didn't want to hurt him, you see, for it
+wa'n't his fault that he stopped me. A back-hander brought down the
+other, and the third man drove off his cart, as if he had some suspicion
+that his comrades were on their backs in the mud. I didn't mean to
+trouble a peaceable man with my compliments, but on the contrary, as the
+preacher says, I went on my way rejoicing."
+
+"You were very considerate, sergeant; I entirely approve of your
+moderation. As you are a brave man, and have a natural liking for
+danger, this was a night that, doubtless, afforded you great
+satisfaction."
+
+"When danger stares you in the face," replied Horse Shoe, "the best way
+is not to see it. It is only in not seeing of it, that a brave man
+differs from a coward: that's my opinion. Well, after that I had a hard
+time of it. I was afraid to keep up the Neck road, upon account of the
+sodgers that was upon it; so I determined to cross the Ashley, and make
+for the Orangeburg district. When I came to the ferry, I was a little
+dubious about taking one of the skiffs that was hauled up, for fear of
+making a noise; so I slipped off my shoe that had your letter, and put
+it betwixt my teeth and swum the river. I must have made some splashing
+in the water--although I tried to muffle my oars, too, for first, I
+heard a challenge from the ferry-house, and then the crack of a musket:
+but it was so dark you couldn't see an egg on your own nose. There was a
+little flustering of lights on the shore, and a turnout of the guard,
+may be; but, I suppose, they thought it was a sturgeon, or some such
+beast, and so made no more of it; and I got safe to the other bank."
+
+"Faithfully and bravely, sergeant!"
+
+"For the first three or four days the chances were all against me. The
+whole country was full of tories, and it wasn't safe to meet a man on
+the road: you couldn't tell whether he was friend or enemy. I durstn't
+show my face in day-time at all, but lay close in the swamps; and when
+it began to grow dark, I stole out, like a wolf, and travelled across
+the fields, and along the by-ways."
+
+"You had a good stomach to bear it, sergeant."
+
+"A good stomach enough, but not much in it. I'll tell you another
+observation I made; when a man travels all night long on an empty
+stomach, he ought either to fill it next morning or make it smaller."
+
+"And how is that to be managed, friend Horse Shoe?"
+
+"Indian fashion," replied the sergeant. "Buckle your belt a little
+tighter every two or three hours. A man may shrivel his guts up to the
+size of a pipe stem. But I found a better way to get along than by
+taking in my belt"----
+
+"Now, for another stratagem!"
+
+"I commonly, about dark, crept as near to a farm house as I mought
+venture to go; and, putting on a poor mouth, told the folks I had a
+touch of the small-pox, and was dying for a little food. They were
+Christians enough to give me a dish of bread and milk, or something of
+that sort, and cowards enough to keep so much out of the way, as not to
+get a chance to look me in the face. They laid provisions on the ground,
+and then walked away while I came up to get them. Though I didn't think
+much of the fashion I was waited on, and had sometimes to quarrel with a
+bull-dog for my supper, I don't believe I ever ate with a better
+appetite in my life. The first bread of freedom, no matter how coarse, a
+man eats after his escape from prison, is the sweetest morsel in nature.
+And I do think it is a little pleasanter when he eats it at the risk of
+his life."
+
+Butler nodded his head.
+
+"Well, after this," continued Horse Shoe, "I had like to have lost all
+by another mishap. My course was for the upper country, because the
+nearer I got to my own home the better I was acquainted with the people.
+That scrummaging character, Tarleton, you may have hearn, scampered off,
+as soon as ever Charlestown was taken, after Colonel Abraham Buford, who
+was on his way down to the city when the news was fotch him of our
+surrender. Buford accordingly came to the right about, to get out of
+harm's way as fast as he could, and Tarleton followed close on his
+heels. Think of that devil, major, trying to catch a man a hundred
+miles away! It was a brazen hearted thing! considering, besides, that
+Buford had a good regiment with him. When nobody thought it anything
+more than a brag, sure enough, he overhauls Buford yonder at the
+Waxhaws--onawares, you may say--and there he tore him all to pieces.
+They say it was a bloody cruel sight, to see how these English troopers
+did mangle the poor fellows. I doubt there wasn't fair play. But, major,
+that Tarleton rides well and is a proper soldier, take him man to man.
+It so happened that as I was making along towards Catawba, who should I
+come plump upon, but Tarleton and his lads, with their prisoners, all
+halting beside a little run to get water!"
+
+"Again in trouble, sergeant! Truly you have had full measure of
+adventures!"
+
+"I was pretty near nonplushed, major," said Horse Shoe, with a broad
+laugh, "but I thought of a stratagem. I let fall my under jaw, and sot
+my eyes as wild as a madman, and twisted my whole face out of joint--and
+began to clap my hands, and hurra for the red coats, like a natural
+fool. So, when Tarleton and two or three of his people came to take
+notice of me, they put me down for a poor idiot that had been turned
+adrift."
+
+"Did they hold any discourse with you?"
+
+"A good deal; and, just to try me, they flogged me with the flats of
+their swords; but I laughed and made merry when they hurt me worst, and
+told them I thanked them for their politeness. There were some of our
+people amongst the prisoners, that I knew, and I was mortally afeard
+they would let on, but they didn't. Especially, there was Seth Cuthbert,
+from Tryon, who had both of his hands chopped off in the fray at the
+Waxhaws; he was riding double behind a trooper, and he held up the
+stumps just to let me see how barbarously he was mangled. I was dubious
+they would see that he knowed me, but he took care of that. Bless your
+soul, major! he saw my drift in the first shot of his eye. Thinking that
+they mought take it into their noddles to carry me along with them back,
+I played the quarest trick that I suppose ever a man thought of; it
+makes me laugh now to tell it. I made a spring that fetched me right
+upon the crupper of Colonel Tarleton's horse, which sot him to kicking
+and flirting at a merry rate; and, whilst the creature was floundering
+as if a hornet had stung him, I took the colonel's cap and put it upon
+my own head, and gave him mine. And after I had vagaried in this sort of
+way for a little while, I let the horse fling me on the ground. You
+would have thought the devils would have died a laughing. And the
+colonel himself, although at first he was very angry, couldn't help
+laughing likewise. He said that I was as strange a fool as he ever saw,
+and that it would be a pity to hurt me. So he threw me a shilling, and,
+whilst they were all in good humor, I trudged away."
+
+"It was a bold experiment, and might be practised a thousand times
+without success. If I did not know you, Robinson, to be a man of truth,
+as well as courage, I should scarce believe this tale. If any one,
+hereafter, should tell your story, he will be accounted a
+fiction-monger."
+
+"I do not boast, Major Butler; and, as to my story, I care very little
+who tells it. Every trick is good in war. I can change my face and voice
+both, so that my best friends shouldn't know me: and, in these times, I
+am willing to change every thing but my coat, and even that, if I have a
+witness to my heart, and it will serve a turn to help the country. Am I
+not right?"
+
+"No man ever blames another for that, sergeant, and if ever you should
+be put to the trial, you will find friends enough to vouch for your
+honesty."
+
+"When I got away from Tarleton it wasn't long before I reached my own
+cabin. There I mustered my horse and gun, and some decent clothes; and
+after a good sleep, and a belly full of food, I started for the north,
+as fast as I could, with my letter. I put it into your own hands, and
+you know the rest."
+
+"This will be a good tale for a winter night," said Butler, "to be told
+hereafter, in a snug chimney corner, to your wife and children, when
+peace, as I trust it may, will make you happy in the possession of both.
+Your embassy has had marvellous good luck so far. I hope it may prove a
+happy omen for our future enterprise. Now it is my turn, Galbraith, to
+tell you something of our plans. Colonel Pinckney has apprised me of the
+state of things in the upper country. Our good friend Clarke there
+meditates an attempt to regain Augusta and Ninety-six; and we have
+reason to believe that some levies will be made by our confederates in
+Virginia and elsewhere. My business is to co-operate in this
+undertaking; and as it was essential I should have the guidance of some
+man acquainted with that country--some good soldier, true and
+trusty--the colonel has selected you to accompany me. These red coats
+have already got possession of all the strongholds; and the tories, you
+know, swarm in the country, like the locusts of Egypt. I stand in need,
+sergeant, of a friend with a discreet head and a strong arm. I could not
+have picked out of the army a better man than Sergeant Galbraith
+Robinson. Besides, Horse Shoe," he added, putting his hand gently upon
+the sergeant's shoulder, "old acquaintance has bred an affection between
+us."
+
+"I am a man that can eat my allowance, major," said Robinson, with an
+awkward diffidence at hearing the encomium just passed upon him, "and
+that's a matter that doesn't turn to much profit in an empty country.
+But I think I may make bold to promise, that you are not like to suffer,
+if a word or a blow from me would do you any good."
+
+"Your belt may be serviceable in two ways in this expedition, Horse
+Shoe: it may be buckled closer in scant times, and will carry a sword in
+dangerous ones."
+
+"May I ask, major," inquired Horse Shoe, "since you have got to talking
+of our business, what has brought us so high up the country, along here?
+It seems to me that the lower road would have been nearer."
+
+"Suppose I say, Galbraith," replied Butler, with animation, "that there
+is a bird nestles in these woods, I was fond of hearing sing, would it
+be unsoldier-like, think you, to make a harder ride and a larger circuit
+for that gratification?"
+
+"Oh! I understand, major," said Horse Shoe, laughing, "whether it be
+peace or whether it be war, these women keep the upper hand of us men.
+For my part, I think it's more natural to think of them in war than in
+peace. For, you see, the creatures are so helpless, that if a man don't
+take care of them, who would? And then, when a woman's frightened, as
+she must be in these times, she clings so naturally to a man! It stands
+to reason!"
+
+"You will keep my counsel, Galbraith," interrupted Butler, "I have a
+reason which, perhaps, you may know by and by, why you should not speak
+of any thing you may see or hear. And now, as we have spent a good hour
+in refreshment, sergeant, make our horses ready. We'll take the road
+again."
+
+Robinson promised caution in all matters that might be committed to his
+charge, and now set himself about saddling the horses for the journey.
+Whilst he was engaged in this occupation, Butler was startled to hear
+the sergeant abruptly cry out--"You devil, Captain Peter Clinch! what
+are you about?" and, looking hastily around, saw no one but the trusty
+squire himself, who was now sedately intent upon thrusting the bit into
+his horse's mouth,--a liberty which the animal seemed to resent by
+sundry manifestations of waywardness.
+
+"To whom are you talking, Galbraith?"
+
+"Only to this here contrary, obstropolous beast, major."
+
+"What name did you call him by?" inquired Butler.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! was it that you was listening too?" said Horse Shoe. "I
+have christened him Captain Peter--sometimes Captain Peter Clinch. I'll
+tell you why. I am a little malicious touching the name of my horse.
+After the surrender of Charlestown, our regiment was put in the charge
+of a provost marshal, by the name of Captain Clinch, and his first name
+was Peter. He was a rough, ugly, wiry-haired fellow, with no better
+bowels than a barrel of vinegar. He gave us all sorts of ill usage,
+knowing that we wa'n't allowed to give him the kind of payment that such
+an oncomfortable fellow desarved to get. If ever I had met him again,
+major, _setters parbus_--as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say--which is
+lingo, I take it, for a fair field, I would'a cudgelled his pate for
+him, to the satisfaction of all good fellows. Well, when I got home, I
+gave his name to my beast, just for the pleasure of thinking of that
+hang-gallows thief, every time I had occasion to give the creetur a dig
+in the ribs, or lay a blow across his withers! And yet he is a most an
+excellent horse, major, and a hundred times more of a gentleman than his
+namesake,--though he is a little hard-headed too--but that he larnt from
+me. It really seems to me that the dumb beast thinks his name a
+disgrace, as he has good right, but has got used to it. And, besides, I
+hear that the cross-grained, growling dog of a captain has been killed
+in a scuffle since I left Charlestown, so now I consider my horse a sort
+of tombstone with the ugly sinner's name on it; and as I straddle it
+every day you see, that's another satisfaction."
+
+"Well, sergeant, there are few men enjoy their revenge more
+good-humoredly than you. So, come, straddle your tombstone again, and
+make the bones beneath it jog."
+
+In good glee, our travellers now betook themselves once more to the
+road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AN INCIDENT THAT SAVORS OF ROMANCE.
+
+
+By the time the sun had fallen to the level of the summits of the Blue
+Ridge, Butler and Robinson had progressed so far in their journey, as to
+find themselves in the vicinity of the Rockfish river--a rapid mountain
+stream, that traverses the southern confine of Albemarle, and which, at
+that period, separated this county from Amherst. Their path had led
+them, by a short circuit, out of the ravine of Cove creek, along upon
+the ridges of the neighboring hills; and they were now descending from
+this elevation, into the valley of the Rockfish, near to the point where
+the Cove creek forms its junction with this river. The hill was covered
+with a stately forest, and a broad, winding road had been cut down the
+steep side, in such a manner as to present a high bank on one hand, and
+an abrupt sheer descent on the other. From this road might be seen, at
+intervals, glimmering through the screen of underwood, the waters of the
+small river below; whilst, at the same time, the circuitous course of
+the descending track left but few paces of its length visible from any
+one point, except where, now and then, it came boldly forth to the verge
+of some wild crag, from which glimpses were to be obtained of its
+frequent traverses towards the deep and romantic dell that received the
+mingled tribute of the two streams.
+
+Here, as our travellers journeyed downward, their attention was awakened
+by the cry of hounds in pursuit of game. These sounds came from the wood
+on the crest of the hill above them; and the clamorous earnestness with
+which they assailed the ear, and roused the far echo of the highlands,
+showed the object of chase to have been suddenly surprised and hotly
+followed. The outcry was heard, for some moments, pursuing a direction
+towards the river, when, suddenly from the midst of the forest, the
+sharp twang of a rifle-shot showed that some hunter was on the watch to
+profit by the discovery of the dogs.
+
+Robinson, as soon as he heard the report, urged his horse forward with
+speed, to the first turn of the road below; dismounted, and, throwing
+his rifle into the palm of his left hand, stood ready to give his fire
+wherever he might find occasion. Butler followed, and reined up close
+beside his companion.
+
+"There is game afoot," said Galbraith, "and if that shot has not done
+its business, it may be my turn to try a hand."
+
+These words were hardly spoken, when a wounded buck rushed to the brink
+of the bank, some twelve or fifteen feet above the heads of the
+travellers, and regardless of the presence of enemies, made one frantic
+bound forward into the air, and fell dead almost at Robinson's feet. So
+effectually had the work of death been done upon the poor animal, that
+he seemed to have expired, in the convulsion of this last leap, before
+he reached the ground; his antlers were driven into the clay; his eyes
+were fixed, and not a struggle followed.
+
+"It was a home-shot that brought this poor fugitive to the earth," said
+Butler, as he stood gazing at the piteous spectacle before him, "and
+sped by a practised hand."
+
+"I don't count him a good man, major," said Galbraith, with professional
+indifference, "who would mangle his meat by random firing. Now, this
+buck was taken sideways, as he leaped above the tops of the bushes,
+which is the ticklishest of all the ways of shooting a deer. The man
+that plucked this fellow, I'll warrant, can plant his ball just where he
+likes: right under the arm is the place for certainty; and the thing
+couldn't have been prettier done if the man had had a rest and a
+standing shot."
+
+During this short interval, the hounds had arrived on the spot where the
+buck lay bleeding, and these, after a few minutes, were followed by two
+hunters of very dissimilar appearance, who came on foot, slowly leading
+their horses up the hill.
+
+The first was a tall, gaunt woodman, of a sallow complexion, jet black
+eyes, and round head of smooth black hair. His dress was simply a coarse
+linen shirt and trowsers, the heat of the day being such as to allow him
+to dispense with coat and waistcoat. He carried, in one hand, a battered
+straw hat, and in the other, trailed a long rifle. His feet were
+covered with a pair of moccasins of brown leather, and the ordinary
+hunting equipments were suspended about his person.
+
+The second was a youth apparently about sixteen, dressed in a suit of
+green summer-cloth, neatly and fancifully adapted to his figure, which
+was graceful and boyish. The jacket was short, and gathered into a small
+skirt behind; and both this and the pantaloons were garnished with a
+profusion of black cord and small black buttons. A highly polished
+leather belt was buckled around his waist; a cap of green cloth rested,
+somewhat conceitedly, amongst the rich locks of a head of light, curly
+hair that fell, with girlish beauty, over a fair brow, and gave softness
+to a countenance of pure white and red; and a neat foot showed to
+advantage in a laced boot. The whole appearance of the youth was of one
+of an amiable and docile bearing, and the small rifle or carbine which
+he bore in his hand, as well as the dainty accoutrements that belonged
+to it, amongst which was a diminutive bugle, looked more like the toys
+of a pampered boy, than any apparatus of service.
+
+No sooner had these two approached near enough to Butler and his
+attendant for recognition, than the youth, quitting the hold of his
+horse, sprang forward with a joyous alacrity and seized Butler by the
+hand.
+
+"Captain Butler," he cried with great animation, "how glad I am you have
+come! And how fortunate it is that I should meet you! Get down from your
+horse, I have something to tell you. Here, Stephen Foster, take this
+gentleman's horse."
+
+"You are a fine fellow, Harry," said Butler, dismounting. "That smiling
+face of yours is full of pleasant news; it assures me that all are well
+at the Dove Cote." Then having given his horse in charge to Robinson,
+and walked a few paces apart with his young friend, he enquired, in a
+low and anxious tone, "Mildred, my dear Henry, what of your sister
+Mildred? Has she received my letter? Does she expect me? Is your
+father--"
+
+"Now, captain," interrupted the other--"but heigh! don't the newspapers
+say you are brevetted? I am a pretty fellow to forget that! Well then,
+Major Butler, let me answer one question at a time. In the first place,
+sister Mildred is as well as any girl can be, that has a whole bushel of
+crosses to keep her out of spirits. Poor thing, she frets so, about you
+and my father. In the second place, she received your letter a week ago,
+and has had me patrolling this ridge every day since, just to keep a
+look-out for you; and, for the sake of company, I have had Stephen
+Foster hunting here all the time--more for an excuse than anything else,
+because on this side of the river the drives are not the best for
+deer--a man might be here a fortnight and not get a shot. Sister Mildred
+wanted me, if I should see you first, just to whisper to you that it is
+impossible to do anything with my father, especially at this time, for
+he has one of these English officers staying at the Dove Cote now, who,
+I am afraid, and so is sister Mildred, has come to do some mischief.
+Mildred says I must make some appointment with you to see her privately.
+I thought of Mrs. Dimock's, but this Englishman has a servant staying
+over there, and may be it wouldn't do. So, major, you will have to ride
+down to the big chestnut, on the bank of the river, just under the rock
+that we call the Fawn's Tower--you know where that is? it isn't more
+than two miles from here."
+
+"I know it well, Henry, I will wait there patiently," replied Butler, as
+he now returned to his horse.
+
+"Haven't we been in luck," said Henry, "to get so fine a buck at last?
+This fellow has eight branches. It is Stephen's rifle that has done it."
+
+The woodman, during this conversation, had taken possession of his
+spoil, and was now busily engaged with his knife in cutting open and
+preparing the animal for transportation, according to the usages of
+woodcraft, whilst Robinson stood by, admiring the dexterity with which
+this office was performed. When the buck was, at last, thrown by Stephen
+across his horse, Henry gave him orders to ride forward.
+
+"You will carry our game to your own house, Stephen; and don't forget,
+to-morrow, to let us have the saddle at the Dove Cote. And Stephen, you
+need not say that we have found any acquaintances upon the road, you
+understand!"
+
+The man bowed his head, in token of obedience, and getting upon his
+long-backed steed, behind the buck, was soon lost to view in the
+windings of the hill.
+
+"Sister Mildred is sometimes downright melancholy," said the young
+hunter, after he had remounted, and now rode beside Butler. "She is
+troubled about you, and is always telling me of some unpleasant dream. I
+almost think she is over-fanciful; and then she reads everything about
+the army, and talks almost like a man about soldiering. Do you know she
+is making a soldier of me? I am constantly reading military books, and
+practising drill, and laying out fortifications, just as if I was going
+into camp. My father doesn't know a word of it; his time is taken up
+with these English officers, writing to them, and every now and then
+there are some of them at our house. Mildred knows them--a famous spy
+she would make! Isn't she an excellent girl, Major Butler?"
+
+"You and I should guard her, Henry, with more care than we guard our
+lives," replied Butler, with a serious emphasis.
+
+"I hope," returned Henry, "she will be in better spirits after she sees
+you."
+
+"I would to heaven," said Butler, "that we all had more reason to be of
+good cheer, than we are likely to have. It is as cloudy a day, Henry, as
+you may ever behold again, should you live, as I pray you may, to the
+ripest old age."
+
+Henry looked up towards the west.
+
+"There are clouds upon the sky," he said, "and the sun has dropped below
+them; but there is a streak of yellow light, near to the line of the
+mountain, that our wise people say is a sign that the sun will rise in
+beauty to-morrow."
+
+"There is a light beyond the mountain," replied Butler, half speaking to
+himself, "and it is the best, the only sign I see of a clear to-morrow.
+I wish, Henry, it were a brighter beam."
+
+"Don't you know Gates has passed South?" said Henry, "and has some
+pretty fellows with him, they say. And ar'n't we all mustering
+here--every man most? Ask Stephen Foster what I am?"
+
+"And what will he tell me?"
+
+"Why, that I am his deputy-corporal in the mounted riflemen; Stephen is
+the lieutenant."
+
+"Oh, I crave your favor, brother officer, good master deputy-corporal,
+Henry Lindsay! and does your father allow you to ride in the ranks of
+the friends of liberty?"
+
+"Sister Mildred persuaded him that as I am a mere lad, as she
+says,--look at me, major,--a pretty well grown lad, I take it, there is
+no harm in my playing soldier. So I ride always with Stephen Foster, and
+Mildred got me this light rifle-carbine. Now, major, I fancy I am pretty
+nearly as good a marksman as rides in the corps. Who is this with you?"
+asked Henry, looking back at Robinson, who loitered some distance in the
+rear purposely to avoid what might be deemed an intrusion upon the
+private conference of the two friends.
+
+"That is a famous soldier, Henry; he was at the siege of Charleston, and
+last year at Savannah. He has had some hard blows, and can tell you more
+of war than you have ever read in all your studies."
+
+"He wears a curious uniform," said Henry, "for a regular soldier. What
+is his name?"
+
+"Galbraith Robinson--or Horse Shoe Robinson--to give him his most
+popular distinction. But it would be well to keep his name secret."
+
+"I have heard of Horse Shoe," said Henry, with an expression of great
+interest. "So, this is the man himself? From all reports he is as brave
+as"--
+
+"As who?" asked Butler, smiling at the tone of wonder with which Henry
+spoke.
+
+"As Caius Marcius Coriolanus, who, I make no doubt, major, was about the
+bravest man in the books."
+
+Butler laughed, and applauded the young martialist for his
+discrimination.
+
+The road from the foot of the hill pursued the left, or northern, bank
+of the Rockfish, which shot along, with a rapid flood, over the rocks
+that lay scattered in its bed; and the gush of whose flight fell upon
+the ear like the loud tones of the wind. From either margin it was
+shaded by huge sycamores, whose tops, at this twilight hour, were marked
+in broad lines upon the fading sky, and whose wide spreading boughs met,
+from side to side, over the middle of the stream, throwing a deeper
+night upon the clear and transparent waters. The valley was closely
+bound by high precipitous hills, whose steep crags and narrow passes
+seemed to echo and prolong the gush of the stream, that was now mingled
+with the occasional lowing of cattle, the shriek of the owl, and the
+frequent hoarse scream of the whip-poor-will.
+
+When our party had advanced about a mile along this road, Henry Lindsay
+took his bugle and blew a blast which seemed to dance in its
+reverberations from one side of the river to the other.
+
+"Mildred knows my signal," said he; "that is the scout's warning:
+cavalry approaches: dress your line: prepare to receive a general
+officer."
+
+"Henry, pray drop your military phrase, and tell me what this means?"
+said Butler.
+
+"Ride on till you arrive beneath the Fawn's Tower. Wait for me there. I
+will give you a signal when I approach: and trust me for a faithful
+messenger. The river is deep at the rock, but you will find a boat
+fastened to this bank. When you hear my signal come across. Mr. Dimock's
+is only another mile; and, I'll warrant, the old lady will make you
+comfortable. Love, they say, major," added Henry, sportively, "is meat
+and drink, and a blanket to boot; but for all that, Mrs. Dimock's will
+not be amiss--especially for Horse Shoe, who, I take it, will have the
+roughest time of the party. If love is a blanket, Mr. Robinson," Henry
+continued, addressing himself to that worthy, "it doesn't cover two, you
+know."
+
+"To my thinking, young sir," replied Horse Shoe, with a laugh, "it
+wouldn't fold so cleverly in a knapsack."
+
+"Now that I have given my orders," said Henry, "and done my duty, I must
+leave you, for my road lies across the ford here. Where are my hounds?
+Hylas, Bell, Blanche, you puppies, where are you?"
+
+Here Henry blew another note, which was immediately responded to by the
+hounds; and, plunging into the rapid and narrow stream, followed by the
+dogs, who swam close behind him, he was seen, the next moment, through
+the twilight, galloping up the opposite hill, as he called out his "good
+night" to his friends.
+
+As soon as Henry had disappeared, the other two pricked their steeds
+forward at a faster pace. The rapid flow of the river, as they advanced
+along its bank, began to change into a more quiet current, as if some
+obstruction below had dammed up the water, rendering it deep and still.
+Upon this tranquil mirror the pale crescent of the moon and the faintly
+peeping stars were reflected; and the flight of the fire-fly was traced,
+by his own light and its redoubled image, upon the same surface.
+
+The high toppling cliff of the Fawn's Tower, that jutted forth like a
+parapet above the road, soon arrested the attention of Butler; and at
+its base the great chestnut flung abroad his "vast magnificence of
+leaves," almost in emulation of the aspiring crag.
+
+"We have reached our appointed ground," said Butler. "I shall want my
+cloak, Galbraith; the dews begin to chill my limbs."
+
+They dismounted, and Butler threw his cloak around his shoulders. Then,
+in a thoughtful, musing state of mind, he strolled slowly along the bank
+of the river, till he was temporarily lost to view in the thick shades
+and sombre scenery around him. Robinson, having secured the horses, sat
+himself down at the foot of the chestnut, unwilling to interrupt, by
+conversation, the anxious state of feeling which he had the shrewdness
+to perceive predominated in Butler's mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A MEETING OF LOVERS----SOME INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE.
+
+
+The twilight had subsided and given place to a beautiful night. The moon
+had risen above the tree tops, and now threw her level rays upon the
+broad face of the massive pile of rocks forming the Fawn's Tower, and
+lit up with a silvery splendor, the foliage that clothed the steep cliff
+and the almost perpendicular hill in its neighborhood. On the opposite
+side of the river, a line of beech and sycamore trees, that grew almost
+at the water's edge, threw a dark shadow upon the bank. Through these,
+at intervals, the bright moonlight fell upon the earth, and upon the
+quiet and deep stream. The woods were vocal with the whispering noises
+that give discord to the nights of summer; yet, was there a stillness in
+the scene which invited grave thoughts, and recalled to Butler's mind
+some painful emotions that belonged to his present condition.
+
+"How complicated and severe are those trials"--such was the current of
+his meditations--"which mingle private grief with public misfortune:
+that double current of ill which runs, on one side, to the overthrow of
+a nation's happiness, and, on the other, to the prostration of the
+individual who labors in the cause! What a struggle have I to encounter
+between my duty to my country and my regard for those tender relations
+that still more engross my affections, nor less earnestly appeal to my
+manhood for defence! Upon the common quarrel I have already staked my
+life and fortune, and find myself wrapt up in its most perilous
+obligations. That cause has enough in it to employ and perplex the
+strongest mind, and to invoke the full devotion of a head and heart that
+are exempt from all other solicitude: yet am I embarrassed with personal
+cares that are woven into the very web of my existence; that have
+planted themselves beside the fountain of my affections, and which, if
+they be rudely torn from me, would leave behind--but a miserable and
+hopeless wreck. My own Mildred! to what sad trials have I brought your
+affection; and how nobly hast thou met them!
+
+"Man lives in the contentious crowd; he struggles for the palm that
+thousands may award, and far-speeding renown may rend the air with the
+loud huzza of praise. His is the strife of the theatre where the world
+are spectators; and multitudes shall glorify his success, or lament his
+fall, or cheer him in the pangs of death. But woman, gentle, silent,
+sequestered--thy triumphs are only for the heart that loves thee--thy
+deepest griefs have no comforter but the secret communion of thine own
+pillow!"
+
+Whilst Butler, who had now returned beneath the cliff of the Fawn's
+Tower, was absorbed in this silent musing, his comrade was no less
+occupied with his own cares. The sergeant had acquired much of that
+forecast, in regard to small comforts, which becomes, in some degree, an
+instinct in those whose profession exposes them to the assaults of wind
+and weather. Tobacco, in his reckoning, was one of the most
+indispensable muniments of war; and he was, accordingly, seldom without
+a good stock of this commodity. A corn cob, at any time, furnished him
+the means of carving the bowl of a pipe; whilst, in his pocket, he
+carried a slender tube of reed which, being united to the bowl, formed a
+smoking apparatus, still familiar to the people of this country, and
+which, to use the sergeant's own phrase, "couldn't be touched for
+sweetness by the best pipe the very Queen of the Dutch herself ever
+smoked; and that"--he was in the habit of adding--"must be, as I take
+it, about the tenderest thing for a whiff that the Dutchman knowed how
+to make."
+
+A flint and steel--part also of his gear--now served to ignite his
+tobacco, and he had been, for some time past, sedately scanning the
+length and breadth of his own fancies, which were, doubtless rendered
+the more sublime by the mistiness which a rich volume of smoke had shed
+across his vision and infused into the atmosphere around his brain.
+
+"Twelve shillings and nine pence," were the first words which became
+audible to Butler in the depth of his revery. "That, major," said the
+sergeant, who had been rummaging his pocket, and counting over a handful
+of coin, "is exactly the amount I have spent since this time last night.
+I paid it to the old lady of the Swan at Charlottesville, taking a
+sixpence for mending your bridle rein. Since you must make me paymaster
+for our march, I am obliged to square accounts every night. My noddle
+wont hold two days reckoning. It gets scrimped and flustered with so
+many numberings, that I lose the count clean out."
+
+"It is of little consequence, Galbraith," replied Butler, seeking to
+avoid his companion's interruption.
+
+"Squaring up, and smoothing off, and bringing out this and that shilling
+straight to a penny, don't come natural to me," continued Robinson, too
+intent upon his reckoning to observe the disinclination of Butler to a
+parley, "money matters are not in my line. I take to them as
+disunderstandingly as Gill Bentley did to the company's books, when they
+made him Orderly on the Waccamaw picquet. For Gill, in the first place,
+couldn't write, and, in the next place, if he could'a done that, he
+never larnt to read, so you may suppose what a beautiful puzzleification
+he had of it to keep the guard roster straight."
+
+"Sergeant, look if yonder boat is loose; I shall want it presently,"
+said Butler, still giving no ear to his comrade's gossip.
+
+"It is tied by an easy knot to the root of the tree," said Robinson, as
+he returned from the examination.
+
+"Thank you," added Butler with more than usual abstractedness.
+
+"Something, major, seems to press upon your spirits to-night," said the
+sergeant, in the kindest tones of inquiry. "If I could lend a hand to
+put any thing, that mought happen to have got crooked, into its right
+place again, you know, Major Butler, I wouldn't be slow to do it, when
+you say the word."
+
+"I would trust my life to you, Galbraith, sooner than to any man
+living," replied the other, with an affectionate emphasis:--"But you
+mistake me, I am not heavy at heart, though a little anxious, sergeant,
+at what has brought me here, comrade," he added as he approached the
+sergeant, upon whose broad shoulder he familiarly laid his hand, with a
+smile; "you will keep a fellow soldier's counsel?"
+
+"As I keep my heart in my body," interrupted Galbraith.
+
+"I am sure of it; even as you keep your faith to your country my true
+and worthy brother," added Butler with animation, "and that is with no
+less honesty than a good man serves his God. Then, Galbraith, bear it
+in mind, I have come here for the sake of a short meeting with one that
+I love, as you would have a good soldier love the lady of his soul. You
+will hereafter speak of nothing that may fall within your notice. It
+concerns me deeply that this meeting should be secret."
+
+"Major, I will have neither eyes nor ears, if it consarns you to keep
+any thing that mought chance to come to my knowledge, private."
+
+"It is not for myself, sergeant, I bespeak this caution; I have nothing
+to conceal from you; but there is a lady who is much interested in our
+circumspection. I have given you a long and solitary ride on her
+account, and may hereafter ask other service from you. You shall not
+find it more irksome, Galbraith, to stand by a comrade in love, than you
+have ever found it in war, and that, I know, you think not much."
+
+"The war comes naturally enough to my hand," replied Galbraith, "but as
+for the love part, major, excepting so far as carrying a message, or, in
+case of a runaway, keeping off a gang of pestifarious intermeddlers, or
+watching, for a night or so, under a tree, or any thing, indeed, in the
+riding and running, or watching, or scrimmaging line--I say, excepting
+these, my sarvice moughtn't turn to much account. I can't even play a
+fiddle at a wedding, and I've not the best tongue for making headway
+amongst the women. Howsomdever, major, you may set me down for a
+volunteer on the first forlorn hope you may have occasion for."
+
+"Mr. Lindsay lives on the hill across the river. There are reasons why I
+cannot go to his house; and his daughter, Galbraith, is an especial
+friend to us and to our cause."
+
+"I begin to see into it," interrupted the sergeant, laughing, "you have
+a notion of showing the old gentleman the same trick you played off upon
+Lord Howe's provost marshal, when you was lieutenant at Valley Forge,
+touching your stealing away his prisoner, Captain Roberts. That was a
+night affair, too. Well, the best wife a man can have, major, is the
+woman that takes to him through fire and water. There was Colonel
+Gardiner, that stole his wife just in that way, against all opposition
+of both father and mother, and a better woman never stitched up a seam,
+to my knowledge and belief."
+
+"I have no thought of such an enterprise, sergeant," said Butler; "our
+purpose, for the present, must be confined to a short visit. We are
+houseless adventurers, Galbraith, and have little to offer to sweetheart
+or wife that might please a woman's fancy."
+
+"When a woman loves a man, especially a sodger," replied the sergeant,
+"she sets as little store by house and home as the best of us. Still, it
+is a wise thing to give the creatures the chance of peace, before you
+get to tangling them with families. Hark, I hear something like
+footsteps on t'other side of the river! Mister Henry must be on his
+march."
+
+After an interval, a low whistle issued from the opposite bank, and, in
+a moment, Butler was in the skiff, pushing his way through the sparkling
+waters.
+
+As the small boat, in which he stood upright, shot from the bright
+moonlight into the shade of the opposite side, he could obscurely
+discern Mildred Lindsay leaning on her brother's arm, as they both stood
+under the thick foliage of a large beech. And scarcely had the bow
+struck upon the pebbly margin, before he bounded from it up the bank,
+and was, in the next instant, locked in the embrace of one whose
+affection he valued above all earthly possessions.
+
+When that short interval had passed away, in which neither Mildred nor
+Arthur could utter speech; during which the lady leant her head upon her
+lover's bosom, in that fond familiarity which plighted faith is allowed
+to justify in the most modest maiden, sobbing the while in the intensity
+of her emotions, she then at last, as she slowly regained her
+self-possession, said, in a soft and melancholy voice, in which there
+was nevertheless a tone of playfulness:
+
+"I am a foolish girl, Arthur. I can boast like a blustering coward, when
+there is nothing to fear; and yet I weep, like a true woman, at the
+first trial of my courage."
+
+"Ah, my dear Mildred, you are a brave girl," replied Butler, as he held
+both of her hands and looked fondly into her face, "and a true and a
+tried girl. You have come kindly to me, and ever, like a blessed and
+gentle spirit of good, are prompt to attend me through every mischance.
+It is a long and weary time, love, since last we met."
+
+"It is very, very long, Arthur."
+
+"And we are still as far off, Mildred, from our wishes as at first we
+were."
+
+"Even so," said Mildred sorrowfully. "A year of pain drags heavily by,
+and brings no hope. Oh, Arthur, what have I suffered in the thought that
+your life is so beset with dangers! I muse upon them with a childish
+fear, that was not so before our last meeting. They rise to disturb my
+daily fancies, and night finds them inhabiting my pillow. I was so
+thankful, that you escaped that dreary siege of Charleston!"
+
+"Many a poor and gallant fellow soldier there bit his lip with a chafed
+and peevish temper," said Butler; "but the day will come, Mildred, when
+we may yet carry a prouder head to the field of our country's honor."
+
+"And your share," interrupted Mildred, "will ever be to march in the
+front rank. In spite of all your perils past, your hard service, which
+has known no holiday, your fatigues, that I have sometimes feared would
+break down your health, and in spite too, of the claims, Arthur, that
+your poor Mildred has upon you, you are even now again bound upon some
+bold adventure, that must separate us, ah, perhaps, for ever! Our fate
+has malice in it. Ever beginning some fresh exploit!"
+
+"You would not have your soldier bear himself otherwise than as a true
+knight, who would win and wear his lady-love by good set blows when
+there was need for them?"
+
+"If I were the genius that conjured up this war, I would give my own
+true knight a breathing space. He should pipe and dance between whiles,"
+replied Mildred sportively.
+
+"He that puts his sickle into this field amongst the reapers," said
+Butler, with a thoughtful earnestness, "should not look back from his
+work."
+
+"No, no, though my heart break while I say it--for, in truth, I am very
+melancholy, notwithstanding I force a beggar's smile upon my cheek; no,
+I would not have you stay or stand, Arthur, until you have seen this
+wretched quarrel at an end. I praised your first resolve--loved you for
+it--applauded and cheered you; I will not selfishly now, for the sake of
+my weak, womanish apprehension, say one word to withhold your arm."
+
+"And you are still," said Butler, "that same resolute enthusiast that I
+found in the young and eloquent beauty who captivated my worthless
+heart, when the war first drew the wild spirits of the country together
+under our free banner?"
+
+"The same foolish, conceited, heady, prattling truant, Arthur, that
+first took a silly liking to your pompous strut, and made a hero to her
+imagination out of a boasting ensign--the same in all my follies, and in
+all my faults--only altered in one quality."
+
+"And pray, what is that one quality?"
+
+"I will not tell you," said Mildred carelessly. "'Twould make you vainer
+than you are."
+
+"It is not well to hide a kind thought from me, Mildred."
+
+"Indeed it is not, Arthur. And so, I will muster courage to speak it,"
+said the confiding girl with vivacity, after a short pause during which
+she hung fondly upon her lover's arm; and then suddenly changing her
+mood, she proceeded in a tone of deep and serious enthusiasm, "it is,
+that since that short, eventful and most solemn meeting, I have loved
+you, Arthur, with feelings that I did not know until then were mine. My
+busy fancy has followed you in all your wanderings--painted with
+stronger hues than nature gives to any real scene the difficulties and
+disasters that might cross your path--noted the seasons with a nervous
+acuteness of remark, from very faint-heartedness at the thought that
+they might blight your health or bring you some discomfort. I have pored
+over the accounts of battles, the march of armies, the tales of
+prisoners relating the secrets of their prisons; studied the plans of
+generals and statesmen, as the newspapers or common rumor brought them
+to my knowledge, with an interest that has made those around me say I
+was sadly changed. It was all because I had grown cowardly and feared
+even my own shadow. Oh, Arthur, I am not indeed what I was."
+
+The solemnity, force and feeling with which Mildred gave utterance to
+these words, strangely contrasted with the light and gay tone in which
+she had commenced; but her thoughts had now fallen into a current that
+bore her forward into one of those bursts of excited emotion, which were
+characteristic of her temper, and which threw a peculiar energy and
+eloquence into her manner. Butler, struck by the rising warmth of her
+enunciation, and swayed in part by the painful reflections to which her
+topic gave rise, replied, in a state of feeling scarcely less solemn
+than her own--
+
+"Ah, Mildred," and as he spoke, he parted her hair upon her pale
+forehead and kissed it, "dearest girl, the unknown time to come has no
+cup of suffering for me that I would not hold a cheap purchase for one
+moment like this. Even a year of painful absence past, and a still more
+solicitous one to come, may be gallantly and cheerfully borne when
+blessed with the fleeting interval of this night. To hear your faith,
+which though I never dwelt upon it but with a confidence that I have
+held it most profane to doubt, still, to hear it avowed from your own
+lips, now again and again, repeating what you have often breathed
+before, and in letter after letter, written down, it falls upon my
+heart, Mildred, like some good gift from heaven, specially sent to
+revive and quicken my resolution in all the toils and labors that yet
+await me. There must be good in store for such a heart as thine; and,
+trusting to this faith, I will look to the future with a buoyant
+temper."
+
+"The future," said Mildred, as she lifted her eyes to the pale moon that
+now sheeted with its light her whole figure, as she and her lover
+strayed beyond the shade of the beech, "I almost shudder when I hear
+that word. We live but in the present; that, Arthur, is, at least, our
+own, poor as we are in almost all beside. That future is a perplexed and
+tangled riddle--a dreadful uncertainty, in the contemplation of which I
+grow superstitious. Such ill omens are about us! My father's inexorable
+will, so headstrong, so unconscious of the pain it gives me; his rooted,
+yes, his fatal aversion to you; my thraldom here, where, like a poor
+bird checked by a cord, I chafe myself by fluttering on the verge of my
+prison bounds; and then, the awful perils that continually impend over
+your head--all these are more than weak imaginings; they are the
+realities of my daily life, and give me, what I am almost ashamed to
+confess, a sad and boding spirit."
+
+"Nay, nay, dearest Mildred! Away with all these unreasonable
+reckonings!" replied Butler, with a manner that too plainly betrayed the
+counterfeit of mirth. "Seclusion has dealt unworthily with you. It has
+almost turned thee into a downright sentimental woman. I will have none
+of this stepping to the verge of melancholy. You were accustomed to
+cheer me with sunny and warm counsel; and you must not forget it was
+yourself who taught me to strike aside the waves of fortune with a glad
+temper. The fates can have no spite against one so good as thou art!
+Time may bear us along like a rough trotting horse; and our journey may
+have its dark night, its quagmires, and its jack-o'lanterns, but there
+will come a ruddy morning at last--a smoother road, and an easier gait;
+and thou, my girl, shalt again instruct me how to win a triumph over the
+ills of life."
+
+"And we will be happy, Arthur, because all around us will be so," added
+Mildred, catching the current of Butler's thoughts, with that ready
+versatility which eminently showed the earnestness and devotion of her
+feelings--"Ah, may heaven grant this boon, and bring these dreams to
+life! I think, Arthur, I should be happier now, if I could but be near
+you in your wanderings. Gladly would I follow you through all the
+dangers of the war."
+
+"That were indeed, love, a trial past your faculty to endure. No, no,
+Mildred, she who would be a soldier's wife, should learn the soldier's
+philosophy--to look with a resigned submission on the present events,
+and trust to heaven for the future. Your share in this struggle is to
+commune with your own heart in solitude, and teach it patience. Right
+nobly have you thus far borne that grievous burden! The sacrifice that
+you have made--its ever present and unmitigated weight, silently and
+sleeplessly inflicting its slow pains upon your free and generous
+spirit; that, Mildred, is the chief and most galling of my cares."
+
+"This weary war, this weary war," breathed Mildred, in a pensive under
+key, "when will it be done!"
+
+"The longest troubles have their end," replied Butler, "and men, at
+last, spent with the vexations of their own mischief, fly, by a selfish
+instinct, into the bosom of peace. God will prosper our enterprise, and
+bring our battered ship into a fortunate haven."
+
+"How little like it seems it now!" returned Mildred. "The general
+sorrow, alone, might well weigh down the stoutest heart. That cause
+which you have made mine, Arthur, to which you have bestowed your life,
+and which, for your sake," she added proudly, "should have this feeble
+arm of mine, could it avail, is it not even now trembling on the verge
+of ruin? Have not your letters, one after another told me of the sad
+train in which misfortunes have thickened upon the whole people? of
+defeat, both north and south, and, at this very time, of disgraceful
+mutiny of whole regiments under the very eye of Washington--that
+Washington who loves his country and her soldiers as a husband loves his
+bride, and a father his children. Have not those, to whom we all looked
+for champions, turned into mere laggards in the war for freedom? Oh,
+Arthur, do you not remember that these are the thoughts, the very words,
+which were penned by your own hand, for my especial meditation? How can
+I but fear that the good end is still far off? How can I but feel some
+weight upon my heart?"
+
+"You have grown overwise, Mildred, in these ruminations. I am to blame
+for this, that in my peevish humor, vexed with the crosses of the day, I
+should have written on such topics to one so sensitive as yourself."
+
+"Still it is true, Arthur, all report confirms it."
+
+"These things do not become your entertainment, Mildred. Leave the
+public care to us. There are bold hearts, love, and strong arms yet to
+spare for this quarrel. We have not yet so exhausted our mines of
+strength, but that much rough ore still lies unturned to the sun, and
+many an uncouth lump of metal remains to be fashioned for serviceable
+use. History tells of many a rebound from despondency, so sudden and
+unreckoned, that the wisest men could see in it no other spring than the
+decree of God. He will fight the battle of the weak, and set the right
+upon a sure foundation."
+
+"The country rings," said Mildred, again taking the more cheerful hue of
+her lover's hopes, and following out, with an affectionate sympathy, his
+tone of thought, "with anticipation of victory from Gates's southern
+march."
+
+"That may turn out to be a broken reed," interrupted Butler, as if
+thinking aloud, and struck by Mildred's reference to a subject that had
+already engrossed his thoughts; "they may be deceived, Washington would
+have put a different man upon that service. I would have a leader in
+such a war, wary, watchful, humble--diffident as well as brave. I fear
+Gates is not so."
+
+"Then, I trust, Arthur," exclaimed Mildred, with anxious alacrity, "that
+your present expedition does not connect you with his fortunes!"
+
+"I neither follow his colors nor partake of his counsels," replied
+Butler. "Still my motions may not be exempt from the influence of his
+failure or success. The enemy, you are aware, has possessed himself of
+every post of value in South Carolina and Georgia. I go commissioned to
+advise with discreet and prudent men upon the means to shake off this
+odious domination. So far only, and remotely, too, I am a fellow-laborer
+with Gates. There are gallant spirits now afoot, Mildred, to strip these
+masters of their power. My office is to aid their enterprise."
+
+"If you needs must go, Arthur, I have no word to say. You will leave
+behind you an aching heart, that morning, noon, and night, wearies
+heaven with its prayers for your safety. Alas, I have no other aid to
+give! How soon--how soon," she said, with a voice that faltered with the
+question, "does your duty compel you to leave me?"
+
+"To-morrow's sunrise, love, must find me forth upon my way."
+
+"To-morrow, Arthur? so quickly to part!"
+
+"I dare not linger; not even for the rich blessing of thy presence."
+
+"And the utmost length of your journey?"
+
+"Indeed, I know not. At present my farthest aim is Ninety-six and
+Augusta. It much depends upon the pleasure of our proud and wilful
+masters."
+
+Mildred stood for some moments looking upon the ground in profound
+silence. Her bosom heaved with a sad emotion.
+
+"It is a dangerous duty," said she, at last. "I cannot speak my
+apprehension at the thought of your risks amongst the fierce and
+treacherous men that overrun the country to which you travel."
+
+"These perils are exaggerated by distance," returned Butler. "A thousand
+expedients of protection and defence occur when present, which the
+absent cannot fancy. It is a light service, Mildred, and may more
+securely be performed with a gay heart than with a sad one. I pray you,
+do not suffer that active imagination of yours to invest the every day
+adventures of your poor soldier with a romantic interest of which they
+are not worthy. I neither slay giants, nor disenchant ladies, nor yoke
+captive griffins together. No, no, I shall outrun some over-fed clown,
+and outwit some simple boobies; and, perhaps, soil my boots in a great
+slough, and then hasten back, love, to boast of my marvels to the
+credulous ear of my own sweet girl, who, I warrant, will think me a most
+preposterous hero."
+
+"How can you laugh, Arthur? And yet I would not have you catch my
+foolish sadness, either."
+
+"I have with me, besides, Mildred, a friend good at need; one Galbraith
+Robinson, a practised and valiant soldier, who sits on yonder bank. He
+is to be the companion of my journey; he is shrewd, vigilant and
+cautious, an inhabitant, moreover, of the district to which I am bound;
+his wisdom can do much for my success. Then I travel, too, in peaceful
+guise. My business is more concerned with negotiation than with battle."
+
+"It is a waylaid path, Arthur," said Mildred, in the same faint voice
+with which she had spoken before.
+
+"Never take it so heavily, my love!" exclaimed Butler, familiarly
+seizing her hand, whose trembling now betrayed her agitation,--"it is
+the mere sport of the war to be upon a running service, where a light
+stratagem or so will baffle a set of dull-pated clodpoles! I scarcely
+deem it a venture, to dodge through a forest, where every man flies from
+his neighbor out of mutual distrust. These fellows have brought
+themselves upon such bad terms with their own consciences, that they
+start like thieves at the waving of a bulrush."
+
+"They would be the more cruel," replied Mildred, "if some ill luck
+should throw you into their power. If that should happen," she added,
+and for a while she hesitated to speak, as a tear fell upon Butler's
+hand--"If that should happen, I cannot bear the thought."
+
+"They dare offer me no wrong, Mildred. The chances of battle are
+sufficiently various to compel even the victors to pursue the policy of
+humanity to prisoners. The conqueror of to-day may himself be a captive
+to-morrow, and a bloody reprisal would await his barbarity. Again, let
+me remind you, these are not fit topics for your meditation."
+
+"They are topics for my heart, Arthur, and will not be driven from it.
+If your lot should put you in the power of the enemy, the name of
+Mildred Lindsay, and the relation you bear her, whispered in their ears,
+may, perhaps, unlock their charity. My father has many friends in those
+ranks, and it may be that I am not unknown to some of them: oh, remember
+that!"
+
+"You have little need to teach me to think or speak of Mildred Lindsay,"
+said Butler, eagerly. "I cannot forget that name. But I may well doubt
+its charm upon the savage bulldogs who are now baiting our citizens in
+Carolina; those ruthless partizans who are poisoning the fountains of
+contentment at every fire-side. It is not a name to conjure evil spirits
+with."
+
+"Major Butler," said Henry, who during this long interval had been
+strolling backward and forward, like a sentinel, at some distance from
+his sister and her lover, and who, with the military punctilio of a
+soldier on duty, forbore even to listen to what he could not have helped
+overhearing, if it had not been for humming a tune--"Major, I don't like
+to make or meddle with things that don't belong to me--but you and
+Mildred have been talking long enough to settle the course of a whole
+campaign. And as my father thinks he can't be too careful of Mildred,
+and doesn't like her walking about after night-fall, I shouldn't be
+surprised if a messenger were despatched for us--only I think that man
+Tyrrel is hatching some plot with him to-night, and may keep him longer
+in talk than usual."
+
+"Who is Tyrrel?" inquired Butler.
+
+"One that I wish had been in his grave before he had ever seen my
+father," answered Mildred with a bitter vehemence. "He is a wicked
+emissary of the royal party sent here to entrap my dear father into
+their toils. Such as it has ever been his fate to be cursed with from
+the beginning of the war; but this Tyrrel, the most hateful of them
+all."
+
+"Alas, alas, your poor father! Mildred, what deep sorrow do I feel that
+he and I should be so estranged. I could love him, counsel with him,
+honor him, with a devotion that should outrun your fondest wish. His
+generous nature has been played upon, cheated, abused; and I, in whom
+fortune and inclination should have raised him a friend, have been made
+the victim of his perverted passion."
+
+"True, true," exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears, and resting her
+head against her lover's breast, "I can find courage to bear all but
+this--I am most unhappy;" and for some moments she sobbed audibly.
+
+"The thought has sometimes crossed me," said Butler, "that I would go to
+your father and tell him all. It offends my self-respect to be obliged
+to practise concealment towards one who should have a right to know all
+that concerns a daughter so dear to him. Even now, if I may persuade you
+to it, I will go hand in hand with you, and, with humble reverence,
+place myself before him and divulge all that has passed between us."
+
+"No, no, Arthur, no," ejaculated Mildred with the most earnest
+determination. "It will not come to good. You do not understand my
+father's feelings. The very sight of you would rouse him into frenzy;
+there is no name which might fall upon his ear with deeper offence than
+yours. Not yet, Arthur, the time has not yet come."
+
+"I have been patient," said Butler, "patient, Mildred, for your sake."
+
+"To try him now," continued Mildred, whose feelings still ran, with a
+heady impetuosity, upon this newly-awakened and engrossing topic; "now,
+in the very depth of his bitterest aversion to what he terms an impious
+rebellion, and whilst his heart is yet moved with an almost
+preternatural hate against all who uphold the cause, and to you,
+especially, above whose head there hovers, in his belief, some horrid
+impending curse that shall bring desolation upon him and all who claim
+an interest in his blood--no, no, it must not be!"
+
+"Another year of pent-up vexation, self-reproach and anxious concealment
+must then glide by, and perhaps another," said Butler. "Well, I must be
+content to bear it, though, in the mean time, my heart bleeds for you,
+Mildred; it is a painful trial."
+
+"For good or for evil our vow is now registered in heaven," replied
+Mildred, "and we must abide the end."
+
+"I would not have it other than it is, dearest girl, except this stern
+resolve of your father--not for the world's wealth," said Butler warmly.
+"But you spoke of this Tyrrel--what manner of man is he? How might I
+know him?"
+
+"To know him would answer no good end, Arthur. His soul is absorbed in
+stratagem, and my dear father is its prey. I too am grievously tormented
+by him; but it is no matter, I need not vex your ear with the tale of
+his annoyance."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Butler with a sudden expression of resentment.
+
+"All that concerns my father, concerns me," said Mildred. "It is my evil
+destiny, Arthur, to be compelled to endure the associations of men,
+whose principles, habits, purposes, are all at war with my own. Alas,
+such are now my father's constant companions. This man Tyrrel, whose
+very name is a cheat put on, I doubt not, to conceal him from
+observation--goes farther than the rest in the boldness of his practice.
+I have some misgiving that he is better acquainted with the interest you
+take in me, than we might suspect possible to a stranger. I fear him.
+And then, Arthur, it is my peculiar misery that he has lately set up a
+disgusting pretension to my regard. Oh! I could give him, if my sex had
+strength to strike, the dagger, sooner than squander upon him one kind
+word. Yet am I obliged by circumstance to observe a strained courtesy
+towards him, which, frugal as it is, makes me an unwilling hypocrite to
+my own heart."
+
+"Tyrrel," ejaculated Butler, "Tyrrel! I have heard no such name abroad!"
+then, muttering a deep curse, as he bit his lip with passion, he added,
+"Oh, that I could face this man, or penetrate his foul purpose! How is
+it likely I might meet him?"
+
+"You shall have no temptation to a quarrel," said Mildred; "your quick
+resentment would but give activity to his venom. For the sake of my
+peace, Arthur, and of your own, inquire no further. Time may disclose
+more than rash pursuit."
+
+"Leave that to sister Mildred and myself, major," said Henry, who
+listened with great interest to this conversation, "I have my eye upon
+him--let that satisfy you; and when sister Mildred puts up the game,
+depend upon it, I will bring him down."
+
+"Thanks, thanks, dear Henry! I can trust you for a ready friend, and
+will even follow your good advice. A more favorable season for this
+concern may soon arrive; meantime, I will bear this hint in mind."
+
+Again Henry made an appeal to the lovers to bring their conference to an
+end. It was a sorrowful moment, the events of which were brief, earnest
+and impassioned, and such as a dull scribbler, like myself, might easily
+mar in the telling; yet they were such as zealous and eager natures, who
+have loved with an intense and absorbing love, and who have parted in
+times of awful danger and uncertainty, may perchance be able to picture
+to themselves, when they recall the most impressive incident of their
+lives to memory. I will only say, that, in that dark shade where the
+beech tree spread his canopy of leaves over the cool bank, and marked
+his shadow's profile on the green sward--that grassy sward, on which
+"the constant moon" lit up the dewy lamps, hung by the spider on blade
+and leaf; and in that silent time, when the distant water-fall came
+far-sounding on the ear, when sleepless insects chirped in the thicket,
+and dogs, at some remote homestead, howled bugle-like to the moon; and
+in that chill hour, when Mildred drew her kerchief close around her
+dew-besprinkled shoulders, whilst Arthur, fondly and affectionately,
+half enveloped her in the folds of a military cloak, as he whispered
+words of tender parting in her ear, and imprinted a kiss upon her cheek;
+and when, moreover, Henry's teeth chattered like a frozen warder's, then
+it was, and there, that this enthusiastic girl again pledged her
+unalterable devotion to the man of her waking thoughts and nightly
+dreams, come weal, come woe, whatever might betide; and the soldier paid
+back the pledge with new ardor and endearment, in the strong language
+that came unstudied from the heart, meaning all that he said, and rife
+with a feeling beyond the reach of words. And, after "mony a locked and
+fond embrace," full tearfully, and lingeringly, and, in phrase oft
+repeated, the two bade "farewell," and invoked God's blessing each upon
+the other, and then, not without looking back, and breathing a fresh
+prayer of blessings, they separated on their dreary way, Mildred
+retiring, as she had come, on the arm of her brother, and Butler,
+springing hurriedly into the skiff and directing its swift passage to
+the middle of the stream, where, after a pause to enable him to discern
+the last footsteps of his mistress, as her form glided into the obscure
+distance, he sighed a low "God bless her," then resumed his oar, and
+sturdily drove his boat against the "opponent bank."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A COMFORTABLE INN, AND A GOOD LANDLADY----THE MISFORTUNES OF HEROES DO
+NOT ALWAYS DESTROY THE APPETITE.
+
+
+As soon as Butler landed from the skiff, he threw his cloak into the
+hands of the sergeant; then, with a disturbed haste, sprang upon his
+horse, and, commanding Robinson to follow, galloped along the road down
+the river as fast as the nature of the ground and the obscurity of the
+hour would allow. A brief space brought them to the spot where the road
+crossed the stream, immediately in the vicinity of the widow Dimock's
+little inn, which might here be discerned ensconced beneath the cover of
+the opposite hill. The low-browed wooden building, quietly stationed
+some thirty paces off the road, was so adumbrated in the shelter of a
+huge willow, that the journeyer, at such an hour as this, might
+perchance pass the spot unconsciously by, were it not for an insulated
+and somewhat haggard sign-post that, like a hospitable seeker of
+strangers, stood hard by the road side, and there displayed a shattered
+emblem in the guise of a large blue ball, a little decayed by wind and
+weather, which said Blue Ball, without superscription or device, was
+universally interpreted to mean "entertainment for man and horse, by the
+widow Dimock." The moonlight fell with a broad lustre upon the sign post
+and its pendent globe; and our travellers, besides, could descry,
+through the drapery of the willow, a window, of some rear building of
+the inn, richly illuminated by what, from the redness of the light,
+might be conjectured to be a bundle of blazing faggots.
+
+As the horses had, immediately upon entering the ford, compelled their
+masters to a halt, whilst they thrust their noses into the water and
+drank with the greediness of a long and neglected thirst, it was with no
+equivocal self-gratulation that Robinson directed his eye to the
+presignifications of good cheer which were now before him. Butler had
+spoken "never a word," and the sergeant's habits of subordination, as
+well as an honest sympathy in what he guessed to be the griefs of his
+superior officer, had constrained him to a respectful silence. The
+sergeant, however, was full of thoughts which, more than once during the
+gallop from the Fawn's Tower, he was on the point of uttering by way of
+consolation to Butler, and which nothing prevented but that real
+delicacy of mind that lies at the bottom of a kind nature, and inhabits
+the shaggy breast of the rustic, at least full as often as it lodges in
+the heart of the trim worldling. The present halt, seemed, in Horse
+Shoe's reckoning, not only to furnish a pretext to speak, but, in some
+degree, to render it a duty; and, in truth, an additional very
+stimulating subject presented itself to our good squire, in his
+instantaneous conviction that the glare from the tavern window had its
+origin in some active operation which, at this late hour, might be going
+on at the kitchen chimney; to understand the full pungency of which
+consideration, it is necessary to inform my reader, that Robinson had,
+for some time past, been yielding himself to certain doubts, whether his
+friend and himself might not arrive at the inn at too late an hour to
+hope for much despatch in the preparation for supper. In this state of
+feeling, partly bent to cheer the spirits of Butler, and partly to
+express his satisfaction at the prospect of his own comfort, he broke
+forth in the following terms--
+
+"God bless all widows that set themselves down by the road-side, is my
+worst wish! and, in particular, I pray for good luck to the widow
+Dimock, for an orderly sort of body, which I have no doubt she is; and
+keeps good hours--to judge by the shine of the kitchen fire which is
+blazing yonder in the rear--and which, to tell truth, major, I began to
+be afeard would be as dead, by this time o' night, as the day the
+hearth-stone was first laid. She desarves to be spoken of as a
+praiseworthy woman. And, moreover, I should say she has popped her house
+down in a most legible situation, touching our day's march, by which I
+mean it isn't one step too near a reasonable bed hour. I count it lucky,
+major, on your account; and although it isn't for me to give advice in
+woman affairs--for I know the creatures do try the grit and edge of a
+man amazingly sometimes--yet, if I mought say what was running in my
+head fit for a gentleman and an officer like you to do in such a
+tribulation, it would be this: drop thinking and chawing over your
+troubles, and take them with a light heart, as things that's not to be
+mended by a solemncolly long-facedness. A good victual's meal and a fair
+night's rest would make another man of you. That's my observation; and I
+remember once to hear you say the same yourself, upon occasion of your
+losing the baggage wagons last fall on the Beaufort convoy. You ha'n't
+forgot it, major?"
+
+"Thank you, thank you, sergeant. Your counsel is kindly offered and
+wisely said, and I will follow it. But it is a little hard, fellow
+soldier," added Butler, with something like an approach to jocularity,
+"it's a little hard to have one's misfortunes cast in his teeth by a
+comrade."
+
+"I thought it would make you laugh, major!" replied Robinson, with a
+good-natured solicitude, "for it wan't in the possibilities of a mortal
+earthly man to save the baggage; and, I remember, you laughed then, as
+well as the rest of us, when them pestifarious, filching sheep stealers
+made off with our dinners: nobody ever blamed you for it."
+
+"Ah, Galbraith, you are a good friend, and you shall say what you please
+to me," said Butler, with a returning cheerfulness; "sorrow is a dull
+companion to him who feeds it, and an impertinent one to everybody
+beside. So, ride forward, and we will endeavor to console ourselves with
+the good cheer of the widow. And, hark, Galbraith, this Mistress Dimock
+is an especial friend of mine: pray you, let her see, by your
+considerateness towards her, that you are aware of that--for my sake,
+good Horse Shoe."
+
+The two soldiers soon reached the inn, and, having dismounted, Butler
+aroused the attention of the inmates by a few strokes upon the door with
+his riding rod.
+
+The reply to this summons was a shrill invitation, in a feminine voice,
+to "walk in;" and no sooner had Butler thrown open the door and advanced
+a few paces into the passage, than the head of an elderly female was
+seen thrust through the partially expanded doorway of the adjoining
+room. Another instant, and the dusky figure of Mistress Dimock herself
+was visible to our travellers.
+
+"What would you be pleased to have, sir?" inquired the dame, with
+evident distrust at this untimely approach of strangers.
+
+"Accommodation for the night, and whatever you have good to offer a
+friend, Mistress Dimock."
+
+"Who are you that ride so late?" again interrogated the hostess; "I am
+cowardly, sir, and cautious, and have reason to be careful who comes
+into my house; a poor unprotected woman, good man."
+
+"A light, mother," said Butler, "and you shall know us better. We are
+travellers and want food and rest, and would have both with as little
+trouble to you as possible; a light will show you an old friend."
+
+"Wait a moment," returned the dame; and then added, as she observed
+Butler walk into a room on the left, "Take care, sir, it is risking a
+fall to grope in the dark in a strange house."
+
+"The house is not so strange to me as you suppose. Unless you have moved
+your furniture I can find the green settee beyond the cupboard," said
+Butler, familiarly striding across the room, and throwing himself into
+the old commodity he had named.
+
+The landlady, without heeding this evidence of the conversancy of her
+visitor with the localities of the little parlor, had hastily retreated,
+and, in a moment afterwards, returned with a light, which, as she held
+it above her head, while she peered through a pair of spectacles, threw
+its full effulgence upon the face of her guest.
+
+"Dear me, good lack!" she exclaimed, after a moment's gazing; "Arthur
+Butler, o' my conscience! And is it you, Mr. Butler?" Then, putting the
+candle upon the table, she seized both of his hands and gave them a long
+and hearty shake. "That Nancy Dimock shouldn't know your voice, of all
+others! Where have you been, and where are you going? Mercy on me! what
+makes you so late? And why didn't you let me know you were coming? I
+could have made you so much more comfortable. You are chilled with the
+night air; and hungry, no doubt. And you look pale, poor fellow! You
+surely couldn't have been at the Dove Cote?" which last interrogatory
+was expressed with a look of earnest and anxious inquiry.
+
+"No, not there," replied Butler, almost in a whisper; "alas, my kind
+dame, not there," he added, with a melancholy smile, as he held the hand
+of the hostess and shook his head; "my fortune has in no jot improved
+since I left you almost a year ago. I broke from you hastily then to
+resume my share in the war, and I have had nothing but hard blows ever
+since. The tide, Mistress Dimock, sets sadly against us."
+
+"Never let your heart fail you," exclaimed the landlady; "it isn't in
+the nature of things for the luck to be for ever on the shady side.
+Besides, take the good and bad together, you have not been so hardly
+dealt by, Captain Butler."
+
+"Major Butler, madam, of the second Carolina continental reg'lar
+infantry," interrupted Robinson, who had stood by all this time
+unnoticed, "_Major_ Butler; the captain has been promoted, by occasion
+of the wiping out of a few friends from the upper side of the adjutant's
+roll, in the scrimmage of Fort Moultrie. He is what we call, in common
+parley, brevetted."
+
+This annunciation was made by the sergeant with due solemnity,
+accompanied by an attempt at a bow, which was abundantly stiff and
+ungraceful.
+
+"My friend Sergeant Robinson," said Butler; "I commend him, Mistress
+Dimock, to your especial favor, both for a trusty comrade, and a most
+satisfactory and sufficient trencher man."
+
+"You are welcome and free to the best that's in the house, sergeant,"
+said the landlady, courtesying; "and I wish, for your sake, it was as
+good as your appetite, which ought to be of the best. Mr. Arthur
+Butler's word is all in all under this roof; and, whether he be captain
+or major, I promise you, makes no difference with me. Bless me! when I
+first saw you, major, you was only an ensign; then, whisk and away! and
+back you come a pretty lieutenant, about my house: and then a captain,
+forsooth! and now, on the track of that, a major. It is up-up-up-the
+ladder, till you will come, one of these days, to be a general; and too
+proud, I misdoubt, to look at such a little old woman as me! hegh, hegh,
+hegh! a pinch of snuff, Mr. Arthur." And here the good dame prolonged
+her phthisicky laugh for some moments, as she presented a box of Scotch
+snuff to her guest. "But I'll engage promotion never yet made the
+appetite of a travelling man smaller than before; so, gentlemen, you
+will excuse me while I look after your supper."
+
+"The sooner the better, ma'am," said Robinson; "your night air is a sort
+of a whetstone to the stomach; but first, ma'am, I would be obligated to
+you, if you would let me see the ostler."
+
+"Hut, tut! and have I been drivelling here all this time," exclaimed the
+dame, "without once spending a thought upon your cattle! Tony, Tony,
+To-ny, I say," almost shrieked the hostess, as she retreated along the
+passage towards the region of the kitchen, and then back again to the
+front door. "Are you asleep? Look to the gentlemen's horses; lead them
+to the stable, and don't spare to rub them down; and give them as much
+as they can eat. Where are you, old man?"
+
+"What's the use of all this fuss, Missus Dimck? Arn't I here on the
+spot, with the cretur's in my hand?" grumbled out an old, stunted negro,
+who answered to the appellation of ostler; "Arn't I getting the baggage
+off, as fast as I can onbuckle the straps?--I don't want nobody to tell
+me when I ought to step out. If a hos could talk, he ain't got nothing
+new to say to me. Get out, you varmints," he shouted, with a sudden
+vivacity of utterance, at three or four dogs that were barking around
+him; "Consarn you! What you making such a conbobberation about? You all
+throat when you see gentmen coming to the house; better wait tell you
+see a thief; bound, you silent enough then, with your tail twixt your
+legs! Blossom, ya sacy slut, keep quiet, I tell you!"
+
+In the course of this din and objurgation, the old negro succeeded in
+disburdening the horses of their furniture, and was about to lead them
+to the stable, when Robinson came to give him some directions.
+
+"Mind what you are after with them there cattle. Give them not a
+mouthful for a good hour, and plenty of fodder about their feet; I'll
+look at them myself before you shut up. Throw a handful of salt into the
+trough, Tony, and above all things, don't let me catch you splashing
+water over their backs; none of that; do you hear?"
+
+"Haw, haw, haw!" chuckled Tony; "think I don't know how to take care of
+a hos, mass! Been too use to creturs, ever sense so high. Bless the
+gentman! one of the best things on arth, when you're feared your hos is
+too much blowed, is to put a sprinkling of salt in a bucket o'water, and
+just stir a leetle Indian meal in with it; it sort of freshes the cretur
+up like, and is onaccountable good in hot weather, when you ain't got no
+time to feed. But cold water across the lines! oh, oh, I too cute in hos
+larning for that! Look at the top of my head--gray as a fox!"
+
+"Skip then, or I'll open upon you like a pack of hounds," said
+Robinson, as he turned on his heel to re-enter the house, "I'll look in
+after supper."
+
+"Never mind me," replied Tony, as he led the horses off, "I have tended
+Captain Butler's hos afore this, and he wan't never onsatisfied with
+me."
+
+These cares being disposed of, Horse Shoe returned to the parlor. The
+tidy display of some plain furniture, and the scrupulous attention to
+cleanliness in every part of the room, afforded an intelligent
+commentary upon the exact, orderly and decent character of the Widow
+Dimock. The dame herself was a pattern of useful thrift. Her short
+figure, as she now bustled to and fro, through the apartment, was
+arrayed in that respectable, motherly costume which befitted her years;
+and which was proper to the period of my story, when the luxury of dress
+was more expensive than at present, and when a correspondent degree of
+care was used to preserve it in repair. Evidences of this laudable
+economy were seen in the neatness with which a ruffle was darned, or a
+weak point fortified by a nicely adjusted patch, presenting, in some
+respect, a token both of the commendable pride of the wearer, and of the
+straitness of the national means, since the prevalence of war for five
+years had not only reduced the wealth of individuals and rendered
+frugality indispensable, but had, also, literally deprived the country
+of its necessary supply of commodities; thus putting the opulent and the
+needy, to a certain extent, upon the same footing. On the present
+occasion, our good landlady was arrayed in a gown of sober-colored
+chintz, gathered into plaits in the skirt, whilst the body fitted
+closely over a pair of long-waisted stays, having tight sleeves that
+reached to the elbow. The stature of the dame was increased a full inch
+by a pair of high-heeled, parti-colored shoes, remarkable for their
+sharp toes; and a frilled muslin cap, with lappets that reached under
+the chin, towered sufficiently high to contribute, also, something
+considerable to the elevation of the tripping little figure of its
+wearer.
+
+In such guise did Mistress Dimock appear, as she busied herself in
+preparing needful refreshment for the travellers; and for some time the
+house exhibited all that stir which belongs to this important care when
+despatched in a retired country inn.
+
+By degrees, the table began to show the bounties of the kitchen. A
+savory dish of fried bacon, the fumes of which had been, for a quarter
+of an hour, gently stimulating the appetite of the guests, now made its
+appearance, in company with a pair of broiled pullets; and these were
+followed by a detachment of brown-crested hoecakes--the peculiar
+favorite of the province; an abundance of rich milk, eggs, butter, and
+other rural knicknackeries, such as no hungry man ever surveys with
+indifference. These were successively deposited upon a homespun table
+cloth, whose whiteness rivalled the new snow, with an accuracy of
+adjustment that, by its delay, produced the most visible effects upon
+the sergeant, who, during the spreading of the board, sat silently by,
+watching, with an eager and gloating earnestness, the slow process, ever
+and anon uttering a short hem, and turning about restlessly on his
+chair.
+
+I may pause here, after the fashion of our worthy friend Horse Shoe, to
+make an observation. There is nothing that works so kindly upon the
+imagination of a traveller, if he be in any doubt as to his appetite, as
+the display of such a table. My particularity of detail, on the present
+occasion, will, therefore, be excused by my reader, when I inform him
+that Butler had arrived at the inn in that depressed tone of spirits
+which seemed to defy refreshment; and that, notwithstanding this
+impediment, he played no insignificant part afterwards at supper; a
+circumstance mainly attributable to that gentle but irresistible
+solicitation, which the actual sight and fragrance of the board
+addressed to his dormant physical susceptibility. I might, indeed, have
+pretermitted the supper altogether, were there not a philosophical truth
+at the bottom of the matter, worthy of the notice of the speculative and
+curious reader; namely, that where a man's heart is a little teased with
+love, and his temper fretted by crossings, and his body jolted by
+travel; especially, when he has been wandering through the night air,
+with owls hooting in his ears; and a thin drapery of melancholy has been
+flung, like cobwebs, across his spirits, then it is my doctrine, that a
+clean table, a good-humored landlady and an odorous steaming-up of good
+things, in a snug, cheerful little parlor, are certain to beget in him a
+complete change of mood, and to give him, instead, a happy train of
+thoughts and a hearty relish for his food. Such was precisely Butler's
+condition.
+
+He and the sergeant now sat down at the table, and each drew the
+attention of the other by the unexpected vigor of their assaults upon
+the dainties before them; Robinson surprised to find the major so
+suddenly revived, and Butler no less unprepared to see a man, who had
+achieved such wonders at dinner, now successively demolish what might be
+deemed a stout allowance for a well fed lion.
+
+"It almost seems to go against the credit of my house," said the
+hostess, "to set gentlefolks down at my table without a cup of tea; but
+so it is; we must get used to be stripped of all the old-fashioned
+comforts. It is almost treason for an honest woman to have such an
+article in her house now, even if it could be fairly come by. Still,
+I'll engage I am tory enough yet to like the smell of hyson. They have
+no mercy upon us old women, major; they should have a care, or they will
+drive us into the arms of the enemy."
+
+"Faith then, ma'am," interrupted Horse Shoe bluntly, as he threw his eye
+over his shoulder at the landlady, who had broken into a laugh at her
+own sally of humor, "it would be no wonder if you were soon driven back
+again."
+
+"Shame on you, Mr. Sergeant Robinson," retorted the dame, laughing
+again, "I didn't expect to hear such a speech from you; that's a very
+sorry compliment to a poor country woman. If the men on our side think
+so little of us as you do, it would be no wonder if we all desert to
+King George; but Major Arthur Butler, I am sure, will tell you that we
+old bodies can sometimes make ourselves very useful--gainsay it who
+will."
+
+"You seem to be rather hard, Galbraith," said Butler, "on my good friend
+Mistress Dimock. I am sure, madam, the sergeant has only been unlucky in
+making himself understood; for I know him to be a man of gallantry to
+your sex, and to cherish an especial liking for the female friends of
+our cause, amongst whom, Mistress Dimock, I can certify he is prepared
+to set a high value upon yourself. The sergeant was only endeavoring to
+provoke your good humor. Try this honey, Galbraith; Mistress Dimock is
+famous for her beehives; and perhaps it will give a sweeter edge to your
+tongue."
+
+"I spoke, major," replied Robinson, awkwardly endeavoring to extricate
+himself under this joint rebuke, and, at the same time, plunging a spoon
+into the dish to which Butler had invited his notice, "consarning the
+difficulty of having ladies--whether old or young makes no difference,
+it wan't respecting the age of Mistress Dimock, nor her beauty, by no
+means, that I said what I did say; but it was consarning of the
+difficulty of having the women with them in their marches and their
+counter-marches. What could such tender creatures have done at such a
+place as the sieging of Charlestown? Certain, this is most elegant
+honey!" he added, by way of parenthesis, as he devoured a large slice of
+bread, well covered with a fragment of honeycomb, as if anxious to gain
+time to collect his ideas; for, with all Horse Shoe's bluntness, he was
+essentially a diffident man. "It is my opinion, ma'am, the best thing
+the women can do, in these here wars, is to knit; and leave the fighting
+of it out, to us who hav'n't faces to be spoiled by bad weather and
+tough times."
+
+"I don't want to have art nor part in these quarrels," replied the
+widow. "The saints above are witnesses, I think it unnatural enough to
+see a peaceable country, and a quiet honest people, vexed and harried,
+and run down with all this trooping of horses, and parading of armies,
+and clattering of drums, amongst the hills that never heard any thing
+worse than the lowing of a heifer before. But still, I wish well to
+liberty; and if it must be fought for, why, I am even content to take my
+share of the suffering, in my own lonesome way; and they that bear the
+heat of the day, and their friends, shall always be served in my house
+with the best that's in it, and at the most reasonable rates. Even if
+they come without money, I am not the woman to turn them off with an
+empty stomach; I mean them of the right side."
+
+"Well, that's as sensible a speech, Mistress Dimock," said Horse Shoe,
+quickly seizing the occasion to make amends to the landlady for his
+former bluntness, "and as much to the purpose, and spoken with as much
+wisdom and circumscription, as mought come out of the mouth of e'er a
+lady in the land--high born or low born--I don't care where the other
+comes from. And it does a man's heart good to hear the woman-kind
+holding out such presentments. It's encouraging on the face of it."
+
+During this conversation the supper was finished, and Mrs. Dimock had
+now seated herself, with her elbows upon the table, so placed as to
+allow her to prop her chin upon her hands, in which position she fell
+into an earnest but quiet, under-toned confabulation with Butler, who
+partook of it with the more interest, as it related to the concerns of
+the family at the Dove Cote.
+
+"Mr. Lindsay, poor man," said the dame, in the course of this
+conference, "is wofully beset. It almost looks as if he was haunted by
+an evil spirit, sure enough, which folks used to say of him after his
+wife's death--and which, to tell you the truth, our young lady Mildred
+has sometimes more than half hinted to me; he is so run at, and
+perplexed, and misguided by strangers that can have no good intention in
+coming to see him. There is Mr. Tyrrel, over at the Dove Cote at this
+very time, on his third visit, major, in less now than two months past;
+yes, let me see, he brought the news here of the recapitulation--I think
+you military call it--though, heaven knows, I have but a poor head for
+these bloodthirsty words--I mean the taking of Charleston; three times
+has he been here, counting from that day. Where he comes from, and who
+are his kith and kin, I am sure I don't know."
+
+"Tyrrel, ha! yes, I have heard of him to-night, for the first time,"
+said Butler.
+
+"He must be a rich man," continued the hostess, "for he travels with two
+white servants, and always pays his way in gold. One of his men is now
+in the house; and, between you and me, major, this man is a very
+inquisitive sort of person, and would hardly be taken for a serving man;
+and he is a cautious fellow too, although there is a good deal of
+swagger and bullying about him, which might deceive one at first sight."
+
+"Here, in the house to-night?" inquired Butler.
+
+"Speak low, major, the man is now walking the porch before our windows."
+
+"What does Mildred say of this Tyrrel?" asked Butler.
+
+"Has she been here lately?"
+
+"The good lady never stirs from home whilst Tyrrel is at the Dove Cote;
+for fear, I believe, that he will follow her, for they do whisper about
+in the neighborhood--though I don't say it to alarm you, Mr. Arthur,
+that this man is of the high quality, a nobleman, some say, and that he
+has come here a-courting. Only think of the assurance of the man! But if
+he was a prince, and every hair of his head strung with diamonds, and
+Miss Mildred was as free as the day you first saw her, I can say with
+safety he would find but cold comfort in that game; for she despises
+him, major, both for himself and for his tory principles. She does hate
+him with a good will. No, no, her heart and soul are both where they
+ought to be, for all her father, poor man, and this rich gentleman! Oh,
+it is a cruel thing that you and our pretty lady cannot live quietly
+together; but Mr. Lindsay is past talking to about it. I declare I think
+his mind is touched: I positively believe it would kill him if he knew
+all that has passed in this house; but he is, in the main, a good man,
+and a kind father, and is very much to be pitied. I see you are sad and
+sorrowful, Mr. Arthur: I didn't mean to distress you with my prating.
+You tell me, you think you may travel as far as Georgie."
+
+"Even so far, good dame, if some accident should not shorten my career.
+These are doubtful times, and my path is as uncertain as the chances of
+war. It may be long before I return.
+
+"I grieve night and day, and my heart bleeds for Miss Mildred, for she
+is so good, so constant, so brave, too, for a woman," said the widow
+with unaffected emotion. "Well-a-day! what woes these wars have brought
+upon us! You told her your plans, Mr. Arthur?"
+
+"Our interview was short and painful," replied Butler. "I scarcely know
+what I said to her. But, one thing I entreat of you: my letters will be
+directed to your charge; you will contrive to have them promptly and
+secretly delivered: oblige me still in that, good mother. Henry will
+often visit you."
+
+"And a brave and considerate young man he is, major; I'll be surety for
+his making of an honorable and a real gentleman. Do you join the army in
+Carolina?"
+
+"Perhaps not. My route lies into the mountains, our troops struggle for
+a footing in the low country."
+
+"If I may make bold, Major Butler, to drop a word of advice into your
+ear, which, seeing that I'm an older man than you," interrupted the
+sergeant, in an admonitory whisper, "I think I have got good right to
+do, why I would just say that there may be no great disconvenience in
+talking before friends; but sometimes silence brings more profit than
+words. So, I vote that we leave off telling the course of our march till
+such time as it is done, and all is safe. There will be briers enough in
+our way, without taking the trouble to sow them by the road-side. The
+man that stands a little aside from that window, out on the porch,
+throws his shadow across the sill oftener than is honest, according to
+my reckoning. You said, ma'am," continued Horse Shoe, addressing the
+widow, "that the fellow in the porch yon is Mr. Tyrrel's man."
+
+"He walks later than usual to-night," replied Mrs. Dimock, "for though
+he can't be called a man of regular hours, yet, unless he can find an
+idler to keep him company, he is accustomed to be in his bed before
+this."
+
+"He is after no good, depend upon that," said Horse Shoe. "I have twice
+seen the light upon his face behind the shutter: so, true man or spy,
+it's my admonishment not to speak above the purring of a cat."
+
+"You are right, Galbraith," said Butler. "We have many reasons to
+distrust him; and it is at least safest to keep our affairs private."
+
+"If I thought he was prying," continued Galbraith, "which I do
+measurably insinuate and believe, I would take the freedom to give him
+the benefit of a drilling on good manners. Ha, major! as I have a hand,
+he is reconnoitring us now at this identical time! Didn't you see him
+pass up and down before the door, and look in as greedily as if our
+faces were picture-books for him to read? I will have a word with him,
+and, wise or simple, I will get his calibre before I am done with him.
+Never let on, major; stay where you are. I promised to look after our
+horses."
+
+The hostess and her guest now continued their communion; in which we
+leave them, whilst we follow Horse Shoe towards the stable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    There're two at fisty-cuffs about it;
+    Sir, I may say at dagger's drawing,
+    But that I cannot say, because they have none.
+
+    _Mayor of Quinborough._
+
+
+
+When Horse Shoe left the apartment, he discovered the person, whose
+demeanor had excited his suspicion, leaning against a post of the porch,
+in front of the house. The moonlight, as it partially fell upon this
+man's figure, disclosed a frame of sufficient mould to raise a surmise,
+that, in whatever form of communication the sergeant might accost him,
+he was not likely to find a very tractable subject to his hand.
+Robinson, however, without troubling himself with the contemplation of
+such a contingency, determined to delay his visit to the stable long
+enough to allow himself the expression of a word of warning or rebuke,
+to indicate to the stranger the necessity for restraining his curiosity
+in regard to the guests of the inn. With this view he halted upon the
+porch, while he scanned the person before him, and directed an earnest
+gaze into his face. The stranger, slightly discomfited by this eager
+scrutiny, turned his back upon his visitor, and, with an air of idle
+musing, threw his eyes towards the heavens, in which position he
+remained until summoned by the familiar accost of Horse Shoe.
+
+"Well! and what do you make of the moon? As sharp an eye as you have in
+your head, neighbor, I'm thinking it will do you no great sarvice there.
+You're good at your spying trade; but you will get nothing out of her;
+she keeps her secrets."
+
+Startled by this abrupt greeting, which was made in a tone half-way
+between jest and earnest, the stranger quickly confronted his
+challenger, and bestowed upon him a keen and inquiring inspection; then
+breaking into a laugh, he replied with a free and impudent swagger--
+
+"You are mistaken, Master Jack Pudding. What says the proverb? Wit's in
+the wane when the moon's at full. Now, our mistress has let me into a
+secret. She tells me that you will not lose your wits, when she comes to
+her growth. The reason why? first, because she never troubles herself
+with so small a stock as yours, and second, because your thick skull is
+moon-proof; so, you're safe, friend."
+
+"A word in your ear," said Horse Shoe; "_you_ are not safe, friend, if
+you are cotched again peeping through the chinks of the window, or
+sneaking upon the dark side of the doorway, to pick up a crumb of talk
+from people that are not axing your company. Keep that in your memory."
+
+"It's a base lie, Mr. Bumpkin, if you mean to insinuate that I did
+either."
+
+"Oh, quiet and easy, good man! No flusterifications here! I am civil and
+peaceable. Take my advice, and chaw your cud in silence, and go to bed
+at a reasonable hour, without minding what folks have to say who come to
+the widow Dimock's. It only run in my head to give you a polite sort of
+a warning. So, good night; I have got business at the stable."
+
+Before the other could reply, Robinson strode away to look after the
+accommodations of the horses.
+
+"The devil take this impertinent ox-driver!" muttered the man to
+himself, after the sergeant had left him; "I have half a mind to take
+his carcase in hand, just to give it the benefit of a good, wholesome
+manipulation. A queer fellow, too--a joker! A civil, peaceable man!--the
+hyperbolical rogue! Well, I'll see him out, and, laugh or fight, he
+shan't want a man to stand up to him!"
+
+Having by this train of reflection brought himself into a mood which
+might be said to hover upon the isthmus between anger and mirth, ready
+to fall to either side as the provocation might serve, the stranger
+sauntered slowly towards the stable, with a hundred odd fancies as to
+the character of the man he sought running through his mind. Upon his
+arrival there he found that Horse Shoe was occupied in the interior of
+the building, and being still in a state of uncertainty as to the manner
+in which it was proper he should greet our redoubtable friend, he took a
+seat on a small bench at the door, resolved to wait for that worthy's
+reappearance. This delay had a soothing effect upon his temper, for as
+he debated the subject over in his mind, certain considerations of
+policy seemed to indicate to him the necessity of making himself better
+acquainted with the business and quality of the individual whom he came
+to meet.
+
+After a few moments, Horse Shoe was seen with old Tony at the stable
+door, where, notwithstanding the unexpected presence of the man to whom
+he had so lately offered his unwelcome advice, and upon whom he now
+conferred not the slightest notice, he continued uninterruptedly, and
+with deliberate composure, to give his orders upon what, at that moment,
+doubtless, he deemed matter of much graver importance than any concern
+he might have in the visit of his new acquaintance.
+
+"Do what I tell you, Tony; get a piece of linen, rub it well over with
+tallow, and bring it here along with a cup of vinegar. The beast's back
+is cut with the saddle, and you must wash the sore first with the
+vinegar, and then lay on the patch. Go, old fellow, and Mrs. Dimock, may
+be, can give you a strip of woollen cloth to sarve as a pad."
+
+With these instructions the negro retired towards the house.
+
+"I see you understand your business," said the stranger. "You look to
+your horse's back at the end of a day's journey, and you know how to
+manage a sore spot. Vinegar is the thing! You have had a long ride?"
+
+"How do you know that?" inquired Horse Shoe.
+
+"Know it! any man might guess as much by the way you shovelled down your
+supper. I happened by chance to pass your window, and seeing you at it,
+faith! for the soul of me I couldn't help taking a few turns more, just
+to watch the end of it. Ha! ha! ha! give me the fellow that does honor
+to his stomach! And your dolt head must be taking offence at my looking
+at you! Why, man, your appetite was a most beautiful rarity; I wouldn't
+have lost the sport of it for the pleasure of the best supper I ever ate
+myself."
+
+"Indeed!" said Robinson, drily.
+
+"Pease upon the trencher!" exclaimed the other, with the air of a pot
+companion; "that's the true music for good fellows of your kidney! But
+it isn't every where that you will find such bountiful quarters as you
+get here at the Blue Ball in that cursed southern country a man like
+you would breed a famine, if you even do not find one ready made to your
+hand when you get there."
+
+"Where mought you be from?" asked the sergeant, with great gravity,
+without responding to the merriment of his visitor, and purposely
+refraining from the answer which he saw it was the other's drift to
+obtain relative to the course of his travel.
+
+"It was natural enough that you should have mistaken my object,"
+continued the stranger, heedless of Horse Shoe's abrupt question, "and
+have suspected me for wanting to hear some of your rigmarole; but there
+you did me wrong. I forgive you for that, and, to tell you the truth, I
+hate your----?"
+
+"That's not to the purpose," said Horse Shoe; "I axed you a civil
+question, and maybe, that's more than you have a right to. You can
+answer it or let it alone. I want to know where mought you be from?"
+
+"Since you are bent upon it, then," replied the other, suddenly changing
+his tone, and speaking with a saucy emphasis, "I'll answer your
+question, when you tell me what _mought_ be your right to know."
+
+"It's the custom of our country," rejoined Horse Shoe, "I don't know
+what it may be in yourn, to larn a little about the business of every
+man we meet; but we do it by fair, out-and-out question and answer--all
+above board, and we hold in despise all sorts of contwistifications,
+either by laying of tongue-traps, or listening under eaves of houses."
+
+"Well, most wise and shrewd master, what do you call my country? Ha! ha!
+ha! I would be sworn you think you have found some mare's nest! If it
+were not that your clown pate is somewhat addled by over feeding, I
+would hold your speech to be impertinent. My country, I'd have your
+sagacity to understand----"
+
+"Tut, man, it arn't worth the trouble of talking about it! I never saw
+one of your people that I didn't know him by the first word that came
+out of his lips. You are an Englishman, and a red coat into the bargain,
+as we call them in these parts. You have been a sodger. Now, never
+bounce at that, man! There's no great harm in belonging to that craft.
+They listed you, as likely as not, when you was flusticated with liquor,
+and you took your pay; there was a bargain, and it was your business to
+stand to it. But I have got a piece of wisdom to whisper to you,
+insomuch as you are not in the most agreeablest part of the world to men
+of your colors, it would be best to be a little more shy against giving
+offence. You said some saucy things to me just now, but I don't grudge
+your talking, because you see, I am an onaccountable hard sort of person
+to be instigated by speeching."
+
+"Verily, you are a most comical piece of dulness," said the other, in a
+spirit of raillery. "In what school did you learn your philosophy,
+friend? You have been brought up to the wholesome tail of the plough, I
+should say--an ancient and reputable occupation."
+
+"When I obsarved, just now," replied Robinson, somewhat sternly, "that I
+couldn't be instigated, I meant to be comprehended as laying down a kind
+of general doctrine that I was a man not given to quarrels; but still,
+if I suspicioned a bamboozlement, which I am not far from at this
+present speaking, if it but come up to the conflagrating of only the
+tenth part of the wink of an eye, in a project to play me off, fore God,
+I confess myself to be as weak in the flesh as e'er a rumbunctious
+fellow you mought meet on the road."
+
+"Friend," said the other, "I do not understand thy lingo. It has a most
+clodpolish smack. It is neither grammar, English, nor sense."
+
+"Then, you are a damned, onmannerly rascal," said Horse-Shoe, "and
+that's grammar, English, and sense, all three."
+
+"Ha, you are at that! Now, my lubberly booby, I understand you,"
+returned the other, springing to his feet. "Do you know to whom you are
+speaking?"
+
+"Better than you think for," replied the sergeant, placing himself in an
+erect position to receive what he had a right to expect, the threatened
+assault of his adversary, "I know you, and guess your arrand here."
+
+"You do?" returned the other sharply. "You have been juggling with me,
+sir. You are not the gudgeon I took you for. It has suited your purpose
+to play the clown, eh? Well, sir, and pray, what do you guess?"
+
+"Nothing good of you, considering how things go here. Suppose I was to
+say you was, at this self-same identical time, a sodger of the king's? I
+have you there!"
+
+The stranger turned on his heel and retreated a few paces, evidently
+perplexed at the new view in which the sergeant suddenly rose to his
+apprehension. His curiosity and his interest were both excited to gain a
+more distinct insight into a man whom he had mistaken for a mere
+simpleton, but whose hints showed him to be shrewdly conversant with the
+personal concerns of one, whom, apparently, he had seen to-night for the
+first time in his life. With this anxiety upon his mind, he again
+approached the sergeant, as he replied to the last question.
+
+"Well, and if I were? It is a character of which I should have no reason
+to be ashamed."
+
+"That's well said!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "Up and speak out, and never
+be above owning the truth; that's the best sign that can be of a man.
+Although it mought be somewhat dangerous, just hereabouts, to confess
+yourself a sodger of King George--let me tell you, that, being against
+you, I am not the person to mislest you on that head, by spreading the
+news abroad, or setting a few dozen of whigs upon your scent, which is a
+thing easily done. If your business here is peaceable and lawful, and
+you don't let your tongue brawl against quiet and orderly people, you
+are free to come and go for me."
+
+"Thank you, sir: but look you; it isn't my way to answer questions about
+my own business, and I scorn to ask any man's leave to come and go where
+and when my occasions call me."
+
+"If it isn't your way to answer questions about your own business,"
+replied Horse Shoe, "it oughtn't to be your way to ax them about other
+people's; but that don't disturb me; it is the rule of the war to
+question all comers and goers that we happen to fall in with, specially
+now, when there's a set of your devils scampering and raging about in
+Carolina, hardly a summer day's ride off this province, burning houses
+and killing cattle, and turning everything topsy-turvy, with a pack of
+rascally tories to back them. In such times all sorts of tricks are
+played, such as putting on coats that don't belong to a man, and
+deceiving honest people by lies, and what not."
+
+"You are a stranger to me," said the other; "but let me tell you,
+without circumlocution or periphrase, I am a free born subject of the
+king, and I see no reason why, because some of his people have turned
+rebels a true man, who travels his highway, should be obliged to give
+an account of himself to every inquisitive fellow who chooses to
+challenge it. Suppose I tell you that you meddle with matters that don't
+concern you?"
+
+"Then you mought chance to get your head in your hand, that's all. And,
+hark you, if it wan't that I am rather good-natured, I mought happen to
+handle you a little rough for that nicknaming of the friends of liberty,
+by calling them rebels. It doesn't suit such six-pence-a-day fellows as
+you, who march right or left at the bidding of your master, to rob a
+church or root up an honest man's peaceful hearth, without so much as
+daring to have a thought about the righteousness of the matter--it
+doesn't suit such to be befouling them that fight for church and
+fire-side both, with your scurvy, balderdash names."
+
+"Well, egad! you are a fine bold fellow who speaks his thoughts, that's
+not to be denied!" said the stranger, again suddenly changing his mood,
+and resorting to his free and easy address. "You suit these times
+devilish well. I can't find it in my heart to quarrel with you. We have
+both been somewhat rough in speech, and so, the account is square. But
+now tell me, after all, are you sure you have guessed me right? How do
+you know I am not one of these very rebels myself?"
+
+"For two good and point-blank reasons. First, you dar'n't deny that you
+have pocketed the king's money and worn his coat--that's one. And,
+second, you are now here under the orders of one of his officers."
+
+"No, no, good friend," said the man, with a voice of less boldness than
+heretofore, "you are mistaken for once in your life. So far what you
+say, I don't deny--I am in the service of a gentleman, who for some
+private affairs of his own has come on a visit to this part of the
+province, and I admit I have been in the old country."
+
+"I am not mistaken, good friend," drawled out Robinson, affectedly. "You
+come from the south. I can tell men's fortunes without looking into the
+palms of their hands."
+
+"You are wrong again," said the other tartly, as he grew angry at being
+thus badgered by his opponent, "I come from the north."
+
+"That's true and it's false both," returned Robinson. "From the north, I
+grant you--to the south with Sir Henry, and from the south up here. You
+will find I can conjure a little, friend."
+
+"The devil take your conjuring!" exclaimed the other, as he bit his lip
+and strode restlessly backward and forward; which perplexity being
+observed by the sergeant, he did not fail to aggravate it by breaking
+into a hoarse laugh, as he said----
+
+"It wa'n't worth your while to try to deceive me. I knowed you by
+manifold and simultaneous signs. Him that sets about scouting after
+other people's secrets, ought to be wary enough to larn to keep his own.
+But don't take it so to heart, neighbor, there's no occasion for
+oneasiness--I have no mind to harm you."
+
+"Master bully," said the stranger, planting himself immediately in front
+of the sergeant, "in England, where I was bred, we play at cudgels, and
+sometimes give broken heads; and some of us are gifted with heavy fists,
+wherewith we occasionally contrive to box a rude fellow who pries too
+much into our affairs."
+
+"In our country," replied Horse Shoe, "we generally like to get a share
+of whatever new is stirring, and, though we don't practise much with
+cudgels, yet, to sarve a turn, we do, now and then, break a head or so;
+and, consarning that fist work you happened to touch upon, we have no
+condesentious scruples against a fair rap or two over the knowledge-box,
+and the tripping-up of a fractious chap's heels, in the way of a sort of
+a rough-and-tumble, which, may be, you understand. You have been long
+enough here, mayhap, to find that out."
+
+"Then, it is likely, it would please you to have a chance at such a
+game? I count myself a pretty tolerable hand at the play," said the
+stranger, with a composure corresponding to that exhibited by Horse
+Shoe.
+
+"Ho, ho! I don't want to hurt you, man," replied the Sergeant. "You will
+get yourself into trouble. You are hot-headeder than is good for your
+health."
+
+"As the game was mentioned, I thought you might have a fancy to play
+it."
+
+"To be sure I would," said Horse Shoe, "rather than disappoint you in
+any reasonable longing. For the sake of quiet--being a peaceable man, I
+will take the trouble to oblige you. Where, do you think, would be the
+likeliest spot to have it?"
+
+"We may readily find a piece of ground at hand," replied the other. "It
+is a good moonlight play, and we may not be interrupted if we get a
+little distance off before the negro comes back. Toe to toe, and face to
+face, suits me best with both friend and foe."
+
+"A mule to drive and a fool to hold back, are two of the contrariest
+things I know," said Robinson, "and so, seeing that you are in arnest
+about it, let us go at it without more ado upon the first good bit of
+grass we can pop upon along the river."
+
+In this temper the two antagonists left the vicinity of the stable, and
+walked some hundred paces down along the bank of the stream. The man
+with whom Horse Shoe was about to hold this strange encounter, and who
+now walked quietly by his side, had the erect and soldierly port of a
+grenadier. He was square-shouldered, compact and muscular, and the
+firmness of his gait, his long and easy stride, and the free swing of
+his arm as he moved onward in the moonlight, showed Robinson that he was
+to engage with an adversary of no common capacity. There was, perhaps,
+on the other side, some abatement in this man's self-confidence, when
+the same light disclosed to his deliberate inspection the brawny
+proportions of the sergeant, which, in the engrossment of the topics
+bandied about in the late dialogue, he had not so accurately regarded.
+
+When they had walked the distance I have mentioned, they had little
+difficulty to select a space of level ground with a sufficient mould for
+the purpose of the proposed trial of strength.
+
+"Here's as pretty a spot as we mought find on the river," said Robinson,
+"and so get ready, friend. Before we begin, I have a word to say. This
+here bout is not a thing of my seeking, and I take it to be close akin
+to downright tom-foolery, for grown up men to set about thumping and
+hammering each other, upon account of a brag of who's best man, or such
+like, when the whole univarse is full of occasions for scuffles, and
+stands in need of able-bodied fellows, to argufy the pints of right and
+wrong, that can't be settled by preachers, or books, or lawyers. I look
+upon this here coming out to fight no better than a bit of arrant
+nonsense. But, as you will have it, it's no consarn of mine to stop
+you."
+
+"You are welcome to do your worst," replied the other, "and the less
+preaching you make with it, the more saving of time."
+
+"My worst," interrupted Horse Shoe, "is almost more than I have the
+conscience to do to any man who isn't a downright flagratious enemy;
+and, once more, I would advise you to think before you draw me into a
+fray; you are flustrated, and sot upon a quarrel, and mayhap, you
+conjecture that by drawing me out from behind my retrenchments, by which
+is signified my good nature, and forcing me to deploy into line and open
+field, you'll get the advantage of an old sodger over me; but there, Mr.
+Dragoon, you are mistaken. In close garrison or open field, in siege or
+sally, crossing a defile or reconnoitring on a broad road, I am not apt
+to lose my temper, or strike without seeing where my blow is to hit.
+Now, that is all I have to say: so, come on."
+
+"You are not what you seem," said the antagonist, in a state of wonder
+at the strain of the sergeant's composed and deliberate speech, and at
+the familiarity which this effusion manifested with the details of
+military life. "In the devil's name, who are you? But, don't fancy I
+pause to begin our fight, for any other reason than that I may know who
+I contend with. On the honor of a soldier, I promise you, I will hold
+you to your game--man, or imp of hell--I care not. Again, who in the
+devil are you?"
+
+"You have hit it," replied Horse Shoe. "My name is Brimstone, I am first
+cousin to Belzebub."
+
+"You have served?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"And belong to the army yet?"
+
+"True again; and I am as tough a sodger, and may be I mought say, as old
+a sodger as yourself."
+
+"Your hand, fellow soldier. I mistook you from the beginning. You
+continentals--that's the new-fangled word--are stout fellows, and have a
+good knack at the trick of war, though you wear rough coats, and are
+savagely unrudimented in polite learning. No matter what colors a man
+fights under, long usage makes a good comrade of him; and, by my faith!
+I am not amongst the last to do him honor, even though we stand in
+opposite ranks. As you say, most sapient Brimstone, we are not much
+better than a pair of fools for this conspiracy to knock about each
+other's pates, here at midnight; but you have my pledge to it, and so,
+we will go at it, if it be only to win a relish for our beds; I will
+teach you, to-night, some skill in the art of mensuration. You shall
+measure two full ells upon this green sod."
+
+"There's my hand," said Horse Shoe; "now, if I am flung, I promise you
+I won't be angry. If I sarve you in the same fashion, you must larn to
+bear it."
+
+"With all my heart. So here I stand upon my guard. Begin."
+
+"Let me feel your weight," said Robinson, laughing, as he put one hand
+upon his adversary's shoulder, and the other against his side. "Hark
+you, master, I feel something hard here about your ribs; you have
+pistols under your coat, friend. For the sake of fair play and keeping
+rid of foul blood, you had best lay them aside before we strike. Anger
+comes up onawares."
+
+"I never part from my weapons," replied the other, stepping back and
+releasing himself from Robinson's grasp. "We are strangers; I must know
+the company I am in, before I dismiss such old cronies as these. They
+have got me out of a scrape before this."
+
+"We took hands just now," said Robinson, angrily. "When I give my hand,
+it is tantamount to a book oath that I mean fair, round dealing with the
+man who takes it. I told you, besides, I was a sodger--that ought to
+have contented you--and you mought sarch my breast, inside and out,
+you'd seen in it nothing but honest meanings. There's something of a
+suspectable rascality, after that, in talking about pistols hid under
+the flaps of the coat. It's altogether onmanful, and, what's more,
+onsodgerly. You are a deceit, and an astonishment, and a hissing, all
+three, James Curry, and no better, to my comprehension, than a coward. I
+know you of old, although, mayhap, you disremember me. I have hearn
+said, by more than one, that you was a double-faced, savage-hearted,
+disregardless beast, that snashed his teeth where he darsn't bite, and
+bullied them that hadn't the heart to fight; I have hearn that of you,
+and, as I live, I believe it. Now, look out for your bull head, for I
+will cuff you in spite of your pistols."
+
+With these words, Horse Shoe gave his adversary some half dozen
+overpowering blows, in such quick succession as utterly defied and broke
+down the others guard; and then, seizing him by the breast, he threw the
+tall and stalwart form of Curry at full length upon the ground.
+
+"There's your two ells for you! there's the art of menstirration, you
+disgrace to the tail of a drum," exclaimed Horse Shoe, with accumulating
+wrath, as the prostrate man strove to extricate himself from the lion
+grasp that held him. In this strife, Curry several times made an effort
+to get his hand upon his pistol, in which he was constantly foiled by
+the superior vigor of the sergeant.
+
+"No, no," continued the latter, as he became aware of this attempt,
+"James Curry, you shall never lay hold upon your fire-arms whilst I have
+the handling of you. Give them up, you twisting prevaricationer; give
+them up, you disgracer of powder and lead; and larn this from a rebel,
+that I don't blow out your brains, only because I wouldn't accommodate
+the devil by flinging such a lump of petrifaction into his clutches.
+There, man," he added, as he threw the pistols far from him into the
+river, his exasperation, at the same time, moderating to a lower
+temperature, "get upon your feet; and now, you may go hunt for your
+cronies in yonder running stream. You may count it a marcy that I
+haven't tossed you after them, to wash the cowardly blood off your face.
+Now that you are upon your legs, I tell you here, in the moonlight, man
+to man, with nobody by to hold back your hand, that you are a lying,
+deceitful skulker, that loves the dark side of a wall better than the
+light, and steals the secrets of honest folks, and hasn't the heart to
+stand up fairly to the man that tells you of it. Swallow that, James
+Curry, and see how it will lay upon your stomach."
+
+"I will seek a time!" exclaimed Curry, "to right myself with your
+heart's blood."
+
+"Pshaw! man," replied Horse Shoe, "don't talk about heart's blood. The
+next time we come into a field together, ax for Galbraith Robinson,
+commonly called Horse Shoe Robinson. Find me out, that's all. We may
+take a frolic together then, and I give you my allowance to wear your
+pistols in your belt."
+
+"We may find a field yet, Horse Shoe Robinson," returned Curry, "and
+I'll not fail of my appointment. Our game will be played with
+broadswords."
+
+"If it should so turn out, James, that you and me are to work through a
+campaign in the same quarter of the world, as we have done afore, James,
+I expect, I'll take the chance of some holiday to pay my respects to
+you. I wont trouble you to ride far to find me; and then, it may be
+broadsword or pistol, rifle or bagnet, I'm not over-scrumptious which.
+Only promise I shall see you when I send for you."
+
+"It's a bargain, Galbraith Robinson! Strong as you think yourself in
+your cursed rough-and-tumble horseplay, I am soldier enough for you any
+day. I only ask that the time may come quickly."
+
+"You have no objection to give us a hand to clinch that bargain, James?"
+asked Horse Shoe. "There's my paw; take it, man, I scorn to bear malice
+after the hot blood cools."
+
+"I take it with more pleasure now," said Curry, hastily seizing the
+hand, "than I gave mine to you before to-night, because it is a pledge
+that suits my humor. A good seat in a saddle, four strong legs below me,
+and a sharp blade, I hold myself a match for the best man that ever
+picked a flint in your lines."
+
+"Now, friend Curry," exclaimed the sergeant, "good night! Go look for
+your pop-guns in the river; and if you find them, hold them as a
+keepsake to remember Horse Shoe Robinson. Good night."
+
+Robinson left his adversary, and returned to the inn, ruminating, as he
+walked, over the strange incident in which he had just been engaged. For
+a while his thoughts wore a grave complexion; but, as his careless good
+humor gradually broke forth through the thin mist that enveloped it, he
+was found, before he reached the porch, laughing, with a quiet chuckle,
+at the conceit which rose upon his mind, as he said, half-audibly, "Odd
+sport for a summer night! Howsever, every one to his liking, as the old
+woman said; but to my thinking, he mought have done better if he had
+gone to sleep at a proper hour, like a moralised and sober Christian."
+
+When he entered the parlor, he found Butler and the landlady waiting for
+him.
+
+"It is late, sergeant," said the Major. "You have forgotten the hour;
+and I began to fear you had more to say to your friend, there, than
+suited the time of night."
+
+"All is right, by your smiling," added the landlady; "and that's more
+than I expected at the time you walked out of the room. I couldn't go to
+my bed, till I was sure you and my lodger had no disagreeable words;
+for, to tell you the truth, I am greatly afraid of his hot and hasty
+temper."
+
+"There is nothing hot or hasty about him, ma'am," replied Robinson; "he
+is about as peaceable a man as you mought expect to meet in such times
+as these. I only told him a little scrap of news, and you would have
+thought he would have hugged me for it, ha, ha, ha."
+
+"We are to sleep in the same room, sergeant," said Butler, "and our good
+hostess will show us the way to it."
+
+The dame, upon this hint, took a candle, and conducted her guests to a
+chamber in the upper story, where, after wishing them "a good night,"
+she courtesied respectfully, and left them to their repose.
+
+"Tell me, sergeant, what you made out of that fellow," said Butler, as
+he undressed himself. "I see that you have had some passage with him;
+and, from your tarrying so long, I began to be a little apprehensive of
+rough work between you. What passed, and what have you learned?"
+
+"Enough, major, to make us more circumscriptious against scouts, and
+spies, and stratagems. When I was a prisoner at Charlestown, there was
+an amazing well-built fellow, a dragoon, that had been out with
+Tarleton; but, when I saw him, he was a sort of rithmatical
+account-keeper and letter-scribbler for that young fighting-cock, the
+Earl of Caithness, him that was aidegong to Sir Henry Clinton. Well,
+this fellow had a tolerable bad name, as being a chap that the devil had
+spiled, in spite of all the good that had been pumped into him at
+school; for, as I have hearn, he was come of gentle people, had a first
+rate edication, and I reckon, now, major, he talks as well as a book,
+whereupon I have an observation."
+
+"Keep that until to-morrow, sergeant," interrupted Butler, "and go on
+with what you had to tell me."
+
+"You must be a little sleepy, major: however, this fellow, they say, was
+cotched cheating with cards one day, when he was playing a game of five
+shilling loo with the King or the Queen, or some of the dukes or
+colonels in the guards--for he wa'n't above any thing rascally. So, it
+was buzzed about, as you may suppose when a man goes to cheating one of
+them big fish--and the King gave him his choice to enlist, or go to the
+hulks; and he, being no fool, listed, as a matter of course. In that way
+he got over here; and, as I tell you, was a sort of sarvent to that
+young Earl. He sometimes came about our quarters to list prisoners and
+make Tories of 'em, for his own people kept him to do all that sort of
+dirty work, upon account of the glibness of his tongue. He was a
+remarkable saucy fellow and got nothing but ill-will from the
+prisoners--though, I make no doubt, the man is a tolerable sodger on
+sarvice. Now, after telling you all this, major, you must know that the
+identical, same, particular man that we saw looking through the porch
+window at us to-night"--
+
+"Is the man you have been describing? Is it possible? Are you sure of
+it?"
+
+"I knowed him the minute I clapped eyes on him: his name is James Curry:
+but, as I didn't stay long at Charlestown, and hadn't any thing to do
+with him in particular, it seems he didn't remember me."
+
+"You conversed with him?"
+
+"Most sartainly I did. I wanted to gather a little consarning of his
+visit up here: but the fellow's been so battered about in the wars, that
+he knows how to hold his tongue. I had some mischief in me, and did want
+to make him just angry enough to set his speech loose; and, besides, I
+felt a little against him upon account of his misdoings with our people
+in Carolina, and so, I said some rough things to him; and, as my
+discourse ar'n't none of the squarest in pint of grammar and
+topographical circumlocution--as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say--why he
+set me down for a piece of an idiot, and began to hoax and bamboozle me.
+I put that matter straight for him very soon, by just letting him say so
+much and no more. And then, as I was a peaceable man, major, he seemed
+to see that I didn't want to have no quarrel with him, which made him
+push it at me rather too hard, and all my civility ended in my giving
+him what he wanted at first--a tolerable, regular thrashing."
+
+The sergeant continued to relate to Butler the details of this
+adventure, which he did with more prolixity than the weariness of his
+listener was able to endure; for the major, having in the progress of
+the narrative got into bed, and having, in the increasing oscitancy of
+his faculties, exhausted every expression of assent by which one who
+listens to a tale is accustomed to notify his attention--he at length
+dropped into a profound sleep, leaving the sergeant to conclude at his
+leisure.
+
+When Robinson perceived this, he had nothing left but to betake himself,
+with all expedition, to his own rest; whereupon he threw off his coat,
+and taking the coverings of the bed appropriated to his use, spread
+them upon the floor, as he pronounced an anathema against sleeping on
+feathers, (for it must be observed, that our good hostess, at that early
+day, was liable to the same censure of an unnatural attachment to
+feather beds in summer, which may, at the present time,[1] be made
+against almost every country inn in the United States,) and then
+extinguishing the candle, he stretched himself upon the planks, as he
+remarked to his unconscious companion, "that he was brought up on a hard
+floor;" and after one or two rolls, he fell into that deep oblivion of
+cares, by which nature re-summons and supplies the strength which toil,
+watching and anxiety wear down.
+
+The speed of Horse Shoe's journey through this pleasant valley of sleep
+might be measured somewhat in the same manner that the route of a mail
+stage may sometimes be traced through a mountain defile, by the notes of
+the coachman's horn; it was defined by the succession of varying
+intonations through which he ascended the gamut, beginning with a low
+but audible breathing, and rising through the several stages of an
+incipient snore, a short quick bark, and up to a snort that constituted
+the greatest altitude of the ascent. Occasionally a half articulated
+interjection escaped him, and words that showed in what current his
+dreams were sailing: "No pistols! Look in the water, James! Ha ha!"
+These utterings were accompanied with contortions of body that more than
+once awaked the sleeper; but, at last, the huge bulk of Horse Shoe grew
+motionless in a deep and strong sleep.
+
+The next morning, at early dawn, our travellers resumed their journey,
+which I will leave them to prosecute, whilst I conduct my reader to the
+affairs and interests that dwell about the Dove Cote.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SOME ACCOUNT OF PHILIP LINDSAY--SENSIBILITY AND RETIREMENT APT TO
+ENGENDER A PERNICIOUS PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+The thread which I have now to take up and weave into this history
+requires that my narrative should go back for some years. It briefly
+concerns the earlier fortunes of Philip Lindsay.
+
+His father emigrated from England, and was established in Virginia about
+the year 1735, as a secretary to the governor of the province. He was a
+gentleman of good name and fortune. Philip was born within a year after
+this emigration. As America was then comparatively a wilderness, and
+afforded but few facilities for the education of youth, the son of the
+secretary was sent at an early age to England, where he remained, with
+the exception of an occasional visit to his parents, under the
+guardianship of a near relative, until he had completed, not only his
+college course, but also his studies in the Temple--an almost
+indispensable requirement of that day for young gentlemen of condition.
+
+His studies in the Temple had been productive of one result, which Lord
+Coke, if I remember, considers idiosyncratic in the younger votaries of
+the law--he had fallen in love with an heiress. The natural consequence
+was a tedious year, after his return home, spent at the seat of the
+provincial government, and a most energetic and persevering interchange
+of letters with the lady, whom my authority allows me to name Gertrude
+Marshall. This was followed by another voyage across the Atlantic, and
+finally, as might be predicted, by a wedding with all proper observance
+and parental sanction. Lindsay then returned, a happier and more
+tranquil man, to Virginia, where he fulfilled the duties of more than
+one public station of dignity and trust.
+
+In due course of time he fell heir to his father's wealth, which with
+the estate of his wife made him one of the most opulent and considerable
+gentlemen of the Old Dominion.
+
+He had but two children--Mildred and Henry--with four years difference
+between their ages. These were nurtured with all the care and indulgent
+bounty natural to parents whose affections are concentrated upon so
+small a family circle.
+
+Lindsay's character was grave and thoughtful, and inclined him to avoid
+the contests of ambition and collision with the world. A delicate taste,
+a nice judgment, and a fondness for inquiry made him a student and an
+ardent lover of books. The ply of his mind was towards metaphysics; he
+delved into the obsolete subtleties of the old schools of philosophy,
+and found amusement, if not instruction, in those frivolous but
+ingenious speculations which have overshadowed even the best wisdom of
+the schoolmen with the hues of a solemn and absurd pedantry. He dreamed
+in the reveries of Plato, and pursued them through the aberrations of
+the Coryphæans. He delighted in the visions of Pythagoras, and in the
+intellectual revels of Epicurus. He found attraction in the Gnostic
+mysteries, and still more in the phantasmagoria of Judicial Astrology.
+His library furnished a curious index to this unhealthy appetite for the
+marvellous and the mystical. The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, Raymond
+Lully, and Martin Delvio, and others of less celebrity in this circle of
+imposture, were found associated with truer philosophies and more
+approved and authentic teachers.
+
+These studies, although pursued with an acknowledgment of their false
+and dangerous tendency, nevertheless had their influence upon Lindsay's
+imagination. There are few men in whom the mastery of reason is so
+absolute as to be able totally to subdue the occasional uprising of that
+element of superstition which is found more or less vigorous in every
+mind. A nervous temperament, which is almost characteristic of minds of
+an imaginative cast, is often distressingly liable to this influence, in
+spite of the strongest resolves of the will and the most earnest
+convictions of the judgment. If those who possess this temperament would
+confess, they might certify to many extraordinary anxieties and troubles
+of spirit, which it would pain them to have the world believe.
+
+Lindsay's pursuits had impressed his understanding with some sentiment
+of respect for that old belief in the supernatural, and had, perhaps,
+even warmed up his faith to a secret credulity in these awful agencies
+of the spiritual world, or at least to an unsatisfied doubt as to their
+existence. Many men of sober brow and renown for wisdom are unwilling to
+acknowledge the extent of their own credulity on the same topic.
+
+His relations to the government, his education, pursuits and temper, as
+might be expected, had deeply imbued Lindsay with the politics of the
+tory party, and taught him to regard with distrust, and even with
+abhorrence, the revolutionary principles which were getting in vogue. In
+this sentiment he visited with a dislike that did not correspond with
+the more usual development of his character, all those who were in any
+degree suspected of aiding or abetting the prevailing political heresy
+of the times.
+
+About two years after the birth of Mildred, he had purchased a tract of
+land in the then new and frontier country lying upon the Rockfish river.
+Many families of note in the low country had possessed themselves of
+estates at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in this neighborhood, and were
+already making establishments there. Mr. Lindsay, attracted by the
+romantic character of the scenery, the freshness of the soil, and the
+healthfulness of the climate, following the example of others, had laid
+off the grounds of his new estate with great taste, and had soon built,
+upon a beautiful site, a neat and comfortable rustic dwelling, with such
+accommodation as might render it a convenient and pleasant retreat
+during the hot months of the summer.
+
+The occupation which this new establishment afforded his family; the
+scope which its improvement gave to their taste; and the charms that
+intrinsically belonged to it, by degrees communicated to his household
+an absorbing interest in its embellishment. His wife cherished this
+enterprise with a peculiar ardor. The plans of improvement were hers;
+the garden, the lawns, the groves, the walks--all the little appendages
+which an assiduous taste might invent, or a comfort-seeking fancy might
+imagine necessary, were taken under her charge; and one beauty quickly
+following upon another, from day to day, evinced the dominion which a
+refined art may exercise with advantage over nature. It was a quiet,
+calm, and happy spot, where many conveniences were congregated together,
+and where, for a portion of every succeeding year, this little family
+nestled, as it were, in the enjoyment of voluptuous ease. From this
+idea, and especially as it was allied with some of the tenderest
+associations connected with the infancy of Mildred, it was called by the
+fanciful and kindly name of "The Dove Cote."
+
+The education of Mildred and Henry became a delightful household care.
+Tutors were supplied, and the parents gave themselves up to the task of
+supervision with a fond industry. They now removed earlier to the Dove
+Cote with every returning spring, and remained there later in the
+autumn. The neighborhood furnished an intelligent and hospitable
+society; and the great western wilderness smiled with the contentment of
+a refined and polished civilization, which no after day in the history
+of this empire has yet surpassed--perhaps, not equalled. It is not to be
+wondered at, that a mind so framed as Lindsay's, and a family so
+devoted, should find an exquisite enjoyment in such a spot.
+
+Whilst this epoch of happiness was in progression, the political heaven
+began to be darkened with clouds. The troubles came on with harsh
+portents; war rumbled in the distance, and, at length, broke out in
+thunder. Mildred had, in the meantime, grown up to the verge of
+womanhood,--a fair, ruddy, light-haired beauty, of exceeding graceful
+proportions, and full of the most interesting impulses. Henry trod
+closely upon her heels, and was now shooting through the rapid stages of
+boyhood. Both had entwined themselves around their parents' affections,
+like fibres that conveyed to them their chief nourishment; and the
+children were linked to each other even, if that where possible, by a
+stronger band.
+
+The war threw Lindsay into a perilous predicament. His estates were
+large, and his principles exposed him to the sequestration which was
+rigidly enforced against the royalist party. To avoid this blow, or, at
+least, to mitigate its severity, he conveyed the estate of the Dove Cote
+to Mildred; assigning, as his reason for doing so, that, as it was
+purchased with moneys belonging to his wife, he consulted and executed
+her wish, in transferring the absolute ownership of it to his daughter.
+The rest of his property was converted into money, and invested in funds
+in Great Britain. As soon as this arrangement was made, about the second
+year of the war, the Dove Cote became the permanent residence of the
+family; Lindsay preferring to remain here rather than to retire to
+England, hoping to escape the keen notice of the dominant party, and to
+find, in this classic and philosophical privacy, an oblivion of the rude
+cares that beset the pillow of every man who mingled in the strife of
+the day.
+
+He was destined to a grievous disappointment. His wife, to whom he was
+romantically attached, was snatched from him by death, just at this
+interesting period. This blow, for a time, almost unseated his reason.
+The natural calm of such a mind as Lindsay's is not apt to show
+paroxysms in grief. Its sorrow was too still and deep for show. The
+flight of years, however, brought healing on their wings; and Mildred
+and Henry gradually relumed their father's countenance with flashes of
+cheerful thought, that daily grew broader and more abiding; till, at
+last, sense and duty completed their triumph, and once more gave Lindsay
+to his family, unburdened of his grief, or, if not unburdened,
+conversing with it only in the secret hours of self-communion.
+
+His hopes of ease and retirement were disappointed in another way. The
+sequesterment of the Dove Cote was not sufficient to shut out the noise
+nor the intrigues of the war. His reputation, as a man of education, of
+wealth, of good sense, and especially as a man of aristocratic
+pretensions, irresistibly drew him into the agitated vortex of politics.
+His house was open to the visits of the tory leaders, no less than to
+those of the other side; and, although this intercourse could not be
+openly maintained without risk, yet pretexts were not wanting,
+occasionally, to bring the officers and gentlemen in the British
+interest to the Dove Cote. They came stealthily and in disguise, and
+they did not fail to involve him in the insidious schemes and base
+plottings by which a wary foe generally endeavors to smoothe the way of
+invasion. The temporary importance which these connections conferred,
+and the assiduous appeal which it was the policy of the enemy to make to
+his loyalty, wrought upon the vanity of the scholar, and brought him, by
+degrees, from the mere toleration of an intercourse that he at first
+sincerely sought to avoid, into a participation of the plans of those
+who courted his fellowship. Still, however, this was grudgingly
+given--as much from the inaptitude of his character, as from a secret
+consciousness, at bottom, that it was contrary to the purpose that had
+induced him to seek the shelter of the woods. Unless, therefore, the
+spur was frequently applied to the side of his reluctant resolution, his
+zeal was apt to weary in its pace, or, to change my figure for one
+equally appropriate, to melt away in the sunny indolence of his temper.
+
+I have said that, during the tenderer years of the children, and up to
+the period of the loss of their mother, they had received the most
+unremitting attention from their parents. The bereavement of his wife,
+the deep gloom that followed this event, and the now engrossing
+character of the war, had in some degree relaxed Lindsay's vigilance
+over their nurture, although it had in no wise abated his affection for
+them; on the contrary, perhaps this was more concentrated than ever.
+Mildred had grown up to the blossom-time of life, in the possession of
+every personal attraction. From the fanciful ideas of education adopted
+by her father, or rather from the sedulous care with which he
+experimented upon her capacity, and devoted himself to the task of
+directing and waiting upon the expansion of her intellect, she had made
+acquirements much beyond her years, and altogether of a character
+unusual to her sex. An ardent and persevering temper had imparted a
+singular enthusiasm to her pursuits; and her air, though not devoid of
+playfulness, might be said to be habitually abstracted and
+self-communing.
+
+As the war advanced, her temper and situation both enlisted her as a
+partisan in the questions which it brought into discussion; and, whilst
+her father's opinions were abhorrent to this struggle for independence,
+she, on the other hand, unknown to him, was casting her thoughts,
+feelings, affections, and hopes upon the broad waters of rebellion; and,
+if not expecting them to return to her, after many days, with increase
+of good, certainly believing that she was mingling them with those of
+patriots who were predestined to the brightest meed of glory.
+
+A father is not apt to reason with a daughter; the passions and
+prejudices of a parent are generally received as principles by the
+child; and most fathers, counting upon this instinct, deem it enough to
+make known the bent merely of their own opinions, without caring to
+argue them. This mistake will serve to explain the wide difference which
+is sometimes seen between the most tenderly attached parent and child,
+in those deeper sentiments that do not belong to the every-day concerns
+of life. Whilst, therefore, Mr. Lindsay took no heed how the seed of
+doctrine fructified and grew in the soil where he desired to plant it,
+it in truth fell upon ungenial ground, and either was blown away by the
+wind, or perished for want of appropriate nourishment.
+
+As the crisis became more momentous, and the discussion of national
+rights more rife, Mildred's predilections ran stronger on the republican
+side; and, at the opening of my story, she was a sincere and
+enthusiastic friend of American independence,--a character (however it
+may be misdoubted by my female readers of the present day, nursed as
+they are in a lady-like apathy to all concerns of government, and little
+aware, in the lazy lap of peace, how vividly their own quick
+sensibilities may be enlisted by the strife of men) neither rare nor
+inefficient amongst the matrons and maidens of the year seventy-six,
+some of whom--now more than fifty years gone by--are embalmed in the
+richest spices and holiest ointment of our country's memory.
+
+It is, however, due to truth to say, that Mildred's eager attachment to
+this cause was not altogether the free motion of patriotism. How often
+does some little under-current of passion, some slight and amiable
+prepossession, modest and unobserved, rise to the surface of our
+feelings, and there give its direction to the stream upon which floats
+all our philosophy! What is destiny but these under-currents that come
+whencesoever they list, unheeded at first, and irresistible ever
+afterwards!
+
+My reader must be told that, before the war broke out, this enthusiastic
+girl had flitted across the path of Arthur Butler, then a youth of rare
+faculty and promise, who combined with a gentle and modest demeanor an
+earnest devotion to his country, sustained by a chivalrous tone of honor
+that had in it all the fanciful disinterestedness of boyhood. It will
+not, therefore, appear wonderful that, amongst the golden opinions the
+young man was storing up in all quarters, some fragments of this grace
+should have made a lodgment in the heart of Mildred Lindsay.
+
+Butler was a native of one of the lower districts of South Carolina, and
+was already the possessor, by inheritance, of what was then called a
+handsome fortune. He first met Mildred, under the safe-conduct of her
+parents, at Annapolis in Maryland, at that time the seat of opulence and
+fashion. There the wise and the gay, the beautiful and the rarely-gifted
+united in a splendid little constellation, in which wealth threw its
+sun-beam glitter over the wings of love, and learning and eloquence
+were warmed by the smiles of fair women: there gallant men gave the
+fascinations of wit to a festive circle unsurpassed in the new world, or
+the old, for its proportion of the graces that embellish, and the
+endowments that enrich life. In this circle there was no budding beauty
+of softer charm than the young Mildred, nor was there amongst the gay
+and bright cavaliers that thronged the "little academy" of Eden, (the
+governor of the province,) a youth of more favorable omen than Arthur
+Butler.
+
+The war was at the very threshold, and angry men thought of turning the
+ploughshare into the sword. Amongst these was Butler; an unsparing
+denouncer of the policy of Britain, and an unhesitating volunteer in the
+ranks of her opposers. It was at this eventful time that he met Mildred.
+I need hardly add that under these inauspicious circumstances they began
+to love. Every interview afterwards (and they frequently saw each other
+at Williamsburg and Richmond) only developed more completely the tale of
+love that nature was telling in the heart of each.
+
+Butler received from Congress an ensign's commission in the continental
+army, and was employed for a few months in the recruiting service at
+Charlottesville. This position favored his views and enabled him to
+visit at the Dove Cote. His intercourse with Mildred, up to this period,
+had been allowed by Lindsay to pass without comment: it was regarded but
+as the customary and common-place civility of polite society. Mildred's
+parents had no sympathy in her lover's sentiments, and consequently no
+especial admiration of his character, and they had not yet doubted their
+daughter's loyalty to be made of less stern materials than their own.
+Her mother was the first to perceive that the modest maiden awaited the
+coming of the young soldier with a more anxious forethought than
+betokened an unoccupied heart. How painfully did this perception break
+upon her! It opened upon her view a foresight of that unhappy sequence
+of events that attends the secret struggle between parental authority
+and filial inclination, when the absorbing interests of true love are
+concerned: a struggle that so frequently darkens the fate of the noblest
+natures, and whose history supplies the charm of so many a melancholy
+and thrilling page. Mrs. Lindsay had an invincible objection to the
+contemplated alliance, and immediately awakened the attention of her
+husband to the subject. From this moment Butler's reception at the Dove
+Cote was cold and formal, and Mr. Lindsay did not delay to express to
+his daughter a marked aversion to her intimacy with a man so uncongenial
+to his own taste. I need not dwell upon the succession of incidents that
+followed: are they not written in every book that tells of young hearts
+loving in despite of authority? Let it suffice to say that Butler, "many
+a time and oft," hied stealthily and with a lover's haste to the Dove
+Cote, where, "under the shade of melancholy boughs," or sometimes of
+good Mistress Dimock's roof, he found means to meet and exchange vows of
+constancy with the lady of his love.
+
+Thus passed the first year of the war. The death of Mrs. Lindsay, to
+which I have before adverted, now occurred. The year of mourning was
+doubly afflictive to Mildred. Her father's grief hung as heavily upon
+her as her own, and to this was added a total separation from Butler. He
+had joined his regiment and was sharing the perils of the northern
+campaigns, and subsequently of those which ended in the subjugation of
+Carolina and Georgia. During all this period he was enabled to keep up
+an uncertain and irregular correspondence with Mildred, and he had once
+met her in secret, for a few hours only, at Mistress Dimock's, during
+the autumn immediately preceding the date of the opening of my story.
+
+Mrs. Lindsay, upon her death-bed, had spoken to her husband in the most
+emphatic terms of admonition against Mildred's possible alliance with
+Butler, and conjured him to prevent it by whatever means might be in his
+power. Besides this, she made a will directing the distribution of a
+large jointure estate in England between her two children, coupling,
+with the bequest, a condition of forfeiture, if Mildred married without
+her father's approbation.
+
+I have now to relate an incident in the life of Philip Lindsay, which
+throws a sombre coloring over most of the future fortunes of Mildred and
+Arthur, as they are hereafter to be developed in my story.
+
+The lapse of years, Lindsay supposed, would wear out the first favorable
+impressions made by Arthur Butler upon his daughter. Years had now
+passed: he knew nothing of the secret correspondence between the
+parties, and he had hoped that all was forgotten. He could not help,
+however, perceiving that Mildred had grown reserved, and that her
+deportment seemed to be controlled by some secret care that sat upon
+her heart. She was anxious, solicitous, and more inclined, than became
+her youth, to be alone. Her household affections took a softer tone,
+like one in grief. These things did not escape her father's eye.
+
+It was on a night in June, a little more than a year before the visit of
+Butler and Robinson which I have narrated in a former chapter, that the
+father and daughter had a free communion together, in which it was his
+purpose to penetrate into the causes of her disturbed spirit. The
+conference was managed with an affectionate and skilful address on the
+part of the father, and "sadly borne" by Mildred. It is sufficient to
+say that it revealed to him a truth of which he was previously but
+little aware, namely, that neither the family afflictions nor the flight
+of two years had rooted out the fond predilection of Mildred for Arthur
+Butler. When this interview ended Mildred retired weeping to her
+chamber, and Lindsay sat in his study absorbed in meditation. The object
+in life nearest to his heart was the happiness of his daughter; and for
+the accomplishment of this what sacrifice would he not make? He minutely
+recalled to memory all the passages of her past life. What error of
+education had he committed, that she thus, at womanhood, was found
+wandering along a path to which he had never led her, which, indeed, he
+had ever taught her to avoid? What accident of fortune had brought her
+into this, as he must consider it, unhappy relation? "How careful have I
+been," he said, "to shut out all the inducements that might give a
+complexion to her tastes and principles different from my own! How
+sedulously have I waited upon her footsteps from infancy onward, to
+shield her from the influences that might mislead her pliant mind! And
+yet in this, the most determinate act of her life, that which is to give
+the hue to the whole of her coming fortune, the only truly momentous
+event in her history--how strangely has it befallen!"
+
+In such a strain did his thoughts pursue this harassing subject. The
+window of his study was open, and he sat near it, looking out upon the
+night. The scene around him was of a nature to awaken his imagination
+and lead his musings towards the preternatural and invisible world. It
+was past midnight, and the bright moon was just sinking down the western
+slope of the heavens, journeying through the fantastic and gorgeous
+clouds, that, as they successively caught her beam, stood like
+promontories jutting upon a waveless ocean, their rich profiles tipped
+with burnished silver. The long black shadows of the trees slept in
+enchanted stillness upon the earth: the night-wind breathed through the
+foliage, and brought the distant gush of the river fitfully upon his
+ear. There was a witching harmony and music in the landscape that sorted
+with the solitary hour, and conjured up thoughts of the world of
+shadows. Lindsay's mind began to run upon the themes of his favorite
+studies: the array of familiar spirits rose upon his mental vision; the
+many recorded instances of what was devoutly believed the interference
+of the dead in the concerns of the living, came fresh, at this moment,
+to his memory, and made him shudder at his lonesomeness. Struggling with
+this conception, it struck him with an awe that he was unable to master:
+"some invisible counsellor," he muttered, "some mysterious intelligence,
+now holds my daughter in thrall, and flings his spell upon her
+existence. The powers that mingle unseen in the affairs of mortals, that
+guide to good or lead astray, have wafted this helpless bark into the
+current that sweeps onward, unstayed by man. I cannot contend with
+destiny. She is thy child, Gertrude," he exclaimed, apostrophizing the
+spirit of his departed wife. "She is thine, and thou wilt hover near her
+and protect her from those who contrive against her peace: thou wilt
+avert the ill and shield thy daughter!"
+
+Excited almost to phrensy, terrified and exhausted in physical energy,
+Lindsay threw his head upon his hand and rested it against the
+window-sill. A moment elapsed of almost inspired madness, and when he
+raised his head and looked outward upon the lawn, he beheld the pale
+image of the being he had invoked, gliding through the shrubbery at the
+farthest verge of the level ground. The ghastly visage was bent upon
+him, the hand steadily pointed towards him, and as the figure slowly
+passed away the last reverted gaze was directed to him. "Great God!" he
+ejaculated, "that form--that form!" and fell senseless into his chair.
+
+During the night, Mildred was awakened by a low moan, which led her to
+visit her father's chamber. He was not there. In great alarm she betook
+herself to his study, where she found him extended upon a sofa, so
+enfeebled and bewildered by this recent incident that he was scarcely
+conscious of her presence.
+
+A few weeks restored Lindsay to his usual health, but it was long before
+he regained the equanimity of his mind. He had seen enough to confirm
+his faith in the speculations of that pernicious philosophy which is
+wrapt up in the studies of which I have before given the outline; and he
+was, henceforth, oftentimes melancholy, moody, and reserved in spite of
+all the resolves of duty, and in defiance of a temper naturally placid
+and kind.
+
+Let us pass from this unpleasant incident to a theme of more cheerful
+import: the loves of Mildred and Arthur. I have said these two had
+secret meetings. They were not entirely without a witness. There was a
+confidant in all their intercourse: no other than Henry Lindsay, who
+united to the reckless jollity of youth an almost worshipping love of
+his sister. His thoughts and actions were ever akin to hers. Henry was
+therefore a safe depository of the precious secret; and as he could not
+but think Arthur Butler a good and gallant comrade, he determined that
+his father was altogether on the wrong side in respect to the love
+affair, and, by a natural sequence, wrong also in his politics.
+
+Henry had several additional reasons for this last opinion. The whole
+country-side was kindled into a martial flame, and there was nothing to
+be heard but drums and trumpets. There were rifle-corps raising, and
+they were all dressed in hunting-shirts, and bugles were blowing, and
+horses were neighing: how could a gallant of sixteen resist it? Besides,
+Stephen Foster, the woodman, right under the brow of the Dove Cote, was
+a lieutenant of mounted riflemen, and had, for some time past, been
+training Henry in the mystery of his weapon, and had given him divers
+lessons on the horn to sound the signals, and had enticed him furtively
+to ride in a platoon on parade, whereof he had dubbed Henry corporal or
+deputy corporal. All this worked well for Arthur and Mildred.
+
+Mr. Lindsay was not ignorant of Henry's popularity in the neighborhood,
+nor how much he was petted by the volunteer soldiery. He did not object
+to this, as it served to quiet suspicion of his own dislike to the
+cause, and diverted the observation of the adherents of what he called
+the rebel government, from his own motions; whilst, at the same time, he
+deemed it no other than a gewgaw that played upon the boyish fancy of
+Henry without reaching his principles.
+
+Mildred, on the contrary, did not so regard it. She had inspired Henry
+with her own sentiments, and now carefully trained him up to feel warmly
+the interests of the war, and to prepare himself by discipline for the
+hard life of a soldier. She early awakened in him a wish to render
+service in the field, and a resolution to accomplish it as soon as the
+occasion might arrive. Amongst other things, too, she taught him to love
+Arthur Butler and keep his counsel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MANSION OF A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR.
+
+
+The site of the Dove Cote was eminently picturesque. It was an area of
+level ground, containing, perhaps, two acres, on the summit of a hill
+that, on one side, overhung the Rockfish river, and on the other rose by
+a gentle sweep from the champaign country below. This summit might have
+been as much as two hundred feet above the bed of the stream, and was
+faced on that side by a bold, rocky precipice, not absolutely
+perpendicular, but broken into stages or platforms, where grassy mould
+had accumulated, and where the sweet-brier and the laurel, and clusters
+of the azalea, shot up in profuse luxuriance. The fissures of the crag
+had also collected their handful of soil and gave nourishment to
+struggling vines, and everywhere the ash or pine, and not unfrequently
+the dogwood, took possession of such spots upon the rocky wall, as these
+adventurous and cliff-loving trees had found congenial to their nature.
+The opposite or northern bank of the river had an equal elevation, and
+jutted forward so near to the other as to leave between them a cleft,
+which suggested the idea of some sudden abruption of the earth in those
+early paroxysms that geologists have deemed necessary to account for
+some of the features of our continent. Below was heard the ceaseless
+brattle of the waters, as they ran over and amongst the rocks which
+probably constituted the _debris_ formed in the convulsion that opened
+this chasm. It was along through this obscure dell that the road, with
+which my reader is acquainted, found place between the margin of the
+stream and the foot of the rocks. The general aspect of the country was
+diversified by high knolls and broken masses of mountain land, and the
+Dove Cote itself occupied a station sufficiently above the surrounding
+district to give it a prospect, eastward, of several miles in extent.
+From this point the eye might trace the valley of the Rockfish, by the
+abrupt hill-sides that hemmed it in, and by the growth of sombre pines
+that coated the steeps where nothing else could find a foot-hold. Not
+far below, in this direction, was to be seen the Fawn's tower, a
+singular pinnacle of rock, which had acquired its name from the
+protection it was said to have afforded to a young deer against the
+assault of the hounds; the hard-pressed animal, as the tradition
+relates, having gained this insulated point by a bound that baffled the
+most adventurous of his pursuers, and admiration of the successful
+boldness of the leap having won from the huntsman the favor that spared
+his life.
+
+With the exception of a large chestnut near the edge of the cliff, and
+of some venerable oaks, that had counted centuries before the white man
+rested his limbs beneath their shade, the native growth of the forest
+had been removed by Lindsay from the summit I have described, and he had
+substituted for the wild garniture of nature a few of the choicest trees
+of the neighboring woods. Here he had planted the elm, the holly and the
+linden tree, the cedar and the arbor vitæ. This platform was
+semicircular, and was bounded by a terrace or walk of gravel that swept
+around its circumference. The space inclosed was covered with a natural
+grass, which the frequent use of the scythe had brought to the
+resemblance of velvet; and the lower side of the terrace was guarded by
+a hedge-row of cedar. Over this green wall, as the spectator walked
+forth in fair summer time, might he look out upon the distant woods and
+meadows; and there he might behold the high-road showing itself, at
+distant intervals, upon the hill-sides; and in the bottom lands, that
+lay open to the sun through the forest-bound valleys, might he see herds
+of grazing cattle, or fields of yellow grain, or, perchance, the slow
+moving wain burdened with hay, or slower moving plough.
+
+The mansion itself partook of the character of the place. It was
+perched--to use a phrase peculiarly applicable to its position--almost
+immediately at that point where the terrace made an angle with the
+cliff, being defended by a stone parapet, through which an iron wicket
+opened upon a flight of rough-hewn steps, that terminated in a pathway
+leading down to the river.
+
+The main building was of stone, consisting of one lofty story, and
+capped with a steep roof, which curved so far over the front as to
+furnish a broad rustic porch that rested almost upon the ground. The
+slim pillars of this porch were concealed by lattice-work, which was
+overgrown with creeping vines; and the windows of the contiguous rooms,
+on either side of a spacious hall, opened to the floor, and looked out
+upon the lawn and upon the quiet landscape far beyond. One of these
+apartments was also accessible through the eastern gable, by a private
+doorway shaded by a light veranda, and was appropriated by Lindsay to
+his library. This portal seemed almost to hang over the rock, having but
+the breadth of the terrace between it and the declivity, and showing no
+other foreground than the parapet, which was here a necessary defence
+against the cliff, and from which the romantic dell of the river was
+seen in all its wildness.
+
+There were other portions of the mansion constructed in the same style
+of architecture, united to this in such a manner as to afford an
+uninterrupted communication, and to furnish a range of chambers for the
+use of the family. A rustic effect was everywhere preserved. Stacks of
+chimneys shot up in grotesque array; and heavy, old-fashioned windows
+looked quaintly down from the peaked roof. Choice exotics, planted in
+boxes, were tastefully arranged upon the lawn; cages with singing-birds
+were suspended against the wall and the whole mass of building,
+extending along the verge of the cliff, so as to occupy the entire
+diameter of the semicircle, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet, sorted
+by its simplicity of costume, if I may so speak, and by its tidy beauty,
+with the close-shaven grass-plot and its trim shades.
+
+Above the whole, flinging their broad and gnarled arms amongst the
+chimney tops, and forming a pleasing contrast with the artificial
+embellishments of this spot, some ancient oaks, in primeval
+magnificence, reared their time-honored trunks, and no less sheltered
+the habitation from the noon-tide heats, than they afforded an asylum to
+the ringdove and his mate, or to the countless travellers of the air
+that here stopped for rest or food.
+
+Such was the general aspect of the Dove Cote; a spot where a philosopher
+might glide through life in unbroken contemplation; where a wearied
+statesman might betake himself to reassemble the scattered forces of
+intellect for new enterprises; where the artist might repair to study
+with advantage the living graces of God's own painting; and where young
+beauty might bud and bloom amongst the most delicate and graceful forms
+of earth.
+
+The interior of the dwelling was capacious and comfortable. Its
+furniture, suitable to the estate of the owner, was plain, and adapted
+to a munificent rather than to an ostentatious hospitality. It was only
+in the library that evidence might be seen of large expense. Here, the
+books were ranged from the floor to the ceiling, with scarcely an
+interval, except where a few choice paintings had found space, or the
+bust of some ancient worthy. One or two ponderous lounging chairs stood
+in the apartment; and the footstep of the visitor was dulled into
+silence by the soft nap of (what, in that day, was a rare and costly
+luxury) a Turkey carpet. This was in all respects an apartment of ease,
+and it was provided with every incentive to beguile a student into
+silent and luxurious communion with the spirit of the sages around
+him,--whose subtlest thoughts and holiest breathings, whose most
+volatile fancies, had been caught up, fixed, and turned into tangible
+substance, more indestructible than adamant, by the magic of letters.
+
+I have trespassed on the patience of my reader to give him a somewhat
+minute description of the Dove Cote, principally because I hope thereby
+to open his mind to a more adequate conception of the character of
+Philip Lindsay. By looking at a man in his own dwelling, and observing
+his domestic habits, I will venture to affirm, it shall scarcely in any
+instance fail to be true, that, if there be seen a tasteful arrangement
+of matters necessary to his comfort; if his household be well ordered,
+and his walks clean and well rolled, and his grassplots neat; and if
+there be no slovenly inattention to repairs, but thrift against waste,
+and plenty for all; and, if to these be added habits of early rising and
+comely attire--and, above all, if there be books, many books, well
+turned and carefully tended--that man is one to warm up at the coming of
+a gentleman; to open his doors to him; to take him to his heart, and to
+do him the kindnesses of life. He is a man to hate what is base, and to
+stand apart from the mass, as one who will not have his virtue tainted.
+He is a man, moreover, whose worldly craft may be so smothered and
+suppressed, in the predominance of the household affections, that the
+skilful and designing, alas, may ever practise with success their plans
+against him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AN INTRIGUE.
+
+
+I must now introduce my reader to the library described in the last
+chapter, where, beside a small table covered with papers, and lighted by
+two tall candles, sate Philip Lindsay, with a perplexed and thoughtful
+brow. Opposite to him, in an easy chair, reclined his guest, Mr. Tyrrel;
+a man whose appearance might entitle him to claim something like
+thirty-five years; and whose shrewd and intellectual expression of
+countenance, to which an air of decision was given by what might be
+called an intense eye, denoted a person conversant with the business of
+life; whilst an easy and flexible address no less distinctly announced
+him one habituated to the most polished society. The time of this
+meeting corresponded with that of the interview of Arthur and Mildred,
+beneath the Fawn's Tower.
+
+It is necessary only to premise that these two had frequently conferred
+together, within the last two or three days, upon the subject with which
+they were now engaged.
+
+"Sir Henry Clinton does me too much honor by this confidence," said
+Lindsay. "He overrates my influence amongst the gentlemen of the
+province. Truly, Mr. Tyrrel, I am well persuaded that neither my precept
+nor my example would weigh a feather in the scale against the heady
+course of this rebellion."
+
+"We are seldom competent to judge of the weight of our own influence,"
+said Tyrrel. "I might scarce expect you to speak otherwise than you do.
+But I, who have the opportunity to know, take upon myself to say that
+many gentlemen of note in this province, who are at present constrained
+by the fear of the new government, look with anxiety to you. They repose
+faith in your discretion, and would follow your lead. If an excuse be
+necessary, you might afford them some pretext of pastime to visit the
+Dove Cote. Here you might concert your plan to co-operate with our
+friends in the south."
+
+"Tis a rash thought," replied Lindsay. "This little nook of woodland
+quiet has never yet been disturbed with the debates of men who meditated
+the spilling of blood. God forbid that these peaceful walls should
+hereafter echo back the words that speak of such a purpose."
+
+"It is to spare the shedding of blood, Mr. Lindsay, and to bring speedy
+peace to a distracted country that we invoke you and other friends to
+counsel. A single battle may decide the question of mastery over the
+province. We are well assured that the moment Lord Cornwallis reaches
+the Roanoke"--
+
+"Cornwallis has yet to win the ground he stands upon," interrupted
+Lindsay: "there may be many a deadly blow struck before he slakes his
+thirst in the waters of that river: many a proud head may be low before
+that day."
+
+"Think you, sir," said Tyrrel, rising as he spoke, "that this patched
+and ragged levy--this ague-stricken army that is now creeping through
+the pines of North Carolina, under the command of that pompous
+pretender, Gates, are the men to dispute with his majesty's forces their
+right to any inch of soil they choose to occupy? It will be a merry day
+when we meet them, Mr. Lindsay. We have hitherto delayed our campaign
+until the harvest was gathered: that is now done, and we shall speedily
+bring this hero of Saratoga to his reckoning. Then, following at the
+heels of the runagates, his Lordship, you may be prepared to hear,
+within two months from this day, will be within friendly hail of the
+Dove Cote."
+
+"You speak like a boastful soldier, Mr. Tyrrel. It is not unlikely that
+his lordship may foil Gates and turn him back; such I learn to be the
+apprehension of the more sagacious amongst the continental officers
+themselves; but whether that mischance is to favor your incursion into
+this province may be worth a soberer study than, I doubt, you have given
+the question. The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it
+leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the
+means of these republicans. They have bold partisans in the field, and
+eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well
+with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's-play of war we
+breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since
+marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What
+was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into
+principle, like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and
+then turns into stone. The delusion of republicanism, like all
+delusions, is embraced with more enthusiasm than men ever embrace truth.
+We deem too lightly of these men and their cause, and we have already,
+more than once, suffered for the error. When they expelled Dunmore they
+committed treason against the British crown; and they are wise enough to
+know that that cup, once tasted, must be drained to the bottom: they
+have, therefore, imbrued their hands the deeper in rebellion. They have
+raised their idol of democracy high, and have fenced it about with the
+penalties of confiscation and death to those who refuse to bow before
+it: and now they stand pledged to the prosecution of their unnatural
+war, by such a bond of fate as unites mariners who have rashly ventured
+forth upon a raging sea, in a bark of doubtful strength; their minds
+braced up, by the thought of instant perdition, to the daring effort
+necessary to reach their haven."
+
+"That haven shall they never reach," cried Tyrrel impatiently. "Let them
+invoke the aid of their patron devils! We have a spell shall conjure
+them back again to their own hell, else there is no virtue in the forged
+steel which these rebels have felt before."
+
+"The battle is not always to the strong," said Lindsay, "nor is the
+craft of soldiership without its chances."
+
+"If we had listened, my friend," said Tyrrel, "to musty proverbs,
+Charleston would have this day been in the secure and peaceful
+possession of the enemy. All that you say against our present scheme was
+heretofore urged, though not with such authority, perhaps, against the
+invasion of Carolina. And yet how prettily have we gainsaid the
+prophets! Look at their principal town surrendered--all the country
+strongholds delivered up--the people flocking to our standard for
+protection--and the whole province lifting up a voice of gratitude for
+the deliverance we have wrought them. They are even now arming
+themselves in our behalf, whilst the shattered fragments of the rebel
+force are flying to the swamps and their mountain fastnesses. Why should
+not the same game be as well played in Virginia? Trust me, Mr. Lindsay,
+your caution somewhat over-leaps that wholesome moderation, which I do
+not deny is necessary to check a too sanguine reckoning. Come, good sir,
+lend us a more auspicious counsel. Sir Henry relies much upon your
+wisdom, and will not, with good heart, forego your service."
+
+"Sir Henry has sadly disturbed my repose," returned Lindsay. "To tell
+the truth, I have no stomach for this business. Here, I am native to the
+province: I have found old friends separated from me; early associations
+torn up by the roots; and the elements which fed my strongest personal
+attachments poisoned, by this accursed spirit of revolution. I would
+hide my head from the storm and die in these shades in peace."
+
+"It is not for Mr. Philip Lindsay, nor such as he," replied Tyrrel, "to
+desert his sovereign in his hour of need."
+
+"God forgive me for the thought, Mr. Tyrrel, but it remains yet to be
+proved who most faithfully serve their sovereign; they who counsel
+peace, or they who push war to its fatal extremes. There lives not a man
+within the realm of England, to whom I would yield in devotion to the
+glory of our country. Once make it clear to my judgment that we may hope
+to regain the lost allegiance of this province by the sacrifice of life
+and fortune, and, dearly as I cherish the welfare of those around me, I
+will obey the first summons to the field, and peril this worthless
+existence of mine in bloody fight. Yea, if need be, I will, with my own
+hand, apply the torch to this peaceful abode, and give it over a smoking
+ruin to the cause."
+
+"I know you too well," replied Tyrrel, "to doubt the sincerity of your
+words. But is it not obvious that the war must inevitably tend to this
+field? Having gained the Carolinas, should we turn our backs as soon as
+we have reached the confines of Virginia? On the contrary, does not
+every obligation of honor impel us to maintain and protect our friends
+here? The conquest of Virginia is an easier enterprise than you deem it.
+If the continentals can muster ten thousand men, we, assuredly, may
+double that number, counting our provincials levied in the south. We
+have money and all the means of war, whilst this crippled Congress has
+drained from the people their last groat; their wretched troops will
+disband from mere want of supplies. They may expect no aid from the
+north; for there Sir Henry will furnish them sufficient motive to stay
+at home! We come animated by victories, full of mettle and vigor, they
+meet us broken by defeats, dejected and torn to pieces by mutiny. Never
+did treason or rebellion array itself with more certainty of punishment
+than this!"
+
+"I have read," said Lindsay, "how John Hampden resisted the exaction of
+twenty shillings of ship money, and for that pittance dared the
+displeasure of Charles and his Star Chamber: how he voted the
+impeachment of the judges who were supple enough to warrant the
+imposition: how, in this cause, he drew the sword and threw away the
+scabbard: how he brought Strafford to the block for levying war against
+the commons of England: and through all that disastrous time, have I
+read that Charles promised the cavaliers splendid victories, and derided
+the feeble means of those who were in arms against him; yet Hampden
+shrunk not from the struggle. To me it seems there is a strange
+resemblance between the congress now sitting at Philadelphia and the
+parliament of 1640; and this George Washington might claim kindred with
+John Hampden. I will not seek for further likenesses."
+
+"If I read that history right," replied Tyrrel, "Hampden met his reward
+at Chalgrove, and Cromwell turned his crop-eared parliament out of
+doors. We may, perhaps, find a Chalgrove on this continent;--and Sir
+Henry Clinton will most probably save the wiseacres at Philadelphia from
+the intrusion of an upstart Cromwell."
+
+"It would be too bold in us to count on that, Mr. Tyrrel. I am the enemy
+of these men and their purpose, but I cannot deem otherwise of them than
+as misguided subjects of the king, frenzied by the imagination of
+grievances. They are men of good intellects and honest hearts, misled by
+passion. I would that we could give their tempers time to cool. I would,
+even now, preach moderation and compromise to his majesty's ministers."
+
+"The die is long since cast," said Tyrrel, "and all that remains now is
+to take the hazard of the throw. At this moment, whilst we debate,
+friend and foe are whetting their swords for a deadly encounter on the
+fields of Carolina. It is too late to talk of other arbitrement.
+Assuredly, my good friend, our destiny directs us to this province: and
+the time has come when you must decide what course you will take. It has
+been our earnest wish--Sir Henry's letters, there upon the table,
+anxiously unfold it--to have you up and active in the cause. Why will
+you disappoint so fair a hope?"
+
+"Alas! Mr. Tyrrel,--it is a thorny path you would have me tread. Think
+you I am the man to win my way through these intricacies? I that live in
+the shelter of these woods by sufferance merely--an unmolested outlaw,
+to speak soberly, whom these fanatics of liberty have forborne for the
+sake of past acquaintance and present peaceful habits? Am I not girded
+round about with the hot champions of independence? Look amongst these
+hills--there is not a cabin, not a woodman's hut, no, nor stately
+dwelling, whose roof defends one friend to the royal cause, but my own.
+My lips are sealed; my very thoughts are guarded, lest I give room to
+think I mean to fly from my neutrality. These papers that lie upon that
+table might cost me my life: your presence here, were your purpose
+known, might consign me to captivity or exile:--one random word spoken
+might give me over to the censures of the power that holds its usurped
+domination in the province. What aid may be expected from one so
+guarded, fettered, watched and powerless?"
+
+"And can you patiently," exclaimed Tyrrel, "bow to this oppression? You,
+a native born freeman of the province--a Briton, nursed in the sunny
+light of liberty! Shall your freedom of speech be circumscribed, your
+footsteps be followed by spies and traitors, your very inmost thoughts
+be read and brought up to the censure of the judgment seat? Shall these
+things be, and the blood still continue to run coolly and temperately
+through your veins! There are ills, Mr. Lindsay, which even your calm
+philosophy may not master. But, perhaps, I have mistaken your temper:
+these evidences, at least, shall not put you in peril," he said, as he
+took up the letters from the table and held them over the candle, and
+then threw the flaming mass upon the hearth. "That fear, I hope, is
+removed; and as for my presence here, one word briefly spoken, and it
+shall not longer jeopard your safety."
+
+Lindsay looked fixedly at his companion as he destroyed the papers, and
+then said with a stern emphasis--
+
+"Your duty, sir, is in the field. You have been bred to a profession
+that teaches you blind obedience to orders. It is not your part to weigh
+the right of the cause, nor to falter in the execution of any foul
+purpose of blood, so that it come under the name of honorable warfare.
+Therefore I excuse this unbecoming warmth: but do not presume upon the
+hazardous nature of your calling, and fancy that it implies more
+fidelity to the king than the allegiance of his more peaceful subjects.
+It is a thought unworthy of you that fear of disaster to myself--be it
+ten-fold more imminent than it has yet been--should arrest my step in
+that path where my country's honor, or my sovereign's command, bids me
+advance."
+
+"Worthy and excellent friend," said Tyrrel, taking Lindsay's hand, "I
+have done you wrong. I am rash and headlong in my temper, and my tongue
+often speaks what my heart disavows. I am little better than a boy, Mr.
+Lindsay, and a foolish one; I humbly crave your pardon."
+
+"Speak on," said Lindsay.
+
+"Then briefly this. Your situation is all that you have described it.
+Sir Henry is aware of the trial he imposes upon you. He would have you
+act with the caution which your wisdom dictates; and if it should become
+necessary to speak that word which is to bring the wrath of the rebels
+upon your head, remember there is sanctuary and defence under the broad
+banner of England. Who so welcome there as Philip Lindsay? Even at this
+moment our councils should be tempered by your presence, and it becomes
+almost a patriotic duty to pluck you from the seclusion of the Dove
+Cote, and give you a share in the stirring events of the day. Sir, the
+country has a claim upon your services, scarce compatible with the idle
+contemplation of this momentous trial of strength."
+
+Lindsay had advanced to the window, where he remained looking over the
+moon-lit scene. His companion stood close beside him, and after a short
+interval took his arm, when they stepped forth upon the porch, and
+sauntered backward and forward, as Tyrrel continued,
+
+"The government would not be unmindful of the benefits you might confer.
+There are offices of trust and dignity to be filled in this province
+when it shall be restored to its allegiance. The highest post would not
+be unfitly bestowed, if it should be assigned to you. Sir Henry Clinton
+bids me speak of that, as of a subject that has already occupied his
+thoughts. It would give grace and dignity to our resumed authority, to
+have it illustrated by the accomplished scholar and discreet statesman,
+who has, before this, discharged important and difficult trusts with a
+fidelity that has won all men's esteem. And then, my dear sir," he added
+after a pause, "who may say that it shall not be Sir Philip Lindsay, or
+even something yet higher?--a coronet would not be an honor unsuited
+even to the wilds of Virginia. His majesty is not slow to discern worth,
+nor backward to raise it to its proper station. These are toys and
+baubles to you, Mr. Lindsay, but they are still worth the seeking. You
+have a son to follow you."
+
+"Ah! there, Mr. Tyrrel, you touch me more nearly than you imagine. You
+remind me by this language that I have also a daughter. As to Henry, he
+has a temper and a capacity to make his own way through the world. I
+fear not for him--nor would I seek for honors to add to his name. But my
+Mildred! You know not what emotions the thought of her, in these
+troubles, costs me. Who shall guard and defend her, whilst I pursue this
+waylaid road of ambition? What sanctuary would she find under a
+war-encircled banner, should misfortune assail me, and adversity
+separate us? Alas, alas!--that is the spell that, like a net cast over
+my limbs, makes me feeble and submissive."
+
+"I have not been without my solicitude, Mr. Lindsay, on that subject,"
+said Tyrrel. "You yesterday did me the honor to say that my proposal in
+regard to Miss Lindsay was not distasteful to you. Could my ardent wish
+but be accomplished, she should be placed in safety, assured of ample
+and kind protection. If, haply, her thoughts should incline to a
+favorable reception of my offer, which I would fain persuade myself her
+reverence for you may render not altogether improbable, when she knows
+that you deem well of my suit, we might remove her to Charleston, where,
+secure amidst assiduous friends, she would pass the brief interval of
+alarm, and leave you free to act on this theatre as your honor and duty
+may impel you."
+
+"Mildred will not leave me," said Lindsay; "my dear daughter would
+suffer a thousand deaths in the anxiety of such a separation."
+
+"Then why not accompany her to Charleston?" asked Tyrrel. "Your presence
+there would be equally efficient as at head-quarters--perhaps more so."
+
+"There are other obstacles, Mr. Tyrrel. You talk of Mildred as if her
+heart were to be disposed of at my bidding. You do not know her. I have
+long struggled to subdue an attachment that has bound her to our worst
+enemy, I fear with little success. I have trusted to time to wear out
+what I deemed a mere girlish liking; but it seems to me the traces fade
+but slowly from her heart."
+
+"I know of whom you speak," said Tyrrel--"that harebrained enthusiast
+Butler. It is a freakish and transient passion, and cannot but fall into
+forgetfulness. Miss Lindsay has from circumstances been but little
+conversant with the world, and, like an inexperienced girl, has fostered
+in solitude a romantic affection. That alone should be a motive to
+remove her into a busier scene. Besides, this Butler will be himself
+forced to give over his hopeless aim--if he has not done so before this:
+measures are already taken, and I do not scruple to tell you, at my
+instance--to confiscate his lands in Carolina to his majesty's use. The
+close of this war will find him penniless, and not unlikely, my dear
+sir, I myself may be the possessor of his inheritance--I have some
+pledge of the preemption of these lands at a small fee."
+
+"It will win you no favor with Mildred," said Lindsay, "to tell her that
+you succeed by such a title to this man's wealth. She is a wayward girl,
+and is not used to crosses. Her devotion to her purpose, as it sometimes
+excites my admiration, gives me, in the present case, cause of profound
+alarm."
+
+"You have spoken to her on this subject?"
+
+"I have not," replied Lindsay, "and almost fear to broach it. I can,
+therefore, give you no encouragement. Some little time hence--perhaps
+to-morrow--I may sound her feelings. But remember, as her father, I
+claim no right beyond that of advice. I shall think myself fortunate if,
+by giving a new direction to the current of her affections, I can divert
+her mind from the thoughts of an alliance to me the most hateful--to her
+full of future misery. A maiden's fancies are scarcely intelligible even
+to a father."
+
+"These subjects require meditation," said Tyrrel. "I will not press them
+further upon your thoughts to-night."
+
+"Heaven guide us in the way of safety and happiness!" said Lindsay,
+almost in a whisper. "Good night, my friend."
+
+When Tyrrel was left alone he strolled forward to the terrace, and
+passing round to that end which overhung the cliff, near the door that
+opened from the library, he leaned his breast upon the parapet and
+looked down upon the wild and beautiful scenery of the valley. The
+night was calm and full of splendor. The tops of the trees that grew in
+the ravine, almost perpendicularly beneath his eye, here and there
+caught the bright moon-beam where it glowed like silver, and the shades,
+rendered deeper by the contrast, seemed to brood over a black and
+impenetrable abyss. Occasional glimpses were seen of the river below, as
+it sparkled along such portions of its channel as were not hidden in
+darkness. The coolness of the hour and the solitude of the spot were not
+ungrateful to the mood of Tyrrel's mind, whilst the monotonous music of
+the river fell pleasantly upon his ear. He was not unheedful of these
+charms in the scene, though his thoughts were busily employed with a
+subject foreign to their contemplation.
+
+"Have I advanced," was the tenor of his present self-communion, "the
+purpose I have so much at heart, by this night's conference? Could I but
+engage Lindsay in the issues of this war, so commit him in its purposes
+and its plots as to render his further residence at the Dove Cote
+insecure, then would I already have half-compassed my point. Where could
+he remove but to Charleston? And there, amidst the blandishments of
+friends and the allurements of gay society, I might make sure of
+Mildred. There, cut off from all means of hearing of this Butler, and
+swayed, as she must necessarily be, by the current of loyal feelings,
+she would learn to detest his foul rebellion, and soon lose her favor
+for the rebel. Then, too, the confiscation of his lands--but I am not so
+sure of that!--she is rich and would make a merit of sharing her fortune
+with a man whose brave resistance of oppression--for so, doubtless,
+Butler persuades her it is--has cost him his wealth: the confiscation
+should not seem, at least, to be my doing. Well, well, let her be
+brought to Charleston. Any change were better than to remain here, where
+anxiety and suspense and solitude nurse and soften her woman's
+affections, and teach her to fancy her lover whatsoever her imagination
+delights to think on. Then may not the chances of war assist me? This
+Butler, all men say, is brave and adventurous. He should be short-lived.
+Whatever ill may befall him cannot but work good to me. Yet Lindsay has
+such a sickly caution--such scruple against involving himself in the
+scheme--I could almost find it in my heart to have it told amongst his
+neighbors that he is in correspondence with the enemy. Ha, that would be
+a bright device!--inform against myself! No, no, I will not abuse his
+generous nature. Let him come fairly into the fold, and I will guard
+his gentle lambkin like a very shepherd. Then if we make him governor of
+the province--that will work well. Mildred will thank me for my zeal in
+that good purpose, at least, and I will marry her and possess her
+estate, if it be only to enable her to be grateful to me. 'Twill be a
+brave reward, and bravely shall it be won."
+
+As Tyrrel ruminated over these topics, in the strain indicated by this
+sketch, the noise of footsteps ascending the rugged stairway of the
+cliff, and the opening of the iron wicket, but a short distance from
+where he leaned over the parapet, roused his attention, and put an end
+to this insidious and selfish communion with his own heart.
+
+The cause of this interruption was soon apparent. Henry and Mildred
+entered through the gate, and hurried along the path to that part of the
+terrace where Tyrrel stood. The shade of the house concealed him from
+their view until they were within a few paces. "Ha, Miss Lindsay! You
+are a late rambler," he said, in a tone of gallantry. "The dampness of
+the valley, at this hour, is not altogether safe; the ague is a sore
+enemy to romance; beware of it."
+
+"I am not afraid of the night," replied Mildred, as she increased the
+rapidity of her gait; then, turning immediately upon the porch, she
+almost ran, leaving Henry and Tyrrel in pursuit, until she reached the
+farthest window which was heard descending the moment she passed through
+it into the parlor. When Tyrrel and Henry entered the same apartment,
+she had disappeared.
+
+"My sister is not well this evening," said Henry. "We strolled too late
+upon the river bank."
+
+"It was still an over-hasty retreat," muttered Tyrrel to himself. "It
+bodes not well for me. I will wager, Henry," he said, raising his voice,
+"that I can guess what you and your sister have been talking about."
+
+"Let me hear," said Henry.
+
+"First," replied Tyrrel, "she repeated some verses from Shakspeare about
+the moonlight sleeping on the bank--this is just the night for
+poetry--and then you both fell to talking sentiment, and then, I'll be
+bound, you had a ghost story, and by that time, you found you had got
+too far from the house and were a little frightened, and so came back as
+fast as you could."
+
+"You are wrong," said Henry. "I have been telling sister Mildred how to
+bob for eels. Did you know that an eel will never pass a streak of
+moonlight for fear of being found out by the watchers?"
+
+"Indeed I did not."
+
+"Well, sister Mildred is wiser than you are; and as I have taught you
+that, I will go to bed."
+
+Tyrrel was again left to resume his meditations, and to hatch his plots
+for invading the peace of the Dove Cote, on his pillow. To that
+sleepless pillow he now betook himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+TYRREL RETREATS.
+
+
+The next morning Tyrrel rose with the sun. He had passed a restless
+night, and now sought refreshment in the early breeze. With this purpose
+he descended to the river, and strayed along the dewy pathway which
+crept through the shrubbery on the right bank in the direction of the
+Fawn's Tower. He had not wandered far before he perceived a horseman
+moving along the road upon the opposite side.
+
+"Halloo, James Curry!--which way?--What news have you?"
+
+"I seek you, sir, I was on my way to the Dove Cote," replied the
+horseman, who at the same time turned his horse's head to the river,
+and, spurring the animal forward, plunged into the stream which was here
+still and deep enough to reach above his saddle flaps. After some
+floundering, the horse and rider gained the margin, where Tyrrel awaited
+them! The vigor of the animal, as well as the practised hand that held
+the rein, was shown in the boldness of the attempt to climb the steep
+bank and break through the briers and bushes that here guarded it. As
+soon as Curry reached the level ground, he dismounted.
+
+"In God's name, man, what is the matter with your face?" asked Tyrrel.
+
+"It is of that, amongst other things, that I came to speak to you," was
+the reply; "I have news for you."
+
+"Speak, without prelude. Tell me."
+
+"Major Butler slept last night at Mrs. Dimock's."
+
+"And is there still?"
+
+"No, sir. He started at early dawn this morning."
+
+"To join Gates?"
+
+"I think not. He talked of going to Ninety-Six--perhaps to Georgia."
+
+"So, ho! The hawk hovers over that field! Does he travel alone?"
+
+"He has a giant in his company, a great ploughman by the name of Horse
+Shoe Robinson. A quarrelsome rascal; he would needs pick a quarrel with
+me last night. And in the skirmish I got this face."
+
+"Did I not command you to bear yourself peaceably? Fool! will you risk
+our lives with your infernal broils? Now, I would wager you told the
+fellow your name."
+
+"Little need of that, sir. He told it to me: said he knew me before. The
+fellow, for all his rough coat, is a regular trained soldier in the
+rebel service, and has met me somewhere--Heaven knows!--I don't remember
+him; yet he isn't a man to see once and forget again."
+
+"And me, did he speak of me?"
+
+"He knew that I was in the employ of an English gentleman who was here
+at the Dove Cote. I have nothing especial to complain of in the man. He
+speaks soldierly enough; he said he would take no advantage of me for
+being here as long as our visit was peaceable."
+
+"Humph! And you believed him. And you must fight with him, like a
+brawling knave. When will you get an ounce of wit into that fool's head!
+What time of day was it when this Butler arrived?"
+
+"Long after night-fall."
+
+"Did you understand any thing of the purpose of his visit?"
+
+"He talked much with Mistress Dimock, and I think their conversation
+related to the lady at the Dove Cote. I could hear but a few scattered
+words."
+
+"Away.--Here (throwing his purse to the horseman), pay up your score at
+the inn, and at your greatest haste attend me on the river bank,
+immediately below Mr. Lindsay's house. Ask Mrs. Dimock to have a
+breakfast prepared for me.--Away, I will expect you in half an hour."
+
+Curry mounted his horse, and choosing a more convenient ford than that
+which he had passed (for the jutting rocks, on this side, prevented his
+reaching Mrs. Dimock's without recrossing the river to the road), he
+soon regained the track, and was seen, almost at high speed, sweeping
+around the base of the Fawn's Tower.
+
+Tyrrel returned hastily to the Dove Cote, and, seeking his valet, gave
+orders to have his portmanteau packed, his horse saddled and to be in
+waiting for him at the foot of the hill. These commands were speedily
+obeyed, and everything was in readiness for his journey before any of
+the family had made their appearance in the breakfast room.
+
+Whilst Tyrrel meditated writing a line to explain to Lindsay his present
+sudden movement, and had drawn near a table for that purpose, he was
+saluted by the voice of Henry, who had entered the apartment, and stolen
+unobserved almost immediately behind his chair.
+
+"Booted and spurred, Mr. Tyrrel!" said Henry. "You are for a ride. Will
+you take a fowling-piece? There are pheasants over upon the hills."
+
+"Oh, ho! Master Henry, you are up! I am glad of it. I was just writing a
+word to say that business calls me away this morning. Is your father yet
+abed?"
+
+"He is sound asleep," said Henry; "I will wake him."
+
+"No, my lad. You must not do that. Say I have received news this morning
+that has called me suddenly to my friends. I will return before long. Is
+your sister stirring?"
+
+"She was in the garden but a moment since," replied Henry; and the young
+man left the room, to which he returned after a short space. "Sister
+Mildred is engaged in her chamber, and begs you will excuse her," said
+he, as he again entered the door.
+
+"Tush, Henry, I didn't tell you to interrupt your sister. Make her my
+most respectful adieu. Don't forget it. I have all my way to win," he
+said to himself, "and a rough road to travel, I fear."
+
+Tyrrel now left the house and descended to the river, accompanied by
+Henry, who sought in vain to know why he departed in such haste as not
+to stay for breakfast. James Curry waited below; and, when Henry saw his
+father's guest mount in his saddle and cross the ford, attended by his
+two servants, he turned about and clambered up the hill again, half
+singing and half saying to him self,--"I'm glad he's gone, I'm glad he's
+gone," accompanied with a trolling chorus, expressive of the
+satisfaction of his feelings at the moment. "He'd a got a flea in his
+ear, if he had stay'd. I should like to know what Major Butler would say
+to Mr. Tyrrel, if he was to meet him. Zooks! may be Butler will see him
+this very morning at Mrs. Dimock's. Now, I wonder! Shall I whisper that
+to sister Mildred? She would be glad, for one, I'll be bound! May be,
+they might have a fight. And if they do, let Mr. Tyrrel look out! He
+never had his bread so buttered in his life, as it would be then."
+
+In such a strain of cogitation and conjecture, Henry reached the parlor,
+where he found Mildred. The melancholy that hung upon her spirits, the
+evening before, seemed to have been dispelled by the repose of the
+night, and was doubtless relieved, in part, by the intelligence that
+Tyrrel had quitted the Dove Cote.
+
+"Come, sister," said Henry, throwing his arm round her waist, and almost
+dancing, as he forced her through the open window, "come, it will be a
+good while before father is ready for his breakfast. Let us look at your
+flowers; I have something to tell you."
+
+"You are quite an important personage, this morning," replied Mildred,
+moving off towards the lawn with her brother. "Your face looks as wise
+as a book of proverbs."
+
+It was some time before the brother and sister returned to the parlor,
+and when they did so, their father had not yet appeared. The delay was
+unusual; for Lindsay generally rose at an early hour, and frequently
+walked abroad before his morning meal. When he at last entered the room,
+there was an expression of care and thought upon his brow that made him
+haggard. Mildred, as was her custom, approached him with a kiss, and,
+taking both of his hands, as she looked up in his face, she said, with
+some earnestness:
+
+"You are not well, my dear father."
+
+Lindsay paused a moment, while he gazed affectionately upon her, and
+then pressing her to his bosom, uttered in a low voice, with a smile,--
+
+"God bless my dear child! How carefully does she read my looks! Come
+hither, Henry," he continued, as he gave his son one hand, and still
+held Mildred with the other, and then turned his eyes alternately upon
+each. "Now, tell me, which of you love me best? Who has waited most
+patiently for me this morning? I see by that glance of your blue eye,
+master Henry, that you have been chiding your lazy father for lying so
+long abed. Now, I dare say, if the truth were known, you have had your
+rifle ready to go out and shoot squirrels an hour ago. I beg your
+pardon, Mr. Sportsman--not to shoot the squirrel, but to shoot at him.
+Or, perhaps, you mean to bring us a deer to-day; you know you have
+promised to do that every morning for a week."
+
+"You shall eat a slice from as fine a saddle of venison to-day, father,
+as you ever saw smoke over a chafing-dish."
+
+"In good truth, shall I, boy? You are a brave promiser! You remember
+your own adage,--Brag was a good dog, but Holdfast was better."
+
+"In right down earnest, father, you shall. You needn't laugh. Now,
+you're thinking I have the deer to shoot; there's your mistake. The
+saddle is this minute lying on the dresser in the kitchen. He was a
+running buck yesterday; and I could tell where the powder and ball came
+from (here Henry made the motion of opening a hunting pouch at his side)
+that put an end to his capers."
+
+"He is a monstrous braggart; is he not, Mildred?" said Lindsay,
+directing a look of incredulity at his daughter.
+
+"What Henry tells you is true," replied Mildred. "Stephen Foster was
+here at sunrise with a part of a buck, which he says was shot
+yesterday."
+
+"Indeed! Then it is to Stephen's rifle we are indebted. You kill your
+bucks by proxy, master."
+
+"I'll bet," said Henry, "that Stephen Foster hasn't the impudence to
+charge one penny for that venison. And why? Because, by the laws of
+chace, one-half belongs to me."
+
+"Oh, I understand," interrupted Lindsay, with affected gravity; "it is a
+matter of great doubt which of you shot it. You both fired at once; or,
+perhaps, Stephen first, and you afterwards; and the poor animal dropped
+the moment you took your aim,--even before your piece went off. You know
+your aim, Harry, is deadly,--much worse than your bullet."
+
+"There is no doubt who killed him," said Henry; "for Stephen was on that
+side of the hill, and I was a little below him, and the buck ran right
+to Stephen, who, of course, gave him the first shot. But there was I,
+father, just ready, if Stephen had missed, to bring old Velvet-Horns to
+the ground, before he could have leaped a rod."
+
+"But, unluckily, Stephen's first shot killed him?"
+
+"I don't know that," replied Henry. "Another person's knife might have
+done the business; for the deer jumped down the bank into the road, and
+there"--
+
+Mildred cast a sidelong look of caution at her brother, to warn him
+against alluding to a third person, whom it was not discreet to mention.
+
+"And there," said Henry, taking the sign, "when I got up to him he was
+stone dead. I would almost think a deer couldn't be shot dead so
+suddenly. But Stephen can pitch his lead, as he calls it, just where he
+likes."
+
+"Well, it isn't fair to inquire who killed him," said Lindsay. "One
+hunter often turns the game to the other's rifle. And, at all events,
+your dogs, Henry, I dare say, did as much as either of you."
+
+"Hylas was just at his heels when he was shot," replied Henry; "and a
+better dog there isn't in Amherst, or Albemarle to boot."
+
+"Well, well! Let us to breakfast. Where is our guest? Tyrrel is surely
+out before this."
+
+"He has been gone from the Dove Cote more than an hour," said Henry. "He
+told me to say, that some sudden news took him off in haste. I would
+have waked you, but he forbade it. His man, Curry, who was waiting for
+him at the ford, I dare say, brought him some dispatches."
+
+"It was very sudden," said Lindsay, musing; "the great game will be
+shortly played."
+
+"My dear father, you have not your usual look of health," said Mildred
+again. "I fear something disturbs you."
+
+"A slight cold, only, from exposure to the night air, perhaps. You did
+not see Tyrrel this morning, Mildred?"
+
+"I did not wish to see him, father. I was up when he set out, but I was
+not in his way."
+
+"Fie, girl, you almost speak crossly! Tyrrel, I must think, is not a man
+to win his way with ladies. But he is a loyal subject to his king. I can
+tell you, Mildred, loyalty is a virtue of good associations in these
+times."
+
+"It is the last virtue, my dear father, that a woman ever writes down in
+the list of noble qualities. We generally forget it altogether. History
+is so full of the glory of disloyal heroes, that the indiscriminate and
+persevering loyalty of brave men has come to be but little noticed.
+Brutus was disloyal, and so was Tell; and the English barons, of whom
+you boast so much, when you call them sturdy, were disloyal; and
+Washington--who knows, my dear father, but that he may be written down
+by some future nation, (and she laid an emphasis on this word,) as
+another name to give credit to this word, disloyal."
+
+"Thou art a shrewd orator, Mildred," exclaimed her father, as he sought
+to change the subject, "and I doubt not, if Heaven had made you man, you
+would now be flattering these rebels by persuading them they were all
+born for heroes. We may thank the gods that they have given you the
+petticoat instead of the soldier's cloak, and placed you at the head of
+a breakfast table instead of a regiment."
+
+"I do not think," replied Mildred smiling, "that I should altogether
+disgrace the cloak now, woman as I am, if the occasion required me to
+put it on."
+
+"Pray drop this subject, my dear child; you know it makes me sad. My
+family, I fear, are foredoomed to some strange mishap from these civil
+broils. Attend me presently in the library, I have matters to
+communicate that concern you. Henry, my boy," Lindsay continued, as he
+rose from his breakfast, "pay Stephen Foster the full value of the
+venison; as a sportsman you have a right perhaps to your share of the
+game, but a gentleman shows his courtesy by waiving such claims; he
+should suffer no friend to be his creditor, even in opinion. Stephen may
+not expect to be paid; no matter, it concerns your own character to be
+liberal."
+
+"I have promised Stephen a new rifle," replied Henry; "since they have
+elected him lieutenant of the Amherst Rangers he wants something better
+than his old deer gun."
+
+"I positively forbid it," interrupted Lindsay hastily, returning towards
+the middle of the room from the door through which he was about to
+depart. "What! would you purchase weapons for those clowns to enable
+them to shoot down his majesty's liege subjects? to make war upon their
+rightful king, against his laws and throne? to threaten your life, your
+sister's and mine, unless we bowed to this impious idol of democracy,
+which they have set up--this Washington?"
+
+"My dear, dear father," interposed Mildred as she came up to him and
+flung her arms about his neck. "Consider, Henry is a thoughtless boy,
+and does not look to consequences."
+
+"Heaven bless you both, my children! I beg your pardons. I am over
+captious. Henry, pay Stephen for the venison, and give him something
+better than a rifle. Mildred, I will see you presently."
+
+When Lindsay had left the parlor Mildred besought her brother, in the
+most earnest terms, to be more guarded against giving expression to any
+sentiment which might bring their father's thoughts to the existing war.
+Her own observation had informed her of the nature of the struggle that
+agitated his mind, and her effort was continually directed to calm and
+soothe his feelings by the most unremitting affection, and thus to
+foster his resolution against taking any part in those schemes in which,
+she shrewdly guessed, it was the purpose of the emissaries of the royal
+party to involve him.
+
+Her attachment to Arthur Butler she feared to mention to her father,
+whilst her self-respect and her conviction of her duty to a parent who
+loved her with unbounded devotion, would not allow her altogether to
+conceal it. Upon this subject, Lindsay had sufficiently read her heart
+to know much more about it than she chose to confess; and it did not
+fail to kindle up in his mind a feverish excitement, that occasionally
+broke forth in even a petulant reproof, and to furnish the only occasion
+that had ever arisen of serious displeasure against his daughter. The
+unhappy association between this incident in the life of Mildred, and
+the current of a feeling which had its foundation in a weak piece of
+superstition, to which I have alluded in a former chapter, gave to the
+idea of Mildred's marriage with Butler a fatal complexion in Lindsay's
+thoughts. "For what purpose," he asked himself, "but to avert this
+ill-omened event could I have had such an extraordinary warning?" It had
+occurred to him that the surest method of protecting his family against
+this misfortune would be to throw Mildred into other associations, and
+encourage the growth of other attachments, such as might be expected to
+grow up in her heart out of the kindness of new friendships. He had even
+meditated removing her to England, but that plan became so repulsive to
+him when he found the mention of it distasteful to his children, and it
+suited so little his own fondness for the retirement he had already
+cultivated, that he had abandoned it almost as soon as it occurred to
+him. His next alternative was to favor--though he did so with no great
+zeal--the proposal lately made by Tyrrel. He little knew the character
+of the woman he had to deal with. Never was more devotion enshrined in a
+woman's heart than in Mildred's. Never was more fixed and steady purpose
+to encounter all hazards and hold cheap all dangers more deeply rooted
+in man's or woman's resolution, than was Mildred's to cherish the love
+and follow the fortunes of Arthur Butler.
+
+This conflict between love and filial duty sadly perplexed the
+daughter's peace; and not less disturbing was the strife between
+parental affection and the supposed mandate of fate, in the breast of
+the father.
+
+Henry protested his sorrow for his recent indiscretion and promised more
+caution for the future, and then recurring to what more immediately
+concerned his sister's interest, he said, "I do much wonder what
+Tyrrel's man had to say this morning; it took our good gentleman away so
+suddenly. I can't help thinking it has something to do with Butler and
+Horse Shoe. They must have been seen by Curry at Mrs. Dimock's, and old
+Tony knows the major very well, and has told his name. Besides, do you
+know, sister, I think Curry is a spy? Else, why should he be left at
+Mrs. Dimock's always? There was room enough here for both of Mr.
+Tyrrel's servants. I have a thought that I will reconnoitre: I will ride
+over to the Blue Ball, and see what I can learn."
+
+"Do, my good brother," replied Mildred, "and in the meantime I must go
+to my father, who has something disagreeable to tell me--so I
+fear--concerning that busy plotter who has just left us. My spirits grow
+heavy at the thought of it. Ah, Henry, if I could but speak out, and
+unpack my heart, what a load would I throw off! How does it grieve me to
+have a secret that I dare not tell my dear father! Thank heaven,
+brother, your heart and mine have not yet had a secret that they could
+not whisper to each other!"
+
+"Give care the whip, sister," said Henry, like a young gallant, "it
+belongs to the bat family and should not fly in day-time. Farewell for
+the next two hours!" and saying these words the sprightly youth kissed
+his hand, and, with an alert step, left the room.
+
+Mildred now retired to prepare for the interview with her father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A SCENE BETWEEN A FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
+
+
+When Mildred entered the library Lindsay was already there. He stood
+before one of the ranges of book shelves, and held a volume in his hand
+which, for a moment after his daughter's entrance, seemed to engross his
+attention. Mildred was sufficiently astute to perceive that by this
+device he struggled to compose his mind for an interview of which she
+more than guessed the import. She was of a constitution not easily to be
+driven from her self-possession; but the consciousness of her father's
+embarrassment, and some perplexity in her own feelings at this moment,
+produced by a sense of the difficult part she had to perform, slightly
+discomposed her; there was something like alarm in her step, and also in
+the expression of her features, as she almost stealthily seated herself
+in one of the large lounging chairs. For a moment she unconsciously
+employed herself in stripping a little flower that she held in her hand
+of its leaves, and looked silently upon the floor; at length, in a low
+accent, she said, "Father, I am here at your bidding." Lindsay turned
+quickly round, and, throwing down the volume he had been perusing,
+approached his daughter with a smile that seemed rather unnaturally to
+play over his grave and almost melancholy countenance, and it was with a
+forced attempt at pleasantry he said, as he took her hand:--
+
+"Now, I dare say, you think you have done something very wrong, and that
+I have brought you here to give you a lecture."
+
+"I hope, father, I have done nothing wrong," was Mildred's grave and
+almost tremulous reply.
+
+"Thou art a good child, Mildred," said Lindsay, drawing a chair close
+beside hers, and then, in a more serious tone, he continued, "you are
+entirely sure, my daughter, that I love you, and devoutly seek your
+happiness?"
+
+"Dear father, you frighten me by this solemn air. Why ask me such a
+question?"
+
+"Pardon me, my girl, but my feelings are full with subjects of serious
+import, and I would have you believe that what I have now to say springs
+from an earnest solicitude for your welfare."
+
+"You have always shown it, father."
+
+"I come to speak to you, without reserve, of Tyrrel," resumed Lindsay;
+"and you will not respond to my confidence, unless you answer me in the
+very truth of your heart. This gentleman, Mr. Tyrrel, has twice avowed
+to me of late an earnest attachment to you, and has sought my leave to
+prosecute his suit. Such things are not apt to escape a woman's notice,
+and you have doubtless had some hint of his predilection before he
+disclosed it to me."
+
+All the woman's bashfulness disappeared with this announcement. Mildred
+grew erect in her seat, and as the native pride of her character beamed
+forth from every feature of her face, she replied--
+
+"He has never, father, vouchsafed to give me such a proof of his good
+opinion. Mr. Tyrrel is content to make his bargain with you: he is well
+aware that whatever hope he may be idle enough to cherish, must depend
+more on your command than on my regard."
+
+"He has never spoken to you, Mildred?" asked Lindsay, without making any
+comment on the indignant reception his daughter had given to his
+disclosure. "Never a word? Bethink you, my daughter, of all that has
+lately passed between you. A maiden is apt to misconstrue attentions.
+Can you remember nothing beyond the mere civilities of custom?"
+
+"I can think of nothing in the conduct of Mr. Tyrrel but his devotion to
+the purpose of embroiling my dear father in his miserable politics. I
+can remember nothing of him but his low voice and noiseless step, his
+mysterious insinuations, his midnight sittings, his fulsome flattery of
+your services in the royal cause, the base means by which he has robbed
+you of your rest and taken the color from your cheek. I thought him too
+busy in distracting your peace to cast a thought upon me. But to speak
+to me, father, of attachment," she said, rising and taking a station so
+near Lindsay's chair as to be able to lean her arm upon his shoulder,
+"to breathe one word of a wish to win my esteem, that he dared not do."
+
+"You speak under the impulse of some unnecessarily excited feeling,
+daughter. You apply terms and impute motives that sound too harsh from
+your lips, when the subject of them is a brave and faithful gentleman.
+Mr. Tyrrel deserves nothing at our hands but kindness."
+
+"Alas, my dear father, alas, that you should think so!"
+
+"What have you discovered, Mildred, or heard, that you should deem so
+injuriously of this man? Who has conjured up this unreasonable aversion
+in your mind against him?"
+
+"I am indebted to no sources of information but my own senses," replied
+Mildred; "I want no monitor to tell me that he is not to be trusted. He
+is not what he seems."
+
+"True, he is not what he seems, but better. Tyrrel appears here but as a
+simple gentleman, wearing, for obvious reasons, an assumed name. The
+letters he has brought me avouch him to be a man of rank and family,
+high in the confidence of the officers of the king, and holding a
+reputable commission in the army: a man of note, worthy to be trusted
+with grave enterprises, distinguished for sagacity, bravery, and honor,
+of moral virtues which would dignify any station, and, as you cannot but
+acknowledge from your own observation, filled with the courtesy and
+grace of a gentleman. Fie, daughter! it is sinful to derogate from the
+character of an honorable man."
+
+"Wearing an assumed name, father, and acting a part, here, at the Dove
+Cote! Is it necessary for his purpose that, under this roof, he should
+appear in masquerade? May I know whether he treats with you for my hand
+in his real or assumed character--does he permit me to know who he is?"
+
+"All in good time, Mildred. Content you, girl, that he has sufficiently
+certified himself to me. These are perilous times, and Tyrrel is obliged
+to practise much address to find his way along our roads. You are aware
+it would not be discreet to have him known even to our servants. But the
+time will come when you shall know him as himself, and then, if I
+mistake not, your generous nature will be ashamed to have wronged him by
+unworthy suspicions."
+
+"Believe me, father," exclaimed Mildred, rising to a tone of animation
+that awakened the natural eloquence of her feelings, and gave them vent
+in language which more resembled the display of a practised orator than
+the declamation of a girl, "believe me, he imposes on you. His purposes
+are intensely selfish. If he has obtained an authority to treat with you
+or others under an assumed name, it has only been to further his
+personal ends. Already has he succeeded in plunging you, against your
+will, into the depth of this quarrel. Your time, my dear father, which
+once glided as softly and as happily as yon sparkling waters through our
+valley, is now consumed in deliberations that wear out your spirits:
+your books are abandoned for the study of secret schemes of politics:
+you are perplexed and anxious at every account that reaches us of
+victory or defeat. It was not so, until you saw Tyrrel: your nights,
+that once knew a long and healthful sleep, are now divided by short and
+unrefreshing slumbers: you complain of unpleasant dreams and you
+foretell some constantly coming disaster. Indeed, dearest father, you
+are not what you were. You wrong yourself by these cares, and you do not
+know how anxiously my brother Henry and myself watch, in secret, this
+unhappy change in your nature. How can I think with patience of this
+Tyrrel when I see these things?"
+
+"The times, Mildred, leave me no choice. When a nation struggles to
+throw off the rule of lawful authority, the friends of peace and order
+should remember that the riotous passions of the refractory people are
+not to be subdued without personal sacrifices."
+
+"You promised yourself, father, here at the Dove Cote to live beyond the
+sphere of these excitements. And, as I well remember, you often, as the
+war raged, threw yourself upon your knees, and taught us,--your
+children,--to kneel by your side, and we put up our joint expressions of
+gratitude to God, that, at least, this little asylum was undisturbed by
+the angry passions of man."
+
+"We did, we did, my dearest child. But I should think it sinful to pray
+for the same quiet when my services might be useful to restore harmony
+to a distracted and misguided country."
+
+"Do you now think," asked Mildred, "that your efforts are or can be of
+any avail to produce peace?"
+
+"The blessing of heaven has descended upon the arms of our sovereign,"
+replied Lindsay. "The southern provinces are subdued, and are fast
+returning to their allegiance. The hopes of England brighten, and a
+speedy close of this unnatural rebellion is at hand."
+
+"There are many valleys, father, amongst these mountains, and the wide
+forests shade a solitude where large and populous nations may be hid
+almost from human search. They who possess the valleys and the
+wilderness, I have heard it said by wise men, will for ever choose their
+own rulers."
+
+"Mildred, you are a dutiful daughter, and are not wont to oppose your
+father's wishes. I could desire to see you, with that shrewd
+apprehension of yours, that quick insight, and that thoughtful mind,
+thoughtful beyond the quality of your sex, less favorably bent towards
+the enterprise of these rebel subjects. I do utterly loathe them and
+their cause, and could wish that child of mine abated in no one jot of
+my aversion to them."
+
+"Heaven, father, and your good tutoring have made me what I am,"
+returned Mildred, calmly; "I am but a woman, and speak with a weak
+judgment and little knowledge. To my unlearned mind it seems that the
+government of every nation should be what the people wish it. There are
+good men here, father, amongst your friends--men, who, I am sure, have
+all kindness in their hearts, who say that this country his suffered
+grievous wrongs from the insolence of the king's representatives. They
+have proclaimed this in a paper which I have heard even you say was
+temperate and thoughtful: and you know nearly the whole land has roused
+itself to say that paper was good. Can so many men be wrong?"
+
+"You are a girl," replied Lindsay, "and a subtile one: you are tainted
+with the common heresy. But what else might I expect! There are few
+_men_ who can think out of fashion. When the multitude is supposed to
+speak, that is warrant enough for the opinions of the majority. But it
+is no matter, this is not a woman's theme, and is foreign to our present
+conference. I came to talk with you about Tyrrel. Upon that subject I
+will use no persuasions, express no wish, not in the slightest point
+essay to influence your choice. When he disclosed his purpose to me, I
+told him it was a question solely at your disposal. Thus much it is my
+duty to say, that should his suit be favored"--
+
+"From the bottom of my heart, father," interrupted Mildred eagerly, and
+with increasing earnestness, "I abhor the thought. Be assured that if
+age, poverty, and deformity were showered upon me at once, if friends
+abandoned me, if my reason were blighted, and I was doomed to wander
+barefooted amongst thorns and briers, I would not exchange that lot, to
+be his wife amidst ten-fold his honors and wealth. I never can listen to
+his hateful proposal: there is that in my condition which would make it
+wicked. Pray, dearest father, as you love your daughter, do not speak of
+it to me again."
+
+"Resume your calmness, child: your earnestness on this subject afflicts
+me; it has a fearful omen in it. It tells of a heart fatally devoted to
+one whom, of all men, I have greatest reason to hate. This unhappy,
+lingering passion for the sworn enemy of his king and country, little
+becomes my daughter, or her regard for me. It may rouse me, Mildred, to
+some unkind wish against thee. Oh, I could curse myself that I ever
+threw you in the way of this insidious rebel, Butler. Nay you need not
+conceal your tears; well do they deserve to flow for this persevering
+transgression against the peace of your father's house. It requires but
+little skill to read the whole history of your heart."
+
+Lindsay now walked to and fro across the apartment, under the influence
+of emotions which he was afraid to trust himself to utter. At length
+resuming his expostulation, in a somewhat moderate tone, he continued:
+
+"Will no lapse of time wear away this abhorred image from your memory?
+Are you madly bent on bringing down misery on your head? I do not speak
+of my own suffering. Will you for ever nurse a hopeless attachment for a
+man whom, it must be apparent to yourself, you can never meet again?
+Whom if the perils of the field, the avenging bullet of some loyal
+subject, do not bring him merited punishment, the halter may reward, or,
+in his most fortunate destiny, disgrace, poverty, and shame pursue. Are
+you for ever to love that man?"
+
+Mildred stood before her father as he brought this appeal to a close;
+her eyes filled with tears, her breast heaving as if it would burst; and
+summoning up all her courage for her reply, when this last question was
+asked, she looked with an expression of almost angry defiance in his
+face, as she answered "For ever, for ever," and hastily left the room.
+
+The firm tone in which Mildred spoke these last words, her proud and
+almost haughty bearing, so unlike anything Lindsay had ever seen before,
+and her abrupt departure from his presence, gave a check to the current
+of his thoughts that raised the most painful emotions. For an instant a
+blush of resentment rose into his cheeks, and he felt tempted to call
+his daughter back that he might express this sentiment: it was but of a
+moment's duration, however, and grief, at what he felt was the first
+altercation he had ever had with his child, succeeded, and stifled all
+other emotions. He flung himself into the chair, and, dropping his
+forehead upon his hand, gave way to the full tide of his feelings. His
+spirits gradually became more composed, and he was able to survey with a
+somewhat temperate judgment the scene that had just passed. His manner,
+he thought, might have been too peremptory--perhaps it was harsh, and
+had offended his daughter's pride: he should have been more conciliatory
+in his speech. "The old," he said, "are not fit counsellors to the
+young; we forget the warmth of their passions, and would reason when
+they only feel. How small a share has prudence in the concerns of the
+heart!" But then this unexpected fervor of devotion to Butler--that
+alarmed him, and he bit his lip, as he felt his anger rising with the
+thought. "Her repugnance to Tyrrel, her prompt rejection of his suit,
+her indignant contempt for the man, even that I could bear with
+patience," he exclaimed. "I seek not to trammel her will by any
+authority of mine. But this Butler! Oh! there is the beginning of the
+curse upon my house! there is the fate against which I have been so
+solemnly warned! That man who had been the author of this unhappiness,
+and whose alliance with my name has been denounced by the awful
+visitation of the dead,--that Mildred should cherish his regard, is
+misery. It cannot and shall not be!"
+
+These and many such reflections passed through Lindsay's mind, and had
+roused his feelings to a tone of exacerbation against Arthur Butler, far
+surpassing any displeasure he had ever before indulged against this
+individual. In the height of this self-communion he was interrupted by
+the return of Mildred to the apartment, almost as abruptly as she had
+quitted it. She approached his chair, knelt, laid her head upon his lap,
+and wept aloud.
+
+"Why, my dear father," she said, at length, looking up in his face while
+the tears rolled down her cheeks, "why do you address language to me
+that makes me forget the duty I owe you? If you knew my heart, you would
+spare and pity my feelings. Pardon me, dear father, if my conduct has
+offended you. I knew not what I spoke; I am wretched, and cannot answer
+for my words. Do not think I would wound your affection by unkindness;
+but indeed, indeed, I cannot hear you speak of Tyrrel without agony."
+
+"Rise, daughter," said Lindsay, almost lifting her up, "I do not chide
+you for your repugnance to Tyrrel. You mistake me if you think I would
+dictate to your affections: my grief has a deeper source. This Arthur
+Butler"--
+
+"Spare that name, father?" interrupted Mildred, retiring to a seat near
+the window and covering her face with her hands.
+
+"Curse him!" exclaimed Lindsay. "May all the plagues that torment the
+human bosom fall upon him! Mark me, daughter, I trust I am not an
+unreasonable father; I know I am not an unkind one; there are few
+requests that you could make which I would not freely grant. But to hear
+with patience the name of that man on your lips, to think of him as
+allied to you by any sympathy, as sharing any portion of your
+esteem--him, a rebel traitor who has raised his sacrilegious hand
+against his king, who has sold his name to infamy, who has contributed
+to fill these peaceful provinces with discord, and to subvert the
+happiness of this land, which heaven had appointed to be an asylum where
+man, disgusted with the lusts, rapine, and murder of his fellow, might
+betake himself as a child to the bosom of his parent--I cannot endure
+the thought of him! Never again, Mildred, I charge you, never allude to
+him again!"
+
+"If I could but tell you all!" interrupted Mildred, sobbing, "if I could
+but patiently have your hearing."
+
+"Never a word of him! as you desire to preserve my affection, I will not
+hear. Get to your chamber," said Lindsay, almost sternly. "Get to your
+chamber, this perverse and resolute temper of thine, needs the restraint
+of solitude."
+
+Mildred rose from her chair and moved towards the door, and as she was
+about to depart she turned her weeping countenance towards her father.
+
+"Come hither," he said, "thou art a foolish girl, and would bring down
+wretchedness and woe upon thee. God forgive you, from the bottom of my
+heart, I forgive you. This thing is not of your own imagining: some
+malignant spirit has spread his baleful wing above our house. Go,
+child, forget what has been said, and believe that your father buffets
+thus harshly with fate for your own welfare. Kiss me, and may heaven
+shield you against this impending ill!"
+
+"Dear father, hear me," said Mildred, as Lindsay imprinted a kiss upon
+her forehead.
+
+"Away, away!" interrupted Lindsay, "I would be temperate nor again
+forget myself. In all love, Mildred, away."
+
+Mildred left the room, and Lindsay, to restore the equanimity of his
+temper, which had been so much overthrown by this interview, wandered
+forth into the valley, whence it was some hours before he returned.
+
+It was not long after the termination of this conference before Henry
+rode up to the door. The clatter of his horse's hoofs brought Mildred
+from her chamber into the parlor.
+
+"What! sister, your eyes red with tears?" said Henry. "Who has
+distressed you?"
+
+"Ah, brother, I have had a weary time in your absence. Our poor father
+is sadly displeased with me."
+
+"Have you told him all?" asked Henry, with an expression of anxiety.
+
+"He bade me," replied Mildred, "never mention Arthur's name again. He
+would not hear me speak of Arthur. Have I not reason, dear brother, to
+be miserable?"
+
+"I love you, Mildred," said Henry, kissing his sister, "and what's more,
+I love Arthur Butler, and will stand up for him against the world. And I
+have a good mind to go to my father and tell him I am man enough to
+think for myself--and more than that--that I, for one, believe these
+rebels, as he calls them, have the right of it. Why shouldn't I? Can't I
+shoot a rifle as well as the best of them, and stand by a friend in a
+quarrel, and make good my words as well as many a man who writes twenty
+years to his age? Tush! I am tired of this boy-play--shooting with
+blunted arrows, and riding with my father's hand ever on the neck of my
+horse, as if I could not hold the reins. Give me sharp steel, Mildred,
+and throw me on the world, and I'll be bound I make my way as well as
+another."
+
+"We are surrounded with difficulties, brother," said Mildred, "and have
+a hard part to perform. We must soothe our dear father's feelings, for
+he loves us, Henry; and if he could but think as we do, how happy should
+we be! But there is something fearful in his passions, and it makes me
+tremble to see them roused."
+
+"This all comes," replied Henry, "from that devil's imp Tyrrel. Oh, I
+could find it in my heart to trounce that fellow, sister. But you
+hav'n't asked me about my reconnoitring! I'll tell you. Tyrrel's man,
+Curry, talked a great deal to old Tony and Mrs. Dimock both, about our
+friends who went there last night, and found out their names and all
+about them: and there was some fray between Horse Shoe and Curry, in
+which, I'll warrant you, Horse Shoe gave him a drubbing; so Tony told
+me. Well, Butler and Horse Shoe set out this morning at daylight. And
+Tyrrel went over there to breakfast: and you may suppose he was lucky in
+not meeting the major, for I am sure there would have been a spot of
+work if he had. Furthermore, I found out that Tyrrel followed on the
+same road after Butler, so they may meet yet, you know."
+
+"I pray not," said Mildred.
+
+"Why pray not, sister? I pray they may meet. Let Tyrrel have all the
+good of it. There, now I believe I have given you all the news, sister,
+exactly as I picked it up. But here is a trifle I forgot," said Henry,
+producing a letter addressed to Mildred. "Ah, ha, you brighten up now!
+This was left by the major with Mrs. Dimock, to be forwarded to you with
+care and speed."
+
+Mildred tore open the letter, and eagerly perused its contents. They
+consisted of a few lines hastily penned by Butler, at early dawn, as he
+was about mounting his horse for the prosecution of his journey. Their
+purpose was to apprise her of the discovery Robinson had made of the
+true character of Curry, and also to express his fears that this latter
+person might disclose to Tyrrel the fact of his, Butler's, visit. He
+cautioned her to observe the conduct of Tyrrel, and to communicate with
+him at Gates's head-quarters where he expected to be delayed a few days
+on his journey: her letter, he said, might be forwarded by some of the
+parties who at that time were continually passing southward: Henry might
+look to this; and he concluded by assuring her that he would write as
+often as he might find means of conveying a packet to the care of good
+Mistress Dimock, who was sufficiently in the interest of the lovers to
+keep faithfully any secret which they might confide to her.
+
+This letter served to explain the cause of Tyrrel's sudden departure,
+and to confirm Mildred in the opinion, which she had before expressed,
+that this guest of her father was not ignorant of the interest Butler
+had in her regard. Her determination therefore was to watch his motions
+narrowly, and to make her lover acquainted with whatever she might
+discover.
+
+"It is even so," she said musing; "Tyrrel either fears or hates Arthur.
+I shudder to think that that man should have any motive supplied him to
+contrive against the peace or safety of one so dear to me. Wretch," she
+exclaimed, "that he should be insolent enough to hope for my regard! Oh!
+my father, my father, what a snare has been spread for you by this man!
+Thank you, brother," she continued, addressing Henry. "You have well
+executed your mission. Be discreet and ready: I shall have much need of
+your head and hand both: your heart is mine already, good brother."
+
+"I will ride for you, sister," said Henry, "I will run for you, speak
+for you, pray for you--if my prayers be worth anything--and strike for
+you, if need be. If I am but turned of sixteen, I am a man, I trow; and
+that's more than you are. Good bye! a soldier ought to look after his
+horse, you know."
+
+"God bless you, dear brother, for an excellent boy," said Mildred
+smiling, "man I mean--aye and a brave one!"
+
+Henry now walked away, and Mildred betook herself to other cares.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A POLITICAL RETROSPECT.--BUTLER ENTERS SOUTH CAROLINA.
+
+
+It was the misfortune of South Carolina, during the revolutionary war,
+to possess a numerous party less attached to the union or more tainted
+with disaffection than the inhabitants of any of the other states.
+Amongst her citizens the disinclination to sever from the mother country
+was stronger, the spread of republican principles more limited, and the
+march of revolution slower, than in either of the other colonies,
+except, perhaps, in the neighbor state of Georgia, where the people
+residing along the Savannah river, were so closely allied to the
+Carolinians in sentiment, habits, and pursuits, as to partake pretty
+accurately of the same political prejudices, and to unite themselves in
+parties of the same complexion. Upon the first invasion of Georgia, at
+the close of the year 1778, the city of Savannah was made an easy
+conquest, and a mere handful of men, early in 1779, were enabled to
+penetrate the interior as far as Augusta, and to seize upon that post.
+The audacity with which Prevost threatened Charleston in the same year,
+the facility of his march through South Carolina, and the safety which
+attended his retreat, told a sad tale of the supineness of the people of
+that province. The reduction of Charleston in the following year, by Sir
+Henry Clinton, was followed with singular rapidity by the conquest of
+the whole province. A civil government was erected. The most remote
+posts in the mountains were at once occupied by British soldiers or
+provincial troops, mustered under the officers of the royal army.
+Proclamations were issued to call back the wandering sheep to the royal
+fold; and they, accordingly, like herds that had been scattered from
+beneath the eye of the shepherd by some rough incursion of wolves,
+flocked in as soon as they were aware of the retreat of their enemy.
+Lord Cornwallis, upon whom the command devolved after the return of Sir
+Henry Clinton in June to New York, recruited his army from these
+repentant or unwilling republicans; and the people rejoiced at what they
+thought the end of strife and the establishment of law. The auxiliaries
+who had marched from Virginia and North Carolina under Colonel Buford,
+to assist in the defence of the southern capital, were informed of its
+surrender as they journeyed thither, and soon found themselves obliged
+to fly through a country they had come to succor;--and when even at the
+distance of one hundred and fifty miles from the city, were overtaken by
+the ruthless troopers of Tarleton, and butchered under circumstances
+peculiarly deplorable.
+
+In truth, a large proportion of the population of South Carolina seem to
+have regarded the revolution with disfavor, and they were slow to break
+their ancient friendship for the land of their forefathers. The colonial
+government was mild and beneficent in its action upon the province, and
+the people had a reverence for the mother country deeper and more
+affectionate than was found elsewhere. They did not resent, because,
+haply, they did not feel the innovations of right asserted by the
+British crown, so acutely as some of their neighbors; to them it did not
+seem to be so unreasonable that taxation should be divorced from
+representation. They did not quarrel with the assumption of Great
+Britain to regulate their trade for them in such manner as best suited
+her own views of interest; nor did they see in mere commercial
+restrictions the justification of civil war and hot rebellion;--because,
+peradventure, (if I may hazard a reason) being a colony of planters
+whose products were much in demand in England, neither the regulations
+of their trade nor the restrictions upon commerce, were likely to be so
+adjusted as to interfere with the profitable expansion of their labors.
+
+Such might be said to be the more popular sentiment of the State at the
+time of its subjugation by Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis. To
+this common feeling there were many brilliant exceptions; and the more
+brilliant because they stood, as it were, apart from the preponderating
+mass of public judgment. There is no trial of courage which will bear
+comparison with that of a man whose own opinions stand in opposition,
+upon fearful questions of passion, to those of the "giddy-paced" and
+excited multitude, and who, nevertheless, carries them "into act." That
+man who can stand in the breach of universal public censure, with all
+the fashions of opinion disgracing him in the thoughts of the lookers
+on, with the tide of obloquy beating against his breast, and the fingers
+of the mighty, combined many, pointing him to scorn; nay, with the fury
+of the drunken rabble threatening him with instant death; and, worse
+than all, having no present friend to whisper a word of defence or
+palliative, in his behalf, to his revilers, but bravely giving his naked
+head to the storm, because he knows himself to be virtuous in his
+purpose; that man shall come forth from this fierce ordeal like tried
+gold; philosophy shall embalm his name in her richest unction, history
+shall give him a place on her brightest page, and old, yea, hoary,
+far-off posterity shall remember him as of yesterday.
+
+There were heroes of this mould in South Carolina, who entered with the
+best spirit of chivalry into the national quarrel, and brought to it
+hearts as bold, minds as vigorous, and arms as strong as ever, in any
+clime, worked out a nation's redemption. These men refused submission to
+their conquerors, and endured exile, chains, and prisons, rather than
+the yoke. Some few, still undiscouraged by the portents of the times,
+retreated into secret places, gathered their few patriot neighbors
+together, and contrived to keep in awe the soldier-government that now
+professed to sway the land. They lived on the scant aliment furnished in
+the woods, slept in the tangled brakes and secret places of the fen,
+exacted contributions from the adherents of the crown, and by rapid
+movements of their woodland cavalry and brave blows, accomplished more
+than thrice their numbers would have achieved in ordinary warfare.
+
+The disaffected abounded in the upper country, and here Cornwallis
+maintained some strong garrisons. The difficulties that surrounded the
+republican leaders may well be supposed to have been appalling in this
+region, where regular posts had been established to furnish the Tories
+secure points of union, and the certainty of prompt assistance whenever
+required. Yet notwithstanding the numerical inferiority of the friends
+of independence, their guarded and proscribed condition, their want of
+support, and their almost absolute destitution of all the necessaries of
+military life, the nation was often rejoiced to hear of brilliant
+passages of arms, where, however unimportant the consequences, the
+display of soldiership and bravery was of the highest order. In such
+encounters, or frays they might almost be called, from the smallness of
+the numbers concerned and the hand-to-hand mode of fighting which they
+exhibited, Marion, Sumpter, Horry, Pickens, and many others, had won a
+fame that in a nation of poetical or legendary associations would have
+been reduplicated through a thousand channels of immortal verse: but,
+alas! we have no ballads: and many men, who as well deserve to be
+remembered as Percy or Douglas, as Adam Bell or Clym of the Clough, have
+sunk down without even a couplet-epitaph upon the rude stone, that in
+some unfenced and unreverenced grave-yard still marks the lap of earth
+whereon their heads were laid.
+
+One feature that belonged to this unhappy state of things in Carolina
+was the division of families. Kindred were arrayed against each other in
+deadly feuds, and, not unfrequently, brother took up arms against
+brother, and sons against their sires. A prevailing spirit of treachery
+and distrust marked the times. Strangers did not know how far they might
+trust to the rites of hospitality; and many a man laid his head upon his
+pillow, uncertain whether his fellow lodger, or he with whom he had
+broken bread at his last meal, might not invade him in the secret
+watches of the night and murder him in his slumbers. All went armed, and
+many slept with pistols or daggers under their pillows. There are tales
+told of men being summoned to their doors or windows at midnight by the
+blaze of their farm-yards to which the incendiary torch had been
+applied, and shot down, in the light of the conflagration, by a
+concealed hand. Families were obliged to betake themselves to the
+shelter of the thickets and swamps, when their own homesteads were
+dangerous places. The enemy wore no colors, and was not to be
+distinguished from friends either by outward guise or speech. Nothing
+could be more revolting than to see the symbols of peace thus misleading
+the confident into the toils of war; nor is it possible to imagine a
+state of society characterized by a more frightful insecurity.
+
+Such was the condition of the country to which my tale now makes it
+necessary to introduce my reader. Butler's instructions required that
+he should report himself to General Gates, and, unless detained for more
+pressing duty, to proceed with all the circumspection which the
+enterprise might require, to Colonel Clarke, who, it was known, was at
+that time in the upland country of South Carolina, raising troops to act
+against Augusta and other British posts. He accordingly arrived at
+head-quarters, on the borders of the two Carolinas, in about a week
+after leaving the Dove Cote. The army of the brave and unfortunate De
+Kalb, which had been originally destined for the relief of Charleston,
+had been increased, by reinforcements of militia from Virginia and the
+adjoining States, to double the computed strength of the British forces;
+and Gates, on taking command of it, was filled with the most lofty
+presentiments of victory. Vainglorious and unadvisable, he is said to
+have pushed forward with an indiscreet haste, and to have thrown himself
+into difficulties which a wiser man would have avoided. He professed
+himself to stand in no need of recruits to his army, and Butler,
+therefore, after the delay of a few days, was left at liberty to pursue
+his original scheme.
+
+The wide-spread disaffection of the region through which our adventurers
+were about to pass, inculcated the necessity of the utmost vigilance to
+avoid molestation from the numerous parties that were then abroad
+hastening to the seat of war. Under the almost entire guidance of
+Robinson, who was familiar with every path in this neighborhood,
+Butler's plan was to temporize with whatever difficulties might beset
+his way, and to rely upon his own and his comrade's address for escape.
+
+The sergeant's first object was to conduct his superior to his own
+dwelling, which was situated on the Catawba, a short distance above the
+Waxhaws. This was safely accomplished on the second day after they had
+left Gates. A short delay at this place enabled Butler to exchange the
+dress he had hitherto worn, for one of a more homely and rustic
+character, a measure deemed necessary to facilitate his quiet passage
+through the country. With these precautions he and the trusty sergeant
+resumed their expedition, and now shaped their course across the region
+lying between the Catawba and Broad rivers, with the intention of
+reaching the habitation of Wat Adair, a well known woodsman who lived on
+the southern side of the latter river, somewhat above its confluence
+with the Pacolet. The route they had chosen for this purpose consisted
+of such circuitous and unfrequented paths as were least likely to be
+infested by the scouts of the enemy, or by questioners who might be too
+curious regarding the object of their journey.
+
+The second week of August had half elapsed when, towards the evening of
+a day that had been distinguished for the exhilarating freshness of the
+atmosphere, such as is peculiar to the highlands of southern latitudes
+at this season, our travellers found themselves descending through a
+long and shady defile to the level ground that lay along the margin of
+the Broad river. The greater part of the day had been spent in threading
+the mazes of a series of sharp and abrupt hills covered with the native
+forest, or winding through narrow valleys, amongst tangled thickets of
+briers and copse-wood, by a path scarce wide enough to permit the
+passage of a single horse. They had now emerged from the wilderness upon
+a public highway, which extended across the strip of lowland that
+skirted the river. The proximity of the river itself was indicated by
+the nature of the ground, that here retained vestiges of occasional
+inundations, as also by the rank character of the vegetation. The road
+led through a swamp, which was rendered passable by a causey of timber,
+and was shaded on either side by a mass of shrubbery, composed of
+laurel, magnolia, and such other plants as delight in a moist soil, over
+whose forms a tissue of creeping plants was woven in such profusion as
+to form a fastness or impregnable retreat for all kinds of noxious
+animals. Above this wilderness, here and there, might be seen in the
+depths of the morass, the robust cypress or the lurid pine, high enough
+for the mast of the largest ship, the ash, and gum, and, towering above
+all, the majestic poplar, with its branchless trunk bound up in the
+embraces of a huge serpent-like grapevine.
+
+As soon as Butler found himself extricated from the difficult path that
+had so much embarrassed his journey, and once more introduced upon a
+road that allowed him to ride abreast with his companion, he could not
+help congratulating himself upon the change.
+
+"Well, here at last, Galbraith," he said, "is an end to this bridle
+path, as you call it. Thank heaven for it! The settlement of the
+account between this and the plain road would not leave much in our
+favor: on one side, I should have to set down my being twice unhorsed in
+riding up perpendicular hills; one plunge up to the belly in the mud of
+a swamp; a dozen times in danger of strangling from grapevines; and how
+often torn by briers, I leave you to reckon up by looking at my clothes.
+And all this is to be cast up against the chance of meeting a few
+rascally Tories. Faith! upon the whole, it would have been as cheap to
+fight."
+
+"Whist, Major, you are a young man, and don't study things as I do. You
+never catch me without reason on my side. As to standing upon the trifle
+of a man or two odds in the way of a fight, when there was need of
+scratching, I wouldn't be so onaccommodating as to ax you to do that.
+But I had some generalship in view, which I can make appear. This road,
+which we have just got into, comes up through Winnsborough, which is one
+of the randyvoos of the Tories: now I thought if we outflanked them by
+coming through the hills, we mought keep our heads out of a hornets'
+nest. The best way, Major Butler, to get along through this world is not
+to be quarrelsome; that's my principle."
+
+"Truly, it comes well from you, sergeant, who within two days past have
+been in danger of getting your crown cracked at least six times! Were
+you not yesterday going to beat a man only for asking a harmless
+question? A rough fellow to-boot, Horse Shoe, who might, from
+appearance, have turned out a troublesome customer."
+
+"Ho, ho, ho, Major! Do you know who that character was? That was mad
+Archy Gibbs, from the Broken Bridge, one of the craziest devils after a
+fracaw on the Catawba; a tearing Tory likewise."
+
+"And was that an argument for wishing to fight him?"
+
+"Why, you see, Major, I've got a principle on that subject. It's an
+observation I have made, that whenever you come across one of these
+rampagious fellows, that's always for breeding disturbances, the best
+way is to be as fractious as themselves. You have hearn of the way of
+putting out a house on fire by blowing it up with gunpowder?"
+
+"A pretty effectual method, Sergeant."
+
+"Dog won't eat dog," continued Horse Shoe. "Ho, ho! I know these
+characters; so I always bullies them. When we stopped yesterday at the
+surveyor's, on Blair's Range, to get a little something to eat, and that
+bevy of Tories came riding up, with mad Archy at their head, a thought
+struck me that the fellows mought be dogging us, and that sot me to
+thinking what answer I should make consarning you, if they were to
+question me. So, ecod, I made a parson of you, ha, ha, ha! Sure enough,
+they began as soon as they sot down in the porch, to axing me about my
+business, and then about yourn. I told them, correspondent and
+accordingly, that you was a Presbyterian minister, and that I had
+undertook to show you the way to Chester, where you was going to hold
+forth. And, thereupon, mad Archy out with one of his tremengious oaths,
+and swore he would have a sarmint from you, for the good of his
+blackguards, before they broke up."
+
+"Mad Archy and his blackguards would have profited, no doubt, by my
+spiritual lessons."
+
+"Rather than let him have anything to say to you," proceeded Robinson,
+"for you wa'n't prepared, seeing that you didn't hear what was going on,
+though I spoke loud enough, on purpose, Major, for you to hear us
+through the window; I up and told Archy, says I, I am a peaceable man,
+but I'll be d----d if any minister of the gospel shall be insulted
+whilst I have the care of him; and, furthermore, says I, I didn't come
+here to interrupt no man; but if you, Archy Gibbs, or any one of your
+crew, says one ondecent word to the parson, they'll run the risk of
+being flung sprawling on this here floor, and that's as good as if I had
+sworn to it; and as for you, Archy, I'll hold you accountable for the
+good conduct of your whole squad. But, Major, you are about the hardest
+man to take a wink I ever knowed. There was I a motioning of you, and
+signifying to get your horse and be off, at least ten minutes before you
+took the hint."
+
+"I was near spoiling all, Galbraith, for from your familiarity with
+these fellows I at first thought them friends."
+
+"They were mighty dubious, you may depend. And it was as much as I could
+do to keep them from breaking in on you. They said it was strange, and
+so it was, to see a parson riding with pistols; but I told them you was
+obliged to travel so much after night that it was as much as you could
+do to keep clear of panthers and wolves; and in fact, major, I had to
+tell them a monstrous sight of lies, just to keep them in talk whilst
+you was getting away: it was like a rare guard scrummaging by platoons
+on a retreat to get the advance off. I was monstrous afeard, major, you
+wouldn't saddle my horse."
+
+"I understood you at last, Galbraith, and made everything ready for a
+masterly retreat, and then moved away with a very sober air, leaving you
+to bring up the rear like a good soldier. And you know, sergeant, I
+didn't go so far but that I was at hand to give you support, if you had
+stood in need of it. I wonder now that they let you off so easily."
+
+"They didn't want to have no uproar with me, Major Butler. They knowed
+me, that although I wa'n't a quarrelsome man, they would'a got some of
+their necks twisted if I had seen occasion: in particular, I would have
+taken some of mad Archy's crazy fits out of him--by my hand I would,
+major! But I'll tell you,--I made one observation, that this here sort
+of carrying false colors goes against a man's conscience: it doesn't
+seem natural for a man, that's accustomed and willing to stand by his
+words, to be heaping one lie upon top of another as fast as he can speak
+them. It really, Major Butler, does go against my grain."
+
+"That point of conscience," said Butler laughing, "has been duly
+considered, and, I believe, we are safe in setting it down as entirely
+lawful to use any deceit of speech to escape from an enemy in time of
+war. We have a dangerous trade, sergeant, and the moralists indulge us
+more than they do others: and as I am a minister, you know, you need not
+be afraid to trust your conscience to my keeping."
+
+"They allow that all's fair in war, I believe. But it don't signify, a
+man is a good while before he gets used to this flat lying, for I can't
+call it by any other name."
+
+"If we should be challenged on this road, before we reach Wat Adair's,"
+said Butler, "it is your opinion that we should say we are graziers
+going to the mountains to buy cattle."
+
+"That's about the best answer I can think of. Though you must be a
+little careful about that. If you see me put my hand up to my mouth and
+give a sort of a hem, major, then leave the answer to me. A gang of raw
+lads might be easily imposed upon, but it wouldn't do if there's an old
+sodger amongst them; he mought ax some hard questions."
+
+"I know but little of this grazier craft to bear an examination. I fear
+I should fare badly if one of these bullies should take it into his head
+to cross-question me."
+
+"If a man takes on too much with you," replied Robinson, "it is well to
+be a little saucy to him. If he thinks you are for a quarrel, the
+chances are he won't pester you. But if any of these Tories should only
+take it into their heads, without our telling them right down in so many
+words, for I would rather a lie, if it is to come out, should take a
+roundabout way, that we are sent up here by Cornwallis, or Rawdon, or
+Leslie, or any of their people to do an arrand, they will be as civil,
+sir, as your grandmother's cat, for, major, they are a blasted set of
+cringin' whelps, the best of them, and will take anything that has G. R.
+marked on it with thanks, even if it was a cat-o'nine tails, which they
+desarve every day at rollcall, the sorry devils!"
+
+"I am completely at my wits' end, Galbraith. I have not done much
+justice to your appointment of me as a parson, and when I come to play
+the grazier it will be still worse; even in this disguise of a plain
+countryman I make a poor performer; I fear I shall disgrace the boards."
+
+"If the worst comes to the worst, major, the rule is run or fight. We
+can manage that, at any rate, for we have had a good deal of both in the
+last three or four years."
+
+"God knows we have had practice enough, sergeant, to make us perfect in
+that trick. Let us make our way through this treacherous ground as
+quickly and as quietly as we can. Get me to Clarke by the shortest
+route, and keep as much among friends as you know how."
+
+"As to that, Major Butler, it is all a matter of chance, for, to tell
+you the plain truth, I don't know who to depend upon. A quick eye, a
+nimble foot, and a ready hand, will be our surest friends. Then with the
+pistols at your saddle, besides a pair in your pocket, and a dirk for
+close quarters, and my rifle here for a long shot, major, I am not much
+doubtful but what we shall hold our own."
+
+"How far are we from Adair's?" asked Butler.
+
+"Not more than a mile," replied Horse Shoe. "You may see the ferry just
+ahead. Wat lives upon the top of the first hill on the other side."
+
+"Is that fellow to be trusted, sergeant?"
+
+"Better with the help of gold, major, than without it. Wat was never
+over honest. But it is worth our while to make a friend of him if we
+can."
+
+Our travellers had now reached the river, which was here a smooth and
+deep stream, though by no means so broad as to entitle it to the
+distinction by which, in its lower portion, it has earned its name. It
+here flowed sluggishly along in deep and melancholy shade.
+
+Butler and his companion were destined to encounter a difficulty at this
+spot which less hardy travellers would have deemed a serious
+embarrassment. The boat was not to be seen on either side of the river,
+having been carried off a few hours before, according to the information
+given by the inmates of a negro cabin, constituting the family of the
+ferryman, by a party of soldiers.
+
+Robinson regarded this obstacle with the resignation of a practised
+philosopher. He nodded his head significantly to his companion upon
+receiving the intelligence, as he said,
+
+"There is some mischief in the wind. These Tories are always dodging
+about in gangs; and when they collect the boats on the river, it is
+either to help them forward on some house-burning and thieving business,
+or to secure their retreat when they expect to have honest men at their
+heels. It would be good news to hear that Sumpter was near their
+cruppers, which, by the by, is not onlikely neither. You would be told
+of some pretty sport then, major."
+
+"Sumpter's means, sergeant," replied Butler, "I fear, are not equal to
+his will. There are heavy odds against him, and it isn't often that he
+can venture from his hiding-place. But what are we to do now,
+Galbraith?"
+
+"Ha, ha! do as we have often done before this, launch our four-legged
+ships, and take a wet jacket coolly and dispassionately, as that quare
+devil Lieutenant Hopkins used to tell us when he was going to make a
+charge of the bagnet. We hav'n't no time to lose, major, and if we had,
+I don't think the river would run dry. So, here goes."
+
+With these words Robinson plunged into the stream, and, with his rifle
+resting across his shoulder, he plied his voyage towards the opposite
+bank with the same unconcern as if he had journeyed on dry land. As soon
+as he was fairly afloat he looked back to give a few cautions to Butler.
+
+"Head slantwise up stream, major, lean a little forward, so as to sink
+your horse's nose nearer to the water, he swims all the better for it.
+Slacken your reins and give him play. You have it now. It isn't
+oncomfortable in a day's ride to get a cool seat once in a while. Here
+we are safe and sound," he continued, as they reached the further
+margin, "and nothing the worse for the ferrying, excepting it be a
+trifle of dampness about the breeches."
+
+The two companions now galloped towards the higher grounds of the
+adjacent country.
+
+By the time that they had gained the summit of a long hill that rose
+immediately from the plain of the river, Robinson apprised Butler that
+they were now in the vicinity of Adair's dwelling. The sun had sunk
+below the horizon, and the varied lustre of early twilight tinged the
+surrounding scenery with its own beautiful colors. The road, as it wound
+upwards gradually emerged from the forest upon a tract of open country,
+given signs of one of those original settlements which, at that day,
+were sparsely sprinkled through the great wilderness. The space that had
+been snatched from the ruggedness of nature, for the purpose of
+husbandry, comprehended some three or four fields of thinly cultivated
+land. These were yet spotted over with stumps of trees, that seemed to
+leave but little freedom to the course of the ploughshare, and bespoke a
+thriftless and slovenly tillage. A piece of half cleared ground,
+occupying the side of one of the adjacent hills, presented to the eye of
+our travellers a yet more uncouth spectacle. This spot was still clothed
+with the native trees of the forest, all of which had been
+death-stricken by the axe, and now heaved up their withered and sapless
+branches towards the heavens, without leaf or spray. In the phrase of
+the woodman, they had been _girdled_ some years before, and were
+destined to await the slow decay of time in their upright attitude. It
+was a grove of huge skeletons that had already been bleached into an
+ashy hue by the sun, and whose stiff and dry members rattled in the
+breeze with a preternatural harshness. Amongst the most hoary of these
+victims of the axe, the gales of winter had done their work and thrown
+them to the earth, where the shattered boles and boughs lay as they had
+fallen, and were slowly reverting into their original dust. Others,
+whose appointed time had not yet been fulfilled, gave evidence of their
+struggle with the frequent storm, by their declination from the
+perpendicular line. Some had been caught in falling by the boughs of a
+sturdier neighbor, and still leaned their huge bulks upon these
+supports, awakening the mind of the spectator to the fancy, that they
+had sunk in some deadly paroxysm into charitable and friendly arms, and,
+thus locked together, abided their tardy but irrevocable doom. It was a
+field of the dead; and the more striking in its imagery from the
+contrast which it furnished to the rich, verdurous, and lively forest
+that, with all the joyousness of health, encompassed this blighted spot.
+Its aspect was one of unpleasant desolation; and the traveller of the
+present day who visits our western wilds, where this slovenly practice
+is still in use, will never pass through such a precinct without a sense
+of disgust at the disfiguration of the landscape.
+
+The field thus marred might have contained some fifty acres, and it was
+now occupied, in the intervals between the lifeless trunks, with a
+feeble crop of Indian corn, whose husky and parched blades, as they
+fluttered in the evening wind, added new and appropriate features to the
+inexpressible raggedness of the scene. The same effect was further aided
+and preserved by the cumbrous and unseemly worm fence that shot forth
+its stiff angles around the tract.
+
+On the very apex of the hill up which our travellers were now
+clambering, was an inclosure of some three or four acres of land, in the
+middle of which, under the shade of a tuft of trees, stood a group of
+log cabins so situated as to command a view, of nearly every part of the
+farm. The principal structure was supplied with a rude porch that
+covered three of its sides; whilst the smoke that curled upwards from a
+wide-mouthed chimney, and the accompaniment of a bevy of little negroes
+that were seen scattered amongst the out-houses, gave an air of
+habitation and life to the place that contrasted well with the
+stillness of the neighboring wood. A well-beaten path led into a narrow
+ravine where might be discerned, peeping forth from the weeds, the roof
+of a spring house; and, in the same neighborhood, a rough garden was
+observable, in which a bed of broad-leaved cabbages seemed to have their
+ground disputed by a plentiful crop of burdock, thistles, and other
+intruders upon a manured soil. In this inclosure, also, the hollyhock
+and sunflower, rival coxcombs of the vegetable community, gave their
+broad and garish tribute to the beautifying of the spot.
+
+The road approached within some fifty paces of the front of the cabins,
+where access was allowed, not by the help of a gate, but only by a kind
+of ladder or stile formed of rails, which were so arranged as to furnish
+steps across the barrier of the worm fence at four or five feet from the
+ground.
+
+"Are you sure of entertainment here, Galbraith?" inquired Butler, as
+they halted at the stile. "This Wat Adair is not likely to be churlish,
+I hope?"
+
+"I don't think I am in much humor to be turned away," replied Robinson.
+"It's my opinion that a man who has rode a whole day has a sort of right
+to quarters wherever the night finds him--providing he pays for what he
+gets. But I have no doubt of Wat, Major. Holloa! who's at home? Wat
+Adair! Wat Adair! Travellers, man! Show yourself."
+
+"Who are you that keep such a racket at the fence there?" demanded a
+female voice. "What do you mean by such doings before a peaceable
+house?"
+
+"Keep your dogs silent, ma'am," returned Horse Shoe, in a blunt and loud
+key, "and you will hear us. If you are Wat Adair's wife you are as good
+as master of this house. We want a night's lodging and must have it--and
+besides, we have excellent stomachs, and mean to pay for all we get.
+Ain't that reason enough to satisfy a sensible woman, Mrs. Adair?"
+
+"If you come to make disturbance," said a man of a short and sturdy
+figure, who at this moment stepped out from the house and took a
+position in front of it, with a rifle in his hand--"if you come here to
+insult a quiet family you had best turn your horses' heads up the road
+and jog further."
+
+"We might do that, sir, and fare worse," said Butler, in a conciliatory
+tone. "You have no need of your gun; we are harmless travellers who have
+come a long way to get under your roof."
+
+"Where from?" asked the other.
+
+"From below," said Horse Shoe promptly.
+
+"What side do you take?"
+
+"Your side for to-night," returned Robinson again. "Don't be
+obstropolous, friend," he continued, at the same time dismounting, "we
+have come on purpose to pay Wat a visit, and if you ha'n't got no
+brawlers in the house, you needn't be afraid of us."
+
+By this time the sergeant had crossed the stile and approached the
+questioner, to whom he offered his hand. The man gazed for a moment upon
+his visitor, and then asked--
+
+"Isn't this Galbraith Robinson?"
+
+"They call me so," replied Horse Shoe; "and if I ain't mistaken, this is
+Michael Lynch. You wan't going to shoot at us, Michael?"
+
+"A man must have sharp eyes when he looks in the face of a neighbor
+now-a-days," said the other. "Come in; Wat's wife will be glad to see
+you. Wat himself will be home presently. Who have you here, Galbraith?"
+
+"This is Mr. Butler," answered Horse Shoe, as the Major joined them. "He
+and me are taking a ride across into Georgia, and we thought we would
+give Wat a call just to hear the news."
+
+"You are apt to fetch more news than you will take away," replied the
+other; "but there is a good deal doing now in all quarters. Howsever, go
+into the house, we must give you something to eat and a bed besides."
+
+After putting their horses in charge of a negro who now approached in
+the character of an ostler, our adventurers followed Michael Lynch into
+the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A WOODMAN'S FAMILY.
+
+
+The apartment into which the travellers were introduced was one of large
+dimensions, conspicuous for its huge kitchen-like fire-place and ample
+chimney. The floor, consisting of broad planks, was so much warped as,
+in several places, to show the ground through the chinks. The furniture
+was of the rudest form and most homely materials. Three or four rifles
+were suspended against the walls, together with some trapping implements
+and various skins of such wild animals of prey and game as abounded in
+the woods of this region: these were associated with the antlers of the
+buck, powder-horns, hunting pouches, and a few articles of
+clothing,--the whole array giving to the room that air of woodland life
+which denotes the habitation of a hunter, and which so distinctly
+characterizes the dwellings of our frontier population.
+
+Amongst other articles of household use was a large spinning-wheel that
+was placed near the door, and beside it stood the dame who had first
+challenged the visitors. She was a woman who could scarcely be said to
+have reached the middle period of life, although her wan and somewhat
+haggard features, and a surly, discontented expression of face, might
+well induce an observer to attribute more years to her worldly account
+than she had actually seen. The presence of a rough and untidy cradle
+and some five or six children, the majority of whom might be below three
+feet in stature, served in some degree to explain the care-worn and
+joyless countenance of the hostess. When Butler and his companion were
+ushered by Lynch into her presence, she gave them no other welcome than
+a slight nod of the head, and continued to ply her task at the wheel
+with unremitted assiduity.
+
+In another corner of the room sat a smart-looking young girl who, at
+this moment, was employed in carding wool. She was sylvan Hebe, just
+verging upon womanhood, with a round, active, and graceful figure, which
+was adorned with that zealous attention to neatness and becoming
+ornament which, in every station of life, to a certain extent,
+distinguishes those of the sex who are gifted with beauty. Her cheek had
+the rich bloom of high health; a full round blue eye seemed habitually
+to laugh with pleasure; and the same trick of a happy temperament had
+stamped its mark upon the lines of her mouth. Her accost was altogether
+different from that of the mistress of the house. She arose from her
+work immediately upon the entrance of the strangers, courtesied with a
+modest and silent reserve, and then proceeded to gather up the rolls of
+carded wool at her feet and to dispose of them in a chest near at hand.
+Having done this, she left the apartment, not without casting sundry
+prying glances towards the guests.
+
+Another member of the family was an aged female: she had perhaps seen
+her eightieth winter. Her attenuated frame seemed to be hovering on the
+verge of dissolution: a hollow cheek, a sunken, moist eye, and a
+tremulous palsied motion of the head denoted the melancholy period of
+dotage; and it was apparent at a glance that this unfortunate being had
+far outlived both her capacity for enjoyment and the sympathy of her
+kindred. She now sat in a low elbow-chair, with her head almost in
+contact with her knees, upon the stone hearth, bending over a small fire
+of brushwood which had been kindled as well for the purpose of preparing
+the evening meal as for the comfort of the ancient dame herself--the
+chilliness of night-fall rendering this additional warmth by no means
+unpleasant. The beldam silently smoked a short pipe, unmoved by anything
+that occurred in the apartment, and apparently engrossed with the
+trivial care of directing the smoke, as she puffed it from her lips,
+into a current that should take it up the chimney.
+
+Michael Lynch, who acted as landlord in the casual absence of Wat Adair,
+had no other connexion with the family than that of being joint owner,
+with the lord of this wild domain, of a small saw-mill in the vicinity,
+the particular superintendence of which was his especial province. He
+was, therefore, at particular seasons of the year, an in-dweller at the
+homestead, and sufficiently in authority to assume a partial direction
+in the affairs of the house. This man now replaced his rifle upon the
+pegs appropriated to receive it, and then offered Butler and Robinson
+chairs, as he said to the mistress of the family:--
+
+"Here's Horse Shoe Robinson, Mrs. Adair; and this other man I think they
+call Mr. Butler. They've come for a night's lodging. I believe Wat will
+be right glad to see them."
+
+"You are not often visited with travellers in this part of the country,"
+said Butler, addressing the matron as he drew his chair near to the fire
+to dry his clothes.
+
+"We have enough of them, such as they are," replied the woman; "and it's
+a dangerous thing, when there's so many helpless women at home, to be
+opening the door to all sorts of persons."
+
+"You, at least, run no risk in offering shelter to us this evening,"
+returned Butler; "we are strangers to the quarrel that prevails in your
+district."
+
+"People puts on so many pretences," said the woman, "that there's no
+knowing them."
+
+"You have a fine troop of boys and girls," continued Butler, patting the
+head of one of the boys who had summoned courage to approach him, after
+various shy reconnoitrings of his person. "Your settlement will require
+enlargement before long."
+
+"There is more children than is needful," replied the hostess; "they are
+troublesome brats; but poor people generally have the luck that way."
+
+"Does your husband ever serve with the army, madam?" asked Butler.
+
+The woman stopped spinning for a moment, and turning her face towards
+Butler with a scowl, muttered,
+
+"How does that matter concern you?"
+
+"Pardon me," replied Butler; "I was recommended to Mr. Adair as a
+friend, and supposed I might approach his house without suspicion."
+
+"Wat Adair is a fool," said the wife; "who is never content but when he
+has other people thrusting their spoons into his mess."
+
+"Wat's a wiser man than his wife," interrupted Robinson bluntly, "and
+takes good care that no man thrusts his spoon into his mess without
+paying for it. You know Wat and me knows each other of old, Mrs. Adair;
+and devil a ha'penny did Wat ever lose by good manners yet."
+
+"And who are you to talk, forsooth, Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed the
+ill-favored dame, tartly. "Who are you to talk of Wat Adair? If he knows
+you he knows no good of you, I'm sure? I warrant you have come here on
+honest business now--you and your tramping friend. What do you do up
+here in the woods, when there is work enough for hearty men below? No
+good, I will undertake. It is such as you, Horse Shoe Robinson, and your
+drinking, rioting, broadsword cronies that has given as all our troubles
+here. You know Wat Adair!"
+
+"A little consideration, good woman! Not so fast; you run yourself out
+of breath," said Robinson mildly, interrupting this flood of
+objurgation. "Why, you are as spiteful as a hen with a fresh brood!
+Remember, Wat and me are old friends. Wat has been at my house both
+before the war and since, and I have been here--all in friendship you
+know. And many's the buck I have helped Wat to fetch down. What's the
+use of tantrums? If we had been thieves, Mrs. Adair, you couldn't have
+sarved us worse. Why, it's unreasonable in you to fly in a man's face
+so."
+
+"I'll vouch for Horse Shoe Robinson, Mrs. Peggy Adair," said Lynch. "You
+oughtn't to think harm of him; and you know it isn't long since we heard
+Wat talk of him, and say he would like to see him once more!"
+
+"Well, it's my way," replied the hostess, soothed down into a placid
+mood by this joint expostulation. "We have had cause to be suspicious,
+and I own I am suspicious. But, Horse Shoe Robinson, I can't say I have
+anything against you; you and your friend may be welcome for me."
+
+"Heyday!" exclaimed the old crone from the chimney corner "Who is
+talking about Horse Shoe Robinson? Is this Horse Shoe? Come here, good
+man," she said, beckoning with her finger to the sergeant. "Come close
+and let me look at you. Galbraith Robinson, as I am a sinner! All the
+way from the Waxhaws. Who'd 'a thought to find you here amongst the
+Tories? Such a racketing whig as you. Heyday!"
+
+"Whisht, granny!" said Robinson almost in a whisper. "Don't call names."
+
+"We are all Tories here," said the old woman, heedless of the sergeant's
+caution, "ever since last Thursday, when the handsome English officer
+was here to see Watty, and to count out his gold like pebble-stones."
+
+"Grandmother, you talk nonsense," said the wife.
+
+"Old Mistress Crosby," interposed Robinson, "is as knowing as she ever
+was. It's a mark of sense to be able to tell the day of the week when a
+man changes his coat. But, granny, you oughtn't to talk of Wat's seeing
+an English officer in his house."
+
+"Golden guineas, honey!" continued the drivelling old woman. "All good
+gold! And a proud clinking they make in Watty's homespun pocket. A
+countryman's old leather bag, Galbraith Robinson, doesn't often scrape
+acquaintance with the image of the king's head--ha, ha, ha! It makes me
+laugh to think of it! Ha, ha, ha! Watty's nose cocked up so high too!
+Who but he, the proud gander! Strutting like quality. Well, well, pride
+will have a fall, some day, that's the Lord's truth. Both pockets full!"
+she continued, muttering broken sentences and laughing so violently that
+the tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+"If you call Wat Adair your friend," interrupted the wife sullenly, and
+addressing Robinson, "you will show your sense by keeping away from this
+foolish old woman. She is continually raving with some nonsense that she
+dreams of nights. You ought to see that she is only half witted. It's
+sinful to encourage her talking. Grandmother, you had better go to your
+bed."
+
+"Come this way, deary," said the beldam, addressing an infant that
+toddled across the floor near to her seat, at the same time extending
+her shrivelled arm to receive it. "Come to the old body, pretty
+darling!"
+
+"No," lisped the child with an angry scream, and instantly made its way
+towards the door.
+
+"Then do you come to me, Peggy," she said, looking up at her
+granddaughter, the mistress of the family, who was still busy with her
+wheel. "Wipe my old eye with your handkerchief. Don't you see I have
+laughed my eyes dim at Watty and his gold? And fill my pipe again,
+Peggy."
+
+Instead of obeying this command, the mother left her spinning, and ran
+with some precipitation towards the door to catch up the child, who had
+staggered to the very verge of the sill, where it paused in imminent
+peril of falling headlong down the step; and having rescued it from its
+danger, she returned with the infant in her arms to a chair, where,
+without scruple at the presence of her visitors, she uncovered her bosom
+and administered to her off-spring that rich and simple bounty which
+nature has so lavishly provided for the sustenance of our first and
+tenderest days of helplessness.
+
+"Well-a-day, I see how it is!" muttered the grandmother in an accent of
+reproof, "that's the way of the world. Love is like a running river, it
+goes downwards, but doesn't come back to the spring. The poor old granny
+in the chimney corner is a withered tree up the stream, and the youngest
+born is a pretty flower on the bank below. Love leaves the old tree and
+goes to the flower. It went from me to Peggy's mother, and so downwards
+and downwards, but it never will come back again. The old granny's room
+is more wanted than her company; she ought to be nailed up in her coffin
+and put to sleep down, down in the cold ground. Well, well! But Watty's
+a proud wretch, that's for certain!"
+
+In this strain the aged dame continued to pour forth a stream of
+garrulity exhibiting a mixture of the silly dreamings of dotage, with a
+curious remainder of the scraps and saws of former experience--a strange
+compound of futile drivelling and shrewd and quick sagacity.
+
+During the period of the foregoing dialogue, preparations were making
+for supper. These were conducted principally under the superintendence
+of our Hebe, who, my reader will recollect, some time since escaped from
+the room, and who, as Butler learned, in the course of the evening, was
+a niece of Adair's wife and bore the kindly name of Mary Musgrove. The
+part which she took in the concerns of the family was in accordance with
+the simple manners of the time, and such as might be expected from her
+relationship. She was now seen arranging a broad table, and directing
+the domestics in the disposition of sundry dishes of venison, bacon, and
+corn bread, with such other items of fare as belonged to the sequestered
+and forest-bound region in which Adair resided.
+
+Mary was frequently caught directing her regards towards Butler, whose
+face was handsome enough to have rendered such a thing quite natural
+from a young girl: but she seemed to be moved by more than ordinary
+interest, as the closeness of her scrutiny almost implied a suspicion in
+her mind of his disguise. In truth there was some incongruity between
+his manners and the peasant dress he wore, which an eye like Mary's
+might have detected, notwithstanding the plainness of demeanor which
+Butler studied to assume.
+
+"We have nothing but corn bread in the house," said Mary in a low tone
+to her kinswoman, "perhaps the gentlemen (here she directed her eye, for
+the fiftieth time, to Butler) expected to get wheat. Had I not better
+pull some roasting-ears from the garden and prepare them? they will not
+be amiss with our milk and butter."
+
+"Bless you, my dear," said Butler, thrown completely off his guard, and
+showing more gallantry than belonged to the station he affected. "Give
+yourself no trouble on my account; we can eat anything. I delight in
+corn cakes, and will do ample justice to this savory venison. Pray do
+not concern yourself for us."
+
+"It is easy as running to the garden," said Mary in a sweet and almost
+laughing tone.
+
+"That's further, my dear," replied Butler, "than I choose you should run
+at this time of night. It is dark, my pretty girl."
+
+"Gracious!" returned Mary with natural emotion, "do you think I am
+afraid to go as far as the garden in the dark? We have no witches or
+fairies in our hills to hurt us: and if we had, I know how to keep them
+away."
+
+"And how might that be?"
+
+"By saying my prayers, sir. My father taught me, before my head was as
+high as the back of this chair, a good many prayers: and he told me they
+would protect me from all sorts of harm, if I only said them in right
+earnest. And I hear many old people, who ought to know, say the same
+thing."
+
+"Your father taught you well and wisely," replied Butler; "prayer will
+guard us against many ills, and chiefly against ourselves. But against
+the harm that others may do us, we should not forget that prudence is
+also a good safeguard. It is always well to avoid a dangerous path."
+
+"But, for all that," said the maiden smiling, "I am not afraid to go as
+far as the garden."
+
+"If you mean to get the corn," interrupted Mistress Adair, in no very
+kindly tone, "you had as well go without all this talk. I warrant if you
+listen to every man who thinks it worth while to jabber in your ear, you
+will find harm enough, without going far to seek it."
+
+"I thought it was only civil to speak when I was spoken to," replied
+Mary, with an air of mortification. "But I will be gone this moment:"
+and with these words the girl went forth upon her errand.
+
+A moment only elapsed when the door was abruptly thrown open, and the
+tall and swarthy figure of Wat Adair strode into the room. The glare of
+the blazing faggots of pine which had been thrown on the fire to light
+up the apartment, fell broadly over his person, and flung a black and
+uncouth shadow across the floor and upon the opposite wall; thus
+magnifying his proportions and imparting a picturesque character to his
+outward man. A thin, dark, weather-beaten countenance, animated by a
+bright and restless eye, expressed cunning rather than hardihood, and
+seemed habitually to alternate between the manifestations of waggish
+vivacity and distrust. The person of this individual might be said, from
+its want of symmetry and from a certain slovenly and ungraceful stoop in
+the head and shoulders, to have been protracted, rather than tall. It
+better deserved the description of sinewy than muscular, and
+communicated the idea of toughness in a greater degree than strength.
+His arms and legs were long; and the habit of keeping the knee bent as
+he walked, suggested a remote resemblance in his gait to that of a
+panther and other animals of the same species; it seemed to be adapted
+to a sudden leap or spring.
+
+His dress was a coarse and short hunting-shirt of dingy green, trimmed
+with a profusion of fringe, and sufficiently open at the collar to
+disclose his long and gaunt neck; a black leather belt supported a
+hunting knife and wallet; whilst a pair of rude deer-skin moccasins and
+a cap manufactured from the skin of some wild animal, and now deprived
+of its hair by long use, supplied the indispensable gear to either
+extremity of his person.
+
+Adair's first care was to bestow in their proper places his rifle and
+powder-horn; then to disburden himself of a number of squirrels which
+were strung carelessly over his person, and, finally, to throw himself
+into a chair that occupied one side of the fire-place. The light for a
+moment blinded him, and it was not until he shaded his brow with his
+hand and looked across the hearth, that he became aware of the presence
+of the strangers. His first gaze was directed to Butler, to whom he
+addressed the common interrogatory, "Travelling in these parts, sir?"
+and, before time was afforded for a reply to this accost, his eye
+recognised the sergeant, upon which, starting from his seat, he made up
+to our sturdy friend, and slapping him familiarly on the back, uttered a
+chuckling laugh, as he exclaimed:
+
+"Why, Galbraith, is it you, man? To be sure it is! What wind has blown
+you up here? Have you been running from red coats, or are you hunting of
+Tories, or are you looking for beeves? Who have you got with you here?"
+
+"Wat, it don't consarn you to know what brought us here--it is only your
+business to do the best you can for us whilst we are here," replied the
+sergeant. "This here gentleman is Mr. Butler, a friend of mine that
+wants to get across into Georgia; and trouble enough we've had to find
+our way this far, Wat Adair. You've got such an uproarious country, and
+such a cursed set of quarrelsome devils in it, that a peaceable man is
+clean out of fashion amongst you. We are as wet as muskrats in swimming
+the river, and as hungry as wolves in winter."
+
+"And happy," said Butler, "to be at last under the roof of a friend."
+
+"Well, I am glad to see you both," replied Wat. "What put it in my head,
+Galbraith, I am sure I can't tell, but I was thinking about you this
+very day; said I to myself, I should just like to see Horse Shoe
+Robinson, the onconceivable, superfluous, roaring devil! Haw, haw, haw!"
+
+"You were ashamed of your own company, Wat, and wanted to see a decent
+man once more," replied Horse Shoe, echoing the laugh.
+
+"Mary Musgrove, bustle, girl," said the woodman, as the maiden entered
+the room with her arms loaded with ears of Indian corn, "bustle, mink!
+here are two runaways with stomachs like mill stones to grind your corn.
+Horse Shoe, get up from that chist, man; I can give you a little drop of
+liquor, if you will let me rummage there for it. Marcus, boy, go bring
+us in a jug of cool water. Wife, I'm 'stonished you didn't think of
+giving our friends something to drink afore."
+
+"I am sure I don't pretend to know friend from foe," returned the dame;
+"and it is a bad way to find that out by giving them liquor."
+
+When the boy returned with the water, and the host had helped his guests
+to a part of the contents of a flask which had been extracted from the
+chest, Butler took occasion to commend the alacrity of the young
+servitor.
+
+"This is one of your children, I suppose?"
+
+"A sort of a pet cub," replied the woodman; "just a small specimen of my
+fetching up: trees squirrels like a dog--got the nose of a hound--can
+track a raccoon in the dark--and the most meddlesome imp about fire-arms
+you ever see. Here t' other day got my rifle and shot away half the hair
+from his sister's head; but I reckon I skinned him for it! You can
+answer for that, Marcus, you shaver, eh?"
+
+"I expect you did," answered the boy pertly, "but I don't mind a
+whipping when I've got room to dodge."
+
+"Do you know, Mr. Butler, how I come to call that boy Marcus?" said
+Adair.
+
+"It is one of your family names, perhaps."
+
+"Not a bit. There's nare another boy nor man in this whole country round
+has such a name--nor woman, neither. It's a totally oncommon name. I
+called him after that there Frenchman that's come out here to help
+General Washington--Marcus Lafayette; and I think it sounds mighty
+well."
+
+Butler laughed, as he replied, "That was a soldierly thought of yours. I
+think you must call your next Baron, after our old Prussian friend De
+Kalb."
+
+"Do you hear that, wife?" exclaimed Wat. "Keep that in your head, if it
+will hold there a twelvemonth. No occasion to wait longer, haw! haw!
+haw!"
+
+"Wat talks like a natural born fool," retorted the wife. "We have no
+friends nor enemies on any side. The boy was called Marcus because Watty
+was headstrong, and not because we cared any more for one general nor
+another. I dare say there is faults enough on both sides, if the truth
+was told; and I can't see what people in the woods have to do with all
+this jarring about liberty and such nonsense."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" said Wat. "Boil your kettle, and give us none of
+your tinkling brass, as the Bible calls it. You see, Horse Shoe, there's
+such ridings and burnings, and shooting and murder about here, that
+these women are scared out of the little wits God has given them; and
+upon that account we are obliged sometimes to play a little double, just
+to keep out of harm's way. But I am sure I wish no ill to the
+Continental army."
+
+"If we thought you did, Wat," replied Robinson, "we would have slept on
+the hill to-night, rather than set foot across the sill of your door.
+Howsever, let's say nothing about that; I told Mr. Butler that you would
+give us the best you had, and so you will. I have known Wat Adair, Mr.
+Butler, a good many years. We used to call him Wat with the double hand.
+Show us your fist here, Wat. Look at that, sir! it's as broad as a
+shovel!"
+
+"Cutting of trees," said the woodman, as he spread his large
+horny-knuckled hand upon the supper table, "and handling of logs, will
+make any man's paw broad, and mine wa'n't small at first."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated the sergeant, "you ha'n't forgot Dick Rowley
+over here on Congaree, Wat,--Walloping Dick, as they nicknamed him--and
+the scrimmage you had with him when he sot to laughing at you because
+they accused you for being light-fingered, and your letting him see that
+you had a heavy hand, by giving him the full weight of it upon his ear
+that almost drove him through the window of the bar-room at the Cross
+Roads? You ha'n't forgot that--and his drawing his knife on you?"
+
+"To be sure I ha'n't. That fellow was about as superfluous a piece of
+wicked flesh as I say--as a man would meet on a summer's day journey.
+But for all that, Horse Shoe, he wa'n't going to supererogate me,
+without getting as good as he sent. When I come across one of your merry
+fellows that's for playing cantraps on a man, it's my rule to make them
+pay the piper; and that's a pretty good rule, Horse Shoe, all the world
+through. But come, here is supper; draw up, Mr. Butler."
+
+Mary Musgrove having completed the arrangement of the board whilst this
+conversation was in progress, the family now sat down to their repast.
+It was observable, during the meal, that Mary was very attentive in the
+discharge of the offices of the table, and especially when they were
+required by Butler. There was a modest and natural courtesy in her
+demeanor that attracted the notice of our soldier, and enhanced the
+kindly impression which the artless girl had made upon him; and it was,
+accordingly, with a feeling composed, in one degree, of curiosity to
+learn more of her character, and, in another, of that sort of tenderness
+which an open-hearted man is apt to entertain towards an ingenuous and
+pretty female, that he took occasion after supper, when Mary had seated
+herself on the threshold of the porch, to fall into conversation with
+her.
+
+"You do not live here, I think I have gathered, but are only on a
+visit?" was the remark addressed to the maiden.
+
+"No, sir; it is thirty good long miles by the shortest road, from this
+to my father's house. Mistress Adair is my mother's sister, and that
+makes her my aunt, you know, sir."
+
+"And your father's name?"
+
+"Allen Musgrove. He has a mill, sir, on the Ennoree."
+
+"You are the miller's daughter, then. Well, that's a pretty title. I
+suppose they call you so?"
+
+"The men sometimes call me," replied Mary, rising to her feet, and
+leaning carelessly against one of the upright timbers that supported the
+porch, "the miller's pretty daughter, but the women call me plain Mary
+Musgrove."
+
+"Faith, my dear, the men come nearer to the truth than the women."
+
+"They say not," replied the maiden, "I have heard, and sometimes I have
+read in good books--at least, they called them good books--that you
+mustn't believe the men."
+
+"And why should you not?"
+
+"I don't well know why not," returned the girl doubtingly, "but I am
+young, and maybe I shall find it out by and by."
+
+"God forbid," said Butler, "that you should ever gain that experience!
+But there are many toils spread for the feet of innocence in this world,
+and it is well to have a discreet eye and good friends."
+
+"I am seventeen, sir," replied Mary, "come next month; and though I have
+travelled backwards and forwards from here to Ennoree, and once to
+Camden, which, you know, sir, is a good deal of this world to see, I
+never knew anybody that thought harm of me. But I don't dispute there
+are men to be afraid of, and some that nobody could like. And yet I
+think a good man can be told by his face."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Yes. My father is a good man, and every one says you may see it in his
+looks."
+
+"I should like to know your father," said Butler.
+
+"I am sure he would be glad to know you, sir."
+
+"Now, my pretty miller's daughter, why do you think so?"
+
+"Because you are a gentleman," replied the girl, courtesying, "for all
+your homespun clothes."
+
+"Ha! pray how have you found that out?"
+
+"You talk differently from our people, sir. Your words or your voice, I
+can't rightly tell which, are softer than I have been used to hear. And
+you don't look, and walk, and behave as if homespun had been all you
+ever wore."
+
+"And is that all?"
+
+"You stop to consider, as if you were studying what would please other
+people; and you do not step so heavy, sir; and you do not swear; and you
+do not seem to like to give trouble. I can't think, sir, that you have
+been always used to such as are hereabouts. And then there's another
+reason, sir," added the maiden, almost in a whisper.
+
+"What is that?" asked Butler, smiling.
+
+"Why, sir, when you stooped down to pick up your fork, that fell from
+the table, I saw a blue ribbon round your neck, and a beautiful gold
+picture hanging to it. None but gentlemen of quality carry such things
+about them: and as there is so much contriving and bloody doings going
+on about here, I was sure you wasn't what you seemed."
+
+"For heaven's sake, my dear," exclaimed Butler, startled by the
+disclosure of the maiden's suspicion, which was so naturally accounted
+for, "keep this to yourself, and the time may come when I shall be able
+to reward your fidelity. If you have any good will towards me, as I hope
+you have, tell nobody what you have seen."
+
+"Never fear me, sir," returned the maid. "I wouldn't let on to any one
+in the house for the world. I am for General Washington and the
+Congress, which is more than I think the people here are."
+
+"Indeed!" muttered Butler, thoughtfully, and scarce above his breath.
+"What side does your father take, Mary?"
+
+"My father is an old man, sir. And he reads his Bible, and every night,
+before we go to bed, he prays aloud before us all, I mean all that
+belong to his house, for quiet once more and peace. His petition is that
+there may be an end of strife, and that the sword and spear may be
+turned into the pruning-hook and ploughshare--you know the words, sir,
+perhaps, for they are in the good book, and so he doesn't take any side.
+But then, the English officers are not far off, and they take his house
+and use it as they please, so that he has no mind of his own. And almost
+all the people round us are Tories, and we are afraid of our lives if we
+do not say whatever they say."
+
+"Alas! that's the misfortune of many more than your father's household.
+But how comes it that you are a friend of General Washington?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I think he is our friend; and then he is a good man. And I
+have a better reason still to be on his side," added the maiden
+tremulously, with her head averted.
+
+"What reason, my good girl?"
+
+"John Ramsay, sir."
+
+"Indeed! a very cogent reason, I doubt not, my pretty maid of the mill.
+And how does this reason operate?"
+
+"We have a liking, sir," she replied bashfully, but with innocent
+frankness; "he is for Washington, and we are to be married when the war
+is over."
+
+"Truly, that is a most excellent reason! Who is John Ramsay?"
+
+"He is a trooper, sir, and out with General Sumpter. We don't see him
+often now, for he is afraid to come home, excepting when the Tories are
+away."
+
+"These Tories are very troublesome, Mary," said Butler, laughing; "they
+annoy us all, on our side of the question. But love John Ramsay, my
+dear, and don't be ashamed of it, for I'll warrant he is a brave fellow,
+and deserves a pretty girl with a true heart, for his love to his
+country."
+
+"That he does!" replied Mary, "for his greatest fault is that he
+ventures too much. If you should see him, sir, I would like you just to
+drop him a hint that he ought to take more care of himself. He would
+mind it from you, but he puts me off with a laugh when I tell him so."
+
+"If I have the schooling of him, he shall be more cautious, for your
+sake. But the current of true love never did run smooth, Mary; remember
+that."
+
+"I must go into the house, my aunt Peggy calls me," interrupted the
+maiden. "I will keep the secret, sir," she added, as she retired from
+the porch to the household service where her presence was demanded.
+
+"Simple, innocent, and confiding girl," ejaculated Butler, as he now
+strolled forth under the starlit canopy of night; "how are you
+contrasted with the rough and savage natures around you! I wear but a
+thin disguise, when this unpractised country girl is able so soon to
+penetrate it. And this miniature, too! Oh, Mildred! that the very
+talisman I bear about me to guard me from evil, should betray me! Well,
+this discovery admonishes me that I should wear that image nearer to my
+heart. There," he continued, as he buttoned his waistcoat across his
+breast; "lie closer and more concealed. I doubt this double-faced
+woodman, and almost believe in the seeming frivolous dotings of the
+crone at his fire-side. Now, God defend us from treachery and
+ambuscade!"
+
+Robinson, at this moment, being on his way to the stable, was met by
+Butler, who half whispered, "Good sergeant, keep your eyes about you,
+and, mark me, do not omit to take our weapons to our chamber. I have
+reasons for this caution. I would not trust these people too far."
+
+"Wat dare not play us a trick, major," replied the sergeant. "He knows
+I would shake the life out of his carcase if I saw him take one step of
+a traitor. Besides, in this here war time, it's a part of my discipline
+to be always ready for stolen marches. As you say, major, we will stack
+arms where we sleep. There is no trust in this dubious country that
+isn't something the surer with powder and ball to back it."
+
+With this intimation the sergeant continued his walk, and Butler,
+retiring to the family group, seated himself near the fire.
+
+Wat Adair and his crony, Michael Lynch, had each lighted a pipe, and
+were now in close conference under the cover of their own smoke, amidst
+the combined din of romping children and of the noisy spinning-wheel of
+the wife, which gave life and occupation to the apartment.
+
+"How far do you expect to travel to-morrow?" asked the host, as Butler
+drew a chair near him.
+
+"That will depend very much," replied Butler, "upon the advice you may
+give us."
+
+"You wish to get across here into Georgia?" continued Wat.
+
+"By the route least liable to molestation," added the major.
+
+"Let me see, Michael, Grindall's Ford is the best point to make: then
+there's Christie's, about three miles beyont."
+
+"Just so," replied Lynch; "that will make about twenty-seven and three
+are thirty miles: an easy day's journey."
+
+"In that case," said Adair, "if you know the road--doesn't Horse Shoe
+know it, sir?"
+
+"I rather think not," answered Butler.
+
+"Well, it's a little tangled, to be sure; but if you will wait in the
+morning until I look at my wolf trap, which is only a step off, I will
+go with you part of the way, just to see you through one or two cross
+paths: after that all is clear enough. You will have a long day before
+you, and, with good horses, not much to do."
+
+"Are we likely to meet parties on the road?" asked Butler.
+
+"Oh, Lord, sir, no chance of it," replied the woodman; "everything is
+drawing so to a head down below at Camden 'twixt Cornwallis and Gates,
+that we have hardly anything but old women left to keep the country free
+of Indians."
+
+"And how have you escaped the levy?" inquired the major.
+
+"He, he, he!" chuckled our host; "there's a trick in that. They call me
+a man of doubtful principles, and neither side are willing to own me,"
+he added, with a tone that seemed to indicate a sense of his own
+cleverness. "But, bless you, sir, if I chose to speak out, there
+wouldn't be much doubt in the case. Would there, Michael?"
+
+"Not if you was to be plain in declaring your sentiments," answered
+Lynch, sedately puffing out a huge cloud of smoke.
+
+"Betwixt you and me, sir," continued Wat, putting his hand up to his
+mouth, and winking an eye at Butler, "the thing's clear enough. But
+these are ticklish times, Mr. Butler, and the wise man keepeth his own
+counsel, as the Scripture says. You understand me, I dare say."
+
+"Perhaps, I do," returned Butler. And here the conversation dropped, Wat
+and his companion gravely pouring forth volumes of tobacco-fumes in
+silence, until the sergeant, having made his visit to the stable, now
+re-entered the room.
+
+"Wat," said Robinson, "show us where we are to sleep. Mr. Butler, to my
+thinking, it's time to be turning in."
+
+Then throwing his rifle upon one arm, and Butler's holsters over the
+other, the sergeant waited in the middle of the floor until Mary
+Musgrove, at the order of Adair, took a candle in her hand, and beckoned
+our travellers to follow her out at the door. The maiden conducted her
+charge along the porch to the opposite end of the cabin, where she
+pointed out their chamber. After bidding their pretty conductress "good
+night," our travellers prepared themselves for that repose which their
+wearied frames did not long seek in vain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SOMETHING VERY LIKE A DREAM.
+
+
+It was after midnight, and the inmates of the woodman's cabin had been
+some hours at rest, when Mary Musgrove's sleep was disturbed by strange
+and unwonted alarms. She was dreaming of Arthur Butler, and a crowd of
+pleasant visions flitted about her pillow, when, suddenly, clouds
+darkened the world of her dream, and images of bloodshed caused her to
+shudder. Horrid shapes appeared to her, marching with stealthy pace
+through her apartment, and a low and smothered footfall seemed to strike
+her ear like the ticking of a death-watch. The fright awakened her, but
+when she came to herself all was still. Her chamber was at the opposite
+end of the cabin from that where Butler and Robinson slept, and it was
+separated from the room occupied by Lynch only by a thin partition of
+boards. The starlight through her window fell upon the floor, just
+touching, as it passed, the chair over which Mary had hung her clothes,
+and lighting with a doubtful and spectral light the prominent points of
+the pile of garments, in such manner as to give it the semblance of some
+unearthly thing. Mary Musgrove had the superstition common to rustic
+education, and, as her dream had already filled her mind with
+apprehensions, she now trembled when her eye fell upon what seemed to
+her a visitant from another world. For some moments she experienced that
+most painful of all sufferings, the agony of young and credulous minds
+when wrought upon by their horror of spectres in the night. Gradually,
+however, the truth came to her aid, and she saw the dreaded ghost
+disrobed of his terrors, and changed into a familiar and harmless
+reality. But this night-fear was scarcely dissipated before she again
+heard, what in her sleep had conjured up the train of disagreeable
+images, the noise of footsteps in the adjoining room. In another instant
+she recognised the sound of voices conversing in a half whisper.
+
+"Michael," said the first voice; "Damn it, man, will you never awake?
+Rouse yourself; it is time to be stirring."
+
+"Wat!" exclaimed the second voice, with a loud yawn, whilst at the same
+moment the creaking of the bedstead and a sullen sound upon the floor
+showed that the speaker had risen from his couch. "Is it you? I have
+hardly gone to bed, before you are here to rouse me up. What o'clock is
+it?"
+
+"It is nearly one," replied Wat Adair. "And let me tell you, you have no
+time to lose. Hugh Habershaw is good ten miles off, and you must be back
+by daylight."
+
+"You might have given me another hour, I think, if it was only to
+consider over the right way of setting about this thing. Always look
+before you leap, that's common sense."
+
+"You were always a heavy-headed devil," said Adair; "and take as much
+spurring as a spavined horse. What have you to do with considering?
+Isn't all fixed? Jog, man, jog. You have a beautiful starlight: and I
+had the crop-ear put up in the stable last night, that no time might be
+lost; so up, and saddle, and away!"
+
+"Well, you needn't be so d----d busy; don't you see that I am getting
+ready?"
+
+"Quiet, Mike; you talk too loud. Take your shoes in your hand, you can
+put them on when you get into the porch."
+
+"There, give me my coat, Wat; and I think I should have no objection to
+a drop before I set out. It's raw riding of a morning. Now tell me
+exactly what I am to say to Hugh Habershaw."
+
+"Tell him," replied Wat, "that we have got Horse Shoe Robinson and Major
+Butler of the Continental army, as snug as a pair of foxes in a bag, and
+that I will let them run exactly at seven; and--"
+
+"Not to interrupt you, Wat," said the other, "let me ask you a question
+before you go on. Suppose this shouldn't be the man? Are you sure of it?
+It would be a d----d unchristian job to give over any other human being
+to such a set of bloodhounds as Hugh Habershaw and his gang."
+
+"Shaw, Mike; you are a fool! Who, in the name of all the imps, could it
+be, but Major Butler! Weren't we expecting him along with Horse Shoe,
+and just at this time?"
+
+"It looks likely enough," replied Lynch. "So go on."
+
+"Tell Hugh to be ready at the Dogwood Spring, at the latest, by eight
+o'clock. I'll give him a game to play that will supple his joints for
+him. And mind me Mike, warn the greasy captain to have his whole squad
+with him; for Horse Shoe Robinson, you know, is not to be handled by
+boys; it will be a bull-fight, or I'm mistaken."
+
+"The major seems to have a wicked eye too, Wat," said Lynch. "I
+shouldn't like much to be in his way, if he was angry; these copperheads
+are always in a coil ready to strike. But, Wat, how if they don't ride
+by the Dogwood Spring?"
+
+"Leave that to me; I'll contrive to go as far as the forks of the road
+with them. And then, if they don't take the right hand fork, why, you
+may say it's for the want of my not knowing how to tell a lie."
+
+"Now, Wat Adair, I don't like to spoil sport, but, may be, you have
+never thought whether it would be worth while just to take t'other side,
+and tell Horse Shoe the whole business. Couldn't we, don't you think,
+get as much money, and just as honestly, by hoisting colors with Major
+Butler?"
+
+"But I _have_ thought of that, and it won't do, for two reasons. First,
+these Continentals are on the down-hill, and money is as scarce with
+them as honesty with the red-coats: and, second, the Tories have got so
+much the upper hand in the whole country, that I should have my house
+burnt down and my children thrown into the blaze of it, in less than
+three days, if I was to let these fellows slip through my fingers."
+
+"Well, I never knew," said Mike Lynch, "any piece of villany that hadn't
+some good reasons to stand by it, and that's what makes it agreeable to
+my conscience to take a hand."
+
+"Why, you off-scouring," replied Wat, "it is enough to make Old Scratch
+laugh, to hear you talk about conscience! There ain't no such a thing
+going in these days. So be off; I'll look for you at daylight."
+
+"I'll ride, Wat, as if the devil was on my crupper; so good bye!"
+
+The cessation of the voices, the distant tramp of Lynch when he had left
+the cabin, and the cautious retreat of Wat Adair to his chamber, told
+to Mary that the affair was settled, and the plan of treachery in full
+career towards its consummation.
+
+The dialogue that had just passed in the hearing of the maiden,
+disclosed a plot that deeply agitated and distressed her. What did it
+become her to do, was the first question that presented itself to her
+reflection, as soon as she was sufficiently self-possessed to turn her
+thoughts upon herself. Was it in her power to avert the impending
+disaster which threatened the lives, perhaps, of those who had sought
+the hospitality of her kinsman? Perplexed, dismayed, and uncertain how
+to act, she had recourse to an expedient natural to her education, and
+such as would appear most obvious to a feeble and guileless female: it
+was to the simple and faith-inspired expedient of prayer. And now, in
+artless but sincere language, having first risen up in her bed, and bent
+her body across her pillow, in the attitude of supplication, she
+fervently implored the support of Heaven in her present strait, and
+besought wisdom and strength to conceive and to do that which was
+needful for the security of the individuals whose peace was threatened
+by this conspiracy.
+
+"I will arise," she said, as she finished her short and earnest prayer,
+"with the first light of the dawn, and wait the coming of the strangers
+from their chamber, and I will then be the first to tell them of the
+snare that is prepared for them." With this resolve she endeavored to
+compose herself to rest, but sleep fled her eyelids, and her anxious
+thoughts dwelt upon and even magnified the threatened perils. It might
+be too late, she reflected, to wait for the dawn of day; Adair might be
+before her at the door of the guests, and his constant presence might
+take from her all hope of being able to communicate the important secret
+to them: it was undoubtedly her surest course to take advantage of the
+stillness of the night, whilst the household were wrapt in sleep, and
+apprise the strangers of their danger. But then, how was she to make her
+way to their apartment, and arouse them, at this hour, from their
+slumbers? To what suspicions might the attempt expose her, even from
+Arthur Butler himself? And, more particularly, what would John Ramsay
+think of it, if the story should be afterwards told to her disadvantage?
+
+This last was an interrogatory which Mary Musgrove was often found
+putting to herself, in winding up a self-communion. On the present
+occasion this appeal to the opinion of John Ramsay had the opposite
+effect from that which might have been expected from it. It suggested
+new lights to her mind, and turned her thoughts into another current,
+and brought that resolution to her aid which her prayer was intended to
+invoke. What would John Ramsay think--he, the friend of liberty, and of
+Washington, the compatriot of Butler and Robinson, now toiling with them
+in the same cause! What would he think, if she, his own Mary (and the
+maiden rested a moment on this phrase), did _not_ do everything in her
+power to save these soldiers of independence from the blow which
+treachery was now aiming at them? "John would have good right to be
+angry with me," she breathed out in a voice that even startled herself,
+"if I did not give them full warning of what I have heard. This I am
+sure of, he will believe _my_ story whatever others may say."
+
+Innocence and purity of mind are both sword and shield in this world,
+and no less inspire confidence to defy the malice and uncharitableness
+of enemies than they strengthen the arm to do what is right. Mary,
+therefore, resolved to forego all maidenly scruples and bravely to
+perform her duty, come what might; and having settled upon this
+conclusion she impatiently awaited the moment when she might venture
+forth upon her office of humanity. In this situation it was not long
+before she heard the distant footfall of a horse's gallop along the
+road, indicating to her the departure of Michael Lynch upon his
+traitorous embassy.
+
+The time seemed to be propitious, so Mary arose and dressed herself.
+Then tripping stealthily to the door that opened upon the porch, she
+undid the bolt. A loud and prolonged creak, from the wooden hinges,
+caused her to shake from head to foot. She listened for a moment, and,
+finding that no one stirred, stepped forth with the timid and faltering
+step which would no less have marked the intent of the burglar, than, as
+now it did, the frightened motion of a guardian spirit bent upon an
+errand of good. Midway along the porch she had to pass the window of
+Adair's apartment; first, the low growl, and then the sudden bark of the
+watch-dog saluted her ear, and made her blood run cold. The maiden's
+hand, however, soothed him into silence; but the noise had attracted
+the notice of Wat Adair, who grumbled out a short curse from within,
+which was distinctly audible to Mary. She hastily fled to the further
+end of the porch, and there stood cowering close against the wall,
+almost as mute and motionless as a statue, scarce daring to breathe, and
+poised, as in the act to run, with her weight resting on one foot, the
+other raised from the floor. In this position she remained during a long
+interval of fear, until, at length, convinced that all was quiet, she
+again ventured forward. The window of the travellers' chamber looked out
+from the gable end of the dwelling, and she was now immediately before
+it. One of the beds of the room, she knew, was placed beside this
+window, and was occupied by either Butler or Robinson. Tremblingly and
+mistrustfully, she gave a feeble tap with her hand against the sash.
+There was no answer: the sleep within was the sleep of tired men, and
+was not to be broken by the light play of a maiden's fingers. She now
+picked up a pebble from the ground, and with it again essayed to wake
+the sleepers. This, too, was unsuccessful. In utter hopelessness of
+accomplishing her purpose by other means, she ventured upon raising the
+sash; and having done so, she thrust her head partially into the room as
+she held up the window-frame with one hand, crying out with an almost
+choked voice.
+
+"Mr. Butler! Mr. Butler! For mercy, awake!"
+
+There was no other response but the deep breathings of the sleep-subdued
+inmates.
+
+"Oh! what shall I do?" she exclaimed, as her heart beat with a violent
+motion. "I might as well call to the dead. Mr. Galbraith Robinson! Ah
+me, I cannot rouse them without alarming the whole house! Major Butler,"
+she continued, laying a particular stress upon this designation of his
+rank, "Oh, good sir, awake!"
+
+"What do you want?" muttered Butler in a smothered and sleep-stifled
+voice, as he turned himself heavily on his pillow, like one moved by a
+dream.
+
+"Oh, heaven, sir, make no noise! I am ashamed to tell you who I am,"
+said the terrified girl, "but I come for your good--I have something to
+tell you."
+
+"Away, away!" cried Butler, speaking in his sleep, "I will not be
+disturbed: I do not fear you. Begone!"
+
+"Oh, sir, hear me," entreated the maiden, "the people in this house know
+you and they are contriving evil against you."
+
+"It makes no difference," muttered the only half-awakened soldier. "I
+will ride where it suits me, if the Tories were as thick as the leaves
+of the trees."
+
+"There are people gathering to do you harm to-morrow," continued Mary,
+not suspecting the unconsciousness of the person to whom she addressed
+herself, "and I only come with a word of warning to you. Do not ride by
+the Dogwood Spring to-morrow, nor take the right hand road at the first
+forks: there are wicked men upon that road. Have your eye," she
+whispered, "upon my uncle Walter. Ride fast and far, before you stop;
+and pray, sir, as you think fairly of me--Mary Musgrove, sir,--the
+daughter of Allen Musgrove, the miller--oh, do not tell my name. If you
+knew John Ramsay, sir, I am certain you would believe me."
+
+The watch-dog had growled once or twice during the period while Mary
+spoke, and at this moment the door of the principal room of the cabin
+was heard to move slightly ajar, and the voice of Adair, in a whisper,
+reached the girl's ear.
+
+"Hist, Michael! In the devil's name what brought you back? Why do you
+loiter, when time is so precious?"
+
+A long, heavy, and inarticulate exclamation, such as belongs to
+disturbed sleep, escaped from Butler.
+
+"Father of heaven, I shall let the window fall with fright!" inwardly
+ejaculated Mary, as she still occupied her uneasy station. "Hush, it is
+the voice of my uncle."
+
+There was a painful pause.
+
+A heavy rush of wind agitated the trees, and sweeping along the porch
+caused some horse-gear that was suspended against the wall to vibrate
+with a rustling noise: the sound pierced Mary's ear like the accents of
+a ghost, and her strength had well nigh failed her from
+faint-heartedness.
+
+"I thought it was Michael," said Adair, speaking to some one within,
+"but it is only the rattling of harness and the dreaming of Drummer.
+These dogs have a trick of whining and growling in their sleep according
+to a way of their own. They say a dog sometimes sees a spirit at night.
+But man or devil it's all one to old Drummer! Sleep quiet, you
+superfluous, and have done with your snoring!"
+
+With these words, the door was again closed, and Mary, for the moment,
+was released from suffering.
+
+"Remember," she uttered in the most fear-stricken tone, as she lowered
+the sash. "Be sure to take the left hand road at the first fork!"
+
+"In God's name, what is it? Where are you?" was the exclamation heard by
+Mary as the window was closing. She did not halt for further parley or
+explanation, but now hastily stole back, like a frightened bird towards
+its thicket. Panting and breathless, she regained her chamber, and with
+the utmost expedition betook herself again to bed, where, gratified by
+the consciousness of having done a good action, and fully trusting that
+her caution would not be disregarded, she gradually dismissed her
+anxiety, and, before the hour of dawning, had fallen into a gentle
+though not altogether unperturbed slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HORSE SHOE AND BUTLER RESUME THEIR JOURNEY, WHICH IS DELAYED BY A SAVAGE
+INCIDENT.
+
+
+Morning broke, and with the first day-streak Robinson turned out of his
+bed, leaving Butler so thoroughly bound in the spell of sleep, that he
+was not even moved by the loud and heavy tramp of the sergeant, as that
+weighty personage donned his clothes. Horse Shoe's first habit in the
+morning was to look after Captain Peter, and he accordingly directed his
+steps towards the rude shed which served as a stable, at the foot of the
+hill. Here, to his surprise, he discovered that the fence-rails which,
+the night before, had been set up as a barrier across the vacant
+doorway, had been let down, and that no horses were to be seen about the
+premises.
+
+"What hocus-pocus has been here?" said he to himself, as he gazed upon
+the deserted stable. "Have these rummaging and thieving Tories been out
+maraudering in the night? or is it only one of Captain Peter's
+old-sodger tricks, letting down bars and leading the young geldings into
+mischief? That beast can snuff the scent of a corn field or a pasture
+ground as far as a crow smells gunpowder. He'd dislocate and corruptify
+any innocent stable of horses in Carolina!"
+
+In doubt to which of these causes to assign this disappearance of their
+cavalry, the sergeant ascended the hill hard-by, and directed his eye
+over the neighboring fields, hoping to discover the deserters in some of
+the adjacent pastures. But he could get no sight of them. He then
+returned to the stable and fell to examining the ground about the door,
+in order to learn something of the departure of the animals by their
+tracks. These were sufficiently distinct to convince him that Captain
+Peter, whose shoes had a peculiar mark well known to the sergeant, had
+eloped during the night, in company with the major's gelding and two
+others, these being all, as Horse Shoe had observed, that were in the
+stable at the time he had retired to bed. He forthwith followed the
+foot-prints which led him into the high road, and thence along it
+westward for about two hundred paces, where a set of field bars, now
+thrown down, afforded entrance into the cornfield. At this point the
+sergeant traced the deviation of three of the horses into the field,
+whilst the fourth, it was evident, had continued upon the road.
+
+The conclusion which Galbraith drew from this phenomenon was expressed
+by a wise shake of the head and a profound fit of abstraction. He took
+his seat upon a projecting rail at the angle of the fence, and began to
+sum up conjectures in the following phrase:
+
+"The horse that travelled along that road, never travelled of his own
+free will: that's as clear as preaching. Well, he wa'n't rode by Wat nor
+by Mike Lynch, or else they are arlier men than I take them to be: but
+still, I'll take a book oath that creetur went with a bridle across his
+head, and a pair o' legs astride his back. And whoever held that bridle
+in his hand, did it for no good! Scampering here and scampering there,
+and scouring woods in the night too, when the country is as full of
+Tories as a beggar's coat with----, it's a dogmatical bad sign, take it
+which way you will. Them three horses had the majority, and it is the
+nature of these beasts always to follow the majority: that's an
+observation I have made; and, in particular, if there's a cornfield, or
+an oatpatch, or a piece of fresh pasture to be got into, every
+individual horse is unanimous on the subject."
+
+Whilst the sergeant was engrossed with these reflections, "he was ware,"
+as the old ballads have it, of a man trudging past him along the road.
+This was no other than Wat Adair, who was striding forward with a long
+and rapid step, and with all the appearance of one intent upon some
+pressing business.
+
+"Halloo! who goes there? where away so fast, Wat?" was Robinson's
+challenge.
+
+"Horse Shoe!" exclaimed Adair, in a key that bespoke surprise, and even
+alarm,--"Ha, ha, ha!--By the old woman's pipe, you frightened me! I'll
+swear, Galbraith Robinson, I heard you snoring as I passed by your
+window three minutes ago."
+
+"I'll swear that's not the truest word you ever spoke in your life,
+Wat; though true enough for you, mayhap. Do you see how cleverly yon
+light has broke across the whole sky? When I first turned out this
+morning it was a little ribbon of day: the burning of a block-house at
+night, ten miles off, would have made a broader streak. It was your own
+snoring you heard, Wat; you have only forgot under whose window it was."
+
+"What old witch has been pinching you, Horse Shoe, that _you_ are up so
+early?" asked Adair. "Get back to the house, man, I will be with you
+presently; I have my farm to look after, I'll see you presently."
+
+"You seem to me to be in a very onreasonable hurry, Wat, considering
+that you have the day before you. But, softly, I'll walk with you, if
+you have no unliking to it."
+
+"No, no, I'm busy, Galbraith; I'm going to look after my traps; I'd
+rather you'd go back to the house and hurry breakfast. Go! You would
+only get scratched with briers if you followed me."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! Wat! Briers, did you say? Look here, man, do you see them
+there legs? Do they look as if they couldn't laugh at yourn in any sort
+of scrambling I had a mind to set them to? Tut, I'll go with you just to
+larn you the march drill."
+
+"Then I'll not budge a foot after the traps."
+
+"You are crusty, Wat Adair; what's the matter with you?"
+
+"Is Major Butler up yet?" asked the woodman thoughtfully.
+
+"_Who_ do you say? _Major_ Butler."
+
+"_Major!_" cried Adair, with affected surprise.
+
+"Yes, you called him Major Butler?"
+
+"I had some dream, I think, about him: or, didn't you call him so
+yourself, Horse Shoe?"
+
+"Most undoubtedly, I did not," replied Robinson seriously.
+
+"Then I dreamt it, Horse Shoe: these dreams sometimes get into the head,
+like things we have been told. But, Galbraith, tell me the plain
+up-and-down truth, what brings you and Mr. Butler into these parts? What
+are you after in Georgia? It does seem strange to find men that are
+wanted below, straggling here in our woods at such a time as this."
+
+"There are two sorts of men in this world, Wat," said the sergeant, with
+a smile, "them that axes questions, and them that won't answer
+questions. Now, which, do you think, I belong to? Why, to the last, you
+tinker! Where are our horses, Wat? Tell me that. Who let them out of the
+stable?"
+
+"Perhaps they let themselves out," replied Adair, "they were not
+haltered."
+
+"You are either knave or fool, Wat. Come here. There are the tracks of
+the beast that carried the man up this road, who sot loose all the
+horses that were in that stable."
+
+"Mike Lynch, perhaps," said Adair, with an assumed expression of
+ignorance. "Where can that fellow have been so early? Oh, I remember, he
+told me last night that he was going this morning to the blacksmith's.
+He ought to be back by this time."
+
+"And you are here to larn the news from him?" said the sergeant, eyeing
+Adair with a suspicious scrutiny.
+
+"You have just hit it, Horse Shoe," returned Wat, laughing. "I did want
+to know if there were any more squads of troopers foraging about this
+district: for these cursed fellows whip in upon a man and cut him up
+blade and ear, without so much as thanks for their pillage, and so I
+told Mike to inquire of the blacksmith, for he is more like to know than
+anybody else, whether there was any more of these pestifarious
+scrummagers abroad."
+
+"And your traps, Wat?"
+
+"That was only a lie, Galbraith--I confess it. I was afeard to make you
+uneasy by telling you what I was after. But still it wasn't a broad,
+stark, daylight lie neither; it was only a civil fib, for I was going
+after my wolf trap before I got my breakfast. But here comes Mike."
+
+At this juncture Lynch was seen emerging from the wood, mounted on a
+rough, untrimmed pony, which he was urging forward under repeated blows
+with his stick. The little animal was covered with foam; and, from his
+travel-worn plight, gave evidence of having been taxed to the utmost of
+his strength in a severe journey. At some hundred paces distant, the
+rider detected the presence of Adair and his companion, and came to a
+sudden halt. He appeared to deliberate as if with a purpose to escape
+their notice; but finding that he was already observed by them, he put
+his horse again in motion, advancing only at a slow walk. Adair hastily
+quitted Robinson, and, walking forward until he met Lynch, turned about
+and accompanied him along the road, conversing during this interval in
+a key too low to be heard by the sergeant.
+
+"Here's Horse Shoe thrusting his head into our affairs. Conjure a lie
+quickly about your being at the blacksmith's; I told him you were there
+to hear the news."
+
+"Aye, aye! I understand."
+
+"You saw Hugh?"
+
+"Yes. The gang will be at their post."
+
+"Hush! Be merry; laugh and have a joke--Horse Shoe is very suspicious."
+
+"You have ridden the crop-ear like a stolen horse," continued Adair, as
+soon as he found himself within the sergeant's hearing. "See what a
+flurry you have put the dumb beast in. If it had been your own nag, Mike
+Lynch, I warrant you would have been more tedious with him."
+
+"The crop-ear is not worth the devil's fetching, Wat. He is as lazy as a
+land-turtle, and too obstinate for any good-tempered man's patience.
+Look at that stick--I have split it into a broom on the beast."
+
+"You look more like a man at the end of the day than at the beginning of
+it," said Robinson. "How far had you to ride, Michael?"
+
+"Only over here to the shop of Billy Watson, in the Buzzard's nest,"
+replied Lynch, "which isn't above three miles at the farthest. My saw
+wanted setting, so I thought I'd make an early job of it, but this beast
+is so cursed dull I have been good three-quarters of an hour since I
+left the smith's."
+
+"What news do you bring?" inquired Adair.
+
+"Oh, none worth telling again. That cross-grained, contrary,
+rough-and-tumble bear gouger, old Hide-and-Seek, went down yesterday
+with the last squad of Ferguson's new draughts."
+
+"Wild Tom Eskridge," said Wat Adair. "You knowed him, Horse Shoe, a
+superfluous imp of Satan!" continued the woodman, laying a particular
+accent on the penultimate of this favorite adjective, which he was
+accustomed to use as expressive of strong reprobation. "So he is cleared
+out at last! Well, I'm glad on't, for he was the only fellow in these
+hills I was afeard would give you trouble, Galbraith."
+
+"Superfluous or not," replied the sergeant, pronouncing the word in the
+same manner as the woodman, and equally ignorant of its meaning, "it
+will be a bad day for Tom Eskridge, the rank, obstropolous Tory, when he
+meets me, Wat Adair. I have reason to think that he tried to clap some
+of Tarleton's dragoons on my back over here at the Waxhaws. There's hemp
+growing for that scape-grace at this very time."
+
+"You heard of no red coats about the Tiger?" asked Adair.
+
+"Not one," replied Lynch; "the nearest post is Cruger's, in Ninety-Six."
+
+"Then your way, Mr. Robinson, is tolerable for to-day," added Adair:
+"but war is war, and there is always some risk to be run when men are
+parading with their rifles in their hands. But see! it is hard upon
+sunrise. Let us go and give some directions about breakfast. I will send
+out some of the boys to hunt up the horses; they will be ready by the
+time we have had something to eat."
+
+Without further delay, Adair strode rapidly up the hill to the
+dwelling-house, the sergeant and Lynch following as soon as the latter
+had put his jaded beast in the stable. By the time these were assembled
+in the porch the family began to show signs of life, and it was a little
+after sunrise when Butler came forth ready for the prosecution of his
+journey. A few words were exchanged in private between Lynch and the
+woodman, and after much idle talk and contrived delay, two lazy and
+loitering negro boys were sent off in quest of the travellers' horses.
+Not long after this the animals were seen coursing from one part of the
+distant field to another, defying all attempts to get them into a
+corner, or to compel them to pass through the place that had been opened
+in order to drive them towards the stable.
+
+There was an air of concern and silent bewilderment visible upon
+Butler's features, and an occasional expression of impatience escaped
+his lips as he watched from the porch the ineffectual efforts of the
+negroes to force the truant steeds towards the house.
+
+"All in good time," said Adair, answering the thoughts and looks of
+Butler, rather than his words, "all in good time; they must have their
+play out. It is a good sign, sir, to see a traveller's horse so
+capersome of a morning. Wife, make haste with your preparations; Horse
+Shoe and his friend here mustn't be kept back from their day's journey.
+Stir yourself, Mary Musgrove!"
+
+"Will the gentlemen stay for breakfast?" inquired Mary, with a doubtful
+look at Butler.
+
+"Will they? To be sure they will! Would you turn off friends from the
+door with empty stomachs, you mink, and especially with a whole day's
+starvation ahead of them?" exclaimed the woodman.
+
+"I thought they had far to ride," replied the girl, "and would choose,
+rather than wait, to take some cold provision to eat upon the road."
+
+"Tush! Go about your business, niece! The horses are not caught yet, and
+you may have your bacon fried before they are at the door."
+
+"It shall be ready, then, in a moment," returned Mary, and she betook
+herself diligently to her task of preparation. During the interval that
+followed, the maiden several times attempted to gain a moment's speech
+with Butler, but the presence of Adair or Lynch as frequently forbade
+even a whisper; and the morning meal was at length set smoking on the
+table without the arrival of the desired opportunity. The repast was
+speedily finished, and the horses having surrendered to the emissaries
+who had been despatched to bring them in, were now in waiting for their
+masters. Horse Shoe put into the woodman's hand a small sum of money in
+requital for the entertainment afforded to his comrade and himself, and
+having arranged their baggage upon the saddles, announced that they were
+ready to set forward on their journey. Whilst the travellers were
+passing the farewells customary on such occasions, Mary Musgrove, whose
+manner during the whole morning gave many indications of a painful
+secret concern, now threw herself in Butler's way, and as she modestly
+offered him her hand at parting, and heard the little effusion of
+gallantry and compliment with which it was natural for a well-bred man
+and a soldier to speak at such a moment, she took the opportunity to
+whisper--"The left hand road at the Fork--remember!" and instantly
+glided away to another part of the house. Butler paused but for an
+instant, and then hurried forward with the sergeant to their horses.
+
+"Wat, you promised to put us on the track to Grindall's Ford," said
+Horse Shoe, as he rose into his seat.
+
+"I am ready to go part of the way with you," replied the woodman, "I
+will see you to the Fork, and after that you must make out for
+yourselves. Michael, fetch me my rifle."
+
+It was not more than half past six when the party set forth on their
+journey. Our two travellers rode along at an easy gait, and Wat Adair,
+throwing his rifle carelessly across his shoulder, stepped out with a
+long swinging step that kept him, without difficulty, abreast of the
+horsemen, as they pursued their way over hill and dale.
+
+They had not journeyed half a mile before they reached a point in the
+woods at which Adair called a halt.
+
+"My trap is but a little off the road," he said, "and I must beg you to
+stop until I see what luck I have this morning. It's a short business
+and soon done. This way, Horse Shoe; it is likely I may give you sport
+this morning."
+
+"Our time is pressing," said Butler. "Pray give us your directions as to
+the road, and we will leave you."
+
+"You would never find it in these woods," replied Wat; "there are two or
+three paths leading through here, and the road is a blind one till you
+come to the fork; the trap is not a hundred yards out of your way."
+
+"Rather than stop to talk about it, Wat," said the sergeant, "we will
+follow you, so go on."
+
+The woodman now turned into the thickets, and opening his way through
+the bushes, in a few moments conducted the two soldiers to the foot of a
+large gum tree.
+
+"By all the crows, I have got my lady!" exclaimed Wat Adair, with a
+whoop that made the woods ring. "The saucy slut! I have yoked her, Horse
+Shoe Robinson! There's a picture worth looking at."
+
+"Who?" cried Butler; "of whom are you speaking?"
+
+"Look for yourself, sir," replied the woodman. "There's the mischievous
+devil; an old she-wolf that I have been hunting these two years. Oh, ho,
+madam! Your servant!"
+
+Upon looking near the earth, our travellers descried the object of this
+triumphant burst of joy, in a large wolf that was now struggling to
+release herself from the thraldom of her position. The trap was
+ingeniously contrived. It consisted of a long opening into the hollow
+trunk of the tree, beginning about four feet from the ground and cut out
+with an axe down to the root. An aperture had been made at the upper end
+of the slit about a foot wide, and the wood had been hewed away
+downwards, in such a manner as to render the slit gradually narrower as
+it approached the lower extremity, until near the earth it was not more
+than four inches in width, thus forming a wedge-shaped loophole into the
+hollow body of the tree. A part of the carcase of a sheep had been
+placed on the bottom inside, the scent of which had attracted the wolf,
+and, in her eagerness to possess herself of this treasure she had risen
+on her hind legs high enough to find the opening sufficiently wide to
+allow her head to be thrust in, whence, slipping downwards, the slit
+became so narrow as to prevent her from withdrawing her jaws. The only
+mode of extrication from this trap was to rear her body to the same
+height at which she found admission, an expedient which, it seems,
+required more cunning than this proverbially cunning animal was gifted
+with. She now stood captive pretty much in the same manner that oxen are
+commonly secured in their stalls.
+
+For a few moments after the prisoner was first perceived, and during the
+extravagant yelling of Adair at the success of his stratagem, she made
+several desperate but ineffectual efforts to withdraw her head; but as
+soon as Butler and Robinson had dismounted, and, together with their
+guide, had assembled around her, she desisted from her struggles, and
+seemed patiently to resign herself to the will of her captor. She stood
+perfectly still with that passive and even cowardly submission for
+which, in such circumstances, this animal is remarkable: her hind legs
+drooped and her tail was thrust between them, whilst not a snarl nor an
+expression of anger or grief escaped her. Her characteristic sagacity
+had been completely baffled by the superior wolfish cunning of her
+ensnarer.
+
+Wat laughed aloud with a coarse and almost fiendish laugh, as he cried
+out--
+
+"I have cotched the old thief at last, in spite of her cunning! With a
+warning to boot. Here is a mark I sot upon her last winter," he added,
+as he raised her fore leg, which was deprived of the foot; "but she
+would be prowling, the superfluous devil! It is in the nature of these
+here blood-suckers, to keep a going at their trade, no matter how much
+they are watched. But I knowed I'd have her one of these days. These
+varmints have always got to pay, one day or another, for their
+villanies. Wa'n't she an old fool, Horse Shoe, to walk into this here
+gum for a piece of dead mutton? Ha, ha, ha! if she had had only the
+sense to rear up, she might have had the laugh on us! But she hadn't;
+ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Well, Wat Adair," said Robinson, "you had a mischievous head when you
+contrived that trap."
+
+"Feel her ribs, Mr. Butler," cried Wat, not heeding the sergeant; "I
+know who packed that flesh on her. There isn't a lamb in my flock to-day
+that wouldn't grin if he was to hear the news."
+
+"Well, what are you going to do with her, Adair?" inquired Butler;
+"remember you are losing time here."
+
+"Do with her!" ejaculated the woodman; "that's soon told: I will skin
+the devil alive."
+
+"I hope not," exclaimed Butler. "It would be an unnecessary cruelty.
+Despatch her on the spot with your rifle."
+
+"I wouldn't waste powder and ball on the varmint," replied Adair. "No,
+no, the knife, the knife!"
+
+"Then cut her throat and be done with it."
+
+"You are not used to these hellish thieves, sir," said the woodman.
+"There is nothing that isn't too good for them. By the old sinner, I'll
+skin her alive! That's the sentence!"
+
+"Once more, I pray not," said Butler imploringly.
+
+"It is past praying for," returned Adair, as he drew forth his knife and
+began to whet it on a stone. "She shall die by inches, and be damned to
+her!" he added, as his eye sparkled with savage delight. "Now look and
+see a wolf punished according to her evil doings."
+
+The woodman stood over his captive and laughed heartily, as he pointed
+out to his companions the quailing and subdued gestures of his victim,
+indulging in coarse and vulgar jests whilst he described minutely the
+plan of torture he was about to execute. When he had done with his
+ribaldry, he slowly drew the point of his knife down the back-bone of
+the animal, from the neck to the tail, sundering the skin along the
+whole length. "That's the way to unbutton her jacket," he said, laughing
+louder than ever.
+
+"For God's sake, desist!" ejaculated Butler. "For my sake, save the poor
+animal from this pain! I will pay you thrice the value of the skin."
+
+"Money will not buy her," said Wat, looking up for an instant. "Besides,
+the skin is spoiled by that gash."
+
+"Here is a guinea, if you will cut her throat," said Butler, "and
+destroy her at once."
+
+"That would be murder out-right," replied Adair; "I never take money to
+do murder; it goes agin my conscience. No, no, I will undress the old
+lady, and let her have the benefit of the cool air in this hot weather.
+And if she should take cold, you know, and fall sick and die of that,
+why then, Mr. Butler, you can give me the guinea. That will save my
+conscience," he added, with a grin that expressed a struggle between his
+avarice and cruelty.
+
+"Come, Galbraith, I will not stay to witness the barbarity of this
+savage. Mount your horse, and let us take our chance alone through the
+woods. Fellow, I don't wish your further service."
+
+"Look there now!" said Adair; "where were you born, that you are so
+mighty nice upon account of a blood-sucking wolf? Man, it's impossible
+to find your way through this country; and you might, by taking a wrong
+road, fall in with them that would think nothing of serving you as I
+serve this beast."
+
+"Wat, curse your onnatural heart," interposed the sergeant. "Stob her at
+once. It's no use, Mr. Butler," he said, finding that Adair did not heed
+him, "we can't help ourselves. It's wolf agin wolf."
+
+"I knowed you couldn't, Horse Shoe," cried Wat, with another laugh. "So
+you may as well stay to see it out."
+
+Butler had now walked to his horse, mounted, and retired some distance
+into the wood to avoid further converse with the tormentor of the
+ensnared beast, and to withdraw himself from a sight so revolting to his
+feelings. In the meantime, Adair proceeded with his operation with an
+alacrity that showed the innate cruelty of his temper. He made a cross
+incision through the skin, from the point of one shoulder to the other,
+the devoted subject of his torture remaining, all the time, motionless
+and silent. Having thus severed the skin to suit his purpose, the
+woodman now, with an affectation of the most dainty precision,
+flourished his knife over the animal's back, and then burst into a loud
+laugh.
+
+"I can't help laughing," he exclaimed, "to think what a fine, dangling,
+holiday coat I am going to make of it. I shall strip her as low as the
+ribs, and then the flaps will hang handsomely. She will be considered a
+beauty in the sheep-folds, and then she may borrow a coat, you see, from
+some lamb; a wolf in sheep's clothing is no uncommon sight in this
+world."
+
+"Wat Adair," said Horse Shoe, angrily, "I've a mind to take the wolf's
+part and give you a trouncing. You are the savagest wolf in sheep's
+clothing yourself that it was ever my luck to see."
+
+"You think so, Horse Shoe!" cried Wat, tauntingly. "You might chance to
+miss your way to-day, so don't make a fool of yourself! Ill will would
+only take away from you a finger-post--and it isn't every road through
+this district that goes free of the Tory rangers."
+
+"Your own day will come yet," replied Horse Shoe, afraid to provoke the
+woodman too far on account of the dependence of himself and his
+companion upon Adair's information in regard to the route of their
+journey. "We have to give and take quarter in this world."
+
+"You see, Horse Shoe," said Adair, beginning to expostulate, "I don't
+like these varmints, no how; that's the reason why. They are cruel
+themselves and I like to be cruel to them. It's a downright pleasure to
+see them winch, for, bless your soul! they don't mind common
+throat-cutting, no more than a calf. Now here's the way to touch their
+feelings."
+
+At this moment he applied the point of his knife to separating the hide
+from the flesh on either side of the spine, and then, in his eagerness
+to accomplish this object, he placed his knife between his teeth and
+began to tug at the skin with his hands, accompanying the effort with
+muttered expressions of delight at the involuntary and but
+ill-suppressed agonies of the brute. The pain, at length became too
+acute for the wolf, with all her characteristic habits of submission,
+to bear, and, in a desperate struggle that ensued between her and her
+tormentor, she succeeded, by a convulsive leap, in extricating herself
+from her place of durance. The energy of her effort of deliverance
+rescued her from the woodman's hand, and turning short upon her
+assailant, she fixed her fangs deep into the fleshy part of his thigh,
+where, as the foam fell from her lips, she held on firmly as if
+determined to sell her life dearly for the pain she suffered. Adair
+uttered a groan from the infliction, and, in the hurry of the instant,
+dropped his knife upon the ground. He was thus compelled to bear the
+torment of the grip, until he dragged the still pertinaciously-adhering
+beast a few paces forward, where, grasping up his knife, he planted it,
+by one deeply driven blow, through and through her heart. She silently
+fell at his feet, without snarl or bark, releasing her hold only in the
+impotency of death.
+
+"Curse her!" cried Adair, "the hard-hearted, bloody-minded devil! That's
+the nature of the beast--cruel and wicked to the last, damn her!" he
+continued, raving with pain, as he stamped his heel upon her head: "damn
+her in the wolf's hell to which she has gone!"
+
+Robinson stood by, unaiding, and not displeased to see the summary
+vengeance thus inflicted by the victim upon the oppressor. This calmness
+provoked the woodman, who, with that stoicism which belongs to
+uncivilized life, seemed determined to take away all pretext for the
+sergeant's exultation, by affecting to make light of the injury he had
+received.
+
+"I don't mind the scratch of the cursed creature," he said, assuming a
+badly counterfeited expression of mirth, "but I don't like to be cheated
+out of the pleasure of tormenting such mischievous varmints. It's well
+for her that she put me in a passion, or she should have carried a
+festered carcase that the buzzards might have fed upon before she died.
+But come--where is Mr. Butler? I want that guinea. Ho, sir!" he
+continued, bawling to Butler, as he tied up his wound with a strap of
+buckskin taken from his pouch, "my guinea! I've killed the devil to
+please you, seeing you would have it."
+
+Butler now rode up to the spot, and, in answer to this appeal, gave it
+an angry and indignant refusal.
+
+"Lead us on our way, sir," he added. "We have lost too much time already
+with your brutal delay. Lead on, sir!"
+
+"You will get soon enough to your journey's end," replied Adair with a
+smile, and then sullenly took up his rifle and led the way through the
+forest.
+
+A full half hour or more was lost by the incident at the trap, and
+Butler's impatience and displeasure continued to be manifested by the
+manner with which he urged the woodman forward upon their journey. After
+regaining the road, and traversing a piece of intricate and tangled
+woodland, by a bridle-path into which their guide had conducted them,
+they soon reached a broader and more beaten highway, along which they
+rode scarce a mile before they arrived at the Fork.
+
+"I have seen you safe as far as I promised," said the woodman, "and you
+must now shift for yourselves. You take the right hand road; about ten
+miles further you will come to another prong, there strike to the left,
+and if you have luck you will get to the ford before sundown. Three
+miles further is Christie's. Good bye t' ye! And Horse Shoe, if you
+should come across another wolf stuck in a tree, skin her, d' ye hear?
+Ha! ha! ha! Good bye!"
+
+"Ride on!" said Butler to the sergeant, who was about making some reply
+to Adair; "ride on! Don't heed or answer that fellow, but take the road
+he directs. He is a beast and scoundrel. Faster, good sergeant, faster!"
+
+As he spoke he set his horse to a gallop. Robinson followed at equal
+speed, the woodman standing still until the travellers disappeared from
+his view behind the thick foliage that overhung their path. Having seen
+them thus secure in his toil, the treacherous guide turned upon his
+heel, shouldered his rifle, and limped back to his dwelling.
+
+"I have a strange misgiving of that ruffian, sergeant," said Butler,
+after they had proceeded about a quarter of a mile. "My mind is
+perplexed with some unpleasant doubts. What is your opinion of him?"
+
+"He plays on both sides," replied Horse Shoe, "and knows more of you
+than by rights he ought. He spoke consarning of you, this morning, as
+_Major_ Butler. It came out of his mouth onawares."
+
+"Ha! Is my name on any part of my baggage or dress?"
+
+"Not that I know of," replied the sergeant; "and if it was, Wat can't
+read."
+
+"Were you interrupted in your sleep last night, Galbraith? Did you hear
+noises in our room?"
+
+"Nothing, Major, louder nor the gnawing of a mouse at the foot of the
+plank partition. Did you see a spirit that you look so solemn?"
+
+"I did, sergeant!" said Butler, with great earnestness of manner. "I had
+a dream that had something more than natural in it."
+
+"You amaze me, Major! If you saw anything, why didn't you awake me?"
+
+"I hadn't time before it was gone, and then it was too late. I dreamed,
+Galbraith, that somehow--for my dream didn't explain how she came
+in--Mary Musgrove, the young girl we saw----"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Major, that young girl's oversot you! Was that the sperit?"
+
+"Peace, Galbraith, I am in earnest; listen to me. I dreamt Mary Musgrove
+came into our room and warned us that our lives were in danger; how, I
+forget, or perhaps she did not tell, but she spoke of our being waylaid,
+and, I think, she advised that at this very fork of the road we have
+just passed, we should take the left hand--the right, according to my
+dream, she said, led to some spring."
+
+"Perhaps the Dogwood, Major," said Robinson, laughing; "there is such a
+place, somewhere in these parts."
+
+"The Dogwood! by my life," exclaimed Butler; "she called it the Dogwood
+spring."
+
+"That's very strange," said Robinson gravely; "that's very strange,
+unless you have hearn some one talk about the spring before you went to
+bed last night. For, as sure as you are a gentleman, there is such a
+spring not far off, although I don't know exactly where."
+
+"And what perplexes me," continued Butler, "is that, this morning,
+almost in the very words of my dream, Mary Musgrove cautioned me, in a
+whisper, to take the left road at the fork. How is she connected with my
+dream? Or could it have been a reality, and was it the girl herself who
+spoke? I have no recollection of such a word from her before I retired
+to bed."
+
+"I have hearn of these sort of things before, major, and never could
+make them out. For my share, I believe in dreams. There is something
+wrong here," continued the sergeant, after pondering over the matter for
+a few moments, and shaking his head, "there is something wrong here,
+Major Butler, as sure as you are born. I wasn't idle in making my own
+observations: first, I didn't like the crossness of Wat's wife last
+night; then, the granny there, she raved more like an old witch, with
+something wicked in her that wouldn't let her be still, than like your
+decent old bodies when they get childish. What did she mean by her
+palaver about golden guineas in Wat's pocket, and the English officer?
+Such notions don't come naturally into the head, without something to go
+upon. And, moreover, when I turned out this morning, before it was
+cleverly day, who do you think I saw?"
+
+"Indeed I cannot guess."
+
+"First, Wat walking up the road with a face like a man that had sot a
+house on fire; and when I stopped him to ax what he was after, down
+comes Mike Lynch--that peevish bull-dog--from the woods, on a little
+knot of a pony, pretty nigh at full speed, and covered with lather; and
+there was a sort of colloguing together, and then a story made up about
+Mike's being at Billy Watson's, the blacksmith's. It didn't tell well,
+major, and it sot me to suspicions. The gray of the morning is not the
+time for blacksmith's work: there's the fire to make up, and what not.
+Besides, it don't belong to the trade, as I know, here in the country,
+to be at work so arly. I said nothing; but I made a sort of reckoning in
+my own mind that they looked like a couple of desarters trying to sham a
+sentry. Then again, there was our horses turned loose. There is
+something in these signs, you may depend upon it, Major Butler!"
+
+"That fellow has designs against us, Galbraith," said Butler, musing,
+and paying but little attention to the surmises of the sergeant, "I can
+hardly think it was a dream. It may have been Mary Musgrove herself, but
+how she got there is past my conjecture. I saw nothing, I only heard the
+warning. And I would be sworn she addressed me as Major Butler. You say
+Wat Adair gave me the same title?"
+
+"As I am a living man," replied Horse Shoe, "he wanted to deny it; and
+then he pretended it was a fancy of his own."
+
+"It is very strange, and looks badly," said Butler.
+
+"Never mind, let the worst come to the worst, we have arms and legs
+both," returned the sergeant.
+
+"I will take the hint for good or for ill," said the major. "Sergeant,
+strike across into the left hand road; in this I will move no farther."
+
+"That's as wise a thing as we can do," replied Robinson. "If you have
+doubts of a man, seem to trust him, but take care not to follow his
+advice. There is another hint I will give you, let us examine our
+fire-arms to see that we are ready for a battle."
+
+Butler concurring in this precaution, the sergeant dismounted, and
+having primed his rifle afresh, attempted to fire it into the air, but
+it merely flashed, without going off. Upon a second trial the result was
+the same. This induced a further examination, which disclosed the fact
+that the load which had been put in the day previous had been
+discharged, and a bullet was now driven home in the place of the powder.
+It was obvious that this was designed. The machination of an enemy
+became more apparent when, upon an investigation into the condition of
+Butler's pistols, they were also found incapable of being used.
+
+"This is some of Michael Lynch's doings whilst we were eating our
+breakfast," said Horse Shoe, "and it is flat proof of treason in our
+camp. I should like to go back if it was only for the satisfaction of
+blowing out Wat's brains. But there is no use in argufying about it. We
+must set things to rights, and move on with a good look-out ahead."
+
+With the utmost apparent indifference to the dangers that beset them,
+the sergeant now applied himself to the care of restoring his rifle to a
+serviceable condition. With the aid of a small tool which he carried for
+such a use, he opened the breach and removed the ball: Butler's pistols
+were likewise put in order, and our travellers, being thus restored to
+an attitude of defence, turned their horses' heads into the thicket upon
+their left, and proceeded across the space that filled up the angle made
+by the two branches of the road; and, having gained that branch which
+they sought, they pressed forward diligently upon their journey.
+
+The path they had to travel was lonely and rugged, and it was but once
+or twice, during the day, that they met a casual wayfarer traversing
+the same wild. From such a source, however, they were informed that they
+were on the most direct road to Grindall's ford, and that the route they
+had abandoned would have conducted them to the Dogwood spring, a point
+much out of their proper course, and from which the ford might only have
+been reached by a difficult and tortuous by-way.
+
+These disclosures opened the eyes of Butler and his companion to the
+imminent perils that encompassed them, and prompted them to the exercise
+of the strictest vigilance. Like discreet and trusty soldiers, they
+pursued their way with the most unwavering courage, confident that the
+difficulty of retreat was fully equal to that of the advance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TORY TROOPERS, A DARK ROAD AND A FRAY.
+
+
+"By the whiskers of the Grand Turk, I have got the four points on you,
+bully Buff! High, low, jack and the game!" exclaimed Peppercorn.
+
+"You have luck enough to worry out the nine lives of a cat. That's an
+end to Backbiter, the best horse 'twixt Pedee and the Savannah. So,
+blast me, if I play any more with you! There, send the cards to hell!"
+roared out Hugh Habershaw, rising and throwing the pack into the fire.
+
+It was just at the closing in of night, when a party of
+ruffianly-looking men were assembled beneath a spreading chestnut, that
+threw forth its aged arms over a small gravelly hillock, in the depths
+of the forest that skirted the northern bank of the Pacolet, within a
+short distance of Grindall's ford. The spot had all the qualities of a
+secret fastness. It was guarded on one side by the small river, and on
+the other by a complicated screen of underwood, consisting principally
+of those luxuriantly plaited vines which give so distinct a character to
+the southern woodland. The shrubbery, immediately along the bank of the
+river, was sufficiently open to enable a horseman to ride through it
+down to the road which, at about two hundred paces off, led into the
+ford.
+
+The group who now occupied this spot consisted of some ten or twelve men
+under the command of Hugh Habershaw. Their appearance was half rustic
+and half military; some efforts at soldierly costume were visible in the
+decoration of an occasional buck-tail set in the caps of several of the
+party, and, here and there, a piece of yellow cloth forming a band for
+the hat. Some wore long and ungainly deer-skin pantaloons and moccasins
+of the same material; and two or three were indued with coats of coarse
+homespun, awkwardly garnished with the trimmings of a British uniform.
+All were armed, but in the same irregular fashion. There were rifles to
+be seen stacked against the trunk of the tree; most of the men wore
+swords, which were of different lengths and sizes; and some of the gang
+had a horseman's pistol bestowed conspicuously about their persons.
+Their horses were attached to the drooping ends of the boughs of the
+several trees that hemmed in the circle, and were ready for service at
+the first call. A small fire of brushwood had been kindled near the foot
+of the chestnut, and its blaze was sufficiently strong to throw a bright
+glare over the motley and ill-looking crew who were assembled near it.
+They might well have been taken for a bivouac of banditti of the most
+undisciplined and savage class. A small party were broiling venison at
+the fire: the greater number, however, were stretched out upon the
+ground in idleness, waiting for some expected summons to action. The two
+I have first noticed, were seated on the butt-end of a fallen trunk,
+immediately within the light of the fire, and were engaged with a pack
+of dirty cards, at the then popular game of "all fours."
+
+These two personages were altogether different in exterior from each
+other. The first of them, known only by the sobriquet of Peppercorn, was
+a tall, well-proportioned and active man, neatly dressed in the uniform
+of a British dragoon. His countenance indicated more intelligence than
+belonged to his companions, and his manners had the flexible, bold, and
+careless port that generally distinguishes a man who has served much in
+the army, and become familiar with the varieties of character afforded
+by such a career. The second was Hugh Habershaw, the captain of the
+gang. He was a bluff, red-visaged, corpulent man, with a face of gross,
+unmitigated sensuality. A pale blood-shot eye, which was expressionless,
+except in a sinister glance, occasioned by a partial squint, a small
+upturned nose, a mouth with thin and compressed lips inclining downwards
+at the corners, a double chin, bristling with a wiry and almost white
+beard, a low forehead, a bald crown, and meagre, reddish whiskers, were
+the ill-favored traits of his physiognomy. The figure of this person was
+as uncouth as his countenance. He was rather below the middle height,
+and appeared still shorter by the stoop of his massive round shoulders,
+by the ample bulk of his chest, and by the rotundity of his
+corporation. In consideration of his rank, as the leader of this
+vagabond squadron, he aimed at more military ornament in his dress than
+his comrades. A greasy cocked hat, decorated after the fashion described
+by Grumio, "with the humor of forty fancies pricked in it for a
+feather," was perched somewhat superciliously upon his poll, and his
+body was invested in an old and much abused cloth coat of London brown,
+as it was then called, to the ample shoulders of which had been attached
+two long, narrow, and threadbare epaulets of tarnished silver lace. A
+broad buckskin belt was girded, by the help of a large brass buckle,
+around his middle, on the outside of his coat, and it served as well to
+suspend a rusty sabre, as to furnish support to a hunting knife, which
+was thrust into it in front. His nether person was rendered conspicuous
+by a pair of dingy small-clothes, and long black boots. Close at the
+feet of this redoubtable commander lay a fat, surly bull-dog, whose
+snarlish temper seemed to have been fostered and promoted by the
+peremptory perverseness with which his master claimed for him all the
+privileges and indulgencies of a pampered favorite.
+
+Such were the unattractive exterior and circumstances of the man who
+assumed control over the band of ruffians now assembled.
+
+"I wish you and the cards had been broiled on the devil's gridiron
+before I ever saw you!" continued Habershaw, after he had consigned the
+pack to the flames. "That such a noble beast as Backbiter should be
+whipped out of my hand by the turn of a rascally card! Hark'ee, you imp
+of Satan, you have the knack of winning! your luck, or something
+else--you understand me--something else, would win the shirt off my back
+if I was such a fool as to play longer with you. I suspect you are a
+light-fingered Jack--a light-fingered Jack--d'ye hear that, Master
+Peppercorn?"
+
+"How now, Bully!" cried Peppercorn; "are you turning boy in your old
+days, that you must fall to whining because you have lost a turn at
+play? Is every man a rogue since you have set up the trade? For shame!
+If I were as hot a fool as you, I would give you steel in your guts. But
+come, noble Captain, there's my hand. This is no time for us to be
+catching quarrels; we have other business cut out. As to Backbiter, the
+rat-tailed and spavined bone-setter, curse me if I would have him as a
+gift: a noble beast! ha, ha, ha! Take him back, man, take him back! he
+wasn't worth the cards that won him."
+
+"Silence, you tailor's bastard! Would you breed a mutiny in the camp?
+Look around you: do you expect me to preserve discipline amongst these
+wild wood-scourers, with your loud haw-haws to my very teeth? You make
+too free, Peppercorn; you make too free! It wouldn't take much to make
+me strike; damn me, there's fighting blood in me, and you know it. When
+I am at the head of my men, you must know your distance, sir. Suffice
+it, I don't approve of this familiarity to the commander of a squad. But
+it is no matter: I let it pass this time. And, hark in your ear, as you
+underrate Backbiter, you are a fool, Peppercorn, and know no more of the
+points of a good horse than you do of the ten commandments. Why, blast
+you, just to punish you, I'll hold you to the word of a gentleman, and
+take him back. Now there's an end of it, and let's have no more
+talking."
+
+"Right, noble Captain!" ejaculated Peppercorn, with a free and
+swaggering laugh, "right! I will uphold the discipline of the valiant
+Hugh Habershaw of the Tiger against all the babblers the world over. By
+the God of war, I marvel that Cruger hasn't forced upon you one of his
+commissions, before this; the army would be proud of such a master of
+tactics."
+
+"The time will come, Peppercorn; the time will come, and then I'll teach
+them the elements of military construction. Mark that word, Peppercorn,
+there's meaning in it."
+
+"Huzza for Captain Tiger of Habershaw--Habershaw of Tiger, I mean!"
+cried Peppercorn. "Here's Tiger Habershaw, my boys! Drink to that." And
+saying these words, the dragoon snatched up a leathern canteen from the
+ground, and, pouring out some spirits into the cup, drank them off.
+
+The rest of the crew sprang from the grass, and followed the example set
+them by their comrade, roaring out the pledge until the woods rang with
+their vociferation.
+
+"Peace! you rapscallions!" screamed the captain. "Have you so little
+notion where you are, that you bellow like bulls? Is this your
+discipline, when you should be as silent as cats in a kitchen,
+hellhound! And you, you coarse-throated devil, Beauty," he said as he
+kicked his dog, that had contributed to the chorus with a loud
+sympathetic howl, "you must be breaking the laws of service guard with
+your infernal roar, like the other fools of the pack. Be still, puppy!"
+
+The clamor upon this rebuke ceased, and the bull-dog crouched again at
+his master's feet.
+
+"Isn't it time that we were at the ford? Oughtn't our friends to be near
+at hand?" inquired Peppercorn.
+
+"Black Jack will give us notice," replied Habershaw. "Depend upon him. I
+have thought of everything like a man that knows his business. I have
+sent that rascal up the road, with orders to feel the enemy; and I'll
+undertake he'll clink it back when he once lays eyes on them, as fast as
+four legs will carry him. But it is always well to be beforehand,
+Peppercorn. Learn that from me: I never in my campaigns knowed any harm
+done by being too early. So, Master Orderly, call the roll."
+
+"Ready, sir; always ready when you command," answered Peppercorn. "Shall
+I call the ragamuffins by their nicknames, or will you have them handled
+like christians."
+
+"On secret service," said Habershaw, "it is always best to use them to
+their nicknames."
+
+"As when they go horse-stealing, or house-burning, or throat-cutting,"
+interrupted Peppercorn.
+
+"Order, sir, no indecencies! do you hear? Go on with your roll, if you
+have got it by heart. Be musical, dog!"
+
+"Faith will I, most consummate captain! It is just to my hand: I'll sing
+you like a bagpipe. I have learnt the rollcall handsomely, and can go
+through it as if it were a song."
+
+"Begin then: the time is coming when we must move. I think I hear Black
+Jack's horse breaking through the bushes now."
+
+"Attention, you devil's babies, the whole of you!" shouted Peppercorn.
+"Horse and gun, every mother's imp of you!"
+
+In a moment the idlers sprang to their weapons and mounted their horses.
+
+"Answer to your names," said the orderly; "and see that you do it
+discreetly. Pimple!"
+
+"Here," answered one of the disorderly crew, with a laugh.
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" cried Habershaw, "or, by the blood of your
+bodies, I'll make my whinger acquainted with your hearts!"
+
+"Long Shanks."
+
+"Here! if you mean me," said another.
+
+"Good! Black Jack."
+
+"On patrole," said the captain.
+
+"Red Mug."
+
+"At the book," answered the man in the ranks; and here rose another
+laugh.
+
+"Red Mug! do you mind me?" said Habershaw, in a threatening tone, as his
+eye squinted fiercely towards the person addressed.
+
+"Platter Breech."
+
+"I'll stand out against the nickname," said the person intended to be
+designated, whilst the whole squad began to give symptoms of a mutiny of
+merriment. "I'll be d----d if I will have it, and that's as good as if I
+swore to it. I am not going to be cajoled at by the whole company."
+
+"Silence! Blood and butter, you villains!" roared the captain. "Don't
+you see that you're in line? How often have I told you that it's against
+discipline to chirp above a whisper when you are drawn out? Take care
+that I hav'n't to remind you of that again! Andy Clopper, you will keep
+the denomination I have set upon you. Platter Breech is a good
+soldier-like name, and you shall die in it, if I bid you. Go on,
+Orderly--proceed!"
+
+"Marrow Bone."
+
+"Here!"
+
+"Fire Nose."
+
+"Fire Nose yourself, Mister Disorderly!" replied another refractory
+member, sullenly from the ranks.
+
+"Well, let him pass. That's a cross-grained devil," said the captain,
+aside to Peppercorn. "I'll bring that chap into order yet, the d----d
+mutineering back hanger! Pass him."
+
+"Screech Owl."
+
+"Here!"
+
+"That's a decent, good-natured Screech Owl," said Peppercorn. "Clapper
+Claw! Bow Legs!"
+
+"Both here."
+
+"They are all here, most comfortable Captain, all good fellows and true,
+and as ready to follow you into the belly of an earthquake as go to
+supper, it is all the same to them."
+
+"Let them follow where I lead, Peppercorn; that is all I ask, said
+Habershaw significantly.
+
+"You have forgot one name on your roll, Mister Orderly," said he who had
+been written down by the name of Fire Nose.
+
+"Whose was that?"
+
+"You forgot Captain Moonface Bragger--captain of the squad."
+
+"Gideon Blake!" shouted Habershaw, with a voice choked by anger, until
+it resembled the growl of a mastiff, whilst, at the same time, he drew
+his sword half out of the scabbard. "Howsever, it is very well," he
+said, restraining his wrath and permitting the blade to drop back into
+its sheath. "Another time, sir. I have marked you, you limb of a
+traitor. May all the devils ride over me if I don't drive a bullet
+through your brain if you ever unfringe my discipline again! Yes, you
+foul-mouthed half-whig, I have had my suspicions of you before to-day.
+So look to yourself. A fine state of things when skunks like you can be
+setting up a mutiny in the service! Take care of yourself, sir, you know
+me. Now, my lads, to business. Remember the orders I issued at the
+Dogwood Spring, this morning. This Whig officer must be taken dead or
+alive, and don't be chicken-hearted about it. Give him the lead--give
+him the lead! As to the lusty fellow that rides with him--big Horse
+Shoe--have a care of him; that's a dog that bites without barking. But
+be on the watch that they don't escape you again. Since we missed them
+at the spring they have cost us a hard ride to head them here, so let
+them pay for it. See that they are well into the ford before you show
+yourselves. Wait for orders from me, and if I fall by the fortune of
+war, take your orders from Peppercorn. If by chance we should miss them
+at the river, push for Christie's; Wat has taken care that they shall
+make for that, to-night. If any of you, by mistake, you understand me,
+take them prisoners, bring them back to this spot. Now you have heard my
+orders, that's enough. Keep silent and ready. Mind your discipline.
+Black Jack is long coming, Orderly; these fellows must travel slow."
+
+"I hear him now," replied Peppercorn.
+
+In the next moment the scout referred to galloped into the circle. His
+report was hastily made. It announced that the travellers were moving
+leisurely towards the ford, and that not many minutes could elapse
+before their arrival. Upon this intelligence Habershaw immediately
+marched his troop to the road and posted them in the cover of the
+underwood that skirted the river, at the crossing-place. Here they
+remained like wild beasts aware of the approach of their prey, and
+waiting the moment to spring upon them when it might be done with the
+least chance of successful resistance.
+
+Meantime Butler and Robinson advanced at a wearied pace. The twilight
+had so far faded as to be only discernible on the western sky. The stars
+were twinkling through the leaves of the forest, and the light of the
+fire-fly spangled the wilderness. The road might be descried, in the
+most open parts of the wood, for some fifty paces ahead; but where the
+shrubbery was more dense, it was lost in utter darkness. Our travellers,
+like most wayfarers towards the end of the day, rode silently along,
+seldom exchanging a word, and anxiously computing the distance which
+they had yet to traverse before they reached their appointed place of
+repose. A sense of danger, and the necessity for vigilance, on the
+present occasion, made them the more silent.
+
+"I thought I heard a wild sort of yell just now--people laughing a great
+way off," said Robinson, "but there's such a hooting of owls and piping
+of frogs that I mought have been mistaken. Halt, Major. Let me
+listen--there it is again."
+
+"It is the crying of a panther, sergeant; more than a mile from us, by
+my ear."
+
+"It is mightily like the scream of drunken men," replied the sergeant;
+"and there, too! I thought I heard the clatter of a hoof."
+
+The travellers again reined up and listened.
+
+"It is more like a deer stalking through the bushes, Galbraith."
+
+"No," exclaimed the sergeant, "that's the gallop of a horse making down
+the road ahead of us, as sure as you are alive; I heard the shoe strike
+a stone. You must have hearn it too."
+
+"I wouldn't be sure," answered Butler.
+
+"Look to your pistols, Major, and prime afresh."
+
+"We seem to have ridden a great way," said Butler, as he concluded the
+inspection of his pistols and now held one of them ready in his hand.
+"Can we have lost ourselves? Should we not have reached the Pacolet
+before this?"
+
+"I have seen no road that could take us astray," replied Robinson, "and,
+by what we were told just before sundown, I should guess that we
+couldn't be far off the ford. We hav'n't then quite three miles to
+Christie's. Well, courage, major! supper and bed were never spoiled by
+the trouble of getting to them."
+
+"Wat Adair, I think, directed us to Christie's?" said Butler.
+
+"He did; and I had a mind to propose to you, since we caught him in a
+trick this morning, to make for some other house, if such a thing was
+possible, or else to spend the night in the woods."
+
+"Perhaps it would be wise, sergeant; and if you think so still, I will
+be ruled by you."
+
+"If we once got by the river-side where our horses mought have water, I
+almost think I should advise a halt there. Although I have made one
+observation, Major Butler--that running water is lean fare for a hungry
+man. Howsever, it won't hurt us, and if you say the word we will stop
+there."
+
+"Then, sergeant, I do say the word."
+
+"Isn't that the glimmering of a light yonder in the bushes?" inquired
+Horse Shoe, as he turned his gaze in the direction of the bivouac, "or
+is it these here lightning bugs that keep so busy shooting about?"
+
+"I thought I saw the light you speak of, Galbraith; but it has
+disappeared."
+
+"It is there again, major; and I hear the rushing of the river--we are
+near the ford. Perhaps this light comes from some cabin on the bank."
+
+"God send that it should turn out so, Galbraith! for I am very weary."
+
+"There is some devilment going on in these woods, major. I saw a figure
+pass in front of the light through the bushes. I would be willing to
+swear it was a man on horseback. Perhaps we have, by chance, fallen on
+some Tory muster; or, what's not so likely, they may be friends. I think
+I will ride forward and challenge."
+
+"Better pass unobserved, if you can, sergeant," interrupted Butler. "It
+will not do for us to run the risk of being separated. Here we are at
+the river; let us cross, and ride some distance; then, if any one follow
+us, we shall be more certain of his design."
+
+They now cautiously advanced into the river, which, though rapid, was
+shallow; and having reached the middle of the stream, they halted to
+allow their horses water.
+
+"Captain Peter is as thirsty as a man in a fever," said Horse Shoe. "He
+drinks as if he was laying in for a week. Now, major, since we are here
+in the river, look up the stream. Don't you see, from the image in the
+water, that there's a fire on the bank? And there, by my soul! there are
+men on horseback. Look towards the light. Spur, and out on the other
+side! Quick--quick--they are upon us!"
+
+At the same instant that Horse Shoe spoke, a bullet whistled close by
+his ear; and, in the next, six or eight men galloped into the river,
+from different points. This was succeeded by a sharp report of fire-arms
+from both parties, and the vigorous charge of Robinson, followed by
+Butler, through the array of the assailants. They gained the opposite
+bank, and now directed all their efforts to outrun their pursuers; but
+in the very crisis of their escape, Butler's horse, bounding under the
+prick of the spur, staggered a few paces from the river and fell dead. A
+bullet had lodged in a vital part, and the energy of the brave steed was
+spent in the effort to bear his master through the stream. Butler fell
+beneath the stricken animal, from whence he was unable to extricate
+himself. The sergeant, seeing his comrade's condition, sprang from his
+horse and ran to his assistance, and, in the same interval, the ruffian
+followers gained the spot and surrounded their prisoners. An ineffectual
+struggle ensued over the prostrate horse and rider, in which Robinson
+bore down more than one of his adversaries, but was obliged, at last, to
+yield to the overwhelming power that pressed upon him.
+
+"Bury your swords in both of them to the hilts!" shouted Habershaw; "I
+don't want to have that work to do to-morrow."
+
+"Stand off!" cried Gideon Blake, as two or three of the gang sprang
+forward to execute their captain's order; "stand off! the man is on his
+back, and he shall not be murdered in cold blood;" and the speaker took
+a position near Butler, prepared to make good his resolve. The spirit
+of Blake had its desired effect, and the same assailants now turned upon
+Robinson.
+
+"Hold!" cried Peppercorn, throwing up his sword and warding off the
+blows that were aimed by these men at the body of the sergeant. "Hold,
+you knaves! this is my prisoner. I will deal with him to my liking.
+Would a dozen of you strike one man when he has surrendered? Back, ye
+cowards; leave him to me. How now, old Horse Shoe; are you caught, with
+your gay master here? Come, come, we know you both. So yield with a good
+grace, lest, peradventure, I might happen to blow out your brains."
+
+"Silence, fellows! You carrion crows!" roared Habershaw. "Remember the
+discipline I taught you. No disorder, nor confusion, but take the
+prisoners, since you hav'n't the heart to strike; take them to the
+rendezvous. And do it quietly--do you hear? Secure the baggage; and
+about it quickly, you hounds!"
+
+Butler was now lifted from the ground, and, with his companion, was
+taken into the custody of Blake and one or two of his companions, who
+seemed to share in his desire to prevent the shedding of blood. The
+prisoners were each mounted behind one of the troopers, and in this
+condition conducted across the river. The saddle and other equipments
+were stripped from the major's dead steed; and Robinson's horse, Captain
+Peter, was burdened with the load of two wounded men, whose own horses
+had escaped from them in the fray. In this guise the band of
+freebooters, with their prisoners and spoils, slowly and confusedly made
+their way to the appointed place of re-assembling. In a few moments they
+were ranged beneath the chestnut, waiting for orders from their
+self-important and vain commander.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+SCENE IN THE BIVOUAC.
+
+
+"Bustle, my lads--bustle! These are stirring times," exclaimed
+Habershaw, riding with an air of great personal consequence into the
+midst of the troop, as they were gathered, still on horseback, under the
+chestnut. "We have made a fine night's work of it, and, considering that
+we fought in the dark against men ready armed for us, this has not been
+such a light affair. To be sure, in point of numbers, it is a trifle;
+but the plan, Peppercorn--the plan, and the despatch, and the neatness
+of the thing--that's what I say I am entitled to credit for. Bless your
+soul, Peppercorn, these fellows were sure to fall into my trap--there
+was no getting off. That's the effect of my generalship, you see,
+Peppercorn. Study it, boy! We could have managed about twenty more of
+the filthy rebels handsomely; but this will do--this will do. I took, as
+a commanding officer ought always to do, the full responsibility of the
+measure, and a good share of the fight. Did I not, Peppercorn? Wasn't I,
+in your opinion, about the first man in the river?"
+
+"I'll bear witness, valiant and victorious captain," answered the
+dragoon, "that you fired the first shot; and I am almost willing to make
+oath that I saw you within at least twenty paces of the enemy, exhorting
+your men."
+
+"Now lads--wait for the word--dismount!" continued the captain, "and
+make up your minds to pass the night where you are. Peppercorn, the
+prisoners I put under your identical charge. Remember that! keep your
+eyes about you. Set a guard of four men upon them; I will make you
+accountable." He then added, in an under tone, "hold them safe until
+to-morrow, man, and I promise you, you shall have no trouble in watching
+them after that."
+
+"You shall find them," replied Peppercorn.
+
+"Silence," interrupted the captain; "hear my orders, and give no reply.
+Now, sir, before you do anything else, call your roll, and report your
+killed, wounded, and missing."
+
+Upon this order, the dragoon directed the men, after disposing of their
+horses, to form a line. He then called over the squad by their real
+names, and immediately afterwards reported to his superior, who, in
+order to preserve a proper dignified distance, had retreated some paces
+from the group, the following pithy and soldier-like account:--
+
+"Two men wounded, noble captain, in the late action; two missing; one
+horse, saddle and bridle lost; one horse and two prisoners taken from
+the enemy."
+
+"The names of the wounded, sir?"
+
+"Tom Dubbs and Shadrach Green; one slightly scratched, and the other
+bruised by a kick from the blacksmith."
+
+"The missing, sir?"
+
+"Dick Waters, commonly called Marrow Bone, and Roger Bell, known in your
+honor's list by the name of Clapper Claw."
+
+"They have skulked," said the captain.
+
+"Marrow Bone is as dead as a door nail, sir," said the orderly with
+perfect indifference, and standing affectedly erect. "He fell in the
+river, and the probability is that Clapper Claw keeps him company."
+
+"What!" roared Habershaw, "have the diabolical scoundrels made away with
+any of my good fellows? Have the precious lives of my brave soldiers
+been poured out by the d----d rebels? By my hand, they shall feel
+twisted rope, Peppercorn!--cold iron is too good for them."
+
+"Softly, captain!" said the orderly. "You don't blame the enemy for
+showing fight? We mustn't quarrel with the chances of war. There is not
+often a fray without a broken head, captain. We must deal with the
+prisoners according to the laws of war."
+
+"Of Tory war, Peppercorn, aye, that will I! String the dogs up to the
+first tree. The devil's pets, why didn't they surrender when we set upon
+them! To-morrow: let them look out to-morrow. No words, orderly; send
+out two files to look for the bodies, and to bring in the stray horse
+if they can find him. A pretty night's work! to lose two good pieces of
+stuff for a brace of black-hearted whigs!"
+
+The two files were detailed for the duty required, and immediately set
+out, on foot, towards the scene of the late fray. The rest of the troop
+were dismissed from the line.
+
+"I would venture to ask, sir," said Butler, addressing the captain, "for
+a cup of water: I am much hurt."
+
+"Silence, and be d----d to you!" said Habershaw gruffly, "silence, and
+know your place, sir. You are a prisoner, and a traitor to boot."
+
+"Don't you hear the gentleman say he is hurt?" interposed Robinson.
+"It's onnatural, and more like a beast than a man to deny a prisoner a
+little water."
+
+"By my sword, villain, I will cleave your brain for you, if you open
+that rebel mouth of yours again!"
+
+"Pshaw, pshaw! Captain Habershaw, this will never do," said Peppercorn;
+"men are men, and must have food and drink. Here, Gideon Blake, give me
+your flask of liquor and bring me some water from the river. It is my
+duty, captain, to look after the prisoners."
+
+Gideon Blake, who was a man of less savage temper than most of his
+associates, obeyed this command with alacrity, and even added a few
+words of kindness, as he assisted in administering refreshment to the
+prisoners. This evidence of a gentler nature did not escape the comment
+of the ruffian captain, who still remembered his old grudge against the
+trooper.
+
+"Away, sir," he said in a peremptory and angry tone, "away and attend to
+your own duty. You are ever fond of obliging these beggarly whigs. Hark
+you, Peppercorn," he added, speaking apart to the dragoon, "take care
+how you trust this skulking vagabond: he will take bribes from the
+rebels, and turn his coat whenever there is money in the way. I have my
+eye upon him."
+
+"If I chose to speak," said Gideon Blake.
+
+"Hold your peace, you grey fox," cried the captain. "Not a word! I know
+your doublings. Remember you are under martial law, and blast me, if I
+don't make you feel it! There are more than myself suspect you."
+
+"I should like to know," said Butler, "why I and my companion are
+molested on our journey. Have we fallen amongst banditti, or do you bear
+a lawful commission? If you do, sir, let me tell you, you have disgraced
+it by outrage and violence exercised towards unoffending men, and shall
+answer for it when the occasion serves. On what pretence have we been
+arrested?"
+
+"Hark, my young fighting-cock," replied the captain. "You will know your
+misdemeanors soon enough. And if you would sleep to-night with a whole
+throat, you will keep your tongue within your teeth. It wouldn't take
+much to persuade me to give you a little drum-head law. Do you hear
+that?"
+
+"It is my advice, major," whispered Robinson, "to ax no questions of
+these blackguards."
+
+"Be it so, sergeant," said Butler, "I am weary and sick."
+
+When other cares were disposed of, and the excited passions of the
+lawless gang had subsided into a better mood, the dragoon took Butler's
+cloak from the baggage and spread it upon the ground beneath the shelter
+of the shrubbery, and the suffering officer was thus furnished a bed
+that afforded him some small share of comfort, and enabled to take that
+rest which he so much needed. Robinson seated himself on the ground
+beside his companion, and in this situation they patiently resigned
+themselves to whatever fate awaited them.
+
+Soon after this the whole troop were busy in the preparations for
+refreshment and sleep. The horses were either _hobbled_, by a cord from
+the fore to the hind foot, and turned loose to seek pasture around the
+bivouac, or tethered in such parts of the forest as furnished them an
+opportunity to feed on the shrubbery. The fire was rekindled, and some
+small remnants of venison roasted before it; and in less than an hour
+this reckless and ill-governed band were carousing over their cups with
+all the rude ribaldry that belonged to such natures.
+
+"Come, boys," said Peppercorn, who seemed to take a delight in urging
+the band into every kind of excess, and who possessed that sort of sway
+over the whole crew, including their leader no less than the privates,
+which an expert and ready skill in adapting himself to the humor of the
+company gave him, and which faculty be now appeared to exercise for the
+increase of his own influence. "Come, boys, laugh while you can--that's
+my motto. This soldiering is a merry life, fighting, drinking, and
+joking. By the God of war! I will enlist the whole of you into the
+regular service--Ferguson or Cruger, which you please, boys! they are
+both fine fellows and would give purses of gold for such charming, gay,
+swaggering blades. Fill up your cans and prepare for another bout. I'm
+not the crusty cur to stint thirsty men. A toast, my gay fellows!"
+
+"Listen to Peppercorn," cried out some three or four voices.
+
+"Here's to the honor of the brave captain Hugh Habershaw, and his
+glorious dogs that won the battle of Grindall's ford!"
+
+A broad and coarse laugh burst from the captain at the announcement of
+this toast.
+
+"By my sword!" he exclaimed, "the fight was not a bad fight."
+
+"Can you find a joint of venison, Gideon?" said Peppercorn, aside. "If
+you can, give it, and a cup of spirits, to the prisoners. Stop, I'll do
+it myself, you will have the old bull-dog on your back."
+
+And saying this the dragoon rose from his seat, and taking a few
+fragments of the meat which had been stripped almost to the bone, placed
+them, together with a canteen, beside Butler.
+
+"Make the best of your time," he said, "you have but short allowance and
+none of the best. If I can serve you, I will do it with a good heart;
+so, call on me."
+
+Then turning to the sergeant, who sat nigh, he whispered in his ear,
+and, with a distinct and somewhat taunting emphasis, inquired,
+
+"Friend Horse Shoe, mayhap thou knowest me?"
+
+"That I do, James Curry," replied the sergeant, "and I have a mean
+opinion of the company you keep. I don't doubt but you are ashamed to
+say how you come by them."
+
+"All is fish that comes into the Dutchman's net," said Curry. "To-night
+I have caught fat game. You are a sturdy fellow, master Blacksmith, and
+good at a tug, but remember, friend, I owe you a cuff, and if you
+weren't a prisoner you should have it."
+
+"Show me fair play, James Curry, and you shall have a chance now," said
+Horse Shoe; "I'll keep my parole to surrender when it is over."
+
+"Silence, fool!" returned Curry, at the same time rudely pinching
+Robinson's ear. "You will be a better man than I take you to be, if you
+ever wrestle with me again. I have not forgotten you."
+
+The dragoon now rejoined his comrades.
+
+"Peppercorn," cried Habershaw, "d----n the prisoners, let them fast
+to-night. The lads want a song. Come, the liquor's getting low, we want
+noise, we want uproar, lad! Sing, bully, sing!"
+
+"Anything to get rid of the night, noble captain. What shall I give
+you?"
+
+"The old catch, master Orderly. The Jolly Bottle, the Jolly Bottle,"
+cried Habershaw, pronouncing this word according to ancient usage, with
+the accent on the last syllable, as if spelt "bottel;" "give us the
+Jolly Bottle, we all know the chorus of that song. And besides it's the
+best in your pack."
+
+"Well, listen, my wet fellows!" said Peppercorn, "and pipe lustily in
+the chorus."
+
+Here the orderly sang, to a familiar old English tune, the following
+song, which was perhaps a common camp ditty of the period.
+
+    "You may talk as you please of your candle and book,
+    And prate about virtue, with sanctified look;
+    Neither priest, book, nor candle, can help you so well
+    To make friends with the world as the Jolly Bottle."
+
+"Chorus, my lads; out with it!" shouted the singer; and the whole crew
+set up a hideous yell as they joined him.
+
+            "Sing heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            The Jolly Bottle is the best I trow.
+
+    "Then take the bottle, it is well stitched of leather,
+    And better than doublet keeps out the wind and weather:
+    Let the bottom look up to the broad arch of blue,
+    And then catch the drippings, as good fellows do.
+            With heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            'Tis sinful to waste good liquor, you know.
+
+    "The soldier, he carries his knapsack and gun.
+    And swears at the weight as he tramps through the sun
+    But, devil a loon, did I ever hear tell,
+    Who swore at the weight of the Jolly Bottle.
+            So heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            The Jolly Bottle is a feather, I trow."
+
+Here the song was interrupted by the return of the two files who had
+been sent to bring in the bodies of the dead. They had found the missing
+horse, and now led him into the circle laden with the corpses of Bell
+and Waters. The troopers halted immediately behind the ring of the
+revellers, and in such a position as to front Peppercorn and the
+captain, who were thus afforded a full view of the bodies by the blaze
+of the fire.
+
+"Easy," almost whispered Habershaw, now half-intoxicated, to the two
+troopers, as he lifted his hands and motioned to them to halt; "put them
+down gently on the ground. Go on, Peppercorn; let the dead help
+themselves: finish the song! That chorus again, my boys!" And here the
+last chorus was repeated in the highest key of merriment.
+
+Peppercorn cast an eye at the bodies which, during the interval, had
+been thrown on the earth, and while the men who had just returned were
+helping themselves to the drink, he proceeded, in an unaltered voice,
+with the song.
+
+    "When drinkers are dry, and liquor is low,
+    A fray that takes off a good fellow or so,
+    Why, what does it do, but help us to bear
+    The loss of a comrade, in drinking his share?
+            Then heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            A fray and a feast are brothers, you know.
+
+    "The philosophers say it's a well-settled fact,
+    That a vessel will leak whose bottom is cracked;
+    And a belly that's drilled with a bullet, I think,
+    Is a very bad belly to stow away drink.
+            So heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            The dead will be dry to-night, I trow."
+
+"There they are, captain," said one of the returning troopers, after the
+song, to which he and his companions had stood listening with delighted
+countenances, was brought to an end, "there they are. We found Dick
+Waters lying in the road, and when we first came to him he gave a sort
+of groan, but we didn't lift him until we came back from hunting Roger
+Bell; by that time the fellow was as dead as a pickled herring. Where do
+you think we found Clapper Claw? Why, half a mile, almost, down the
+stream. He was washed along and got jammed up betwixt the roots of a
+sycamore. We had a long wade after him, and trouble enough to get
+him--more, I'm thinking, than a dead man is worth. So, give us some more
+rum; this is ugly work to be done in the dark."
+
+"Scratch a hole for them, lads, under the bushes," said Habershaw; "put
+a sod blanket over them before morning. That's the fortune of war, as
+Peppercorn calls it. How are the wounded men getting along?"
+
+"Oh bravely, captain," replied Shad Green, or, according to his
+nickname, Red Mug: "this here physic is a main thing for a scratch."
+
+"Bravely!" echoed Screech Owl, or Tom Dubbs, the same who had been
+reported by the dragoon as "kicked by the blacksmith;" "we are
+plastering up sores here with the jolly bottle:--
+
+    "Sing heave and ho, and trombelow,
+    The Jolly Bottle is a feather, I trow."
+
+"What's a cracked crown, so as it holds a man's brains?" continued the
+drunken carouser, whilst a laugh deformed his stupid physiognomy.
+
+"How are we off for provisions, quarter-master?" inquired the captain of
+one of the gang.
+
+"Eaten out of skin, from nose to tail," replied Black Jack.
+
+"Then the squad must forage to-night," continued Habershaw. "We must
+take a buck, my sweet ones; there are plenty along the river. Get your
+rifles and prepare lights, and, to keep out of the way of our horses,
+don't stop short of a mile. Be about it, lads. Black Jack, this is your
+business."
+
+"True, Captain," replied the person addressed: "I shall have all things
+ready directly."
+
+It was near midnight when Black Jack, having prepared some faggots of
+pitch-pine, and selected three or four of the best marksmen, left the
+bivouac to look for deer. Habershaw himself, though lazy and
+inordinately impressed with a sense of his own dignity, and now confused
+with liquor, could not resist the attraction of this sport. He
+accordingly, not long after the others had departed, took a rifle, and,
+attended by his bull-dog, whom he never parted from on any occasion,
+slowly followed in the direction chosen by the hunters.
+
+Those in advance had scarcely walked along the margin of the river a
+mile before they lighted their faggots, and began to beat the
+neighboring thickets; and their search was not protracted many minutes
+when the light of their torches was thrown full upon the eyes of a buck.
+A shot from one of the marksmen told with unerring precision in the
+forehead of the animal.
+
+The report and the light brought the corpulent captain into the
+neighborhood. He had almost walked himself out of breath and, as he did
+not very well preserve his perpendicularity, or a straight line of
+march, he had several times been tripped up by the roots of trees, or by
+rocks and briers in his path. Exhausted, at length, and puzzled by the
+stupefaction of his own brain, as well as by the surrounding darkness,
+he sat down at the foot of a tree, determined to wait the return of the
+hunting party. His faithful and congenial "Beauty," not less pursy and
+short-winded than himself, and not more savage or surly in disposition,
+now couched upon his haunches immediately between his master's legs; and
+here this pair of beastly friends remained, silent and mutually soothed
+by their own companionship. During this interval the person who bore the
+fire, followed by one of the marksmen, crept slowly onward to the
+vicinity of the spot where the captain had seated himself. The lapse of
+time had proved too much for Habershaw's vigilance, and he had, at
+length, with his head resting against the trunk of the tree, fallen into
+a drunken slumber. The short crack of a rifle at hand, and the yell of
+his dog awakened him. He started upon his feet with sudden surprise, and
+stepping one pace forward, stumbled and fell over the dead body of his
+favorite Beauty, who lay beneath him weltering in blood. The shot was
+followed by a rush of the hunter up to the spot: it was Gideon Blake.
+
+"Buck or doe, it is my shot!" cried Gideon, as he halted immediately
+beside Habershaw.
+
+"May all the devils blast you, Gideon Blake!" thundered on the incensed
+captain. "You have sought my life, you murdering wolf, and your bullet
+has killed Beauty."
+
+"I shot at the eyes of what I thought a deer," returned Blake. "You were
+a fool, Hugh Habershaw, to bring a dog into such a place.
+
+"My poor dog! my brave dog! Beauty was worth ten thousand such bastard
+villains as you! And to have him killed! May the devil feast upon your
+soul this night, Gideon Blake! Go! and account for your wickedness. Take
+that, snake! tiger! black-hearted whig and rebel! and be thankful that
+you didn't come to your end by the help of hemp!" and in this gust of
+passion he struck his knife into the bosom of the trooper, who groaned,
+staggered, and fell.
+
+At this moment the person bearing the fire, hearing the groan of his
+comrade, rushed up to the spot and seized Habershaw's arm, just as the
+monster was raising it over the fallen man to repeat the blow.
+
+"Damn him! see what he has done!" exclaimed the captain, as he lifted up
+the dead body of the dog so as to show in the light the wound inflicted
+by the ball between the eyes; "this poor, faithful, dumb beast was worth
+a hundred such hell-hounds as he!"
+
+"I am murdered," said the wounded man; "I am murdered in cold blood."
+
+The noise at this place brought together the rest of the hunters, who
+were now returning with the buck thrown across a horse that had been led
+by one of the party. Blake's wound was examined by them, and some linen
+applied to staunch the blood. The man had fainted, but it was not
+ascertained whether the stab was mortal. Habershaw stood sullenly
+looking on during the examination, and, finding that life had not
+instantly fled, he coolly wiped his knife and restored it to his girdle.
+
+"The fellow has no idea of dying," he said with a visible concern, "and
+has got no more than he deserves. He will live to be hung yet. Take him
+to quarters."
+
+"Make a hurdle for him," said one of the bystanders, and, accordingly,
+two men cut a few branches from the neighboring wood, and twisting them
+together, soon constructed a litter upon which they were able to bear
+the body of the wounded hunter to the rendezvous. The others, scarcely
+uttering a word as they marched along, followed slowly with the buck,
+and in half an hour the troop was once more assembled under the
+chestnut.
+
+For a time there was a sullen and discontented silence amongst the whole
+crew, that was only broken by the groans of the wounded trooper.
+Occasionally there was a slight outburst of sedition from several of the
+troop, as a sharper scream, indicating some sudden increase of pain,
+from Gideon Blake, assailed their ears. Then there were low and muttered
+curses pronounced by Habershaw, in a tone that showed his apprehension
+of some vengeance against himself; and these imprecations were mingled
+with hints of the disloyalty of the trooper, and charges of a pretended
+purpose to betray his fellow-soldiers, evidently insinuated by the
+captain to excuse his act of violence. Then he approached the sick man
+and felt his pulse, and examined his wound, and pronounced the hurt to
+be trifling. "It will do him good," he said, with affected unconcern,
+"and teach him to be more true to his comrades hereafter." But still the
+fate of the man was manifestly doubtful, and the rising exasperation of
+the troop became every instant more open. Alarmed and faint-hearted at
+these symptoms of discontent, Habershaw at last called the men into a
+circle and made them a speech, in which he expressed his sorrow for the
+act he had committed, endeavored to excuse himself by the plea of
+passion at the loss of his dog, and, finally, perceiving that these
+excuses did not satisfy his hearers, acknowledged his drunken condition
+and his unconsciousness of the deed he had done until the horrible
+consequences of it were before his eyes. Here Peppercorn interposed in
+his favor, alleging that he had examined the wound, and that, in his
+opinion, the trooper's life was not in danger.
+
+"And as the captain is sorry for it, lads," he concluded, "why, what is
+to be done but let the thing drop? So, if there's another canteen in the
+squad, we will wet our whistles, boys, and go to sleep."
+
+This appeal was effectual, and was followed by a hearty cheer. So,
+draining the dregs of the last flask, this debauched company retired to
+rest--Habershaw sneaking away from them with a heart loaded with malice
+and revenge.
+
+A few men were employed, for a short time, in burying the bodies of the
+troopers who were killed in the fray; and, excepting the guard, who
+busied themselves in skinning the buck and broiling some choice slices
+before the fire, and in watching the prisoners, or attending upon their
+sick comrade, all were sunk into silence if not repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE TROOPERS MOVE WITH THEIR PRISONERS.
+
+    "Oft he that doth abide,
+    Is cause of his own paine,
+    But he that flieth in good tide,
+    Perhaps may fight again."--_Old Proverb._
+
+
+It was with the most earnest solicitude that Butler and his companion
+watched the course of events, and became acquainted with the character
+of the ruffians into whose hands they had fallen. The presence of James
+Curry in this gang excited a painful consciousness in the mind of the
+soldier, that he had powerful and secret enemies at work against him,
+but who they were was an impenetrable mystery. Then the lawless habits
+of the people who had possession of him, gave rise to the most anxious
+distrust as to his future fate: he might be murdered in a fit of
+passion, or tortured with harsh treatment to gratify some concealed
+malice. His position in the army was, it seemed, known too; and, for
+aught that he could tell, his mission might be no secret to his captors.
+Robinson's sagacity entered fully into these misgivings. He had narrowly
+observed the conduct of the party who had made them prisoners, and with
+that acute insight which was concealed under a rude and uneducated
+exterior, but which was strongly marked in his actions, he had already
+determined upon the course which the safety of Butler required him to
+pursue. According to his view of their present difficulties it was
+absolutely necessary that he should effect his escape, at whatever
+personal hazard. Butler, he rightly conjectured, was the principal
+object of the late ambuscade; that, for some unknown purpose, the
+possession of this officer became important to those who had procured
+the attack upon him, and that James Curry had merely hired this gang of
+desperadoes to secure the prize. Under these circumstances, he concluded
+that the Major would be so strictly guarded as to forbid all hope of
+escape, and that any attempt by him to effect it would only be punished
+by certain death. But, in regard to himself, his calculation was
+different. "First," said he, "I can master any three of this beggarly
+crew in an open field and fair fight; and, secondly, when it comes to
+the chances of a pell-mell, they will not think me of so much account as
+to risk their necks by a long chase; their whole eyes would undoubtedly
+be directed to the Major." The sergeant, therefore, determined to make
+the attempt, and, in the event of his success, to repair to Sumpter, who
+he knew frequented some of the fastnesses in this region; or, in the
+alternative, to rally such friends from the neighboring country as were
+not yet overawed by the Tory dominion, and bring them speedily to the
+rescue of Butler. Full of these thoughts, he took occasion during the
+night, whilst the guard were busy in cooking their venison, and whilst
+they thought him and his comrade wrapt in sleep, to whisper to Butler
+the resolution he had adopted.
+
+"I will take the first chance to-morrow to make a dash upon these
+ragamuffins," he said; "and I shall count it hard if I don't get out of
+their claws. Then, rely upon me, I shall keep near you in spite of these
+devils. So be prepared, if I once get away, to see me like a witch that
+travels on a broomstick or creeps through a keyhole. But whisht! the
+drunken vagabonds mustn't hear us talking."
+
+Butler, after due consideration of the sergeant's scheme, thought it,
+however perilous, the only chance they had of extricating themselves
+from the dangers with which they were beset, and promised the most ready
+co-operation; determining also, to let no opportunity slip which might
+be improved to his own deliverance. "Your good arm and brave heart,
+Galbraith, never stood you in more urgent stead than they may do
+to-morrow," was his concluding remark.
+
+When morning broke the light of day fell upon a strange and disordered
+scene. The drunken and coarse wretches of the night before, now lessened
+in number and strength by common broil and private quarrel, lay
+stretched on their beds of leaves. Their motley and ill-assorted weapons
+lay around in disarray; drinking cups and empty flasks were scattered
+over the trodden grass, the skin and horns of the buck, and disjointed
+fragments of raw flesh were seen confusedly cast about beneath the tree,
+and a conspicuous object in the scene were the clots of blood and gore,
+both of men and beast, that disfigured the soil. Two new-made graves, or
+rather mounds, hastily scratched together and imperfectly concealing the
+limbs of the dead, prominently placed but a few feet from the ring of
+last night's revelry, told of the disasters of the fight at the ford.
+The brushwood fire had burned down into a heap of smouldering ashes, and
+the pale and sickly features of the wounded trooper were to be discerned
+upon a pallet of leaves, hard by the heap of embers, surrounded by the
+remnants of bones and roasted meat that had been flung carelessly aside.
+In a spot of more apparent comfort, sheltered by an overhanging canopy
+of vines and alder, lay Butler stretched upon his cloak, and, close
+beside him, the stout frame of Horse Shoe Robinson. In the midst of all
+these marks of recent riot and carousal, sat two swarthy figures,
+haggard and wan from night-watching, armed at every point, and keeping
+strict guard over the prisoners.
+
+The occasional snort and pawing of horses in the neighboring wood showed
+that these animals were alert at the earliest dawn; whilst among the
+first who seemed aware of the approach of day, was seen rising from the
+earth, where it had been flung in stupid torpor for some hours, the
+bloated and unsightly person of Hugh Habershaw, now much the worse for
+the fatigue and revelry of the preceding night. A savage and surly
+expression was seated on his brow, and his voice broke forth more than
+ordinarily harsh and dissonant, as he ordered the troop to rouse and
+prepare for their march.
+
+The summons was tardily obeyed; and while the yawning members of the
+squad were lazily moving to their several duties and shaking off the
+fumes of their late debauch, the captain was observed bending over the
+prostrate form of Gideon Blake, and directing a few anxious inquiries
+into his condition. The wounded man was free from pain, but his limbs
+were stiff, and the region of the stab sore and sensitive to the least
+touch. The indications, however, were such as to show that his wound was
+not likely to prove mortal. By the order of Habershaw, a better litter
+was constructed, and the troopers were directed to bear him, by turns,
+as far as Christie's, where he was to be left to the nursing of the
+family. It was a full hour before the horses were saddled, the scattered
+furniture collected, and the preparations for the march completed. When
+these were accomplished the prisoners were provided with the two
+sorriest horses of the troop, and they now set forward at a slow pace,
+under the escort of four men commanded by James Curry. The two troopers
+who bore the sick man followed on foot; Habershaw with the remainder,
+one of whom had appropriated Captain Peter, whilst he led the horses of
+the dismounted men, brought up the rear.
+
+On the journey there was but little spoken by any member of the party;
+the boisterous and rude nature of the men who composed the troop seemed
+to have been subdued by sleep into a temper of churlish indifference or
+stolid apathy. Peppercorn, or James Curry, as the reader now recognises
+him, strictly preserved his guard over the prisoners, manifesting a
+severity of manner altogether different from the tone of careless
+revelry which characterized his demeanor on the preceding night. It
+never relaxed from an official and sullen reserve. A moody frown sat
+upon his brow, and his communication with the prisoners was confined to
+short and peremptory commands; whilst, at the same time, he forbade the
+slightest intercourse with them on the part of any of the guard. During
+the short progress to Christie's he frequently rode apart with
+Habershaw; and the conversation which then occupied these two was
+maintained in a low tone, and with a serious air that denoted some grave
+matter of deliberation.
+
+It was more than an hour after sunrise when the cavalcade reached the
+point of their present destination. There were signs of an anxious
+purpose in the silence of the journey, broken as it was only by low
+mutterings amongst the men, above which sometimes arose an expression of
+impatience and discontent, as the subject of their whispered discussions
+appeared to excite some angry objection from several of the party; and
+this mystery was not less conspicuous in the formal order of the halt,
+and in the pause that followed upon their arrival at the habitation.
+
+The house, in front of which they were drawn up, was, according to the
+prevailing fashion of the time, a one-storied dwelling covering an ample
+space of ground, built partly of boards and partly of logs, with a long
+piazza before it, terminating in small rooms, made by inclosing the
+sides for a few feet at either extremity. Being situated some twenty
+paces aside from the road, the intervening area was bounded by a fence
+through which a gate afforded admission. A horse-rack, with a few
+feeding troughs, was erected near this gate; and a draw-well, in the
+same vicinity, furnished a ready supply of water. With the exception of
+a cleared field around the dwelling, the landscape was shaded by the
+natural forest.
+
+A consultation of some minutes' duration was held between Habershaw and
+Curry, when the order to dismount was given, accompanied with an
+intimation of a design to tarry at this place for an hour or two; but
+the men, at the same time, were directed to leave their saddles upon
+their horses. One or two were detailed to look after the refreshment of
+the cattle, whilst the remainder took possession of the principal room.
+The first demands of the troop were for drink, and this being indulged,
+the brute feeling of conviviality which in gross natures depends
+altogether upon sensual excitement, began once more to break down the
+barriers of discipline, and to mount into clamor.
+
+The scenes of the morning had made a disagreeable impression upon the
+feelings of Butler and his comrade. The changed tone and the ruffian
+manners of the band, the pause, and the doubts which seemed to agitate
+them, boded mischief. The two prisoners, however, almost instinctively
+adopted the course of conduct which their circumstances required. They
+concealed all apprehension of harm, and patiently awaited the end. Horse
+Shoe even took advantage of the rising mirth of the company when drink
+began to exhilarate them, and affected an easy tone of companionship
+which was calculated to throw them off their guard. He circulated freely
+amongst the men, and by private conference with some of the individuals
+around him, who, attracted by his air of confiding gaiety, seemed
+inclined to favor his approaches of familiarity, he soon discovered that
+the gang were divided in sentiment in regard to some important subject
+touching the proposed treatment of himself and his friend. A party, at
+least, he was thus made aware, were disposed to take his side in the
+secret disputes which had been in agitation. He was determined to profit
+by this dissension, and accordingly applied himself still more
+assiduously to cultivate the favorable sentiment he found in existence.
+
+Whilst breakfast was in preparation, and Habershaw and Curry were
+occupied with the wounded man in an adjoining apartment, the sergeant,
+playing the part of a boon companion, laughed with the rioters, and,
+uninvited, made himself free of their cups.
+
+"I should like to know," he said to one of the troopers, "why you are
+giving yourselves all this trouble about a couple of simple travellers
+that happened to be jogging along the road? If you wanted to make a
+pitched battle you ought to have sent us word; but if it was only upon a
+drinking bout you had set your hearts, there was no occasion to be
+breaking heads for the honor of getting a good fellow in your company,
+when he would have come of his own accord at the first axing. There was
+no use in making such a mighty secret about it; for, as we were
+travelling the same road with you, you had only to show a man the
+civility of saying you wanted our escort, and you should have had it at
+a word. Here's to our better acquaintance, friend!"
+
+"You mightn't be so jolly, Horse Shoe Robinson," said Shad Green--or,
+according to his nickname, Red Mug, in a whisper; "if some of them that
+took the trouble to find you, should have their own way. It's a d----d
+tight pull whether you are to be kept as a prisoner of war, or shoved
+under ground this morning without tuck of drum. That for your private
+ear."
+
+"I was born in old Carolina myself," replied Horse Shoe, aside to the
+speaker; "and I don't believe there is many men to be found in it who
+would stand by and see the rules and regulations of honorable war
+blackened and trod down into the dust by any cowardly trick of murder.
+If it comes to that, many as there are against two, our lives will not
+go at a cheap price."
+
+"Whisht!" returned the other, "with my allowance, for one, it shan't be.
+A prisoner's a prisoner, I say; and damnation to the man that would make
+him out worse."
+
+"They say you are a merry devil, old Horse Shoe," exclaimed he who was
+called Bow Legs, who now stepped up and slapped the sergeant on the
+back. "So take a swig, man; fair play is a jewel!--that's my doctrine.
+Fight when you fight, and drink when you drink--and that's the sign to
+know a man by."
+
+"There is some good things," said the sergeant, "in this world that's
+good, and some that's bad. But I have always found that good and bad is
+so mixed up and jumbled together, that you don't often get much of one
+without a little of the other. A sodger's a sodger, no matter what side
+he is on; and they are the naturalest people in the world for
+fellow-feeling. One day a man is up, and then the laugh's on his side;
+next day he is down, and then the laugh's against him. So, as a sodger
+has more of these ups and downs than other folks, there's the reason his
+heart is tenderer towards a comrade than other people's. Here's your
+health, sir. This is a wicked world, and twisted, in a measure, upside
+down; and it is well known that evil communications corrupts good
+manners; but sodgers were made to set the world right again, on its
+legs, and to presarve good breeding and Christian charity. So there's a
+sarmon for you, you tinkers!"
+
+"Well done, mister preacher!" vociferated a prominent reveller. "If you
+will desert and enlist with us you shall be the chaplain of the troop.
+We want a good swearing, drinking, and tearing blade who can hold a
+discourse over his liquor, and fence with the devil at long words.
+You're the very man for it! Huzza for the blacksmith!"
+
+"Huzza for the blacksmith!" shouted several others in the apartment.
+
+Butler, during this scene, had stretched himself out at full length upon
+a bench, to gain some rest in his present exhausted and uncomfortable
+condition, and was now partaking of the refreshment of a bowl of milk
+and some coarse bread, which one of the troopers had brought him.
+
+"What's all this laughing and uproar about?" said Habershaw, entering
+the room with Curry, just at the moment of the acclamation in favor of
+the sergeant "Is this a time for your cursed wide throats to be braying
+like asses! We have business to do. And you, sir," said he, turning to
+Butler, "you must be taking up the room of a half dozen men on a bench
+with your lazy carcase! Up, sir; I allow no lolling and lying about to
+rascally whigs and rebels. You have cost me the death of a dog that is
+worth all your filthy whig kindred; and you have made away with two of
+the best men that ever stept in shoe leather. Sit up, sir, and thank
+your luck that you haven't your arms pinioned behind you, like a horse
+thief."
+
+"Insolent coward," said Butler, springing upon his feet; "hired ruffian!
+you shall in due time be made to pay for the outrage you have inflicted
+upon me."
+
+"Tie him up!" cried Habershaw; "tie him up! And now I call you all to
+bear witness that he has brought the sentence upon himself; it shall be
+done without waiting another moment. Harry Gage, I give the matter over
+to you. Draw out four men, take them into the yard, and dispatch the
+prisoners off-hand! shoot the traitors on the spot, before we eat our
+breakfasts! I was a fool that I didn't settle this at daylight this
+morning--the rascally filth of the earth! Have no heart about it, men;
+but make sure work by a short distance. This is no time for whining.
+When have the Whigs shown mercy to us!"
+
+"It shall be four against four, then!" cried out Shadrach Green,
+seconded by Andrew Clopper; "and the first shot that is fired shall be
+into the bowels of Hugh Habershaw! Stand by me, boys!"
+
+In a moment the parties were divided, and had snatched up their weapons,
+and then stood looking angrily at each other as if daring each to
+commence the threatened affray.
+
+"Why, how now, devil's imps!" shouted Habershaw. "Have you come to a
+mutiny? Have you joined the rebels? James Curry, look at this! By the
+bloody laws of war, I will report every rascal who dares to lift his
+hand against me!"
+
+"The thing is past talking about," said the first speaker, coolly. "Hugh
+Habershaw, neither you nor James Curry shall command the peace if you
+dare to offer harm to the prisoners. Now, bully, report that as my
+saying. They are men fairly taken in war, and shall suffer no evil past
+what the law justifies. Give them up to the officer of the nearest
+post--that's what we ask--carry them to Innis's camp if you choose; but
+whilst they are in our keeping there shall be no blood spilled without
+mixing some of your own with it, Hugh Habershaw."
+
+"Arrest the mutineers!" cried Habershaw, trembling with rage. "Who are
+my friends in this room? Let them stand by me, and then--blast me if I
+don't force obedience to my orders!"
+
+"You got off by the skin of your teeth last night," said Green, "when
+you tried to take the life of Gideon Blake. For that you deserved a
+bullet through your skull. Take care that you don't get your reckoning
+this morning, captain and all as you are."
+
+"What in the devil would you have?" inquired Habershaw, stricken into a
+more cautious tone of speech by the decided bearing of the man opposed
+to him.
+
+"The safety of the prisoners until they are delivered to the commander
+of a regular post; we have resolved upon that!" was the reply.
+
+"Curry!" said Habershaw, turning in some perplexity to the dragoon as if
+for advice.
+
+"Softly, Captain; we had better have a parley here," said Curry, who
+then added in a whisper: "There's been some damned bobbery kicked up
+here by the blacksmith. This comes of giving that fellow the privilege
+of talking."
+
+"A word, men," interposed Horse Shoe, who during this interval had
+planted himself near Butler, and with him stood ready to act as the
+emergency might require. "Let me say a word. This James Curry is my man.
+Give me a broadsword and a pair of pistols, and I will pledge the hand
+and word of a sodger, upon condition that I am allowed five minutes'
+parole, to have a pass, here in the yard, with him--it shall be in sight
+of the whole squad--I pledge the word of a sodger to deliver myself back
+again to the guard, dead or alive, without offering to take any chance
+to make off in the meantime. Come, James Curry, your word to the back of
+that, and then buckle on your sword, man. I heard your whisper."
+
+"Soldiers," said Curry, stepping into the circle which the party had now
+formed round the room, "let me put in a word as a peace-maker. Captain
+Habershaw won't be unreasonable. I will vouch for him that he will
+fulfil your wish regarding the conveying of the prisoners to a regular
+post. Come, come, let us have no brawling! For shame! put down your
+guns. There may be reason in what you ask, although it isn't so much
+against the fashion of the times to shoot a Whig either. But anything
+for the sake of quiet amongst good fellows. Be considerate, noble
+captain, and do as the babies wish. As for Horse Shoe's brag--he is an
+old soldier, and so am I; that's enough. We are not so green as to put a
+broadsword and a brace of pistols into the hands of a bullying prisoner.
+No, no, Horse Shoe! try another trick, old boy! Ha, ha, lads! you are a
+set of fine dashing chaps, and this is only one of your mad-cap bits of
+spunk that boils up with your liquor. Take another cup on it, my merry
+fellows, and all will be as pleasant as the music of a fife. Come,
+valiant Captain of the Tiger, join us. And as for the prisoners--why let
+them come in for snacks with us. So there's an end of the business. All
+is as mild as new milk again."
+
+"Well, well, get your breakfasts," said Habershaw gruffly. "Blast you! I
+have spoiled you by good treatment, you ungrateful, carnivorous dogs!
+But, as Peppercorn says, there's an end of it! So go to your feeding,
+and when that's done we will push for Blackstock's."
+
+The morning meal was soon despatched, and the party reassembled in the
+room where the late disturbance had taken place. The good-nature of
+Robinson continued to gain upon those who had first taken up his cause,
+and even brought him into a more lenient consideration with the others.
+Amongst the former I have already noted Andrew Clopper, a rough and
+insubordinate member of the gang, who, vexed by some old grudge against
+the fat captain, had efficiently sustained Green in the late act of
+mutiny, and who now, struck with Horse Shoe's bold demeanor towards
+Curry, began to evince manifest signs of a growing regard for the worthy
+sergeant. With this man Horse Shoe contrived to hold a short and secret
+interview that resulted in the quiet transfer of a piece of gold into
+the freebooter's hand, which was received with a significant nod of
+assent to whatever proposition accompanied it. When the order of "boot
+and saddle" was given by Habershaw, the several members of the troop
+repaired to their horses, where a short time was spent in making ready
+for the march; after which the whole squad returned to the porch and
+occupied the few moments of delay in that loud and boisterous carousal
+which is apt to mark the conduct of such an ill-organized body in the
+interval immediately preceding the commencement of a day's ride. This
+was a moment of intense interest to the sergeant, who kept his eyes
+steadily fixed upon the movements of Clopper, as that individual
+lingered behind his comrades in the equipment of his horse. This
+solicitude did not, however, arrest his seeming mirth, as he joined in
+the rude jests of the company and added some sallies of his own.
+
+"Give me that cup," he said at length, to one of the men, as he pointed
+to a gourd on a table; "before we start I have a notion to try the
+strength of a little cold water, just by way of physic, after all the
+liquor we have been drinking," and, having got the implement in his
+hand, he walked deliberately to the draw-well, where he dipped up a
+draught from the bucket that stood on its brink. As he put the water to
+his lips and turned his back upon the company, he was enabled to take a
+survey of the horses that were attached to the rack near him: then,
+suddenly throwing the gourd from him, he sprang towards his own trusty
+steed, leaped into his saddle at one bound, and sped, like an arrow from
+a bow, upon the highway. This exploit was so promptly achieved that no
+one was aware of the sergeant's purpose until he was some twenty paces
+upon his journey. As soon as the alarm of his flight was spread, some
+three or four rifles were fired after him in rapid succession, during
+which he was seen ducking his head and moving it from side to side with
+a view to baffle the aim of the marksmen. The confusion of the moment in
+which the volley was given rendered it ineffectual, and the sergeant was
+already past the first danger of his escape.
+
+"To horse and follow!" resounded from all sides.
+
+"Look to the other prisoner!" roared out Habershaw; "if he raises his
+head blow out his brains! Follow, boys, follow!"
+
+"Two or three of you come with me," cried Curry, and a couple of files
+hastened with the dragoon to their horses. Upon arriving at the rack it
+was discovered that the bridles of the greater part of the troop were
+tied in hard knots in such a manner as to connect each two or three
+horses together.
+
+A short delay took place whilst the horsemen were disentangling their
+reins, and Curry, being the first to extricate his steed, mounted and
+set off in rapid pursuit. He was immediately followed by two others.
+
+At the end of half an hour the two privates returned and reported that
+they had been unable to obtain a view of the sergeant or even of Curry.
+Shortly afterwards the dragoon himself was descried retracing his steps
+at a moderate trot towards the house. His plight told a tale upon him of
+discomfiture. One side of his face was bleeding with a recent bruise,
+his dress disarranged and his back covered with dust. The side of his
+horse also bore the same taint of the soil.
+
+He rode up to Habershaw--who was already upon the road at the head of
+the remaining members of the squad, having Butler in charge--and
+informed him that he had pursued the sergeant at full speed until he
+came in sight of him, when the fugitive had slackened his gait as if on
+purpose to allow himself to be overtaken.
+
+"But, the devil grip the fellow!" he added, "he has a broad-side like a
+man-of-war! In my hurry I left my sword behind me, and, when I came up
+with him, I laid my hand upon his bridle; but, by some sudden sleight
+which he has taught his horse, he contrived, somehow or other, to upset
+me--horse and all--down a bank on the road-side. And, when I lay on the
+ground sprawling, do you think the jolly runagate didn't rein up and
+give me a broad laugh, and ask me if he could be of any _sarvice_ to me?
+He then bade me good bye, saying he had an engagement that prevented him
+from favoring me any longer with his company. Gad! it was so civilly
+done that all I could say was, luck go with you, Mr. Horse Shoe; and,
+since we are to part company so soon, may the devil pad your saddle for
+you! I'll do him the justice to say that he's a better horseman than I
+took him for. I can hardly begrudge a man his liberty who can win it as
+cleverly as he has done."
+
+"Well, there's no more to be said about it," remarked Habershaw. "He is
+only game for another day. He is like a bear's cub; which is as much as
+to signify that he has a hard time before him. He would have only given
+us trouble; so let him go. Now, boys, away for Blackstock's; I will
+engage I keep the fox that's left safely enough."
+
+With these words the troop proceeded upon their march.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Horse Shoe's successful escape from the hands of the Tories, it will be
+conjectured, had been aided by Clopper. The sergeant had sufficiently
+assured himself of the present safety of Butler, from the spirit with
+which a strong party of Habershaw's followers had resisted the bloody
+purpose of their leader before breakfast; and he had also, by the timely
+reward secretly conveyed to Clopper, received a pledge from that
+individual that the same protection should still be accorded to the
+major, in the event of his own extrication from the gang by the perilous
+exploit which he then meditated. It is no doubt apparent to the reader,
+that the favor which saved the lives of the prisoners was won from the
+captors by the address of Robinson, and that whatever good will was
+kindled up amongst them, was appropriated principally to the sergeant,
+Butler having elicited but little consideration from the band, beyond
+that interest which the roughest men are apt to take in the fortunes of
+a young and enterprising soldier. Neither the major's manners nor temper
+were adapted to conciliate any special regard from such natures.
+
+The escape of the sergeant, therefore, although it added nothing to the
+perils of Butler's situation, still operated in some degree to his
+present inconvenience. It caused him to be more rigorously guarded than
+before, and consequently to be more restricted in his personal comfort.
+He was hurried forward at a rough and uneasy pace; and both from
+Habershaw and Curry, and those more immediately of their party, he
+experienced a surly indifference to the pain that this occasioned him.
+They seemed to have no regard either to his wants or feelings, and in
+the passing remarks that fell from them he could gather harsh surmises
+as to the manner in which he was now likely to be disposed of.
+
+"It is their own fault," said one of them to his companion, as Butler
+overheard the conversation; "if every prisoner is strung up and shot
+now-a-days. He makes no more of hanging out people than so many wolves;
+and there was Captain Huck--will any man say that Sumpter hadn't him
+murdered in cold blood?"
+
+"Yes," added the other, "let a Tory be caught over yonder amongst the
+Iredell Whigs, on t'other side of the line, or in Tryon, or down here at
+the Waxhaws, why, a grey fox in a barn yard with forty dogs would have
+as good a chance for his life. So, for my share, I am glad to see our
+folks break up that blasted breed, root and branch."
+
+"Innis has got as keen a nose for a Whig as a bloodhound," said the
+first speaker, "and won't stop long to consider what's right to be done,
+if he gets this chap in his clutches; so it is of no great account that
+we didn't make short work of it this morning."
+
+Such remarks produced a gloomy effect upon Butler's mind. He had
+witnessed enough, in the scenes of the morning, to convince him that
+Habershaw had been employed to waylay him and take his life, and that
+the latter purpose had only failed by the lucky conjuncture of
+circumstances which led to the mutiny. He was aware, too, that Curry was
+the prime conductor of the scheme, and drove matters, by a secret
+influence, as far as he could towards its accomplishment, whilst with a
+professional hardihood and most hypocritical bearing he affected to be
+indifferent to the issue. This fellow's malice was the more venomous
+from his address, and the gay, swaggering, remorseless levity with which
+he could mask the most atrocious designs: nothing could baffle his
+equanimity; and he seemed to be provided, at all times, with a present
+expedient to meet the emergency of his condition.
+
+The most perplexing feature in this man's present position was his
+recent connexion with Tyrrel; a fact that recurred to Butler with many
+alarming doubts. All the other circumstances accompanying Butler's
+condition, at this moment, were subjects of distressful uncertainty.
+Ignorant of the place to which he was to be taken, into whose hands he
+was to be delivered, how he was to be disposed of, he could only
+anticipate the worst. It was obvious that his journey was an expected
+one, and that the gang who held him were employed by persons in
+authority, set on, no doubt, by the agency of Tyrrel: but where was
+he--and who was he?--and what influence could he bring to bear against
+his, Butler's life, now that he had failed in his bloody purpose of
+lying in wait; and that it was resolved by these ruffians, who had in
+part only obeyed his behests, to deliver their prisoner up to the
+regular authorities of the British army? The mention of the name of
+Innis by one of the troopers was not calculated to allay his inquietude.
+This person he knew to have been an active confederate and eager adviser
+of the new court, lately established at Charleston, to promote the
+confiscation of the estates of the inhabitants of Carolina disaffected
+to the royal cause. He was, besides, a zealous Tory partisan, and,
+having lately joined the army, was now in command of a detachment of
+loyalists on the Ennoree.
+
+Then, again, there was abundant cause of anxiety to the unfortunate
+officer in the question whether Robinson could be kept acquainted with
+his condition, or even of the place to which he might be removed--and if
+acquainted with these particulars, whether, in the disturbed state of
+the country, he could render any service. These thoughts all contributed
+to sink his spirits.
+
+Notwithstanding the usual assumed levity of Curry, he had now become
+resentful towards Butler, and did not give himself the trouble to
+conceal it. His manner was quick and unaccommodating, showing his
+vexation at his own want of sagacity, inferred by the successful flight
+of Robinson. Expressions occasionally escaped him that indicated a
+self-reproof on this subject, though they were partially disguised by an
+affected undervaluing of the importance of having such a prisoner, so
+long as he retained the custody of the principal object of the
+enterprise. But the consciousness of being again baffled by a man who
+had once before obtained the mastery over him, roused his pride into the
+exhibition of a peevish and vindictive demeanor. In this temper he
+seconded the brutal disposition of Habershaw, and abandoned the captive
+officer to the coarse insults of those who exercised control over him.
+There was some mitigation to this annoyance, in the reserved and partial
+spirit in which the insurgent party of the squad manifested some slight
+signs of good will towards him. An instance of this spirit was afforded
+in a passing hint conveyed by Clopper, on one occasion when the troop
+had halted to water their horses. "Whatever is to come of it, after we
+give you up to other hands," he said, apart to Butler, "we will stick to
+the ground we have taken, that no harm shall be done to you in our
+keeping."
+
+The day was intensely hot, and the road, over which the party travelled,
+rugged and fatiguing; it was, therefore, near one o'clock when they came
+in sight of the Tiger, a rough, bold, impetuous stream that rushed over
+an almost unbroken bed of rocks. On the opposite bank was Blackstocks, a
+rude hamlet of some two or three houses, scattered over a rugged
+hill-side--a place subsequently rendered famous by the gallant repulse
+of Tarleton by Sumpter. The troop struck into a narrow ford, and, with
+some scrambling amongst the rocks, succeeded in crossing the stream;
+they then galloped rapidly up the hill, towards a farm-house which
+seemed to be the principal place of resort for the people of the
+neighborhood. The approach of the party of cavalry drew to the door a
+bevy of women, children, and negroes, who stood idly gaping at the
+spectacle; and, in addition to these, a detachment of militia,
+consisting of between twenty and thirty men, were seen to turn out and
+form a line in front of the house. Habershaw, with an air of magnified
+importance, halted opposite this detachment, gave a few prompt orders to
+Curry in regard to the disposition of the troop, and in an authoritative
+tone of command, ordered the officer of the militia to detail a guard
+for the safe keeping of a prisoner of state. The personage addressed--a
+tall, ungainly, and awkward subaltern--signified his acquiescence with a
+bow, and immediately took possession of Butler by seizing the rein of
+his horse and leading him to one side, where two men, armed with rifles,
+placed themselves at either stirrup. Habershaw now directed his men to
+alight, accompanying the order with a caution that the prisoner was not
+to be allowed to enter the house. "The d----d rascal," he added, "shall
+not play the trick of his rebel associate: no more privilege of going
+into bar-rooms, and lounging about doors! See the man stowed away in the
+barn; and tell the sentinels never to take their eyes off of him--do you
+hear, lieutenant?"
+
+"You may depend upon my look-out," replied the lieutenant, with a
+flourish of a hacked and rusty sword. "Men, march your prisoner straight
+to the barn. Have a relief, Corporal, every two hours, and towards
+night, set four on the watch at a time."
+
+"Look to it, Lieutenant!" shouted Habershaw. "No words, sir: do your
+duty!"
+
+And having thus given vent to his own high opinion of himself the bulky
+captain withdrew into the house.
+
+Butler was now marched into a large log barn, in one corner of which an
+armful of fodder, or dried blades of Indian corn, were shaken out for
+his bed; and this, he was told, was to be his prison until other orders
+awaited him. The guard, consisting of two sentinels, were stationed on
+the inner side of the door, having the prisoner immediately under their
+eye; and, this disposition being completed, the officer commanding the
+detachment retired to mingle with the troopers in the farm-house.
+
+Half an hour had scarcely elapsed after the arrival of the troopers at
+Blackstocks, before James Curry had refreshed himself with a hasty meal,
+and had his horse brought to the door. He seemed bound upon some urgent
+mission.
+
+"Captain St. Jermyn, you say, left this at sunrise this morning?" said
+the dragoon, addressing the lieutenant of the militia.
+
+"He did. He was here all day yesterday, and thought he should hear from
+you last night."
+
+"What route did he take?"
+
+"To Turnbull, at Ninety-Six."
+
+"Is Turnbull there now, think you?"
+
+"He is," replied the lieutenant. "They say orders have gone up from
+Cornwallis to the post for four light companies, and it is expected that
+Captain Campbell is now on his way with them towards Camden; neither
+Turnbull nor Cruger would leave the post."
+
+"I have heard that this corps was marching to head-quarters Are you sure
+St. Jermyn is not with Campbell?"
+
+"He said nothing about it yesterday, but I think he wishes to join
+Colonel Innis with the loyalist cavalry."
+
+"Where is Innis?" inquired Curry.
+
+"Over on Ennoree, about two miles from Musgrove's mill."
+
+"Humph!" said Curry, thoughtfully, "I must ride to the garrison at
+Ninety-Six. The devil take this cantering about the country! I have had
+more than enough of it."
+
+And saying this, the dragoon mounted his horse, and clapping spurs to
+the restive animal, was soon out of sight.
+
+It was late in the day before the wants of Butler were attended to. He
+had thrown aside his coat, from the oppressive heat of the weather, and,
+placing it under his head for a pillow, had fallen into a sleep, from
+which he was awakened by a summons from one of the sentinels to partake
+of food. There was more kindness apparent in the demeanor of the soldier
+than Butler had been accustomed to meet from the persons who held him
+captive, and this circumstance won upon his heart and induced him to
+accept with courtesy the proffered attentions.
+
+"You live in a divided country, and witness much to make a good man wish
+this unhappy war was at an end," said Butler, after he had eaten of the
+provisions placed before him.
+
+"Indeed we do, sir," replied the soldier, "and it is enough to make a
+man's heart bleed to see brothers fighting against each other, and
+kindred that ought to hold together seeking each other's lives. Men will
+have, and ought to have their opinions, sir; but it is hardly good
+reason for treating one another like savage Indians, because all cannot
+think alike."
+
+"Do you live in this neighborhood?" inquired Butler.
+
+"Not far away," answered the man.
+
+"You are married?"
+
+"Yes, and have six children."
+
+"They should be young," said Butler, "judging by your own age."
+
+"Thank God, sir!" exclaimed the soldier, with fervor, "they are young!
+And I would pray that they may never live to be old if these wars are to
+last. No father can count upon his own child's living in harmony with
+him. My boys, if they were grown enough, might be the first I should
+meet in battle."
+
+"Your name, friend?" said Butler.
+
+"Bruce," replied the other.
+
+"A good and a brave name; a name once friendly to the liberty of his
+country."
+
+"Stop, sir!" said the sentinel. "This is not the place to talk upon
+questions that might make us angry with each other. It is a name still
+friendly to the liberty of his country; that liberty that supports the
+king and laws, and punishes treason."
+
+"I cannot debate with you," replied Butler; "I am your prisoner."
+
+"I am a man," said the soldier, firmly, "and would not take advantage of
+him that cannot take his own part; but these questions, sir, are best
+dropped--they have made all the provinces mad. However, I do not blame
+you, sir; I will not deny that there are good men on your side."
+
+"And on yours, doubtless," returned Butler.
+
+"We have many bad ones, sir," returned the soldier; "and as you have
+spoken like a well-tempered gentleman to me, I will give you a friendly
+hint." Here the sentinel spoke in a lowered tone. "Have your eyes about
+you; these men are none of the best, and would think but little of
+taking from you anything of value. As you slept, just now, I saw a
+golden trinket hanging by a ribbon in your bosom. You are a young man,
+sir, and a soldier, I hear; this may be some present from your lady, as
+I guess you have one. If others had seen it, as I saw it, you might have
+been the loser. That's all."
+
+"Thank you, honest friend! from my heart, I thank you!" replied Butler
+eagerly. "Oh, God! that bauble is a consolation to me that in this hour
+I would not part with--no, no! Thank you, friend, a thousand times!"
+
+"Have done," said the soldier, "and in future be more careful. The
+relief is coming this way."
+
+And the sentinel, taking up his rifle, repaired to his post. In a few
+moments the guard was changed, and those lately on duty were marched to
+the dwelling-house.
+
+When night came on the immediate guard around Butler's person was
+doubled. Some few comforts were added to his forlorn prison by the
+kindness of the soldier Bruce, and he was left to pass the weary hours
+of darkness in communion with his own thoughts, or in the enjoyment of
+such repose as his unhappy state of thraldom allowed. If the agitation
+of his spirit had permitted sleep, there were but few moments of the
+night when it might have been indulged. The outbursts of revelry, the
+loud and boisterous laugh, and still louder oaths of the party who
+occupied the dwelling-house near at hand, showed that they had plunged
+into their usual debauch, and now caroused over their frequently filled
+cups; and the clamor that broke upon the night might have baffled the
+slumbers of a mind less anxious and wakeful than his own.
+
+The party of troopers and militia sat at the door to take advantage of
+the coolness of the night, and as they plied the busy flagon, and with
+heavy draught grew more noisy, scarce a word fell from their lips that
+was not distinctly heard by Butler. It was with intense interest,
+therefore, that he listened to the conversation when it led to a topic
+that greatly concerned himself; and that he might not alarm the
+suspicion of the speakers he affected sleep.
+
+"Sumpter has been hovering about Ninety-Six," said the lieutenant; "and
+if one could believe all the stories that are told about him, he must be
+a full cousin at least to a certain person that it wouldn't be right to
+mention in respectable company; for, by the accounts, he is one day on
+the Wateree, and the next, whoop and away!--and there he is, almost over
+at Augusta. It seems almost past the power of human legs for a mortal
+man to make such strides as they tell of him."
+
+"Who says Sumpter is near Ninety-Six?" inquired one of the party; "I can
+only say, if that's true, he is a ghost--that's all. Here's Harry Turner
+will swear that he saw him, day before yesterday, in North Carolina, on
+his march towards Burk."
+
+"Indeed did I," responded Harry, one of the militia-men.
+
+"There is no mistake about it," interposed the lieutenant. "A vidette of
+Brown's came scampering through here this morning, who reported the
+news; and the man had good right to know, for he saw Cruger yesterday,
+who told him all about it, and then sent him off to Wahab's plantation,
+near the Catawba fords, for Hanger's rangers. It was on his way back
+this morning that he stopped here five minutes, only to give us
+warning?"
+
+"This is only some story that your drunken head has been dreaming about,
+Gabriel," said Habershaw. "There is not a word of truth in it; the
+rangers went down to Camden three days ago. Who saw the vidette besides
+yourself?"
+
+"The whole detachment," replied the lieutenant. "We talked to the man
+and had the story from him--and a queer fellow he was--a good stout chap
+that liked to have been caught by a pair of reconnoitring Whigs, a few
+miles back between this and Pacolet; they pushed him up to the
+saddleflaps. But you must have seen him yourself, Captain Habershaw;
+for he told us you were on the road."
+
+"From towards Pacolet!" exclaimed the captain with surprise. "We saw
+nobody on that road. When did the man arrive?"
+
+"About an hour before you. He came at full speed, with his horse--a
+great, black, snorting beast seventeen hands high at least--all in a
+foam. He was first for passing by without stopping, but we challenged
+him and brought him short upon his haunches, and then he told us he was
+in a hurry, and mustn't be delayed."
+
+"What kind of a looking man was he?" inquired Habershaw.
+
+"A jolly fellow," replied the lieutenant: "almost as big as his horse. A
+good civil fellow, too, that swigs well at a canteen. He made a joke of
+the matter about your coming up, and called you old Cat-o'-nine
+tails--said that you were the cat, and your nine tag-rags were the
+tails--ha, ha ha!"
+
+"Blast the bastard!" exclaimed Habershaw; "who could he be?"
+
+"Why we asked that, but he roared out with a great haw-haw--took another
+drink, and said he was never christened."
+
+"You should, as a good soldier," said Habershaw, "have made him give his
+name."
+
+"I tried him again, and he would only let us have a nickname; he told us
+then that he was called Jack-o'-Lantern, and had a special good stomach,
+and that if we wanted more of him we must give him a snatch of something
+to eat. Well, we did so. After that, he said he must have our landlord's
+sword, for his own had been torn from him by the Whig troopers that
+pushed him so hard, and that the bill for it must be sent to Cruger. So
+he got the old cheese-knife that used to hang over the fire-place and
+strung it across his shoulder. He laughed so hard, and seemed so
+good-natured, that there was no doing anything with him. At last he
+mounted his horse again, just stooped down and whispered in my ear at
+parting, that he was an old friend of yours, and that you could tell us
+all the news, and away he went, like a mad bully, clinking it over the
+hill at twenty miles to the hour."
+
+"A black horse did you say?" inquired Habershaw. "Had he a white star in
+the forehead, and the two hind legs white below the knee?"
+
+"Exactly," said the lieutenant and several others of the party.
+
+"It was Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Habershaw, "by all the black
+devils!"
+
+"Horse Shoe, Horse Shoe, to be sure!" responded half a dozen voices.
+
+"He was a famous good rider, Horse Shoe or anybody else," said the
+lieutenant.
+
+"That beats all!" said one of the troopers; "the cunning old fox! He
+told the truth when he said you would tell the news, captain: but to
+think of his lies getting him past the guard, with a sword and a
+bellyfull into the bargain!"
+
+"Why didn't you report instantly upon our arrival?" asked Habershaw.
+
+"Bless you," replied the lieutenant, "I never suspicioned him, more than
+I did you. The fellow laughed so naturally that I would never have
+thought him a runaway."
+
+"There it is," said Habershaw; "that's the want of discipline. The
+service will never thrive till these loggerheads are taught the rules of
+war."
+
+Butler had heard enough to satisfy him on one material point, namely,
+that Robinson had secured his escape, and was in condition to take
+whatever advantage of circumstances the times might afford him. It was a
+consolation to him also to know that the sergeant had taken this route,
+as it brought him nearer to the scene in which the major himself was
+likely to mingle. With this dawn of comfort brightening up his doubts,
+he addressed himself more composedly to sleep, and before daylight, the
+sounds of riot having sunk into a lower and more drowsy tone, he
+succeeded in winning a temporary oblivion from his cares.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+    "What ho! What ho!--thy door undo:
+    Art watching or asleep?"--_Burger's Leonora._
+
+
+On the banks of the Ennoree, in a little nook of meadow, formed by the
+bend of the stream which, fringed with willows, swept round it almost in
+a semicircle, the inland border of the meadow being defined by a gently
+rising wall of hills covered with wood, was seated within a few paces of
+the water, a neat little cottage with a group of out-buildings,
+presenting all the conveniences of a comfortable farm. The
+dwelling-house itself was shaded by a cluster of trees which had been
+spared from the native forest, and within view were several fields of
+cultivated ground neatly inclosed with fences. A little lower down the
+stream and within a short distance of the house, partially concealed by
+the bank, stood a small low-browed mill, built of wood. It was near
+sundown, and the golden light of evening sparkled upon the shower which
+fell from the leaky race that conducted the water to the head gate, and
+no less glittered on the spray that was dashed from the large and slowly
+revolving wheel. The steady gush of the stream, and the monotonous clack
+of the machinery, aided by the occasional discordant scream of a flock
+of geese that frequented the border of the race, and by the gambols of a
+few children, who played about the confines of the mill, excited
+pleasant thoughts of rural business and domestic content. A rudely
+constructed wagon, to which were harnessed two lean horses, stood at the
+door of the mill, and two men, one of them advanced in years, and the
+other apparently just beyond the verge of boyhood, were occupied in
+heaping upon it a heavy load of bags of meal. The whitened habiliments
+of these men showed them to be the proper attendants of the place, and
+now engaged in their avocation. A military guard stood by the wagon, and
+as soon as it was filled, they were seen to put the horses in motion,
+and to retire by a road that crossed the stream and take the descending
+direction of the current close along the opposite bank.
+
+When this party had disappeared, the old man directed the mill to be
+stopped. The gates were let down, the machinery ungeared, and, in a few
+moments, all was still. The millers now retired to the little habitation
+hard by.
+
+"There is so much work lost," said the elder to his companion, as they
+approached the gate that opened into the curtilage of the dwelling. "We
+shall never be paid for that load. Colonel Innis doesn't care much out
+of whose pocket he feeds his men; and as to his orders upon Rawdon's
+quarter-master, why it is almost the price of blood to venture so far
+from home to ask for payment--to say nothing of the risk of finding the
+army purse as low as a poor miller's at home. I begrudge the grain,
+Christopher, and the work that grinds it; but there is no disputing with
+these whiskered foot-pads with bayonets in their hands--they must have
+it and will have it, and there's an end of it."
+
+"Aye," replied the man addressed by the name of Christopher, "as you
+say, they will have it; and if they are told that a poor man's sweat has
+been mixed with their bread, they talk to us about the cause--the
+cause--the cause. I am tired of this everlasting preaching about king
+and country. I don't know but if I had my own way I'd take the country
+against the king any day. What does George the Third care for us, with a
+great world of water between?"
+
+"Whisht, Christopher Shaw--whisht, boy! We have no opinions of our own;
+trees and walls have ears at this time. It isn't for us to be bringing
+blood and burning under our roof, by setting up for men who have
+opinions. No, no. Wait patiently; and perhaps, Christopher, it will not
+be long before this gay bird Cornwallis will be plucked of his feathers.
+The man is on his way now that, by the help of the Lord, may bring down
+as proud a hawk as ever flew across the water. If it should be
+otherwise, trust to the power above the might of armies, and wiser than
+the cunning of men, that, by a righteous and peaceful life, we shall
+make our lot an easier one than it may ever be in mingling in the strife
+of the evil-minded."
+
+"It is hard, for all that--wise as it is--to be still," said
+Christopher, "with one's arms dangling by one's side, when one's
+neighbors and kinsmen are up and girding themselves for battle. It will
+come to that at last; fight we must. And, I don't care who knows it, I
+am for independence, uncle Allen."
+
+"Your passion, boy, and warmth of temper, I doubt, outrun your
+discretion," said the old man. "But you speak bravely and I cannot chide
+you for it. For the present, at least, be temperate, and, if you can,
+silent. It is but unprofitable talk for persons in our condition."
+
+The uncle and nephew now entered the house, and Allen Musgrove--for this
+was the person to whom I have introduced my reader--was soon seated at
+his family board, invoking a blessing upon his evening meal, and
+dispensing the cares of a quiet and peaceful household.
+
+"I wonder Mary stays so long with her aunt," he said, as the early hour
+of repose drew nigh. "It is an ill place for her, wife, and not apt to
+please the girl with anything she may find there. Wat Adair is an
+irregular man, and savage as the beasts he hunts. His associates are not
+of the best, and but little suited to Mary's quiet temper."
+
+The wife, a staid, motherly-looking woman of plain and placid exterior,
+who was busily engaged amongst a thousand scraps of coarse,
+homespun-cloth, which she was fashioning into a garment for some of the
+younger members of her family, paused from her work, upon this appeal to
+her, and, directing her glances above her spectacles to her husband,
+replied:
+
+"Mary has been taught to perform her duties to her kinsfolk, and it
+isn't often that she counts whether it is pleasant to her or not.
+Besides, Watty, rough as he is, loves our girl; and love goes a great
+way to make us bear and forbear both, husband. I'll warrant our daughter
+comes home when she thinks it right. But it is a weary way to ride over
+a wild country, and more so now when Whig and Tory have distracted the
+land. I wish Christopher could be spared to go for her."
+
+"He shall go to-morrow, wife," returned Allen Musgrove. "Wat Adair, love
+her or not, is not the man to go out of his way for a wandering girl,
+and would think nothing to see the child set out by herself. But come,
+it is Saturday night and near bed-time. Put aside your work, wife; a
+lesson from the Book of Truth, and prayers, and then to rest," he said,
+as he took down a family Bible from a shelf and spread it before him.
+
+The old man put on a pair of glasses, which, by a spring, sustained
+themselves upon his nose, and with an audible and solemn voice he read a
+portion of scripture; then, placing himself on his knees, whilst the
+whole family followed his example, he poured forth a fervent and
+heart-inspired prayer. It was a simple and homely effusion, delivered
+from the suggestions of the moment, in accordance with a devout habit of
+thanksgiving and supplication to which he had long been accustomed. He
+was a Presbyterian, and had witnessed, with many a pang, the profligate
+contempt and even savage persecution with which his sect had been
+visited by many of the Tory leaders--especially by the loyalist
+partisan, Captain Huck, who had been recently killed in an incursion of
+Sumpter's at Williams's plantation, not far distant from Musgrove's
+present residence. It was this unsparing hostility towards his religion,
+and impious derision of it, that, more than any other circumstance, had
+begotten that secret dislike of the Tory cause which, it was known to a
+few, the miller entertained, although his age, situation, and, perhaps,
+some ancient prejudice of descent (for he was the son of an early Scotch
+emigrant), would rather have inclined him to take the royal side; that
+side which, in common belief and in appearance, he still favored.
+
+"Thou hast bent thy bow," he said, in the warmest effusion of his
+prayer, "and shot thine arrows, O Lord, amongst this people; thou hast
+permitted the ministers of vengeance, and the seekers of blood to ride
+amongst us, and thy wrath hath not yet bowed the stubborn spirit of
+sin--but the hard hearts are given strong arms, and with curses they
+have smitten the people. Yet even the firebrand that it did please thee
+not to stay because of our sins--yea, even the firebrand that did cause
+conflagration along our border, until by the light the erring children
+of men might read in the dark night, from one end of our boundary even
+unto the other, the enormity of their own backslidings, and their
+forgetfulness of thee; that firebrand hath been thrown into the blaze
+which it had itself kindled, and, like a weapon of war which hath grown
+dull in the work of destruction, hath been cast into the place of
+unprofitable lumber, and hath been utterly consumed. The persecutor of
+the righteous and the scoffer of the word hath paid the price of blood,
+and hath fallen into the snares wherewith he lay in wait to ensnare the
+feet of the unthinking. But stay now, O Lord of Hosts, the hand of the
+destroyer, and let the angel of peace again spread his wing over our
+racked and wearied land. Take from the wicked heart his sword and
+shield, and make the righteous man safe beside his family hearth.
+Shelter the head of the wanderer, and guide in safety the hunted
+fugitive who flees before the man of wrath; comfort the captive in his
+captivity, and make all hearts in this rent and sundered province to
+know and bless thy mercies for ever more. In especial, we beseech thee
+to give the victory to him that hath right, and to 'stablish the
+foundations of the government in justice and truth, giving liberty of
+conscience and liberty of law to those who know how to use it." At this
+point the worship of the evening was arrested by a slight knocking at
+the door.
+
+"Who goes there?" exclaimed the old man, starting from his kneeling
+position. "Who raps at my door?"
+
+"A stranger, good man," replied a voice without. "A poor fellow that has
+been hot pressed and hard run."
+
+"Friend or foe?" asked Allen Musgrove.
+
+"A very worthless friend to any man at this present speaking," replied
+the person on the outside of the door; "and not fit to be counted a foe
+until he has had something to eat. If you be Allen Musgrove, open your
+door."
+
+"Are you alone, or do you come with followers at your heels? My house is
+small and can give scant comfort to many?"
+
+"Faith, it is more than I know," responded the other; "but if I have
+followers it is not with my will that they shall cross your door-sill.
+If you be Allen Musgrove, or if you be not, open, friend. I am as
+harmless as a barndoor fowl."
+
+"I do not fear you, sir," said Musgrove, opening the door; "you are
+welcome to all I can give you, whatever colors you serve."
+
+"Then give us your hand," said Horse Shoe Robinson, striding into the
+apartment. "You are a stranger to me, but if you are Allen Musgrove, the
+miller, that I have hearn men speak of, you are not the person to turn
+your back on a fellow creature in distress. Your sarvent, mistress," he
+added, bowing to the dame. "Far riding and fast riding gives a sort of
+claim these times; so excuse me for sitting down."
+
+"You are welcome, again; your name, sir?" said Musgrove.
+
+"Have I guessed yours?" inquired Horse Shoe.
+
+"You have."
+
+"Then you must guess mine; for it isn't convenient to tell it."
+
+"Some poor Whig soldier," said Christopher Shaw privately to Musgrove.
+"It isn't right to make him betray himself. You are hungry, friend,"
+added Christopher; "and we will first get you something to eat, and then
+you may talk all the better for it."
+
+"That's a good word," said Horse Shoe, "and a brave word, as things go;
+for it isn't every man has the courage to feed an enemy in these days,
+though I made the devils do it for me this morning, ha, ha, ha! Some
+water, Mr. Musgrove, and it will not come badly to my hand if you can
+tangle it somewhat."
+
+The refreshment asked for was produced by Christopher Shaw; and Horse
+Shoe, taking the brimming cup in his hand, stood up, and with a rather
+awkward courtesy, pledged the draught with "Your health, good mistress,
+and luck to the little ones! for we grown-up babies are out of the days
+of luck, except the luck of escaping twisted hemp, or drum-head law,
+which for to-night, I believe, is mine;" and he swallowed the mixture at
+a draught; then, with a long sigh, placed the cup upon the table and
+resumed his seat. "That there spirit, Mr. Musgrove," he added, "is a
+special good friend in need, preach against it who will!"
+
+"You say you have ridden far to-day," remarked the miller: "you must be
+tired."
+
+"I am not apt to get tired," replied the sergeant, turning his
+sword-belt over his head, and flinging the weapon upon a bench; "but I
+am often hungry."
+
+"My wife," said Musgrove, smiling, "has taken that hint before you spoke
+it; she has already ordered something for you to eat."
+
+"That's an excellent woman!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "You see, Allen
+Musgrove, I don't stand much upon making myself free of your house. I
+have hearn of you often before I saw you, man; and I know all about you.
+You are obliged to keep fair weather with these Tories--who have no
+consideration for decent, orderly people--but your heart is with the
+boys that go for liberty. You see I know you, and am not afeard to trust
+you. Perchance, you mought have hearn tell of one Horse Shoe Robinson,
+who lived over here at the Waxhaws?"
+
+"I have heard many stories about that man," replied the miller.
+
+"Well, I won't tell you that he is in your house to-night, for fear the
+Tories might take you to account for harboring such a never-do-well. But
+you have got a poor fellow under your roof that has had a hard run to
+get here."
+
+"In my house!" exclaimed Musgrove; "Horse Shoe Robinson!" and then,
+after a pause, he continued, "well, well, there is no rule of war that
+justifies a Christian in refusing aid and comfort to a houseless and
+hunted stranger, who comes with no thought of harm to a peaceful family
+hearth. I take no part in the war on either side; and, in your ear,
+friend Robinson, I take none _against_ you or the brave men that stand
+by you."
+
+"Your hand again," said Horse Shoe, reaching towards the miller. "Allen,
+I have come to you under a sore press of heels. An officer of the
+Continental army and me have been travelling through these here parts,
+and we have been most onaccountably ambushed by a half wild-cat, half
+bull-dog, known by the name of Captain Hugh Habershaw, who cotched us in
+the night at Grindall's ford."
+
+"Heaven have mercy on the man who has anything to do with Hugh
+Habershaw!" exclaimed the miller's wife.
+
+"Amen, mistress," responded the sergeant; "for a surlier, misbegotten
+piece of flesh, there's not in these wild woods, giving you the choice
+of bear, panther, catamount, rattlesnake, or what not. We were sot
+upon," continued the sergeant, "by this bully and a bevy of his
+braggadocios, and made prisoners; but I took a chance to slip the noose
+this morning, and after riding plump into a hornet's nest at
+Blackstock's, where I put on a new face and tricked the guard out of a
+dinner and this here old sword, I took a course for this mill, axing
+people along the road where I should find Allen Musgrove; and so, after
+making some roundabouts and dodging into the woods until night came on,
+to keep clear of the Tories, here I am."
+
+"And the officer?" said Musgrove.
+
+"He is in the hands of the Philistines yet--most likely now at
+Blackstock's."
+
+"What might be his name?"
+
+"Major Butler--a bold, warm gentleman--that's been used to tender life
+and good fortune. He has lands on the sea-coast--unless that new-fangled
+court at Charlestown, that they call the Court of Seekerstations, has
+made them null and void--as they have been making the estates of better
+gentleman than they could ever pretend to be; taking all the best lands,
+you see, Allen, to themselves, the cursed iniquiters!"
+
+"Where did you come from with this gentleman?"
+
+"A long way off, Mr. Musgrove--from old Virginny--but lastly from Wat
+Adair's."
+
+"Wat's wife is a relation of my family."
+
+"Then he is a filthy disgrace to all who claim kin with him, Allen
+Musgrove. Wat was the man who put us into the wild-cat's claws--at
+least, so we had good reason to think. There was a tidy, spruce, and
+smart little wench there--tut, man--I am talking of your own kith and
+kindred, for her name was Mary Musgrove."
+
+"Our girl!" said the dame with an animated emphasis; "our own Mary; what
+of _her_, Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson?"
+
+"That she is as good a child, Mistress Musgrove, as any honest parent
+mought wish for. She got some sort of inkling of what was contrived; and
+so she appeared to Major Butler in a dream--or her ghost."
+
+"Mercy on us! the child has not been hurt?" cried the mother.
+
+"Ondoubtedly not, ma'am," said Robinson; "but it is as true as you are
+there, she gave us, somehow or other, a warning that there was harm in
+the wind; and we took her advice, but it didn't do."
+
+"I wish the child were home," said Musgrove. "Christopher, at daylight,
+boy, saddle a horse and be off to Adair's for Mary."
+
+The nephew promised to do the errand.
+
+"Come, Mr. Robinson, draw near the table and eat something."
+
+"With right good heart," replied Horse Shoe; "but it's a kind of camp
+rule with me, before I taste food--no matter where--just to look after
+Captain Peter Clinch; that's my horse, friend Musgrove. So, by your
+leave, I'll just go take a peep to see that the Captain is sarved. A
+good beast is a sort of right arm in scrapish times; and as God ha'n't
+given them the gift of speech, we must speak for them."
+
+"Christopher shall save you the trouble," replied Musgrove.
+
+"A good horse never loses anything by the eye of his master," said Horse
+Shoe; "so, Christopher, I'll go with you."
+
+In a short time the sergeant returned into the house, and took his seat
+at the table, where he fell to, at what was set before him, with a
+laudable dispatch.
+
+"How far off," he inquired, "is the nearest Tory post, Mr. Musgrove?"
+
+"Colonel Innis has some light corps stationed within two miles. If you
+had been a little earlier you would have found some of them at my mill."
+
+"Innis!" repeated Horse Shoe, "I thought Floyd had these parts under
+command?"
+
+"So he has," replied the miller, "but he has lately joined the garrison
+at Rocky Mount."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated Robinson, "that's a pot into which Sumpter will
+be dipping his ladle before long. All the land between Wateree and Broad
+belongs to Tom Sumpter, let mad-cap Tarleton do his best! We Whigs, Mr.
+Musgrove, have a little touch of the hobgoblin in us. We travel pretty
+much where we please. Now, I will tell you, friend, very plainly what I
+am after. I don't mean to leave these parts till I see what is to become
+of Major Butler. Innis and Floyd put together sha'n't hinder me from
+looking after a man that's under my charge. I'm an old sodger, and they
+can't make much out of me if they get me."
+
+"The country is swarming with troops of one kind or another," said the
+miller; "and a man must have his wits about him who would get through
+it. You are now, Mr. Robinson, in a very dangerous quarter. The fort at
+Ninety-Six on one side of you, and Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock on the
+other--the road between the three is full of loyalists. Colonel Innis is
+here to keep the passage open, and, almost hourly, his men are passing.
+You should be careful in showing yourself in daylight. And as for your
+poor friend, Major Butler, there is not likely to be much good will
+shown towards him. I greatly fear his case is worse than it seems to
+you."
+
+"There is somewhere," said Robinson, "in that book that lies open on the
+table--which I take to be the Bible--the story of the campaigns of King
+David; and as I have hearn it read by the preacher, it tells how David
+was pushed on all sides by flying corps of the enemy, and that, seeing
+he had no sword, he came across a man who gave him victuals and the
+sword of Goliath--as I got my dinner and a sword this morning from the
+tavern-keeper at Blackstock's; and then he set off on his flight to some
+strange place, where he feigned himself crazy and scrabbled at the gate,
+and let the spit run down on his beard--as I have done before now with
+Tarleton, Mr. Musgrove; and then King David took into a cave--which I
+shouldn't stand much upon doing if there was occasion; and there the
+King waited, until he got friends about him and was able to drub the
+Philistians for robbing the threshing-floors--as I make no doubt these
+Tories have robbed yours, Allen Musgrove. But you know all about it,
+seeing that you are able to read, which I am not. Now, I don't pretend
+to say that I nor Major Butler are as good men as David--not at all; but
+the cause of liberty is as good a cause as ever King David fought for,
+and the Lord that took his side in the cave, will take the side of the
+Whigs, sooner or later, and help them to beat these grinding, thieving,
+burning, and throat-cutting Tories. And, moreover, a brave man ought
+never to be cast down by such vermin; that's my religion, Mr. Musgrove,
+though you mought hardly expect to find much thought of such things left
+in a rough fellow like me, that's been hammered in these here wars like
+an old piece of iron that's been one while a plough coulter, and after
+that a gun-barrel, and finally that's been run up with others into a
+piece of ordnance--not to say that it moughtn't have been a horse shoe
+in some part of its life, ha! ha! ha! There's not likely to be much
+conscience or religion left after all that hammering."
+
+"'He shall keep the simple folk by their right,'" said Musgrove, quoting
+a passage from the Psalms, "'defend the children of the poor and punish
+the wrong-doer.' You have finished your supper, Mr. Robinson," he
+continued, "and before we retire to rest you will join us in the
+conclusion of our family worship, which was interrupted by your coming
+into the house. We will sing a Psalm which has been given to us by that
+man whose deliverance has taught you where you are to look for yours."
+
+"If I cannot help to make music, Allen," said Horse Shoe, "I can listen
+with good will."
+
+The miller now produced a little book in black-letter, containing a
+familiar and ancient version of the Psalms, and the following quaint and
+simple lines were read by him in successive couplets, the whole family
+singing each distich as soon as it was given out--not excepting Horse
+Shoe, who, after the first couplet, having acquired some slight
+perception of the tune, chimed in with a voice that might have alarmed
+the sentinels of Innis's camp:
+
+    "A king that trusteth in his host
+    Shall not prevail at length;
+    The man that of his might doth boast
+    Shall fall, for all his strength.
+
+    "The troops of horsemen eke shall fail,
+    Their sturdy steeds shall starve:
+    The strength of horse shall not prevail
+    The rider to preserve.
+
+    "But so the eyes of God intend,
+    And watch to aid the just;
+    With such as fear him to offend,
+    And on his goodness trust.
+
+    "That he of death and great distress
+    May set their souls from dread;
+    And if that dearth their land oppress,
+    In hunger them to feed.
+
+    "Wherefore our soul doth whole depend
+    On God, our strength and stay;
+    He is our shield us to defend
+    And drive all darts away."
+
+When this act of devotion was concluded the old man invoked a blessing
+upon his household, and gave his orders that the family should betake
+themselves to rest. Horse Shoe had already taken up his sword and was
+about retiring to a chamber, under the guidance of Christopher Shaw,
+when the door was suddenly thrown wide open, and in rushed Mary
+Musgrove. She ran up, threw herself into her father's arms, and cried
+out--
+
+"Oh, how glad I am that I have reached home to-night!" then kissing both
+of her parents, she flung herself into a chair, saying "I am tired--very
+tired. I have ridden the livelong day, alone, and frightened out of my
+wits."
+
+"Not alone, my daughter!--on that weary road, and the country so
+troubled with ill-governed men! Why did you venture, girl? Did you not
+think I would send your cousin Christopher for you?"
+
+"Oh, father," replied Mary, "there have been such doings! Ah! and here
+is Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson; Major Butler, where is he, sir?" she
+exclaimed, turning to the sergeant, who had now approached the back of
+her chair to offer his hand.
+
+"Blessings on you for a wise and a brave girl!" said Robinson. "But it
+wouldn't do; we were ambushed, and the Major is still a prisoner."
+
+"I feared it," said Mary, "and therefore I stole away. They are
+bloody-minded and wicked, father; and uncle Adair's house has been the
+place where mischief and murder has been talked of. Oh, I am very sick!
+I have had such a ride!"
+
+"Poor wench!" said the father, taking her to his bosom. "You have not
+the temper nor the strength to struggle where ruthless men take up their
+weapons of war. What has befallen? Tell us all!"
+
+"No, no!" interposed the mother; "no, Allen, not now. The girl must have
+food and sleep, and must not be wearied with questions to-night. Wait,
+my dear Mary, until to-morrow. She will tell us everything to-morrow."
+
+"I must hear of Major Butler," said Mary; "I cannot sleep until I have
+heard all that has happened. Good Mr. Robinson, tell me everything."
+
+In few words the sergeant unfolded to the damsel the eventful history of
+the last two days, during the narrative of which her cheek waxed pale,
+her strength failed her, and she sank almost lifeless across her
+father's knee.
+
+"Give me some water," she said. "My long ride has worn me out. I ran off
+at daylight this morning, and have not stopped once upon the road."
+
+A glass of milk with a slice of bread restored the maiden to her
+strength, and she took the first opportunity to inform the circle who
+surrounded her of all the incidents that had fallen under her
+observation at Adair's.
+
+Her father listened with deep emotion to the tale, and during its
+relation clenched his teeth with anger, as he walked, to and fro,
+through the apartment. There was an earnest struggle in his feelings to
+withhold the expression of the strong execration, which the narrative
+brought almost to his lips, against the perfidy of his wife's kinsman.
+But the habitual control of his temper, which his religious habits
+inculcated, kept him silent; and considerations of prudence again swayed
+him from surrendering to the impulse, which would have led him to
+declare himself openly against the cause of the royal government and its
+supporters in the district where he lived. He cross-questioned his
+daughter as to many minute points of her story, but her answers were
+uniform and consistent, and were stamped with the most unequivocal
+proofs of her strict veracity. Indeed, the collateral evidences
+furnished by Robinson, left no doubt on the miller's mind that the whole
+of Mary's disclosures were the testimony of a witness whose senses could
+not have been disturbed by illusions, nor distempered by fear.
+
+"It is a dreadful tale," he said, "and we must think over it more
+maturely. Be of good heart, my daughter, you have acted well and wisely;
+God will protect us from harm."
+
+"And so it was no ghost, nor spirit," said Horse Shoe, "that the major
+saw in the night? But I wonder you didn't think of waking me. A word to
+me in the night--seeing I have sarved a good deal on outposts, and have
+got used to being called up--would have had me stirring in a wink. But
+that's part of Wat's luck for I should most ondoubtedly have strangled
+the snake in his bed."
+
+"I called you," said Mary, "as loudly as I durst, and more than once,
+but you slept so hard!"
+
+"That's like me too," replied Horse Shoe. "I'm both sleepy and watchful,
+according as I think there is need of my sarvices."
+
+"Now to bed, my child," said Musgrove. "Your bed is the fittest place
+for your wearied body. God bless you, daughter!"
+
+Once more the family broke up, and as Robinson left the room Mary
+followed him to the foot of the little stair that wound up into an attic
+chamber; here she detained him one moment, while she communicated to him
+in a half whisper,
+
+"I have a friend, Mr. Robinson, that might help you to do something for
+Major Butler. His name is John Ramsay: he belongs to General Sumpter's
+brigade. If you would go to his father's, only six miles from here, on
+the upper road to Ninety-Six, you might hear where John was. But, may
+be, you are afraid to go so near to the fort?"
+
+"May be so," said Robinson, with a look of comic incredulity. "I know
+the place, and I know the family, and, likely, John himself. It's a good
+thought, Mary, for I want help now, more than I ever did in my life.
+I'll start before daylight--for it won't do to let the sun shine upon
+me, with Innis's Tories so nigh. So, if I am missed to-morrow morning,
+let your father know how I come to be away."
+
+"Tell John," said Mary, "I sent you to him. Mary Musgrove, remember."
+
+"If I can't find John," replied Horse Shoe, "you're such a staunch
+little petticoat sodger, that I'll, perhaps, come back and enlist you.
+'Tisn't everywhere that we can find such valiant wenches. I wish some of
+our men had a little of your courage; so, good night!"
+
+The maiden now returned to the parlor, and Horse Shoe, under the
+guidance of Christopher Shaw, found a comfortable place of deposit for
+his hard-worked, though--as he would have Christopher believe--his
+unfatigued frame. The sergeant, however, was a man not born to cares,
+notwithstanding that his troubles were "as thick as the sparks that fly
+upward," and it is a trivial fact in his history, that, on the present
+occasion, he was not many seconds in bed before he was as sound asleep
+as the trapped partridges, in the fairy tale, which, the eastern
+chronicle records, fell into a deep sleep when roasting upon the spit,
+and did not wake for a hundred years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+    "Now if you ask who gave the stroke
+    I cannot tell, so mote I thrive;
+    It was not given by man alive."--_Lay of the last Minstrel._
+
+
+It was a little before daybreak on Sunday morning, the fifteenth of
+August (a day rendered memorable by the exploit of Sumpter, who
+captured, in the vicinity of Rocky Mount, a large quantity of military
+stores, and a numerous escort, then on their way from Ninety-Six to
+Camden), that James Curry was travelling in the neighborhood of the
+Ennoree, some four miles distant from Musgrove's mill. He had a few
+hours before left the garrison of Ninety-Six, and was now hieing with
+all haste to Blackstock's on a mission of importance. The night had been
+sultry, but the approach of the dawn had brought with it that refreshing
+coolness which is always to be remarked in the half hour that precedes
+the first blush of morning. The dragoon had had a weary night-ride, but
+the recent change of temperature had invigorated his system and given
+buoyancy to his spirits. This effect was exhibited in his first
+whistling a tune, then humming the words of a ditty, and, finally, in
+breaking forth into a loud full song, which, as he had a good voice and
+practised skill, increased in loudness as he became better pleased with
+the trial of his powers. The song was occasionally intermitted to give
+room to certain self-communings which the pastime suggested.
+
+    "You may take it for sooth, that wit without gold,"
+
+he sang in the loudest strain, trying the words on different keys, and
+introducing some variations in the tune--
+
+    "Will make a bad market whenever 'tis sold."
+
+"That's true; your poor moneyless devil, how should his wit pass
+current? He was a shrewd fellow that wrote it down. Your rich man for
+wit, all the world over, and so the song runs:--
+
+    "'But all over the world it is well understood
+    That the joke of a rich man is sure to be good.'
+
+"True, true as gospel! Give the knaves dinners, plenty of Burgundy and
+Port, and what signifies an empty head? Go to college, and how is it
+there? What is a sizer's joke? If the fellow have the wit of Diogenes,
+it is sheer impertinence. But let my young lord Croesus come out with
+his flatulent nonsense, oh, that's the true ware for the market! James
+Curry, James Curry, what ought you to have been, if the supple jade
+fortune had done your deserts justice! Instead of a d----d dodging
+dragoon, obedient to the beck of every puppy who wears his majesty's
+epaulets; but it's no matter, that's past; the wheel has made its turn,
+and here I am, doing the work of the scullion, that ought to sit above
+the salt-cellar. Vogue la galére! We will play out the play. Meantime,
+I'll be merry in spite of the horoscope: come then, I like these words
+and the jolly knave, whoever he was, that penned them.
+
+    "'You may take it for sooth that wit without gold.'"
+
+The singer was, at this instant, arrested at the top of his voice by a
+blow against the back of his head, bestowed, apparently, by some
+ponderous hand, that so effectually swayed him from the line of gravity,
+as to cause him to reel in his saddle, and, by an irrecoverable impetus,
+to swing round to the ground, where he alighted on his back, with the
+reins of his horse firmly held in his hand.
+
+"Singing on Sunday is against the law," said a hoarse voice, that came
+apparently from the air, as the darkness of the hour--which was
+increased by an overcast and lowering sky, as well as by the thick wood
+through which the road ran, prevented the stricken man from discerning
+anything that might have done him harm, even if such thing had been
+bodily present. The soldier lay for a moment prostrate, bewildered by
+the suddenness of this mysterious visitation; and when, at length, he
+regained his feet, he almost fancied that he heard receding from him,
+at a great distance, the dull beat of a horse's foot upon the sandy
+road.
+
+Curry, who as a soldier was insensible to fear, now shook in every
+joint, as he stood beside his horse in a state of confused and ravelled
+wonderment. He strained his ear to catch the sound in the direction
+towards which he thought he had heard the retreating footsteps, but his
+more deliberate attention persuaded him that he was mistaken in his
+first impression. Still more puzzled as he came into the possession of
+his faculties, of which the abruptness of the surprise had almost bereft
+him, he stood for some time mute; then drawing his sword with the
+alacrity of a man, who all at once believes himself in danger of an
+uplifted blow, he called out loudly,
+
+"Speak, and show yourself, if you be a man! Or if there be a party, let
+them come forth. Who waylays me? Remember, I warn him, in the name of
+the king, that I am on his majesty's errand, and that they are not far
+off who will punish any outrage on my person. By all the powers of
+Satan, the place is bewitched!" he exclaimed, after a pause. "Once more,
+speak; whether you are to be conjured in the name of the king or of the
+devil!"
+
+All remained silent, except the leaves of the forest that fluttered in
+the breeze; and it was with an awkward and unacknowledged sense of
+faint-heartedness that Curry put up his sword and remounted into his
+saddle. He first moved slowly forward in continuation of his journey;
+and, as his thoughts still ran upon the extraordinary incident, he
+applied spurs to his horse's side, and gradually increased his pace from
+a trot to a gallop, and from that to almost high speed, until he emerged
+from the wood upon a track of open country. When he reached this spot
+the day had already appeared above the eastern horizon; and reassured,
+as the light waxed stronger, the dragoon, by degrees, fell into his
+customary travelling pace, and resumed the equanimity of his temper.
+
+About ten o'clock in the day he reached Blackstock's, where he arrived
+in a heavy rain, that had been falling for the last three hours, and
+which had drenched him to the skin. So, rapidly dismounting and giving
+his horse into the charge of some of the idlers about the door, he
+entered the common room in which were assembled the greater part of the
+militia guard and of Habershaw's troopers. His first movement was to
+take the burly captain aside, and to communicate to him certain orders
+from the commanding officer at Ninety-Six, respecting the prisoner;
+which being done, he mingled with his usual affectedly careless and
+mirthful manner amongst the throng.
+
+Butler, through the intercession of Bruce, had been indulged with some
+mitigation of the restraints at first imposed upon him; and he was, at
+this moment, availing himself of the privilege that had been allowed
+him, on account of the leaky condition of the barn in which he had spent
+the night, to take his morning meal inside of the dwelling-house. He was
+accordingly seated at a table, in a corner of the room, with some
+eatables before him in a more comfortable state of preparation than he
+had hitherto enjoyed. Two soldiers stood sufficiently near to render his
+custody effectual without much personal annoyance. As yet he had been
+unable to glean anything from the conversation of those around him, by
+which he might form the least conjecture as to his probable destiny. His
+intercourse with his captors was restricted to the mere supply of his
+immediate wants. All other communication was strictly interdicted. Even
+Habershaw himself seemed to be under some authoritative command, to deny
+himself the gratification of either exhibiting his own importance, or of
+wreaking his spleen upon his prisoner; and when Butler attempted to gain
+from Bruce some hint as to what was intended, the only answer he
+received was conveyed by the soldier's putting his finger on his lip.
+
+Butler knew enough of Robinson's hardihood and venturesome disposition,
+to feel perfectly confident that he would make good his promise to be
+near him, at whatever personal hazard; and he was, therefore, in
+momentary expectation of receiving further intelligence from the
+sergeant in some of those strange, bold, and perilous forms of
+communication, which the character of the trusty soldier warranted him
+in counting upon. His knowledge that Robinson had passed by Blackstock's
+on the day preceding, gave him some assurance that the sergeant was in
+the diligent prosecution of his purpose to seek Sumpter, or some other
+of the partisan Whig corps in their hiding-places, and to try the
+hazardous experiment of his (Butler's) rescue from his present thraldom,
+by a vigorous incursion into the district where he was now confined.
+With this calculation of the course of events, he was prepared to hear,
+at every hour of the day, of some sudden alarm; and ready to co-operate,
+by seizing the first moment of confusion to snatch up a weapon, and
+force his way through the ranks of his guard. It was with such
+anticipations that now, whilst seemingly engrossed with the satisfaction
+of his physical wants at the table, he lent an attentive ear to the
+conversation which passed in the house between Curry and the company who
+were clustered around him. The dragoon, at first, in a light and merry
+vein of narrative, recounted to his hearers the singular visitation he
+had experienced before daybreak; and he contrived to fling over his
+story an additional hue of mystery, by the occasional reflections with
+which he seasoned it, tending to inculcate the belief to which he
+himself partly inclined, that the incident was brought about through the
+agency of some pranking and mischievous spirit,--a conclusion which, at
+that period, and amongst the persons to whom the adventure was related,
+did not require any great stretch of faith to sustain it. Some of his
+auditors fortified this prevailing inclination of opinion, by expressing
+their own conviction of the interference of malignant and supernatural
+influences in the concerns of mankind, and gave their personal
+experience of instances in which these powers were active. The
+conversation by degrees changed its tone from that of levity and
+laughter into one of grave and somewhat fearful interest, according to
+the increasing marvel which the several stories that were told excited
+in the superstitious minds of the circle; and in the same proportion
+that this sentiment took possession of the thoughts of the company, they
+became more unreserved in their language, and louder in the utterance of
+it, thus giving Butler the full benefit of all that was said.
+
+"But, after all," said one of the men, "mightn't you have been asleep on
+your horse, James Curry, and had a sort of jogging dream, when a limb of
+a tree across the road, for it was a dark morning, might have caught you
+under the throat and flung you out of your saddle: and you, not knowing
+whether you was asleep or awake, for a man who is on duty, without his
+night's rest, sometimes can't tell the difference, thought it was some
+hobgoblin business?"
+
+"No," said Curry, "that's impossible; for I was singing a song at the
+time, and almost at the top of my voice. I had been sleepy enough before
+that, just after I left Ninety-Six, near midnight, for I had ridden a
+long way; but as it grew towards daylight I began to rouse up, so that
+when this thing happened I was as much awake as I am now."
+
+"Then it's a downright case of ghost," said the other. "It knew you was
+upon a wicked errand, and so that back-handed blow was a warning to you.
+These things are sometimes meant to be friendly; and who knows but this
+oversetting you in the road might have been intended to signify that you
+had better not meddle in cases of life and death. If you would take my
+advice, you would just treat this Major Butler, that you took
+prisoner"--
+
+Curry looked at the speaker with a frown, as he made a motion to him to
+be silent. "Remember where you are, and who may hear you," he said in a
+cautious voice, as he glanced his eye towards Butler, who was leaning
+his head upon the table, as if in slumber.
+
+"Oh, I understand," replied the soldier of the guard. "I forgot he was
+in the room."
+
+"The weather holds up," said Habershaw, who now walked into the house.
+"The rain has slackened; and so, orderly, if you have had a bite of
+something to eat, the boys had better be got ready to march. We have a
+long way to go, and as the infantry march with us we shall get on
+slowly."
+
+"I think so, noble Captain," replied Curry. "I shall be ready to join
+you before you get your line formed."
+
+Orders were now issued by Habershaw, both to the troopers of his own
+squad and to the militia detachment, to put themselves in condition for
+an immediate movement. The clouds, during the last half hour, had been
+breaking away, and the sun soon burst forth upon the wet and glittering
+landscape, in all the effulgence of mid summer. During a brief interval
+of preparation the party of infantry and cavalry that now occupied the
+hamlet exhibited the bustle incident to the gathering of the corps. Some
+ran to one quarter for their arms, others to the stables for their
+horses; a cracked trumpet in the hands of a lusty performer, who here
+joined the troop, kept up a continual braying, and was seconded by the
+ceaseless beat of a slack and dull drum. There were some who, having put
+on their military equipments, thronged the table of the common room of
+the house, where spirits and water had been set out for their
+accommodation, and rude jokes, laughter, and oaths, were mingled
+together in deafening clamor.
+
+"Move out the prisoner," shouted Habershaw; "he goes with the infantry
+afoot. I'll never trust another of the tribe with a horse."
+
+"Follow, sir," said one of the sentinels near Butler's person, as he
+faced to the right with his musket at an "advance," and led the way to
+the door.
+
+Butler rose, and, before he placed himself in the position required,
+asked:
+
+"Where is it you purpose to conduct me?"
+
+"Silence!" said Habershaw sternly. "Obey orders, sir, and march where
+you are directed."
+
+Butler folded his arms and looked scornfully at the uncouth savage
+before him as he replied:
+
+"I am a prisoner, sir, and therefore bound to submit to the force that
+constrains me. But there will be a day of reckoning, both for you and
+your master. It will not be the lighter to him for having hired such a
+ruffian to do the business in which he is ashamed to appear himself."
+
+"Devil's leavings!" screamed Habershaw, almost choked with choler, "dare
+you speak to me so? By my heart, I have a mind to cleave your skull for
+you! My master, sir! You will find out, before long, who is master, when
+Hugh Habershaw has tied the knot that is to fit your neck."
+
+"Peace, villain!" exclaimed Butler; "I cannot come too soon into the
+presence of those who claim to direct your motions."
+
+Here James Curry interposed to draw off the incensed captain, and
+Butler, having received another order from the officer of the guard,
+moved out upon the road and took the place that was assigned him,
+between two platoons of the foot soldiers.
+
+The troopers being mounted and formed into column of march with
+Habershaw and his trumpeter at the head and Curry in the rear, now moved
+forward at a slow gait, followed by the detachment of infantry who had
+the prisoner under their especial charge.
+
+It was near noon when the party took up the line of march, and they
+prosecuted their journey southward with such expedition as to tax
+Butler's powers to the utmost to keep even pace with them over roads
+that were in many places rendered miry by the late rain. Towards
+evening, however, the sun had sufficiently dried the soil to make the
+travel less fatiguing; and by that hour when the light of day only
+lingered upon the tops of the western hills, the military escort, with
+their prisoner, were seen passing through a defile that opened upon
+their view an extensive bivouac of some two or three hundred horse and
+foot, and occupying a space of open field, encompassed with wood and
+guarded in its rear by a smooth and gentle river.
+
+The spot at which they had arrived was the camp of a partisan corps
+under the command of Colonel Innis. A farm-house was seen in the
+immediate neighborhood, which was used as the head-quarters of a party
+of officers. Numerous horses were attached to the trees that bounded the
+plain, and various shelters were made in the same quarter, in the rudest
+form of accommodation, of branches and underwood set against
+ridge-poles, that were sustained by stakes, to protect the men against
+the weather. Groups of this irregular soldiery were scattered over the
+plain, a few wagons were seen collected in one direction, and, not far
+off, a line of fires, around which parties were engaged in cooking food.
+Here and there a sentinel was seen pacing his short limits, and
+occasionally the roll of a drum and the flourish of a fife announced
+some ceremony of the camp police.
+
+The escort marched quickly across this plain until it arrived in front
+of the farm-house. Here a guard was drawn up to receive them; and, as
+soon as the usual military salute was passed and the order to "stand at
+ease" given, Habershaw put the detachment under the command of the
+lieutenant of infantry, and, accompanied by Curry, walked into the house
+to make his report to the commanding officer of the post.
+
+In a few moments afterwards Colonel Innis, attended by two or three
+military men--some of whom wore the uniform of the British regular
+army--came from the house and passed hastily along the line of the
+escort, surveying Butler only with a rapid glance. Having regained the
+door, he was heard to say--
+
+"It is very well; let the prisoner have a room above stairs. See that he
+wants nothing proper to his situation; and, above all, be attentive that
+he be kept scrupulously under the eye of his guard."
+
+When this order was given, the Colonel retired with his attendants to
+his quarters, and Butler was forthwith conducted, by a file of men, up a
+narrow, winding stair, to a small apartment in the angle of the roof,
+where he was provided with a chair, a light, and a comfortable bed. His
+door was left open, and on the outside of it, full in his view, was
+posted a sentinel. He was too weary even to be troubled with the cares
+of his present condition; and, without waiting, therefore, for food, or
+seeking to inquire into whose hands he had fallen, or even to turn his
+thoughts upon the mysterious train of circumstances that hung over him,
+he flung himself upon the couch and sank into a profound and grateful
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+AN ADVENTURE WHEREIN IT IS APPARENT THAT THE ACTIONS OF REAL LIFE ARE
+FULL AS MARVELLOUS AS THE INVENTIONS OF ROMANCE.
+
+
+David Ramsay's house was situated on a by-road, between five and six
+miles from Musgrove's mill, and at about the distance of one mile from
+the principal route of travel between Ninety-six and Blackstock's. In
+passing from the military post that had been established at the former
+place, towards the latter, Ramsay's lay off to the left, with a piece of
+dense wood intervening. The by-way leading through the farm, diverged
+from the main road, and traversed this wood until it reached the
+cultivated grounds immediately around Ramsay's dwelling. In the journey
+from Musgrove's mill to this point of divergence, the traveller was
+obliged to ride some two or three miles upon the great road leading from
+the British garrison, a road that, at the time of my story, was much
+frequented by military parties, scouts, and patroles, that were
+concerned in keeping up the communication between the several posts
+which were established by the British authorities along that frontier.
+Amongst the whig parties, also, there were various occasions which
+brought them under the necessity of frequent passage through this same
+district, and which, therefore, furnished opportunities for collision
+and skirmish with the opposite forces.
+
+It is a matter of historical notoriety, that immediately after the fall
+of Charleston, and the rapid subjugation of South Carolina that followed
+this event, there were three bold and skilful soldiers who undertook to
+carry on the war of resistance to the established authorities, upon a
+settled and digested plan of annoyance, under the most discouraging
+state of destitution, as regarded all the means of offence, that,
+perhaps, history records. It will not detract from the fame of other
+patriots of similar enthusiasm and of equal bravery, to mention the
+names of Marion, Sumpter, and Pickens, in connexion with this plan of
+keeping up an apparently hopeless partisan warfare, which had the
+promise neither of men, money, nor arms,--and yet which was so nobly
+sustained, amidst accumulated discomfitures, as to lead eventually to
+the subversion of the "Tory ascendency" and the expulsion of the British
+power. According to the plan of operations concerted amongst these
+chieftains, Marion took the lower country under his supervision; Pickens
+the south-western districts, bordering upon the Savannah; and to Sumpter
+was allotted all that tract of country lying between the Broad and the
+Catawba rivers, from the angle of their junction, below Camden, up to
+the mountain districts of North Carolina. How faithfully these men made
+good their promise to the country, is not only written in authentic
+history, but it is also told in many a legend amongst the older
+inhabitants of the region that was made the theatre of action. It only
+concerns my story to refer to the fact, that the events which have
+occupied my last five or six chapters, occurred in that range more
+peculiarly appropriated to Sumpter, and that the high road from
+Blackstock's towards Ninety-six was almost as necessary for
+communication between Sumpter and Pickens, as between the several
+British garrisons.
+
+On the morning that succeeded the night in which Horse Shoe Robinson
+arrived at Musgrove's, the stout and honest sergeant might have been
+seen, about eight o'clock, leaving the main road from Ninety-six, at the
+point where that leading to David Ramsay's separated from it, and
+cautiously urging his way into the deep forest, by the more private path
+into which he had entered. The knowledge that Innis was encamped along
+the Ennoree, within a short distance of the mill, had compelled him to
+make an extensive circuit to reach Ramsay's dwelling, whither he was now
+bent; and he had experienced considerable delay in his morning journey,
+by finding himself frequently in the neighborhood of small foraging
+parties of Tories, whose motions he was obliged to watch for fear of an
+encounter. He had once already been compelled to use his horse's heels
+in what he called "fair flight;" and once to ensconce himself, a full
+half hour, under cover of the thicket afforded him by a swamp. He now,
+therefore, according to his own phrase, "dived into the little road
+that scrambled down through the woods towards Ramsay's, with all his
+eyes about him, looking out as sharply as a fox on a foggy morning:" and
+with this circumspection, he was not long in arriving within view of
+Ramsay's house. Like a practised soldier, whom frequent frays has taught
+wisdom, he resolved to reconnoitre before he advanced upon a post that
+might be in possession of an enemy. He therefore dismounted, fastened
+his horse in a fence corner, where a field of corn concealed him from
+notice, and then stealthily crept forward until he came immediately
+behind one of the out-houses.
+
+The barking of a house-dog brought out a negro boy, to whom Robinson
+instantly addressed the query--
+
+"Is your master at home?"--
+
+"No, sir. He's got his horse, and gone off more than an hour ago."
+
+"Where is your mistress?"
+
+"Shelling beans, Sir."
+
+"I didn't ask you," said the sergeant, "what she is doing, but where she
+is."
+
+"In course, she is in the house, Sir,"--replied the negro with a grin.
+
+"Any strangers there?"
+
+"There was plenty on 'em a little while ago, but they've been gone a
+good bit."
+
+Robinson having thus satisfied himself as to the safety of his visit,
+directed the boy to take his horse and lead him up to the door. He then
+entered the dwelling.
+
+"Mistress Ramsay," said he, walking up to the dame, who was occupied at
+a table, with a large trencher before her, in which she was plying that
+household thrift which the negro described; "luck to you, ma'am, and all
+your house! I hope you haven't none of these clinking and clattering
+bullies about you, that are as thick over this country as the frogs in
+the kneading troughs, that they tell of."
+
+"Good lack, Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson," exclaimed the matron, offering the
+sergeant her hand. "What has brought you here? What news? Who are with
+you? For patience sake, tell me!"
+
+"I am alone," said Robinson, "and a little wettish mistress;" he added,
+as he took off his hat and shook the water from it "it has just sot up a
+rain, and looks as if it was going to give us enough on't. You don't
+mind, doing a little dinner-work of a Sunday, I see--shelling of beans,
+I s'pose, is tantamount to dragging a sheep out of a pond, as the
+preachers allow on the Sabbath--ha, ha!--Where's Davy?"
+
+"He's gone over to the meeting-house on Ennoree, hoping to hear
+something of the army at Camden: perhaps you can tell us the news from
+that quarter?"
+
+"Faith, that's a mistake, Mistress Ramsay. Though I don't doubt that
+they are hard upon the scratches, by this time. But, at this present
+speaking, I command the flying artillery. We have out one man in the
+corps--and that's myself; and all the guns we have got is this piece of
+ordnance, that hangs in this old belt by my side (pointing to his
+sword)--and that I captured from the enemy at Blackstock's. I was hoping
+I mought find John Ramsay at home--I have need of him as a recruit."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Robinson, John has a heavy life of it over there with Sumpter.
+The boy is often without his natural rest, or a meal's victuals; and the
+general thinks so much of him, that he can't spare him to come home. I
+hav'n't the heart to complain, as long as John's service is of any use,
+but it does seem, Mr. Robinson, like needless tempting of the mercies of
+providence. We thought that he might have been here to-day; yet I am
+glad he didn't come--for he would have been certain to get into trouble.
+Who should come in, this morning, just after my husband had cleverly got
+away on his horse, but a young cock-a-whoop ensign, that belongs to
+Ninety-Six, and four great Scotchmen with him, all in red coats; they
+had been out thieving, I warrant, and were now going home again. And who
+but they! Here they were, swaggering all about my house--and calling for
+this--and calling for that--as if they owned the fee-simple of
+everything on the plantation. And it made my blood rise, Mr. Horse Shoe,
+to see them run out in the yard, and catch up my chickens and ducks, and
+kill as many as they could string about them--and I not daring to say a
+word: though I did give them a piece of my mind, too."
+
+"Who is at home with you?" inquired the sergeant eagerly.
+
+"Nobody but my youngest boy, Andrew," answered the dame. "And then, the
+filthy, toping rioters--" she continued, exalting her voice.
+
+"What arms have you in the house?" asked Robinson, without heeding the
+dame's rising anger.
+
+"We have a rifle, and a horseman's pistol that belongs to John.--They
+must call for drink, too, and turn my house, of a Sunday morning, into a
+tavern."
+
+"They took the route towards Ninety-Six, you said, Mistress Ramsay?"
+
+"Yes,--they went straight forward upon the road. But, look you, Mr.
+Horse Shoe, you're not thinking of going after them?"
+
+"Isn't there an old field, about a mile from this, on that road?"
+inquired the sergeant, still intent upon his own thoughts.
+
+"There is," replied the dame; "with the old school-house upon it."
+
+"A lop-sided, rickety log-cabin in the middle of the field. Am I right,
+good woman?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And nobody lives in it? It has no door to it?"
+
+"There ha'n't been anybody in it these seven years."
+
+"I know the place very well," said the sergeant, thoughtfully; "there is
+woods just on this side of it."
+
+"That's true," replied the dame: "but what is it you are thinking
+about, Mr. Robinson?"
+
+"How long before this rain began was it that they quitted this house?"
+
+"Not above fifteen minutes."
+
+"Mistress Ramsay, bring me the rifle and pistol both--and the
+powder-horn and bullets."
+
+"As you say, Mr. Horse Shoe," answered the dame, as she turned round to
+leave the room; "but I am sure I can't suspicion what you mean to do."
+
+In a few moments the woman returned with the weapons, and gave them to
+the sergeant.
+
+"Where is Andy?" asked Horse Shoe.
+
+The hostess went to the door and called her son, and, almost immediately
+afterwards, a sturdy boy of about twelve or fourteen years of age
+entered the apartment, his clothes dripping with rain. He modestly and
+shyly seated himself on a chair near the door, with his soaked hat
+flapping down over a face full of freckles, and not less rife with the
+expression of an open, dauntless hardihood of character.
+
+"How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole
+your mother's chickens this morning?" asked Horse Shoe.
+
+"I'm agreed," replied the boy, "if you will tell me what to do."
+
+"You are not going to take the boy out on any of your desperate
+projects, Mr. Horse Shoe?" said the mother, with the tears starting
+instantly into her eyes. "You wouldn't take such a child as that into
+danger?"
+
+"Bless your soul, Mrs. Ramsay, there ar'n't no danger about it! Don't
+take on so. It's a thing that is either done at a blow, or not
+done,--and there's an end of it. I want the lad only to bring home the
+prisoners for me, after I have took them."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Robinson, I have one son already in these wars--God protect
+him!--and you men don't know how a mother's heart yearns for her
+children in these times. I cannot give another," she added, as she threw
+her arms over the shoulders of the youth and drew him to her bosom.
+
+"Oh! it aint nothing," said Andrew, in a sprightly tone. "It's only
+snapping of a pistol, mother,--pooh! If I'm not afraid, you oughtn't to
+be."
+
+"I give you my honor, Mistress Ramsay," said Robinson, "that I will
+bring or send your son safe back in one hour; and that he sha'n't be put
+in any sort of danger whatsomedever: come, that's a good woman!"
+
+"You are not deceiving me, Mr. Robinson?" asked the matron wiping away a
+tear. "You wouldn't mock the sufferings of a weak woman in such a thing
+as this?"
+
+"On the honesty of a sodger, ma'am," replied Horse Shoe, "the lad shall
+be in no danger, as I said before--whatsomedever."
+
+"Then I will say no more," answered the mother. "But Andy, my child, be
+sure to let Mr. Robinson keep before you."
+
+Horse Shoe now loaded the fire-arms, and having slung the pouch across
+his body, he put the pistol into the hands of the boy; then shouldering
+his rifle, he and his young ally left the room. Even on this occasion,
+serious as it might be deemed, the sergeant did not depart without
+giving some manifestation of that light-heartedness which no
+difficulties ever seemed to have the power to conquer. He thrust his
+head back into the room, after he had crossed the threshold, and said
+with an encouraging laugh, "Andy and me will teach them, Mistress
+Ramsay, Pat's point of war--we will _surround_ the ragamuffins."
+
+"Now, Andy, my lad," said Horse Shoe, after he had mounted Captain
+Peter, "you must get up behind me. Turn the lock of your pistol down,"
+he continued, as the boy sprang upon the horse's rump, "and cover it
+with the flap of your jacket, to keep the rain off. It won't do to hang
+fire at such a time as this."
+
+The lad did as he was directed, and Horse Shoe, having secured his rifle
+in the same way, put his horse up to a gallop, and took the road in the
+direction that had been pursued by the soldiers.
+
+As soon as our adventurers had gained a wood, at the distance of about
+half a mile, the sergeant relaxed his speed, and advanced at a pace a
+little above a walk.
+
+"Andy," he said, "we have got rather a ticklish sort of a job before us,
+so I must give you your lesson, which you will understand better by
+knowing something of my plan. As soon as your mother told me that these
+thieving villains had left her house about fifteen minutes before the
+rain came on, and that they had gone along upon this road, I remembered
+the old field up here, and the little log hut in the middle of it; and
+it was natural to suppose that they had just got about near that hut,
+when this rain came up; and then, it was the most supposable case in the
+world, that they would naturally go into it, as the driest place they
+could find. So now, you see, it's my calculation that the whole batch is
+there at this very point of time. We will go slowly along, until we get
+to the other end of this wood, in sight of the old field, and then, if
+there is no one on the look-out, we will open our first trench; you know
+what that means, Andy?"
+
+"It means, I s'pose, that we'll go right smack at them," replied Andrew.
+
+"Pretty exactly," said the sergeant. "But listen to me. Just at the edge
+of the woods you will have to get down, and put yourself behind a tree.
+I'll ride forward, as if I had a whole troop at my heels, and if I
+catch them, as I expect, they will have a little fire kindled, and, as
+likely as not, they'll be cooking some of your mother's fowls."
+
+"Yes, I understand," said the boy eagerly--
+
+"No, you don't," replied Horse Shoe, "but you will when you hear what I
+am going to say. If I get at them onawares, they'll be mighty apt to
+think they are surrounded, and will bellow, like fine fellows, for
+quarter. And, thereupon, Andy, I'll cry out 'stand fast,' as if I was
+speaking to my own men, and when you hear that, you must come up full
+tilt, because it will be a signal to you that the enemy has surrendered.
+Then it will be your business to run into the house and bring out the
+muskets, as quick as a rat runs through a kitchen: and when you have
+done that, why, all's done. But if you should hear any popping of
+fire-arms--that is, more than one shot, which I may chance to let
+off--do you take that for a bad sign, and get away as fast as you can
+heel it. You comprehend."
+
+"Oh! yes," replied the lad, "and I'll do what you want, and more too,
+may be, Mr. Robinson."
+
+"_Captain_ Robinson,--remember, Andy, you must call me captain, in the
+hearing of these Scotsmen."
+
+"I'll not forget that neither," answered Andrew.
+
+By the time that these instructions were fully impressed upon the boy,
+our adventurous forlorn hope, as it may fitly be called, had arrived at
+the place which Horse Shoe Robinson had designated for the commencement
+of active operations. They had a clear view of the old field, and it
+afforded them a strong assurance that the enemy was exactly where they
+wished him to be, when they discovered smoke arising from the chimney of
+the hovel. Andrew was soon posted behind a tree, and Robinson only
+tarried a moment to make the boy repeat the signals agreed on, in order
+to ascertain that he had them correctly in his memory. Being satisfied
+from this experiment that the intelligence of his young companion might
+be depended upon, he galloped across the intervening space, and, in a
+few seconds, abruptly reined up his steed, in the very doorway of the
+hut. The party within was gathered around a fire at the further end,
+and, in the corner near the door, were four muskets thrown together
+against the wall. To spring from his saddle and thrust himself one pace
+inside of the door, was a movement which the sergeant executed in an
+instant, shouting at the same time--
+
+"Halt! File off right and left to both sides of the house, and wait
+orders. I demand the surrender of all here," he said, as he planted
+himself between the party and their weapons. "I will shoot down the
+first man who budges a foot."
+
+"Leap to your arms," cried the young officer who commanded the little
+party inside of the house. "Why do you stand?"
+
+"I don't want to do you or your men any harm, young man," said Robinson,
+as he brought his rifle to a level, "but, by my father's son, I will not
+leave one of you to be put upon a muster-roll if you raise a hand at
+this moment."
+
+Both parties now stood, for a brief space, eyeing each other in a
+fearful suspense, during which there was an expression of doubt and
+irresolution visible on the countenances of the soldiers, as they
+surveyed the broad proportions, and met the stern glance of the
+sergeant, whilst the delay, also, began to raise an apprehension in the
+mind of Robinson that his stratagem would be discovered.
+
+"Shall I let loose upon them, captain?" said Andrew Ramsay, now
+appearing, most unexpectedly to Robinson, at the door of the hut. "Come
+on, boys!" he shouted, as he turned his face towards the field.
+
+"Keep them outside of the door--stand fast," cried the doughty sergeant,
+with admirable promptitude, in the new and sudden posture of his affairs
+caused by this opportune appearance of the boy. "Sir, you see that it's
+not worth while fighting five to one; and I should be sorry to be the
+death of any of your brave fellows; so, take my advice, and surrender to
+the Continental Congress and this scrap of its army which I command."
+
+During this appeal the sergeant was ably seconded by the lad outside,
+who was calling out first on one name, and then on another, as if in the
+presence of a troop. The device succeeded, and the officer within,
+believing the forbearance of Robinson to be real, at length said:--
+
+"Lower your rifle, sir. In the presence of a superior force, taken by
+surprise, and without arms, it is my duty to save bloodshed. With the
+promise of fair usage, and the rights of prisoners of war, I surrender
+this little foraging party under my command."
+
+"I'll make the terms agreeable," replied the sergeant. "Never doubt me,
+sir. Right hand file, advance, and receive the arms of the prisoners!"
+
+"I'm here, captain," said Andrew, in a conceited tone, as if it were a
+mere occasion of merriment; and the lad quickly entered the house and
+secured the weapons, retreating with them some paces from the door.
+
+"Now, sir," said Horse Shoe to the Ensign, "your sword, and whatever
+else you mought have about you of the ammunitions of war!"
+
+The officer delivered up his sword and a pair of pocket pistols.
+
+As Horse Shoe received these tokens of victory, he asked, with a lambent
+smile, and what he intended to be an elegant and condescending
+composure, "Your name, sir, if I mought take the freedom?"
+
+"Ensign St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's seventy-first regiment of light
+infantry."
+
+"Ensign, your sarvent," added Horse Shoe, still preserving this unusual
+exhibition of politeness. "You have defended your post like an old
+sodger, although you ha'n't much beard on your chin; but, seeing you
+have given up, you shall be treated like a man who has done his duty.
+You will walk out, now, and form yourselves in line at the door. I'll
+engage my men shall do you no harm; they are of a marciful breed."
+
+When the little squad of prisoners submitted to this command, and came
+to the door, they were stricken with equal astonishment and
+mortification to find, in place of the detachment of cavalry which they
+expected to see, nothing but a man, a boy, and a horse. Their first
+emotions were expressed in curses, which were even succeeded by laughter
+from one or two of the number. There seemed to be a disposition on the
+part of some to resist the authority that now controlled them; and
+sundry glances were exchanged, which indicated a purpose to turn upon
+their captors. The sergeant no sooner perceived this, than he halted,
+raised his rifle to his breast, and, at the same instant, gave Andrew
+Ramsay an order to retire a few paces, and to fire one of the captured
+pieces at the first man who opened his lips.
+
+"By my hand," he said, "if I find any trouble in taking you, all five,
+safe away from this here house, I will thin your numbers with your own
+muskets! And that's as good as if I had sworn to it."
+
+"You have my word, sir," said the Ensign. "Lead on."
+
+"By your leave, my pretty gentleman, you will lead, and I'll follow,"
+replied Horse Shoe. "It may be a new piece of drill to you; but the
+custom is to give the prisoners the post of honor."
+
+"As you please, sir," answered the Ensign. "Where do you take us to?"
+
+"You will march back by the road you came," said the sergeant.
+
+Finding the conqueror determined to execute summary martial law upon the
+first who should mutiny, the prisoners submitted, and marched in double
+file from the hut back towards Ramsay's--Horse Shoe, with Captain
+Peter's bridle dangling over his arm, and his gallant young auxiliary
+Andrew, laden with double the burden of Robinson Crusoe (having all the
+fire-arms packed upon his shoulders), bringing up the rear. In this
+order victors and vanquished returned to David Ramsay's.
+
+"Well, I have brought you your ducks and chickens back, mistress," said
+the sergeant, as he halted the prisoners at the door; "and, what's more,
+I have brought home a young sodger that's worth his weight in gold."
+
+"Heaven bless my child! my brave boy!" cried the mother, seizing the lad
+in her arms, and unheeding anything else in the present perturbation of
+her feelings. "I feared ill would come of it; but Heaven has preserved
+him. Did he behave handsomely, Mr. Robinson? But I am sure he did."
+
+"A little more venturesome, ma'am, than I wanted him to be," replied
+Horse Shoe; "but he did excellent service. These are his prisoners,
+Mistress Ramsay; I should never have got them if it hadn't been for
+Andy. In these drumming and fifing times the babies suck in quarrel with
+their mother's milk. Show me another boy in America that's made more
+prisoners than there was men to fight them with, that's all!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+SHOWING HOW A GOOD SOLDIER WILL TURN THE ACCIDENTS OF WAR TO
+THE BEST ACCOUNT. ENSIGN ST. JERMYN IN A DISAGREEABLE DILEMMA.
+
+
+Robinson having thus succeeded in his enterprise, now found himself in
+circumstances of peculiar perplexity in regard to the disposal of his
+prisoners. Here he was, in the neighborhood of the British posts--in a
+district of country of which the enemy might be said to have, at this
+moment, complete possession--(for Horse Shoe himself was almost the only
+belligerent in the field against them)--and, more than that, he was but
+a few miles' distant from a camp whose scouts had chased him almost to
+his present place of refuge. It was scarcely probable, therefore, that
+he could hope to retain his captives long under his control, or prevent
+the enemy from receiving intelligence of the capture. He was, however,
+notwithstanding these embarrassments, as usual, cheerful, confident, and
+self-possessed. He had no wish or motive to detain the private soldiers
+as prisoners of war, and would at once have dismissed them, if he could
+have assured himself that they would not make the earliest use of their
+liberty to convey information of their misadventure to the first corps
+of loyalists they should meet, and thus get up a hot pursuit of him
+through the whole district. But he had cogent and most important reasons
+for holding the ensign, St. Jermyn, in close custody. It occurred to
+him, that this officer might be used to control the procedure that
+should be adopted by those who meditated injury to Arthur Butler; and he
+therefore, at once formed the resolution of communicating with the
+nearest British authorities, in order to assure them that he would
+retaliate upon the Ensign any pain that might be inflicted upon his late
+comrade. His plan was speedily formed--it was to keep his prisoners
+until night-fall, move off under cover of the darkness to some remote
+and concealed spot with St. Jermyn, and release the others, on their
+parole or pledge not to take up arms until regularly exchanged.
+
+Whilst the sergeant was deliberating over these arrangements, the
+prisoners were allowed to shelter themselves from the rain under a shed
+near the door of the dwelling, where Andrew, with all the pride and
+importance of his new station, marched to and fro, before them, like a
+trained sentinel. There was a small log building in the yard of Ramsay's
+mansion, which had been recently erected as a store-house, and which
+being well secured at the door by a padlock, Robinson determined to
+convert for the nonce into a prison. It contained but one room, not
+above twelve feet square, with an earthen floor, and received no light
+except such as was admitted under the door, and through a few crannies
+about the roof. Into this narrow apartment the soldiers were now
+marched; a bundle of straw was thrown upon the floor; sundry flitches of
+bacon, that hung upon the walls, were removed; and a few comforts, in
+the way of food and drink, were supplied to render the accommodation as
+tolerable to the inmates as was compatible with their safe custody. This
+being done, our friend Andrew was posted in the passage-way of the
+dwelling, in full view of the door of the store-house, which was
+carefully locked, with a musket in his hand, and with orders to make a
+circuit every five minutes round the little building, to guard against
+any attempts at escape by under-mining the foundation.
+
+As noon approached the weather began to clear up, and with the first
+breaking forth of the sun came David Ramsay, the proprietor of the farm
+which was the scene of the present operations. His recognition of Horse
+Shoe Robinson was accompanied by a hearty greeting, and with an
+expression of wonder that he should have ventured, in hostile guise,
+through a country so beset as this was by the forces of the enemy; but
+when he heard the narrative of the exploit of the morning, and saw the
+trophies of its success in the weapons piled against the wall, and, more
+especially, when he received from the lips of his wife a circumstantial
+account of the part which had been performed in this adventure by his
+son Andrew, his delight seemed almost to be absorbed by his astonishment
+and incredulity. The proofs, however, were all around him; and after
+assuring himself, by an actual inspection of the prisoners through one
+of the chinks of the store-house, he came into his own parlour, sat
+down, and laughed out-right.
+
+Ramsay was a staunch friend of the independence of his country; and
+although he had not been up in arms in the cause, he gave it all the aid
+he could by the free expression of opinion, and by a resolute refusal to
+comply with the requisitions of the royalists. His eldest son had joined
+Sumpter, and had already been active in the field; and he himself
+looked, with an almost certain expectation, to see visited upon himself
+that proscription under which thousands were already suffering, and
+which he had only escaped as yet by the temporizing delays of his
+opponents, or by their neglect, arising out of the incessant hurry and
+pressure of their military operations in the organization of the new
+dominion which the royal forces had but lately acquired. He was a man of
+sturdy frame--now only in the prime of life--brave, thoughtful, and
+intelligent, and firmly resolved to stand by his principles through
+whatever adverse chances. The present aspect of affairs was, to his
+mind, almost decisive of his fate: the capture of these prisoners, made
+from information derived from his own family, and in which his own son
+had been a principal agent; their confinement, too, in his own house,
+were facts of so unequivocal a character as inevitably to draw upon him
+the prompt ire of the Tories, and compel him to assume the attitude and
+abide by the issues of a partisan. As he had faith in the justice of his
+quarrel, and a strong devotion to the principles upon which it was
+sustained, he did not hesitate in the crisis before him, but heroically
+determined to meet the worst that might befal. He, therefore, in the
+present emergency, became a useful and efficient ally to Robinson, who
+opened to him the full history of Butler, and the course of measures he
+was about to pursue for the relief of that unfortunate officer.
+
+We must now leave the sergeant holding watch and ward over his
+vanquished foes, and shift our scene to Musgrove's Mill. The
+family of Allen Musgrove were in a state of great disquietude. Horse
+Shoe Robinson had disappeared before daylight; and when the miller and
+his nephew left their beds, a little after the dawn, the only
+intelligence they had of the departure of their guest was inferred from
+finding the stable door open and the sergeant's horse absent. This fact
+was explained when Mary met them at breakfast. Horse Shoe had set out
+for Ramsay's to learn some tidings of John, and to enlist him in an
+effort to liberate Butler. He had departed under cover of darkness to
+avoid molestation from Innis's scouts, and she, Mary Musgrove, had
+placed the key of the stable, the night before, in a place where Horse
+Shoe might find it. Such was the extent of the maiden's information. The
+day passed wearily upon her hand: she was anxious to hear something of
+Butler--something of Horse Shoe--and something, we suppose, of John
+Ramsay. Frequently during the morning she and Christopher Shaw held
+secret conferences: they spoke in whispers: suspense, care, and doubt
+were pictured upon her face; and as the rain pattered against the
+windows she oftentimes stood before them, and looked out upon the
+distant road, and across the wide fields, and then upwards to the
+clouded sky. The sun at length appeared, and his rays seemed to shoot a
+glimpse of joy into the breast of the maiden, as she walked forth to
+note the drying of the roads, and to see the clear blue, which, in that
+climate, outvies the mellow and rich tints of a Tuscan heaven.
+
+The day waxed, and the birds sang, and nature was gay, but the maiden
+was restless and unquiet: the day waned, and the sun rode downwards on
+the western slope in gorgeous beauty; but Mary was ill at ease, and
+thought little of the grand and glorious firmament. Her communings with
+Christopher Shaw, meantime, became more eager: she and her cousin were
+seen to wander towards the mill; then Christopher left her, and,
+presently, he might be discovered leading two horses, one bearing a
+side-saddle, down to the margin of the stream. There was a short visit
+to the house by the young man--a word whispered in the ear of the
+mother--a shake of her head, an expression of doubt, a final nod of
+assent,--and, in the next moment, Mary and Christopher were seen
+trotting off on horseback, on the road that led towards Ramsay's.
+
+When they had ridden some two or three miles, and had entered upon the
+high-road between Ninety-Six and Blackstock's--somewhere near to that
+piece of haunted ground, where, on the morning of this very day, a
+goblin had struck down James Curry from his steed--they descried a
+military party of horse and foot slowly advancing from the direction to
+which they were travelling. In a few moments they met the first platoon
+of the cavalry, headed by a trumpeter and the unsightly captain Hugh
+Habershaw. They were detained at the head of this column, whilst some
+questions were asked respecting the object of their journey, the troops
+in their neighborhood, and other matters connected with the affairs of
+the times. Christopher's answers were prompt and satisfactory: he was
+only riding with his kinswoman on a visit to a neighbor; Innis's camp
+was not above two miles and a half away, and the country in general was
+quiet, as far as he had the means of knowing. The travellers were now
+suffered to pass on. In succession, they left behind them each platoon
+of threes, and then encountered the small column of march of the
+infantry. Mary grew pale as her eyes fell upon the form of Arthur
+Butler, posted in the centre of a guard. Her feeling lest he might not
+recognise her features, and guess something of her errand, almost
+overpowered her. She reined up her horse, as if to gratify an idle
+curiosity to see the soldiers passing, and halted in a position which
+compelled the ranks to file off, in order to obtain a free passage round
+her. Every look seemed to be turned upon her as the escort marched near
+her horse's head, and it was impossible to make the slightest sign to
+Butler without being observed. She saw him, however, lift his eyes to
+hers, and she distinctly perceived the flash of surprise with which it
+was kindled as he became aware of her features. A faint and transient
+smile, which had in it nothing but pain, was the only return she dared
+to make. An order from the van quickened the march; and the detachment
+moved rapidly by. As Mary still occupied the ground on which she had
+halted, and was gazing after the retreating corps, she saw Butler turn
+his face back towards her; she seized the moment to nod to him and to
+make a quick sign with her hand, which she intended should indicate the
+fact that she was now engaged in his service. She thought she perceived
+a response in a slight motion of Butler's head, and now resumed her
+journey, greatly excited by the satisfaction of having, in this
+accidental encounter, obtained even this brief insight into the
+condition of the prisoner.
+
+The sun was set, when Mary with her convoy, Christopher Shaw, arrived at
+Ramsay's. Always an acceptable guest at this house, she was now more
+than ever welcome. There was business to be done in which she could
+discharge a most important part, and the service of Christopher Shaw in
+reinforcing the garrison was of the greatest moment. When the
+intelligence regarding the movement of Butler to Innis's camp was
+communicated to the sergeant, it suggested a new device to his mind,
+which he determined instantly to adopt. Butler was at this moment, he
+concluded, in the hands of those who had engaged the ruffians to set
+upon him at Grindall's ford, and it was not improbable that he would be
+summarily dealt with: there was no time, therefore, to be lost. The
+sergeant's plan, in this new juncture, was, to compel the young ensign
+to address a letter to the British commandant, to inform that officer of
+his present imprisonment, and to add to this information the
+determination of his captors to put him to death, in the event of any
+outrage being inflicted upon Butler. This scheme was communicated to
+Ramsay, Shaw, and Mary. The letter was to be immediately written; Mary
+was to return with it to the mill, and was to contrive to have it
+secretly delivered, in the morning, at Innis's head-quarters; and David
+Ramsay himself was to escort the maiden back to her father's house,
+whilst Shaw was to attend the sergeant and assist him to transport the
+young ensign to some fit place of concealment. The private soldiers were
+to remain prisoners, under the guard of Andrew, until his father's
+return, when they were to be released on parole, as prisoners of war.
+
+The plan being thus matured, Robinson went forthwith to the
+prison-house, and directed Ensign St. Jermyn to follow him into the
+dwelling. When the young officer arrived in the family parlor, he was
+ordered to take a chair near a table, upon which was placed a light,
+some paper, pen, and ink.
+
+"Young man," said Robinson, "take up that pen and write as I bid you."
+
+"To what end am I to write? I must know the purpose you design to
+answer, before I can put my hand to paper."
+
+"To the end," replied Horse Shoe firmly, and with unwonted gravity, "of
+the settlement of your worldly affairs, if the consarns of to-morrow
+should bring ill luck to a friend of mine."
+
+"I do not understand you, sir. If my life is threatened to accomplish an
+unrighteous purpose, it is my duty to tell you at once, that that life
+belongs to my king; and if his interests are to suffer by any forced act
+of mine, I am willing to resign it at once."
+
+"Never was purpose more righteous, sir, in the view of God and man, than
+ours," said David Ramsay.
+
+"I have a friend," added Horse Shoe, greatly excited as he spoke, "who
+has been foully dealt by. Some of your enlisted gangs have laid an
+ambuscade to trap him: villany has been used, by them that ought to be
+ashamed to see it thriving under their colors, to catch a gentleman who
+was only doing the common duties of a good sodger; and by mean
+bush-fighting, not by fair fields and honest blows--they have seized him
+and carried him to the camp of that blood-sucking Tory, Colonel Innis. I
+doubt more harm is meant him than falls to the share of a common
+prisoner of war."
+
+"I know nothing of the person, nor of the circumstances you speak
+about," said the ensign.
+
+"So much the better for you," replied the sergeant. "If your people are
+brave sodgers or honest men, you will not have much occasion to be
+afeard for yourself; but, by my right hand! if so much as one hair of
+Major Arthur Butler's head be hurt by Colonel Innis, or by any other man
+among your pillaging and brandishing bullies, I myself will drive a
+bullet through from one of your ears to the other. This game of war is a
+stiff game, young man, but we will play it out."
+
+"Major Arthur Butler!" exclaimed the officer, with astonishment, "is he
+taken?"
+
+"Ha! you've hearn of him, and know something, mayhap, of them that were
+on the look-out for him?"
+
+"I cannot write," said the officer sullenly.
+
+"No words, sir," interrupted Horse Shoe, "but obey my orders; write what
+I tell you, or take your choice. I will bind you hand and foot to a tree
+on yonder mountain, to starve till you write that letter; or to feed the
+wild vermin with your body, if you refuse."
+
+The ensign looked in Robinson's face, where a frown of stern resolution
+brooded upon his brow, and a kindling tempest of anger showed that this
+was not a moment to hazard the trial of his clemency.
+
+"What would you have the purport of my letter?" asked the officer, in a
+subdued voice.
+
+"That you have got into the hands of the Whigs," replied the sergeant;
+"and that if so be any mischief should fall upon Major Butler, by the
+contrivings of your friends, you die the first minute that we hear of
+it."
+
+"I have had no hand in the taking of Major Butler," said the young St.
+Jermyn.
+
+"I am glad of it," answered Robinson, "for your sake. You will die with
+a better conscience. If you had a hand in it, young man, I wouldn't ask
+you to write a line to any breathing man: your brains would spatter that
+door-post. Take up the pen and write, or stand by the consequences."
+
+The officer took up the pen, then, hesitating a moment, flung it down,
+saying:
+
+"I will not write; do with me as you choose."
+
+"The young man drives me to it, against my own nature," said Robinson,
+speaking under strong excitement. "If he will not pen that letter, then,
+David Ramsay, you will write to Innis, in my name, and say Galbraith
+Robinson has got the Ensign where no Tory foot will ever follow him, and
+holds him to answer the first mischief that is done to Arthur Butler.
+But, I swear to this sulky boy, that if that letter goes to Innis for
+want of a better, as I am a man and a sodger, he will never taste food
+or water till I hear that Major Butler is free. He shall starve in the
+mountain."
+
+"Oh, God! oh, God!" ejaculated the young soldier, in bitterness of
+heart; and covering his face with his hands, he threw his head upon the
+table, where he wept tears of agony. At length, looking in the
+countenance of Robinson, he said: "I am young, sir--not above twenty
+years. I have a mother and sisters in England."
+
+"We have no time to spare," interrupted Robinson, "much less to talk
+about kinsfolk. Major Butler has them that love his life better than
+e'er an Englishwoman loves her son. If they are brought to grief by this
+onnatural rascality, it matters nothing to me if every daughter and
+sister in England pines away of heart-sickness, for the loss of them
+that they love best. Take my advice, my lack-beard," added Robinson,
+patting him on the shoulder, "and write the letter. You have the
+chances of war in your favor, and may save your neck."
+
+"I will do your bidding, sir," said the ensign, after a pause. "Under
+the compulsion of force, I agree to write," and he once more took up the
+pen.
+
+"You speak now like a reasonable gentleman," said Horse Shoe. "I pity
+you, friend, and will preserve you against harm, so far as it can be
+done in the circumstances of the case."
+
+The ensign then wrote a few lines, in which he communicated to Colonel
+Innis, or to whatever officer his letter might be delivered, the straits
+in which he found himself, and the resolution of his captors to hold his
+life forfeit upon the event of any rigors, beyond those of an ordinary
+prisoner of war, imposed upon Major Butler. When he had finished, he
+gave the paper to Robinson.
+
+"Read it aloud, Mr. Ramsay," said Horse Shoe, delivering the scrawl to
+his friend.
+
+Ramsay read what was written.
+
+"It must be wrote over again," said Horse Shoe, after he had heard the
+contents. "First, it must make no mention of his being only a few miles
+off; that must be left out. Secondly, my name needn't be told; though if
+the runagates knowed he was in my hands, they wouldn't think his chance
+any better on that account. Let him say that the Whigs have got
+him--that's enough. And, lastly, he must write his own name in full at
+the bottom. And, look you, young man, don't be scrawling out the lines
+in such a way that your own hand-write moughtn't be known. That must
+speak for itself, because upon this letter depends your life. You
+understand?"
+
+"Give it me," said the ensign; "I will write it as you desire."
+
+And again the unfortunate officer applied himself to the task that was
+imposed upon him; and in a short time produced a letter, which, being
+subjected to the criticism of the bystanders, was pronounced
+satisfactory.
+
+As soon as this was done, St. Jermyn was conducted into another
+apartment, and there confided to the guardianship of Christopher Shaw.
+Horse Shoe now took a light and the writing materials from the table,
+and repaired with David Ramsay--both of them well armed--to the
+store-house, where the other prisoners were confined. After they had
+entered and closed the door, posting Andrew with his musket on the
+outside, Horse Shoe addressed the men in a gay and cheerful tone:
+
+"Come, my lads, as you are good, honest fellows, that can have no great
+love for these little country cabins, judging by your bad luck and
+oncomfortable circumstances in that one where I found you this morning,
+I have come to set you free. By the laws of war, you have the right, if
+I choose to take it, to give me your parole. So now, if you have a mind
+to promise me, on the honor of sodgers, not to sarve again until you are
+fairly exchanged, you shall all leave this before daybreak. What do you
+say to the terms?"
+
+"We are all agreed," replied the men, with one accord.
+
+"Then write out something to that effect," said the sergeant to Ramsay.
+"You that can't scratch like scholards, stick your marks to the
+paper--d'ye hear?"
+
+The parole was written out by Ramsay, and duly signed or marked by each
+of the four men. This being done, the sergeant informed them that,
+exactly at three in the morning, the door would be opened, and they
+would be at liberty to go where they pleased, provided they pledged
+themselves to visit no post of the enemy within twenty miles, nor
+communicate any particulars relating to their capture or detention to
+any British or Tory officer or soldier, within seven days. This pledge
+was cheerfully given, and after a few words of jocular good-nature were
+exchanged on both sides, Horse Shoe and his companion retired.
+
+David Ramsay now ordered out his own and Mary Musgrove's horses, with an
+intention to set out immediately for the mill.
+
+"Does Major Butler know that you are in his neighborhood?" inquired
+Ramsay of the sergeant, before the horses were brought to the door.
+
+"Oh, bless you, yes," replied Horse Shoe. "I left word for him yesterday
+at Blackstock's, by giving the babblers there something to talk about,
+which I knew he would hear." And the sergeant went on to relate the
+particulars of his stop at that post: "And I sent him a message,"
+continued he, "this morning, by James Curry, in the same sort of
+fashion. A little before daylight, I heard the devil singing one of his
+staves upon the road back here, so loud that he seemed to be frightened
+by ghosts or sperits; so I rode up fast behind him, and cuffed him out
+of his saddle, and then away I went like a leather-winged bat. I knowed
+the curmudgeon's voice, and I expect he knowed my hand, for he has felt
+it before. I'll be bound, he made a good story out of it; and, as such
+things fly, I make no doubt it wasn't long reaching the ear of the
+major, who would naturally think it was me, whether James told my name
+or not, because he knows my way. It was as good as writing a letter to
+the major, to signify that I was lurking about, close at hand. I never
+went to school, Mr. Ramsay, so I write my letters by making my mark. I
+can make a blow go further than a word upon occasion, and that's an
+old-fashioned way of telling your thoughts, that was found out before
+pen and ink."
+
+"Well, Horse Shoe, you are a man after your own sort," replied Ramsay,
+laughing. "Come, Mary, take the letter; our horses are at the door."
+
+"Good bye t'ye, David," said Horse Shoe, shaking Ramsay's hand; "it may
+be some days before we see each other again. Kit and me will be off with
+this young ensign before you get back. Don't forget the prisoners at
+three o'clock. And, a word, David--where had we best take this young
+sparrow, the ensign, to keep him out of the way of these fellows that
+are scouring the country?"
+
+"Leave that to Christopher Shaw," replied Ramsay; "he knows every nook
+in the country. So, now, friend Robinson, good night, and luck go with
+you!"
+
+It was a clear starlit night, and every tree and pool sent forth a
+thousand notes from the busy insects and reptiles that animate the
+summer hours of darkness, when David Ramsay set out with Mary Musgrove
+for her father's house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+NEW DIFFICULTIES OPEN UPON BUTLER.
+
+
+With the last notes of the reveillée everything was stirring in Innis's
+camp. It was a beautiful, fresh morning; a cool breeze swept across the
+plain, and each spray and every blade of grass sparkled with the dew;
+whilst above, an unclouded firmament gave promise of a rich and
+brilliant mid-summer's day. The surrounding forest was alive with the
+twittering of birds; and the neighing of horses showed that this portion
+of the animal creation partook of the hilarity of the season. From every
+little shed or woodland lair, crept forth parties of soldiers, who
+betook themselves to their several posts to answer at the rollcall; and
+by the time the sun had risen, officers, on horseback and on foot, were
+seen moving hurriedly across the open plain, to join the groups of
+infantry and cavalry, which were now forming in various quarters for the
+purposes of the morning drill. Companies were seen in motion, passing
+through the rapid evolutions of the march, the retreat, and the many
+exercises of service. Drums were beating, and fifes were piercing the
+air with their high notes, and, ever and anon, the trumpet brayed from
+the further extremities of the field. Picquet-guards were seen mustering
+on the edge of the camp--wearied and night-worn: salutes were exchanged
+by the small detachments on service; and, here and there, sentinels
+might be descried, stationed at the several outlets of the plain, and
+presenting their arms as an officer passed their lines.
+
+The troops that occupied this space were mostly of the irregular kind.
+Some were distinguished by ill-fitted and homely uniforms; others were
+clad in the common dress of the country, distinguished as soldiers only
+by their arms and accoutrements; but amongst them was also a
+considerable party of British regulars, clad in the national livery of
+scarlet. Amongst the officers, who were in command of the subordinate
+departments of this mixed and parti-colored little army, were several
+who, from their costume, might be recognised as belonging to the
+regiments that had come from the other side of the Atlantic.
+
+Colonel Innis himself was seen upon the parade, directing the movements
+of divisions that, under their proper officers, were practising the
+customary lessons of discipline. He was a tall, thin man, of an
+emaciated complexion, with a countenance of thoughtful severity. A keen
+black eye seemed almost to burn within its orb, and to give an
+expression of petulant and peevish excitability, like the querulousness
+of a sick man. A rather awkward and ungainly person, arrayed in a
+scarlet uniform that did but little credit to the tailor-craft employed
+in its fabrication, conveyed to the spectator the idea of a man unused
+to the pride of appearance that belongs to a soldier by profession; and
+would have suggested the conclusion, which the fact itself sustained,
+that the individual before him had but recently left the walks of civil
+life to assume a military office. His demeanour, however, showed him to
+be a zealous if not a skilful officer. He gave close attention to the
+duties of his command, and busied himself with scrupulous exactitude in
+enforcing the observances necessary to a rigorous system of tactics.
+
+This officer, as we have before hinted, had been an active participator
+in the proceedings of the new court of sequestrations at Charleston; and
+had rendered himself conspicuous by the fierce and unsparing industry
+with which he had brought to the judgment of that tribunal, the imputed
+delinquencies of some of the most opulent and patriotic citizens of the
+province.
+
+Amongst the cases upon which he had been called into consultation was
+that of Arthur Butler, whose possessions being ample, and whose
+position, as a rebellious belligerent, being one of "flagrant delict,"
+there was but little repugnance, on the part of the judges and their
+adviser, to subject him to the severest law of confiscation. The
+proceedings, however, had been delayed, not from any tenderness to the
+proprietor, but, as it was whispered in the scandal of the day, on
+account of certain dissensions, amongst a few prominent servants of the
+British crown, as to which of them the privilege of a cheap purchase
+should be extended. The matter was still in suspense, with a view (as
+that busybody, common rumor, alleged) to reward a particular favorite of
+the higher powers with the rich guerdon of these good lands, in
+compensation for private and valuable secret services, rendered in a
+matter of great delicacy and hazard--no less a service than that of
+seducing into the arena of politics and intrigue, an opulent and
+authoritative gentleman of Virginia, Mr. Philip Lindsay.
+
+In consequence of the odious nature of the duty which Colonel Innis had
+assumed to perform, he became peculiarly hateful to the Whigs; and this
+sentiment was in no degree abated when, relinquishing his occupation as
+a counsellor to the court at Charleston, he accepted a commission to
+command a partisan corps of royalists in the upper country. He was, at
+the juncture in which I have exhibited him to my reader, new in his
+command, and had not yet "fleshed his maiden sword:" the day, however,
+was near at hand when his prowess was to be put to the proof.
+
+Such was the person into whose hands Arthur Butler had now fallen.
+
+After the morning exercises of the camp were finished, and the men were
+dismissed to prepare their first repast, the principal officers returned
+to the colonel's head-quarters in the farm-house, where, it will be
+remembered, Butler had been delivered by the escort that had conducted
+him from Blackstock's. The prisoner had slept soundly during the whole
+night; and now, as the breakfast hour drew nigh, he had scarcely awaked
+and put on his clothes, before he heard an inquiry, made by some one
+below, of the orderly on duty, whether the Whig officer was yet in a
+condition to be visited; and, in the next moment, the noise of
+footsteps, ascending the stair towards his chamber, prepared him to
+expect the entrance of the person who had asked the question.
+
+A British officer, in full uniform, of a graceful and easy carriage,
+neat figure, and of a countenance that bespoke an intelligent and
+cultivated mind, made his appearance at the door. He was apparently of
+five or six and thirty years of age; and whilst he paused a moment, as
+with a purpose to apologize for the seeming intrusion, Butler was struck
+with the air of refined breeding of the individual before him.
+
+"Major Butler, I understand, of the Continental army?" said the
+stranger. "The unpleasant nature of the circumstances in which you are
+placed, I hope will excuse the trespass I have committed upon your
+privacy. Captain St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's army, and lately an
+aide-de-camp of Lord Rawdon."
+
+Butler bowed coldly, as he replied:
+
+"To meet a gentleman, as your rank and name both import, is a privilege
+that has not been allowed me of late. Without knowing wherefore, I have
+been waylaid and outraged by bravoes and ruffians. You, perhaps, sir,
+may be able to afford me some insight into the causes of this
+maltreatment."
+
+"Even if it were proper for me to hold discourse with you on such a
+subject, I could only speak from common report," replied the officer. "I
+know nothing of your seizure, except that, by the common chances of war,
+you have fallen into the hands of the ruling authorities of the
+province, and you will, doubtless, as a soldier, appreciate my motives
+for declining any reference to the circumstances in which you have been
+found. My visit is stimulated by other considerations, amongst which is
+foremost a desire to mitigate the peculiarly uncomfortable captivity to
+which I am sorry to learn you have been subjected."
+
+"I thank you," replied Butler, "for the intention with which your good
+offices are proffered; but you can render me no service that I should
+value so much as that of informing me why I have been brought hither, at
+whose suggestion, and for what purpose."
+
+"I will be plain with you, Major Butler. Your situation demands
+sympathy, however inexorably the present posture of our affairs may
+require the decrees of stern justice, in respect to yourself, to be
+executed. I feel for you, and would gladly aid you to any extent which
+my duty might allow, in averting the possible calamity that may hang
+over you. You are known as a gentleman of consideration and influence in
+the colonies. I may further add, as a brave and venturesome soldier. You
+are believed to have, more boldly than wisely, enterprised the
+accomplishment of certain schemes against the safety of his majesty's
+acknowledged government in this province; besides having committed other
+acts in violation of a faith plighted for you by those who had full
+authority to bind you, thus bringing yourself within the penalties
+appropriate to the violation of a military parole, if not within those
+of treason itself."
+
+"He lies in his throat," cried Butler, "who charges me with forfeiture
+of plighted word or honor, in any action of my life. That I have arrayed
+myself against what you are pleased to term his majesty's acknowledged
+government in this province, I am proud to confess, here in the midst of
+your bands, and will confess it again at your judgment seat; but if
+aught be said against me that shall be intended to attaint my honor as a
+gentleman, I will, in the same presence and before God, throw the lie in
+the teeth of my accuser. Aye, and make good my word, now or hereafter,
+wheresoever it may be allowed me to meet the slanderer."
+
+"I do not condemn your warmth," said St. Jermyn, calmly, "in a matter
+that so deeply stirs your self-esteem; and only desire now to second it
+in all things wherein an honorable enemy may claim the support of those
+who themselves value a good name. The authorities of this post have
+considerately resolved to give you the benefit of a court of inquiry.
+And I hope you will take it as it was meant, in all kindness to you,
+that I have come, before the communication of an official order, to
+apprise you that charges will be duly exhibited against you, and a trial
+be instantly had. If you will accept of my services, feeble and
+inadequate as they may be, I would gladly tender them to afford you such
+facilities as the pressure of the present emergency may allow."
+
+"To be tried! when, and for what? If the charge is that I carry on open
+war against those who are in the habit of calling me and my compatriots
+rebels--I am ready to confess the charge. What need of court or trial?"
+
+"There are graver and more serious offences than that imputed to you,"
+said St. Jermyn.
+
+"When am I to be informed of them, and to what do they tend?"
+
+"You will hear them this morning; when, I am sorry to add, the nature of
+our military operations also enforces the necessity of your trial."
+
+"You can be of little service, if that be true," returned Butler,
+thoughtfully. "My cause can only be defended by my country, long after I
+am made the victim of this unrighteous procedure."
+
+"There is one alternative," said St. Jermyn, with some hesitation in his
+manner, "which a mature deliberation upon your relations as a
+subject,--pardon me, for I do not deem this ill-timed rebellion to have
+obliterated them--may present to your mind."
+
+"Speak it," said Butler, vehemently; "speak out the base thought that is
+rising to your lip, if you dare. Prisoner as I am, I will avenge the
+insult on the spot with the certainty of loss of life. The alternative
+you suggest, is to dishonor me and all who are dear to me by the foul
+opprobrium of treason to my country. You would have me, I suppose,
+renounce the cause to which I have dedicated my life, and take shelter
+with the recreants that have crowded under the banner of St. George?"
+
+"Hold! remember, sir, that you are a prisoner," said St. Jermyn, with
+great coolness; and then after a pause, he added with a sigh: "I will
+not wound, by further converse, the exaggerated and delusive sense of
+honor which is too fatally predominant in your breast, and, as I have
+found it, in the breasts of many of your misguided countrymen. I came to
+serve you, not to excite your feelings; and I will now, even in your
+displeasure, serve you as far as the occasion may afford me means: I
+pray you, call on me without reserve. For the present, believe me, in
+pain and sorrow I take my leave."
+
+With these words, the officer retired.
+
+Butler paced to and fro through his narrow chamber for some minutes, as
+his mind revolved the extraordinary and unexpected disclosures which had
+been made to him in this short visit. A thousand conjectures rose into
+his thoughts as to the nature of the supposed charges that were to be
+brought against him. He minutely retraced all the incidents of his late
+adventures, to ascertain how it was possible to found upon them an
+accusation of violated faith, or to pervert them into an imputation of
+treason against the present doubtful and disputed authority of the
+self-styled conquerors of Carolina. If his attempt to join Clarke was
+treason, it could be no less treason in the followers of Gates to array
+themselves against the royal army; and, that every prisoner hereafter
+taken in battle was to be deemed a traitor to the contested power of
+Cornwallis, seemed to be a pretension too absurd for the most inveterate
+partisans to assert. There was nothing in this review of his actions
+that the most ingenious malice could pervert into an offence punishable
+by the laws of war, by other rigor than such as might be inflicted upon
+an ordinary prisoner taken in arms. Still, there were unhappy doubts of
+some secret treachery that rose to his reflections: the perfidy of
+Adair, manifestly the effect of a bribe; the ambuscade promoted and
+managed by James Curry; the bloody purpose of the brutal gang who
+captured him, frustrated only by the accidental fray in which Blake was
+wounded. Then the "doubtful givings out" which fell from the lips of
+some of the soldiers at Blackstock's, of his case still being one of
+life and death; the insinuation of the savage Habershaw, at the same
+place, conveyed in the threat of twisted hemp; the knowledge which his
+present keepers affected to have of his rank and consequence, of his
+past life and present aims; and, above all, his being brought for
+immediate trial, in a matter affecting his life, before the very man,
+now in the capacity of a military commander, who had heretofore been
+active in promoting the design of confiscating his estate. All these
+considerations, although unconnected with any circumstance of specific
+offence within his knowledge, led him into the most anxious and
+melancholy forebodings as to the result of this day's proceedings.
+
+"I am doomed to fall," he said, "under some secret stroke of vengeance,
+and my country is to have in my case another stirring appeal against the
+enormity of that iron rule that seeks to bow her head into the dust. So
+be it! The issue is in the hand of God, and my fate may turn to the
+account of the establishment of a nation's liberty. Oh, Mildred, I
+tremble to think of thee! Heaven grant, my girl, that thy fortitude may
+triumph over the martyrdom of him that loves thee better than his
+life!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+A TRIAL.--A GRAVE ACCUSATION THAT STILL FURTHER CONFIRMS BUTLER IN HIS
+BELIEF OF A SECRET ENEMY.--A SUDDEN RESPITE.
+
+
+Butler's baggage, ever since he left Robinson's habitation on the
+Catawba, had been divided into two parcels, one of which he carried in a
+portmanteau on his own horse, and the other had been stowed away in a
+pair of black leather saddle-bags that were flung across Captain Peter.
+These latter sufficed, also, to inclose, in addition to the sergeant's
+own wardrobe, sundry stores of provender, which the careful appetite and
+soldier-like foresight of the trusty squire had, from time to time,
+accumulated for their comfort upon the road-side. After the escape of
+the sergeant, this baggage had been kept with more scrupulousness than
+might have been expected from the character of the freebooters into
+whose possession it had fallen; and now, when Butler had been
+surrendered up to the custody of Colonel Innis, it was restored to the
+prisoner without the loss of any article of value. On this morning,
+therefore, Butler had thrown aside the rustic dress in which he had
+heretofore travelled, and appeared habited as we have described him when
+first introduced to the reader.
+
+After a very slight meal, which had been administered with more personal
+attention and consideration for his rank and condition than he was
+prepared to expect, an officer entered his apartment and communicated an
+order to him to repair to the yard in front of the quarters. Here he
+found a sergeant's guard mustered to receive him, and he was directed to
+march with them to the place that had been selected for his trial. The
+spot pitched upon for this purpose, was at the foot of a large mulberry
+that stood on the border of the plain, at a short distance from the
+house.
+
+When the guard arrived with the prisoner, Colonel Innis was already
+seated at the head of a table, around which were placed several
+officers, both of the regular and militia forces. Writing materials were
+also arranged upon the board, and at the lower end, a few paces removed
+from it, stood a vacant chair. Behind this was erected a pile of drums,
+with one or two colours laid transversely across them. Sentinels were
+stationed at different points near this group, and within their lines
+were collected the principal officers of Innis's command. Somewhat more
+remote, a number of idle spectators were assembled, amongst whom might
+have been discerned Habershaw, Curry, and many of the heroes who had
+figured at Grindall's ford. Captain St. Jermyn had taken a station a
+little to the left of the presiding officer at the table, and in the
+rear of those who appeared to have the management of the approaching
+procedure, and now stood, with his hands folded, apparently an anxious
+and interested looker-on.
+
+There was a thoughtful and even stern expression upon every face when
+Butler appeared--and a silence that was scarce broken by the occasional
+whispers in which the several individuals present communicated with each
+other. The guard marched the prisoner around the circle, and inducted
+him into the vacant chair, where he was received by a quiet and cold
+inclination of the head from each member of the court.
+
+For a few moments he looked around him with a scornful gaze upon the
+assemblage that were to sit in judgment upon him, and bit his lip, as
+his frame seemed to be agitated with deep emotion: at length, when every
+look was bent upon him, and no one breathed a word, he rose upon his
+feet and addressed the company.
+
+"I understand that I am in the presence of a military court, which has
+been summoned for the purpose of inquiring into certain offences, of the
+nature of which I have not yet had the good fortune to be informed,
+except in so far as I am given to infer that they purport of treason. I
+ask if this be true."
+
+The presiding officer bowed his head in token of assent, and then
+presented a paper, which he described as containing the specification of
+charges.
+
+"As an officer of the American army, and the citizen of an independent
+republic," continued Butler, "I protest against any accountability to
+this tribunal; and, with this protest, I publish my wrongs in the face
+of these witnesses, and declare them to arise out of facts disgraceful
+to the character of an honorable nation. I have been drawn by treachery
+into an ambuscade, overpowered by numbers, insulted and abused by
+ruffians. I wish I could say that these outrages were practised at the
+mere motion of the coarse banditti themselves who assailed me; but their
+manifest subserviency to a plan, the object of which was to take my
+life, leaves me no room to doubt that they have been in the employ and
+have acted under the orders of a more responsible head"--
+
+"Keep your temper," interrupted Innis, calmly. "Something is to be
+allowed to the excited feelings of one suddenly arrested in the height
+of a bold adventure, and the court would, therefore, treat your
+expression of such feelings at this moment with lenity. You will,
+however, consult your own welfare, by giving your thoughts to the
+charges against you, and sparing yourself the labor of this useless
+vituperation. Read that paper, and speak to its contents. We will hear
+you patiently and impartially."
+
+"Sir, it can avail me nothing to read it. Let it allege what it may, the
+trial, under present circumstances, will be but a mockery. By the
+chances of war, my life is in your hands; it is an idle ceremony and
+waste of time to call in aid the forms of justice, to do that which you
+have the power to do, without insulting Heaven by affecting to assume
+one of its attributes."
+
+"That we pause to inquire," replied Innis, "is a boon of mercy to you.
+The offence of rank rebellion which you and all your fellow-madmen have
+confessed, by taking up arms against your king, carries with it the last
+degree of punishment. If, waiving our right to inflict summary pain for
+this transgression, we stay to hear what you can say against other and
+even weightier charges, you should thank us for our clemency. But this
+is misspending time. Read the paper to the prisoner," he added,
+addressing one of the officers at the table.
+
+The paper was read aloud. It first presented a charge against the
+prisoner for violating the terms of the parole given at the capitulation
+of Charleston. The specification to support this charge was that, by the
+terms of the surrender, General Lincoln had engaged that the whole
+garrison should be surrendered as prisoners of war, and that they should
+not serve again until exchanged. The prisoner was described as an
+officer of that garrison, included in the surrender, and lately taken in
+the act of making war upon his majesty's subjects.
+
+The second charge was, that the prisoner had insinuated himself, by
+false representations, into the territory conquered by the royal army;
+and that, in the quality of a spy, he had visited the family of a
+certain Walter Adair, with a view to obtain a knowledge of the forces,
+plans, movements, and designs of the various detachments engaged in his
+majesty's service in the neighborhood of Broad River.
+
+And, third and last, that he, together with certain confederates, had
+contrived and partially attempted to execute a plan to seize upon and
+carry away a subject of his majesty's government, of great consideration
+and esteem--Mr. Philip Lindsay, namely, of the Dove Cote, in the
+province of Virginia. That the object of this enterprise was to possess
+himself of the papers as well as of the person of the said Philip
+Lindsay, and, by surrendering him up to the leaders of the rebel army,
+to bring upon him the vengeance of the rebel government, thus exposing
+him to confiscation of property, and even to peril of life.
+
+Such was the general import and bearing of the accusations against the
+prisoner, expressed with the usual abundance of verbiage and minuteness
+of detail. Butler listened to them, at first, with indifference, and
+with a determination to meet them with inflexible silence; but, as the
+enunciation of them proceeded, and the extraordinary misrepresentations
+they contained were successively disclosed, he found his indignation
+rising to a height that almost mastered his discretion, and he was on
+the point of interrupting the court with the lie direct, and of
+involving himself in an act of contumacy which would have been instantly
+decisive of his fate. His better genius, however, prevailed, and,
+smothering his anger by a strong effort of self-control, he merely
+folded his arms and abided until the end, with a contemptuous and proud
+glance at his accusers.
+
+"You have heard the allegations against you, sir," said Colonel Innis;
+"what say you to them?"
+
+"What should an honorable man," replied Butler, "say to such foul
+aspersions? The first and second charges, sir, I pronounce to be
+frivolous and false. As to the last, sir, there are imputations in it
+that mark the agency of a concealed enemy, lost to every impulse of
+honor--a base and wicked liar. Confront me with that man, and let the
+issue stand on this--if I do not prove him to be, in the judgment of
+every true gentleman of your army, an atrocious and depraved slanderer,
+who has contrived against my life for selfish purposes, I will submit
+myself to whatever penalty the most exasperated of my enemies may
+invent. It was my purpose, sir, to remain silent, and to refuse, by any
+act of mine, to acknowledge the violation of the rights of war by which
+I have been dragged hither. Nothing could have swayed me from that
+determination, but the iniquitous falsehood conveyed in the last
+accusation."
+
+"We cannot bandy words with one in your condition," interrupted the
+president of the court. "I must remind you again, that our purpose is to
+give you a fair trial, not to listen to ebullitions of anger. Your honor
+is concerned in these charges, and you will best consult your interest
+by a patient demeanor in your present difficulties."
+
+"I am silent," said Butler, indignantly, taking his seat.
+
+"Let the trial proceed," continued the president. "You will not deny,"
+he said, after an interval of reflection, "that you are a native of
+Carolina?"
+
+"I can scarcely deny that before you," replied Butler, "who, in my
+absence, as report says, have been busy in the investigation of my
+affairs."
+
+"There are bounds, sir, to the forbearance of a court," said Innis,
+sternly. "I understand the taunt. Your estates have been the subject of
+consideration before another tribunal; and if my advice were listened
+to, the process relating to them would be a short one."
+
+"You are answered," returned Butler.
+
+"Nor can you deny that you were an officer belonging to the army under
+the command of General Lincoln."
+
+Butler was silent.
+
+"You were at Charleston during the siege?" inquired one of the court.
+
+"In part," replied Butler. "I left it in March, the bearer of despatches
+to Congress."
+
+"And you were in arms on the night of the thirteenth, at Grindall's
+Ford?" continued the same questioner.
+
+"I confess it, sir."
+
+"That's enough," interrupted Innis. "In the ninth article of the
+capitulation of Charleston we read: 'all civil officers, and the
+citizens who have borne arms _during the siege_, must be prisoners on
+parole.'"
+
+"I should say," interposed St. Jermyn, who now, for the first time,
+opened his lips, "that the prisoner scarcely falls within that
+description. The words 'during the siege' would seem to point to a
+service which lasted to the end. They are, at least, equivocal; and I
+doubt Lord Cornwallis would be loath to sanction a judgment on such a
+ground."
+
+Upon this ensued a consultation amongst the officers at the table,
+during which Butler was withdrawn to a short distance in the rear of the
+assemblage. Several of the unoccupied soldiers of the camp, at this
+stage of the trial, had crowded into the neighborhood of the court; and
+the sentinels, yielding to the eagerness of the common curiosity, had
+relaxed their guard so far as to allow the spectators to encroach beyond
+the lines. Among those who had thrust themselves almost up to the
+trial-table were a few children, male and female, bearing on their arms
+baskets of fruit and vegetables, which had been brought within the camp
+for sale. A smart-looking girl, somewhat older than the rest, seemed to
+have gained more favor from the crowd than her competitors, by the
+temptation which she presented of a rich collection of mellow apples;
+and perhaps her popularity was in some degree increased by the soft and
+pleasant-toned voice in which she recommended her wares, no less than by
+the ruddy, wholesome hue of her cheek, and an agreeable, laughing, blue
+eye, that shone forth from the shade of a deep and narrow sun-bonnet,
+the curtain of which fell upon her shoulders and down her back.
+
+"Buy my apples, gentlemen," said the pretty fruit-merchant, coming up
+fearlessly to Colonel Innis, in the midst of the consultation.
+
+"Three for a penny; they are very ripe and mellow, sir."
+
+The colonel cast his eye upon the treasures of the basket, and began to
+select a few of the choicest fruit. Thus encouraged, the girl set her
+load upon the table, in the midst of the hats and swords with which it
+was encumbered, and very soon every other member of the court followed
+the example of the presiding officer, and became purchasers of the
+greater part of the store before them. When this traffic was concluded,
+the little huckster took up her burden and retired towards the group of
+spectators. Seeing the prisoner in this quarter, she walked up to him,
+curtsied, and presented him an apple, which was gratefully accepted, and
+the proffered return, from him, in money, refused.
+
+When about a quarter of an hour had elapsed, Butler was resummoned to
+his seat, and the court again proceeded to business. The inquiry now
+related to the second charge--that, namely, which imputed to the
+prisoner the character of a spy in his visit at Adair's. To this
+accusation, Captain Hugh Habershaw and several of his troop were called
+as witnesses. The amount of testimony given by them was, that, on the
+eleventh of the month, they had received information that a Continental
+officer, whose real name and title was Major Butler, but who was
+travelling in disguise and under an assumed name, from the Catawba
+towards the Broad River, in company with a well known, stark Whig--a
+certain Horse Shoe Robinson--was expected in a few days to arrive at Wat
+Adair's. That Habershaw, hoping to intercept them, had scoured the
+country between the two rivers; but that the travellers had eluded the
+search, by taking a very circuitous and unfrequented route towards the
+upper part of Blair's Range and Fishing Creek. That, on the night of the
+twelfth, the two men arrived at Adair's, unmolested; and, on the morning
+of the thirteenth, some of the woodman's family had met Habershaw and
+apprised him of this fact; adding, further, that the prisoner had
+offered a bribe to Adair, to induce him to give information in regard to
+the loyalist troops in the neighborhood, with a view to communicate it
+to a certain Colonel Clarke, who had appointed to meet Butler and his
+companion somewhere on the upper border of the province. That, in
+consequence of this attempt, Adair had directed the prisoner towards
+Grindall's Ford; and, this intelligence being communicated to the
+witness, he had conducted his troop to that place, where he succeeded in
+arresting the prisoner and his comrade, with the loss of two men in the
+struggle. The narrative then went on to give the particulars of Horse
+Shoe's escape, and the other facts with which the reader is acquainted.
+This account was corroborated by several witnesses, and, amongst the
+rest, by Curry.
+
+Butler heard the testimony with the most painful sensations. There was
+just enough of truth in it to make the tale plausible; and the falsehood
+related to points which, as they were affirmed upon hearsay, he could
+not repel by proof. There was a common expression of opinion amongst the
+bystanders--who in general were inclined to take the side of the
+prisoner in reference to the charge which was supposed to affect his
+life--that this accusation of Butler's acting the part of a spy was
+sustained by the proof. In vain did he protest against the injustice of
+being condemned on what was alleged to have been said by some of Adair's
+family; in vain did he deny that he had offered a bribe to Adair for
+information respecting the Tories; and equally in vain did he affirm
+that he had asked of Adair nothing more than the common hospitality due
+to a traveller, and for which he had made him a moderate requital--the
+only money the woodman had received from him. The current was now
+setting violently against him, and it seemed impossible to stem it.
+
+"It is but due," said Captain St. Jermyn, a second time interposing in
+behalf of the prisoner, "to the rank and character of Major Butler,
+since a portion of this testimony is second-hand, to take his own
+examination on these alleged facts. With permission, therefore, I would
+ask him a few questions."
+
+"The court will not object," said Innis, who throughout affected the air
+of an impartial judge.
+
+"It is true, Major Butler, that you were at Adair's on the night of the
+twelfth?" said the volunteer advocate of the prisoner.
+
+"I was, sir."
+
+"And you made no concealment of your name or rank?"
+
+"I will not say that," replied Butler.
+
+"You were under a feigned name then, sir?" inquired Innis, as St. Jermyn
+seemed a little confounded by the answer he had received.
+
+"I was called Mr. Butler, sir; my rank or station was not communicated."
+
+"Your dress?"
+
+"Was an assumed one, to avoid inquiry."
+
+"This man, Horse Shoe Robinson," said St. Jermyn, "was known to Adair as
+a whig soldier?"
+
+"Well known," replied Butler; "and I was also represented as belonging
+to that party. Adair himself led us to believe that he was friendly to
+our cause."
+
+Here several members of the court smiled.
+
+"Had you met any parties of loyalists," inquired Innis, "in your journey
+between Catawba and Broad?"
+
+"We had--more than one."
+
+"How did you escape them?"
+
+"By assuming feigned characters and names."
+
+"Your purpose was to join Clarke?"
+
+"I am not at liberty to answer that question," replied the prisoner.
+"Suffice it, sir, I was travelling through this region on a mission of
+duty. My purpose was to act against the enemy. So far the charge is
+true, and only to this extent. I came with no design to pry into the
+condition of the royal troops; I sought only a successful passage
+through a contested, though sadly overpowered country."
+
+"You offered no money to Adair," said St. Jermyn again, as if insisting
+on this point of exculpation, "but what you have already called a
+moderate requital for his entertainment?"
+
+"None," replied the prisoner--"except," he added, "a guinea, to induce
+him to release, from some wicked torture, a wolf he had entrapped."
+
+"It will not do," said Colonel Innis, shaking his head at St. Jermyn;
+and the same opinion was indicated in the looks of several of the court.
+
+"I was at Walter Adair's that night, and saw the gentleman there, and
+heard all that was said by him; and I am sure that he offered Watty no
+money," said our little apple-girl, who had been listening with
+breathless anxiety to the whole of this examination, and who had now
+advanced to the table as she spoke the words. "And I can tell more about
+it, if I am asked."
+
+"And who are you, my pretty maid?" inquired Colonel Innis, as he lifted
+the bonnet from her head and let loose a volume of flaxen curls down
+upon her neck.
+
+"I am Mary Musgrove, the miller's daughter," said the damsel, with great
+earnestness of manner, "and Watty Adair is my uncle, by my mother's
+side--he married my aunt Peggy; and I was at his house when Major Butler
+and Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson came there."
+
+"And what in the devil brought you here?" said Habershaw gruffly.
+
+"Silence!" cried Innis, impatient at the obtrusive interruption of the
+gross captain. "What authority have you to ask questions? Begone, sir."
+
+The heavy bulk of Hugh Habershaw, at this order, sneaked back into the
+crowd.
+
+"I came only to sell a few apples," said Mary.
+
+"Heaven has sent that girl to the rescue of my life," said Butler, under
+the impulse of a feeling which he could not refrain from giving vent to
+in words. "Pray allow me, sir, to ask her some questions."
+
+"It is your privilege," was the answer from two or three of the court;
+and the spectators pressed forward to hear the examination.
+
+Butler carefully interrogated the maiden as to all the particulars of
+his visit, and she, with the most scrupulous fidelity, recounted the
+scenes to which she had been a witness. When she came to detail the
+conversation which she had overheard between Adair and Lynch, and the
+events that followed it, the interest of the bystanders was wound up to
+the highest pitch. There was a simplicity in her recital of this strange
+and eventful story, that gave it a force to which the most skilful
+eloquence might in vain aspire; and when she concluded, the court
+itself, prejudiced as the members were against the prisoner, could not
+help manifesting an emotion of satisfaction at the clear and unequivocal
+refutation which this plain tale inferred against the testimony of
+Habershaw and his confederates. Innis alone affected to treat it
+lightly, and endeavored in some degree to abate its edge, by suggesting
+doubts as to the capacity of a young girl, in circumstance so likely to
+confuse her, to give an exact narrative of such a complicated train of
+events. Every cross-examination, however, which was directed to the
+accuracy of the maiden's story, only resulted in producing a stronger
+conviction of its entire truth. This concluded the examination on the
+second charge.
+
+The court now proceeded to the third and last accusation against the
+prisoner.
+
+To this there was but one witness called--James Curry. In the course of
+the examination this man showed great address and knowledge of the
+world. He gave some short account of himself. He had been a man born to
+a better condition of life than he now enjoyed. His education had been
+liberal, and his associations in life extremely various. It was to be
+inferred from his own relation, that he had fallen into some early
+indiscretion which had thrown him into the lowest stations of society,
+and that his original delinquency had prevented him from ever rising
+above them. He had served for many years in the army, and was present at
+the surrender of Charleston, being at that period a confidential
+servant, or man of business, to the young Earl of Caithness, the
+aide-de-camp of Sir Henry Clinton. Upon the departure of that young
+nobleman with the rest of Sir Henry's military family, for New York, he
+had remained behind, and had taken a similar service to that which he
+had left, with another officer of some repute. "There were state
+reasons," he said, "why this gentleman's name could not now be
+communicated to the court." That, in the month of July, he had attended
+his master on a visit to Mr. Philip Lindsay, in Virginia; and whilst in
+the immediate vicinity of that gentleman's residence, at a small country
+tavern, he had accidentally become privy to the design of the prisoner,
+and the same Horse Shoe Robinson who had been mentioned before, to seize
+upon the person and papers of Mr. Lindsay: that these two persons had
+actually arrived at the tavern he spoke of to commence operations. That
+he had overheard them discussing the whole plan; and he had no doubt
+they had allies at hand to assist in the scheme, and would have
+proceeded that same night to put it in execution, if he had not
+frustrated their design at the risk of his life. That, with the view of
+interrupting this enterprise, he had lured Robinson, the companion of
+the prisoner, to walk with him at night to the margin of a small river
+near the tavern, where he accused him of the treacherous design which he
+and his comrade had in view: that, in consequence of this, Robinson had
+endeavored to take his life which was only saved by a severe struggle;
+and that, being thus discovered in their purpose, this man, Robinson,
+and the prisoner had made a hasty retreat towards Gates's head-quarters.
+
+Such was in effect the narrative of James Curry, which was solemnly
+given upon oath. Butler was for some moments confounded with
+astonishment at the audacity of this falsehood. He urged to the court
+the improbability of the whole story. "It would have been easy," he
+said, "if I had been hostile to Mr. Philip Lindsay--which, God knows,
+there are most cogent reasons to disprove--it would have been easy to
+procure his arrest without an attempt at a violent seizure by me. I had
+only to speak, and the whole country around him would have united in
+treating him as an object of suspicion, on account of his politics." He
+admitted that he was at Mrs. Dimock's at the time spoken of--that
+Robinson attended him there; but all else that had been said relating to
+the visit, he affirmed to be utterly false. He gave the particulars of
+the meeting between Horse Shoe and the witness, as he had it from
+Robinson; and spoke also of his knowledge of the visit of Tyrrel at the
+Dove Cote--"which person," he said, "he had reason to believe, came
+under a name not his own."
+
+"How do you happen to be so familiar," inquired Innis, "with the affairs
+of Mr. Lindsay?"
+
+"That question," replied Butler, "as it refers to matters entirely
+private and personal, I must decline to answer."
+
+Curry, upon a second examination, re-affirmed all he had said before,
+and commented with a great deal of dexterity upon Butler's statement,
+particularly in reference to such parts of it as the prisoner's repeated
+refusal to answer had left in doubt. After a protracted examination upon
+this point, the trial was at length closed, and Butler was ordered back
+to his apartment in the farm-house.
+
+Here he remained for the space of half an hour, an interval that was
+passed by him in the most distressing doubt and anxiety. The whole
+proceeding of the court boded ill to him. The haste of his trial, the
+extraordinary nature of the charges, and the general unsympathizing
+demeanor of the court itself, only spoke to his mind as evidences of a
+concealed hostility, which sought to find a plausible pretext for making
+him a sacrifice to some private malevolence. He was therefore prepared
+to expect the worst when, at the close of the half hour, St. Jermyn
+entered his chamber.
+
+"I come, sir," said the officer, "to perform a melancholy duty. The
+court have just concluded their deliberations."
+
+"And I am to be a sacrifice to their vengeance. Well, so be it! There
+was little need of deliberation in my case, and they have soon
+despatched it," said Butler, with a bitter spirit, as he paced up and
+down his narrow chamber. "What favor have these, my impartial judges,
+vouchsafed to me in my last moment? Shall I die as a common felon, on a
+gibbet, or am I to meet a soldier's doom?"
+
+"That has been thought of," said St. Jermyn. "The commanding officer has
+no disposition to add unnecessary severity to your unhappy fate."
+
+"Thank God for that! and that the files detailed for this service are to
+be drawn from the ranks of my enemies! I will face them as proudly as I
+have ever done on the field of battle. Leave me, sir; I have matters in
+my thought that require I should be alone."
+
+"Your time, I fear, is brief," said St. Jermyn. "The guard is already at
+hand to conduct you to the court, who only stay to pass sentence. I came
+before to break the unhappy news to you."
+
+"It is no news to me," interrupted Butler. "I could expect no other
+issue to the wicked designs by which I have been seized. This solemn
+show of a trial was only got up to give color to a murderous act which
+has been long predetermined."
+
+At this moment, the heavy and regular tap of the drum, struck at equal
+intervals, and a mournful note from a fife, reached the prisoner's ear.
+
+"I come!" exclaimed Butler. "These fellows are practising their manual
+for an occasion in which they appear impatient to act. One would think,
+Captain St. Jermyn," he added, with a smile of scorn, "that they needed
+but little practice to accomplish them for a ceremony which has of late,
+since his majesty has extended his merciful arm over this province,
+grown to be a familiar piece of military punctilio."
+
+St. Jermyn hastily fled from the room, and rushing out upon the
+grass-plot where the guard was collected, cried out:
+
+"Silence, you base and worthless knaves! Is it thus you would insult the
+sufferings of an unfortunate enemy, by drumming, under his very ear,
+your cursed death-notes? Strike but one note upon that drum again, and I
+will have you up to the halberds."
+
+"The music did but try a flourish of the dead march," replied the
+sergeant of the guard; "they are a little rusty, and seeing that the
+Whig officer"--
+
+"Another word, sir, and you shall be sent to the provost-marshal. Attend
+the prisoner."
+
+"I am here," said Butler, who had overheard this conversation, and had
+already descended to the door.
+
+With a mournful and heavy heart, though with a countenance that
+concealed his emotions under an air of proud defiance, he took his place
+in the ranks, and marched to the spot where the court were yet
+assembled.
+
+"A chair for the prisoner," said some of the individuals present, with
+an officious alacrity to serve him.
+
+"I would rather stand," replied Butler. "It is my pleasure to hear the
+behests of my enemies in the attitude a soldier would choose to meet his
+foe in the field."
+
+"Mine is a painful duty, Major Butler," said Innis, rising, as he
+addressed the prisoner. "It is to announce to you that, after a full and
+most impartial trial, in which you have had the advantage of the freest
+examination of witnesses, and every favor accorded to you which the
+usages and customs of war allow, you have been found guilty of two of
+the charges imputed to you in the list with which you were furnished
+this morning. Notwithstanding the satisfactory testimony which was given
+in your behalf by the girl Mary Musgrove, in relation to your conduct at
+the house of Adair, and however disposed the court were to abandon an
+accusation which thus seemed to be refuted, it has occurred to them,
+upon subsequent reflection, that, by your own confession--given, sir,
+permit me to say, with the frankness of a soldier--you came into this
+district in disguise and under false names, and thus enabled yourself to
+collect information relative to the condition of the royal forces, which
+it was doubtless your purpose to use to our detriment. The court, for a
+moment, might have led you to entertain hope that they were satisfied
+that in this charge you had been wronged. The simple, affecting, and,
+no doubt, true narrative made by the miller's daughter produced a
+momentary sensation that was too powerful to be combated. That
+narrative, however, does not relieve you from the effect of your own
+confessions, since both may be true, and the charge still remain
+unimpaired against you.
+
+"The offence of breaking your parole and infringing the terms of the
+capitulation of Charleston, is open to a legal doubt, and, therefore, in
+tenderness to you, has not been pressed; although the court think, that
+the very circumstance of its doubtful character should have inculcated
+upon you the necessity of the most scrupulous avoidance of service in
+the conquered province.
+
+"The last charge against you is fully proved. Not a word of counter
+evidence has been offered. Strictly speaking, by the usages of war, this
+would not be an offence for the notice of a military tribunal. The
+perpetrators of it would be liable to such vindictive measures as the
+policy of the conqueror might choose to adopt. That we have given you,
+therefore, the benefit of an inquiry, you must regard as an act of
+grace, springing out of our sincere desire to do you ample justice. The
+nature of the offence imputed and proved is such as, at this moment,
+every consideration of expediency demands should be visited with
+exemplary punishment. The friends of the royal cause, wherever they may
+reside, shall be protected from the wrath of the rebel government; and
+we have, therefore, no scruple in saying, that the attempt upon the
+person of Mr. Philip Lindsay requires a signal retribution. But for this
+last act, the court might have been induced to overlook all your other
+trespasses. Upon this, however, there is no hesitation.
+
+"Such being the state of the facts ascertained by this tribunal, its
+function ceases with its certificate of the truth of what has been
+proved before it. The rest remains to me. Without the form of an
+investigation, I might, as the commanding officer of a corps on detached
+service, and by virtue of special power conferred upon me, have made up
+a private judgment in the case. I have forborne to do that, until, by
+the sanction of a verdict of my comrades, I might assure myself that I
+acted on the clearest proofs. These have been rendered.
+
+"My order, therefore, is, in accordance with the clear decision of the
+court,--and, speaking to a soldier, I use no unnecessary phrase of
+condolence,--that you be shot to death. Time presses on us and forbids
+delay. You will be conducted to immediate execution. Major Frazer," he
+said, turning to one of his officers, "to your discretion I commit this
+unpleasant duty." Then, in a tone of private direction, he added, "Let
+it be done without delay; pomp and ceremony are out of place in such a
+matter. I wish to have it despatched at once."
+
+"I would speak," said Butler, repressing the agitation of his feelings,
+and addressing Innis with a stern solemnity, "not to implore your mercy,
+nor to deprecate your sentence: even if I could stoop to such an act of
+submission, I know my appeal would reach your ears like the idle wind:
+but I have private affairs to speak of."
+
+"They were better untold, sir," interrupted Innis with an affected air
+of indifference. "I can listen to nothing now. We have other business to
+think of. These last requests and settlements of private affairs are
+always troublesome," he muttered in a tone just audible to the officers
+standing near him; "they conjure up useless sympathies."
+
+"I pray you, sir," interposed St. Jermyn.
+
+"It is in vain, I cannot hear it," exclaimed the commander, evidently
+struggling to shake from his mind an uncomfortable weight. "These are
+woman's requests! God's mercy! How does this differ from death upon the
+field of battle? a soldier is always ready. Ha! What have we here?" he
+exclaimed, as a trooper rode up to the group. "Where are you from? What
+news?"
+
+"A vidette from Rocky Mount," answered the horseman. "I am sent to
+inform you that, yesterday, Sumpter defeated three hundred of our people
+on the Catawba, and has made all that were alive, prisoners, besides
+capturing fifty or sixty wagons of stores which the detachment had under
+convoy for Camden."
+
+The first inquiries that followed this communication related to
+Sumpter's position, and especially whether he was advancing towards this
+camp.
+
+"He is still upon Catawba, tending northwards," replied the vidette.
+
+"Then we are free from danger," interrupted Innis. "I am stripping the
+feathers from a bird to-day that is worth half of Sumpter's prize," he
+added, with a revengeful smile, to an officer who stood by him.
+
+During this interval, in which the commander of the post was engaged
+with the vidette, the guard had conducted the prisoner back to the
+house, and Innis, freed from the restraint of Butler's presence, now
+gave way to the expression of a savage exultation at the power which the
+events of the morning had given him, to inflict punishment upon one that
+he termed an audacious rebel. "The chances jump well with us," he said,
+"when they enable us to season the joy of these ragged traitors, by so
+notable a deed as the execution of one of their shrewdest emissaries.
+This fellow Butler has consideration amongst them, and fortune too: at
+least he had it, but that has gone into better hands; and, to say truth,
+he has a bold and mischievous spirit. The devil has instigated him to
+cross our path; he shall have the devil's comfort for it. The whole
+party taken did you say?"--
+
+"Every man, sir," replied the vidette.
+
+"How many men had this skulking fellow, Sumpter, at his back?"
+
+"They say about seven hundred."
+
+"And did the cowards strike to seven hundred rebels?"
+
+"They were tangled with the wagons," said the soldier, "and were set on
+unawares, on the bank of the river, at the lower ferry."
+
+"Aye, that's the way! An ambuscade, no doubt,--a piece of cowardly
+bush-fighting. Fresh men against poor devils worn down by long marching!
+Well, well, I have a good requital for the rascally trick. Major
+Butler's blood will weigh heavy in the scale, or I am mistaken! Come,
+gentlemen, let us to quarters--we must hold a council."
+
+"Here is a letter," said one of the officers of the court, "which I have
+this moment found on the table, under my sword belt; it seems, from its
+address, to contain matter of moment. How it came here does not appear."
+
+"'To Colonel Innis, or any other officer commanding a corps in his
+majesty's service,'" said Innis, reading the superscription, "besides,
+here is something significant, '_for life or death, with speed_.' What
+can this mean?" he added, as he broke open the paper and ran his eyes
+hastily over the contents. St. George! here is something strange,
+gentlemen. Listen!--
+
+     "'By ill luck I have fallen into the possession of the Whigs.
+     They have received intelligence of the capture of Major Butler,
+     and, apprehending that some mischief might befal him, have
+     constrained me to inform you that my life will be made
+     answerable for any harsh treatment that he may receive at the
+     hands of our friends. They are resolute men, and will certainly
+     make me the victim of their retaliation.
+
+     EDGAR ST. JERMYN,
+
+     Ensign of the 71st Reg't.
+
+     P. S. For God's sake respect this paper, and be lenient to the
+     prisoner.'"
+
+"Treason and forgery, paltry forgery!" exclaimed Innis, with a smile of
+derision, as he finished reading the letter. "What ho! tell Frazer to
+lead out the prisoner, and despatch him without a moment's delay. So
+much for this shallow artifice!"
+
+"A base forgery," said one of the officers in attendance, "and doubtless
+the work of the rebel major himself. He will die with this silly lie
+upon his conscience. St. Jermyn, here!" cried out the same officer to
+the captain, who was now at some distance, "here is an attempt to put a
+trick upon us by a counterfeit of your brother's hand, telling a most
+doleful and improbable falsehood. Look at it."
+
+St. Jermyn read the letter, and suddenly turning pale, exclaimed: "Sir,
+this is no trick. It is my brother's own writing. He is in the custody
+of the Whigs! How came this here? Who brought it? When was it written?
+Can nobody tell me?"
+
+"Tut, St. Jermyn!" interrupted the officer, smiling, "you surely cannot
+be imposed upon by such a device. Look at the scrawl again. In truth,
+are you sure of it, man?" he inquired with great surprise, as he
+perceived the increasing paleness of St. Jermyn's brow.
+
+"My brother's life is in imminent danger," replied St. Jermyn, with
+intense earnestness. "Colonel Innis, as you value my happiness, I
+entreat you, countermand the order for the prisoner's execution. I
+implore you, respect this letter; it is genuine, and I dread the
+consequences. My poor brother, the youngest of my family and the
+special darling of his parents! For heaven's sake, good colonel, pause
+until we learn something more of this mysterious business."
+
+"For your sake, my friend, and until we can investigate this matter,"
+said Innis, "let the execution be suspended."
+
+St. Jermyn instantly hurried to the guard, to communicate the new order.
+
+"Whence comes this missive?" demanded Innis. "It has neither date nor
+place described. Who brought it? Did any one see the bearer?" he asked
+aloud of the bystanders.
+
+No one answered except the officer who had first discovered the paper.
+"I know nothing more than what you see. It was here upon the table. How
+long it had been there I cannot tell."
+
+"It is strange," continued Innis. "Can this young St. Jermyn have fallen
+in with Sumpter? Or, after all, is it not an ingenious forgery which has
+deceived our friend the captain? Still, who could have brought it here?"
+
+The letter was again examined by every individual present.
+
+"It must be genuine," said one of the officers, shaking his head.
+"Captain St. Jermyn was very much in earnest, and it is not likely he
+could be deceived. It has been mysteriously deposited here by some agent
+of the Whigs. The person should be found, and compelled to give us more
+specific information. This matter must be looked to; the ensign, I doubt
+not, is in perilous circumstances."
+
+"Let the prisoner be strictly guarded, and held to wait our future
+pleasure," said Innis. "I would not put in jeopardy the young ensign's
+life. A reward of twenty guineas shall be given to any one who brings me
+the bearer of this letter. And you, Lieutenant Connelly, take thirty
+troopers, and scour the country round to gain intelligence of this
+capture of Edgar St. Jermyn. Be careful to examine every man you meet,
+as to the presence of Whig parties in this district. Away instantly, and
+do not return without tidings of this singular event."
+
+The camp, by these occurrences, was thrown into great bustle. The
+prisoner was securely lodged in his former quarters, and placed under a
+double guard; consultations were held amongst the officers; and Butler
+himself was strictly interrogated in regard to the appearance of this
+mysterious letter, of the contents of which he was yet ignorant. The
+examination threw no light on the affair; and, very soon afterwards, a
+troop of horse were seen sallying beyond the limits of the camp, under
+Lieutenant Connelly, to seek information of the fate of Ensign St.
+Jermyn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE SERGEANT AND HIS COMRADE PROJECT AN EXPEDITION WHICH FURNISHES THE
+ENSIGN AN OPPORTUNITY OF ENJOYING THE PICTURESQUE.
+
+
+As soon as David Ramsay had departed with the maiden for Musgrove's
+mill, Robinson ordered his own and Christopher Shaw's horse to be
+saddled, and another to be made ready for St. Jermyn. His next care was
+to determine upon a secure place of retreat--reflecting that the news of
+the capture of the ensign must soon reach the British posts, and that
+the country would be industriously explored with a view to his rescue. A
+spot known to the woodsmen of this region by the name of the Devil's
+Ladder, which was situated in the defile of a mountain brook that
+emptied into the Ennoree, occurred to Christopher Shaw as the most
+secret fastness within their reach. This spot lay some twenty miles
+westward of Ramsay's, accessible by roads but little known, and
+surrounded by a district which grew more wild and rugged the nearer it
+approached the defile.
+
+Here it was supposed the party might arrive by daylight the next
+morning, and remain for a few days at small risk of discovery; and
+thither, accordingly, it was resolved they should repair.
+
+This being settled, Horse Shoe now procured a supply of provisions from
+Mistress Ramsay, and then proceeded to arm himself with the sword and
+pistols of the ensign, whilst Christopher suspended across his body the
+sword of Goliath, as the sergeant called the brand he had snatched up at
+Blackstock's, and also took possession of one of the captured muskets.
+
+"If it don't go against your conscience, Mistress Ramsay," said Horse
+Shoe, when the preparations for the journey were completed, "I would
+take it as a favor, in case any interlopers mought happen to pop in upon
+you, if you would just drop a hint that you have hearn that Sumpter's
+people had been seen about these parts. It would have an amazing good
+bearing on the Tories. Besides making them wary how they strayed about
+the woods it would be sure to put the bloodhounds on a wrong scent, if
+they should chance to be sarching for the young ensign. I know you women
+are a little ticklish about a fib, but then it's an honest trick of the
+war sometimes. And, to make you easy about it, it will be no more than
+the truth to say you did hear it--for, you obsarve, I tell you so now."
+
+"But," replied the scrupulous matron, "if they should ask me who told
+me, what should I answer?"
+
+"Why," said the sergeant, hesitating, "just out with it--tell 'em you
+heard it from one Horse Shoe Robinson; that'll not make the news the
+worse in point of credit. And be sure, good woman, above all things, to
+remind David, when he gets back to night, that the rank and file, in our
+prison yonder, are not to be turned loose before three o'clock in the
+morning."
+
+This last caution was repeated to Andy, who still performed the duty of
+a sentinel at the door of the out-house. All things being now arranged
+for their departure, Ensign St. Jermyn was brought from the chamber
+where he had been confined, and was invited to join the sergeant and
+Christopher at supper before they set out. This meal was ably and
+rapidly discussed by the stout yeomen, and scarcely less honored by the
+prisoner, whom the toils and privations of the day had brought to
+enjoyment of a good appetite.
+
+With many cheering and kind expressions of encouragement from the
+sergeant, the young officer prepared to comply with the demands of his
+captors, and was soon in readiness to attend them. Robinson lifted him
+into his saddle with a grasp as light as if he was dealing with a boy,
+and then bound him by a surcingle to the horse's back, whilst he offered
+a good-humored apology for the rigor of this treatment.
+
+"It is not the most comfortable way of riding, Mr. Ensign," he said,
+with a chuckle; "but fast bind, fast find, is a'most an excellent good
+rule for a traveller in the dark. I hope you don't think I take any
+pleasure in oncommoding you, but it is my intention to lead your horse
+by the rein to-night, and this friend of mine will keep in the rear. So,
+by way of a caution, I would just signify to you that if you should
+think of playing a prank you will certainly bring some trouble upon your
+head--as one or another of us would in that case be obliged to fire. It
+is nothing more than military punctilium to give you a friendly warning
+of this."
+
+"You might dispense with this severity, I should think," replied the
+prisoner, "upon my pledge of honor that I will make no effort to
+escape."
+
+"I can take no pledge in the dark," returned Horse Shoe; "daylight
+mought make a difference. If we should happen to fall in with any of
+your gangs I'm thinking a pledge wouldn't come to much more than a
+cobweb when I should ax you to gallop out of the way of your own people.
+Flesh is weak, as the preacher says, and, to my mind, it's a little the
+weaker when the arm is strong or the foot swift. Temptation is at the
+bottom of all backsliding. No, no, Mr. Ensign, you may get away, if you
+can; we'll take care of you whilst we're able--that's a simple
+understanding."
+
+Without further speech the party proceeded on their journey. They
+travelled as rapidly as was consistent with the ease of the prisoner and
+the nature of the ground over which they had to move. For the first
+eight or ten miles, their route lay across a country with but few
+impediments, except such as arose from the unseasonable hour of the
+ride. After this they found the toil and hazard of travel continually
+increasing. They had been retreating from the settled country towards a
+rough wilderness, which was penetrated only by an obscure road, so
+little beaten as to be scarcely discernible in the faint starlight, and
+which it required all Christopher's skill in woodcraft to follow. Our
+travellers, consequently, often lost their way, and were obliged to get
+down from their horses and grope about to ascertain the path. The stars
+had shone all night through a cloudless firmament, but the deep shade of
+the forest thickened around the wanderers, and it was frequently with
+difficulty, even, that they could discern each other's figures.
+
+They reached at length the small stream upon whose banks, some miles
+above, was situated the place to which their steps were directed; and
+they were thus rendered more sure of their road, as they had only to
+follow the ascending course of the brook. The delays and impediments of
+the journey had nearly outrun the night, and whilst our travellers were
+yet some two or three miles from their destination, the first traces of
+morning began to appear in the east. The increasing light disclosed to
+them the nature of the scenery around. A limpid rivulet tumbled over a
+rocky channel, girt with a profusion of brush and briar, amongst which
+were scattered a thousand wild-flowers, that, renovated by the dew,
+threw forth a delicious perfume. A succession of abrupt hills, covered
+with the varied foliage of a rich forest growth, bounded the brook on
+either side. Occasional rocks jutted above the heads of the travellers
+as they wound along the paths, worn by the wild cattle in the bottom of
+the dell.
+
+Both Robinson and Shaw had dismounted when they entered this defile, and
+whilst the former led the horse of the prisoner his companion preceded
+him to explore the doubtful traces of the road, which frequently became
+so obscure as to render it necessary to seek a passage in the bed of the
+stream. During all this progress Horse Shoe's good nature and
+light-heartedness were unabated. He conversed with the prisoner in the
+same terms of friendly familiarity that he did with Shaw, and neglected
+no attention that might in any degree relieve the irksomeness of St.
+Jermyn's necessary thraldom.
+
+That peculiar conformation of country which had given rise to the name
+of the place to which they were conducting the prisoner, was now to be
+discerned at some little distance ahead. It presented a series of bold
+crags of granite intermixed with slate, in which rock piled upon rock
+presented a succession of shelves, each beetling over its base, and thus
+furnishing a shelter against the weather. Some of these were situated
+near the bank of the stream, projecting over the water, whilst others
+towered at different heights, in such a manner as to bear a resemblance
+to a flight of huge steps cut in the slope of the mountain, and by this
+likeness, doubtless, suggesting the imaginative name by which the spot
+was known to the few hunters to whom it was familiar. The cavern-like
+structure of these ledges abundantly supplied the means of concealment
+to both men and horses, from the casual notice of such persons as
+accident might have brought into this sequestered defile.
+
+When the party arrived at the foot of the Devil's Ladder, it was with
+great satisfaction to all that they now made a halt. A short time was
+spent in selecting a spot, amongst the impending cliffs, of such a
+character as might afford the advantage of shelter, as well as the means
+of ready look-out and escape in case of discovery or pursuit. The place
+chosen was about half way up the hill, where the ridge of a promontory
+enabled the occupants to see some distance up and down the valley;
+whilst the crag itself contained within its recesses a chamber
+sufficiently large for the purpose to which it was to be applied. A
+natural platform, near this point, allowed sufficient space for the
+horses, which might be conducted there by a sideling path up the slope;
+at the same time, the means of retreat were furnished by the nature of
+the ground towards the top of the hill.
+
+To this place of security the ensign was ordered by his guard, and,
+being released from his bonds, he dismounted and threw himself at length
+upon the mossy surface of the rock, where he lay wearied in body and
+dejected in mind. The horses were taken in charge by Shaw; provisions
+were produced, and all arrangements of caution and comfort were made for
+passing the next two or three days in this wild sojourn.
+
+Here, for the present, we must leave our adventurers, to tell of other
+matters that are proper to be made known to the reader of this history.
+
+In due time David Ramsay returned from Musgrove's. Precisely at three
+o'clock in the morning, the soldiers were released according to the
+terms of the parole; and my reader will, no doubt, be pleased to hear
+that Andy, being discharged from duty, went to bed as drowsy as e'er a
+man of mould after a feat of glory, and slept with a sleep altogether
+worthy of his heroic achievement.
+
+The next day passed by, at Ramsay's dwelling, with a varied and fearful
+interest to his family. They had received intelligence, before night, of
+the event of Butler's trial, and had reason to rejoice that Mary
+Musgrove had so played her part in the delivery of the letter. They were
+apprised also of the reward that had been offered for the discovery of
+the bearer of this letter, and were informed that detachments of horse
+were out to scour the country in quest of the ensign. These tidings
+filled them with apprehension. It occurred to Ramsay that if, perchance,
+the released prisoners should fall in with any of the parties of the
+loyalists, they would of course relate their story, and thus bring down
+the full rancor of the Tory wrath upon his household: this would also
+lead with more certainty to the pursuit of Horse Shoe. There was still
+good reason to hope that the liberated men might not so soon be able to
+give the alarm; inasmuch as they were more likely to shape their course
+towards Fort Ninety-Six than to repair to Innis's camp, where they might
+be forced to do duty, as much against their inclinations as against
+their parole. They might even, from a natural aversion to labor, prefer
+loitering about the country rather than put themselves voluntarily in
+the way of military operations.
+
+"Come what will of it," said Ramsay, summing up the chances for and
+against him; "I will be ready for the worst. Many better men have given
+all they had to the cause of independence, and I will not flinch from
+giving my share. They may burn and break down; but, thank God, I have a
+country--aye, and a heart and an arm to stand by it!"
+
+On the same evening, towards sundown, a horseman drew up his rein at
+Ramsay's door. He was young--in the prime of early manhood, his dress
+was that of a rustic, his equipment showed him to be a traveller--a
+weary one, from the plight of his horse, and, like most travellers of
+the time, well armed. He did not stand to summon any one to the door,
+but put his hand upon the latch with eager haste, and entered with the
+familiarity of one acquainted with the place. Mistress Ramsay was seated
+at her spinning-wheel, anxiously brooding over the tales of the day. Her
+husband reclined in his chair, silently and thoughtfully smoking his
+pipe. They both sprang up at once, as the visitor crossed the threshold,
+and with fervent joy greeted their son John Ramsay. The household was
+clamorous with the affectionate salutations of the parents, of the
+brothers and sisters, and of the domestics. John was the eldest of
+Ramsay's children, and had just reached his paternal roof after an
+absence of some months, during which he had been in service with
+Sumpter. The gathering in of the members of a family around the domestic
+board, in times of peril and distress, is one of the luxuries of the
+heart that in peace we cannot know. The arrival of John Ramsay at the
+present moment was a source of the liveliest happiness to his parents.
+They needed a cheerful as well as a resolute comforter. John had, only
+twenty-four hours previous, left Sumpter near Rocky Mount--immediately
+after the battle with the British convoy was won. He was sent with
+despatches to Colonel Williams, a Whig partisan of note, who was now
+supposed to be in the neighborhood of the Saluda. These had some
+reference to the military movements of the parties; and John Ramsay was
+permitted by Sumpter to make a short halt at his father's house.
+
+In the first hour after his arrival, he had given to the family the
+history of his homeward ride. He had discovered that hostile forces--of
+which, until his journey was nearly finished, he heard nothing--were
+encamped in the neighborhood; that a court-martial had been sitting for
+the trial of an American officer, as a spy, and had condemned him to be
+shot. He had been apprised, moreover, that small parties were out,
+riding into every corner of the country. He himself had nearly been
+surprised by one of these, as he endeavored to make his way to the house
+of Allen Musgrove, where he had proposed to himself a visit, even before
+he came to his father's, but, fearing something wrong, he had fled from
+them, and baffled their pursuit, although they had chased him more than
+a mile; he had, in consequence, been deprived of the opportunity of
+visiting the miller.
+
+"Although it is four months since we have seen you, John," said the
+dame, with a tone of affectionate chiding, "yet, you would turn aside to
+get under Allen Musgrove's roof, before you thought of the arms of your
+mother."
+
+John's sun-burnt cheek blushed crimson red as he replied, "It was but a
+step out of the way, mother, and I should not have stayed long. Mr.
+Musgrove and his folks are safe and well, I hope, and Christopher?"
+
+"Tut, boy! speak it out, and don't blush about it," interrupted the
+father briskly: "she is a good girl, and you needn't be ashamed to name
+her, as you ought to have done, first and before all the rest. Mary is
+well, John, and has just proved herself to be the best girl in the
+country."
+
+This little passage of mirth between the parents and their son, led to a
+full narrative by David Ramsay of the events which had occurred in the
+last two or three days, concluding with the capture of the ensign, and
+the retreat of Horse Shoe and Christopher Shaw to the Devil's Ladder.
+The communication wrought a grave and thoughtful mood on the young
+soldier. It presented a crisis to him for immediate action. He was
+wearied with a long ride, but it seemed to him to be no time for rest.
+
+"Father," he said, after turning over in his thoughts the intelligence
+he had just received, "it was a brave and beautiful thing for so young a
+lad as Andy to do; and the taking of the ensign has served a useful
+purpose, but it brings this house and family into danger. And I fear for
+poor Mary. Christopher Shaw must get back to the mill, and quickly too.
+His absence will bring his uncle's family into trouble. I will take
+Christopher's place, and go to Horse Shoe's assistance this night. We
+may take the prisoner with us to Williams."
+
+"To-night!" said the mother anxiously, "you would not leave us to-night,
+John?"
+
+"Aye, to-night, wife," answered David Ramsay, "the boy is right, there
+is no time to spare."
+
+"Have mercy upon us," exclaimed the dame; "to ride so far to-night,
+after so heavy a journey, John!--you have not strength."
+
+"Dear mother," said John, "think that you are all in danger and that
+Mary, who has behaved so well, might be suspected, and brought to harm.
+I must hurry forward to Colonel Williams, and this road by the Devil's
+Ladder is far out of my way. No, I am not so much fatigued, mother, as
+you suppose. I will rest for a few hours, and then try the woods.
+Daybreak, I warrant, shall not find me far from Horse Shoe."
+
+John Ramsay was not above six-and-twenty. He was endued with a stout and
+manly frame, well adapted to hard service; and this was associated with
+a bold and intelligent countenance, which, notwithstanding the dint of
+wind and weather, was handsome. He had for a year or two past been
+actively engaged in the war, and his manners had, in consequence,
+acquired that maturity and decision which are generally found in those
+whose habits of life render them familiar with perils. On the present
+occasion he regarded the necessity of co-operation with Robinson as so
+urgent, that no other thought crossed his mind but that which belonged
+to the care of putting himself in condition to make his services
+effectual.
+
+With this view he now directed his horse to be carefully tended; then,
+having taken a hearty meal, he retired to rest, desiring that he might
+be waked up at midnight, when he proposed to follow the path of Horse
+Shoe and his comrade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A RETREAT AFTER THE MANNER OF XENOPHON.
+
+
+The next morning, a little after sunrise, as Robinson was holding the
+watch on the outer ledge of the rock, in a position that enabled him to
+survey the approaches to the spot through the valley, as well as to keep
+his eye upon the ensign and Christopher Shaw, who were both asleep under
+cover of the crag, he was startled by a distant noise of something
+breaking through the bushes on the margin of the brook. At first it
+struck him that this was caused by deer stalking up the stream; but he
+soon afterwards descried the head and shoulders of a man, whose motions
+showed him to be struggling through the thicket towards the base of the
+hill. This person at length reached a space of open ground, where he
+halted and looked anxiously around him, thus revealing his figure, as he
+sat on horseback, to the observation of the sergeant, who, in the
+meantime, had taken advantage of a low pine tree and a jutting angle of
+a rock to screen himself from the eager eye of the traveller--at least
+until he should be satisfied as to the other's character and purpose.
+
+A loud and cheerful halloo, several times repeated by the stranger,
+seemed to indicate his quest of a lost companion; and this gradually
+drew the sergeant, with a weary motion, from his hiding-place, until
+assuring himself that the comer was alone, he stept out to the edge of
+the shelf of rock, and presenting his musket, peremptorily gave the
+common challenge of "Who goes there?"
+
+"A friend to Horse Robinson," was the reply of the visitor, in whom my
+reader recognises John Ramsay.
+
+Before further question might be asked and answered, John had dismounted
+from his horse and clambered to the platform, where he greeted the
+sergeant and the hastily-awakened Christopher Shaw, with a hearty shake
+of the hand; and then proceeded to communicate the pressing objects of
+his visit, and to relate all that he had learned of the recent events
+during his short stay at his father's house.
+
+In the consultation that followed these disclosures, Ramsay earnestly
+urged his comrades to make instant preparation to quit their present
+retirement, and to attempt the enterprise of conducting the prisoner to
+Williams, who was supposed to be advancing into the neighborhood of a
+well known block-house, or frontier fortification, on the Saluda, about
+forty miles from their present position.
+
+The message with which Ramsay was charged from Sumpter to Williams, made
+it necessary that he should endeavor to reach that officer as soon as
+possible; and the sergeant, rejoicing in the thought of being so near a
+strong body of allies who might render the most essential aid to the
+great object of his expedition, readily concurred in the propriety of
+the young trooper's proposal. This enterprise was also recommended by
+the necessity of taking some immediate steps to preserve the custody of
+the ensign, whose capture had already been so serviceable to the cause
+of Arthur Butler. In accordance, moreover, with John Ramsay's anxious
+entreaty, Christopher Shaw, it was determined, should hasten back to the
+mill at the earliest moment.
+
+A speedy departure was, therefore, resolved on, and accordingly all
+things were made ready, in the course of an hour, to commence the march.
+At the appointed time the ensign was directed to descend into the
+valley, where he was once more bound to his horse. The conferences
+between the sergeant and his two comrades had been held out of the
+hearing of the prisoner; but it was now thought advisable to make him
+acquainted with the late proceedings that had transpired with regard to
+Butler, and especially with the respite that had been given to that
+officer by Innis. This communication was accompanied by an intimation
+that he would best consult his own comfort and safety by a patient
+submission to the restrictions that were put upon him: inasmuch as his
+captors had no disposition to vex him with any other precautions than
+were necessary for his safe detention during the present season of peril
+to Butler.
+
+With this admonition the party began their journey. The first two or
+three hours were occupied in returning, by the route of the valley, to
+the Ennoree. When they reached the river they found themselves relieved
+from the toils of the narrow and rugged path by which they had threaded
+the wild mountain dell, and introduced into an undulating country
+covered with forest, and intersected by an occasional but unfrequented
+road leading from one settlement to another. Here Christopher Shaw was
+to take leave of his companions, his path lying along the bank of the
+Ennoree, whilst the route to be pursued by the others crossed the river
+and extended thence southwards to the Saluda. The young miller turned
+his horse's head homewards, with some reluctance at parting with his
+friends in a moment of such interest, and bore with him many messages of
+comfort and courage to those whom he was about to rejoin--and more
+particularly from the sergeant to Butler, in case Christopher should
+have the good fortune to be able to deliver them. At the same time,
+Horse Shoe and John Ramsay, with the prisoner, forded the Ennoree, and
+plunged into the deep forest that lay upon its further bank.
+
+For several hours they travelled with the greatest circumspection,
+avoiding the frequented roads and the chance of meeting such wayfarers
+as might be abroad on their route. It was a time of great anxiety and
+suspense, but the habitual indifference of military life gave an air of
+unconcern to the conduct of the soldiers, and scarcely affected, in any
+visible degree, the cheerfulness of their demeanor.
+
+They reached, at length, the confines of a cultivated country--a region
+which was known to be inhabited by several Tory families. To avoid the
+risk of exposure to persons who might be unfriendly to their purpose,
+they thought it prudent to delay entering upon this open district until
+after sunset, that they might continue their journey through the night.
+The difficulty of ascertaining their road in the dark, and the danger of
+seeking information from the few families whose habitations occurred to
+their view, necessarily rendered their progress slow. The time was,
+therefore, passed in weary silence and persevering labor, in the anxious
+contemplation of the probability of encountering some of the enemy's
+scouts.
+
+At the break of day they stopped to refresh themselves; and the contents
+of Horse Shoe's wallet, unhappily reduced to a slender supply of
+provisions, were distributed amongst the party. During this halt, John
+Ramsay commanded the ensign to exchange his dress with him; and our
+faithful ally was converted, by this traffic, for the nonce, into a
+spruce, well-looking, and gay young officer of the enemy's line.
+
+The most hazardous portion of their journey now lay before them. They
+were within a few miles of the Saluda, from whence, at its nearest
+point, it was some six or seven more down the stream to the
+Block-house--the appointed rendezvous, where it was yet a matter of
+uncertainty whether Williams had arrived. The space between the
+travellers and the river was a fertile and comparatively thickly-peopled
+region, of which the inhabitants were almost entirely in the Tory
+interest. The broad daylight having overtaken them on the confines of
+this tract, exposed them to the greatest risk of being questioned. They
+had nothing left but to make a bold effort to attain the river by the
+shortest path; and thence to pursue the bank towards the rendezvous.
+
+"Courage, John," said Horse Shoe, smiling at the new garb of his
+comrade; "you may show your pretty feathers to-day to them that are fond
+of looking at them. And you, my young clodpole, ride like an honest
+Whig, or I mought find occasion to do a discomfortable thing, by putting
+a bullet through and through you. Excuse the liberty, sir, for these are
+ticklish times; but I shall ondoubtedly be as good as my word."
+
+Our adventurers soon resumed their journey. They had come within a mile
+of the Saluda without interruption, and began to exchange
+congratulations that the worst was passed, when they found themselves
+descending a sharp hill which jutted down upon an extensive piece of
+pasture ground. One boundary of this was watered by a brook, along whose
+margin a fringe of willows, intermixed with wild shrubbery of various
+kinds, formed a screen some ten or fifteen feet in height. As soon as
+this range of meadow was observed, our cautious soldiers halted upon the
+brow of the hill to reconnoitre; and perceiving nothing to excite their
+apprehension, they ventured down, upon the track of an ill-defined road,
+which took a direction immediately over the broadest portion of the
+field.
+
+They had scarcely crossed the brook at the bottom of the hill, before
+they heard the remote voices of men in conversation, and the tones of a
+careless laugh. On looking towards the upper section of the stream, they
+were aware of a squad of loyalist cavalry, who came riding, in the shade
+of the willows, directly towards the spot where the travellers had
+entered upon the meadow. The party consisted of seven or eight men, who
+were, at this instant, not more than one hundred paces distant.
+
+"They are upon us, sergeant!" exclaimed John Ramsay. "Make sure of the
+prisoner: retreat as rapidly as you can. Leave me to myself. Make for
+the Block-house--I will meet you there."
+
+With these hasty intimations, he pricked his courser up to full speed,
+and shaped his flight directly across the open field, in full view of
+the enemy.
+
+Horse Shoe, at the same moment, drew a pistol, cocked it, and throwing
+the rein of St. Jermyn's horse into the hands of the rider, he cried
+out:--
+
+"Back across the branch and into the woods! Push for it, or you are a
+dead man! On, on!" he added, as he rode at high speed immediately beside
+the ensign; "a stumble, or a whisper above your breath, and you get the
+bullet. Fly--your life is in your horse's heels!"
+
+The resolute tone of the sergeant had its effect upon his prisoner, who
+yielded a ready obedience to the pressing orders, and bounded into the
+thicket with as much alacrity as if flying from an enemy.
+
+Meanwhile, the troopers, struck with the earnest haste of one whose
+dress bespoke a British officer, speeding across the field, did not
+doubt that they had afforded this timely opportunity for the escape of a
+prisoner from the hands of the Whigs.
+
+"Wheel up, lads," shouted the leader of the squad, "it is the ensign!
+Wheel up and form a platoon to cut off the pursuit. We have him safe out
+of their clutches!"
+
+Impressed with the conviction that a considerable force of Whig cavalry
+were at hand, the troopers directed all their efforts to cover what they
+believed Ensign St. Jermyn's retreat, and were now seen formed into a
+platoon, and moving towards the middle of the plain, in such a manner as
+to place themselves between the fugitive and his supposed pursuers. Here
+they delayed a few minutes, as if expecting an attack; until finding
+that the object of their solicitude had safely crossed the field and
+plunged into the distant woods, they rode away at a rapid pace in the
+same direction. When they reached the further extremity of the open
+ground, they halted for an instant, turned their eyes back towards the
+spot of their first discovery, and, finding that no attempt was made to
+follow, gave a hearty huzza, and rode onward in search of their prize.
+
+The stratagem had completely succeeded: Ramsay had escaped, and Horse
+Shoe had withdrawn his prisoner into the neighboring wood upon the hill,
+where he was able to observe the whole scene. After a brief interval,
+the sergeant resumed his journey, and, with all necessary
+circumspection, bent his steps towards the river, where he arrived
+without molestation, and thence he continued his march in the direction
+of the rendezvous.
+
+John Ramsay did not stop until he had crossed the Saluda and advanced a
+considerable distance on the opposite bank, where, to his great joy, he
+was encountered by a look-out party of Williams's regiment. Our fugitive
+had some difficulty in making himself known to his friends, and escaping
+the salutation which an enemy was likely to obtain at their hands; but
+when he surrendered to them, and made them acquainted with the cause of
+his disguise, the party instantly turned about with him, and proceeded
+in quest of the sergeant and his prisoner.
+
+It was not long before they fell in with the small detachment of
+Connelly's troopers,--as the late masters of the meadow turned out to
+be--who were leisurely returning from their recent exploit. These,
+finding themselves in the presence of superior numbers, turned to
+flight. Not far behind them Ramsay and his new companions encountered
+Horse Shoe; and the whole party proceeded without delay to Williams's
+camp.
+
+Colonel Williams had reached the Block-house on the preceding evening
+with a force of two hundred cavalry. Clarke and Shelby happened, at this
+juncture, to be with him; and these three gallant partisans were now
+anxiously employed in arranging measures for that organized resistance
+to the Tory Dominion which fills so striking a chapter in the history of
+the Southern war, and which it had been the special object of Butler's
+mission to promote. Horse Shoe was enabled to communicate to Williams
+and his confederates the general purpose of this mission, and the
+disasters which had befallen Butler in his attempt to reach those with
+whom he was to co-operate. This intelligence created a lively interest
+in behalf of the captive, and it was instantly determined to make some
+strenuous effort for his deliverance. Whilst these matters were brought
+into consultation by the leaders, Horse Shoe and John Ramsay mingled
+amongst the soldiers, in the enjoyment of that fellowship which forms
+the most agreeable feature in the associations of the camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+BUTLER'S DIFFICULTIES INCREASE.--INNIS FINDS OCCASION TO THINK OF THE
+ADAGE--"THERE'S MANY A SLIP BETWIXT THE CUP AND THE LIP."
+
+
+When Arthur Butler was conducted back to his place of confinement, after
+his trial, orders were given that no one should be allowed to approach
+him, except the officer to whom was intrusted his safe custody. The
+intercourse of this person with him was short; and concerned only with
+the scant accommodation which his condition required. He was, therefore,
+deprived of all chance of becoming acquainted with the extraordinary
+events that had led to his present respite from death. In the
+interrogations that had, during the first moments of excitement, been
+put to him, in regard to the letter, he was not told its import; from
+what quarter it had come; nor how it affected his fate. He only knew, by
+the result, that it had suspended the purpose of his immediate
+execution; and he saw that it had produced great agitation at
+head-quarters. He found, moreover, that this, or some other cause, had
+engendered a degree of exasperation against him, that showed itself in
+the retrenchment of his comforts, and in the augmented rigor of his
+confinement.
+
+Agitated with a thousand doubts, his mind was too busy to permit him to
+close his eyes during the night that followed; and in this wakeful
+suspense he could sometimes hear, amongst the occasional ramblers who
+passed under his window, an allusion, in their conversation, to a
+victory gained over the royal troops. Coupling this with the name of
+Sumpter, which was now and then uttered with some adjective of
+disparagement, he conjectured that Horse Shoe had probably fallen in
+with that partisan, and was, peradventure, leading him to this vicinity.
+But this conclusion was combated by the fact that there seemed to be no
+alarm in the camp, nor any preparations on foot either for instant
+battle or retreat. Then the letter--that was a mystery altogether
+impenetrable. There was only one point upon which his mind could rest
+with satisfaction: of that he was sure--Horse Shoe was certainly at the
+bottom of the scheme, and was active in his behalf.
+
+The whole of the next day passed over in the same state of uncertainty.
+It was observed by Butler, with some stress upon the circumstance, that
+Captain St. Jermyn, who had heretofore evinced a disposition to make
+himself busy in his behalf, had absented himself ever since the trial;
+and he thus felt himself cut off from the slightest exhibition of
+sympathy on the part of a single individual in the multitude of fellow
+beings near him. Indeed, there were various indications of a general
+personal ill-will against him. The house, in which he was confined, was
+so constructed that he could frequently hear such expressions, in the
+conferences of those who inhabited the rooms below stairs, as were
+uttered above the lower key of conversation, and these boded him no
+good. Once, during the day, Colonel Innis visited him. This officer's
+countenance was severe, and indicated anger. His purpose was to extort
+something from the prisoner in reference to his supposed knowledge of
+the course of operations of Sumpter, from whose camp Innis did not doubt
+this letter regarding St. Jermyn had come. He spoke in a short, quick,
+and peremptory tone:
+
+"It may be well for you," he said, "that your friends do not too rashly
+brave my authority. Let me advise you to warn them that others may fall
+into our hands; and that if the ensign be not delivered up, there may be
+a dreadful retaliation."
+
+"I know not, sir, of what or whom you speak," replied Butler; "and it is
+due to my honor to say, that I will not be induced, for the sake of
+saving my life, to interfere with any operations which the soldiers of
+Congress may have undertaken in the cause of the country. In this
+sentiment I admonish Colonel Innis that I desire to be put in possession
+of no facts from him that may be communicated under such an expectation.
+And having made this determination known to you, I will add to it that,
+from the same motives, I will answer no questions you can propose to me.
+You may spare yourself, therefore, the useless labor of this visit. My
+life is in your hands, and I have already experienced with what justice
+and clemency you will use your power when you dare."
+
+"A more humble tone," said Innis, with a bitter smile, "I think would
+better suit your circumstances." And with this remark the commandant
+haughtily walked out of the apartment.
+
+The next morning, whilst Butler was taking his breakfast, which had been
+brought to him by one of the soldiers of the guard, he heard a loud
+cheering from the troops that at that hour were on parade in the plain.
+This was followed by the discharge of a _feu de joie_ from the whole
+line, and a flourish of drums and trumpets.
+
+"What is that?" he inquired eagerly of the soldier, who, forgetful, in
+the excitement of the moment, of the order to restrain his intercourse
+with the prisoner, answered--
+
+"They have just got the news from Camden: two days ago Cornwallis
+defeated Gates, and cut his army to pieces. The troops are rejoicing for
+the victory, and have just had the despatches read."
+
+Butler heaved a deep sigh, as he said, "Then all is lost, and liberty is
+but a name! I feared it; God knows, I feared it."
+
+The soldier was recalled to his duty by the sentinel at the door, and
+Butler was again left alone.
+
+This was a day of crowding events. The tidings of the battle of Camden,
+gained on the sixteenth, and which had early this morning reached Innis,
+threw a spirit of the highest exultation into the camp. The event was
+considered decisive of the fate of the rebel power; and the most
+extravagant anticipations were indulged by the loyalists, in regard to
+the complete subjugation of the Whigs of the southern provinces. The
+work of confiscation was to be carried out to the most bitter extreme,
+and the adherents of the royal government were to grow rich upon the
+spoils of victory. The soldiers of Innis were permitted to give way to
+uncontrolled revelry; and, from the first promulgation of the news, this
+became a day devoted to rejoicings. Innis himself looked upon the
+victory at Camden with more satisfaction, as it gave him reason to
+believe that the sentence pronounced against Butler might be executed,
+without fear of vengeance threatened against the Ensign St. Jermyn. He
+was, however, exceedingly anxious to see this young officer released
+from the hands of the enemy; and had determined to respect the threat
+as long as there was any doubt that it might be performed. The personal
+consideration of Captain St. Jermyn, his station as an officer of
+importance, and, above all, the great influence of his family, in the
+esteem of the royal leaders, made it an object of deep concern to Innis
+to save the ensign, by the most scrupulous regard to his present
+difficulties. His power to do so seemed to be much increased by the late
+victory.
+
+In the afternoon of the same day, further rumors were brought to Innis's
+camp, importing that Sumpter had been attacked on that morning upon the
+Catawba, by Tarleton, and completely routed. The prisoners and baggage,
+taken on the fifteenth, had been regained, and Sumpter was flying with
+the scattered remnant of his troops towards North Carolina. At the same
+time an order was brought to Innis to break up his camp and move
+northwards. This only added to the shouts and rejoicings of the troops,
+and drove them into deeper excesses. The war, they thought, was coming
+rapidly to an end, and they already anticipated this conclusion, by
+throwing off the irksomeness of military restraint. The officers were
+gathered into gossiping and convivial circles; and laughed, in
+unrestrained feelings of triumph, at the posture of affairs. The private
+soldiers, on their part, imitated their leaders, and formed themselves
+into knots and groups, where they caroused over their cups, danced, and
+sang. All was frolic and merriment.
+
+In the midst of this festivity, a portion of Connelly's troopers, who
+had now been absent forty-eight hours, arrived, and made an immediate
+report to Innis. The purport of this was, that they had found Ensign St.
+Jermyn in the possession of a detachment of Whig cavalry near the
+Saluda: as soon as they descried him, which they did, some three hundred
+paces distant, knowing him by his scarlet uniform, they prepared to
+attack this party of Whigs; but the ensign perceiving his friends at
+hand, had already, by a brave effort, disentangled himself from his
+keepers, and taken off into the open field. The scouts, therefore,
+instead of attacking the Whigs, directed all their attention to secure
+the ensign's retreat, by holding themselves ready to check the pursuit:
+their manoeuvre had been successful, and the prisoner was free.
+
+"And is now with you in the camp, my brave fellows?" said Innis, with
+great exultation.
+
+"Not yet," replied the sergeant of the squad. "He is upon the road, and
+will, no doubt, soon be here. We have not seen him since his escape.
+Whilst we hung back, with a view to favor his retreat, we fell in with a
+party that we took to be the escort that had made him prisoner; and as
+they outnumbered us, we thought it prudent to decline a skirmish with
+them. So we filed off and made our way back to head quarters. The ensign
+must have been a good mile ahead of us, and as the road is hard to find,
+he may have lost his way. But this is certain, we saw him clear of the
+Whigs, with his horse's head turned towards this camp."
+
+"Thank you, good friends," said Innis; "you have performed your duty
+handsomely. Go to your comrades; they have news for you, and an extra
+allowance to-day. Faith, Ker, this is a day for settling old accounts,"
+he continued, as he turned and addressed an officer by his side. "Gates
+beaten, Sumpter beaten, and Ensign St. Jermyn delivered from captivity!
+That looks well! And now I have another account, which shall be settled
+on the nail. Stirring times, Captain St. Jermyn. I congratulate you, my
+friend, on your brother's safety, and mean to signalize the event as it
+deserves. Major Frazer, bring out your prisoner, and let him die the
+death punctually at sundown--at sundown, to the minute, major. We must
+get that job off our hands. To-morrow, my friends, we shall move towards
+Catawba, and thence to Hanging Rock. Meantime, we must sweep up our
+rubbish. So, major, look to your duty! It might as well have been done
+at first," he added, speaking to himself, as he walked away from the
+group of officers to look after other affairs.
+
+The execution of Butler was now regarded as a mere matter of business,
+and to be despatched as one item of duty amongst the thousand others
+that were to be looked after in the hurry of breaking up the post. The
+interest of the trial had faded away by the lapse of time, and in the
+more predominating excitements which the absorbing character of the late
+events had afforded. The preparations for this ceremony were, therefore,
+attended with no display, and scarcely seemed to arouse inquiry amongst
+the soldiers of the camp. It was treated in all respects as a
+subordinate point of police. Ten files were detailed; one drum and fife
+put in requisition; and this party, attended by Frazer, and two or three
+officers who happened to be near at the moment, marched with a careless
+step to head-quarters.
+
+The first announcement of this sudden resolve was made to the prisoner
+by a subaltern; who, without prelude or apology, or the least effort to
+mitigate the harshness of the order he bore, walked abruptly into the
+chamber and delivered the message of his superior.
+
+"It is a sudden proceeding," said Butler, calmly; "but your pleasure
+must be obeyed."
+
+"You have had two days to think of it," replied the officer; "it is not
+often so much time is allowed. Ensign St. Jermyn, sir, is safe, and that
+is all we waited for. We march to-morrow, and therefore have no time to
+lose. You are waited for below."
+
+Butler stood a moment with his hand pressed upon his brow, and then
+muttered,
+
+"It is even so; our unhappy country is lost, and the reign of blood is
+but begun. I would ask the poor favor of a moment's delay, and the
+privilege of pen, ink, and paper, whilst I write but a line to a
+friend."
+
+"Impossible, sir," said the man. "Time is precious, and our orders are
+positive."
+
+"This is like the rest," answered Butler; "I submit." Then buttoning his
+coat across his breast, he left the room with a firm and composed step.
+
+When he reached the door the first person who met his eye was Captain
+St. Jermyn. There was an expression of formal gravity in the manner of
+this officer, as he accosted the prisoner, and lamented the rigor of the
+fate that awaited him. And it was somewhat with a cold and polite
+civility that he communicated his readiness to attend to any request
+which Butler, in his last moments, might wish to have performed.
+
+Butler thanked him for his solicitude, and then said, "I asked
+permission to write to a friend; that has been denied. I feel reluctant
+to expose myself to another refusal. You have taken a slight interest in
+my sufferings, and I will, therefore, confide to you a simple wish,
+which it will not cost my persecutors much to gratify. It is that I may
+be taken to my grave, dressed as you see me now. I would not have my
+person stripped or plundered."
+
+"If you have valuables about you, sir, trust them to my keeping; I
+promise you they shall be faithfully delivered according to your wish."
+
+"What money there is about my person," replied Butler, "may be given to
+the soldiers who are compelled to execute this harsh and unjust sentence
+on my person; but I have a trinket," he said, drawing from his bosom a
+miniature, which was suspended by a ribbon, "it is the gift of
+one,"--here, for the first time, a tear started into Butler's eye, and
+his power of utterance failed him.
+
+"I understand, sir," said St. Jermyn, eagerly reaching out his hand to
+take the picture, "I will seek the lady, at whatever hazard"--
+
+"No," answered the unfortunate officer, "it must be buried with me. It
+has dwelt here," he added with emotion, as he placed his hand upon his
+heart, "and here it must sleep in death."
+
+"On the honor of a soldier," said St. Jermyn, "I promise you its rest
+shall not be violated."
+
+"You will attend me?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Lead on," said the prisoner, stepping to the place assigned him in the
+ranks. "I seek no further delay."
+
+"March down the river, half a mile below the camp," said Innis, who now
+came up, as the escort had begun its progress towards the place of
+execution. And the soldiers moved slowly, with the customary funeral
+observances, in a direction that led across the whole extent of the
+plain.
+
+When this little detachment had disappeared on the further side of the
+field, a sudden commotion arose at head-quarters by the hasty arrival of
+a mounted patrol--
+
+"We are followed!" cried the leading horseman, in great perturbation.
+"They will be here in an instant! We have been pressed by them for the
+last two miles."
+
+"Of whom do you speak?" inquired Innis, eagerly.
+
+"The enemy! the enemy!" vociferated several voices.
+
+At the same moment a cloud of dust was seen rising above the trees, in
+the direction of the road leading up the Ennoree.
+
+"To arms--to arms!" ejaculated the commander. "Gentlemen, spring to your
+horses, and sound the alarm through the camp--we are set upon by
+Sumpter--it can be no other. Curry, take a few dragoons--follow the
+prisoner--mount him behind one of your men, and retreat with him
+instantly to Blackstock's!"
+
+Having given these hasty orders, Innis, with the several officers who
+happened to be at hand, ran to their horses, mounted, and pushed forward
+to the camp. They had scarcely left their quarters before two dragoons,
+in advance of a party of twenty or thirty men, rushed up to the door.
+
+"Sarch the house!" shouted the leading soldier. "Three or four of you
+dismount and sarch the house! Make sure of Major Butler, if he is there!
+The rest of you forward with me!"
+
+The delay before head-quarters scarcely occupied a moment, and in the
+meantime the number of the assailants was increased by the squadrons
+that poured in from the rear. These were led by a young officer of great
+activity and courage, who, seeing the disordered condition of the
+royalists, waved his sword in the air as he beckoned his men to follow
+him in a charge upon the camp.
+
+The advanced party, with the two dragoons, were already on the field
+charging the first body that they found assembled; and, close behind
+them, followed Colonel Williams--the officer of whom I have spoken--with
+a large division of cavalry. At the same moment that Williams entered
+upon the plain from this quarter, a second and third corps, led
+respectively by Shelby and Clarke, were seen galloping upon the two
+flanks of the encampment.
+
+The plain was now occupied by about two hundred Whig cavalry. The
+royalists, taken by surprise, over their cups it may be said, and in the
+midst of a riotous festival, were everywhere thrown into the wildest
+confusion. Such of them as succeeded in gaining their arms, took post
+behind the trees, and kept up an irregular fire upon the assailants.
+Colonel Innis had succeeded in getting together about a hundred men at a
+remote corner of his camp, and had now formed them into a solid column
+to resist the attack of the cavalry, whilst from this body he poured
+forth a few desultory volleys of musketry, hoping to gain time to
+collect the scattered forces that were in various points endeavoring to
+find their proper station. Horse Shoe Robinson and John Ramsay--the two
+foremost in the advance--were to be discovered pushing through the
+sundered groups of the enemy with a restless and desperate valor that
+nothing could withstand.
+
+"Cut them down," cried Horse Shoe, "without marcy! remember the
+Waxhaws!" And he accompanied his exhortation with the most vehement and
+decisive action, striking down, with a huge sabre, all who opposed his
+way.
+
+Meantime, Colonel Williams and his comrades charged the column formed by
+Innis, and, in a few moments, succeeded in riding through the array and
+compelling them to a total rout. Robinson and Ramsay, side by side,
+mingled in this charge, and were seen in the thickest of the fight.
+Innis, finding all efforts to maintain his ground ineffectual, turned
+his horse towards Musgrove's mill, and fled as fast as spur and sword
+could urge the animal forward. The sergeant, however, had marked him for
+his prize, and following as fleetly as the trusty Captain Peter was able
+to carry him, soon came up with the fugitive officer, and, with one
+broad sweep of his sword, dislodged him from his saddle and left him
+bleeding on the ground. Turning again towards the field, his quick eye
+discerned the unwieldy bulk of Hugh Habershaw. The gross captain had, in
+the hurry of the assault, been unable to reach his horse; and, in the
+first moments of danger, had taken refuge in one of the little sheds
+which had been constructed for the accommodation of the soldiers. As the
+battle waxed hot in the neighborhood of his retreat, he had crept forth
+from his den and was making the best of his way to an adjoining
+cornfield. He was bare-headed, and his bald crown, as the slanting rays
+of the evening sun fell upon it, glistened like a gilded globe. The well
+known figure no sooner occurred to the sergeant's view than he rode off
+in pursuit. The cornfield was bounded by a fence, and the burly braggart
+had just succeeded in reaching it when his enemy overtook him.
+
+"Have mercy, good Mr. Horse Shoe, have mercy on a defenceless man!"
+screamed the runaway, in a voice discordant with terror, as he stopped
+at the fence, which he was unable to mount, and looked back upon his
+pursuer. "Remember the good-will I showed you when you was a prisoner!
+Quarter, quarter--for God's sake, quarter!"
+
+"You get no quarter from me, you cursed blood-lapper!" exclaimed Horse
+Shoe, excited to a rage that seldom visited his breast; "think of
+Grindall's Ford!" and at the same instant he struck a heavy downward
+blow, with such sheer descent, that it clove the skull of the perfidious
+freebooter clean through to the spine. "I have sworn your death," said
+the sergeant, "even if I catch you asleep in your bed, and right fairly
+have you earned it."
+
+The body fell into a bed of mire, which had been the resort of the
+neighboring swine; and, leaving it in this foul plight, Horse Shoe
+hastened back to rejoin his comrades.
+
+The battle now ended in the complete route of the enemy. Williams's
+first care, after the day was won, was to collect his men and to secure
+his prisoners. Many of the Tories had escaped; many were killed and
+wounded; but of Butler no tidings could be gained; he had disappeared
+from the field before the fight began, and all the information that the
+prisoners could give was that orders had been sent to remove him from
+the neighborhood. Colonel Innis was badly wounded, and in no condition
+to speak with his conquerors; he was sent, with several other disabled
+officers, to head-quarters. Captain St. Jermyn had fled, with most of
+those who had mounted their horses before the arrival of Williams.
+
+The day was already at its close, and order was taken to spend the night
+upon the field. Guards were posted, and every precaution adopted to
+avoid a surprise in turn from the enemy, who, it was feared, might soon
+rally a strong party and assail the conquerors.
+
+The disturbed condition of the country, and the almost unanimous
+sentiment of the people against the Whigs, now strengthened by the late
+victories, prevented Williams from improving his present advantage, or
+even from bearing off his prisoners. Robinson and Ramsay volunteered to
+head a party to scour the country in quest of Butler, but the commanding
+officer could give no encouragement to the enterprise; it was, in his
+judgment, a hopeless endeavor, when the forces of the enemy were
+everywhere so strong. His determination, therefore, was to retreat, as
+soon as his men were in condition, back to his fastnesses. His few
+killed were buried; the wounded, of which there were not more than
+fifteen or twenty were taken care of, and the jaded troops were
+dismissed to seek refreshment amongst the abundant stores captured from
+the enemy. Ensign St. Jermyn was still a prisoner; and, for the sake of
+adding to Butler's security, Williams selected two or three other
+officers that had fallen into his hands to accompany him in his retreat.
+These arrangements all being made, the colonel and his officers retired
+to repose. The next morning at daylight there were no traces of the
+Whigs to be seen upon the plain. It was abandoned to the loyalist
+prisoners and their wounded comrades.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+WILLIAMS TAKES A FANCY TO FOREST LIFE.--HORSE SHOE AND JOHN RAMSAY
+CONTINUE ACTIVE IN THE SERVICE OF BUTLER.--MARY MUSGROVE BECOMES A
+VALUABLE AUXILIARY.
+
+
+Williams had commenced his retreat before the dawn, as much with a view
+to accomplish a large portion of his journey before the heat of the day,
+as to protect himself against the probable pursuit of the rallied forces
+of the enemy. His destination was towards the mountains on the
+north-western frontier. The overthrow of Gates had left a large force of
+Tory militia at the disposal of Cornwallis, who, it was conjectured,
+would use them to break up every remnant of opposition in this region.
+It was therefore a matter of great importance to Williams, to conduct
+his little force into some place of security against the attacks of the
+royalists.
+
+Colonel Elijah Clarke had, ever since the fall of Charleston, been
+employed in keeping together the few scattered Whig families in that
+part of Carolina lying contiguous to the Savannah, with a view to an
+organized plan of resistance against the British authorities; and he had
+so far accomplished his purpose as to have procured some three or four
+hundred men, who had agreed to hold themselves in readiness to strike a
+blow whenever the occasion offered. These men were to be mustered at any
+moment by a preconcerted signal; and, in the meantime, they were
+instructed, by confining themselves to their dwellings, or pursuing
+their ordinary occupations, to keep as much as possible out of the way
+of the dominant authorities.
+
+Clarke resided in Georgia, whence he had fled as soon as the royalist
+leader, Brown, had taken possession of Augusta; and we have already seen
+that a letter from Colonel Pinckney, at Charleston, which Horse Shoe
+Robinson had been intrusted to deliver, had summoned Arthur Butler to
+this frontier to aid in Clarke's enterprise.
+
+Colonel Isaac Shelby, a resident of Washington county in Virginia, until
+the settlement of the southern line of the State had left him in the
+district at present known as Sullivan county in Tennessee, had been an
+efficient auxiliary in Clarke's scheme, and was now ready to summon a
+respectable number of followers for the support of the war on the
+mountain border. He and Clarke had accidentally arrived at Williams's
+camp a day or two before the attack upon Innis, with a view to a
+consultation as to the general interests of the meditated campaign; and
+they had only tarried to take a part in the engagement from a natural
+concern for the fate of their intended comrade, Butler. Having no
+further motive for remaining with Williams, they were both intent upon
+returning to their respective duties, and, accordingly, during the
+retreat of the following day, they took their leave.
+
+The vigilance with which these partisans were watched by their enemies,
+almost forbade the present hope of successful combination. From a
+consciousness of the hazard of attempting to concentrate their forces at
+this juncture, they had determined still to pursue their separate
+schemes of annoyance, until a more favorable moment for joint action
+should arise; and, in the interval, to hide themselves as much as
+possible in the forest. It was consequently in the hope of preserving
+his independence at least, if not of aiding Clarke, that Williams now
+moved with so much despatch to the mountains.
+
+His course lay towards the head waters of the Fair Forest river, in the
+present region of Spartanburg. This district was inhabited only by a few
+hunters, and some scattered Indians of an inoffensive character; it
+abounded in game, and promised to afford an easy subsistence to men
+whose habits were simple, and who were accustomed to rely upon the chase
+for support. The second day brought our hardy soldiers into the sojourn
+they sought. It was a wilderness broken by mountains, and intersected by
+streams of surpassing transparency; whilst its elevated position and
+southern latitude conferred upon it a climate that was then, as well as
+now, remarked for its delicious temperature in summer, and its exemption
+from the rigors of winter.
+
+The spot at which Williams rested was a sequestered valley deep hidden
+in the original woods, and watered by the Fair Forest, whose stream, so
+near its fountain, scarcely exceeded the dimensions of a little brook.
+Here he determined to form a camp, to which in times of emergency he
+might safely retreat. With a view to render it easy of access as a
+rendezvous, he caused landmarks to be made, by cutting notches on the
+trees--or _blazing_ them, in the woodman's phrase--in several
+directions, leading towards the principal highways that penetrated the
+country. The retreat thus established is familiar to the history of the
+war, under the name of the Fair Forest camp.
+
+These arrangements being completed in the course of the first day after
+his arrival, Williams now applied himself to the adoption of measures
+for the safety of Arthur Butler. Amongst the spoils that had fallen into
+his hands, after the victory over Innis, was the document containing the
+proceedings of the court-martial. The perusal of this paper, together
+with the comments afforded by Robinson, convinced him of the malignity
+of the persecution which had aimed at the life of the prisoner. It
+occurred to him, therefore, to submit the whole proceeding to Lord
+Cornwallis, to whom, he was persuaded, it either had been
+misrepresented, or, most probably, was entirely unknown. He did not
+doubt that an appeal to the honorable feelings of that officer, with a
+full disclosure of the facts, would instantly be followed by an order
+that should put Butler under the protection of the rules of war, and
+insure him all the rights that belong to a mere prisoner taken in arms
+in a lawful quarrel. A spirited remonstrance was accordingly prepared to
+this effect. It detailed the circumstances of Butler's case, which was
+accompanied with a copy of the proceedings of the court, and it
+concluded with a demand that such measures should be adopted by the head
+of the army, as comported with the rights of humanity and the laws of
+war; "a course," the writer suggested, "that he did not hesitate to
+believe his lordship would feel belonged both to the honor and duty of
+his station." This paper was consigned to the care of an officer, who
+was directed to proceed with it, under a flag of truce, to the
+head-quarters of the British commander.
+
+Soon after this, Robinson apprised Williams that Ramsay and himself had
+determined to venture back towards the Ennoree, to learn something of
+the state of affairs in that quarter, and to apply themselves more
+immediately to the service of Butler. In aid of this design, the
+sergeant obtained a letter from Williams, the purport of which was to
+inform the commandant of any post of the loyalists whom it might
+concern, that an application had been made on Butler's behalf to
+Cornwallis, and that the severest retaliation would be exercised upon
+the prisoners in Williams's custody, for any violence that might be
+offered the American officer. Putting this letter in his pocket, our man
+of "mickle might," attended by his good and faithful ally, John Ramsay,
+took his leave of "The Fair Forest" towards noon of the fourth day after
+the battle near Musgrove's mill.
+
+The second morning after their departure, the two companions had reached
+the Ennoree, not far from the habitation of David Ramsay. It was fair
+summer weather, and nature was as gay as in that piping time before the
+blast of war had blown across her fields. All things, in the course of a
+few days, seemed to have undergone a sudden change. The country
+presented no signs of strife: no bands of armed men molested the
+highways. An occasional husbandman was seen at his plough: the deer
+sprang up from the brushwood and fled into the forest, as if inviting
+again the pastime of the chase; and even when the two soldiers
+encountered a chance wayfarer upon the road, each party passed the other
+unquestioned--there was all the seeming quiet of a pacified country. The
+truth was, the war had rolled northwards--and all behind it had
+submitted since the disastrous fight at Camden. The lusty and
+hot-brained portions of the population were away with the army; and the
+non-combatants only, or those wearied with arms, were all that were to
+be seen in this region.
+
+Horse Shoe, after riding a long time in silence, as these images of
+tranquillity occupied his thoughts, made a simple remark that spoke a
+volume of truth in a few homely words.
+
+"This is an onnatural sort of stillness, John. Men may call this peace,
+but I call it fear. If there is a poor wretch of a Whig in this
+district, it's as good as his life is worth to own himself. How far off
+mought we be from your father's?"
+
+The young trooper heaved a deep sigh "I knew you were thinking of my
+poor father when you spoke your thoughts, Horse Shoe. This is a heavy
+day for him. But he could bear it: he's a man who thinks little of
+hardships. There are the helpless women, Galbraith Robinson," he
+continued, as he shook his head with an expression of sorrow that almost
+broke into tears. "Getting near home one thinks of them first. My good
+and kind mother--God knows how she would bear any heavy accident. I am
+always afraid to ask questions in these times about the family, for fear
+of hearing something bad. And there's little Mary Musgrove over at the
+mill"--
+
+"You have good reason to be proud of that girl, John Ramsay,"
+interrupted Robinson. "So speak out, man, and none of your stammering.
+Hoot!--she told me she was your sweetheart! You hav'n't half the tongue
+of that wench. Why, sir, if I was a lovable man, haw, haw!--which I'm
+not--I'll be cursed if I wouldn't spark that little fusee myself."
+
+"This fence," said Ramsay, unheeding the sergeant's banter, "belongs to
+our farm, and perhaps we had better let down the rails and approach the
+house across the field: if the Tories should be there we might find the
+road dangerous. This gives us a chance of retreat."
+
+"That's both scrupulous and wise, John," replied the sergeant. "So down
+with the pannel: we will steal upon the good folks, if they are at home,
+and take them by surprise. But mind you, my lad, see that your pistols
+are primed; we mought onawares get into a wasp's nest."
+
+The fence was lowered, and the horsemen cautiously entered the field.
+After passing a narrow dell and rising to the crest of the opposite
+hill, they obtained a position but a short distance in the rear of the
+homestead. From this point a melancholy prospect broke upon their sight.
+The dwelling-house had disappeared, and in its place was a heap only of
+smouldering ashes. A few of the upright frame-posts, scorched black, and
+a stone chimney with its ample fire-place, were all that remained of
+what, but a few days before, was the happy abode of the family of a
+brave and worthy man.
+
+"My God! my thoughts were running upon this! I feared their spite would
+break at last upon my father's head," cried John Ramsay, as he put spurs
+to his horse and galloped up to the ruins. "The savages have done their
+worst. But my father and mother where are they?" he exclaimed, as the
+tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+"Take heart, my brave boy!" said Robinson, in the kindliest tones.
+"There's a reckoning to come for all these villanies--and it will go
+hard with many a Tory yet before this account is settled."
+
+"I will carry a hot hand into the first house that covers a Tory head,"
+replied the young trooper, passionately; "this burning shall be paid
+with ten like it."
+
+"All in good time, John," said Robinson coolly. "As for the burning, it
+is no great matter; a few good neighbors would soon set that to rights,
+by building your father a better house than the one he has lost.
+Besides, Congress will not forget a true friend when the war is well
+fought out. But it does go against my grain, John Ramsay, to see a
+parcel of cowardly runaways spitting their malice against women and
+children. The barn, likewise, I see is gone," continued the sergeant,
+looking towards another pile of the ruins a short distance off. "The
+villains! when there's foul work to be done, they don't go at it like
+apprentices. No matter--I have made one observation: the darkest hour is
+just before the day, and that's a comfortable old saying."
+
+By degrees John Ramsay fell into a calmer temper, and now began to cast
+about as to the course fit to be pursued in their present emergency.
+About a quarter of a mile distant, two or three negro cabins were
+visible, and he could descry a few children near the doors. With an
+eager haste, therefore, he and the sergeant shaped their course across
+the field to this spot. When they arrived within fifty paces of the
+nearest hovel, the door was set ajar, and a rifle, thrust through the
+aperture, was aimed at the visitors.
+
+"Stand for your lives!" shouted the well known voice of David Ramsay. In
+the next instant the door was thrown wide open, the weapon cast aside,
+and the father rushed forward as he exclaimed, "Gracious God, my boy and
+Horse Shoe Robinson! Welcome, lads; a hundred times more welcome than
+when I had better shelter to give you! But the good friends of King
+George, you see, have been so kind as to give me a call. It is easy to
+tell when they take it in their head to visit a Whig."
+
+"My mother!" exclaimed John Ramsay.
+
+"In and see her, boy--she wants comfort from you. But, thank God! she
+bears this blow better than I thought she could."
+
+Before this speech was uttered John had disappeared.
+
+"And how came this mishap to fall upon you, David?" inquired Horse Shoe.
+
+"I suppose some of your prisoners," replied Ramsay, "must have informed
+upon Andy and me: for in the retreat of Innis's runaways, a party came
+through my farm. They stayed only long enough to ransack the house, and
+to steal whatever was worth taking; and then to set fire to the dwelling
+and all the out-buildings. Both Andy and myself, by good luck, perhaps,
+were absent, or they would have made us prisoners: so they turned my
+wife and children out of doors to shift for themselves, and scampered
+off as fast as if Williams was still at their heels. All that was left
+for us was to crowd into this cabin, where, considering all things, we
+are not so badly off. But things are taking an ill turn for the country,
+Horse Shoe. We are beaten on all sides."
+
+"Not so bad, David, as to be past righting yet," replied the sergeant.
+"What have they done with Major Butler?"
+
+"He was carried, as I learned, up to Blackstock's, the evening of the
+fight; and yesterday it was reported that a party has taken him back to
+Musgrove's. I believe he is now kept close prisoner in Allen's house.
+Christopher Shaw was here two days since, and told us that orders had
+come to occupy the millers dwelling-house for that purpose."
+
+Horse Shoe had now entered the cabin with David Ramsay, and in the
+course of the hour that followed, during which the family had prepared
+refreshment for the travellers, the sergeant had fully canvassed all the
+particulars necessary to be known for his future guidance. It was
+determined that he and John should remain in their present concealment
+until night, and then endeavor to reach the mill under cover of the
+darkness, and open some means of communication with the family of the
+miller.
+
+The rest of the day was spent in anxious thought. The situation of the
+adventurers was one of great personal peril, as they were now
+immediately within the circle of operations of the enemy and likely to
+be observed and challenged the first moment they ventured upon the
+road.
+
+The hour of dusk had scarcely arrived before they were again mounted on
+horseback. They proceeded cautiously upon the road that led through the
+wood, until it intersected the highway; and, having attained this point,
+John Ramsay, who was well acquainted with every avenue through the
+country, now led the way, by a private and scarcely discernible path,
+into the adjacent forest, and thence, by a tedious and prolonged route,
+directed his companion to the banks of the Ennoree. This course of
+travel took them immediately to the plain on which Innis had been
+encamped--the late field of battle. All here was still and desolate. The
+sheds and other vestiges of the recent bivouac were yet visible, but not
+even the farm-house that had constituted Innis's head-quarters was
+reoccupied by its original inhabitants. The bat whirred over the plain,
+and the owl hooted from the neighboring trees. The air still bore the
+scent of dead bodies which had either been left exposed, or so meagrely
+covered with earth as to taint the breeze with noisome exhalations.
+
+"There is a great difference, John," said Horse Shoe, who seldom let an
+occasion to moralize after his own fashion slip by, "there's a great
+difference between a hot field and a stale one. Your hot field makes a
+soldier, for there's a sort of a stir in it that sets the blood to
+running merrily through a man, and that's what I call pleasure. But when
+everything is festering like the inside of a hospital--or what's next
+door to it, a grave-yard--it is mighty apt to turn a dragoon's stomach
+and make a preacher of him. This here dew falls to-night like frost, and
+chills me to the heart, which it wouldn't do if it didn't freshen up the
+smell of dead men. And there's the hogs, busy as so many sextons among
+Innis's Tories: you may hear them grunt over their suppers. Well, there
+is one man among them that I'll make bold to say these swine hav'n't got
+the stomach to touch--that's Hugh Habershaw: he sleeps in the mud in
+yonder fence-corner."
+
+"If you had done nothing else in the fight, Horse Shoe, but cleave that
+fellow's skull," said Ramsay, "the ride we took would have been well
+paid for--it was worth the trouble."
+
+"And the rapscallionly fellow to think," added Horse Shoe, "that I was a
+going to save him from the devil's clutches, when I had a broadsword in
+my hand, and his bald, greasy pate in reach. His brain had nothing in it
+but deceit and lies, and all sorts of cruel thoughts, enough to poison
+the air when I let them out. I have made an observation, John, all my
+life on them foul-mouthed, swilling braggers--that when there's so much
+cunning and blood-thirstiness, there's no room for a thimbleful of
+courage: their heart's in their belly, which is as much as to signify
+that the man's a most beastly coward. But now, it is my opinion that we
+had best choose a spot along upon the river here, and leave our horses.
+I think we can manoeuvre better on foot: the miller's house is short
+of two miles, and we mought be noticed if we were to go nearer on
+horseback."
+
+This proposal was adopted, and the two friends, when they had ridden a
+short distance below the battle ground, halted in a thicket, where they
+fastened their horses, and proceeded towards the mill on foot. After
+following the course of the stream for near half an hour, they
+perceived, at a distance, a light glimmering through the window of Allen
+Musgrove's dwelling. This induced a second pause in their march, when
+Ramsay suggested the propriety of his advancing alone to reconnoitre the
+house, and attempting to gain some speech with the inmates. He
+accordingly left the sergeant to amuse himself with his own thoughts.
+
+Horse Shoe took his seat beneath a sycamore, where he waited a long time
+in anxious expectation of the return of his comrade. Growing uneasy, at
+last, at John's delay, he arose, and stole cautiously forward until he
+reached the mill, where he posted himself in a position from which he
+was able to see and hear what was going on at the miller's house. The
+porch was occupied by three or four persons, whose conversation, as it
+came to the sergeant's ear, proved them to be strangers to the family;
+and a ray of light from a taper within, after a while, made this more
+manifest, by revealing the scarlet uniform of the enemy. Horse Shoe was
+thus confirmed in the truth of the report that Butler had been brought
+to this place under a military escort. With this conviction he returned
+to the sycamore, where he again sat down to wait for the coming of his
+companion.
+
+It was after ten o'clock, and the sergeant was casting over in his
+thoughts the long absence of John, when his attention was aroused by the
+sound of footsteps, and the next instant John Ramsay and Mary Musgrove
+stood beside him.
+
+"What kept you till this time of night?" was the sergeant's accost.
+
+"Softly, man, I have news for you," replied Ramsay. "Here is Mary
+herself."
+
+"And so she is, indeed!" exclaimed the sergeant, at the same time
+shaking her hand, "this is my petticoat-sodger; how goes it with you,
+girl?"
+
+"I have only a moment to spare," replied the maiden cheerfully, "and it
+is the greatest of good luck that I thought of coming out; for John gave
+me a signal, which I was stupid enough not to understand at first. But,
+after a while, I thought it could be no one but John Ramsay; and that,
+partly, because I expected he would be coming into the neighborhood ever
+since I heard of his being at his father's, after the ensign was made a
+prisoner."
+
+"I went," said John Ramsay, "to the further side of the house, where I
+set to whistling an old-fashioned tune that Mary was acquainted
+with--walking away all the time in an opposite direction--as if there
+was nothing meant--"
+
+"And I knew the tune, Mr. Horse Shoe," interrupted Mary, eagerly, "it
+was Maggie Lauder. John practised that trick once before to show me how
+to find my way to him. Upon that, I made an excuse to leave the room,
+and slipped out through the garden--and then I followed the whistling,
+as folks say they follow a jack-o'-lantern."
+
+"And so, by a countermarch," continued the young dragoon, "we came round
+the meadow and through the woods, here."
+
+"Now that you've got here at last," said Horse Shoe, "tell me the news."
+
+"Major Butler is in the house," said Mary and John, both speaking at
+once. "He was brought there yesterday from Blackstock's," continued the
+maiden. "Orders came from somebody that he was to be kept at our house,
+until they had fixed upon what was to be done with him. Colonel Innis
+was too ill to think of such matters, and has been carried out of the
+neighborhood--and it is thought he will die."
+
+"How many men are there to guard the prisoner?" asked the sergeant.
+
+"There are more than twenty, with a lieutenant from Ninety-Six, who has
+the charge of them."
+
+"And how does the major bear his troubles?"
+
+"He seems to be heavy at heart," replied the maiden. "But that may be
+because he is away from his friends. Though my father, who is a good
+judge of such things, says he suffers tribulation like a Christian. He
+asked me privately, if I had heard anything of you, Mr. Robinson: and
+when I told him what folks said about your being with the people that
+beat Colonel Innis, he smiled, and said if any man could get him free,
+it was Horse Shoe Robinson."
+
+"Do they allow you to see him often?" inquired the sergeant.
+
+"I have seen him only two or three times since he came to the house,"
+answered the maiden. "But the officer that has charge of him is not
+contrary or ill-natured, and makes no objection to my carrying him his
+meals--though I am obliged to pretend to know less about Major Butler
+than I do, for fear they might be jealous of my talking to him."
+
+"You can give him a letter?"
+
+"I think I can contrive it," replied the maiden.
+
+"Then give him this, my good girl," said Robinson, taking Williams's
+letter from his pocket and putting it in Mary's hand. "It is a piece of
+writing he can use whenever he is much pressed. It may save him from
+harm. Now, I want you to do something more. You must find a chance just
+to whisper in his ear that Horse Shoe Robinson and John Ramsay are in
+the neighborhood. Tell him, likewise, that Colonel Williams has sent a
+messenger to Lord Cornwallis to lay his case before that officer, and to
+get some order for his better treatment. That the doings of that
+rascally court-martial have been sent by the messenger, hoping that Lord
+Cornwallis, if he is a brave and a Christian man--as they say he
+is--will stop this onmerciful persecution of the major--which has no
+cause for it under heaven. Will you remember all this?"
+
+"I'll try, sir," responded Mary; "and besides I will tell it to my
+father, who has more chance of speaking to Major Butler than I have."
+
+"Now," said Horse Shoe, "we will be here again to-morrow night, a
+little earlier than this; you must meet us here. And say to the major,
+if he has any message for us, he may send it by you. But be cautious,
+Mary, how you are seen talking with the prisoner. If they suspect you it
+will spoil all."
+
+"Trust to me," said the girl; "I warrant I have learned by this time how
+to behave myself amongst these red-coats."
+
+"There, John," continued Horse Shoe, "I have said all I want to say, and
+as you, I have no doubt, have got a good deal to tell the girl, it is
+but fair that you should have your chance. So, do you walk back with her
+as far as the mill, and I'll wait here for you. But don't forget
+yourself by overstaying your furlough."
+
+"I must get home as fast as possible," said Mary; "they will be looking
+for me."
+
+"Away, John Ramsay--away," added Horse Shoe; "and have your eyes about
+you, man."
+
+With this command John Ramsay and the miller's daughter hastily
+withdrew, and were soon out of the sergeant's hearing.
+
+After an interval, which doubtless seemed short to the gallant dragoon,
+he returned to his comrade, and the two set out rapidly in quest of
+their horses; and once more having got into their saddles, they retraced
+their steps at a brisk speed to Ramsay's cabin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+    All distant and faint were the sounds of the battle;
+    With the breezes they rise, with the breezes they fail,
+    Till the shout and the groan and the conflict's dread rattle,
+    And the chase's wild clamor come loading the gale.
+
+    THE MAID OF TORO.
+
+
+In the confusion that ensued upon the defeat of Innis, James Curry
+succeeded in conducting Butler from the field. His orders were to
+retreat with the prisoner to Blackstock's; and he had accordingly set
+out with about a dozen troopers, by a private path that led towards a
+quarter secure from the molestation of the enemy, when the attack
+commenced. Butler was mounted behind one of the men, and in this uneasy
+condition was borne along the circuitous by-way that had been chosen,
+without a moment's respite from the severe motion of the horse, nearly
+at high speed, until, having accomplished three miles of the retreat,
+the party arrived at the main road that extended between Innis's camp
+and Blackstock's. Here Curry, conceiving himself to be out of danger of
+pursuit, halted his men, with a purpose to remain until he could learn
+something of the combat. Butler was in a state of the most exciting
+bewilderment as to the cause of this sudden change in his affairs. No
+explanation was given to him by his conductors; and although, from the
+first, he was aware that an extraordinary emergency had arisen from some
+assault upon Innis's position, no one dropped a word in his hearing to
+give him the slightest clue to the nature of the attack. The troopers
+about him preserved a morose and ill-natured silence, and even
+manifested towards him a harsh and resentful demeanor. He heard the
+firing, but what troops were engaged, by whom led, or with what chances
+of success, were subjects of the most painfully interesting doubt. He
+could only conjecture that this was a surprise accomplished by the
+Whigs, and that the assailants must have come in sufficient force to
+justify the boldness of the enterprise. That Horse Shoe was connected
+with this irruption he felt fully assured; and from this circumstance he
+gathered the consolatory and cheerful prognostic of a better issue out
+of his afflictions than, in his late condition, seemed even remotely
+possible. This hope grew brighter as the din of battle brought the
+tidings of the day to his ear. The first few scattered shots that
+told of the confusion in which the combat was begun, were, after an
+interval, succeeded by regular volleys of musketry that indicated an
+orderly and marshalled resistance. Platoon after platoon fired in
+succession--signifying, to the practised hearing of the soldier, that
+infantry was receiving the attacks of cavalry, and that as yet the first
+had not faltered. Then the firing grew more slack, and random shots were
+discharged from various quarters--but amidst these were heard no
+embodied volleys. It was the casual and nearly overpowered resistance of
+flying men.
+
+At this juncture there was a dark frown on the brow of Curry, as he
+looked at his comrades, and said, in a low and muttered tone, "That
+helter-skelter shot grates cursedly on the ear. There's ill-luck in the
+sound of it."
+
+Presently a few stragglers appeared at a turn of the road, some quarter
+of a mile in the direction of the battle, urging their horses forward at
+the top of their speed. These were followed by groups both of infantry
+and cavalry, pressing onwards in the utmost disorder--those on horseback
+thrusting their way through the throng of foot-soldiers, seemingly
+regardless of life or limb; the wounded with their wounds bleeding
+afresh, or hastily bandaged with such appliances as were at hand. All
+hurried along amidst the oaths, remonstrances, and unheeded orders of
+the officers, who were endeavoring to resume their commands. It was the
+flight of men beset by a panic, and fearful of pursuit; and the clouds
+of dust raised by the press and hurry of this career almost obscured the
+setting sun.
+
+During the first moments of uncertainty, Curry, no less anxiously than
+Butler, remained stationary by the road-side, reading the distant signs
+of the progress of the fight; but now, when the disastrous issue was no
+longer doubtful, he commanded his cavalcade to move forward, and from
+that moment prosecuted his journey with unabated speed until he arrived
+at Blackstock's.
+
+Butler was unceremoniously marched to his former place of confinement
+in the barn, where a rigorous guard was set over his person. In the
+confusion and insubordination that prevailed amongst the crowd, that,
+during the night, was continually increasing in the little hamlet, the
+common rites of humanity towards the prisoner were forgotten, and he was
+left to pass the weary hours till morning, on a shock of hay, without
+food or other refreshment than a simple draught of water. From the
+unreserved murmurs of those who frequented the place, and the querulous
+upbraidings of the soldiery against each other, Butler was enabled to
+glean the principal incidents of the day. The supposed death of Innis
+reached him through this channel, and, what was scarcely a subject of
+less personal interest to him, the certain end of Hugh Habershaw. It was
+with a silent satisfaction at the moral or _poetical_ justice--as it has
+been called--of the event, that he heard the comrades of the late
+self-conceited captain describe his death in terms of coarse and
+unpitying ribaldry--a retribution due to the memory of a cruel and
+cowardly braggart.
+
+When the morning was fully abroad, the disarranged and broken remnants
+of the Tory camp began gradually to be reduced to a state of discipline.
+The day was spent in this occupation. Orders were every moment arriving
+from the higher officers of the late camp, or from the nearest British
+posts. Videttes bore the tidings of the different military operations
+from the neighborhood of the enemy. The fragments of companies were
+marshalled into squads and subdivisions; and, successively, one party
+after another was seen to leave the hamlet, and take a direction of
+march that led towards the main British army, or to the garrisons of the
+lower districts.
+
+Towards the close of the day one detachment only was left; and Butler
+was given to understand that this was intrusted with his especial
+keeping. It was composed of a few regular soldiers of the garrison of
+Ninety-Six, and a small number of the country militia,--making, in all,
+about twenty men, commanded by Lieutenant Macdonald, of the regular
+army.
+
+Butler remained in his present state of seclusion four or five days,
+during which he experienced much mitigation of the rigors of his
+captivity. Macdonald was a careful and considerate soldier, and demeaned
+himself towards his prisoner with such kindness as the nature of his
+trust allowed. He removed him into a comfortable apartment in the
+dwelling-house, and supplied him with the conveniences his situation
+required; he even made him occasional visits, which were attended with
+more than the mere observances of courtesy and respect, and expressed a
+sympathy in his sufferings.
+
+These unexpected tones of comfort, from a quarter in which Butler had
+hitherto heard nothing but fierce hatred and harsh rebuke, fell
+gratefully upon his ear, and gave a brighter color to his hopes for the
+future. But he could not help observing, that no hint was dropped by
+Macdonald which might furnish him the slightest ground of surmise as to
+the vicissitudes that yet awaited him. The reported fall of Innis seemed
+to afford a natural foundation for the belief, that the malice of his
+enemies might hereafter be less active,--as he attributed much of the
+persecution he had suffered to the secret machinations of that
+individual. He no longer saw around his person those agents who first
+pursued him with such bitter hostility. He seemed to have fallen into
+entirely new combinations, and had reason to augur, from all he saw,
+that their purposes against him were less wicked. And first, above all
+other topics of consolation and comfort, was the conviction that a brave
+and efficient party of friends were in the field, intent upon his
+liberation. Still, his situation was one in which it required all his
+manhood to sustain himself. A young soldier of an ardent temper, and
+zealously bent upon active and perilous service, can ill brook the
+tedious, dull delays of captivity, even in its mildest form: but if this
+thraldom befal in a period of universal agitation, when "great events
+are on the gale," of which the captive is only a witness to the
+pervading interest they excite, without being permitted to know their
+import; if moreover, as in the case of Butler, an impenetrable veil of
+mystery hang over the purpose of his captivity, behind which the few
+short glimpses afforded him, open upon his view nothing but death in its
+most frightful forms; and if to these are added, by far the bitterest of
+its qualities, the anxieties, cares, and pains of a devoted, plighted
+lover, separated from the heart that loves him, we may well conjecture
+that the most gallant spirit may find in it, even amidst occasional
+gleams of sunshine, that sinking of hope which the philosophic king of
+Israel has described as making "the heart sick,"--that chafing of the
+soul that, like the encaged eaglet, wearies and tears its wing against
+the bars of its prison. Even so fared it with Arthur Butler, who now
+found himself growing more and more into the shadow of a melancholy
+temper.
+
+It was soon ascertained that Williams had abandoned the field he had
+won, and had retreated beyond the reach of immediate pursuit. And as the
+post at Musgrove's mill afforded many advantages, in reference to the
+means of communicating with the garrisons of the middle section of the
+province, and was more secure against the hazard of molestation from
+such parties of Whigs as might still be out-lying, an order was sent to
+Macdonald to remove with his prisoner to the habitation of the miller,
+and there to detain him until some final step should be taken in his
+case.
+
+In pursuance of this requisition, Butler was conducted, after the
+interval of the few days we have mentioned, to Allen Musgrove's. The old
+man received his guest with that submission to the domination of the
+military masters of the province, which he had prescribed to himself
+throughout the contest,--secretly rejoicing that the selection made of
+his house for this purpose, might put it in his power to alleviate the
+sufferings of a soldier, towards whose cause he felt a decided though
+unavowed attachment. This selection furnished evidence to the miller,
+that nothing had transpired to arouse the distrust of the British
+authorities in the loyalty of any part of his family,--and to Butler, it
+inferred the consolatory fact, that the zealous devotion of Mary
+Musgrove to his service had as yet passed without notice; whilst to the
+maiden herself, it was proof that her agency in the delivery of the
+letter, which she had so adroitly put within the reach of the officers
+of the court, had not even excited a suspicion against her.
+
+The best room in the house was allotted to the prisoner; and the most
+sedulous attention on the part of the family, so far as it could be
+administered without inducing mistrust, was employed in supplying him
+with whatever was needful to his condition. On the part of the
+commanding officer, the usual precautions known to military experience
+for the safe keeping of a prisoner were adopted. The privates of the
+guard occupied the barn, whilst Macdonald and one or two subordinate
+officers took up their quarters in the dwelling-house: sentinels were
+posted at the several avenues leading to the habitation, and a sergeant
+had the especial care of the prisoner, who, under this supervision, was
+occasionally allowed the range of the garden. The usual forms of a camp
+police were observed with scrupulous exactness;--and the morning and the
+nightly drum, the parade, the changing of sentries, the ringing of
+ramrods in the empty barrels of the muskets, and the glitter of weapons,
+were strangely and curiously associated with the rural and unwarlike
+features of the scenery around.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+BUTLER FINDS A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE IN HIS DISTRESS.
+
+
+Allen Musgrove had heard enough of Butler's history from his daughter
+and from Galbraith Robinson, to feel a warm interest in that officer's
+safety; and now his personal acquaintance with the prisoner still
+further corroborated his first prepossessions. The old man took the
+earliest opportunity to indicate to Butler the concern he felt in his
+welfare. From the moderate and kindly tone of his own character, he was
+enabled to do this without drawing upon himself the distrust of the
+officer of the guard. His expressions of sympathy were regarded, by
+Macdonald, as the natural sentiments of a religious mind imbued with an
+habitual compassion for the sufferings of a fellow creature, and of one
+who strove to discharge the duties of a peace-maker. His visits were
+looked upon as those of a spiritual counsellor, whose peculiar right it
+was to administer consolation to the afflicted, in whatever condition;
+he was therefore permitted freely to commune with the prisoner, and, as
+it sometimes happened, alone with him in his chamber.
+
+This privilege was now particularly useful; for Mary having, on the
+morning after her midnight interview with John Ramsay and Robinson,
+communicated to her father the incidents of that meeting, and put in his
+possession the letter which the sergeant had given her, and having also
+repeated her message to him accurately as she had received it, Musgrove
+took occasion, during the following day, to deliver the letter to
+Butler, and to make known to him all that he had heard from his
+daughter. This disclosure produced the most cheering effect upon
+Butler's spirits. It, for the first time since the commencement of his
+sufferings, opened to his mind a distinct view of his chance of eventual
+liberation. The expectation of having his case represented to Cornwallis
+inspired him with a strong confidence that justice would be done to
+him, and the covert malice of his enemies be disarmed. In this hope, it
+occurred to him to take some instant measures to satisfy the British
+commander-in-chief of the groundless character of the principal
+accusation brought against him by the court-martial,--that which related
+to the pretended design to deliver up Philip Lindsay to the wrath of the
+Republican government. For this purpose he resolved to make an appeal to
+Lindsay himself, by letter, and frankly to call upon him to put at rest
+this most unjust and wicked accusation. He knew that however strong
+Lindsay's antipathy to him might be, the high sense of honor which
+distinguished the father of Mildred might be confidently and
+successfully invoked to furnish such a statement as should entirely
+satisfy his accusers of the gross injustice of the charge. "I will write
+to him," he said, "and throw myself upon his protection. I will require
+of him to detail the whole history of my intercourse with his family,
+and to say how improbable even he must deem it, that I could be so base
+as to plot against his peace. And I will appeal to Mildred to fortify
+her father's statement, to show that this wicked accusation rests upon a
+story which it is impossible could be true."
+
+Whilst Butler's thoughts were still occupied with this resolve, Mary
+Musgrove entered his apartment, bearing in her hands a napkin and plate
+which she had come to spread for his dinner, and as the maiden employed
+herself in arranging a small table in the middle of the room, she cast a
+few distrustful glances towards the sentinel who paced to and fro
+opposite the door, and then, seizing on a moment when the soldier had
+disappeared from view, she whispered to Butler--
+
+"You have seen my father, sir?"
+
+Butler nodded his head.
+
+"He has told you all?"
+
+Butler again signified a silent assent.
+
+The tramp of the sentinel showed that he was again approaching the door;
+and when Mary turned her eyes in that direction, she beheld the watchful
+soldier halting in such a position as to enable him both to see and hear
+what was passing in the room. Without showing the least perturbation, or
+even appearing to notice the guard, she said in a gay and careless
+voice,--"My father and Lieutenant Macdonald,--who is a good
+gentleman--think it belongs to Christian people to do all the good we
+can for them that providence has put under us; and so, sir, I have been
+to gather you some blackberries, which I thought, may be, you would
+like, sir."
+
+The sentinel walked away, and Mary smiled as she saw her little
+stratagem succeed.
+
+"Bring me some paper," said Butler cautiously. "You are a considerate
+girl," he continued, in a louder voice, "and I thank you for this good
+will." Then finding that the sentinel did not immediately return, he
+whispered--"I wish to write to Robinson--you shall take the letter and
+read it to him."
+
+"I will do my best," replied the maiden; and again the sentinel
+interrupted the conference.
+
+Mary, having arranged the table, left the room. In a few moments she
+returned, bringing with her the family Bible.
+
+"If you would like to read, sir," she said, "here is a book that a body
+may look at a long time without getting tired of it. We have only got
+this, and the Pilgrim's Progress, and the hymn-book, in the house; but
+my father says this is worth all the others that ever were printed, put
+together; and especially, sir, when one's in distress, and away from
+their friends."
+
+An expression of pleasure played across Butler's features as he took the
+heavy volume from the girl.
+
+"A thousand thanks to you, my pretty maiden," he replied. "I doubt not I
+shall grow both wiser and better under your tutoring. This kindness
+almost reconciles me to my fate."
+
+"John is doing all he can for you, and he is a good helper to Mr.
+Robinson," said Mary, in the same cautious whisper that she had first
+spoken in, as she retreated from the room. Butler opened the book, and
+found a sheet of paper folded away amongst the leaves; then closing it,
+he threw it upon his bed.
+
+In due course of time, Mary Musgrove returned with a few dishes of food
+which she set out upon the table, and, in one of the successive visits
+which were employed in furnishing the repast, she took from beneath her
+apron a small ink-horn and pen, which she placed, unobserved by the
+sentinel, in Butler's hand. Having done this, she retired, leaving the
+prisoner to despatch his meal alone.
+
+After dinner, Butler threw himself upon his bed, where he lay with the
+Bible opened out before him, with his back turned towards the door; and,
+whilst Mary Musgrove was engaged in removing the furniture of the table,
+he found means to write a few lines to Philip Lindsay. He took the same
+opportunity to pen a short letter to Mildred; and then to set down some
+directions for Horse Shoe Robinson, the purport of which was that the
+sergeant should take the two letters and depart, with all despatch, for
+the Dove Cote, and to put both into the hands of Mildred, with a request
+that she would procure him the necessary reply from her father. Horse
+Shoe was also directed to explain to Mildred such particulars of
+Butler's history as were necessary to be made known for the
+accomplishment of the object of the mission.
+
+When these papers were finished they were folded up into a small
+compass, and in the course of the evening put into Mary's hands, with a
+request that she would herself read the instructions intended for the
+sergeant, and apprise him of their contents when she delivered the
+papers to him.
+
+So far all had succeeded well, and Butler found additional reason to
+dispel the gloom that hung upon his spirits, in the prospect that was
+now opened to him of enlisting strong and authoritative friends in the
+scheme of his liberation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+MARY MUSGROVE'S PERPLEXITIES.
+
+
+As a mariner who watches the heavens from the deck, and notes the first
+uprising of the small cloud, "no bigger than a man's hand," that to his
+practised eye shows the sign of tempest; and anon, as the speck quickly
+changes into a lurid mass, whence volume after volume of dun vapor is
+driven in curled billows forward, covering the broad welkin with a
+gloomy pall, he looks more frequently and more intently upwards, anxious
+to lay his vessel safe, and assure himself of his proper course to
+steer: so--not with the same doubt of safety, but with the same restless
+inspection of the heavens--did Mary watch the slow approach of night.
+First, she looked wistfully at the declining sun, and observed with
+pleasure the night-hawk begin to soar: then, through the long twilight,
+she noted the thickening darkness, and saw the bat take wing, and heard
+the frog croaking from his pool. And as the stars, one by one, broke
+forth upon the night, it gladdened her to think the hour of her mission
+was approaching, for she was troubled in her spirit and anxious to
+acquit herself of her charitable office; and perhaps, too, it may be
+told of her, without prejudice to her modest, maidenly emotions, a spur
+was given to her wishes by the hope of meeting John Ramsay.
+
+For an hour after supper she paced the porch, and still looked out upon
+the stars, to mark the slow waxing of the night; and, now and then she
+walked forth as far as the mill, and lingered by the bank of the river,
+and again returned to ask the sentinel the hour.
+
+"You seem disturbed, Mary," said Macdonald, playfully. "Now, I'll
+venture to say I can guess your thoughts: this star-gazing is a great
+tell-tale. You were just now thinking that, as the tug of the war is
+over, some lad who has borne a musket lately, will be very naturally
+tripping this way to-night, instead of going home to see his mother.
+Come--isn't that a good guess?"
+
+"Do you know him, sir?" asked Mary, with composure.
+
+"Aye, to be sure I do: a good, brave fellow, who eats well, drinks well,
+and fights well."
+
+"All men do that now," replied the maiden, "but I am sure you are wrong,
+sir, if you think any such considers it worth his while to come here."
+
+"He must come quickly, or we cannot let him in without a countersign,"
+said the officer: "sergeant, order the tattoo to beat, it is nine
+o'clock. Mary, stay, I must cross-question you a little about this same
+gallant."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I did but jest, and so I thought you did. My father says
+it is not proper I should loiter to talk with the men; good night, sir:
+it is our time for prayers." And with these words the young girl
+withdrew into the house.
+
+In some half hour afterwards Mary escaped by another door and, taking a
+circuitous path through the garden, she passed behind the sentinel and
+sped towards the mill, intent upon keeping her appointment with the
+friends of Butler. As soon as she reached the river bank, she quickened
+her pace, and hurried with a nimble step towards the distant thicket.
+
+"What ho! who goes there?" shouted the voice of a man from the
+neighborhood of the mill: "who flies so fast?"
+
+"Faith, Tom, it must be a ghost," said a second voice, loud enough to be
+heard by the damsel, who now increased the speed with which she fled
+towards the cover.
+
+In an instant two of the soldiers of the guard rushed upon the track of
+the frightened girl.
+
+"Spare me, good sir--for pity's sake, spare me!" exclaimed the maiden,
+suddenly turning round upon her pursuers.
+
+"Where away so fast?" said one of the men. "This is a strange time of
+night for girls to be flying into the woods. What matter have you in
+hand that brings you here--and what is your name?"
+
+"I am the daughter of Allen Musgrove," replied Mary indignantly.
+
+"Is it so?" said the first speaker; "then it is the Miller's own
+daughter, and we ask your pardon. We only saw you flying along the bank
+of the river, and not knowing what it was, why we thought it right to
+follow. But as it is all explained now, we will see you back to the
+house."
+
+"I can find my way without help," replied the maiden.
+
+"Now, that's not good-natured for so kind a girl as the miller's
+daughter ought to be," said the second soldier.
+
+"I will see if my father can protect me," said Mary, hastening back
+towards the house so rapidly as almost to run. "I will know if
+Lieutenant Macdonald will allow me to be insulted."
+
+With a hurried step she entered upon the porch, and, without stopping to
+parley with those who occupied this part of the dwelling, retired to her
+chamber and threw herself into a chair, where she sat for some time
+panting with affright. As she gradually recovered her strength, she
+began to turn her thoughts upon her recent discomfiture; and it was with
+a deep sense of chagrin and disappointment, that she reflected upon her
+not being able successfully to renew her enterprise on the same night.
+The hour of meeting had arrived; the officers of the guard were still
+frequenting the porch; her conduct had already excited notice, and if
+she wished to be in a condition to render future service, her most
+obvious duty was to postpone any further attempt to deliver the papers
+until another time. On the other hand, she had reason to fear that John
+Ramsay would be hovering near to ascertain the cause of her failure to
+meet him, and might rashly resort to the same mode of conveying a signal
+which he had successfully practised heretofore. This would infallibly,
+she believed, provoke an investigation that might entirely frustrate all
+their views. "But then John is a good soldier," she said, in the way of
+self-consolation, "and will know that the enemy is awake; because if it
+was not so, he would be sure I would keep my word. And if he only takes
+that notion into his head, he is too careful to run the chance of
+spoiling all by coming here."
+
+Still, with some little mistrust as to John's soldiership when it
+crossed the path of his love, which naturally, she reflected, makes a
+man rash, she thought it best to provide against accident, by throwing
+herself into the company of the officers who loitered about the door in
+idle discourse with her father. She accordingly left her room, and, with
+an anxious and troubled heart, went out and seated herself quietly on
+the steps of the porch, where she remained for some time a silent but
+inattentive listener to the conversation of those around her.
+
+As a part of that system of things by which it is contrived that the
+current of true love shall never run smooth, I have ever found that when
+it was peculiarly fitting that some grandam, uncle, cousin, father, or
+guest, should retire early to bed, in order that some scheme of interest
+to young lovers might be successfully achieved; precisely on such nights
+is the perversity of fate most conspicuous, in inclining the minds of
+such grandam, uncle, cousin, and so forth, to sit up much longer than
+they are wont; thus showing that the grooves and dovetails of things in
+this world are not nicely fitted to the occasions of those who deal in
+the tender passion. And so it befel for poor Mary Musgrove this night.
+
+The hour was now fast verging upon eleven, and she anxiously noted every
+sentence that was spoken, hoping it was to be the last; and then she
+trembled to think that John, regardless of the danger, might be lurking
+near, and indiscreetly expose himself. And still the talkers discoursed
+as if they meant to sit up all night. It was a delicious, cool hour,
+after a sultry day, and there was luxury in the breeze; but as the
+minutes were counted over by the maiden, in their slow passage, her
+fears increased. At length, far off, as if it were a mile away, the
+clear notes of one whistling an old tune were heard. Mary involuntarily
+started from her seat, and moved along the little pathway towards the
+gate, her heart beating against her bosom as if it would have
+"overbourne its continents." The signal notes freshened upon the air,
+and the tune came forth blithely and boldly, showing that the wayfarer
+was trudging, with a light heart, down the main road towards the mill.
+The party in the porch, however, were too much engrossed in their
+colloquy to notice the incident. The whistling came still nearer, until,
+at last, it seemed to be scarce a gunshot from the house. Beyond this
+point it did not advance; but here indicated that the person from whom
+it proceeded had halted. If Mary's cheek could have been brought to the
+light, it would have shown how the blood had deserted it from very fear:
+her whole frame shook with this emotion. To exhibit her unconcern,
+which, in truth, was most sadly affected, she mingled amongst the
+company in the porch, and leant against the door-post. Still the
+whistling continued, with no symptom of retreat, and Mary impatiently
+walked towards the further end of the house. "John Ramsay makes a fool
+of himself," she muttered peevishly. "Hasn't he the sense to see I
+cannot get out? What keeps the simple man dallying shilly-shally at the
+fence, as if he actually wanted them to take him? I don't believe in the
+mighty sense and wisdom of these men! If John had half an eye he would
+see that I couldn't get away to-night."
+
+As the maiden grew fretful, her fears had less mastery over her; and
+now, taking heart of grace, she returned to the porch.
+
+"Sergeant," said Macdonald, calling to one of his men, "take two files
+and patrole the road until you ascertain who that fellow is who makes
+himself so merry to-night. I thought it some fool," he continued,
+addressing himself to Allen Musgrove, "who, as the poet says, 'whistled
+as he went for want of thought,' but he seems to have a hankering after
+these premises that is not exactly to my mind. Perhaps, after all,
+Mary," he added privately in the maiden's ear; "it is the lad I was
+telling you of; and as he is a bashful youth, we will bring him in by
+force. You know, he can't help that; and old dad here can never blame
+you if I should make the fellow come to see you against your will.
+Sergeant, treat the man civilly, you understand."
+
+"It is not worth your while to be sending after Adam Gordon," said Mary,
+with some slight confusion in her accent; "he is only half-witted; and
+almost the only thing he does for a living, is to come down of nights
+here to the mill-dam, to bob for eels. If it wasn't for that, his mother
+would go many a day without a meal."
+
+"No matter, we will bring Adam in," replied the lieutenant, "and if he
+is good at his sport, why we will go and join him."
+
+"He is shy of company," said Mary, still faltering in her speech, "and
+will not come amongst strangers."
+
+Partly from a spirit of resignation, partly to avoid further exposure of
+her feelings, and in part too, perhaps, from some slight feeling of
+remorse, such as is natural to a virtuous and youthful mind at being
+obliged to practise a deceit however lawful (as I contend it was in
+this case), the maiden withdrew into the parlor, where, unseen by any,
+she offered up a short and earnest prayer for direction and forgiveness.
+
+Meantime the patrole had set out, and, after the lapse of a short time,
+returned, when the officer reported that before his arrival, the person
+they had gone in quest of had left the place, and, in the darkness of
+the night, they had no clue to follow him. This was scarcely announced
+before the same whistle was heard, at the same remote point where it had
+first attracted Mary's notice.
+
+"It is as our young mistress has said," muttered Macdonald, "some
+bumpkin, too shy to be caught, and not worth the catching. We have sat
+it out to-night long enough, friend Musgrove, so let's to bed."
+
+In a few moments the party betook themselves to their several places of
+rest.
+
+As Mary prepared herself for her couch, the anxious events of the night
+busied her thoughts, and the image of John Ramsay was summoned up
+alternately to be reproved and applauded. "If he is foolhardy," she
+said, as she laid her head on the pillow, "no one will say he isn't wise
+besides. And if he will be thrusting his head into danger, he knows
+right well how to get it out again. So God bless him, for a proper man
+as he is!" And thus, in a better temper with her lover, the maiden fell
+asleep.
+
+In order to avert all suspicion of disloyalty from the miller's family,
+Christopher Shaw had offered his services to Macdonald, to do duty as
+one of the detachment, during the period of Butler's detention in the
+house. The offer had been accepted, and Christopher was appointed to
+serve in the character of a quarter-master, or purveyor for the little
+garrison,--a post, whose duties did not materially interfere with his
+daily occupation at the mill.
+
+Mary was in the habit of communicating to Christopher all her secrets,
+and of enlisting his aid in her plans whenever it was necessary. And
+now, soon after the morning broke, the maiden arose and went to the
+mill, where she communicated to Christopher all the perplexities of the
+preceding night.
+
+"The thing must be managed to-day," said the young man, after he had
+heard the whole story. "I have provisions to collect from the
+neighborhood; and what is to hinder you, Mary, from riding out with
+me,--if it should only be to buy some eggs?--and then, what is to hinder
+us from popping in upon David Ramsay, and there fixing the whole
+matter?"
+
+"Will not the lieutenant be sending some of his own men with you?"
+inquired the maid.
+
+"He doesn't suspect us," answered Christopher, as cautiously as if the
+walls of his mill had ears. "At any rate we can try it, you know, and if
+the thing should take a wrong turn, you can only stay at home; and we
+may, at the worst, make another venture at night."
+
+"I have the letter in my bosom," said Mary, "and will be ready
+immediately after breakfast."
+
+When the appointed time arrived, things went as favorably as Mary could
+have wished. Her good spirits had returned; and she plied her household
+duties with a happy cheerfulness in her looks that completely disarmed
+all suspicion. She received the banter of Macdonald, as to the cause of
+her restlessness on the preceding night, with perfect good nature; and
+when Christopher announced to the commanding officer his purpose of
+going out upon a purveying ride, and invited his cousin to accompany
+him, she accepted the proposal with such a tone of laughing pleasure, as
+put it on the footing of a pastime.
+
+The horses were brought to the door, and the maiden and her escort rode
+cheerily forth. They were not long in accomplishing the five or six
+miles that brought them to David Ramsay's cabin. I need not tell the
+affectionate concern with which Mary Musgrove met her lover, John
+Ramsay; nor how she upbraided him as a silly fellow, for tramping and
+trudging about the mill, and whistling his signals, when he ought to
+have known, by her not coming to meet him, that there was good reason
+for it. Nor is it important to detail the circumstances of Horse Shoe's
+and John's fruitless expedition, and their disappointment at not seeing
+Mary; and how shrewdly, last night, Robinson guessed the true cause of
+it; and how entirely he agreed with the maiden, beforehand, in thinking
+John a venturesome, harebrained fool, to put himself in danger, when he
+might have been certain it would have ended as it did, in a run from
+"the rascally red coats," as John had to run to get out of the clutches
+of the patrole. My story requires that I should pass these things by,
+and go to the business in hand.
+
+Horse Shoe and Ramsay had grown exceedingly impatient, both because they
+were in hourly danger of being surprised by casual parties of the enemy,
+and because the time for useful action was fast gliding away. They had
+used every precaution to keep their visit to David Ramsay's a profound
+secret to the neighborhood; and had, with that object, lain perdue in
+one of the small cabins, from which they might watch the approach of
+visitors, and, if need required, secure an immediate retreat. During the
+day, they seldom left their concealment, confining all their out-door
+operations to the night.
+
+A consultation was held in David Ramsay's cabin,--the letters were
+produced and delivered to Horse Shoe, and the instructions intended for
+him by Butler were carefully read. It was resolved that Horse Shoe
+should set out for the Dove Cote without delay, taking the route through
+the mountain country of North Carolina, as that least likely to be
+interrupted by the British troops. John Ramsay, for the present, was to
+return to the Fair Forest camp, to inform Williams of the state of
+affairs; and he was hereafter to act as occasion might suggest.
+Christopher Shaw and Mary were to attend upon Butler, and communicate
+whatever might transpire of interest to David Ramsay, who promised to
+find means of intercourse with Williams or Sumpter, as circumstances
+should allow.
+
+These matters being arranged, Mary and Christopher Shaw took their
+leaves of Ramsay's family, and went about the ostensible object of their
+expedition.
+
+Horse Shoe's plan of travel during the first and most perilous stages of
+his journey towards Virginia, was to avail himself of the darkness of
+the night; and he accordingly resolved to set out as soon as this day
+should draw to a close. His immediate cares were, therefore, directed to
+making all the necessary preparations for his departure. Captain Peter
+was carefully tended, and supplied with a double allowance of provender;
+provisions were stowed away, both for himself and his trusty beast: his
+pistols were put in order: his rifle cleaned out, and a supply of
+ammunition provided; and, finally, the letters were sewed up in a
+leather pouch, and buckled around his body by a strap, inside of his
+clothes. It was no inconsiderable item in the sergeant's preparation for
+his expedition, to sit down and eat a meal, which, from the quantity
+bestowed, and the vigor with which the assault upon it was made, might
+have betokened a full week's starvation.
+
+The day waned, and the night came a welcome visitor to the sergeant;
+and, at that hour which old chroniclers designate as "inter canem et
+lupum," Captain Peter was brought to the door, ready dight for travel.
+Ramsay's family stood around,--and whilst Andy, with boyish affection,
+held Horse Shoe's rifle in his hand, the sergeant feelingly spoke the
+words of parting to his friends;--then, with a jaunty air of careless
+mirth, springing into his saddle, and receiving his trusty weapon from
+the young comrade of his late gallant adventure, he rode forth with as
+stout a heart as ever went with knight of chivalry to the field of
+romantic renown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+A GLANCE AT THE DOVE COTE.--THE COMPANIONSHIP OF BROTHER AND SISTER.
+
+
+Our story once more brings us back to the Dove Cote. During the first
+week that followed her interview with Arthur Butler under the Fawn's
+Tower, Mildred was calm and thoughtful, and even melancholy: her usual
+custom of exercise was foregone, and her time was passed chiefly in her
+chamber. By degrees, however, her firm and resolute temper predominated
+over the sadness of her fortunes, and she began to resume that
+cheerfulness which circumstances can never long subdue in a strong and
+disciplined mind. She had grown more than ever watchful of the public
+events, and sought, with an intense avidity, to obtain information in
+regard to the state of things in the south. She now felt herself closely
+allied to the cause in which Arthur Butler had embarked, and therefore,
+caught up the floating rumors of the day, in what regarded the progress
+of the American arms in the southern expedition, with the interest of
+one who had a large stake depending on the issue.
+
+She had received several letters from Butler, which detailed the
+progress of his journey from the Dove Cote to Gates's camp, and from
+thence to Horse Shoe's cottage. They were all written in the confident
+and even jocular tone of a light-hearted soldier who sought to amuse his
+mistress; and they narrated such matters of personal history as were of
+a character to still her fears for his safety. Their effect upon Mildred
+was to warm up her enthusiasm, as well as to brighten her anticipations
+of the future, and thus to increase the returning elasticity of her
+spirits. Up to this period, therefore, she grew every day more buoyant
+and playful in her temper, and brought herself to entertain a more
+sanguine reckoning of the eventual determination of affairs. She was now
+frequently on horseback, attended by her brother, with whom she scarcely
+ever failed to make a visit to the good Mistress Dimock, where she
+either found a letter from Butler, or heard some of the thousand tidings
+which report was for ever busy in propagating or exaggerating in regard
+to the movements of the army.
+
+"I'll warrant you, Arthur is a man for the pen as well as for the spur
+and broadsword, my pretty lady," was one of the landlady's comments, as
+she handed to Mildred the eighth or ninth epistle that had fallen into
+her hands since Butler's departure; "there scarcely comes trotting by a
+soiled traveller with his head set northwards, but it is--'Good woman,
+is this Mistress Dimock's?' and when I say, 'aye,' then 'here's a
+letter, madam, for you, that comes from the army:' and so, there's
+Arthur's own hand-writing to a great pacquet, 'for Mistress Dimock of
+the Rockfish inn, of Amherst,' and not even, after all, one poor line
+for me, but just a cover, and the inside for Miss Mildred Lindsay of the
+Dove Cote. Ha, ha! we old bodies are only stalking-horses in this world.
+But God bless him!--he is a fine and noble gentleman." And Mildred would
+take the pacquet and impatiently break the seal; and as she perused the
+close-written contents the color waxed and waned upon her cheek, and her
+eye would one instant sparkle with mirth, and in the next grow dim with
+a tear. And when she had finished reading, she would secretly press the
+paper to her lips, and then bestow it away in her bosom, evincing the
+earnest fondness of a devoted and enthusiastic nature.
+
+Mildred and Henry were inseparable; and, in proportion as his sister's
+zeal and attachment to the cause of independence became more active, did
+Henry's inclination to become a partisan grow apace. Hers was a
+character to kindle the spirit of brave adventure. There was in it a
+quiet and unostentatious but unvarying current of resolution, that
+shrank before no perils. Her feelings, acute and earnest, had given all
+their warmth to her principles; and what she once believed her duty
+commanded, was pursued with the devout self-dedication of a religious
+obligation. To this temper, which, by some secret of its constitution,
+has a spell to sway the minds of mankind, there was added the grace of
+an exquisitely feminine address. The union of these two attributes
+rendered Mildred Lindsay an object of conspicuous interest in such a
+time as that of the revolutionary struggle. Her youth, her ready
+genius, her knowledge and her habits of reflection, much in advance of
+her years, enhanced the impression her character was adapted to produce,
+and brought upon her, even in her secluded position, a considerable
+share of public observation. It was not wonderful that a mind so
+organized and accomplished should have acquired an unlimited dominion
+over the frank, open-hearted, and brave temper of her brother, now just
+stepping beyond the confines of mere boyhood. Her influence over Henry
+was paramount and unbounded: her affections were his, her faith was his,
+her enthusiasm stole into and spread over his whole temper.
+
+With these means of influence she had sedulously applied herself to
+infuse into Henry's mind her own sentiment in regard to the war; and
+this purpose had led her to interest herself in subjects and pursuits,
+which, in general, are very foreign from her sex. Her desire to enlist
+his feelings in aid of Butler, and her conviction that a time was at
+hand when Henry might be useful, gave rise to an eager solicitude to see
+him well prepared for the emergencies of the day, by that necessary mode
+of education which, during the period of the revolution, was common
+amongst the young gentlemen of the country. He was a most willing and
+ready pupil; and she delighted to encourage him in his inclination for
+military studies, however fanciful some of his conceptions in regard to
+them might be. She, therefore, saw, with great satisfaction, the
+assiduous though boyish devotion with which he set himself to gain a
+knowledge of matters relating to the duties of a soldier. However little
+this may fall within the scope of female perception in ordinary times,
+it will not appear so much removed from the capabilities or even the
+habits of the sex, when we reflect that in the convulsions of this great
+national struggle, when every resource of the country was drained for
+service, the events of the day were contemplated with no less interest
+by the women than by the men. The fervor with which the American women
+participated in the cares and sacrifices of the revolutionary war, has
+challenged the frequent notice and warmest praises of its chroniclers.
+Mildred but reflected, in this instance, the hues of the society around
+the Dove Cote, which consisted of many families, scattered along the
+country side, composed of persons of elevated character, easy
+circumstances, and of the staunchest Whig politics, with whom she held
+an uninterrupted and familiar intercourse.
+
+Another consideration may serve to explain the somewhat masculine
+character of Mildred's pursuits. Her most intimate companion, at all
+times, and frequently for weeks together her only one, was her brother.
+These two had grown up together in all the confidence of childhood; and
+this confidence continued still unabated. Their pursuits, sports,
+exercises, thoughts, and habits were alike, with less of the
+discrimination usual between the sexes, than is to be found between
+individuals in larger associations. They approximated each other in
+temper and disposition; and Henry might, in this regard, be said to be,
+without disparagement to his manly qualities, a girlish boy; and
+Mildred, on the other hand, with as little derogation, to be a boyish
+girl. This home-bred freedom of nurture produced, in its development,
+some grotesque results, which my reader has, doubtless, heretofore
+observed with a smile; and it will, likewise, serve to explain some of
+the peculiar forms of intercourse which may hereafter be noticed between
+the brother and sister.
+
+The news of the battle of Camden had not yet reached the neighborhood of
+the Dove Cote; but the time drew nigh when all the country stood on
+tiptoe, anxious to receive tidings of that interesting event. A week had
+elapsed without bringing letters from Butler; and Mildred was growing
+uneasy at this interval of silence. There was a struggle in her mind; an
+unpleasant foreboding that she was almost ashamed to acknowledge, and
+yet which she could not subdue. The country was full of reports of the
+hostile operations, and a thousand surmises were entertained, which
+varied according to the more sanguine or desponding tempers of the
+persons who made them. Mildred was taught by Butler to expect defeat,
+yet still she hoped for victory; but the personal fate of her lover
+stole upon her conjectures, and she could not keep down the misgiving
+which affection generally exaggerates, and always renders painful. In
+this state of doubt, it was observable that her manners occasionally
+rose to a higher tone of playfulness than was natural to her; and by
+turns they sank to a moody silence, showing that the equipoise of the
+mind was disturbed, and that the scales did not hang true: it was the
+struggle of mental resolution with a coward heart--a heart intimidated
+by its affections.
+
+Such was the state of things when, in the latter fortnight of August,
+the morning ushered in a day of unsurpassed beauty. The air was elastic;
+the cool breeze played upon the shrubbery, and stole the perfume of a
+thousand flowers. The birds sang with unwonted vivacity from the
+neighboring trees; and the sun lighted up the mountains with a golden
+splendor, the fast drifting clouds flinging their shadows upon the
+forest that clothed the hills around, and the eagle and the buzzard
+sailing in the highest heavens, or eddying around the beetling cliffs
+with a glad flight, as if rejoicing in the luxuries of the cool summer
+morning. Breakfast was scarcely over before Henry was seen upon the
+terrace, arrayed in his hunting dress. His bugle was daintily suspended
+by a green cord across his shoulders; it was a neat and glittering
+instrument, whose garniture was bedizened with the coxcombry of silken
+tassels, and was displayed as ostentatiously as if worn by the hero of a
+melodrame.
+
+Like St. Swithin in the ballad, he had "footed thrice the wold," when he
+put the bugle to his mouth and "blew a recheate both loud and long."
+
+"How now, good master Puff," said Mildred, coming up playfully to her
+brother, "what means this uproar? Pray you, have mercy on one's ears."
+
+Henry turned towards his sister, without taking the bugle from his lips,
+and continued the blast for a full minute; then, ceasing only from want
+of breath, he said, with a comic earnestness--
+
+"I'm practising my signals, sister; I can give you 'to Horse,' and
+'Reveillee,' and 'Roast Beef,' like a trained trumpeter."
+
+"Truly you are a proper man, master," replied Mildred. "But it is hardly
+a time," she continued, half muttering to herself, "for you and me,
+Henry, to wear light hearts in our bosoms."
+
+"Why, sister," said Henry, with some astonishment in his looks, "this
+seems to me to be the very time to practise my signals. We are at the
+very tug of the war, and every man that has a sword, or bugle either,
+should be up and doing."
+
+"How come on your studies, brother?" interrupted Mildred, without
+heeding Henry's interpretation of his duty.
+
+"Oh, rarely! I know most of the speeches of Coriolanus all by heart:--
+
+    "'Like an eagle in a dove cote, I
+    Fluttered your voices in Corioli:
+    Alone I did it.--Boy!'"
+
+he spouted, quoting from the play, and accompanying his recitation with
+some extravagant gestures.
+
+"This is easy work, Henry," said Mildred laughing, "there is too much of
+the holiday play in that. I thought you were studying some graver
+things, instead of these bragging heroics. You pretended to be very
+earnest, but a short time ago, to make a soldier of yourself."
+
+"Well, and don't you call this soldiership? Suppose I were to pounce
+down upon Cornwallis--his lordship, as that fellow Tyrrel calls
+him--just in that same fashion. I warrant they would say there was some
+soldiership in it! But, sister, haven't I been studying the attack and
+defence of fortified places, I wonder? And what call you that? Look now,
+here is a regular hexagon," continued Henry, making lines upon the
+gravel walk with a stick, "here is the bastion,--these lines are the
+flank,--the face,--the gorge: here is the curtain. Now, my first
+parallel is around here, six hundred paces from the counterscarp. But I
+could have taken Charleston myself in half the time that poking fellow,
+Clinton, did it, if I had been there, and one of his side, which--thank
+my stars--I am not."
+
+"You are entirely out of my depth, brother," interrupted Mildred.
+
+"I know I am. How should women be expected to understand these matters?
+Go to your knitting, sister: you can't teach me."
+
+"Have you studied the Military Catechism, Henry? that, you know, Baron
+Steuben requires of all the young officers."
+
+"Most," replied Henry. "Not quite through it. I hate this getting prose
+by heart. Shakspeare is more to my mind than Baron Steuben. But I will
+tell you what I like, sister: I like the management of the horse. I can
+passage, and lunge, and change feet, and throw upon the haunches, with
+e'er a man in Amherst or Albemarle either, may be."
+
+"You told me you had practised firing from your saddle."
+
+"To be sure I did: and look here," replied the cadet, taking off his cap
+and showing a hole in the cloth. "Do you see that, Mildred? I flung the
+cap into the air, and put a ball through it before it fell--at a
+gallop."
+
+"Well done, master; you come on bravely!"
+
+"And another thing I have to tell you, which, perhaps, Mildred, you will
+laugh to hear:--I have taken to a rough way of sleeping. I want to
+harden myself; so, I fling a blanket on the floor and stretch out on
+it--and sleep like--"
+
+"Like what, good brother; you are posed for a comparison."
+
+"Like the sleeping beauty, sister."
+
+"Ha! ha! that's a most incongruous and impertinent simile!"
+
+"Well, like a Trojan, or a woodman, or a dragoon, or like Stephen
+Foster, and that is as far as sleeping can go. I have a notion of trying
+it in the woods one of these nights--if I can get Stephen to go along."
+
+"Why not try it alone?"
+
+"Why it's a sort of an awkward thing to be entirely by one's self in the
+woods, the livelong night--it is lonesome, you know, sister; and, to
+tell the truth, I almost suspect I am a little afraid of ghosts."
+
+"Indeed! and you a man! That's a strange fear for a young Coriolanus.
+Suppose you should get into the wars, and should happen to be posted as
+a sentinel at some remote spot--far from your comrades; on picket, I
+think you call it? (Henry nodded) on a dark night, would you desert your
+duty for fear of a goblin!"
+
+"I would die first, Mildred. I would stick it out, if I made an
+earthquake by trembling in my shoes."
+
+Mildred laughed.
+
+"And then if a ghost should rise up out of the ground," she continued,
+with a mock solemnity of manner.
+
+"I would whistle some tune," interrupted Henry. "That's an excellent way
+to keep down fear."
+
+"Shame on you, to talk of fear, brother."
+
+"Only of ghosts, sister, not of men."
+
+"You must cure yourself of this childish apprehension, master."
+
+"And how shall I do so, Mildred? I have heard people say that the
+bravest men have been alarmed by spirits."
+
+"You must accustom yourself to midnight hours and dark places, all
+alone. Our poor mother taught you this fear."
+
+"I should think of _her_, Mildred, until my heart would burst, and my
+cheek grew pale as ashes," said Henry, with an earnest and solemn
+emphasis.
+
+"Her spirit, could it rise, would love you, brother; it would never seek
+to do you harm," replied Mildred thoughtfully.
+
+"Sister," said Henry, "you came here in sport, but you have made me very
+sad."
+
+Mildred walked off a few paces and remained gazing steadfastly over the
+parapet. When she looked back she saw Henry approaching her.
+
+"You stoop, brother, in your gait," she said, "that's a slovenly habit."
+
+"It comes, sister, of my climbing these mountains so much. We
+mountaineers naturally get a stoop on the hill-sides. But if you think,"
+continued Henry, reverting to the subject which had just been broken
+off, "it would make me bolder to watch of nights, I should not care to
+try it."
+
+"I would have you," said Mildred, "walk your rounds, like a patrole,
+through the woods from twelve until two, every night for a week."
+
+"Agreed, sister--rain or shine."
+
+"And then I shall think you completely cured of this unsoldier-like
+infirmity, when you are able to march as far as the church, and serve
+one tour of duty in the grave-yard."
+
+"By myself?" inquired Henry, with concern.
+
+"You wouldn't have me go with you, brother?"
+
+"I should feel very brave if you did, Mildred; for you are as brave as a
+general. But if Stephen Foster will keep in the neighborhood--near
+enough to hear my 'All's well'--I think I could stand it out."
+
+"You must go alone," said Mildred, cheerfully, "before I shall think you
+fit to be promoted."
+
+"If you say I must, sister Mildred, why, then I must: and there's an end
+of it. But your discipline is forty times more severe than the German
+Baron's at Richmond. Father looks pale this morning," continued Henry,
+as he turned his eyes towards the porch, where Mr. Lindsay was now seen
+walking forward and back, with his arms folded across his breast.
+"Something perpetually troubles him, Mildred. I wish that devil, Tyrrel,
+had been buried before he ever found his way to the Dove Cote! See he
+comes this way."
+
+Both Mildred and Henry ran to meet Lindsay, and encountered him before
+he had advanced a dozen paces over the lawn.
+
+"Such a day, father!" said Mildred, as she affectionately took his hand.
+"It is a luxury to breathe this air."
+
+"God has given us a beautiful heaven, my children, and a rich and
+bountiful earth. He has filled them both with blessings. Man only mars
+them with his cursed passions," said Lindsay, with a sober accent.
+
+"You have heard bad news, father?" said Henry, inquiringly; "what has
+happened?"
+
+Mildred grew suddenly pale.
+
+"We shall hear glorious news, boy, before many days," replied Lindsay;
+"as yet, all is uncertain. Henry, away to your sports, or to your
+studies. Mildred, I have something for your ear, and so, my child, walk
+with me a while."
+
+Henry took his leave, looking back anxiously at his sister, whose
+countenance expressed painful alarm. Mildred accompanied her father
+slowly and silently to the small veranda that shaded the door of the
+gable next the terrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+MILDRED PUT TO A SEVERE TRIAL:--HER FIRMNESS.
+
+
+"My mind troubles me," said Lindsay: "Mildred, hear me--and mark what I
+say. Our fortunes are coming to a period of deep interest: it is
+therefore no time to deal in evasive speeches, or to dally with coy and
+girlish feelings. I wish, my daughter, to be understood."
+
+"Father, have I offended you?" inquired Mildred, struck with the painful
+and almost repulsive earnestness of Lindsay's manner.
+
+"Arthur Butler has been at the Dove Cote," he said, sternly, "and you
+have concealed it from me. That was not like my child."
+
+"Father!" exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears.
+
+"Nay--these tears shall not move me from my resolution. As a parent I
+had a right, Mildred, to expect obedience from you; but you saw him in
+the very despite of my commands: here, on the confines of the Dove Cote,
+you saw him."
+
+"I did--I did."
+
+"And you were silent, and kept your secret from your father's bosom."
+
+"You forbade me to speak of him," replied Mildred, in a low and sobbing
+voice, "and banished me from your presence when I but brought his name
+upon my lips."
+
+"He is a villain, daughter; a base wretch that would murder my peace,
+and steal my treasure from my heart."
+
+Mildred covered her eyes with her hands, and trembled in silent agony.
+
+"I have received letters," continued Lindsay, "that disclose to me a
+vile plot against my life. This same Butler--this furious and fanatic
+rebel--has been lurking in the neighborhood of my house, to watch my
+family motions, to pry into the character of my guests, to possess
+himself of my sacred confidences, to note the incoming and the out-going
+of my most attached friends, and thereupon to build an accusation of
+treason before this unholy and most accursed power that has usurped
+dominion in the land. I am to be denounced to these malignant masters,
+and to suffer such penalties as their passions may adjudge. And all this
+through the agency of a man who is cherished and applauded by my own
+daughter!"
+
+"My dear father, who has thus abused your mind, and led your thoughts
+into a current so foreign from that calm judgment with which you have
+been accustomed to look upon the things of life?"
+
+"Can you deny, Mildred, that this Butler followed Tyrrel to the Dove
+Cote; lay concealed here, close at hand; sought by discourse through
+some of his coadjutors with Tyrrel's servant, to learn the object of
+Tyrrel's visit; and offered gross outrage to the man when he failed to
+persuade him to betray his master? Can you deny this? Can you deny that
+he fled precipitately from his hiding-place when he could no longer
+conceal his purpose?--and, knowing these things, can you doubt he is a
+villain?"
+
+"He is no villain, father," said Mildred, indignantly. "These are the
+wretched forgeries of that unworthy man who has won your confidence--a
+man who is no less an enemy to your happiness than he is a selfish
+contriver against mine. The story is not true: it is one of Tyrrel's
+basest falsehoods."
+
+"And Butler was not here; you would persuade me so, Mildred?"
+
+"He was in the neighborhood for a single night; he journeyed southwards
+in the course of his duty," answered Mildred, mildly.
+
+"And had no confederates with him?"
+
+"He was attended by a guide--only one--and hurried onwards without
+delay."
+
+"And you met him on that single night--by accident, I suppose?"
+
+"Do you doubt my truth, father?"
+
+"Mildred, Mildred! you will break my heart. Why was he here at all--why
+did you meet him?"
+
+"He came, father--" said Mildred, struggling to speak through a sudden
+burst of tears.
+
+"Silence! I will hear no apology!" exclaimed Lindsay. Then relenting in
+an instant, he took his daughter's hand, as he said: "My child, thou art
+innocent in thy nature, and knowest not the evil imaginings of this
+world. He wickedly lied, if he told you that he came casually hither, or
+that his stay was circumscribed to one short night. I have proofs, full
+and satisfactory, that, for several days, he lay concealed in this
+vicinity; and, moreover, that his scheme was frustrated only by an
+unexpected discovery, made through the indiscretion of a drunken bully,
+who came linked with him in his foul embassy. It was a shameless lie,
+invented to impose upon your credulity, if he gave you room to believe
+otherwise."
+
+"Arthur Butler scorns a falsehood, father, with the deepest scorn that
+belongs to a noble mind, and would resent the charge with the spirit of
+a valiant and virtuous man. If Mr. Tyrrel has such accusations to make,
+it would be fitter they should be made face to face with the man he
+would slander, than in my father's ear. But it is the nature of the
+serpent to sting in the grass, not openly to encounter his victim."
+
+"The first duty of a trusty friend is to give warning of the approach of
+an enemy--and that has Tyrrel done. For this act of service does he
+deserve your rebuke? Could you expect aught else of an honorable
+gentleman? Shame on you, daughter!"
+
+"Father, I know the tale to be wickedly, atrociously false. Arthur
+Butler is not your enemy. Sooner would he lay down his life than even
+indulge a thought of harm to you. His coming hither was not unknown to
+me--his delay, but one brief night; business of great moment called him
+hastily towards the army of the south."
+
+"You speak like a girl, Mildred. I have, against this tale, the avowal
+of a loyal and brave soldier. Aye, and let me tell you--favorably as you
+may deem of this false and traitorous rebel--his wily arts have been
+foiled, and quick vengeance is now upon his path--his doom is fixed."
+
+"For heaven's sake, father, dear father, tell me what this means. Have
+you heard of Arthur?" cried Mildred, in the most impassioned accents of
+distress, at the same time throwing her head upon Lindsay's breast. "Oh,
+God! have you heard aught of harm to him?"
+
+"Girl! foolish, mad, self-willed girl!" exclaimed Lindsay, disengaging
+himself from his daughter, and rising from his seat and angrily striding
+a few paces upon the terrace. "Dare you show this contumacy to me! No, I
+did not mean that--have you the heart, Mildred, to indulge these
+passionate fervors for the man I hate more than I can hate any other
+living thing! He, a wretch, upon whose head I invoke nightly curses! A
+loathsome, abhorred image to my mind! Hear me, Mildred, and hear me,
+though your heart break while I utter it--May the felon's death whelm
+him and his name in eternal disgrace!--may his present captivity be
+beset with all the horrors of friendlessness, unpitied--"
+
+"His captivity, father! And has he then fallen into the hands of the
+enemy? Quick! tell me all!--I shall die--my life is wrapped up in his!"
+ejaculated Mildred, in agony, as she sprang towards her father and
+seized his arm, and then sank at his feet.
+
+"For God's sake, my child!" said Lindsay, becoming alarmed at the
+violence of the paroxysm he had excited, and now lifting his daughter
+from the ground. "Mildred!--speak, girl! This emotion will drive me mad.
+Oh, fate, fate!--how unerringly dost thou fulfil the sad predictions of
+my spirit! How darkly does the curse hang upon my household! Mildred,
+dear daughter, pardon my rash speech. I would not harm thee, child--no,
+not for worlds!"
+
+"Father, you have cruelly tortured my soul," said Mildred, reviving from
+the half lifeless state into which she had fallen, and which for some
+moments had denied her speech. "Tell me all; on my knees, father, I
+implore you."
+
+"It was a hasty word, daughter," replied Lindsay, ill concealing the
+perturbation of his feelings; "I meant not what I said."
+
+"Nay, dear father," said Mildred, "I am prepared to hear the worst; you
+spoke of Arthur's captivity."
+
+"It was only a rumor," replied Lindsay, struck with apprehension at his
+daughter's earnestness, and now seeking to allay the feeling his hint
+had aroused in her mind; "it may be exaggerated by Tyrrel, whose letter,
+hastily written, mentions the fact, that Butler had been made a prisoner
+by some bands of Tories, amongst whom he had rashly ventured. The
+clemency of his king may yet win him back to his allegiance. A salutary
+confinement, at least, will deprive him of the power of mischief. His
+lands will be confiscated--and the close of the war, now fast
+approaching, will find him a houseless adventurer, baffled in his
+treason, and unpitied by all good men. This should persuade you,
+Mildred, to renounce your unnatural attachment, and to think no more of
+one whose cause heaven has never sanctioned, and whose condition in life
+should forbid all pretension to your regard--one, above all, repulsive
+even to loathing to the thoughts of your father."
+
+"I loved him, father, in his happiest and brightest day," said Mildred,
+firmly; "I cannot desert him in his adversity. Oh, speak to me no more!
+Let me go to my chamber; I am ill and cannot bear this torrent of your
+displeasure."
+
+"I will not detain you, Mildred. In sorrow and suffering, but still with
+a father's affection as warmly shining on you as when, in earliest
+infancy, I fondled thee upon my knee, I part with thee now. One kiss,
+girl. There, let that make peace between us. For your sake and my own, I
+pledge my word never to distress you with this subject again. Destiny
+must have its way, and I must bide the inevitable doom."
+
+With a heavy heart and an exhausted frame, Mildred slowly and tearfully
+withdrew.
+
+Lindsay remained some time fixed upon the spot where his daughter had
+left him. He was like a man stupefied and astounded by a blow. His
+conference had ended in a manner that he had not prepared himself to
+expect. The imputed treachery of Butler, derived from Tyrrel's letters,
+had not struck alarm into the heart of Mildred, as he had supposed it
+could not fail to do. The wicked fabrication had only recoiled upon the
+inventor; and Mildred, with the resolute, confident, and unfaltering
+attachment of her nature, clung with a nobler devotion to her lover. To
+Lindsay, in whose mind no distrust of the honesty of Tyrrel could find
+shelter; whose prejudices and peculiar temperament came in aid of the
+gross and disgraceful imputation which the letters inferred, the
+constancy and generous fervor of his daughter towards the cause of
+Butler seemed to be a mad and fatal infatuation.
+
+Ever since his first interview with Mildred on the subject of her
+attachment, his mind had been morbidly engrossed with the reflections to
+which it had given rise. There was such a steadiness of purpose apparent
+in her behavior, such an unchangeable resolve avowed, as seemed to him,
+in the circumstances of her condition, to defy and stand apart from the
+ordinary and natural impulses by which human conduct is regulated. He
+grew daily more abstracted and moody in his contemplations; and as study
+and thought gave a still graver complexion to his feelings, his mind
+fled back upon his presentiments; and that intense, scholar-like
+superstition, which I have heretofore described as one of the tendencies
+of his nature, began more actively to conjure up its phantasmagoria
+before his mental vision. A predominating trait of this superstition was
+an increasing conviction that, in Mildred's connexion with Arthur
+Butler, there was associated some signal doom to himself, that was to
+affect the fortunes of his race. It was a vague, misty, obscure
+consciousness of impending fate, the loss of reason or the loss of life
+that was to ensue upon that alliance if it should ever take place.
+
+It was such a presentiment that now, in the solitary path of Lindsay's
+life, began to be magnified into a ripening certainty of ill. The needle
+of his mind trembled upon its pivot, and began to decline towards a
+fearful point; that point was--frenzy. His studies favored this
+apprehension--they led him into the world of visions. The circumstances
+of his position favored it. He was perplexed by the intrigues of
+politicians, against whom he had no defence in temper nor worldly skill:
+he was deluded by false views of events: he was embarrassed and
+dissatisfied with himself: above all, he was wrought upon, bewildered,
+and glamoured (to use a most expressive Scotch phrase) by the
+remembrance of a sickly dream.
+
+Thus hunted and badgered by circumstances, he fled with avidity to the
+disclosures made in Tyrrel's letters, to try, as a last effort, their
+effect upon Mildred, hoping that the tale there told might divert her
+from a purpose which now fed all his melancholy.
+
+The reader has just seen how the experiment had failed.
+
+Lindsay retired to his study, and, through the remainder of the day,
+sought refuge from his meditations in the converse of his books. These
+mute companions, for once, failed to bring him their customary balm. His
+feelings had been turned, by the events of the morning, into a current
+that bore them impetuously along towards a dark and troubled ocean of
+thought; and when the shades of evening had fallen around him, he was
+seen pacing the terrace with a slow and measured step.
+
+"It is plain, she passionately loves Butler," he said, "in despite of
+all the visible influences around her. Her education, habits,
+affections, duty--all set in an opposing tide against this passion, and
+yet does it master them all. That I should be bound to mine enemy by a
+chain, whose strongest link is forged by my own daughter.
+She--Mildred!--No, no--that link was not forged by her: it hath not its
+shape from human workmanship. Oh, that like those inspired enthusiasts
+who, in times of old,--yea, and in a later day--have been able to open
+the Book of Destiny, and to read the passages of man's future life, I
+might get one glimpse of that forbidden page!--To what a charitable use
+might I apply the knowledge. Wise men have studied the journeyings of
+the stars, and have--as they deemed--discovered the secret spell by
+which yon shining orbs sway and compel the animal existences of this
+earth; even as the moon governs the flow of the ocean, or the fever of
+the human brain. Who shall say what is the invisible tissue--what the
+innumerable cords--that tie this planet and all its material natures to
+the millions of worlds with which it is affined? What is that mysterious
+thing which men call attraction, that steadies these spheres in their
+tangled pathways through the great void?--that urges their swift and
+fearful career into the track of their voyage, without the deviation of
+the breadth of a single hair--rolling on the same from eternity to
+eternity? How awfully does the thought annihilate our feeble and
+presumptuous philosophy! Is it, then, to excite the scorn of the wise,
+if we assert that some kindred power may shape out and direct the
+wanderings of man?--that an unseen hand may lay the threads by which
+this tottering creature is to travel through the labyrinth of this
+world; aye, and after it is done, to point out to him his course along
+the dark and chill valley, which the dead walk through companionless and
+silent? Have not men heard strange whispers in the breeze--the voice of
+warning? Have they not felt the fanning of the wing that bore the secret
+messenger through the air? Have they not seen some floating fold of the
+robe as it passed by? O God!--have they not seen the dead arise? What
+are these but the communings, the points of contact, between the earthy
+and spiritual worlds--the essences or intelligences that sometimes flit
+across the confine of our gross sphere, and speak to the children of
+clay? And wherefore do they speak, but that the initiated may regard the
+sign, and walk in safety? Or, perchance, some mischief-hatching
+fiend,--for such, too, are permitted to be busy to mar the good that God
+has made--may speak in malice to allure us from our better purpose. Aye,
+as aptly this, as the other. Miserable child of doubt, how art thou
+beset! Let the vain pedant prate of his philosophy, let the soldier
+boast his valor, the learned scholar his scepticism, and the worldling
+laugh his scorn, yet do they each and all yield homage to this belief.
+There comes a time of honest self-confession, of secret meditation to
+all, and then the boding spirit rises to his proper mastery: then does
+instinct smother argument: then do the darkness of the midnight hour,
+the howling wind, the rush of the torrent, the lonesomeness of the
+forest and the field, shake the strong nerves; and the feeble, pigmy
+man, trembles at his own imaginings."
+
+In such a strain did Lindsay nurse his doubting superstition; and by
+these degrees was it that his mind soothed itself down into a calmer
+tone of resignation. In proportion as this fanciful and distempered
+philosophy inclined his reflection towards the belief of preternatural
+influences, it suggested excuses for Mildred's seeming contumacy, and
+inculcated a more indulgent sentiment of forbearance in his future
+intercourse with her.
+
+Towards the confirmation of this temper an ordinary incident, which, at
+any other time, would have passed without comment, now contributed. A
+storm had arisen: the day, towards its close, had grown sultry, and had
+engendered one of those sudden gusts which belong to the summer in this
+region. It came, without premonition, in a violent tornado, that rushed
+through the air with the roar of a great cataract. Lindsay had scarcely
+time to retreat to the cover of the porch, before the heavy-charged
+cloud poured forth its fury in floods of rain. The incessant lightnings
+glittered on the descending drops, and illuminated the distant landscape
+with more than the brilliancy of day. The most remote peaks of the
+mountain were sheeted with the glare; and the torrents that leaped down
+the nearer hill-sides sparkled with a dazzling radiance. Peal after
+peal of abrupt and crashing thunder roared through the heavens, and
+echoed with terrific reverberations along the valleys. Lindsay gazed
+upon this scene, from his secure cover, with mute interest, inwardly
+aroused and delighted with the grand and sublime conflict of the
+elements, in a spot of such wild and compatible magnificence: the solemn
+and awful emotions excited by these phenomena were exaggerated by the
+peculiar mood of his mind, and now absorbed all his attention. After a
+brief interval, the rain ceased to fall as suddenly as it had begun; the
+thunder was silent, and only a few distant flashes of wide-spread light
+broke fitfully above the horizon. The stars soon again shone forth
+through a transparent and placid heaven, and the moon sailed in beauty
+along a cloudless sea. The frog chirped again from the trees, and the
+far-off owl hooted in the wood, resuming his melancholy song, that had
+been so briefly intermitted. The foaming river below, swollen by the
+recent rain, flung upwards a more lively gush from its rocky bed: the
+cock was heard to crow, as if a new day had burst upon his harem; and
+the house-dogs barked in sport as they gambolled over the wet grass.
+
+Lindsay looked forth and spoke.
+
+"How beautiful is the change! But a moment since, and the angry elements
+were convulsed with the shock of war; and now, how calm! My ancient oaks
+have weathered the gale, and not a branch has been torn from their hoary
+limbs: not the most delicate of Mildred's flowers; not the tenderest
+shrub has been scathed by the threatening fires of heaven! The Dove Cote
+and its inmates have seen the storm sweep by without a vestige of harm.
+Kind heaven, grant that this may be a portent of our fortune; and that,
+when this tempest of human passion has been spent, the Dove Cote and its
+inhabitants may come forth as tranquil, as safe, as happy, as
+now--more--yes, more happy than now! Our ways are in thy hands; and I
+would teach myself to submit to thy providence with patient hope. So,
+let it be! I am resigned."
+
+As Lindsay still occupied his position in the porch, Stephen Foster
+appeared before him dripping with the rain of the late storm.
+
+"A letter, sir," said Stephen. "I have just rode from the post-office,
+and was almost oversot in the gust: it catched me upon the road; and it
+was as much as I could do to cross the river. It is a mighty fretful
+piece of water after one of these here dashes."
+
+Lindsay took the packet.
+
+"Get your supper, good Stephen," he said. "Order lights for me in the
+library! Thank you--thank you!"
+
+When Lindsay opened the letter, he found it to contain tidings of the
+victory at Camden, written by Tyrrel. After he had perused the contents,
+it was with a triumphant smile that he exclaimed, "And it is come so
+soon! Thank God, the omen has proved true! a calmer and a brighter hour
+at last opens upon us."
+
+He left the study to communicate the news to his children, and spent the
+next hour with Mildred and Henry in the parlor. His feelings had risen
+to a happier key; and it was with some approach to cheerfulness, but
+little answered in the looks or feelings of his children, that he
+retired to his chamber at a late hour, where sleep soon came, with its
+sweet oblivion, to repair his exhausted spirits, and to restore him to
+the quiet of an easy mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+MILDRED IN GRIEF.--SHE IS NEAR MAKING A DISCLOSURE.--A VISITOR ARRIVES
+AT THE DOVE COTE.
+
+    "Then in that hour remorse he felt,
+    And his heart told him he had dealt
+    Unkindly with his child."--_Rogers._
+
+
+On the following day Mildred confined herself to her chamber. She had
+passed a sleepless night, and the morning found her a pale, anxious, and
+distressed watcher of the slow approach of light. Her thoughts were busy
+with the fate of Butler. This topic overwhelmed all other cares, and
+struck deep and unmitigated anguish into her mind. The hints that had
+been so indiscreetly dropped by her father, more than if the whole tale
+had been told, had worked upon her imagination, and conjured up to her
+apprehension the certain destruction of her lover. In her interview with
+Lindsay, her emotions had been controlled by the extreme difficulty of
+her situation. The fear of rousing in her father that deep and solemn
+tone of passion, which had now become the infirmity of his mind, and
+almost threatened to "deprive his sovereignty of reason," and of which
+she was painfully aware, had subdued the strength of her own
+feelings--so far, at least, as to inculcate a more seeming moderation
+than, in other circumstances, she could have exhibited. It was the
+struggle between filial affection and duty on the one side, and an
+ardent, though tremblingly acknowledged, attachment on the other. The
+course that she had previously determined to pursue, in reference to the
+many earnest and assiduous efforts of Lindsay to persuade her from her
+love, was steadily to persevere in the open acknowledgment of her
+plighted vow, and endeavor to win her father's favor by a calm and
+gentle expostulation; or to seek, in a respectful silence, the means of
+averting the occasion of that gusty and moody outbreak of temper, which
+the peculiar exacerbation of his mind was apt to make frequent. She
+would have resorted to this silence in the late communion with Lindsay,
+if he had not, with an unusual bitterness, denounced Arthur Butler as
+the author of a hateful crime; a crime which she knew had been foully
+insinuated against him by a man of whose subtle wickedness she was
+persuaded, and whom, of all others, she most heartily execrated. She
+was, therefore, led indignantly, though temperately, to repel the
+slander by which her father's hatred had been artfully envenomed. But
+when, in the fierce fervor of his displeasure, Lindsay had announced to
+her the danger that had befallen Butler, the disclosure opened to her
+mind a world of misery. The late silence of her lover had already
+alarmed her fears, and this announcement suggested the worst of the many
+anxious conjectures which her brooding spirit had imagined as the cause
+of that absence of tidings. Her emotions upon this disclosure were those
+of a bursting heart that dared not trust itself with words; and when her
+father, seeing the unlooked-for mischief he had done, sought to temper
+his speech, and retract some of the harshness of his communication, by
+an explanation, the only effect was, for the moment, to take off the
+edge of her keenest grief. But when she left his presence, and recovered
+herself sufficiently to recall all that had passed, the dreadful thought
+of disaster to Butler, came back upon her imagination with all the
+horrors which a fond heart could summon around it. A weary hour was
+spent in sobs and tears; and it was only by the blandishments of her
+brother Henry's kind and earnest sympathy, when the youth found her in
+the parlor thus whelmed in sorrow, and by his manly and cheering
+reckoning of the many chances of safety that attend the footsteps of a
+prudent and a brave man, that she began to regain that resolute
+equanimity that was a natural and even predominating attribute of her
+character.
+
+When Lindsay came into the parlor with the tidings of the victory at
+Camden, such was the state in which he found her; and whilst he
+announced to her that event which had given him so much joy, he was not
+unheedful of the pang he had previously inflicted, and now endeavored to
+make amends by throwing in some apparently casual, though intentional,
+reference to the condition of Butler, who, he doubted not, would now be
+disposed of on easy terms. "Perhaps," he continued, "as the war was
+drawing to a close, and the royal clemency had been singularly
+considerate of the mistaken men who had taken arms against their king,
+he would in a little while be discharged on his parole." This reluctant
+and forced crumb of comfort fell before one who had but little appetite
+to take it, and Mildred received it only in cold silence. Henry,
+however, made better use of the event, and by that assiduity which, in
+true and gentle friendships, never wearies, and never misses its aim,
+when that aim is to revive a sinking hope, succeeded in lifting both his
+father and sister into a kindlier climate of feeling. But solitude and
+her pillow ravelled all this work of charity. Fancy, that stirring
+tormentor of acute minds, summoned up all its phantoms to Mildred's
+waking fears, and the night was passed by her as by one who could not be
+comforted. In the morning she was ill, and therefore, as I have said,
+remained in her chamber.
+
+Lindsay, ever solicitous for the happiness of his children, and keenly
+sensitive to whatever gave them pain, now that the turbid violence of
+his passion had subsided into a clearer and calmer medium, applied
+himself by every art which parental fondness could supply, to mitigate
+the suffering of his daughter. Like a man who, in a reckless and
+ungoverned moment, having done an injury which his heart revolts at, and
+having leisure to contemplate the wrong he has inflicted, hastens to
+administer comfort with an alacrity which even outruns the suggestions
+of ordinary affection, so did he now betake himself to Mildred's
+chamber, and, with sentiments of mixed alarm and contrition, seek her
+forgiveness for what he acknowledged a rash and unbecoming assault upon
+her feelings.
+
+His soothing did not reach the disease. They could give her no assurance
+of Butler's safety; and on that point alone all her anguish turned. "My
+dear, dear father," she said, with a feeble and dejected voice, "how do
+you wrong me, by supposing I could harbor a sentiment that might cause
+me to doubt the love I bear you! I know and revere the purity of your
+nature, and need no assurance from you that your affection itself has
+kindled up this warmth of temper. But you have opened a fountain of
+bitterness upon my feelings," she added, sobbing vehemently, "in what
+you have divulged relating to a man you loathe, and one, dear
+father--take it from me now, as the expression of a sacred duty--one
+that I must ever love. Call it fate--call it infatuation; say that it
+does not befit my womanly reserve to avow it--but if misfortune and
+death have fallen upon the head of Arthur Butler, there is that bond
+between us, that I must die. Oh, father--"
+
+As Mildred pronounced these words she had gradually raised herself into
+a sitting posture in her bed, and, at the conclusion, fell back
+exhausted upon her pillow. The enthusiasm, the violence and the
+intensity of her emotions had overborne her strength, and for some
+moments she lay incapable of speech.
+
+"Mildred, Mildred! daughter!" exclaimed Lindsay, in alarm, "I forgive
+you, my child. Great heaven, if this should be too much for her
+sensitive nature, and she should die before my eyes! Dear Mildred," he
+said in a softer accent, as he kissed her pale forehead, "but look up,
+and never, never more will I oppose your wish."
+
+"Father," she uttered, in a scarce audible whisper.
+
+"Thank God, she revives! Forbear to speak, my love; that is enough. Do
+not exhaust your strength by another effort."
+
+"Father!" she repeated in a firmer accent.
+
+"There, there, my child," continued Lindsay, fanning the air before her
+face with his hand.
+
+"Father," again uttered Mildred, "tell me of Arthur."
+
+"He is safe, my love--and thou shalt yet be happy. Daughter--no more;
+compose yourself--nor attempt again to speak." And saying these words,
+Lindsay stole out of the chamber and summoned one of the domestics to
+administer a cordial to the exhausted patient; and then gave orders that
+she should be left to recruit her strength by sleep.
+
+Mildred by degrees revived. Jaded by mental affliction, she had sunk
+into repose; and when another morning arrived, the lustre had returned
+to her eye, and her recovery was already well advanced. She did not yet
+venture from her chamber, but she was able to leave her bed and take the
+fresh air at her window.
+
+Whilst she sat in the loose robe of an invalid, towards noon, looking
+out upon the green forest and smiling fields around her, with Henry
+close by her side, seeking to soothe and amuse her mind, they were
+enabled to descry a horseman, attended by a single servant, making his
+way up the hill from the ford, by the road that led directly to the
+door.
+
+"As I live, sister," ejaculated Henry, "there is Tyrrel, covered with
+dust, and his horse all but worn down by travel."
+
+"Heaven forbid that it should be Tyrrel indeed!" said Mildred, growing
+paler, and trembling as she spoke. "Oh, what ill fortune brings him
+hither?"
+
+"I'll be bound," replied Henry, "that he comes with a whole budget of
+lies and foul thoughts. He has a knavish look, sister, and has been
+hatching mischief with every step of his horse. I, for one, will not see
+him; unless I can't help it. And you, sister, have an excuse to keep
+your room: so, he is like to have cold comfort here, with his rascally
+news of victory. We shall hear enough of Camden now. By-the-by, sister,
+I should like much to see our account of that business. I would bet it
+gives another face to the matter. These Tories do so bespatter his
+lordship with praises, and tell such improbable things about their
+victories! I will not see Tyrrel, that's flat."
+
+"Nay, brother, not so fast. You must see him, for my sake. He has
+something to tell of Arthur. Persuade my father to ask him: tell him, if
+need be, that I requested this. And, Henry, if he says that Arthur is
+safe and well, if he has heard anything of him, knows anything of him,
+fly to and tell me it all. And, remember, brother," she said earnestly,
+"tell me all--whether it be good or bad."
+
+"This is a new view of the case," said Henry. "Mildred, you are a wise
+woman, and think more ahead than I do. I did not reflect that this
+fellow might know something of Major Butler, though I am pretty sure he
+kept as clear of the major as a clean pair of heels would allow him.
+And, moreover, I take upon me to say, that he will bring as little good
+news of our Arthur in this direction, as he ever did of a good act in
+his life. But I will spy him out, sister, and report like a--like
+a--forty-two pounder, or the dispatch of a general who has won a fight.
+So, adieu, sister."
+
+By the time that Henry had reached the porch, Tyrrel was already there.
+He had dismounted, and his weary steed stood panting on the grave walk,
+while the servant stripped him of his baggage.
+
+"Well met, good master Henry!" said Tyrrel approaching, and offering the
+youth his hand, "I am somewhat of a soiled traveller, you see. Is your
+father at home? And your sister, how is she?"
+
+"My father is at home," replied Henry, dropping the proffered hand of
+the visitor, almost as soon as it had touched his own. "I will send him
+to you, sir."
+
+"But you have not asked me the news, Henry," said Tyrrel, "and, seeing
+that I have come from the very theatre of war, I could tell you
+something good."
+
+"I have heard my father speak of your good news," answered Henry,
+carelessly, "I do not serve under the same colors with you, sir."
+
+And the youth left the porch to announce the arrival of the traveller to
+Lindsay.
+
+"There spoke the rebel Mildred," muttered Tyrrel, as Henry left his
+presence.
+
+In an instant, Lindsay hastened from the library and received his guest
+with a warm welcome.
+
+The first cares of his reception, and some necessary order relating to
+his comfort, being despatched, Tyrrel began to disburden himself of his
+stock of particulars relating to the great and important movements of
+the opposing armies in the south. He had left Cornwallis a few days
+after the battle, and had travelled with post haste to Virginia, on a
+leave of absence. He described minutely the state of things consequent
+upon the recent victory; and it was with a tone of triumphant exultation
+that he frequently appealed to his predictions as to the course of
+events, when last at the Dove Cote. The conversation soon became too
+confidential for the presence even of Henry, who sat greedily devouring
+every word that fell from the lips of the narrator, and the further
+interview was transferred to the library.
+
+Henry hastened back to Mildred.
+
+"The fellow is so full of politics, sister," said the eager scout, "that
+he has not dropped one solitary word about Butler. He talks of the
+province being brought back to a sense of its duty, and public sentiment
+putting an end to this unnatural war forsooth! And his majesty reaping
+fresh laurels on the fields of Virginia! Let his majesty put in his
+sickle here--he shall reap as fine a crop of briers to bind round his
+brow, as ever grew in a fence-corner! But Butler! Oh, no, he has nothing
+to say of Butler. He is a cunning man, sister, and keeps out of the
+major's way, take my word for that."
+
+"Brother, get you again to my father, and say to him that I desire to
+know what tidings Mr. Tyrrel brings us. Say it in his ear privately,
+Henry."
+
+The young emissary again took his leave, and, without apology, entered
+the library.
+
+Mildred, in the meantime, restless and impatient, applied herself to the
+duties of the toilet, and, with the assistance of her maid, was soon in
+a condition to leave her chamber. She had, almost unwittingly, and in
+obedience to her engrossing wish to know something of Butler, made these
+preparations to appear in the parlor, without thinking of her repugnance
+to meet Tyrrel. And now, when she was on the point of going forth, her
+resolve changed, and she moved through the chamber like a perturbed
+spirit, anxiously waiting the return of Henry. She walked to the window,
+whence, looking out towards the terrace she perceived that her father
+and his guest had strolled out upon the lawn, where they were moving
+forward at a slow pace, whilst their gesticulations showed that they
+were engaged in an earnest conference.
+
+Henry's footsteps at the same moment were heard traversing the long
+passage, and Mildred, no longer able to restrain her eagerness, hastily
+left her room and met her brother, with whom she returned to the parlor.
+
+"My news, upon the whole, is good," said Henry, as he put his arm round
+Mildred's waist. "When I entered the library, and took a seat by my
+father, he suddenly broke up some long talk that was going on, in which
+he looked very grave, and, as if he knew what I came for--he is an
+excellent, kind father, sister, for all his moping and sad humors, and
+loves both you and me."
+
+"He does, Henry, and we must never forget it."
+
+"I would fight for him to the very death, Mildred. So, seeing that I
+looked as if you had sent me to him, he turned, in a kind of careless
+way, and asked Tyrrel if he had heard anything lately of Butler."
+
+"Well--brother."
+
+"'I scarce thought to mention it, answered Tyrrel, 'but the man'--think
+of that way of speaking of Major Butler--'the man had the temerity to
+push himself amongst the loyal troops, and was made a prisoner; he was
+suspected to be a spy, and there was, as I have understood, an idea of
+trying him by court-martial for it, and for other misdemeanors, of which
+I wrote you some particulars. I believe indeed, he was tried, and would,
+perhaps, have been shot.'"
+
+"Oh, heaven! brother, can this be true?" exclaimed Mildred, as the color
+deserted her cheek.
+
+"I give you exactly Tyrrel's words," replied Henry, "but the court were
+attacked, said he, by some bands of Whigs who stole a march upon them."
+
+"And Arthur escaped? Kind heaven, I thank thee!" almost screamed
+Mildred, as she clasped her hands together.
+
+"So Tyrrel thinks," continued Henry. "At all events they did not shoot
+him, like a pack of cowardly knaves as they were. And as some Tory
+prisoners were taken and dragged away by our good friend General
+Sumpter, who was the man, Tyrrel says, that set upon them, it is
+considered good policy--these were his words, sister--to spare the
+unnecessary effusion of blood on both sides. And then my father asked
+Tyrrel if Cornwallis knew of these doings, and he answered, not--that it
+was the indiscreet act of some mountain boys, who were in the habit of
+burning and slaying, against the wish of his Lordship: that the regular
+officers disapprove of harsh measures, and that peace now reigns all
+through the province."
+
+"When they make a desert of the land, they call it peace," said Mildred
+thoughtfully, quoting a translation of the beautiful passage of Tacitus.
+"This war is a dreadful trade."
+
+"For us, sister, who stay at home," replied Henry. "But God is good to
+us, and will favor the right, and will protect the brave men who draw
+their swords to maintain it."
+
+"From treachery, ambuscade, and privy murder--I thank you, brother, for
+that word. Heaven shield us, and those we love! But these are fearful
+times."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOR TYRREL's INFLUENCE OVER LINDSAY.
+
+
+The discourse between Lindsay and Tyrrel was one of deep moment. Tyrrel
+had taken advantage of the pervading fervor which the late successes of
+the British arms had diffused amongst the adherents of the royal cause,
+in behalf of what was deemed their certain triumph, to urge forward his
+own views. This was the occasion of his present unexpected visit at the
+Dove Cote. His immediate aim was to plunge Lindsay into the contest, by
+forcing him to take some step that should so commit him, in the opinion
+of the republican government, as to leave him no chance of retreat, nor
+the means longer to enjoy the privileges of his late neutrality. He,
+unhappily, found Lindsay in a mood to favor this intrigue. The
+increasing anxieties of that gentleman's mind, his domestic griefs, his
+peculiar temperament, and the warmth of his political animosities, all
+stimulated him to the thought of some active participation in the
+struggle. Tyrrel had sufficient penetration to perceive that such was
+likely to be the current of Lindsay's feelings, and he had by frequent
+letters administered to this result.
+
+There were several opulent families in the lower sections of the state,
+who still clung to the cause of the King, and who had been patiently
+awaiting the course of events, for the time when they might more boldly
+avow themselves. With the heads of these families Tyrrel had been in
+active correspondence, and it was now his design which under the
+sanction of the British leaders, he had already nearly matured, to bring
+these individuals together into a secret council, that they might act in
+concert, and strengthen themselves by mutual alliance. Immediately after
+the battle of Camden, it is known that Cornwallis had laid his plans for
+the invasion of North Carolina, by intrigues of the same kind: it was
+only extending the system a little in advance to apply it to Virginia.
+Arrangements had been made for this meeting of malcontents to be held
+at the house of a Mr. Stanhope, on one of the lower sections of the
+James river--a gentleman of good repute, with whom Lindsay had long been
+in the relations of close friendship.
+
+"The moments are precious, and you are waited for," said Tyrrel, in the
+course of his conference with Lindsay; "we must strike whilst the iron
+is hot. Separated as our good friends are from each other, you are now
+in the power, and at the mercy--which is a significant phrase--of the
+unruly government of Congress. Your motions, therefore, should be
+prompt. There are seasons, in the history of every trouble, when the
+virtue of deliberation mainly lies in its rapidity and the boldness of
+its resolve. I beseech you, sir, to regard this as such a season, and to
+take the course which the honor of our sovereign demands, without
+further pause to think of consequences."
+
+"When you were here a month ago," replied Lindsay, "I had my scruples.
+But things have strangely altered in that short interval. Your standard
+floats more bravely over the path of invasion than I had deemed it
+possible. You charged me then with being a laggard, and, you may
+remember, even impeached my loyalty."
+
+"I did you a grievous wrong, my dear friend; and did I not know your
+generous nature pardoned, as soon as it was uttered, my rash and
+intemperate speech, it would have cost me many a pang of remorse. Even
+in this, good sir," said Tyrrel, smiling and laying his hand upon
+Lindsay's shoulder; "even in this, you see how necessary is it that we
+should have a wise and considerate councillor to moderate the ungoverned
+zeal of us younger men."
+
+"My mind is made up," replied Lindsay. "I will attend the meeting."
+
+"And Mildred will be removed forthwith to Charleston?" eagerly
+interrupted Tyrrel.
+
+"Ah, sir, not one word of that. If I attend this meeting, it must be in
+secret. Nor do I yet commit myself to its resolves. I shall be a
+listener only. I would learn what my compatriots think, reserving to
+myself the right to act. Even yet, I would purchase peace with many a
+sacrifice. I abjure all violent measures of offence."
+
+"I am content," answered Tyrrel, "that you should hold yourself
+unpledged to any measures which your gravest and severest judgment does
+not approve. Though I little doubt that, from all quarters, you will
+hear such tidings as shall convince you that the road, both of safety
+and honor, leads onward in this glorious enterprise. 'Tis from this
+nettle danger, that we pluck the flower 'safety.' Conscious of this, I
+would have Mildred and her brother cared for."
+
+"Mildred can never be yours," said Lindsay musing. "There is the thought
+that makes me pause. I believed, and so do you, that the favor this
+Butler had found with her was the capricious and changeful fancy of a
+girl. It is the devoted passion of a woman: it has grown to be her
+faith, her honor, her religion."
+
+"Butler is a fool--a doomed madman," replied Tyrrel with earnestness.
+"He came here with the hellish purpose to betray you; and he was silly
+enough to think he could do so, and still win your daughter. She should
+be told of this."
+
+"She has been told of it, and she believes it not."
+
+"Was my avouch given to her for the truth of the fact."
+
+"It was. And, to speak plainly to you, it has only made your name
+hateful to her ear."
+
+"Then shall she have proof of it, which she cannot doubt. She shall have
+it in the recorded judgment of a court-martial, which has condemned him
+as a traitor and a spy; she shall have it in the doom of his death, and
+the sequestration of his estate," exclaimed Tyrrel with a bitter
+malignity, "proud girl!"
+
+"Remember yourself, sir!" interrupted Lindsay, sternly. "This is not the
+language nor the tone fit for a father's ear, when the subject of it is
+his own daughter."
+
+Tyrrel was instantly recalled to his self-possession; and with that
+humility which he could always assume when his own interest required it,
+spoke in a voice of sudden contrition.
+
+"Why, what a fool am I to let my temper thus sway me! Humbly, most
+humbly, dear sir, do I entreat your forgiveness. I love your daughter,
+and revere the earnest enthusiasm of her nature; and, therefore, have
+been galled beyond my proper show of duty, to learn that she could
+discredit my word."
+
+"I enjoin it upon you," said Lindsay, "that in your intercourse with my
+family here, you drop no word calculated to alarm my daughter for the
+safety of this Butler. It is a topic which distracts her, and must be
+avoided."
+
+"For the present," replied Tyrrel, "as I have before told you, I think
+he is safe. The forfeiture of his estate is not a secret. But to
+business, my friend. When shall we set out?"
+
+"To-morrow," answered Lindsay. "We must travel cautiously, and amongst
+our friends."
+
+"This disguise has served me so far," said Tyrrel. "I may the better
+trust to it when in your company."
+
+Mildred and Henry remained in the parlor, and were there when Lindsay
+and his guest, having terminated their secret conference, returned to
+the house.
+
+"Your cheek denies your customary boast of good health, Miss Lindsay,"
+said Tyrrel, respectfully approaching the lady, and with an air that
+seemed to indicate his expectation of a cold reception. "It grieves me
+to learn that, at a time when all good men are rejoicing in the prospect
+of peace, you should not be in a condition to share the common
+pleasure."
+
+"I think there is small occasion for rejoicing in any quarter," replied
+Mildred, calmly.
+
+"Miss Lindsay would, perhaps, be interested to hear," said Tyrrel, not
+discomfited by the evident aversion of the lady, "that I have, within a
+few days past, left the head-quarters of the British army, where I was
+enabled to glean some particulars of a friend of hers, Major Butler, of
+the Continental service."
+
+Mildred colored, as she said in a faint voice, "He is my friend."
+
+"He has been unfortunate," continued Tyrrel, "having fallen into the
+hands of some of our skirmishers. But I believe I may assure Miss
+Lindsay that he is both safe and well. He enjoys the reputation of being
+a brave gentleman. I may be permitted to say, that had his destiny
+brought him under other colors, I should have been proud to be better
+known to him."
+
+"Major Butler chooses his own colors," said Henry, interposing. "I don't
+think destiny had much to do with it. He took his side because they
+wanted men to help out a brave war."
+
+Lindsay frowned, and strode once or twice across the apartment, during
+which an embarrassing silence prevailed.
+
+"You are the same cockerel you always were, Henry," said Tyrrel, with
+undaunted playfulness; "always warm for the fight. But it is a Christian
+duty, you know, to be peace-makers in such times as these. We may trust,
+Miss Lindsay, that some conciliatory spirit shall arise to quell the
+quarrelsome humors of the people, and bring all things back to
+tranquillity. For myself, I devoutly wish it."
+
+"The day for such a spirit does not seem to be at hand," said Mildred,
+quietly rising to withdraw.
+
+"You are not well, my daughter," interposed Lindsay. "Mildred is but
+recently from a sick bed," he continued, addressing Tyrrel, in the way
+of apology for her marked coldness of demeanor.
+
+"I am not well, father," replied Mildred, "I must be permitted to leave
+you;" and she now retired.
+
+When Henry soon afterwards joined her, he found her agitated and
+excited.
+
+"Better known to Arthur Butler!" she exclaimed, dwelling on the speech
+of Tyrrel. "He is better known already than he dreams of. Think,
+brother, of the cool hypocrisy of this bold schemer--this secret
+disturber of the quiet of our house--that he should dare boast to me of
+Arthur's bravery."
+
+"And to talk about his colors too!" said Henry. "Did you mark, sister,
+how I set him down--in spite of my father's presence? And did you see
+how his brow blanched when I spoke my mind to him? He will find me too
+hot a cockerel, as he calls me, to venture upon our colors again. I hold
+no terms with him, sister, more than yourself."
+
+"You will excuse me to my father, Henry, I will not go in to dinner
+to-day."
+
+"I wondered," replied Henry, "that you met him at all, sister; but he
+took us unawares. And, truly, I don't think it would be safe to bring
+you near him again. So I advise you, keep your room. As for me--tut! I
+am not afraid to meet him. I warrant he gets his own upon occasion!"
+
+"I entreat you, Henry," said Mildred, "to guard your temper. It would
+give our father pain to hear a rash speech from you. It would answer no
+good end."
+
+"I will be as circumspect, Mildred, as the state of the war requires,"
+answered Henry. "Fight when it is necessary, and be silent when we can't
+strike."
+
+Henry now left his sister and went to his usual occupations.
+
+Mildred, in accordance with the purpose expressed to her brother did not
+appear at the dinner table; and the day was passed, by Lindsay and
+Tyrrel, in close communion over the topics connected with the object of
+the enterprise in which they were about to embark. Tyrrel had seen
+enough to convince him that he might, at least for the present, abandon
+all effort to win Mildred's good opinion; and his whole thoughts were
+now bent to bring Lindsay into such an attitude of hostility to the
+republican authorities as would inevitably lead to his removal from the
+state, and perhaps compel him to retire to England. Either of these
+events would operate to the advantage of the aspiring and selfish policy
+by which Tyrrel hoped to accomplish his object.
+
+In the course of the evening Lindsay held a short interview with his
+children, in which he made known to them that affairs of importance were
+about to call him away, for a fortnight perhaps, from the Dove Cote. It
+was in vain that Mildred endeavored to turn him from his purpose, which,
+though undivulged to her, she conjectured to be, from its association
+with Tyrrel, some sinister political move, of which her father was to be
+the dupe.
+
+In accordance with Lindsay's intimation, he and Tyrrel set out, at an
+early hour of the following day, on their journey towards the low
+country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A DOMESTIC SCENE AT THE DOVE COTE.
+
+
+On the third morning following Lindsay's and Tyrrel's departure, the
+season being now about the commencement of September, Henry was seen,
+after an unusually early breakfast, to come forth upon the grass-plot,
+in front of the house, bearing in his hand a short rifle,--his customary
+accompaniment of the bugle being slung across his shoulders. For some
+moments he was occupied in examining his weapon; then leaning it against
+a tree that stood upon the lawn, he put the bugle to his mouth and
+sounded a long and clear signal-note. The first effects of this spell
+were to bring up Bell, Blanche, and Hylas, the three flap-eared hounds,
+who came frisking over the grass with many antics that might be said to
+resemble the bows and curtsies of the human species, and which were
+accompanied by the houndish salutation of deep-mouthed howls that the
+horn never fails to wake up in these animals.
+
+Soon after these, came striding up the hill the long gaunt form of
+Stephen Foster, who, mounting the stone wall on the lower side, with one
+bound sprang over the thickset-hedge that begirt the terrace. He was now
+arrayed in a yellow hunting shirt that reached to the middle of his
+thigh, and which was decorated with an abundance of red fringe that
+bound the cape, elbows, wrists, and extremity of the skirt, and a wool
+hat encircled with a broad red band, in one side of which was set the
+national ornament of the buck-tail. Around his waist was buckled a broad
+buckskin belt; he was armed besides with a rifle a little short of six
+feet in length.
+
+Stephen Foster was one of that idle craft, who, having no particular
+occupation, was from this circumstance, by a contradiction in terms,
+usually called a man of all work. He belonged to that class of beings
+who are only to be found in a society where the ordinary menial
+employments are discharged by slaves; and was the tenant of a few acres
+of land, appertaining to the domain of the Dove Cote, where he professed
+to make his living by husbandry. But by far the greater proportion of
+his revenues was derived from divers miscellaneous services,--such as
+driving a team of four lean horses, of which he was proprietor; hauling
+wood for fuel; assisting in the harvest fields; somtimes working in the
+garden; and, when required, riding errands--which he preferred to all
+other business. But labor was not Stephen's forte: it was
+constitutionally a part of his system to postpone matters of work for
+pleasure; and, if there was anything for which he was particularly
+famous, it was in avoiding all appearances of punctuality to irksome
+engagements. If he can be said to have had a calling at all, it was that
+of a hunter, a species of employment that possessed a wonderful charm
+for his fancy, and which was excellently adapted both to his physical
+and moral qualities. He, therefore, gave much of his time to the
+concerns of vert and venison; and his skill with the rifle was such that
+he could make sure of putting a ball through the brain of a wild pigeon
+as far as he was able to draw a sight. He was skilled in the habits of
+all the forest animals common to this part of Virginia, and accurately
+drew the line of distinction between vermin and game. He hunted wolves,
+bears, panthers (painters, in his own pronunciation), racoons, foxes,
+opossums, and squirrels; and trapped otter, beaver, and muskrats;
+moreover, he was an expert jigger and bobber of eels, and well knew the
+trouting streams. For these pursuits he was endowed with a patient
+nature that could endure a whole day and night in the woods without
+eating or sleeping; my authority says nothing of his forbearance in the
+third primary want of humanity. He was a man of fine thews and sinews,
+stout and brave; and withal of a generous, frank, and invariable good
+nature. The war had furnished occasion for such talents as be possessed;
+and Stephen was now meditating a bold severance from his wife and
+children, who had heretofore exerted such a dominion over his
+affections, that he had not the heart to leave them. But the present
+difficulties of the nation had made such a cogent appeal to his
+patriotism, that he had resolved to take one campaign in the field, and
+thus give scope to his natural love of adventure. It was now his
+peculiar glory, and one that wrought with a potent influence upon his
+self-love, that he held the post of lieutenant to the company of Amherst
+Rangers, a volunteer corps that had lately been organized with a view to
+the state of affairs in the south.
+
+This worthy, when he had no expedition in hand, was generally to be
+found lounging about the mansion of the Dove Cote, in expectation of
+some call from Henry, between whom and himself there existed a mutual
+and somewhat exorbitant affection.
+
+On his present appearance there was a broad, complacent grin on
+Stephen's features as he accosted the young bugleman with the
+interrogatory--
+
+"What's in the wind now, Mister Henry? Arter another buck, I reckon? And
+an elegant morning it is for a drive! May be, the wind's just a little
+too fresh, 'cepting you was able to steal on the lower side of the game,
+and then the scent would come down like a rose. Thar's a great advantage
+in being down the wind, because the animal can't hear you breaking
+through the bushes, for the wind makes naturally such a twittering of
+the leaves that it deceives him, you see."
+
+"I fancy I know a good hunting day, Lieutenant Foster," said Henry,
+putting his arms akimbo, "as well as you. Who told you I was going after
+a buck? Why, man, if that had been my drift I should have started you
+two hours ago. But we have other business in hand, Stephen. There is
+such dreadful news in the country! We shall march soon, take my word for
+it. I am resolved to go, Stephen, as soon as ever the Rangers set out,
+let my father say what he will. It is time men should take their
+sides--that's my opinion."
+
+"Mister Henry, I wouldn't advise you," said Stephen, with a wise shake
+of the head. "Your father would grieve himself to death if you were to
+leave him."
+
+"Don't believe the half of that, lieutenant. There would be a flurry for
+a little while, and, after that, father would see that the thing
+couldn't be helped, and so he would have to be satisfied. I'll steal
+away--that's flat."
+
+"Well, take notice, Mister Henry," said Stephen, chuckling, "I give you
+my warning against it. But if you do go along with me I'll take as much
+care of you as if you were my own son."
+
+"I know sister Mildred thinks," replied Henry, "it wouldn't be very
+wrong in me to go; and so I'll leave her to make my peace at home.
+Besides, I am going on her account, just to try and hear something of
+Major Butler."
+
+"If that's her opinion," returned Stephen, "thar isn't much wrong about
+it. She is the head contriver and main privy-councillor," added Stephen,
+laughing, as he used these slang words, with which he was in the habit
+of garnishing his conversation, "of all matters that are done here in
+this house."
+
+"These are your new regimentals, Stephen," said Henry, looking at
+Foster's dress; "you shine like a flecker on a sunny day. It will please
+sister to the life to see you so spruce; she's a prodigious
+disciplinarian, and doesn't like to see us rebels (here he put his hand
+to his mouth and pronounced this word with a mock circumspection), worse
+dressed than the rascally red-coats. When do the Rangers march,
+Stephen?"
+
+"We are waiting for orders every day. We parade, you know, Mister Henry,
+this morning."
+
+"You must plead off to-day," said Henry; "I called you up to tell you
+that sister and I were going to ride, and I wanted you to go with us. At
+any rate, if you must go to the troop, you can leave us on the road. You
+don't meet till twelve, and both sister and I want to talk to you. She
+commanded me to tell you this. I believe she wishes you to take a letter
+for her. Poor Mildred doesn't know that I am going with you; so, as to
+that, you needn't let on. Go, Stephen, have our horses ready as soon as
+you can get them. Quick, good Stephen; sister and I will wait for you on
+the lawn."
+
+The lieutenant of the Rangers, having received his orders, hurried away
+to attend to their execution.
+
+Mildred was already apparelled for her ride, and came at this moment
+from the house along the gravel walk. Her cheek, lately pale, had now
+begun to show the ruddy hue of health. Her full, dark-blue eye, although
+habitually expressive of a thoughtful temperament, frequently sparkled
+with the sudden flashes of a playful spirit, and oftener with the fire
+of an ardent resolution. Her features, marked by a well-defined outline,
+bore a strong resemblance to her brother's, and, when animated by the
+quick-speeding emotions of her mind, presented a countenance unusually
+gifted with the graces of external beauty. The impression which her
+physiognomy conveyed, was that of an impassioned and enthusiastic
+nature, and of a feminine courage that was sufficient for any emergency.
+A clear skin gave brilliancy to her complexion; and, although habits of
+exposure to the air had slightly impaired its lustre, the few traces
+which this exposure left, rather communicated the agreeable idea of a
+wholesome and vigorous constitution. The tones of her voice were soft
+and gentle, and full of harmony; and, when stimulated by her feelings,
+rich, deep, and commanding. Her figure, of what might be deemed a medium
+height in females, was neat and agile, well proportioned, and combining
+the flexible ease proper to her sex, with a degree of steadiness and
+strength that might be denominated masculine. Her movement was graceful,
+distinguished by a ready hand and free step; and it was impossible to
+look upon her most familiar bearing, without being struck by the
+indication which it gave of a self-possessed, fearless, and careering
+temper, allied to a mind raised above the multitude by a consciousness
+of intellectual force.
+
+As Mildred advanced along the shaded walk, she was followed by a
+fantastical little attendant, whom, in the toyish freak of a solitary
+and luxurious life, she had trained to fill the station of a lady's
+page. This was a diminutive negro boy, not above ten years of age, of a
+delicate figure, and now gaudily bedecked in a vest of scarlet cloth, a
+pair of loose white linen trowsers drawn at the ancle, and red slippers.
+A ruffle fell over his neck, and full white sleeves were fastened with
+silken cords at his wrists. A scarlet velvet cap gave a finish to the
+apparel of this gorgeous little elf; and the dress, grotesque as it was,
+was not badly set off by the saucy, familiar port of the conceited
+menial. Whether he had been destined from his birth to this pampered
+station,--or, accidentally, like many of the eastern monarchs, raised to
+the purple,--he bore the romantic name of Endymion, and was fully as
+much at the call of his patroness, and as fond of sleep, as him of Mount
+Latmos. His business seemed to be at the present moment to acquit
+himself of the responsible duty of holding an ivory-mounted riding-whip
+in readiness for the service of his mistress.
+
+When Mildred had crossed the lawn and arrived at the spot where Henry
+now stood, she was saluted by her brother, with--
+
+"Stand, my gentle sister, you and your monkey! Ah, Mildred, you are not
+what you used to be; you have grown much too grave of late. Bear up,
+dear sister: for, after all, what is it! Why we have been beaten, and we
+must fight it over again, that's all. And as to the major, your
+partiality magnifies his dangers. Hasn't he an arm?--yes; and hasn't he
+a leg?--which, in war, I hold to be just as useful sometimes."
+
+"There is a dreadful uncertainty, brother," replied Mildred. "I dream of
+the worst."
+
+"A fig for your dreams, sister Mildred! They have been all sorts of
+ways, and that you know. Now, I have a waking dream, and that is, that
+before you are twenty-four hours older you will hear of Major Butler."
+
+"Would to heaven your dream may prove true!" replied Mildred. "But,
+Henry, you love me, and affection is an arrant cheat in its prophecies."
+
+"Tush then, sister! don't talk of it. For when we know nothing, it does
+no good to get to fancying. These are the times to act; and perhaps I'll
+surprise you yet."
+
+"With what, good brother?"
+
+"Order arms," replied Henry, evading his sister's inquiry, and at the
+same time assuming a military erectness, and bringing his rifle briskly
+to the ground--"with the beauty of my drill, sister. It even surprises
+myself. You shall see me march." And here he sportively shouldered his
+rifle and stepped with a measured pace across the green, and then back
+again; whilst the saucy Endymion, presuming on his privilege, with mimic
+gestures, followed immediately in Henry's rear, taking large strides to
+keep his ground. When Henry perceived the apish minion thus upon his
+track he burst out into a laugh.
+
+"You huge giant-killer, do you mock me?" he exclaimed. "Sister, I will
+smother your body-guard in the crown of my cap, if he isn't taught
+better manners."
+
+"Henry, I cannot share your light heart with you," said Mildred
+sorrowfully, "mine is heavy."
+
+"And mine is yours, sister, light or heavy; in sunshine or in storm,
+summer and winter, dear Mildred, it is always yours. It was a trick of
+mine to amuse you. And if I do not seem to feel, sister, as you do, it
+is because I mean to act. We men have no time for low spirits."
+
+"Stephen Foster is here at the door with our horses, brother. Boy, give
+me the whip--now, away. The gay feathers of this bird," said Mildred, as
+the little black retired, "do not become a follower of mine."
+
+The new aspect of affairs, since the defeat of Camden, had pressed
+grievously upon Mildred's spirits. The country was full of disheartening
+rumors, and every day added particulars that were of a nature to
+increase the distress. The bloody fate of the brave De Kalb, and the
+soldiers that fell by his side; the triumph with which Cornwallis had
+begun his preparations for further conquests; the destitution and
+disarray of the American army, now flying before its enemy; the tales of
+unsparing sequestration with which, in Carolina, the lands of those who
+still bore arms in the cause of independence, were visited; the military
+executions of prisoners charged with the violation of a constructive
+allegiance, in the conquered districts; the harsh measures which were
+adopted to break the heart of the rebellion, that still lingered behind
+the march of the victorious army; and, above all, the boastful
+confidence with which Cornwallis, by his proclamations, sought to open
+the way for his invasion of North Carolina and Virginia, by attempting
+to rally the liege subjects of the king under his standard: all these
+events came on the wings of rumor, and had lighted up a flame through
+the whole country. To Mildred, they all imported an ill omen as regarded
+the fate of Arthur Butler. Now and then, a straggling soldier of Gates's
+broken force arrived at the Dove Cote, where he was received with an
+eager hospitality, and closely questioned as to the events in which he
+had participated. But of Butler, not even the remotest tidings were
+obtained. For the present, the uncertainty of his fortune filled
+Mildred's thoughts with the most anxious and unhappy misgivings; and
+this frame of mind over-mastered all other feelings. The late visit of
+Tyrrel to the Dove Cote, and the abrupt departure of her father with
+this individual, on an unavowed expedition, were not calculated to allay
+her fears; and she felt herself pressed on all sides with the presages
+of coming misfortune. In these difficulties she did not lose her
+fortitude; but, like a mariner benighted in a dangerous strait, she
+counted over the anxious moments of her voyage, expecting, at each
+succeeding instant, to hear the dreadful stranding of her bark upon the
+unseen rock, though bravely prepared for the worst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+AN ARRIVAL AT THE DOVE COTE. MILDRED RESOLVES ON A PERILOUS ADVENTURE.
+
+
+It was in the state of painful expectation described in the last
+chapter, that Mildred now rode out, daily, upon the highways, in the
+feeble hope of hearing something of importance from the casual wayfarers
+who, in the present excited condition of the country, were thronging the
+roads. On the morning to which our narrative refers, she had charged
+Henry to procure the attendance of Stephen Foster, to whom, as it was
+known that he was about to accompany his troop towards the scene of
+hostilities, she was anxious to intrust a letter for Butler, as well as
+to communicate to him some instructions relating to it.
+
+Stephen was, accordingly, now in attendance. A sleek, full-blooded roan,
+of an active, deer-like figure, and showing by his mettlesome antics the
+high training of a pampered favorite, stood in the care of the groom at
+the door; and Mildred, aided by her brother, sprang into her saddle with
+the ease and confidence of one familiarized to the exploit. When
+mounted, she appeared to great advantage. She was an expert rider, and
+managed her horse with a dexterous grace. The very position of command
+and authority which her saddle gave her, seemed to raise her spirits
+into a happier elevation.
+
+"Follow me, Mister Stephen," she said, "I have service for you. And it
+will not be out of the fashion of the time that a lady should be
+'squired by an armed soldier. We take the road down the river. Have a
+care, brother, how you bound off at the start--the hill is steep, and a
+horse's foot is not over sure when pressed too rapidly on the descent."
+
+The cavalcade descended the hill, crossed the ford, and then took a
+direction down the stream, by the road that led beneath the Fawn's
+Tower. Mildred sighed as she gazed around her, and saw the spot of her
+last meeting with Butler. The little skiff by which her lover had glided
+across the water, now lay upon a dry bed of rock, in the same position,
+perhaps, where a month ago he had left it. The summer drought had
+reduced the stream, and deprived the light boat (whose tackle kept it
+prisoner to the root of the sycamore) of the element on which it had
+floated. This spectacle suggested to Mildred's thoughts a melancholy
+image. "Even thus," she muttered to herself, "have I been left by him.
+He has gone to obey the calls of honor and duty, and I, fettered to my
+native woods, have seen the stream of happiness roll by, one while
+swollen to a torrent, and again dried up by the fervid heat of war,
+until, like this sun-withered bark, I have been left upon the shore,
+without one drop of that clear current on which alone I hoped to live.
+Come hither, Stephen," she said, as she slackened the rein of her horse:
+and the obedient attendant was immediately at her side.
+
+"You set out southwards, with your comrades of the troop, in a few
+days?"
+
+"Orders may come to-morrow," replied Foster.
+
+"It is no holiday game that you are going to play," continued the lady.
+
+"When Congress cut out this here war for us, Miss Mildred," answered the
+hunter, "they didn't count upon settling of it without making some tall
+fellows the shorter. And it is my opinion that it is a p'int of
+conscience that every man should take his spell of the work."
+
+"You go to it with a good heart," said Mildred. "We women can only pray
+for you, lieutenant."
+
+"I shall pull trigger with a steadier hand, ma'am, when I think that
+your father's daughter is praying for me."
+
+"Stephen," continued Mildred, "you may chance to see some one whose duty
+may lead him further south than, perhaps, you may be required to travel:
+I will give you a letter to a friend of mine, who, I fear, is in
+distress. If such traveller be trusty and willing to do me a service, as
+perhaps he may for your sake, I must beg you to put the letter in his
+charge, and tell him to seek out Major Butler, and contrive to have it
+delivered to him."
+
+"If it concerns you, Miss Mildred, I will take upon myself to hunt Major
+Butler, or I will make as sure of the letter reaching him as I may have
+a chance."
+
+"Many thanks, Stephen. There is a purse containing some few pieces of
+gold for you. Do not spare the use of it to perform my wish."
+
+Stephen looked bashfully at the lady as she held the proffered purse in
+her hand.
+
+"Take it, Mr. Foster. It is money to be employed in my service, and it
+may stand you in good stead when better friends are absent."
+
+The hunter uttered an awkward laugh. "If you would allow me to take the
+smallest piece of money, it would more than hire a man express."
+
+"Take it all, Stephen, it is but a trifle. They call this the sinew of
+war," said Mildred, smiling.
+
+"It's an utter, moral, and resolute impossibility," answered Foster,
+"for me to take all that money. Bless your soul, Miss Mildred, my pocket
+arn't used to such company."
+
+"Pshaw, Steve," ejaculated Henry, "you are the greenest soldier in these
+hills, to be playing boy about this money. Take it, man, and none of
+your nonsense; precious little gold you'll see before you get back!"
+
+"Well, I'll not be ticklish about it," said Foster. "Empty the bag, Miss
+Mildred, into my hand."
+
+"I mean that you shall have the purse with it," added Mildred.
+
+"No, no; that's too valuable a piece of fine silk net-work for me."
+
+"There again, Lieutenant Foster," said Henry; "if you were not my own
+superior officer, I would say you were a fool."
+
+"Give it to me," replied Stephen, laughing, "I have heard of cheating
+money out of a man's pocket, but I never saw it cheated into it before."
+
+"You shall have the letter to-morrow, Stephen," said Mildred, "and as
+you value your poor friend, who worked that purse with her own hands, do
+not fail to make an effort to learn something of Major Butler, and to
+have my letter delivered to him. He was made a prisoner somewhere on his
+way to Georgia, and I have heard escaped; but, perhaps, that's not true.
+You may find some one who can tell you more about him. Inquire of all
+you meet: and, Stephen, in my name, beg your comrades to aid you.
+Remember," added Mildred, with a smile, "this is a lady's secret. I am
+sure you will keep it."
+
+"Most sacrilegiously and with all possible punctuation!" replied the
+woodsman. "And you shall hear of the Major, Miss Mildred, dead or
+alive."
+
+"Oh heaven!" exclaimed Mildred aloud; and then recollecting herself, she
+breathed in a whisper, "that word vibrated a note of fear. Your zeal
+shall have my warmest gratitude, Stephen."
+
+By this time the party had reached the second ford, where the road
+recrossed the river, in the neighborhood of Mrs. Dimock's, and in a few
+moments they were at the door of the little inn.
+
+A brief halt, and a few words with the good hostess, furnished Mildred
+neither with a letter nor with any information of moment from the
+quarter, where at this time the thoughts of nearly the whole of the
+American people were turned.
+
+"Woful days, Miss Mildred," said the landlady, shaking her head, and
+wearing a face of lugubrious length, "woful indeed! nothing but
+hurry-skurry, and bragging and swearing. What with Gates's runaways,
+that--shame upon them!--come whipping post haste along the road; and
+messengers, dragoons, and drill sergeants, all out of breath, out of
+money, and out of everything but appetites; which, mercy on me! never
+fail in the worst of times: and what with musterings of volunteers, and
+drumming and fifing of it, up hill and down dale, it is as much as one
+can do to keep one's wits. Heaven help us, my dear! I don't know what we
+shall come to. But poor Arthur," she continued, in a mournful and lower
+key, "not a word from him. It looks awfully: I could almost sit down and
+weep. Nevertheless, Miss Mildred, my child, be of good cheer, God will
+keep his foot from the path that leads to the snares; we must all trust
+in His goodness."
+
+"Alas, alas!" breathed Mildred, in an accent of sorrow. "Brother, ride
+forward. If a good word reaches you, Mistress Dimock, send it to me,
+even if it be at midnight."
+
+Mildred pursued her ride, and Henry, seeing how much she was dejected,
+applied himself, with the kindest assiduity, to bring back comfort and
+cheerfulness to her mind. He sought to amuse her with such fragments of
+the gossip of the country-side as were likely to interest her
+patriotism; and he contrived to recall to her recollection passages in
+the life of Butler, which related to the perils he had heretofore
+encountered, and from which he had extricated himself by his address and
+soldiership; and Henry told these in such a way as to infer from them
+arguments of comfort that suited the present state of his sister's
+feelings. As was usual in most of the young cadet's discourses, he
+glided into that half-boastful and half-waggish vein in which he
+delighted to refer to his own pursuits and aspirations after military
+glory.
+
+"A man naturally, sister," he said, erecting himself in his stirrups,
+and assuming the stiff carriage of a conceited young adjutant on parade,
+"a man naturally feels proud on horseback. It is what I call
+glorification, to have a noble beast under you, that you can turn and
+wind and check and set forward as you please, as if his limbs were your
+own. You feel stronger; and, in this world, I do believe a strong man is
+always proud. Now, I should think that a woman would feel even more so
+than a man; because, being weak by nature, she must grow happier to
+think how much muscle she can put in motion by only pulling a rein."
+
+"There is some philosophy in that, Henry," replied Mildred.
+
+"So there is, sister; and I tell you more, that when a person has this
+sort of glorification, as they call it, they always get more contented
+with themselves. And that's the reason, as far as I am a judge, that you
+always feel in better spirits when you are on horseback; and,
+especially, if it should be in front of a troop. Hallo, Stephen!"
+ejaculated Henry, taken by surprise, in the midst of his discourse, by
+the sight of a flock of wild turkeys that ran across the road, some
+hundred paces ahead. "Did you see that? Halt, man--here's game for us."
+And, in an instant, he sprang from his horse, which he fastened to one
+of the neighboring trees, and ran off with his rifle in his hand, in
+pursuit of the flock.
+
+Stephen, whose instincts were those of a keen sportsman, when game was
+before him, did the same thing; and in a few moments Mildred found
+herself left entirely alone in the road, half disposed to chide and
+half to smile at the eager and ungallant desertion of her attendants,
+who were now in quick but cautious pursuit of the brood of turkeys. The
+speed with which these birds are accustomed to run through the woods,
+allured their pursuers to some distance into the depths of the forest;
+and Mildred patiently awaited the return of her companions on the ground
+where they had left her.
+
+After five or ten minutes had elapsed, it was with a sensation of some
+little concern that she descried, upon the road, a stranger mounted on
+horseback, and coming at a brisk trot to the spot where she had halted.
+The appearance of the individual was that of one of the irregular
+soldiers who had accompanied Gates's array; his dress was rustic, and
+his weapon, according to the almost universal fashion of the country
+troops, the long rifle. The condition of his sturdy steed showed long
+and fatiguing service; whilst the bold and manly person of the rider
+left little room to suppose that he was to be classed amongst the many
+who had fled in panic from the field of action. As soon as the stranger
+became aware of the presence of the lady, he slackened his speed and
+approached with a respectful salutation.
+
+"If I mought be so bold, ma'am, how far mought it be to a river they
+call the Rockfish?"
+
+"It is scarce two miles away, sir," replied Mildred.
+
+"And there, if I don't disremember," said the traveller, "is a house
+kept by the widow Dimock; the Blue Ball, I think?"
+
+"There is, sir."
+
+"And no forks in the road betwixt this and the widow's?"
+
+"It is a plain road," replied Mildred.
+
+"And about two miles beyont--is squire Lindsay's, at a place they call
+the Dove Cote?"
+
+"Does your business take you there?" asked Mildred, with interest; "are
+you from the army?--whence come you?"
+
+"Beg pardon, ma'am," replied the stranger, smiling, "but I am an old
+sodger, and rather warry about answering questions that consarn myself.
+I suppose it is likely I mought see Mr. Lindsay?"
+
+"Pray, sir, tell me what brings you here, and who you are? I have
+special reasons for presuming so far upon your kindness. I myself live
+at the Dove Cote, and"--
+
+"Then, mayhap, you mought have hearn of one Major Arthur Butler?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir,--if you have any news of him, speak it to me quickly,"
+exclaimed Mildred, with much agitation.
+
+"By that sparkling of your eye, ma'am, it is no fool's guess that you
+are the identical particular lady that I have rode nigh on to five
+hundred miles to see. You have hearn the Major tell of Horse Shoe
+Robinson?"
+
+"And Arthur Butler."
+
+"He is well, madam, and in good heart, excepting some trifling drawbacks
+that don't come to much account."
+
+"Thank God, thank God, for this news!"
+
+"I have brought two letters, Miss Lindsay, from the Major, for you; they
+will tell you, I believe, mainly, that the Major is in the hands of the
+Philistians," said Horse Shoe, rummaging through the plaits of his
+dress, and getting loose the belt and leathern pouch from which, by the
+help of his jack-knife, he extricated the missives; "but they leave the
+story to be told pretty much by me. The long and the short of it is,
+that the Major is a prisoner, and wants some assistance from you: but
+there is no danger of any harm being done him."
+
+Mildred eagerly tore open the letters and read them; then heaving a
+sigh, she said, "He is closely watched, and galled with misfortune. He
+refers to you, Mr. Robinson, and I must beg you to tell me all."
+
+Horse Shoe, with a cheerful and occasionally even with a laughing
+manner, adopted to reassure the lady and quell her fears, recounted all
+such particulars of Butler's adventures as were necessary to enable her
+to comprehend the nature of his present mission to the Dove Cote.
+
+Before this narrative was brought to a close, Henry and Foster had
+returned, bringing with them a large turkey which Henry had shot, and
+which the young sportsman was exhibiting with ostentatious triumph.
+
+"Huzza, here's a new turn of good luck! Horse Shoe Robinson, the brave
+sergeant," shouted Henry, as soon as he observed the stout figure of our
+old friend. "Is Major Butler here too?" he demanded, as he shook the
+sergeant's hand, "or have you come alone? Now, sister, you ought to be a
+happy woman. You bring us good news, Mr. Horse Shoe, I know you do."
+
+"The news is better than it mought have been if the Tories had had their
+way," replied Horse Shoe. "But a sodger's life has both shade and
+sunshine in it; and the Major is now a little in the shade."
+
+"Brother, mount quickly," said Mildred, "we have business before us. Mr.
+Robinson, ride beside me; I have much to say to you."
+
+Stephen Foster, after saluting the sergeant, and reminding Mildred of
+his engagement to meet his troop, took his leave of the party.
+
+The rest repaired, with as much expedition as they were able to employ,
+to the Dove Cote, Horse Shoe detailing to the brother and sister, as
+they went along, a great many particulars of the late history of Butler.
+
+When they reached the house, orders were given for the accommodation of
+the sergeant; and the most sedulous attention was shown to everything
+that regarded his comfort. Frequent conferences were held between
+Mildred and Henry, and the trusty emissary. The letters were reperused,
+and all the circumstances that belonged to Butler's means of liberation
+were anxiously discussed.
+
+"How unlucky is it," said Mildred, "that my father should be absent at
+such a moment as this! Arthur's appeal to him would convince him how
+wicked was Tyrrel's charge against his honor. And yet, in my father's
+late mood, the appeal might have been ineffectual: he might have
+refused. Sergeant, we are in great difficulties, and I know not what to
+do. A letter, you say, has been written to Lord Cornwallis?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, and by a man who sharpened his pen with his sword."
+
+"You heard nothing of the answer of his Lordship?"
+
+"There was not time to hear."
+
+"Cornwallis will be prejudiced by those around him, and he will refuse,"
+said Mildred, with an air of deep solicitude.
+
+"Not if he be the man I take him to be, young lady," replied Horse
+Shoe. "The world says he is above doing a cowardly thing; and it isn't
+natural for one brave man to wish harm against another, except in open
+war."
+
+"Did you hear of one Tyrrel, in the British camp? But how could
+you?--that was an assumed name."
+
+"You mean the gentleman who was here when the major stopped at Mrs.
+Dimock's?" said Robinson: "that was the name the landlady spoke
+about--if I remember myself. I did not hear of him, ma'am, in my
+travels; but his servant, James Curry, I met oftener, I undertake to
+say, than the fellow wished. He was consarned in ambushing Major Butler
+and me at Grindall's Ford. It was our opinion he was hired."
+
+"There," exclaimed Mildred, "that confirms what I guessed of Tyrrel's
+villany. I will go to Cornwallis myself: I will expose the whole matter
+to his lordship. Henry, my dear brother, it is a rash venture, but I
+will essay it. You must accompany and protect me."
+
+"That's a sudden thought, sister, and you may count on my hearty good
+will to help it along. It is a brave thought of yours, besides," said
+Henry, pondering over it--"and everybody will praise you for it."
+
+Robinson listened to this resolve with an incredulous ear.
+
+"You wouldn't venture, young madam, to trust yourself amongst such rough
+and unchristian people, as you would have to go among before you could
+see Cornwallis? in danger of being taken up by outposts and pickets, or
+arrested by patroles, or dragged about by dragoons and fellows that have
+more savagery in them than wolves. Oh no, ma'am, you don't know what you
+would have to put up with; that's onpossible. Mr. Henry, here, and me,
+can take a letter."
+
+"I may not trust to letters, I must go myself. You will protect me, Mr.
+Robinson? my brother and I will form some good excuse that shall take us
+through safely."
+
+"Sartainly, ma'am, I will stand by you through all chances, if you go,"
+replied the sergeant. "But there's not many women, with their eyes open,
+would set out on such a march."
+
+"It will be easily achieved," said Mildred: "it is an honest and
+virtuous cause that takes me away, and I will attempt it with a valiant
+spirit. It cannot but come to good. My father's name will give me free
+passage through the enemy's lines. And you shall pass as my attendant."
+
+"If you have a heart stout enough, ma'am, for such hard fare, I believe
+I mought undertake for your safe passage," answered Horse Shoe, "and it
+sartainly would do the major great good to hear that you was stirring in
+this matter."
+
+"Sergeant, recruit yourself as long as you think necessary," said
+Mildred; "but if you can be ready to set out to-morrow, I should like to
+go then, and at an early hour."
+
+"Don't stand upon my fatigue, young lady: I never saw the time when I
+wan't ready to march at the shortest warning. With your leave, I will go
+look after my horse, Captain Peter, I call him, ma'am. A little chance
+of a roll, and the privilege of a good green pasture, soon puts him in
+marching trim."
+
+The sergeant now left the room.
+
+"Sister," said Henry, "you never thought a better thought, and you never
+contrived a better act, than just taking this matter in hand yourself,
+under mine and Horse Shoe's protection. Because Horse Shoe is as brave a
+man as you ever fell in with, and as for me, I'll back the sergeant. We
+can finish the thing in two or three weeks, and then, when I see you
+safe home, I'll go and join the Rangers."
+
+"It is a perilous and uncertain journey, brother, but it is my duty. I
+would rather fall beneath the calamities of war than longer endure my
+present feelings. Provide yourself, brother, with all things requisite
+for our journey, and give old Isaac, the gardener, notice that he must
+go with us. We shall set out to-morrow. I will write a letter to my
+father to-night explaining my purpose. And one thing, Henry; you will be
+careful to say nothing to any one of the route we shall travel."
+
+"I'll take my carbine, sister," said Henry, "I can sling it with a
+strap. And I was thinking I had better have a broadsword."
+
+"Leave that behind," replied Mildred, as a smile rose on her features.
+
+"The bugle I will certainly take," added Henry; "because it might be
+useful in case we got separated; and I will teach you to understand my
+signals. Isaac shall carry horse-pistols on his saddle, and the
+sergeant shall have a great wallet of provisions. You see I understand
+campaigning, Mildred. And now," added the eager young soldier, as he
+left the apartment, "hurra for the volunteers of the Dove Cote!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+MILDRED BEGINS HER JOURNEY.
+
+
+The man who writes the history of woman's love will find himself
+employed in drawing out a tangled skein. It is a history of secret
+emotions and vivid contrasts, which may well go nigh to baffle his
+penetration and to puzzle his philosophy. There is in it a surface of
+timid and gentle bashfulness concealing an underflow of strong and heady
+passion: a seeming caprice that a breath may shake or a word alarm; yet,
+all the while, an earnest devotion of soul which, in its excited action,
+holds all danger cheap that crosses the path of its career. The
+sportive, changeful, and coward nature that dallies with affection as a
+jest, and wins admiration by its affrighted coyness; that flies and
+would be followed; that revolts and would be soothed, entreated, and on
+bended knee implored, before it is won; that same nature will undergo
+the ordeal of the burning ploughshare, take all the extremes of misery
+and distress, brave the fury of the elements and the wrath of man, and
+in every peril be a patient comforter, when the cause that moves her is
+the vindication of her love. Affection is to her what glory is to man,
+an impulse that inspires the most adventurous heroism.
+
+There had been for some days past in Mildred's mind an anxious misgiving
+of misfortune to Butler, which was but ill concealed in a quiet and
+reserved demeanor. The argument of his safety seemed to have little to
+rest upon, and she could perceive that it was not believed by those who
+uttered it. There rose upon her thoughts imaginings or presentiments of
+ill, which she did not like to dwell upon, but which she could not
+banish. And now when Horse Shoe had told his tale, the incidents did not
+seem to warrant the levity with which he passed them by. She was afraid
+to express her doubts: and they brooded upon her mind, hatching pain and
+secret grief. It was almost an instinct, therefore, that directed her
+resolve, when she announced her determination to go in person in quest
+of Cornwallis, and to plead Butler's cause herself to the British
+general. Her soul rebelled at the gross calumny which had been invented
+to bring down vengeance upon Arthur's head; and she had no thought of
+thwarting the accuser's wickedness, but by an appeal to the highest
+power for that redress which an honorable soldier, in her opinion, could
+not refuse, even to an enemy. As to the personal hazard, inconvenience,
+or difficulty of her projected enterprise, no thought of either for a
+moment occupied her. She saw but her purpose before her, and did not
+pause to reckon on the means by which she was to promote it. She
+reflected not on the censure of the world; nor on its ridicule; nor on
+its want of sympathy for her feelings: she reflected only on her power
+to serve one dearer to her than a friend, upon her duty, and upon the
+agony of her doubts. If her father had been at hand she might have
+appealed to him, and, perhaps, have submitted to his counsel; but he was
+absent, she knew not where, and she was convinced that no time was to be
+lost. "Even now, whilst we debate," she said, "his life may be forfeited
+to the malice of the wicked men who have ensnared him."
+
+Her conduct in this crisis is not to be weighed in the scale wherein the
+seemly and decorous observances of female propriety are ordinarily
+balanced. The times, the occasion, and the peculiar position of Mildred,
+take her case out of the pale of common events, and are entitled to
+another standard. She will be judged by the purity of her heart, the
+fervor of her attachment, and her sense of the importance of the service
+she was about to confer. And with the knowledge of these, I must leave
+her vindication to the generosity of my reader.
+
+When the morning came and breakfast was over, the horses were brought to
+the door. Henry was active in all the preliminary arrangements for the
+journey, and now bestirred himself with an increased air of personal
+importance. Isaac, a grey-haired negro of a sedate, and, like all his
+tribe, of an abundantly thoughtful length of visage, appeared in a suit
+of livery, ready booted and spurred for his journey. A large
+portmanteau, containing a supply of baggage for his mistress, was duly
+strapped behind his saddle, whilst a pair of pistols were buckled upon
+the pummel. Henry's horse also had all the furniture necessary to a
+campaign and the young martialist himself, notwithstanding his sister's
+disapproval, was begirt with a sword-belt, from which depended a light
+sabre, with which he was in the habit of exhibiting himself in the corps
+of the Rangers. His bugle hung gracefully by his side, and his carbine
+was already provided with a strap to sling it across his back. Stephen
+Foster was lost in wonder at these sudden preparations, of the import of
+which he could gain no more intelligence from Henry than that a movement
+towards the army was intended, of a portentous character.
+
+Horse Shoe sat quietly in the porch looking on with a professional
+unconcern, whilst his trusty Captain Peter, bearing a pair of
+saddle-bags, now stuffed with a plethora of provisions, slouched his
+head, in patient fixedness, waiting the order to move. A bevy of
+domestics hung around the scene of preparation, lost in conjectures as
+to the meaning of this strange array, and prosecuting an inquiry to
+satisfy themselves, with fruitless perseverance.
+
+When Mildred appeared at the door she was habited for her journey. The
+housekeeper, an aged dame, stood near her.
+
+"My travel, Mistress Morrison," she said, addressing the matron, and at
+the same time putting a letter into her hand, "I trust will not keep me
+long from home. If my father should return before I do, be careful to
+give him that. Mr. Foster, you will not forget your promise," she added,
+as she delivered the second letter, which, notwithstanding her own
+expedition, she had prepared for Butler, in the hope that opportunity
+might favor its transmission by Stephen.
+
+"The gold," said Stephen, putting his hand in his pocket; "you will want
+it yourself, Miss Mildred, and I can do without it."
+
+"Never mind that," interrupted Mildred. "Keep your promise, and I hope
+to be able to reward you more according to your deserts."
+
+"Heaven and the saints protect you, Miss Mildred!" said the housekeeper,
+as the lady bade her farewell. "You leave us on some heavy errand. God
+grant that you come back with a gayer face than you take away!" Then
+turning up her eyes, and raising her hands, she ejaculated, "This is an
+awful thing, and past my understanding!"
+
+Mildred took leave of the rest of the group around the door, and was
+soon in her saddle. This was a signal for the rest to mount, and as
+Stephen Foster delivered Henry his rifle, the latter took occasion to
+whisper in the hunter's ear--
+
+"It is not unlikely, Steve, that we may meet each other again over here
+in Carolina; so remember to make inquiries for us as you go along, and
+tell the men I hope to join them before they fire one shot in spite. But
+mum, Steve, not a word about our route."
+
+Stephen shook hands with his young comrade; and Henry, seeing that the
+rest of the party had already left the door and were some distance down
+the hill, called out with an elated tone of good humor--"Farewell, Mrs.
+Morrison, and all the rest of you!" and putting spurs to his horse
+galloped off to join his sister.
+
+The route pursued by the travellers lay due south, and during the first
+three or four days of their journey they were still within the confines
+of Virginia. To travel on horseback was a customary feat, even for
+ladies, in those days of rough roads and scant means of locomotion: and
+such a cavalcade as we have described was calculated to excite no
+particular inquiry from the passer-by, beyond that which would now be
+made on the appearance of any party of pleasure upon the high-roads, in
+the course of a summer excursion. Mildred experienced severe fatigue in
+the first stages of her journey; but by degrees this wore off, and she
+was soon enabled to endure the long day's ride with scarcely less
+inconvenience than her fellow-travellers.
+
+At that period there were but few inns in these thinly-peopled
+districts, and such as were already established were small and but
+meagrely provided. This deficiency was, in some degree, compensated by
+the good will with which the owners of private establishments in the
+country received the better class of travellers, and the ready
+hospitality with which they entertained them. Henry took upon himself to
+obtain information of the gentlemen's seats that lay near the route of
+his journey, and to conduct the party to them whenever his sister's
+comfort required better accommodation than the common inns afforded.
+
+As our travellers had thus far kept along that range of country which
+lay immediately under the mountains, they were not annoyed by the
+intense heats which, at this season, prevailed in the lowlands. The
+weather, ever since their departure, had been uncommonly fine, and as is
+usual in this district, the month of September had brought its cool,
+dewy nights, whilst the early hours of the morning were even marked by a
+little sharpness, almost approaching to frost. The effect of this on
+Mildred was to recruit the weariness of travel, and better enable her to
+encounter the noon-tide fervors of the sun; and she had so far endured
+the toils of her journey with an admirable spirit. Actual trial
+generally results in demonstrating how much we are prone to exaggerate
+in advance the difficulties of any undertaking. Accordingly, Mildred's
+present experience strengthened her resolution to proceed, and even
+communicated an unexpected increase of contentment to her feelings.
+
+On the fifth day the party crossed the river Dan, and entered the
+province of North Carolina. A small remnant of Gates's shattered army
+lay at Hillsborough, at no great distance from the frontier; and as
+Mildred was anxious to avoid the inquiry or molestation to be expected
+in passing through a military post, she resolved to travel by a lower
+route, and Horse Shoe, therefore, at her suggestion, directed his
+journey towards the little village of Tarborough.
+
+Cornwallis, it was understood, since the battle of Camden, had removed
+his head-quarters into the neighborhood of the Waxhaws, some distance up
+the Catawba, where he was supposed to be yet stationary. The whole
+country in the neighborhood of either army was in a state of earnest
+preparation; the British commander recruiting his forces for further and
+immediate operations--the American endeavoring to reassemble his feeble
+and scattered auxiliaries for defence. At the present moment, actual
+hostilities between these two parties were entirely suspended, in
+anxious anticipation of the rapidly approaching renewal of the struggle.
+It was a breathing time, when the panting combatants, exhausted by
+battle, stood sullenly eyeing each other and making ready--the one to
+strike, the other to ward off another staggering blow.
+
+The country over which Mildred was now to travel was calculated to tax
+her powers of endurance to the utmost. It was a dreary waste of barren
+wilderness, covered with an endless forest of gloomy pine, through which
+a heavy, sandy road crept in lurid and melancholy shade. Here and there
+a miserable hut occurred to view, with a few ragged inmates, surrounded
+by all the signs of squalid poverty. The principal population were only
+to be seen along the banks of the rivers which penetrated into this
+region, some twenty or thirty miles distant from each other. The
+alluvial bottoms through which these streams found a channel to the
+ocean, were the only tracts of land of sufficient fertility to afford
+support to man--all between them was a sterile and gloomy forest.
+
+Still, these regions were not deserted. Bodies of irregular troops, ill
+clothed and worse armed, and generally bearing the haggard features of
+disease, such as mark the population of a sickly climate, were often
+encountered upon the road, directing their wearied march towards the
+head-quarters of the republican army. The rigors of the Southern summer
+had not yet abated; and it was with painful steps in the deep sand, amid
+clouds of suffocating dust, that these little detachments prosecuted
+their journey.
+
+Mildred, so far from sinking under the weariness and increasing
+hardships of her present toils, seemed to be endued with a capacity for
+sustaining them much beyond anything that could have been believed of
+her sex. Her courage grew with the difficulties that beset her. She
+looked composedly upon the obstacles before her, and encountered them,
+not only without a murmur, but even with a cheerfulness to which she had
+hitherto been a stranger. The steadiness of her onward march, her
+unrepining patience, and the gentle solicitude with which she turned the
+thoughts of her companions from herself, and forbade the supposition
+that her powers were over-taxed, showed how deeply her feelings were
+engaged in her enterprise, and how maturely her mind had taken its
+resolution.
+
+"One never would have guessed," said Horse Shoe, towards the close of
+the second day after they had entered North Carolina, "that a lady so
+daintily nursed as you was at home, Mistress Mildred, could have ever
+borne this here roughing of it through these piney woods. But I have
+made one observation, Miss Lindsay, that no one can tell what they are
+fit for till they are tried; and on the back of that I have another,
+that when there's a great stir that rouses up a whole country, it don't
+much signify whether they are man or woman, they all get roused alike.
+'Pon my word, ma'am, I have seen men--who think themselves sodgers
+too--that would be onwilling to trust themselves at this time o' year
+through such a dried up piece of pine barren as we have been travelling
+over for two days past."
+
+"You remember the fable of the willow and the oak, Mr. Robinson,"
+replied Mildred, smiling; "the storm may bring down the sturdy tree, but
+the supple shrub will bend before it without breaking."
+
+"I'm not much given to religious takings-on," said the sergeant, "but
+sometimes a notion comes into my head that looks a little that way, and
+that is, when God appoints a thing to be done, he gives them that's to
+do it all the wherewithals. Now, as Major Butler is a good man and a
+brave sodger--God bless him!--it does seem right that you, Mistress
+Lindsay,--who, I take on me to understand enough of your consarns and
+his'n, without offence, to say has a leaning towards the major,--I say
+it does seem right and natural that you should lend a hand to help him
+out of tribulation; and so you see the cause being a good cause, the
+Lord has given you both wisdom and strength to do what is right."
+
+"We owe, sergeant, a duty to our country; and we serve God and our
+country both, when we strengthen the hands of its defenders."
+
+"That's a valiant speech, young lady, and it's a noble speech," said
+Horse Shoe, with an earnest emphasis. "I have often told the major that
+the women of this country had as honest thoughts about this here war,
+and was as warm for our cause as the men; and some of them, perhaps, a
+little warmer. They could be pitted against the women of any quarter of
+the aqueous globe, in bearing and forbearing both, when it is for the
+good of the country."
+
+"Henry is asleep on his horse," said Mildred, looking at her brother,
+who now, jaded and worn with the effort of travel, was nodding and
+dropping his head forward, and almost losing his seat. "What, Henry,
+brother!" she added, loud enough to rouse up the young horseman. "My
+trusty cavalier, are you going to fall from your horse? Where is all
+that boasted glorification upon which you were disposed to be so
+eloquent only a week ago? I thought a man on horseback was naturally
+proud: I fear it was only on holiday occasions you meant, Henry. Hav'n't
+you a word for a sunny day and a dry journey? You lag more like a
+miller's boy with his bag of meal, than a young soldier setting out on
+his adventures."
+
+"Ah, sister," said Henry, waking up, "this is nothing but
+pine--pine--and sand, without end. There is no game in the woods to keep
+a man on the look-out, except here and there a herd of wild hogs, that
+snort and run from us, like a squadron of cavalry, with their bristles
+set up on their backs as fierce as the back fin of a sunfish. There is
+not even grass to look at: you might see a black snake running half a
+mile amongst the trees. And then there are such great patches of burnt
+timber, every trunk staring right at you, as black as thunder. I'm tired
+of it all--I want to see the green fields again."
+
+"And, in truth, brother, so do I: but not until we can bring merry faces
+to look upon them. How far are we from Tarborough?"
+
+"We should be drawing nigh to the town," replied Horse Shoe, "for you
+may see that we shall soon be out of these woods, by the signs of open
+country ahead. The last squad of sodgers that passed us, said that when
+we came to the farms, we shouldn't be more than five miles from the
+town, and the sun isn't above an hour high."
+
+"In the hope of being soon housed, then, Mr. Robinson, I may confess to
+you I am somewhat weary; but a good night's rest will put me in fair
+condition for to-morrow's ride again."
+
+After the lapse of an hour, the party were safely sheltered in a
+tolerably comfortable inn at the village: and Mildred, aided by the
+sedulous care of Henry, found herself well bestowed in the best chamber
+of the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+From Tarborough our travellers continued their route towards the Pedee,
+by the main road which led through Cross creek, a small hamlet on Cape
+Fear river, near the site of the present town of Fayetteville. The
+general features of the country were even more forbidding than those I
+have already described as characteristic of this portion of North
+Carolina. Even to the present day, cultivation has done but little to
+cheer up the natural desolation of those tracts of wilderness which lie
+between the rivers. But at the early period to which the events I have
+been detailing have reference, the journey undertaken by our little
+caravan might be compared to that which is now frequently made through
+the more southern extremity of the Union, from the Atlantic to the Gulf
+of Mexico, an attempt seldom essayed by a female, and sufficiently
+trying to the hardihood of the stoutest travellers. The forethought and
+attention of Horse Shoe Robinson, however, contributed to alleviate the
+pains of the enterprise, and to enable Mildred to overcome its
+difficulties.
+
+In the present alarmed and excited state of this province, the party
+were less liable to interruption in this secluded and destitute section
+of the country, than they might have been, had they chosen a lower and
+more populous district; and the consciousness that every day's
+perseverance brought them nearer to the ultimate term of their journey,
+gave new vigor, at least, to Mildred's capacity to endure the privations
+to which she was exposed. But few vestiges of the war yet occurred to
+their view. The great wilderness, like the great ocean, retains no
+traces of the passage of hostile bodies. Sometimes, indeed, the signs of
+a woodland encampment were visible in the midst of the forest, on the
+margin of some sluggish brook or around a sylvan fountain, where the
+impression of recent hoof-prints, the scattered fragments of brushwood
+cut for temporary shelter, and the still smouldering ashes of camp
+fires, showed that masses of men had been in motion. The deer fled,
+too, with a more frightened bound towards their coverts, as if lately
+alarmed by the pursuit of the huntsman; but the images of devastation,
+which are associated with the horrid front of war in the mind of all
+familiar with its ravage, were absent. The eternal, leafy shade high
+arching over the heads of the wayfarers, furnished no object for human
+vengeance; and it still sighed in the fanning of the breeze, as of old
+it sighed before man claimed dominion in the soil it sheltered. A far
+different scene was shortly to be looked upon by our venturesome
+friends.
+
+Several days had again passed by, for the journey through the wilderness
+had been slowly prosecuted, when Robinson, towards the approach of
+evening, announced to Mildred his conjecture that they were not far off
+the Pedee. The banks of this river had been the scene of frequent
+hostilities, and the war that had been carried on here was of the most
+ruthless kind. The river is characterized by a broad, deep, and quiet
+stream, begirt with a vegetation of exceeding luxuriance. Its periodical
+overflow seems to have poured out upon its margin a soil of
+inexhaustible richness, that, for a mile or two on either side, forms a
+striking contrast with the low, barren sand-hills that hem in the river
+plain. Along this tract of level border, all the way to the Atlantic,
+are found, as is usually the case throughout the Carolinas, the large
+plantations of opulent gentlemen, who, by the cultivation of rice and
+cotton, turn the fertility of the soil to the best account. These
+possessions, presenting the most assailable points to an enemy, and,
+indeed, almost the only ones in which the great interests of the
+province might be wounded, were, during the whole of that bloody
+struggle which distinguished the days of the "Tory Ascendency," the
+constant objects of attack; and here the war was waged with a vindictive
+malignity, on the part of the British and Tory partisans, that is
+scarcely surpassed in the history of civil broils. The finest estates
+were sacked, the dwellings burnt, and the property destroyed with
+unsparing rage. The men were dragged from their houses and hung, the
+women and children turned without food or raiment into the wilderness,
+and political vengeance seemed to gorge itself to gluttony upon its own
+rapine.
+
+The thoughts of Robinson had been, for some days past, running upon the
+probable difficulties that might attend the guise in which he was now
+about to return to his native province. This was a subject of some
+concern, since he ran a risk of being compelled either to desert his
+charge, or to bring his companions into jeopardy, amongst the many
+persons of both armies who were, at least by report, acquainted with his
+name and his military connexions. He had explained to Mildred the
+necessity of his appearing in some definite character, associated with
+the object of her journey, and of which, upon emergency, he might claim
+the benefit to retain his post near her. This matter was summarily
+settled by Henry.
+
+"In general, Mr. Horse Shoe, you can call yourself Stephen Foster: you
+know Steve; and you can say that you are Mr. Philip Lindsay's gardener.
+Isaac, here, can let you enough into the craft to pass muster, if any of
+them should take it into their heads to examine you. Mind that, Isaac:
+and recollect, old fellow, you are only sister Mildred's waiting man."
+
+"Sartainly, master," replied Isaac.
+
+"And sergeant, I'll tell you all about Steve; so that you can get your
+lesson by heart. You have a wife and five children--remember that. I'll
+give you all their names by-and-by."
+
+"Thanks to the marcies of God, that ar'n't my misfortune yet," said
+Horse Shoe, laughing; "but, Mr. Henry, I have got conscience enough now
+for any lie that can be invented. The major and me talked that thing
+over, and he's of opinion that lying, in an enemy's country, is not
+forbidden in the scriptures. And I have hearn the preacher say that
+Rahab, who was not a woman of good fame no how, yet she was excused by
+the Lord for telling the king of Jericho a most thumping lie, consarning
+her not knowing what had become of the two men that Joshua, the judge of
+Israel, who was a general besides, had sent into the town to
+reconnoitre; which was a strong case, Mister Henry, seeing that Rahab,
+the harlot, was a taking of sides against her own people. So, I like
+your plan and I'll stick by it."
+
+This being agreed upon, it became one of the amusements of the road-side
+to put the sergeant through his catechism, which was designed to make
+him familiar with the traits of private history relating to the Dove
+Cote and its appurtenances, that he might thereby maintain his
+identity, in the event of a close investigation. Horse Shoe was but an
+awkward scholar in this school of disguise, and gave Henry sufficient
+employment to keep him in the path of probability; and, indeed, the
+young teacher himself found it difficult to maintain an exact
+verisimilitude in the part which it was his own province to play in this
+deception.
+
+On the evening to which we have alluded, the sergeant, finding himself
+within a short distance of the district of country in which he was
+almost certain to encounter parties of both friends and foes, adopted a
+greater degree of circumspection than he had hitherto deemed it
+necessary to observe. His purpose was to halt upon the borders of the
+forest, and endeavor to obtain accurate information of the state of
+affairs along the river, before he entered upon this dangerous ground.
+Like a soldier who had a rich treasure to guard, he was determined to
+run no hazard that might be avoided, in the safe conduct of the lady in
+whose service he was enlisted. In accordance with this caution, he
+directed the cavalcade to move onward at a moderate walk, in order that
+they might not reach the limit of the woodland before the dusk of the
+evening; and also in the hope of finding there some habitation where
+they might pass the night. They had not advanced far in this manner
+before the sergeant descried, at some distance ahead, a small log hut
+standing by the road side, which, by the smoke that issued from the
+chimney, he perceived to be inhabited. Upon this discovery, he ordered
+the party to stop and await his return. Then giving spurs to his horse
+he galloped forward, and, after a short interval of absence, returned,
+made a favorable report of his reconnoissance, and conducted his
+companions to the house.
+
+The little cabin to which Mildred was thus introduced was the homestead
+of an honest Whig soldier, by the name of Wingate, who was now in
+service, under the command of one of the most gallant partisans that any
+country ever produced, Francis Marion, then recently promoted to the
+rank of a brigadier. The inmates were the soldier's family, consisting
+of a young woman and a number of small children, all demonstrating by
+their appearance a condition of exceedingly limited comfort. The hut
+contained no more than two rooms, which exhibited but a scanty supply of
+the meanest furniture. The forest had been cleared for the space of a
+few acres around the dwelling, and these were occupied by a small
+garden or vegetable patch, meagrely stocked with scattered and half
+parched plants; and by a cornfield, along the skirts of which some lean
+hogs were seen groping with a felonious stealthiness. A shed, in the
+same inclosure, formed a rendezvous for a few half-starved cattle, that
+probably obtained their principal but slender support from the
+neighboring wood. Add to these a troop of fowls, that were now at roost
+upon one of the trees hard by, and we have, probably, a tolerably
+correct inventory of the worldly goods of this little family.
+
+The woman of the house was kind and hospitable, and her attentions were
+in no small degree quickened by the application of a few pieces of money
+which Mildred insisted upon her receiving--much to the discomfiture of
+the dame's self-possession--the boon consisting of hard coin, to an
+amount of which, perhaps, she had never before been mistress.
+
+Mildred was exceedingly fatigued, and it was an object of early
+consideration to furnish her the means of rest. Our hostess assisted by
+old Isaac, and officiously but awkwardly superintended by Horse Shoe,
+began her preparations for supper, to the abundance of which the
+provident sergeant was enabled to contribute some useful elements from
+his wallet. In one of the apartments of the hut, a shock-bed was spread
+for the lady, and by the assistance of her cloak and some other
+commodities which had been provided as part of her travelling gear, she
+was supplied with a couch that formed no ill exchange for the weariness
+of her long-inhabited saddle. Use and necessity are kind nursing-mothers
+to our nature, and do not often fail to endow us with the qualities
+proper to the fortune they shape out for us. This was not Mildred's
+first experience of a homely lodging since she left the Dove Cote; and,
+as privation and toil have a faculty to convert the rough pallet of the
+peasant into a bed of down, she hailed the present prospect of rest with
+a contented and grateful spirit.
+
+The supper being dispatched, our lady was left alone with her hostess,
+to seek the repose of which she stood so much in need.
+
+The sergeant now set about making provision for the rest of his party.
+This was done by erecting a shelter beneath one of the trees of the
+forest, opposite to the door of the cabin. It was composed of a few
+boughs stacked against the trunk of the tree, sufficiently covered with
+leaves to turn aside any rain that might happen to fall. Under this
+cover Horse Shoe appointed that he and his comrades should pass the
+night, enjoining them to keep a regular watch for the security of the
+lady, whose welfare was now the object of his most sedulous attention.
+All these preparations were made with the exactness of military rule,
+and with a skill that greatly delighted Henry.
+
+The long summer twilight had faded away. Mildred had been, from an early
+period, in the enjoyment of a profound slumber, and Henry and his negro
+ally were seated at the front of their sylvan tent. The sergeant had
+lighted his pipe, and now, taking his seat upon a log that lay near his
+post, he began to smoke in good earnest, with a mind as free from
+anxiety as if universal peace prevailed. In the sedate enjoyment of this
+luxury, he fell into a descant on matters and things, interlarded with
+long and strange stories of his own singular adventures, which he told
+to the no small edification and amusement of Henry and the negro.
+
+The habits of the experienced soldier were curiously illustrated in the
+thoughtful and sober foresight with which Robinson adapted his plans to
+the exigencies of his condition, and then in the imperturbable
+light-heartedness with which, after his measures of safety were taken,
+he waited the progress of events. His watchfulness seemed to be an
+instinct, engendered by a familiarity with danger, whilst the steady and
+mirthful tone of his mind was an attribute that never gave way to the
+inroads of care. He was the same composed and self-possessed being in a
+besieged garrison, in the moment of a threatened escalade, as amongst
+his cronies by a winter fire-side.
+
+"In this here starlight, Mister Henry," he said, after he had puffed out
+two or three charges of his pipe, "I can't see your eyes, but by your
+yawning, I judge you are a little sleepy. Take my advice and turn in. A
+sodger ought to snatch his rest when he can get it. I'll keep guard over
+our young lady; the Lord protect her, for a most an elegant and oncommon
+precious young creature! Fling your great coat upon the leaves, and go
+at it, my lad, like a good fellow."
+
+"If I was at home Mr. Horse Shoe, at the Dove Cote, I could sit up all
+night listening to your stories; but I believe I am bewitched to-night,
+for my eyelids, this hour past, have been snapping like rat traps. So,
+I'll just stretch out for an hour or so, and then get up and take my
+turn at the guard."
+
+"Don't trouble your head about watching," replied Horse Shoe, "you are
+not old enough for that yet. At your time of life, Mr. Lindsay, a good
+night's rest is the best part of a ration. And to-morrow, if I'm not
+mistaken, you will have need of all the strength you can muster
+to-night. As for me, it isn't much account whether I'm asleep or awake."
+
+"Not so fast, sergeant," rejoined the youth, "I'm an older soldier than
+you take me for; Stephen and I have watched many a night for racoons.
+No, no, I'll have my turn towards morning. So, you and Isaac take the
+first part of the night between you, and if anything should happen, call
+me; I'm one of your minute men. So good night. My horse trots harder
+than I thought he did."
+
+It was not long before our boasted minute man was locked up in a spell
+apparently as profound as that which the legend affirms assailed the
+seven sleepers: and Isaac, not even waiting for the good example of his
+master, had already sunk upon the ground, with that facility which
+distinguishes his race, the most uncaring and happiest of mortals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+    Our fortress is the good green wood,
+      Our tent the cypress tree,
+    We know the forest round us
+      As seamen know the sea.
+
+    We know its walls of thorny vines,
+      Its glades of reedy grass,
+    Its safe and silent islands
+      Within the dark morass.--BRYANT.
+
+
+The faithful Horse Shoe being thus left to himself, replenished his
+pipe, and, taking his rifle in his hand, paced to and fro upon the
+border of the road, holding communion with his own thoughts, carefully
+weighing the probabilities connected with his present singular
+expedition, and revolving, after his own fashion, the fortunes of Arthur
+Butler and Mildred Lindsay.
+
+It was within an hour of midnight, when the sergeant's meditations were
+interrupted by the tramp of a horse approaching the hut at a gallop. But
+a few moments elapsed before a traveller, who, in the starlight, Horse
+Shoe could discern to be armed, drew up his rein immediately at the door
+of the dwelling, against which he struck several blows with his weapon,
+calling out loudly at the same time--
+
+"Mistress Wingate--for God's sake, open your door quickly! I have news
+to tell you, good woman."
+
+"In the name of mercy! who are you?" exclaimed the voice of the dame
+within, whilst a note of alarm was also heard from her fellow-lodger.
+
+"What do you mean by this racket and clatter?" demanded Horse Shoe, in
+the midst of the uproar, at the same time laying his hand upon the
+stranger's bridle rein. "What brings you here, sir?--stand back; the
+women in that house are under my charge, and I won't have them
+disturbed."
+
+"If you are a friend to Mistress Wingate," said the horseman, sternly,
+"speak the word; if an enemy, I will shiver your skull with the butt of
+my musket."
+
+"Don't be rash, good fellow," replied Horse Shoe; "I take it you and me
+are on the same side. What's afoot that you stir in such a hurry?"
+
+"The Tories are afoot--the devil's afoot! Open, Mistress Wingate--open
+to Dick Peyton!"
+
+"The Lord preserve us!" ejaculated the mistress of the hovel, as she
+opened the door; "Bloody Spur, is it you? What ill luck brings you here
+to-night?"
+
+"A gang of Tories, Mistress Wingate, from the Black River, under that
+cut-throat Fanning, crossed Pedee this morning at Lowder's Lake. They
+have been thieving and burning as far as Waggamaw, and are now on the
+road home by the upper ferry. They will be along here in less than half
+an hour. Your husband, Bob Wingate, and myself, were sent out by General
+Marion this morning, to reconnoitre the roads. We fell in with the
+ruffians, after sunset, below Lumberton, and have tracked them up here.
+Bob has got a pistol-shot through his arm. He was lucky enough, however,
+to escape their clutches; but believing they had a spite against him,
+and would ride past his house to-night, he told me to call and give you
+warning, and to help you to drive the cattle back into the swamp."
+
+"How many mought there be, friend?" asked Horse Shoe, calmly.
+
+"Between two and three hundred, at least," said the trooper; "we counted
+fifty in the vanguard--those that followed made a long column of march.
+They have stolen a good many horses and cattle, all of which are with
+them, and several prisoners."
+
+"What, ho!--Isaac, Henry Lindsay; fall to, and saddle, boys," shouted
+Horse Shoe. "Miss Mildred, it will not do to stand. I am sorry to break
+in upon your rest, but you must be ready to move in a few minutes."
+
+Everything about the hut was now in confusion. Henry and the sergeant
+were equipping the horses, whilst Isaac was gathering up the baggage.
+Bloody Spur--to adopt the rider's _nom de guerre_--had dismounted, and
+was busy in removing the few articles of value from the hut; the mother
+and children, meanwhile, were pouring forth loud lamentations.
+
+Mildred, in the midst of this scene of uproar, hurriedly made her
+preparations for departure; and whilst she was yet engaged in this care,
+a confused murmur was heard, at some distance up the road--and the
+rattle of sabres, as well as the hoarse voice and abrupt laughter of
+men, announced that the freebooters were at no great distance from the
+dwelling.
+
+"Merciful heaven!" exclaimed Mildred, giving way for the first time to
+her fears; "they are fast approaching, and we shall be captured."
+
+"Sister," said Henry, with scarcely less alarm, "I will die by your
+side, before they shall hurt a hair of your head."
+
+Horse Shoe, who at this moment was tightening the girths of Mildred's
+saddle, paused for an instant to listen, and then said:
+
+"The wind is north-east, young lady, and the voice sounds far to-night.
+One could hardly expect you to be cool when one of these night-frays is
+coming on, but there's no occasion to be frightened. Now, ma'am, if you
+please, I'll heave you into your seat. There," continued the sergeant,
+setting Mildred upon her horse, "you have got four good legs under you,
+and by a fair use of them will be as safe as a crowned king. Mister
+Henry, mount, and ride with your sister slowly down the road, till I
+overtake you."
+
+Henry obeyed the order.
+
+"Is the portmanteau and the rest of the baggage all safe, Isaac? Don't
+be flurried, you old sinner, but look about you, before you start off."
+
+"All safe," replied the negro.
+
+"Up and follow your master, then. Hark you, Mr. Bloody Spur," said Horse
+Shoe, as Isaac rode off, to the trooper, who was still actively employed
+in turning the cattle loose from the inclosure, "what is the best road
+hereabouts for my squad to keep out of the way of these bullies?"
+
+"About a mile from here, take a road that strikes into the woods, upon
+your right hand," answered the trooper hastily, "it will lead you up the
+river to the falls of Pedee. If you should meet any of Marion's men,
+tell them what you have seen; and say Dick Peyton will be along close
+after you."
+
+"Where is Marion?" asked the sergeant, mounting his horse.
+
+"What man that knows Frank Marion could ever answer that question?" said
+the trooper. "He is everywhere, friend. But you have no time to lose: be
+off."
+
+As Bloody Spur said this, he disappeared, driving the cattle before him;
+whilst the mother, laden with an infant and as many pieces of furniture
+as she could carry, and followed by her terrified children, fled towards
+the neighboring thicket.
+
+Horse Shoe in a few moments overtook his companions, and, urging them
+forward at a rapid flight, soon reached the diverging road, along which
+they journeyed with unabated speed for upwards of a mile.
+
+"How do you bear it, sister?" asked Henry, with concern.
+
+"Ah, brother, with a sore heart to be made so painfully acquainted with
+these frightful scenes. I lose all thought of my own annoyance, in
+seeing the calamities that are heaped upon the unoffending family of a
+man who dares to draw his sword for his country."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Horse Shoe, gravely, "these incarnivorous devils have
+broken the rest of many a good woman in the Carolinas, before they
+routed you out to-night, ma'am. But it is one of God's marcies to see
+how you keep up under it."
+
+"Mine's a trifling grievance, good sergeant: I lose but a little repose:
+that poor mother flies to save her children, uncertain, perhaps, of
+to-morrow's subsistence; and her husband's life is in daily peril. It is
+a sad lot. Yet truly," added Mildred with a sigh, "mine is scarcely
+better. Gracious heaven!" she exclaimed, looking behind her, "they have
+set fire to the dwelling!"
+
+In the quarter to which she directed her eyes, the horizon was already
+illuminated with the blaze of Wingate's hut. The light grew brighter for
+a short interval, and brought into bold relief upon the sky, the tall,
+dark forms of the stately pines of which the forest was composed.
+
+"They are fools as well as villains," said Horse Shoe, with an angry
+vehemence; "they have had liquor to-night, or they would hardly kindle
+up a blaze which should rouse every Whig on Pedee to track them like
+hounds. It would be sport worth riding to look at, if Marion should get
+a glimpse of that fire. But these wolves have grown obstropolous ever
+since Horatio Gates made his fox paw at Camden."
+
+"Oh, it is a most savage war," said Mildred, "that roots up the humble
+hearth, and fires the lowly roof, where none but defenceless women and
+children abide. I shudder to think of such wanton barbarity."
+
+"There's the thing, Miss Lindsay, that turns all our blood bitter. Man
+to man is fair game, all the world over: but this ere stealing of
+cattle, and burning of houses, and even cutting up by the roots the
+plants of the 'arth, and turning of women and children naked into the
+swamps, in the dead of night! it's a sorry business to tell of a
+Christian people, and a cowardly business for a nation that's a boasting
+of its bravery."
+
+The light of the conflagration had soon died away, and our wanderers
+pursued their solitary road in darkness, ignorant of the country through
+which they passed, and uncertain of the point to which they tended. A
+full hour had gone by in this state of suspense, and Robinson had once
+more resolved to make a halt, and encamp his party in the woods. Before,
+however, he could put this design into execution, he was unexpectedly
+challenged, from the road-side, with the military demand of--"Who goes
+there?"
+
+"Travellers," was the reply.
+
+"Where do you come from, and where are you going?"
+
+"The first question I can answer," said Horse Shoe, "and that is, from
+Old Virginny, a fortnight ago, but, to-night, from a tolerable snug
+lodging, where some onmannerly fellows troubled our sleep. But as to
+where we're going, it's more likely you can tell that for us."
+
+"You are saucy, sir."
+
+"It's more than I meant to be," replied the sergeant. "Mayhap you mought
+have hearn of a man they call Bloody Spur?"
+
+"He has pricked your pillows for you--has he? Dick Peyton is good at
+that," said a second questioner.
+
+"Aha, comrades, I understand you now," said Horse Shoe, with alacrity.
+"Dick Peyton and Bob Wingate both belong to your party. Am I right? We
+are friends to Marion."
+
+"And therefore friends to us," said the patrole. "Your name, sir, and
+the number you have in company?"
+
+"Take us to the general, and we will answer that," replied Horse Shoe.
+"The Tories have set upon Wingate's house and burnt it to the ground.
+It's like we may be able to tell something worth hearing at
+head-quarters. Your man Bloody Spur gave us in charge to report him, and
+to say that he would soon follow upon our track. I wonder that he isn't
+here before now."
+
+"I will remain," said one of the soldiers to his companion; "you shall
+take charge of the travellers."
+
+The trooper accordingly turned his horse's head and commanded Horse Shoe
+and his party to follow.
+
+The scout conducted our adventurers along a by-road that led round the
+head of a marsh, and through several thickets which, in the darkness of
+the night, were penetrated with great difficulty; during this ride he
+interrogated Horse Shoe as to the events of the late inroad of the
+Tories. He and his comrade had been stationed upon the path where the
+sergeant encountered them, to direct the out-riding parties of his corps
+to the spot of Marion's encampment, the policy of this wary officer
+being to shift his station so frequently as almost equally to defy the
+search of friend and foe. Peyton and Wingate were both expected; and the
+trooper who remained behind only waited to conduct them to the
+commanding officer, who had, since the disappearance of daylight, formed
+a bivouac in this neighborhood. Marion's custom was to order his
+reconnoitring parties to return to him by designated roads, where
+videttes were directed to repair in order to inform them of his
+position,--a fact which, as his movements were accomplished with
+wonderful celerity and secresy, they were generally unable to ascertain
+in any other way.
+
+At length, emerging from the thicket, and crossing what seemed, by the
+plash of the horse's feet, a morass, the party, under the guidance of
+the scout, came upon a piece of thinly-timbered woodland, which, rising
+by a gentle slope, furnished what might be called an island of dry
+ground, that seemed to be only accessible by crossing the circumjacent
+swamp. Upon this spot were encamped, in the rudest form of the bivouac,
+a party of cavalry, which might have amounted to two hundred men.
+Several fires, whose ruddy glare had been discerned for the last half
+mile of the journey, were blazing forth from different quarters of the
+wood, and threw a bold and sharp light upon the figures of men and
+horses, imparting a feature of lively, picturesque beauty to the scene.
+The greater portion of the soldiers were stretched beneath the trees,
+with no other covering than the leafy bowers above them. The horses were
+picketed in the neighborhood of their riders; and the confused array of
+saddles, sabres, muskets, rifles, and other warlike instruments, that
+were hung upon projecting boughs, or leant against the trunks, as they
+caught the flashes of the frequent fires, seemed to be magnified in
+number equal to the furniture of thrice the force. Sentinels were seen
+pacing their limits on the outskirts of this company, and small bodies
+of patroles on horseback moved across the encampment with the regularity
+of military discipline. Here and there, as if regardless of rest, or
+awaiting some soon-expected tour of duty, small knots of men sat
+together amusing themselves, by torch-light, at cards; and, more
+appropriately, others had extended their torpid frames in sleep upon
+their grassy pallets and knapsack pillows.
+
+"We have seen war in its horrors," exclaimed Mildred, with an
+involuntary vivacity; "and here it is in all its romance!"
+
+"Sister, I wish you were at home," said Henry, eagerly, "and Steve and I
+had the Rangers on this field to-night. I would undertake to command a
+picket with any man here!"
+
+To Horse Shoe these were familiar scenes, and he could not comprehend
+the source of that sudden interest which had so vividly aroused the
+admiration of his companions; but asking the guide to conduct them
+immediately to General Marion, he followed the soldier across the whole
+extent of the bivouac, until they halted beneath a large tree, near
+which a few officers were assembled. One of this group was seated on the
+ground; and close by him, planted in the soil, a blazing pine-faggot
+flung a broad light upon a saddle, the flap of which the officer had
+converted, for the occasion, into a writing-desk.
+
+"Make way for a squad of travellers picked up on the road to-night,"
+said the scout in a loud voice. "They wish to see General Marion."
+
+In a moment our party was surrounded by the officers; and Horse Shoe,
+unceremoniously dismounting, addressed the person nearest to him:--
+
+"A lady, sir, from Virginia, that I started with from her father's
+house, to fetch to Carolina; but who has been most audaciously unhoused
+and unbedded in the very middle of the night by a hellish pack of
+Tories."
+
+"My name is Lindsay, sir," said Henry, riding to the front; "my sister
+and myself were travelling south, and have been obliged to fly,
+to-night, before a detachment of horse-stealers."
+
+"From Bob Wingate's," said Horse Shoe, "as I should judge, some six
+miles back. I want to report to General Marion: the lady, likewise, is
+tired, as she has good right to be."
+
+The officer to whom this was addressed, directed a soldier to seek
+General Marion, and then approaching Mildred, said:
+
+"Madam, we can promise but little accommodation suitable to a lady: the
+greenwood tree is but an uncouth resting-place: but what we can supply
+shall be heartily at your service."
+
+"I feel sufficiently thankful," replied Mildred, "to know that I am in
+the hands of friends."
+
+"Sister, alight," said Henry, who now stood beside her stirrup, and
+offered his hand: and in a moment Mildred was on her feet.
+
+The officer then conducted her to a bank, upon which a few blankets were
+thrown by some of the soldiers in attendance. "If this strange place
+does not alarm you," he said, "you may perhaps find needful repose upon
+a couch even as rough as this."
+
+"You are very kind," replied Mildred, seating herself. "Brother, do not
+quit my side," she added, in a low voice: "I feel foolishly afraid."
+
+But a few moments elapsed before the light of the torches, gleaming upon
+his figure, disclosed to Mildred the approach of a person of short
+stature and delicate frame, in whose step there was a singular alertness
+and rapidity. He wore the blue and buff uniform of the staff, with a
+pair of epaulets, a buckskin belt, and broadsword. A three-cornered
+cocked-hat, ornamented with a buck-tail, gave a peculiar sharpness to
+his naturally sharp and decided features; and a pair of small, dark eyes
+twinkled in the firelight, from a countenance originally sallow, but now
+swarthy from sun and wind. There was a conspicuous alacrity and courtesy
+in the gay and chivalrous tone in which he accosted Mildred:
+
+"General Marion, madam, is too happy to have his poor camp honored by
+the visit of a lady. They tell me that the Tories were so uncivil as to
+break in upon your slumbers to-night. It adds greatly to my grudge
+against them."
+
+"I have ventured," said Mildred, "into the field of war, and it does not
+become me to complain that I have met its vicissitudes."
+
+"Gallantly spoken, madam! May I be allowed to know to whom I am indebted
+for the honor of this visit?"
+
+"My name is Lindsay, my father resides at the Dove Cote in Virginia:
+under the protection of my brother and a friend, I left home to travel
+into Carolina."
+
+"A long journey, madam," interrupted Marion; "and you have been sadly
+vexed to-night, I learn. We have a rude and unquiet country."
+
+"My sister and myself," said Henry, "counted the chances before we set
+out."
+
+"I would call you but an inexperienced guide, sir," said the General,
+addressing Henry, and smiling.
+
+"Oh, as to that," replied the youth, "we have an old soldier with
+us--Horse Shoe Robinson--hem--Stephen Foster, I meant to say."
+
+"Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Marion, "where is he?"
+
+"Mr. Henry Lindsay, General, and me," said the sergeant, bluntly, "have
+been practising a lie to tell the Tories, in case they should take us
+unawares; but it sticks, you see, in both of our throats. It's the true
+fact that I'm Horse Shoe himself. This calling me Stephen Foster is only
+a hanging out of false colors for the benefit of the red-coats and
+Tories, upon occasion."
+
+"Horse Shoe, good fellow, your hand," said Marion, with vivacity, "I
+have heard of you before. Miss Lindsay, excuse me, if you please; I have
+business to-night which is apt impertinently to thrust itself between us
+and our duty to the ladies. Richards," he continued, addressing a young
+officer who stood near him, "see if you can find some refreshment that
+would be acceptable to the lady and her brother. Horse Shoe, this way: I
+would speak with you."
+
+Marion now retired towards the place where the writing materials were
+first noticed, and entered into an examination of the sergeant, as to
+the particulars of the recent attack upon Wingate's cabin.
+
+Before Robinson had finished his narrative of the events of the night, a
+horseman dashed up almost at full speed to the spot where Marion stood,
+and, flinging himself from his saddle, whilst his horse stood panting
+beside him, asked for the General.
+
+"How now, Bloody Spur! What's the news?" demanded Marion.
+
+"The Black River hawks are flying," said the soldier.
+
+"I have heard that already," interrupted the chieftain. "Tell me what
+else."
+
+"I stayed long enough to secure Wingate's cattle, and then set out for
+the river to cut loose the boats at the Ferry. I did it in good time.
+Four files followed close upon my heels, who had been sent ahead to make
+sure of the means of crossing. The fellows found me after my work was
+done, and chased me good three miles. They will hardly venture, General,
+to swim the river to-night, with all the thievery they have in their
+hands; and I rather take it they will halt at the ferry till daylight."
+
+"Then that's a lucky cast, Dick Peyton," exclaimed Marion. "Ho, there!
+Peters, wake up that snoring trumpeter. Tell him to sound 'to saddle.'
+Come lads, up, up. Gentlemen, to your duties!"
+
+Forthwith the trumpet sounded, and with its notes everything asleep
+started erect. Troopers were seen hurrying across the ground in rapid
+motion: some hastily buckling on broadswords and slinging their muskets;
+others equipping the horses; and everywhere torches were seen passing to
+and fro in all the agitation of a sudden muster. As soon as Marion had
+set this mass in action, he repaired to Mildred, and in a manner that
+betokened no excitement from the general stir around him, he said--
+
+"I owe you an apology, Miss Lindsay, for this desertion, which I am sure
+you will excuse when you know that it is caused by my desire to punish
+the varlets who were so ill-mannered as to intrude upon your slumbers. I
+hope, however, you will not be a loser by the withdrawal of our people,
+as I will take measures to put you under the protection of a good friend
+of mine, the widow of a worthy soldier, Mistress Rachel Markham, who
+lives but two miles from this, and whose hospitable mansion will afford
+you a shelter more congenial to your wishes than this broad canopy of
+ours. A guide shall be ready to conduct you."
+
+"Your kindness, general," said Mildred, "puts me under many
+obligations."
+
+"Horse Shoe shall take a line of explanation to my friend," added
+Marion. "And now, madam, farewell," he said, offering his hand. "And
+you, Master or Mister Henry, I don't know which--you seem entitled to
+both--good night, my brave lad: I hope, before long, to hear of your
+figuring as a gallant soldier of independence."
+
+"I hope as much myself," replied Henry.
+
+Marion withdrew, and by the time that he had prepared the letter and put
+it into Horse Shoe's hands, his troops were in line, waiting their order
+to march. The general mounted a spirited charger, and galloping to the
+front of his men, wheeled them into column, and, by a rapid movement,
+soon left Horse Shoe and his little party, attended by one trooper who
+had been left as a guide, the only tenants of this lately so busy scene.
+The change seemed almost like enchantment. The fires and many torches
+were yet burning, but all was still, except the distant murmur of the
+receding troops, which grew less and less, until, at last, there reigned
+the silence of the native forest.
+
+Our travellers waited, almost without exchanging a word, absorbed in the
+contemplation of an incident so novel to Mildred and her brother, until
+the distant tramp of the cavalry could be no longer heard: then, under
+the direction of the guide, they set out for the residence of Mrs.
+Markham.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+The day had just begun to dawn as our party, under the guidance of
+Marion's soldier, were ferried across the Pedee, on the opposite bank of
+which river lay the estate and mansion of Mrs. Markham. The alarms and
+excitements of the past night had ceased to stimulate the frame of
+Mildred, and she now found herself sinking under the most painful
+weariness. Henry had actually fallen asleep as he sat upon the gunwale
+of the ferry-boat, and rested his head against the sergeant's shoulder:
+the whole party were overcome with the lassitude that is so distressing,
+at this hour of dawning, to all persons who have spent the night in
+watching; and even the sergeant himself, to the influences of fatigue
+and privation the most inaccessible of mortals, and, by fate or fortune,
+the most unmalleable--occasionally nodded his head, as if answering the
+calls of man's most welcome visitor. It was, therefore, with more than
+ordinary contentment that our travellers, when again mounted, were
+enabled to descry, in the first light of the morning, a group of
+buildings seated upon an eminence about a mile distant, on the further
+side of the cultivated lowland that stretched along the southern margin
+of the river. The guide announced that this was the point of their
+destination, and the intelligence encouraged the party to accelerate the
+speed with which they journeyed over the plain. When they arrived at the
+foot of the hill, the character of the spot they were approaching was
+more distinctly developed to their view. The mansion, encompassed by a
+tuft of trees that flung their broad and ancient limbs above its roof,
+was of the best class of private dwellings, old and stately in its
+aspect, and exhibiting all the appendages that characterized the seat of
+a wealthy proprietor. It was constructed entirely of wood, in accordance
+with a notion that prevailed at that period, no less than at the
+present, that a frame structure was best adapted to the character of the
+climate. It occupied the crest of a hill which commanded a view of the
+river with its extensive plains; whilst, in turn, it was overlooked by
+the adjacent tract of country bearing the name of the Cheraw Highlands.
+
+As the party ascended this eminence, Henry, in the eager and thoughtless
+satisfaction of the moment, put his bugle to his mouth and continued to
+blow with all his might, deaf to the remonstrances of his sister, who
+was endeavoring to explain that there was some want of courtesy in so
+abrupt a challenge of the hospitality of the family. The blast was
+interrupted by Horse Shoe's laying his hand upon the instrument, as he
+gave the indiscreet bugler a short military lecture:
+
+"You might fetch trouble upon us, Mister Henry: this here screeching of
+horns or trumpets is sometimes a sort of bullying of a garrison; and if
+an enemy should happen to be on post here--as, God knows, is likely
+enough in such scampering wars as these, why you have set the thing past
+cure: for it is cutting off all chance of escape, just as much as if the
+people had been ordered 'to horse.' It leaves nothing for us but to
+brazen it out."
+
+An old negro was first startled by the summons, and appeared for a
+moment at the door of one of the out-buildings, evincing, as he looked
+down the road upon the approaching cavalcade, manifest signs of
+consternation. After a brief glance, he was seen to retreat across the
+yard to the door of the mansion-house, where he fell to beating at it
+with as much earnestness as if giving an alarm of fire, shouting at the
+same time, "Lord bless us, mistress! here is a whole rigiment of sodgers
+coming to turn everything topsy-turvy. Get up, get up--open the door!"
+
+"Stop your bawling, you stunted black-jack!" said Robinson, who had
+galloped up to the spot, "and none of your lies. Is the lady of the
+house at home?"
+
+A window was thrown up, at the same moment, in an upper story, and a
+female head, decorated with a nightcap, was thrust out, whilst a voice,
+tremulous with affright, inquired what was the cause of this
+disturbance; but before an answer could be given the head was withdrawn,
+and the door opening discovered a youth scarcely in appearance over
+sixteen, with a loose robe thrown around his person and a pistol in his
+hand.
+
+"Who comes here, and with what purpose?" was the question firmly put by
+the young man.
+
+"Friends," said Horse Shoe--"sent to the good lady by General Marion.
+Sorry, sir, to be the occasion of such a rumpus. But this here young
+lady has travelled all night and is 'most dead with hardships."
+
+Mildred, who with the rest of the company had now arrived near the door,
+was about to speak, when the questioner retired, calling the negro after
+him into the house. In a moment the servant returned with Mrs. Markham's
+compliments to the party, and a request that they would alight.
+
+"Then all's well," said Horse Shoe, dismounting, and immediately
+afterwards lifting Mildred from her saddle, "a friend in need, madam, is
+the greatest of God's blessings. I make no doubt you will find this as
+snug a nest as you ever flew into in your life."
+
+"And, good sergeant, most specially welcome," replied Mildred, smiling
+in the midst of all her pain, "for in truth I never was so weary."
+
+The guide, having now performed his duty, announced that he must return
+to his corps; and, after a few cheering words of kind remembrance from
+Mildred, coupled with a message of thanks to Marion, he wheeled about
+and galloped back towards the river. Mildred and Henry entered the
+house: and the sergeant, taking command of Isaac, followed the horses
+towards the stable.
+
+The brother and sister were ushered into an ample parlor, comfortably
+furnished according to the fashion of the wealthier classes of that day;
+and, Mildred as she threw herself upon a capacious sofa, could not fail
+to recognise in the formal portraits that were suspended to the
+pannelled walls, that she was in the dwelling of a family of some pride
+of name and lineage.
+
+After a short interval, the proprietress of the mansion entered the
+parlor. She was a lady of a kind and gentle aspect, apparently advanced
+beyond the middle period of life; and her features, somewhat emaciated,
+gave a sign of feeble health. She was attired in dishabille, hastily
+thrown on; and there was some expression of alarm in the unreserved and
+familiar manner with which she approached Mildred, and inquired into the
+nature of this early journey.
+
+"I hope no unhappy accident, my dear, has driven you at this unusual
+hour to my poor house? You are heartily welcome. I fear to ask what has
+brought you."
+
+"My brother and myself, madam," said Mildred, "have had a most
+adventurous night. This letter will explain. General Marion was so kind
+as to commit us to your hospitality."
+
+The lady took the letter and read it.
+
+"Miss Lindsay, my child, I am truly happy to serve you. You have had an
+awful night, but these times make us acquainted with strange
+afflictions. This young gentleman, your brother, is he your only
+attendant?"
+
+Mildred began to communicate the details of her journey, when she was
+interrupted by her hostess.
+
+"I will not trouble you with questions, now, my dear. You must have
+sleep; I dread lest your health may suffer by this harsh exposure. After
+you have had rest, we will talk more, and become better acquainted.
+Judith," continued the matron, addressing a servant maid, who had just
+entered the room, "attend this lady to a chamber. Mr. Henry Lindsay, I
+believe--so General Marion calls you--my son Alfred shall take you in
+charge."
+
+With these words the good lady left the room, and in an instant after
+returned with the youth who had first appeared at the door. Upon being
+introduced by his mother to the guests, he lost no time in obeying her
+orders in regard to Henry, whom he had conducted out of the room at the
+same moment that Mildred followed the servant towards a chamber.
+
+The entire day was spent by our party in recruiting their strength,
+towards which needful care the hospitable hostess contributed by the
+tenderest attentions. On the following morning Mildred, although
+refreshed by the slumbers of the long interval, still exhibited the
+traces of her recent fatigue; and upon the earnest recommendation of
+Mrs. Markham, seconded by the almost oracular authority of Horse
+Shoe,--for the sergeant had greatly won upon the respect of his
+companions by his prudence and discretion--she determined to remain
+another day in her present resting-place.
+
+Mrs. Markham was the widow of a Carolina gentleman, who had borne the
+rank of a colonel in the Whig militia, and had been actively employed,
+in the earlier stages of the war, in the southern provinces. He had
+fallen in an unfortunate skirmish with some of Prevost's light troops,
+on the Savannah river, some sixteen months before; and his widow, with
+three daughters and no other male protector than an only son, was now,
+in this season of extreme peril, residing upon a large estate, which the
+evil fortune of the times had made the theatre of an eventful and active
+desultory war. She had been exposed to the most cruel exactions from the
+Tories, to whom her possessions were generally yielded up with a passive
+and helpless submission; and the firmness with which, in all her
+difficulties, she had adhered to the cause for which her husband fell,
+had gained for her the generous sympathy of the whig leaders, and more
+than once stimulated them to enterprises, in her behalf, that were
+followed by severe chastisement upon her enemies. These circumstances
+had given extensive notoriety to her name, and drawn largely upon her
+the observation of both friend and foe. To Marion, who hovered upon this
+border more like a goblin than a champion whose footsteps might be
+tracked, her protection had become a subject of peculiar interest; and
+the indefatigable soldier frequently started up in her neighborhood when
+danger was at hand, with a mysterious form of opposition that equally
+defied the calculations of Whigs and Tories.
+
+The lady was still in her weeds, and grief and care had thrown a pallor
+upon her cheek; but the watchfulness imposed upon her by the emergencies
+of the day, her familiarity with alarms, and the necessity for constant
+foresight and decisive action, had infused a certain hardihood into her
+character, that is seldom believed to be,--but yet in the hour of trial
+unerringly exhibits itself--an attribute of the female bosom. Her
+manners were considerate, kind, and fraught with dignity. She was the
+personation of a class of matrons that--for the honor of our country and
+of the human race--was not small in its numbers, nor upon trial unworthy
+of its fame, in the sad history of the sufferings of Carolina.
+
+The evening of the day on which Mildred arrived at the mansion brought
+rumors of a brilliant exploit achieved by Marion; and more
+circumstantial accounts on the following morning confirmed the good
+tidings. The alert partisan had fallen upon the track of the freebooters
+who had been marauding on the confines of North Carolina, and whose
+incursion had expelled our travellers from Wingate's cabin. Marion had
+overtaken them before sunrise, on the bank of the Pedee, where they had
+been detained by reason of Peyton's successful removal of the boats. A
+short but most decisive combat was the consequence, and victory, as she
+was wont, had seated herself upon Marion's banner. The chieftain and his
+followers had, as usual, disappeared, and the whole country was in a
+state of agitation and dread; the one side fearing a repetition of the
+blow in some unlooked-for quarter, the other alarmed by the expectation
+of quick and bloody reprisal.
+
+These events still more contributed to fortify Mildred's resolution to
+remain another day under the shelter of Mrs. Markham's friendly roof,
+before she would venture forth in the further prosecution of her
+journey.
+
+Here, for the present, we must leave her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+OCCURRENCES AT MUSGROVE'S MILL.
+
+    She passed by stealth the narrow door,
+    The postern way also,
+    And thought each bush her robe that tore,
+    The grasp of a warding foe.--JOANNA BAILLIE.
+
+
+The month of September was more than half gone. The night had just set
+in, and the waxing moon shone forth from a clear heaven, flinging her
+rays upon the rippling surface of the Ennoree and upon the glossy leaves
+that flickered in the wind by the banks of the stream, when Mary
+Musgrove, with wary and stealthy pace, glided along the path, intricate
+with shrubbery, that led upwards immediately upon the margin of the
+river. For a full half hour had she toiled along this narrow way since
+she had stolen past the sentinel near her father's gate. The distance
+was not a mile; but the anxious maiden, pursued by her own fears, had
+more than once, in the fancy that she was followed, stopped in her
+career and concealed herself in the thick copse-wood, and listened with
+painful intensity for the footsteps of those whom her imagination had
+set upon her track. There was, however, no pursuit: it was the prowling
+fox or the raccoon whose leap had disturbed the dry and rotten branches
+that lay upon the ground; and Mary smiled with faint-heartedness at the
+illusions of her own mind. She arrived at last beneath the brow of a
+crag that jutted over the stream, and in the shade of one of the angles
+of the rock, she discerned the figure of a man seated upon the grass.
+She paused with a distrustful caution, as she challenged the silent and
+half-concealed person.
+
+"Hist, John! is it you? For mercy, speak! Why would you frighten
+me?--Me, Mary. Don't you know me?" said the maiden, as she took heart of
+grace and advanced near enough to put her hand upon John Ramsay's
+shoulder. "Powers above! the man's asleep," she added with a laugh.
+"Who would have thought I should have caught you napping, John, at such
+a time as this!"
+
+"Why, in truth, Mary," said John Ramsay, waking up under the touch of
+his mistress, and rising to his feet, "I deserve to be shot for sleeping
+on my watch; but I have been so driven from post to pillar for this last
+fortnight, that it is as much as I can do to keep my eyes open when
+night comes on. So Mary, you will forgive me, and more particularly when
+I tell you I was dreaming of you; and thought this war was at an end,
+and that you and I were happy in a house of our own. I have been waiting
+for you for upwards of an hour."
+
+"Ah, John, I don't think I could sleep if it had been my turn to watch
+for you."
+
+"There's the difference," replied John, "betwixt you women and us men;
+you are so full of frights and fidgetings and fancyings, that I do
+verily believe all the sleeping doses in the world could never make you
+shut your eyes when anything is going on that requires watching, whether
+it be for a sick friend or for a piece of scheming. Now, with us, we
+take a nap on a hard-trotting horse, and fall to snoring up to the very
+minute that the trumpet wakes us to make a charge. What news from
+Butler?"
+
+"It is all fixed," answered Mary, "to our hearts' content. Lieutenant
+Macdonald, ever since Cornwallis's letter, allows Major Butler greater
+privileges; and the sentinels are not half so strict as they used to be;
+so that I think we may give them the slip. By the gable window that
+looks out from the garret room, the Major will be able to get upon the
+roof, and that, he thinks, is near enough to the tree for him to risk a
+leap into its branches; though I am almost afraid he is mistaken, for it
+looks awfully wide for a spring. He says if you will be ready with the
+horses an hour before daylight to-morrow, he will try the leap, and join
+you at the willows above the mill. Christopher will saddle one of the
+wagon-horses and lead him to the place."
+
+"And the sentinel who keeps guard on that side?"
+
+"Ah, John, that puzzles us," said Mary; "I'm so much afraid that you
+will be rash. It is in your nature to forget yourself."
+
+"Tut, girl; don't talk of that. I'll find a way to manage the sentinel.
+I will steal up to him and take him unawares; and then seizing him by
+the throat, give him his choice of a knife in between his ribs, or a
+handful of guineas in his pocket."
+
+"Hadn't we better tell him what a good man the Major is?" said Mary,
+alarmed at the idea of a struggle in which her lover's life might be
+endangered, "and try to coax him to take our side?"
+
+"Ha, ha!" ejaculated the trooper involuntarily, "that's a very good
+woman's thought, but it won't hold out in a campaign. The fellow might
+happen to have some honesty, and then away goes our whole scheme. No,
+no; blows are the coin that these rascals buy their bread with, and,
+faith, we'll trade with them in the same article."
+
+"But then, John, you will be in danger."
+
+"What of that, girl? When have I been out of danger? And don't you see,
+Mary, what good luck I have with it? Never fear me; I will stifle the
+fellow in the genteelest fashion known in the wars."
+
+"And if it must be so, John, I will say my prayers for you with more
+earnestness than I ever said them in my life. As my father says, the God
+of Israel will stand by our cause: and when He is for us, what care we
+who is against us?"
+
+"You are a good girl, Mary," replied John Ramsay, smiling. "Get back to
+the house; let Major Butler know that you have seen me, and that I will
+be ready."
+
+"He is to be at the window," said Mary, "and I am to signify to him that
+you are prepared, by setting up a plank against the garden fence in a
+place where he can see it. He is to keep a look-out from the window all
+night, and when the time comes you are to flash a little powder on the
+edge of the woods upon the hill: if he is ready then he will show his
+candle near the window-sill; that, he says, must be a sign for you to
+come on; and when he sees you he will take the leap."
+
+"I understand it," said Ramsay. "Tell Christopher to be sure of the
+horse."
+
+"I have a great deal of courage, John, when danger is far off--but when
+it comes near, I tremble like a poor coward," said Mary. "Does not my
+hand feel cold?"
+
+"Your lips are warm, Mary," replied John, kissing her, "and your heart
+is warm. Now, never flag when it comes to the trial. Everything depends
+upon you. We shall be very happy, by-and-by, to talk this thing all
+over. How many soldiers are on Macdonald's guard? Have none left you
+since I saw you yesterday?"
+
+"None," said Mary: "one man left the mill two days since. I think I
+heard them say he was going to Ninety-six, on business for the
+lieutenant."
+
+"Well, well, it makes but little odds how many are there, so they but
+sleep soundly. Our business is more to run than to fight. Mary, my girl,
+step across to my father's to-morrow, and he will tell you what has
+become of me. We must get the Major out of this country of wolf-traps as
+fast as we can."
+
+"I forgot to ask you," said the maiden, "if you had some coarse clothes
+ready for the Major. He must not seem to be what he is."
+
+"Trust me for that," replied the trooper. "Christopher has given me a
+bundle with as fine a dusty suit in it as any miller's boy ever wore;
+and besides that, I have a meal bag to throw across the Major's saddle:
+and as for myself, Mary, there's ploughman in my very looks. We shall
+cheat all the Tories betwixt this and Catawba."
+
+"Now, John, before I leave you, I have one favor to ask."
+
+"And what is that?" inquired the generous-hearted soldier, "you know, if
+I can, I will grant it before it is named."
+
+"I would ask as a favor to me," said Mary, with earnestness, "that you
+will not be too venturesome: the Major is a wiser man than you, so be
+governed by him. Remember, John, if any ill were to happen to you, it
+would break my heart."
+
+"I am not so foolhardy, my girl," replied Ramsay, "but, that when
+there's occasion for it, I can show as clean a pair of heels as any man:
+and so, for your sake, you kitten," he said, as he put his hands upon
+her cheeks, and again snatched a kiss, "I will run to-morrow like a
+whole troop of devils. And now, Mary, good night, and God bless you
+girl! it is time you were at home. Yet upon second thoughts, I will walk
+part of the way with you. So, take my arm and let us begin the retreat."
+
+"John, I do so fear you may be hurt," said the maiden, as they pursued
+their way along the path, her whole thoughts being absorbed with the
+danger of the enterprise. "Be careful when you come near the sentinel to
+wait until his back is turned. This moon shines bright, and you may
+easily be seen."
+
+"But look, girl, the moon has scarcely two hours yet to travel, and,
+from that circle round it, I shouldn't wonder if we had rain before
+daylight; so by the hour we have fixed for the Major's escape, it will
+be dark enough: therefore you may be easy on that score."
+
+The humble and ardent lovers pursued their way towards the miller's
+dwelling with slow steps, intently engaged in conversing over the
+chances of their perilous project, until they arrived at a point beyond
+which it was not safe for John Ramsay to venture. Here, after many
+affectionate caresses and fond adieus, they separated--the maiden to
+steal to her place of rest, the soldier to hasten back to his horse,
+that awaited him near the scene of the late meeting.
+
+Mary soon arrived at the mill; then sauntering carelessly towards the
+dwelling-house, began, the better to conceal her purpose, to sing a
+simple air, during which she had wandered up to the garden fence, where
+she delayed long enough to set up the plank. The small window in the
+angle of the roof of the cottage looked down upon the spot where she
+stood; and as she cast her eyes towards this part of the building, she
+received a recognition from the prisoner, in a slight waving of the
+hand, which was sufficiently observable by the light of the taper
+within.
+
+Matters having gone so far to the maiden's satisfaction, she now
+retreated into the house.
+
+The reader will perceive from this narrative that Butler's fortunes had
+greatly improved since we last took leave of him. The messenger
+despatched to Cornwallis by Williams had brought back to the Fair
+Forest, where it will be remembered the vanquishers of Innis had
+retreated, a more favorable answer than even the republican leader had
+hoped. The British commander was not ignorant of the capture of Butler,
+but the circumstances of the trial had not before been communicated to
+him. Upon the representation of Williams, he had no hesitation to order
+a respite to be given to the prisoner for such reasonable time as might
+be necessary for further investigation. This obvious act of justice was
+more than, in the circumstances of the times, might have been expected
+from Cornwallis. The cruel and bloody policy which he adopted towards
+the inhabitants of the Carolinas, immediately after the battle of
+Camden, showed a tone of personal exacerbation that was scarcely
+consistent with the lenity displayed towards Butler. It is not unlikely,
+therefore, that the fear of retaliation upon the young St. Jermyn, of
+whose fate he might have been informed from officers of his own camp,
+might have induced him to temporize in the present case, and to grant a
+suspension of proceedings against the rebel prisoner. The reply to
+Williams's letter accordingly intimated that, for the present, Major
+Butler should be held in close custody as a prisoner of war, leaving the
+determination of the manner in which he was finally to be disposed of, a
+subject for future consideration.
+
+John Ramsay, after the departure of Horse Shoe Robinson for Virginia,
+instead of rejoining his regiment, returned to the Fair Forest camp,
+where he remained with Williams, until the answer from Cornwallis was
+received. The tidings of this answer he undertook to convey to Butler,
+and he again set out for his father's house. John felt himself now
+regularly enlisted in the service of the prisoner, and having found
+means to communicate his present employment to General Sumpter, he
+obtained permission to remain in it as long as his assistance was of
+value. The service itself was a grateful one to the young trooper: it
+accorded with the generosity of his character, and gratified his
+personal pride by the trust-worthiness which it implied: but more than
+this, it brought him into opportunities of frequent meeting with Mary
+Musgrove, who, passionately beloved by the soldier, was not less ardent
+than he in her efforts to promote the interest of Butler.
+
+The state of the country did not allow John to be seen in day-time, and
+he and Mary had consequently appointed a place of meeting, where in the
+shades of night they might commune together on the important subjects of
+their secret conspiracy. Night after night they accordingly met at this
+spot, and here all their schemes were contrived. Mary sometimes came to
+David Ramsay's dwelling, and the old man's counsel was added to that of
+the lovers. Christopher Shaw and Allen Musgrove were not ignorant of
+what was in contemplation, but it was a piece of necessary policy that
+they should appear to be as little connected with the prisoner as
+possible. Christopher, therefore, pursued his duties as
+assistant-quarter-master or purveyor to the little garrison under
+Macdonald's command, with unabated assiduity.
+
+The plan of Butler's escape was John Ramsay's. He had been anxiously
+awaiting an opportunity to attempt this enterprise for the last
+fortnight, but the difficulty of concerting operations with the prisoner
+had retarded his movement. This difficulty was at last overcome, and,
+for a few days past, the plan had been arranged. All that was left to be
+done was to appoint the hour. Christopher Shaw and Mary, alone of the
+miller's family, were made acquainted with the details. Christopher was
+to provide a horse and a suitable disguise for Butler, and these were to
+be ready at a tuft of willows that grew upon the edge of the river some
+quarter of a mile above the mill, whenever Mary should announce that
+John was ready to act. Ramsay's horse was to be brought to the same
+spot. The preparatory signals, already mentioned, were all agreed upon
+and understood by the parties. Butler was to escape to the roof, and
+thence by the boughs of a large oak that grew hard by the miller's
+dwelling. A sentinel was usually posted some fifty paces from this tree,
+and it was a matter of great perplexity to determine how his vigilance
+was to be defeated. This difficulty, John resolved, should be overcome
+by a stern measure: the man was to be silenced, if necessary, by a blow.
+John Ramsay was to steal upon him in the dark, and if signs of alarm
+were given, he was to master the sentinel in such a manner as the
+occasion might require, being furnished by Butler with a purse of gold,
+if such a form of influence might be necessary.
+
+Such is the outline of the plan by which Butler's disenthralment was to
+be attempted.
+
+Mary Musgrove, before she retired to her chamber, sought Christopher
+Shaw and made him acquainted with the appointment of the hour, and then
+left him to manage his own share of the enterprise. It was now near ten
+at night, and Christopher, who had charge of Allen Musgrove's stable, in
+order to avoid the suspicion of being seen stirring at a later hour,
+immediately set off to saddle the horse. One of the wagon team, well
+known in the family by the name of Wall Eye, was selected for this
+service, and being speedily accoutred, was conducted to the willows,
+where he was tied fast to a tree, to remain until the hour of need. The
+young miller soon returned, and it was not long afterwards that the
+household and its military companions were wrapt in the silence of
+unsuspecting repose.
+
+Butler, at the hour of the customary visit of the watch, had gone to
+bed; and, feigning sickness, had been allowed to burn a light in his
+room during the night. His chamber door, also, by special favor, was
+closed; and the night advanced without suspicion or distrust from any
+quarter. At two o'clock the last sentinels were relieved, and the form
+had been gone through of inspecting the prisoner's chamber. To all
+outward show, Butler was asleep: the door was again shut, and all was
+still. The time for action now arrived. Butler rose silently from his
+bed, dressed himself, and, putting his shoes into his pockets, stole in
+his stockinged feet to the little gable window at the further end of his
+apartment. Here he remained, gazing out upon the night with fixed
+attention. The moon had set, and the sky was overcast with clouds,
+adding a fortunate obscurity to the natural darkness of the hour. By
+still greater good luck, after a few moments the wind began to rise and
+rain to descend. Everything seemed to favor the enterprise. The shadowy
+form of the sentinel, who was stationed on this side of the house, was
+dimly discerned by Butler through the gloom; and it was with joyful
+satisfaction that he could perceive the soldier, as the rain fell in
+larger drops, retreat some distance from his post and take shelter
+beneath the shrubbery that grew in the garden. At the same moment a
+flash upon the hill, which might have been mistaken for summer
+lightning, announced to him that his faithful comrade was at hand.
+Desirous to take advantage of the present neglect of the sentinel, and
+to avoid the possibility of bringing him into conflict with Ramsay,
+Butler hastily showed his candle at the window, then extinguished it,
+and throwing himself out upon the roof, scrambled towards the nearest
+point of the impending branches of the oak. Here, without a moment's
+pause, he made a fearless leap that flung him amongst the boughs. The
+darkness prevented him from choosing the most favorable lodgment in the
+tree, and he fell across a heavy limb with such force as to take away
+his breath--receiving at the same time, a severe contusion in the head.
+For a brief space he hung almost senseless, and there was reason to
+apprehend that he would fall in a swoon to the ground; but the occasion
+braced his sinking strength, and before many minutes he revived
+sufficiently to make his way to the trunk, by which he descended safely
+to the earth. He now threw himself on his hands and feet, and crept to
+the garden fence. The rain still increased, and fell in a heavy shower.
+In another instant he surmounted the barrier, and betook himself with
+his utmost speed towards the mill, behind which he sought concealment
+and temporary rest.
+
+"Stand," said John Ramsay, who had just reached this point on his way to
+the house, and now, taken by surprise, presented a pistol to Butler's
+breast. "One word above your breath and you die. Be silent, and here is
+gold for you."
+
+"Ramsay," said Butler, in a low tone, "is it you?"
+
+"Your name?" demanded the trooper, still presenting the pistol.
+
+"Butler," was the reply.
+
+"Thanks--thanks, good Major, for that word! You have been before me. I
+thought you would not miss this rain. Is all well?"
+
+"Better, much better, than we could have hoped," answered Butler.
+"Seeing the sentinel was off his guard, I took time by the forelock, and
+have saved you trouble."
+
+"For God's sake, Major, let us not delay here. Our horses are waiting
+for us above."
+
+"I am ready," said Butler, having now put on his shoes. "My brave
+fellow, I owe you more than I can find words to utter: lead the way."
+
+The liberated captive and his gallant comrade instantly hastened towards
+the horses, and mounting with a joyful alacrity, soon set forward at a
+gallop in the direction leading to David Ramsay's cottage. Here they
+arrived just as the day began to dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+A MELANCHOLY INCIDENT.
+
+    The hand of the reaper
+    Takes the ears that are hoary,
+    But the voice of the weeper
+    Wails manhood in glory.--_Scott._
+
+
+Brief time was taken by the fugitives for refreshment at David Ramsay's
+dwelling. Here Butler put on the disguise which Christopher Shaw had
+provided for him. Then arming himself with a pair of pistols which John
+had appropriated to his use, the trooper himself using a similar
+precaution, our two adventurers resumed their journey. Their first
+object was to gain a point, some seven or eight miles distant, in the
+direction of the Fair Forest, where John Ramsay had concealed a few
+troopers that had been furnished him by Williams, to give their aid, if
+necessary, in securing Butler's escape.
+
+From this point they were to proceed, with all possible despatch, to
+Williams's camp. However hazardous the experiment of attempting to
+traverse the country in open daylight, it was deemed still more
+dangerous to tarry any length of time so near the scene of their late
+adventure. Butler and his comrade, therefore, pushed forward with as
+much expedition as possible, resolved to outrun the fresh pursuit which
+they had reason to apprehend upon the discovery which the morning must
+produce at the miller's habitation.
+
+Soon after sunrise the rain ceased to fall, the clouds dispersed, and a
+fresh and brilliant morning broke forth upon the heavens. The success of
+their late exploit had raised the spirits of the wanderers. A sense of
+intense delight animated Butler's feelings: a consciousness of liberty
+once more enjoyed, after hopes deferred and almost despairing captivity,
+seemed to regenerate him and make him acquainted with emotions he had
+never felt before. His heart was full of gratitude to his new friend
+Ramsay, and the expression of it was warm and sincere. Nature had never
+appeared so lovely to him as now: the whispers of the forest and the
+murmur of the clear brook fell on his enfranchised ear like the sweetest
+music: there was melody for him even in the screams of the jay and the
+harsh notes of the crow: and once when his companion had halted in sight
+of a buck that bounded through the wood before him, Butler, apprehensive
+that John was about to discharge a bullet after the forest-rover, found
+himself involuntarily pleading the cause of the noble animal: "Do not
+draw your pistol on him, Ramsay, I pray you. Let him run; it is
+liberty--liberty, good comrade--and that is sacred."
+
+Before eight o'clock they had reached the rendezvous. Here they found
+three troopers who, although armed, were habited in the plain dress of
+the country, which enabled them to claim the denomination either of Whig
+or Tory militia, as their occasions might demand. These men had lain
+perdue, for some days, in the depth of the forest, impatiently awaiting
+for intelligence from Ramsay.
+
+"Well, Harry Winter," said John, laughing, "what say you now? I have
+brought you the miller's boy at last. Have I not made my word good?"
+
+"Truth, John," replied the trooper, "there is more stuff in you than we
+counted on. Macdonald must be a silly crow to let the fox steal his
+cheese from him so easily."
+
+"You would have come nearer the mark, Harry, if you had called him a
+sleepy lout, for whilst he was nodding I took his cake off the griddle.
+It was fair filching by night, as the Major will tell you. But come,
+lads, here is no time for dallying, we mustn't have the grass growing to
+our horses' heels, when we have a whole pack of King George's hounds on
+our trail. So move, boys!" and saying these words, John led the party
+forward at a rapid gallop.
+
+They had not gone far before they found themselves upon a road which led
+through a piece of thin wood that covered a small tract of marshy
+ground, the nature of which brought the party into a more compact body
+as they approached the narrowest point of the defile. At a short
+distance beyond this impediment the track became broader, where it
+ascended a hill thickly covered with an undergrowth of bushes.
+
+Our friends had scarcely arrived in the narrow pass before they
+perceived on the hill in front of them, a company of some ten or fifteen
+horse, rapidly advancing towards them. In a moment all conversation was
+checked, and Harry Winter turning to his companions, had barely time to
+remark,
+
+"I answer all questions: be silent, and if asked, swear to the truth of
+every word I say--steady: these fellows are Tories."
+
+As he ceased speaking, the foremost of the strangers had already come up
+to them.
+
+"Where from, and whither do you go?" asked Harry Winter, with a stern
+accent.
+
+"From below Ninety-Six, and on our road to Fort Granby," replied a
+clownish voice.
+
+"Peace, you knave!" interrupted one who appeared to be the leader of the
+party, and whose carriage and demeanor announced him to be an officer;
+"by what authority do you undertake to answer a challenge on the
+highway? Back, to your place, sir."
+
+The rebuked rustic hung his head, as he reined his horse back into the
+crowd that now thronged the road.
+
+"As we are of the larger party," said the same person, addressing
+himself to Winter, "we have the right to the word. Who are you and
+whence come you?"
+
+"We belong to Floyd's new draft," replied Winter with great coolness,
+"and left Winnsborough yesterday morning."
+
+"And where bound?"
+
+"To Augusta, on business with Brown."
+
+"Ah ha!" exclaimed the officer, "Brown is pinched by the rebels. It is
+well you have thought of him. What have you to say to him? Do you bear
+despatches?"
+
+"Your pardon, sir--that's a secret."
+
+"You need not be afraid, good fellow, we are friends."
+
+"I can hardly tell you the exact business," replied Winter. "You will
+meet Floyd himself with a hundred men, before you ride five miles. I
+believe we are going to reinforce the garrison."
+
+"You will be very welcome," said the Tory officer, "Brown will give you
+a hearty reception, but devilish slim fare; he is surrounded with
+hornets."
+
+"So much the better," replied Winter, "we have a knack at taking the
+sting out of the hornets, now-a-days. Good morning, sir. Report us, if
+you please, to Colonel Floyd, when you come across him, and tell him the
+hour of the day when you met us."
+
+During this short parley the two parties had become united into a common
+throng, completely filling up the road; and the proximity into which
+they were severally brought, gave rise to various inquiries after news
+amongst the subordinates on either side. In this press, Butler was
+startled to observe the eyes of an individual scanning him with a
+somewhat pointed scrutiny, and it was with an emotion that had well nigh
+betrayed him, that he recognised in this person one of Macdonald's
+soldiers. It was the man whom the lieutenant had despatched, a few days
+previous, with an errand to the post at Ninety-Six, and who was now
+returning with this detachment of militia. The soldier was evidently at
+fault, for in a moment afterwards Butler could perceive, from his
+expression of face, that whatever might have been his first suspicion,
+it was quieted by another glance. The disguise was so far effectual. But
+another cause of alarm arose, that for an instant brought Butler into
+greater jeopardy. The horse on which the messenger was mounted, was the
+yoke-fellow of the lean Wall-Eye, and the two beasts had been long
+accustomed to work side by side in the same wagon. Their mutual
+recognition, at this critical moment, became distressingly conspicuous.
+Their noses were brought in contact, and they began to whinny and paw
+the ground in that intelligible manner which constitutes one of the
+forms of expression by which this portion of the brute creation
+acknowledge their attachments. The presence of mind of John Ramsay saved
+the explosion which must soon have followed. He spurred his horse
+between the two noisy and restless animals, and immediately addressed a
+conversation to the soldier, which for the moment turned his thoughts
+into another channel.
+
+By this time the conference had terminated, and the two leaders
+respectively directing their men to move forward, the defile was passed
+and each party extricated from the other. But no sooner was the
+separation completed than Butler's brutish steed, Wall-Eye, began to
+neigh with the most clamorous vociferation, whilst a response was heard
+in the same tones as pertinaciously reiterated from the retreating
+companion on the other side of the defile.
+
+"We were in great danger from yonder Tories," said Ramsay, addressing
+Butler, "did you see that one of these fellows rode the mate of the
+beast you are on? Who could he be?"
+
+"It was one of Macdonald's men," replied Butler, "I knew the fellow the
+moment we met; but, thank Heaven, this humble dress concealed me."
+
+"Faster, Major!" cried John, "these cursed horses are calling after each
+other now. Pray, push forward until we get out of hearing. How unlucky
+that Christopher Shaw should have given you one of the wagon cattle!"
+
+"Look back, lads!" exclaimed Winter with great earnestness, "there is
+something wrong, these fellows are returning. Whip and spur, or we are
+overtaken!"
+
+Macdonald's soldier, it seems, having his attention drawn to the
+singular motions of his horse, had become suddenly confirmed in the
+suspicion which at the late meeting for a moment rested upon his mind,
+as to the identity of Butler; and having communicated his thought to the
+commanding officer, the whole party of the Tory militia had wheeled
+about to demand a further investigation: they were now some hundred
+paces in the rear of the fugitives, and were pressing forward at high
+speed, the officer in the front calling out at the same time,
+
+"Hold!--Rein up and return! We have questions to ask. Halt, or we shall
+fire!"
+
+"To it, boys!" cried Harry Winter. "Your safety is in your legs!"
+
+And the party pricked onward as fast as they could urge their cavalry
+along the road. The chase continued for some half hour or more; the
+little escort of Butler leaving the road and plunging into the recesses
+of the forest. An occasional pistol-shot was fired during this retreat,
+but without effect on either side. The tangled character of the ground
+over which they passed, greatly retarded the pursuit, and before the
+half hour was spent none but a few of the boldest horsemen of the
+assailants were found persevering in the chase. Seeing their number
+diminished, and finding also that the horses of his own comrades were
+beginning to flag, John Ramsay assumed the command, and directed his
+party to turn about and offer battle to the pursuers. The immediate
+effect of this movement was to bring the assailants to a halt, which
+was no sooner witnessed by John, than he shouted, "Charge, lads, charge
+and the day is ours! Hack and hew, good fellows: down with the
+bloodhounds!"
+
+This animated exhortation was followed up by a prompt onset, in which
+the brave trooper led the way; and such was the impetuosity of the
+assault that the enemy, although consisting of twice the number of those
+who attacked them, were forced to give ground. A sharp skirmish ensued,
+during which several pistol-shots were discharged on both sides, and
+some encounters, hand to hand, were sustained with a sturdy resolution;
+but, at last, our friends succeeded in turning their opponents to
+flight. The combat had been maintained in that pell-mell form of attack
+and defence, which defied compact or organized resistance; and the
+individuals of each party had been scattered over the wood for a
+considerable distance, so that when the late pursuers were compelled to
+retreat, each man urged his horse in such a direction as was most
+favorable to his escape. By degrees, Butler's few companions began to
+reassemble at that part of the wood where they had made their first
+stand.
+
+"There is nothing like striking the first blow at the right time," said
+Harry Winter, as, with his hat in his hand to allow the air to cool his
+brow, he rode up to Butler, and halted to gain breath. "Give me a hot
+charge on a slow enemy, and I don't care much about two to one of odds.
+Thank God that business is cleanly done, and here we are all safe I
+hope. Where is John Ramsay?" he inquired, looking around him, and
+observing that their comrade was not amongst the number assembled.
+
+"I saw him close at the heels of the runaways," said one of the men.
+"John has a trick of seeing a scrimmage to the end; and it is an even
+bet that he is now upon the trail like a fresh hound. The last I noticed
+of him was at the crupper of a couple of the rascals that, I'll engage,
+before now he has set his mark upon."
+
+"Then we must to his assistance!" exclaimed Butler, eagerly; and without
+waiting for further consultation he set off at full speed, in the
+supposed direction of John Ramsay's pursuit. The rest followed. They had
+ridden some distance without being able to perceive any traces of their
+missing companion. Butler called aloud upon Ramsay, but there was no
+answer; and, for some moments, there was an anxious suspense as the
+party halted to listen for the sound of the footsteps of the trooper's
+approach. At length, a horse was seen far off in the wood, bounding over
+the turf at a wild and frightened pace; the saddle was empty, and the
+bridle-rein hung about his feet. On seeing his companions, the excited
+steed set up a frequent neigh, and, with head and tail erect, coursed
+immediately up to the group of horsemen. Here he came to a sudden halt,
+snorting with the terror of his late alarm. There were drops of blood
+upon the saddle.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" cried Butler, "some evil has befallen Ramsay. Scatter
+and search the wood."
+
+It was with confused and melancholy earnestness that they all now
+continued the quest. After a painful suspense, one of the men was heard
+to shout to the rest that their lost comrade was found. The summons soon
+brought the party together. Ramsay, pale and faint, was stretched upon
+the grass of the forest, his bosom streaming forth a current of blood.
+In an instant Butler was seen stooping over him.
+
+"Oh, this is a heavy ransom, for my deliverance!" he said with the
+deepest anguish, as he raised the trooper's head and laid it on his lap,
+whilst the blood flowed from the wound. "Speak, dear friend, speak!
+Great God, I fear this blow is mortal! Some water, if it can be
+found--look for it, Winter; he has fainted from loss of blood."
+
+Whilst Harry Winter went in search of the necessary refreshment, Butler
+tore his cravat from his neck and applied it to staunch the wound. The
+administration of a slight draught of water, after a short interval,
+sufficiently revived the disabled soldier to enable him to speak. He
+turned his sickly and almost quenched eye to Butler, as he said:
+
+"I was foolish to follow so far. I have it here--here," he added in a
+feeble voice, as he put his hand upon his breast, "and it has done my
+work. I fought for you, major, because I was proud to fight for a
+friend; and because"--here his voice failed him, as for a moment he
+closed his eyes and faintly uttered--"it is all over--I am dying."
+
+"Nay, good John," said Butler, whilst the tears ran down his cheeks; "it
+is not so bad as that--you are weak from bleeding--you will be better
+presently. Oh God! oh God!" he muttered to himself, "I would not have
+had this to save my own life, much less as the price of my liberty!"
+
+"I fought for you," said the wounded man, again reviving, "because Mary
+wished it. This will kill Mary," he added after a pause. "She warned me
+not to be rash, but I could not help it. Be kind to her, Major Butler,
+and take care of her. Tell her I did not fear to die; but for her sake,
+and for the sake of my poor mother. Go to my parents; let them know I
+thought of them in my last thoughts."
+
+"John! John!" exclaimed Butler, unable to give further utterance to his
+feelings.
+
+The dying trooper lay for some moments silent, and his comrades stood
+around him in mute grief, and hung their heads to conceal their emotions
+from each other.
+
+"In my pocket," said Ramsay, "is a Testament. Mary gave it to me for a
+keepsake. Take it out."
+
+Butler drew forth the small volume.
+
+"What shall I do with it?" he asked, in a mournful whisper.
+
+"Give it to Mary, back from me. And this plait of her hair upon my
+wrist, major, take it and wear it on your own; it will remind you of my
+Mary--you will guard her from harm."
+
+"Before God, John Ramsay," said Butler with solemn fervor, "I promise
+you, that, while I live, she shall not want. Your parents, too, shall be
+my special care."
+
+"Then I shall die with easier heart. Thanks, thanks--friends, farewell!"
+feebly ejaculated the stricken soldier, whose eye, already glazed with
+the pangs of death, now glanced upon the attending group, and after a
+brief but painful interval closed in darkness.
+
+John Ramsay spake no more, and his short breathing showed that life was
+fast ebbing in its channel. The audible sobs of Butler, for some
+moments, were alone heard in the circle, as he sat supporting the head
+and grasping the hand of his brave comrade. The struggle was at last
+over, and the gallant spirit of the generous soldier had fled. Butler
+took from the wrist the bracelet of Mary's hair, which was now stained
+with the blood of its late owner, and with an earnest vow to redeem his
+promise, drew it over his own hand.
+
+The scene that followed this melancholy adventure was one of solemn
+interest. The proximity of the enemy, although defeated, rendered a
+delay at this spot, in the present circumstances of Butler, exceedingly
+hazardous; yet he could not entertain the thought of continuing his
+journey until he had communicated to David Ramsay the distressing
+tidings of his son's death. The last request of John seemed also to
+impose this task upon him as a sacred obligation, due to the friendship
+which had terminated in so disastrous an end. Butler's resolution,
+therefore, was soon taken. He determined immediately, at all hazards, to
+make his way back to Ramsay's cottage, and to endeavor to console the
+afflicted parents under their severe bereavement. Disdaining, in his
+present state of feeling, the disguise that seemed to make him almost a
+stranger to himself, he threw aside the miller's dress and again
+appeared in his true character, resolved manfully to meet what he now
+believed to be the almost certain result--a recapture with all its
+probable consequences. Some of his party, who were acquainted with the
+localities of their present position, suggested to him that a Whig
+family of the name of Drummond resided at no great distance from the
+scene of the late encounter, and that, by bearing the body to this
+place, they might secure for it a decent burial. The remains of the
+trooper were accordingly laid upon a rude litter, and his mourning
+comrades slowly and sorrowfully wended their way through the forest to
+the designated habitation. Here they arrived about noon, having
+traversed a space of more than two miles to gain this asylum.
+
+Drummond was a woodman, and occupied a rude cabin, with a small clearing
+around it, in the depths of the wilderness, so remote from the highway
+as to promise as much security from the quest of the enemy, as might be
+expected from any portion of the region in which he lived. He received
+his guests with kindness; and as he was himself acquainted with the
+family of the deceased, he exhibited a lively sympathy with the mourners
+around the body.
+
+When Butler now made known his purpose to set out immediately for the
+habitation of David Ramsay, Winter asked permission to accompany him,
+but the woodman interposed, and recommended that he alone should be
+permitted to perform that errand, leaving the others to remain with the
+corpse until his return.
+
+"It is, before all others, my duty," said Butler; "and come what may, I
+will perform it."
+
+"Then we will go together," added the proprietor of the cabin. "It will
+be wise to wait until the day is a little more spent, and return in the
+darkness of the night. David Ramsay will come back with us. He would
+like to see his son before we put him in the ground."
+
+"That shall be as you please, friend," said Butler. "I will be under
+your guidance."
+
+An hour or two before sundown, Butler and his new companion left the
+cabin, and took their route across the woods towards Ramsay's dwelling,
+leaving the dead body in charge of the woodman's family and the three
+soldiers. The distance they had to travel did not exceed eight miles.
+The repulse of the Tory party in the skirmish of the morning seemed to
+have induced a belief, on the part of the enemy, that the fugitives had
+made a successful retreat which was now beyond pursuit, and there were,
+in consequence, no parties on the road to molest the travellers. Under
+these circumstances, it was still daylight when they came in view of
+David Ramsay's homestead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Great agitation prevailed at Macdonald's post, when the morning
+disclosed the escape of Butler. The lieutenant was conscious that this
+mischance had exposed him to the risk of heavy censure, and as was
+natural to a man who could not entirely acquit himself of some neglect
+in the performance of his duty, his first measures were taken in a
+spirit of peevish and angry severity. Small parties were sent out to
+explore the neighborhood, with a view to gain intelligence of the
+direction taken by the fugitive, with orders to bring him in dead or
+alive. The sentinels who were on duty during the night were arrested,
+and subjected to a rigid examination on the events of their watch; the
+several members of Musgrove's family were also interrogated as to
+matters touching their own connexion with the prisoner. Nothing,
+however, was gathered from these investigations that was calculated to
+cast a suspicion of connivance in Butler's liberation, upon any
+individual either of the garrison or of the family. It was only apparent
+that the prisoner had availed himself of the remissness of the guard and
+the darkness of the night, to make a bold descent from the window; and
+had succeeded by one of those lucky accidents which sometimes baffle the
+most cautious foresight. The nature of the attempt did not necessarily
+suppose the aid of an accomplice, and a faint hope was, therefore,
+entertained that Butler would be found still lurking in the vicinity of
+the post.
+
+In the course of a few hours, the first parties that had been dispatched
+in the morning, returned. They could give no account of the prisoner;
+nor was there any light thrown upon the escape until about the dinner
+hour, when a portion of the detachment which had intercepted Butler and
+his comrades in the morning, arrived at the mill, under the conduct of
+the soldier whose suspicions had led to the pursuit and skirmish which
+we have already described. The report of these men left Macdonald no
+room to doubt the identity of Butler with the person described. A
+further examination, at the suggestion of the soldier, showed that
+Wall-Eye, the wagon-horse, was missing; and it now became certain that
+Butler had been aided by a party of the enemy with whom he must have
+been in correspondence. The conclusion was, that with his means of
+flight there could be little doubt of his being, long before the present
+period of the day, out of the reach of successful pursuit. The scheme
+was laid to the account of Horse Shoe Robinson, whose name and
+adventures were already famous in this district; and it was conjectured
+that Sumpter was secretly posted in some neighboring fastness to give
+his assistance to the enterprise.
+
+With these reflections, Macdonald felt himself obliged to submit to the
+exigencies of the case; a point of philosophy which he did not practise
+without a very visible chagrin and mortification. His men were called
+together, and after a short, fretful lecture on their neglect, and an
+injunction to a more soldier-like vigilance in future, which savored of
+the caution of locking the stable after the steed was stolen, they were
+dismissed.
+
+About an hour before sundown, Allen Musgrove and Mary, availing
+themselves of the confusion and relaxed discipline of the post,
+occasioned by the events of the morning, set out on horseback for David
+Ramsay's dwelling, whither they were led by a natural anxiety to learn
+something of the movements of the fugitives.
+
+"It's a pleasure and a happiness, Allen Musgrove," said Mistress Ramsay,
+as the miller and his daughter sat down in the cabin, "to see you and
+Mary over here with us at any time, but it is specially so now when we
+have good news to tell. John and his friend are safe out of reach of
+Macdonald's men, and--God be praised!--I hope out of the way of all
+other harms. We have had soldiers dodging in and out through the day,
+but not one of them has made any guess what's gone with the major; and
+as for John, they don't seem to suspect him to be on the country-side.
+It's all Horse Shoe Robinson with them. They say that none but he could
+have helped to get the major away, and that General Sumpter was the
+instigator. Well, I'm sure they were welcome to that opinion, for it set
+them all to looking over towards Broad river, which is as good a
+direction as we could wish them to travel."
+
+"The less you seem to know about it, with any of these inquiring
+parties, the better, Mistress Ramsay," said Allen Musgrove, "and I would
+advise you, even here amongst ourselves, to speak lower, David, what do
+you hear this evening?"
+
+"Nothing concerning our runaways since they left us at daylight this
+morning," replied Ramsay. "I should guess them to be somewhere near upon
+Fair Forest by this time. You know Williams is out-lying upon the upper
+branches of the river? It is more like hunted deer, Allen, than
+Christian men, that our poor fellows take to the woods now. God knows
+what will come of it!"
+
+"He knows and has appointed it," said Musgrove, gravely, "and will in
+His own good time and with such instruments as shall faithfully work His
+purpose, give the victory to them that have the right. Man, woman, and
+child may perish, and house and home may be burnt over our heads, and
+the blood of brave men may make the dust of the road red; yes, and the
+pastures rich as if new laid with manure; but the will of God shall be
+done and His providence be accomplished. The cause of the just shall
+prevail against the unjust."
+
+"There were no soldiers," inquired Mary, addressing David Ramsay, "that
+you have heard of, who followed towards Fair Forest? I should be sorry
+if John was to be troubled with persons going after him; because,"--the
+maiden hesitated an instant,--"because it's unpleasant and disagreeable
+to be obliged to be riding off the road, through bushes and briers, to
+keep out of the way."
+
+"If they were not greatly an overmatch, girl," interrupted Ramsay, "John
+wouldn't give himself much trouble upon that account."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Ramsay," said Mary earnestly, "I was thinking of that. It's
+hard to say what John would call an overmatch: men are so headstrong and
+venturesome."
+
+"That's God's own truth, Mary," interposed Mrs. Ramsay; "and what I have
+always been telling David and John both. But they never heed me, no more
+than if I was talking to the child in that cradle."
+
+"I've told John as much myself," said Mary, blushing.
+
+"And he would not heed you either," interrupted her father, "A soldier
+would have a holiday life of it, if he followed the advice of his
+mother or his sweetheart. Daughter, amongst friends here, you needn't
+blush; we know more of the secrets betwixt you and the trooper lad than
+you count upon. John's a clever boy, Mistress Ramsay, and I think you
+have reason to brag of him somewhat; and as there's particular good-will
+between him and my Mary, I'll not stand in the way when the war is over,
+if God spares us all, and Mary and the lad keep in the same mind; I'll
+not stand in the way of a new settlement in the neighborhood. Mary is a
+good daughter, well nurtured, and--I don't care to say it to her
+face--will make a thriving wife."
+
+The mother smiled as she replied, "I don't pretend to know the young
+people's secrets, but I know this, you don't think better of Mary than
+John does--nor than me neither, perhaps."
+
+The conversation was interrupted by a knocking at the door, and, in a
+moment afterwards, Arthur Butler and the woodman entered the apartment.
+
+"Major Butler, as I am a living woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Ramsay.
+
+"Our good friend himself!" ejaculated Musgrove, with surprise. "What has
+turned you back? And Gabriel Drummond here too! What has happened?"
+
+"Where is my son John?" demanded Ramsay. "Are you followed?"
+
+Butler walked up to Mrs. Ramsay, and, as a tear started to his eye, took
+her by the hand, and stood for a moment unable to speak.
+
+"Oh, heaven have mercy on me!" screamed Mary Musgrove, as she threw
+herself upon a bed, "something dreadful has happened."
+
+"For God's sake, speak what you have to tell!" said David Ramsay,
+instantly turning pale.
+
+"John Ramsay is hurt," faintly articulated the mother, and Mary, rising
+from the bed, stood beside Butler with a countenance on which was seated
+the most agonizing attention. Andy, the hero of the exploit we have
+heretofore related, also pressed into the presence of the same group,
+and a death-like silence pervaded the whole party.
+
+Butler, with an ineffectual effort to recover himself, turned to
+Drummond, making a sign to him to tell the object of their melancholy
+errand, and then flung himself into a chair.
+
+"John Ramsay is dead," said the woodman, in a mournful tone. "Your son,
+mistress Ramsay, was shot in a fray with the bloody, villanous Tories.
+The heartiest curses upon them!"
+
+"Killed, dear madam," said Butler, scarce able to articulate, "killed in
+my defence. Would to God the blow had fallen upon my own head!"
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" exclaimed the matron, as a flood of tears rolled down
+her cheeks, and she endeavored to wipe them away with her apron. "It
+isn't true. It can't be true. My poor, dear, brave boy!"
+
+At the same instant Mary Musgrove fell insensible into the arms of her
+father, where it was some moments before she gave signs of animation. At
+length, being laid upon the bed, a deep groan escaped her, which was
+followed by the most piteous wailing.
+
+The scene wrought upon the younger members of the family, who, as well
+as the domestics, were heard pouring forth deep and loud lamentations,
+accompanied with reiterated announcements of the death of the soldier.
+
+When this first burst of the general grief was over, David Ramsay arose
+from his seat and walked across the room to a window, where he stood
+endeavoring to compose and master his feelings. At length, facing
+Butler, he said in a low and tranquil tone,
+
+"John Ramsay, my son, killed, killed in a skirmish? God is my witness, I
+expected it! It was his failing to follow his enemy with too hot a hand;
+and I am to blame, perhaps, that I never checked him in that temper. But
+he died like a man and a soldier, Major Butler," he added, firmly.
+
+"He died in my arms," replied Butler, "as bravely as ever soldier closed
+his life, his last thoughts were fixed upon his parents, and--"
+
+"Dead!" interrupted Ramsay, as if communing with himself, and regardless
+of Butler's words--"Dead! He fell doing his duty to his country, that's
+a consolation. A man cannot die better. If it please God, I hope my end
+may be like his. Andrew, my boy, come here. You are now my oldest living
+son," he said, taking the lad's hand and looking him full in the face,
+as he spoke with a bitter compression of his lips; "I am willing, much
+as I love you, that the country should have you."
+
+"No, David, David," interrupted the mother, rousing herself from her
+silent grief, "we have given enough; no other child of mine shall
+venture in the war. John! John! John! my dear boy, my brave son! How
+good and kind he was to us all! And how glad he was to get home to see
+us; and how much we made of him!"
+
+"Silence, wife," said David Ramsay, "this is no time to hold back from
+our duty. Andrew, listen to me: remember your brother has met his death
+fighting against these monsters, who hate the very earth that nurses
+liberty. You are young, boy, but you can handle a musket; we will not
+forget your brother's death."
+
+"Nor the burning of a good house over your head, and a full barn,
+father; nor the frights they have given my poor mother."
+
+"Nor the thousands of brave men," added the father, "who have poured out
+their blood to give us a land and laws of our own. My boy, we will
+remember these, for vengeance."
+
+"Not for vengeance," said Allen Musgrove, "for justice, David. Your
+enemy should be remembered only to prevent him from doing mischief. The
+Lord will give him sword and buckler, spear and shield, who stands up
+for the true cause: and when it pleases Him to require the sacrifice of
+life from the faithful servant who fights the battle, he grants patience
+and courage to meet the trial. Your son was not the man, David, to turn
+his face away from the work that was before him; may God receive him and
+comfort his distressed family! He was an honest and brave son, David
+Ramsay."
+
+"A braver soldier never buckled on broadsword, Allen Musgrove," replied
+the father. "Yes, I looked for this; ever since my dwelling was levelled
+to the ground by these firebrands, I looked for it. John's passion was
+up then, and I knew the thoughts that ran through his mind. Ever since
+that day his feelings have been most bitter; and he has flung himself
+amongst the Tories, making as little account of them as the mower when
+he puts his scythe into the grass of the meadows."
+
+"God forgive him, David!" said Musgrove, "and strengthen you and the
+boy's good mother in this sharp hour of trial. They who draw the sword
+in passion may stand in fear of the judgment of the sword: it is a
+fearful thing for sinful man to shed blood for any end but that of
+lawful war, and at the bidding of his country. God alone is the
+avenger."
+
+Mary had again raised herself from the bed, and at this moment gave vent
+to her feelings in a loud and bitter lamentation "John Ramsay is dead,
+is dead!" she exclaimed. "I cannot believe it. He that was so true and
+so warm-hearted, and that everybody loved! They could not kill him! Oh,
+I begged him to keep his foot from danger, and he promised me, for my
+sake, to be careful. I loved him, father; I never told you so much
+before, but I am not ashamed to tell it now before everybody; I loved
+him better than all the world. And we had promised each other. It is so
+hard to lose them that we love!" she continued, sobbing violently. "He
+was so brave and so good, and he was so handsome, Mrs. Ramsay, and so
+dutiful to you and his father, coming home to see you whenever the war
+would let him. And he walked, and rode, and ran, and fought for his
+friends, and them that he cared for. He was so thoughtful for your
+comfort too," she added, as she threw herself on her knees and rested
+her head in the lap of the mother, and there paused through a long
+interval, during which nothing was heard but her own moans mingled with
+the sighs of the party, "we were to be married after this war was at an
+end, and thought we should live so happily: but they have murdered him!
+Oh they have murdered him," and with her hair thrown in disorder over
+her face, she again gave vent to a flood of tears.
+
+"Mary, daughter! Shame on you, girl!" said her father. "Do you forget,
+in the hour of your affliction, that you have a friend who is able to
+comfort? There is one who can heal up your sorrows and speak peace to
+your troubled spirit, if you be not too proud to ask it. I have taught
+you, daughter, in all time of tribulation to look to Him for patience
+and for strength to bear adversity. Why do you neglect this refuge now?"
+
+"Our Father," said the maiden, fervently clasping her hands and lifting
+up her eyes, now dim with weeping, as she appealed to God in prayer,
+"who art in heaven--teach us all to say thy will be done. Take--take--my
+dear John--Oh my heart will burst and I shall die!" she uttered, almost
+overwhelmed with her emotions, as she again buried her face in Mistress
+Ramsay's lap--"I cannot speak!"
+
+A silence of inexpressible agony prevailed for some moments. This was at
+length interrupted by the uprising of the full, clear, and firm voice of
+Allen Musgrove, who now broke forth from the opposite side of a room
+where he had kneeled before a chair, in an earnest and impressive
+supplication to the Deity, urged with all that eloquence which naturally
+flows from deeply-excited feeling. From the solemnity of the occasion,
+as well as from the habitually religious temper of the family assembled
+in the little cabin, the words of the prayer fell upon the hearts of
+those present with a singularly welcome effect, and, for the moment,
+brought tranquillity to their feelings.
+
+When the prayer was ended, the grief of the mourners rolled back in its
+former flood, and burst from Mary Musgrove in the most heart-rending
+bitterness. Paroxysm followed paroxysm with fearful violence, and these
+outbreaks were responded to by the mother with scarcely less intensity.
+All attempts at consolation, on the part of the men, were unavailing;
+and it was apparent that nothing remained but to let the tide of anguish
+take its own course.
+
+It was now some time after night-fall, when Butler and Drummond beckoned
+Allen Musgrove to leave the room. They retired into the open air in
+front of the house, where they were immediately joined by David Ramsay.
+Here Butler communicated to them the necessity of making immediate
+arrangements for their return to the woodman's cottage, and for the
+burial of the deceased trooper. His advice was adopted, and it was
+resolved that Musgrove and Ramsay should accompany the other two to the
+spot. Before the consultation was closed, Andy had come into the group,
+and he was now directed, with all haste, to throw a saddle upon his
+father's horse.
+
+"You, Andrew, my son," said David Ramsay, "will stay at home and comfort
+your poor mother, and Mary. Speak to them, boy, and persuade them to
+give up their useless lamentations. It is the will of God, and we ought
+not to murmur at it."
+
+"The burning, father," replied the boy, with a sorrowful earnestness,
+"and the fighting, and the frights we have had, was all nothing to this.
+I never felt before how terrible the war was."
+
+Andy had now gone to equip the horse, and the men returned to the inside
+of the cabin, where they sat in profound silence. Butler, at length,
+rose from the door-sill where he had taken his seat, and crossing the
+room, took a position by the bed on which Mary Musgrove had thrown
+herself, and where she now lay uttering faint and half-smothered moans.
+
+"I have a remembrance for you," he said, stooping down and speaking
+scarce above a whisper in the maiden's ear; "I promised to deliver it
+into your hand. God knows with what pain I perform my office! John
+enjoined upon me to give you this," he continued, as he presented to her
+the little copy of the Testament, "and to say to you that his last
+thoughts were given to you and his mother. He loved you, Mary, better
+than he loved any living creature in this world."
+
+"He did, he did," sobbed forth the girl; "and I loved him far above
+family, friends, kinsfolk and all--I wish I were dead by his side."
+
+"Take the book," said Butler, hardly able to articulate. "God for ever
+bless you," he added, after a pause of weeping, "and bring you comfort!
+I have promised John Ramsay, that neither you, nor any of his family,
+shall ever want the service of a friend, while I have life or means to
+render it. Before Heaven, that pledge shall be redeemed! Farewell,
+farewell! God bless you!"
+
+As Butler uttered these words he grasped the maiden's hand and pressed
+it fervently to his lips; then turning to the mother, he addressed some
+phrase of comfort to her, and hastily left the room. Scarcely a sound
+was heard from any one, except the low sobbing of the exhausted weepers,
+and the almost convulsive kisses which Mary imprinted upon the little
+book that Butler had put into her hand.
+
+Musgrove, Ramsay, and the woodman, retired from the apartment at the
+same moment; and the horses being ready at the door, the retreating beat
+of the hoofs upon the turf gave notice to the in-dwellers that the four
+men had set forward on their journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+A RUSTIC FUNERAL.
+
+    How glumly sounds yon dirgy song;
+    Night ravens flap the wing.--_Burger's Leonora._
+
+
+By eleven o'clock at night, Butler and the party from Ramsay's arrived
+at the woodman's cabin. Winter and his comrades had been busy in making
+preparations for the funeral. The body had been laid out upon a table, a
+sheet thrown over it, and a pine torch blazed from the chimney wall
+close by, and flung its broad, red glare over the apartment. An elderly
+female, the wife of the woodman, and two or three children, sat quietly
+in the room. The small detachment of troopers loitered around the
+corpse, walking with stealthy pace across the floor, and now and then
+adjusting such matters of detail in the arrangements for the interment
+as required their attention. A rude coffin, hastily constructed of such
+materials as were at hand, was deposited near the table. A solemn
+silence prevailed, which no less consisted with the gloom of the
+occasion than with the late hour of the night.
+
+When the newly arrived party had dismounted and entered the apartment, a
+short salutation, in suppressed tones, was exchanged, and without
+further delay, the whole company set themselves to the melancholy duty
+that was before them. David Ramsay approached the body, and, turning the
+sheet down from the face, stood gazing on the features of his son. There
+was a settled frown upon his brow that contrasted signally with the
+composed and tranquil lineaments of the deceased. The father and son
+presented a strange and remarkable type of life and death--the
+countenance of the mourner stamped by the agitation of keen, living
+emotion, and the object mourned bearing the impress of a serene, placid,
+and passionless repose:--the one a vivid picture of misery, the other a
+quiet image of happy sleep. David Ramsay bent his looks upon the body
+for some minutes, without an endeavor to speak, and at last retreated
+towards the door, striking his hand upon his forehead as he breathed out
+the ejaculation, "My son, my son, how willingly would I change places
+with you this night!"
+
+Allen Musgrove was less agitated by the spectacle, and whilst he
+surveyed the features of the deceased, his lips were moved with the
+utterance of a short and almost inaudible prayer. Then turning to
+Drummond, he inquired: "Has the grave been thought of? Who has attended
+to the preparations?"
+
+"It has been thought of," replied the woodman; "I sent two of my people
+off to dig it before I went with Major Butler to see David. We have a
+grave-yard across in the woods, nigh a mile from this, and I thought it
+best that John Ramsay should be buried there."
+
+"It was kindly thought on by you, Gabriel," replied Musgrove. "You have
+your father and others of your family in that spot. David Ramsay will
+thank you for it."
+
+"I do, heartily," said Ramsay, "and will remember it, Gabriel, at
+another time."
+
+"Let the body be lifted into the coffin," said Musgrove.
+
+The order was promptly executed by Harry Winter and the other troopers.
+In a few minutes afterwards, the rough boards which had been provided to
+close up the box or coffin, were laid in their appropriate places, and
+Winter had just begun to hammer the nails into them, when from the
+outside of the cabin was heard a wild and piercing scream, that fell so
+suddenly upon the ears of those within as to cause the trooper to drop
+the hammer from his hand. In one moment more, Mary Musgrove rushed into
+the room and fell prostrate upon the floor. She was instantly followed
+by Andrew.
+
+"God of heaven!" exclaimed Butler, "here is misery upon misery. This
+poor girl's brain is crazed by her misfortune. This is worst of all!"
+
+"Mary, Mary, my child!" ejaculated Musgrove, as he raised his daughter
+into his arms. "What madness has come upon you, that you should have
+wandered here to-night!"
+
+"How has this happened, Andrew?" said David Ramsay, all speaking in the
+same breath.
+
+"When Mary heard," replied Andrew, in answer to his father's question,
+"that you had all come to Gabriel Drummond's to bury my brother, she
+couldn't rest content; and she prayed so pitifully to come after you,
+and see him before they put him in the ground, that I thought it right
+to tell her that I would come with her. And if I hadn't, she would have
+come by herself; for she had got upon her horse before any of us were
+aware."
+
+"I couldn't stay at home, father," said Mary, reviving and speaking in a
+firm voice. "I should have died with a broken heart. I couldn't let you
+come to put him in the earth without following after you. Where is he? I
+heard them nailing the coffin; it must be broken open for me to see
+him!"
+
+These words, uttered with a bitter vehemence, were followed by a quick
+movement towards the coffin, which was yet unclosed; and the maiden,
+with more composure than her previous gestures seemed to render it
+possible for her to acquire, paused before the body with a look of
+intense sorrow, as the tears fell fast from her eyes.
+
+"It is true--it is too true--he is dead! Oh, John, John!" she exclaimed,
+as she stooped down and kissed the cold lips, "I did not dream of this
+when we parted last night near the willows. You did not look as you do
+now, when I found you asleep under the rock, and when you promised me,
+John, that you would be careful and keep yourself from danger, if it was
+only to please me. We were doing our best for you then, Major
+Butler--and here is what it has come to. No longer than last night he
+made me the promise. Oh me, oh me! how wretched--how miserable I am!"
+
+"Daughter, dear," said Allen Musgrove, "rise up and behave like a brave
+girl as, you know, I have often told you you were. We are born to
+afflictions, and young as you are, you cannot hope to be free from the
+common lot. You do yourself harm by this ungoverned grief. There's a
+good and a kind girl--sit yourself down and calm your feelings."
+
+Musgrove took his daughter by the hand, and gently conducted her to a
+seat, where he continued to address her in soothing language, secretly
+afraid that the agony of her feelings might work some serious misfortune
+upon her senses.
+
+"You are not angry with me, father, for following you to-night?" said
+Mary, for a moment moderating the wildness of her sorrow.
+
+"No, child, no. I cannot be angry with you; but I fear this long
+night-ride may do you harm."
+
+"I can but die, father; and I would not step aside from that."
+
+"Recollect yourself, Mary; your Bible does not teach you to wish for
+death. It is sinful to rebel under the chastisements of God. Daughter, I
+have taught you in your day of prosperity, the lessons that were to be
+practised in your time of suffering and trial. Do not now turn me and my
+precepts to shame."
+
+"Oh, father, forgive me. It is so hard to lose the best, the dearest!"
+Here Mary again gave way to emotions which could only relieve themselves
+in profuse tears.
+
+In the meantime the body was removed to the outside of the cabin, and
+the coffin was speedily shut up and deposited upon a light wagon-frame,
+to which two lean horses were already harnessed, and which waited to
+convey its burden to the grave-yard.
+
+"All is ready," said Winter, stepping quietly into the house, and
+speaking in a low tone to Musgrove. "We are waiting only for you."
+
+"Father," said Mary, who, on hearing this communication, had sprung to
+her feet, "I must go with you."
+
+"My child!"
+
+"I came all this way through the dark woods on purpose, father--and it
+is my right to go with him to his grave. Pray, dear father, do not
+forbid me. We belonged to each other, and he would be glad to think I
+was the last that left him--the very last."
+
+"The poor child takes on so," said the wife of Drummond, now for the
+first time interposing in the scene; "and it seems natural, Mr.
+Musgrove, that you shouldn't hinder her. I will go along, and maybe it
+will be a comfort to her, to have some woman-kind beside her. I will
+take her hand."
+
+"You shall go, Mary," said her father; "but on the condition that you
+govern your feelings, and behave with the moderation of a Christian
+woman. Take courage, my child, and show your nurture."
+
+"I will, father--I will; the worst is past, and I can walk quietly to
+John's grave," replied Mary, as the tears again flowed fast, and her
+voice was stifled with her sobs.
+
+"It is a heavy trouble for such a young creature to bear," said Mistress
+Drummond, as she stood beside the maiden, waiting for this burst of
+grief to subside; "but this world is full of such sorrows."
+
+Musgrove now quitted the apartment. He was followed by his daughter and
+the rest of the inmates, all of whom repaired to the front of the cabin,
+where they awaited the removal of the body.
+
+A bundle of pine faggots had been provided, and each one of the party
+was supplied from them with a lighted torch. Some little delay occurred
+whilst Harry Winter was concluding his arrangements for the funeral.
+
+"Take your weapons along, boys," said the trooper to his comrades, in a
+whisper. "John Ramsay shall have the honors of war--and mark, you are to
+bring up the rear--let the women walk next the wagon. Gabriel Drummond,
+bring your rifle along--we shall give a volley over the grave."
+
+The woodman stepped into the cabin and returned with his fire lock. All
+things being ready, the wagon, under the guidance of a negro who walked
+at the horses' heads, now moved forward. The whole party formed a
+procession in couples--the woodman's wife and Mary being first in the
+train, the children succeeding them, and the rest following in regular
+order.
+
+It was an hour after midnight. The road, scarcely discernible, wound
+through a thick forest, and the procession moved with a slow and heavy
+step towards its destination. The torches lit up the darkness of the
+wood with a strong flame, that penetrated the mass of sombre foliage to
+the extent of some fifty paces around, and glared with a wild and
+romantic effect upon the rude coffin, the homely vehicle on which it was
+borne, and upon the sorrowing faces of the train that followed it. The
+seclusion of the region, the unwonted hour, and the strange mixture of
+domestic and military mourning, half rustic and half warlike, that
+entered into the composition of the group; and, above all, the
+manifestations of sincere and intense grief that were seen in every
+member of the train, communicated to the incident a singularly
+imaginative and unusual character. No words were spoken, except the few
+orders of the march announced by Harry Winter in a whisper; and the ear
+recognised, with a painful precision, the unceasing sobs of Mary
+Musgrove, and the deep groan that seemed, unawares, to escape now and
+then from some of the males of the party. The dull tramp of feet, and
+the rusty creak of the wagon-wheels, or the crackling of brushwood
+beneath them, and the monotonous clank of the chains employed in the
+gearing of the horses, all broke upon the stillness of the night with a
+more abrupt and observed distinctness, from the peculiar tone of feeling
+which pervaded those who were engaged in the sad offices of the scene.
+
+In the space of half an hour, the train had emerged from the wood upon a
+small tract of open ground, that seemed to have been formerly cleared
+from the forest for the purpose of cultivation. Whatever tillage might
+have once existed there was now abandoned, and the space was overgrown
+with brambles, through which the blind road still struggled by a track
+that even in daylight it would have been difficult to pursue. Towards
+the centre of this opening grew a cluster of low cherry and peach trees,
+around whose roots a plentiful stock of wild scions had shot up in the
+absence of culture. Close in the shade of this cluster, a ragged and
+half-decayed paling formed a square inclosure of some ten or twelve
+paces broad, and a few rude posts set up within, indicated the spot to
+be the rustic grave-yard. Here two negroes were seen resting over a
+newly-dug grave.
+
+The wagon halted within some short distance of the paling, and the
+coffin was now committed to the shoulders of the troopers. Following
+these, the whole train of mourners entered the burial-place.
+
+My reader will readily imagine with what fresh fervor the grief of poor
+Mary broke forth, whilst standing on the verge of the pit in which were
+to be entombed the remains of one so dear to her. The solemn interval or
+pause which intervened between the arrival of the corpse at this spot,
+and its being lowered into the ground, was one that was not signalized
+only by the loud sorrow of her who here bore the part of chief mourner;
+but all, even to the negroes who stood musing over their spades, gave
+vent to feelings which, at such a moment, it neither belongs to
+humanity, nor becomes it, to resist.
+
+The funeral service was performed by Allen Musgrove. The character of
+the miller, both physical and moral, impressed his present employment
+with singular efficacy. Though his frame bore the traces of age, it was
+still robust and muscular; and his bearing, erect and steadfast, denoted
+firmness of mind. His head, partially bald, was now uncovered; and his
+loose, whitened locks played in the breeze. The torches were raised
+above the group; and as they flared in the wind and flung their heavy
+volumes of smoke into the air, they threw also a blaze of light upon the
+venerable figure of the miller, as he poured forth an impassioned
+supplication to the Deity; which, according to the habit of thinking of
+that period, and conformably also to the tenets of the religious sect to
+which the speaker belonged, might be said to have expressed, in an equal
+degree, resignation to the will of Heaven and defiance of the power of
+man. Though the office at the grave was thus prolonged, it did not seem
+to be unexpected or wearisome to the auditory, who remained with
+unabated interest until they had chanted a hymn, which was given out by
+the miller, and sung in successive couplets. The religious observances
+of the place seemed to have taken a profitable hold upon the hearts of
+the mourners; and before the hymn was concluded, even the voice of Mary
+Musgrove rose with a clear cadence upon the air, and showed that the
+inspirations of piety had already supplanted some of the more violent
+paroxysms of grief.
+
+This exercise of devotion being finished, the greater part of the
+company began their retreat to the woodman's cabin. Winter and his
+comrades remained to perform the useless and idle ceremony of
+discharging their pistols over the grave, and when this was accomplished
+they hurried forward to overtake the party in advance.
+
+They had scarcely rejoined their companions, before the horses of the
+wagon were seized by an unknown hand; and the glare of the torches
+presented to the view of the company some fifteen or twenty files of
+British troopers.
+
+"Stand, I charge you all, in the name of the king!" called out an
+authoritative voice from the contiguous thicket; and before another
+word could be uttered, the funeral train found themselves surrounded by
+enemies.
+
+"Hands off!" exclaimed Butler, as a soldier had seized him by the coat.
+A pistol shot was heard, and Butler was seen plunging into the wood,
+followed by Winter and one or two others.
+
+The fugitives were pursued by numbers of the hostile party, and in a few
+moments were dragged back to the lights.
+
+"Who are you, sir?" demanded an officer, who now rode up to Butler,
+"that you dare to disobey a command in the name of the king? Friend or
+foe, you must submit to be questioned."
+
+"We have been engaged," said Allen Musgrove, "in the peaceful and
+Christian duty of burying the dead. What right have you to interrupt
+us?"
+
+"You take a strange hour for such a work," replied the officer, "and, by
+the volley fired over the grave, I doubt whether your service be so
+peaceful as you pretend, old man. What is he that you have laid beneath
+the turf to-night?"
+
+"A soldier," replied Butler, "worthy of all the rites that belong to the
+sepulture of a brave man."
+
+"And you are a comrade, I suppose?"
+
+"I do not deny it."
+
+"What colors do you serve?"
+
+"Who is he that asks?"
+
+"Captain McAlpine of the new levies," replied the officer. "Now, sir,
+your name and character? you must be convinced of my right to know it."
+
+"I have no motive for concealment," said Butler, "since I am already in
+your power. Myself and four comrades are strictly your prisoners; the
+rest of this party are inhabitants of the neighboring country, having no
+connexion with the war, but led hither by a simple wish to perform an
+office of humanity to a deceased friend. In surrendering myself and
+those under my command, I bespeak for the others an immunity from all
+vexatious detention. I am an officer of the Continental service: Butler
+is my name, my rank, a major of infantry."
+
+After a few words more of explanation, the party were directed by the
+British officer to continue their march to Drummond's cabin, whither,
+in a brief space, they arrived under the escort of their captors.
+
+A wakeful night was passed under the woodman's roof; and when morning
+came the circumstances of the recapture of Butler were more fully
+disclosed. The detachment under Captain McAlpine were on their way to
+join Ferguson, who was now posted in the upper district; and being
+attracted by the sound of voices engaged in chanting the psalm at the
+funeral of John Ramsay, and still more by the discharge of the volley
+over the grave, they had directed their march to the spot, which they
+had no difficulty in reaching by the help of the torches borne by the
+mourners.
+
+The detachment consisted of a company of horse numbering some fifty men,
+who had no scruple in seizing upon Butler and his companions as
+prisoners of war. It was some relief to Butler when he ascertained that
+his present captors were ignorant of his previous history, and were
+unconnected with those who had formerly held him in custody. He was also
+gratified with the assurance that no design was entertained to molest
+any others of the party, except those whom Butler himself indicated as
+belligerents.
+
+Captain McAlpine halted with his men at the woodman's cabin, until after
+sunrise. During this interval, Butler was enabled to prepare himself for
+the journey he was about to commence, and to take an affectionate leave
+of Musgrove and his daughter, David Ramsay, and the woodman's family.
+
+Allen Musgrove and Mary, and their friend Ramsay, deemed it prudent to
+retreat with the first permission given them by the British officer;
+and, not long afterwards, Butler and his comrades found themselves in
+the escort of the Tory cavalry, bound for Ferguson's camp.
+
+Thus, once more, was Butler doomed to feel the vexations of captivity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+A COUNCIL OF WAR AT MRS. MARKHAM'S. THE SERGEANT SETS FORTH ON AN
+ADVENTURE.
+
+
+We return to Mildred Lindsay, who, comfortably sheltered under the roof
+of Mrs. Markham, had found herself, after the repose of forty-eight
+hours, almost entirely reinstated in her former strength; her thoughts
+were now consequently directed to the resumption of her journey. The
+gentle and assiduous attentions of the family whose hospitality she
+enjoyed, were, however, not confined to the mere restoration of her
+health. The peculiarity of her condition, thus thrown as she was amongst
+strangers, in the prosecution of an enterprise, which, though its
+purpose was not disclosed to her entertainer, was one manifestly of
+great peril, and such only as could have been induced by some urgent and
+imperious necessity, awakened in Mrs. Markham a lively interest towards
+Mildred's future progress. This interest was increased by the deportment
+of our heroine herself, whose mild and graceful courtesy, feminine
+delicacy, and gentleness of nurture, were so signally contrasted with
+the romantic hardihood of her present expedition. General Marion's
+letter, also, in the estimation of the hostess, put her under a special
+obligation to look after the welfare of her guest. Accordingly, now when
+the third morning of our travellers' sojourn had arrived, and Mildred
+thought of taking leave of the friendly family, the first announcement
+of this purpose was met by an almost positive prohibition.
+
+"You are young, my dear," said the matron, "in your experience of the
+horrors of this civil war, and make a sad mistake if you think that your
+sex, or any sufficient reason you may have to justify you in going on,
+will protect you against insult, in case you should be so unfortunate as
+to meet parties of the enemy."
+
+"My object, madam," replied Mildred, "is to go into the very heart of
+the enemy's ranks. My business is to see Lord Cornwallis himself. I
+shall, therefore, proceed directly to his head-quarters. That being my
+purpose, I shall not regret the opportunity to throw myself upon the
+protection of the first band of loyal troops I may meet."
+
+"Into Lord Cornwallis's presence!" said Mrs. Markham, with an expression
+of wonder. "You have some very near friend who has suffered in the late
+battle--a prisoner, perhaps?" As this question escaped the lips of the
+lady, who had hitherto purposely forborne to inquire into the private
+history of Mildred's journey, she shook her head distrustfully, and,
+after some deliberation, added, "You will pardon me, my child, for what
+may seem to be an idle curiosity--I seek to know nothing that you may
+desire to keep secret--but your journey is so full of hazard to one so
+young and helpless as yourself, that I fear you have not wisely
+considered the evil chances to which you may be exposed."
+
+"I have spent no thought upon the hazard, madam," replied Mildred.
+"There is no degree of danger that should outweigh my resolution. You
+guess truly--I have a friend who is a prisoner, and in sad jeopardy--and
+more than that, dear madam, I have persuaded myself that I have power to
+save him." A tear started in her eye as she added, "That is all I have
+thought of."
+
+"Then may a kind and merciful Heaven shield you! They little know the
+heart-rending trials of war, who have not felt them as I have. These
+rude soldiers, Miss Lindsay--I shudder at the thought of your trusting
+your safety to them."
+
+"My name, madam," replied Mildred, "I am ashamed to tell you, has all
+its associations on their side--I must trust to its power to bear me
+through."
+
+"Not all, sister," interrupted Henry. "From the beginning up to this
+day, I can answer for myself, I have never had a thought that didn't
+take sides against the red-coats."
+
+A faint smile played upon Mrs. Markham's features, as she turned to
+Henry and said, "You are a young rebel, and a warm one, I perceive. Such
+troubles as ours require grave advisers."
+
+"My brother and myself must not be misapprehended," continued Mildred;
+"I alluded only to my father's influence. I have heard that he enjoys
+some consideration in the esteem of Lord Cornwallis, and it is upon the
+strength of that I have ventured. Besides, I am well attended by a
+careful and wise soldier, who rides as my companion and guide--one who
+would not quietly see me harmed."
+
+"Let him be brought into our consultation," said Mrs. Markham. "I would
+not act without his advice. With your leave, I will send for him."
+
+Henry and Alfred Markham, immediately upon this hint, went in pursuit of
+Horse Shoe.
+
+When that important and trusty personage arrived in the parlor, a
+regular conference was opened, which, after a few discourses on the
+general aspect of affairs--wherein the sergeant showed an abundance of
+soldierly sagacity and knowledge, and a still greater share of warm and
+faithful concern for the welfare of the sister and brother whom he had
+in ward--resulted in the conclusion that measures should be taken to
+ascertain the state of the country around, in reference to the
+impression made by the late movements of Marion and his adversary; and,
+especially, what character of troops occupied the region over which the
+sergeant would be required to conduct his charge. This duty the sergeant
+very appropriately considered as belonging to himself, and he therefore
+determined forthwith to set out on a reconnoitring expedition. As we
+propose to bear him company, we will, for the present, leave the family
+in the parlor to the enjoyment of the kind communion that had already
+nursed up a mutual affection between the hostess and her guests.
+
+The sergeant took his departure alone, notwithstanding the urgent
+importunities of Henry and his new companion, Alfred Markham, for
+permission to accompany him--a request that was utterly denied by the
+sturdy and cautious soldier.
+
+"You are apt to talk too much, Mister Lindsay," he said, in answer to
+the petition of the young men, "for such a piece of business as I have
+in hand: for although, consarning your good sense, and valor both,
+considering your years, I would not be thought to speak rashly of
+them--but, on the contrary, to give you full praise and
+recommendation--yet you know you want experience and use to these
+duble-dealings and dodgings that the war puts us to; whereupon, you
+mought fall to talking when it was best to be silent, and, in case of
+our meeting a body, to be letting out somewhat too much, which is a
+thing that discommodes in war more than you would believe. And besides
+this, Master Henry, there might be, mayhap, a scrimmage, a chase, and
+what not--in which consideration you would be only in my way, seeing
+that I should be obliged to be thinking of you when all my wits would be
+wanting for myself. No, no; upon no account is it reasonable that you
+should be along. It is your business to sarve as a body-guard to our
+young lady, who, I say, may God bless and take care of in this world and
+the next! And so, Mister Henry, you have my orders to stick to your
+post."
+
+"Well, sergeant," replied Henry, "I must obey orders, and if you command
+me to stay behind, why I cannot choose about it. But, sergeant, let me
+give you a word of advice. Ride cautiously--keep your eyes to the right
+and left, as well as straight before you--and don't let them catch you
+napping."
+
+"You studied that speech, Mr. Henry!" said Horse Shoe, laughing. "To
+hear you, one mought almost think you had shaved a beard from your chin
+before this. Look out, or your hair will turn grey from too hard
+thinking! and now, my long-headed fellow-soldier, good bye t'ye!"
+
+"You are not going without your rifle, Mr. Horse Shoe?" said Henry,
+calling out to the sergeant, who had already trotted off some twenty
+paces.
+
+"That's another consarn for you to ruminate over," replied Horse Shoe,
+in the same jocular mood. "Mine is a business of legs, not arms,
+to-day."
+
+The sergeant was immediately after this upon the highway, moving forward
+with nothing, seemingly, to employ him but cheerful thoughts.
+
+After riding for an hour upon the road that led towards Camden, he was
+enabled to collect from the country people a rumor that some detachments
+of horse were, at this time, traversing the country towards Pedee, but
+whether friends or enemies was not known to his informants. In following
+up this trail of common report, his vigilance quickened by the
+uncertainty of the tidings, he arrived about mid-day at a brook which,
+running between low but sharp hills, was crossed by the road at a point
+where a bold mass of rock, some twenty feet in height, jutted down with
+a perpendicular abruptness into the water. Here, as he stopped to survey
+the narrow and winding course of the stream, his eye was attracted by
+the projecting crag that thrust its bulk almost into the middle of the
+channel; and, for a moment, he indulged the speculation of a soldier, as
+he pondered upon the military advantages of such a post, either as a
+point from which to reconnoitre an enemy, or as a vantage-ground on
+which to dispute his passage of the ford. It not long afterwards fell to
+his lot to turn this observation to some account.
+
+A mile beyond this spot, and where the road, as it yet crept through the
+bosom of the hills, was so obscured by forest as to afford not more than
+fifty paces of uninterrupted view, his quick ear was struck with sounds
+resembling the tramp of horses. Upon this conviction, it was but the
+action of an instant for him to turn aside into the woods and to take a
+station which might enable him to investigate the cause of his surmise,
+without exposing himself to the risk of detection. The noise grew
+louder, and what was vague conjecture soon became the certain report of
+his senses. At the nearest turn in the road, whilst protected by a
+screen of thicket, he could descry the leading platoons of a column of
+horse advancing at a slow gait; and upon examining his own position he
+became aware that, although the thicket might guard him from present
+observation, it would cease to do so as soon as the squadron should
+approach nearer to his ground. His thoughts recurred to the rock at the
+ford, and, with a view to avail himself of it, he forthwith commenced
+his retreat through the underwood that guarded the road side, as fast as
+Captain Peter could get over the ground. It was not long before he was
+removed beyond all risk of being seen by the advancing party, and he
+thus found himself at liberty to take the road again and retire without
+apprehension.
+
+In Horse Shoe's reckoning, it was a matter of great importance that he
+should obtain the most accurate information regarding the troop that he
+had just encountered; and his present purpose was, accordingly, to post
+himself in a secure position upon the rock and there maintain a close
+watch upon the party as they rode beneath it. The brook was gained, the
+ford passed, and the sergeant, after riding a short circuit towards the
+rear of the little promontory, dismounted from his horse, which he
+secured in the depths of the wood, and then clambered to the top of the
+precipice, where he had barely time to conceal himself amongst the crags
+and the thick shrubbery that shot up above them, before the headmost
+files of the cavalry appeared descending the opposite hill.
+
+As the column came gradually into his view upon the road which wound
+down into the valley, it disclosed a troop of some twenty men, whose
+green uniform sufficiently indicated the presence of a part of
+Tarleton's command. He heard them call a halt upon the bank, and after a
+few moments' rest, he saw them ride into the stream, and pass in files
+around the base of the rock.
+
+The passage of the brook occupied some time; for the thirsty horses were
+successively given a slack rein as they entered the ford, and were
+allowed to drink. This delay separated the platoons, and those who first
+passed over had advanced a considerable distance before the stragglers
+of the rear had quitted the stream. For some minutes that stir and noise
+prevailed which, in a military party, generally attends the attempt to
+restore order amongst confused or broken ranks. The frequent commands of
+officers summoning the loiterers and chiding their delay, were given
+from front to rear in loud tones, and the swift gallop of those who had
+lingered in the stream, as they obeyed the order and hastened forward to
+their places, sent forth a quick and spirited evidence of bustle, that
+broke sharply upon the silence of the surrounding forest. These
+indications of activity unfortunately pricked with a sudden astonishment
+the ear of one who has heretofore figured, not without renown, in this
+history--the lusty and faithful Captain Peter; who, not sufficiently
+alive to the distinction between friend and foe, now began to snuff, and
+paw the ground, and then with a long and clear note of recognition, to
+express his feelings of good fellowship towards the unseen strangers.
+Another moment, and the gay and thoughtless steed reared, plunged broke
+his bridle, and bounded through the woods, with a frolicsome speed that
+brought him into the midst of the troop, where he wheeled up and took
+his place, like a disciplined charger, on the flank of one of the
+platoons.
+
+This incident caused the officer in command of the party to come again
+to a halt, and to despatch a portion of his men to seek the owner of the
+horse. An eager search commenced, which was almost immediately
+terminated by the wary sergeant presenting himself to the view of the
+troop, on a prominent and exposed point of the rock, where he seemed to
+be busily and unconcernedly engaged with his jack-knife, in stripping
+the bark from the roots of a sassafras tree that grew out of one of the
+fissures of the cliff. Apparently, he gave no attention to the clamor
+around him, nor seemed to show a wish to conceal himself from notice.
+
+"Who in the devil are you--and what are you about?" exclaimed the
+leading soldier, as he mounted the rock and came up immediately behind
+Robinson, who was still fixed with one knee upon the ground, plying his
+labor at the root of the tree.
+
+"Good day, friend," said Robinson, looking up over his shoulder, "Good
+day! From your looks you belong to the army, and, if that's true,
+perhaps you mought be able to tell me how far it is from here to the
+river?"
+
+"Get up on your feet," said the other, "and follow me quickly! I will
+take you to one who will oil the joints of your tongue for you, and put
+you to studying your catechism. Quick, fellow, move your heavy carcass,
+or, I promise you, I will prick your fat sides with my sword point."
+
+"Anywhere you wish, sir, if you will only give me time to gather up this
+here bark," said the sergeant, who, hereupon, heedless of the
+objurgation of the trooper, deliberately untied the handkerchief from
+his neck, and spreading it out upon the ground, threw into it the pieces
+of bark he had been cutting, and then, taking it in his hand, rose and
+walked after the soldier.
+
+He was conducted to the troop, who were waiting in the road the return
+of the men that had been despatched on this piece of service.
+
+"Quick, quick, move yourselves! we have no time to lose," cried out the
+officer in command of the detachment, as Horse Shoe and his guide came
+in view: and then, after an interval of silence, during which the
+sergeant walked heavily to the spot where the troop waited for him, he
+added with an impatient abruptness, "Make few words of it, sir. Your
+name, where from, and where are you going?"
+
+"My name, captain--if your honor is a captain, and if I miscall you, I
+ax your honor's pardon: my name is--is--Stephen Foster, Steve most
+commonly."
+
+"Well, whence do you come?"
+
+"From Virginny."
+
+"Fool! why do you stop?"
+
+"You axed, I think, where I was going? I was going to get on my horse
+that's broke his bridle, which I see you have cotched for me: and then
+back to my young mistress, sir, that was taken sick over here at a
+gentlewoman's house on Pedee. She thought a little sassafras tea might
+help her along, and I was sent out to try and get a few scrapings of the
+bark to take to her. I suppose I must have rode out of my way a matter
+of some eight or ten miles to find it, though I told her that I thought
+a little balm out of the garden would have done just as well. But women
+are women, sir, and a sick woman in particular."
+
+"This fellow is more knave than fool, I take it, cornet," said the
+officer to a companion near him.
+
+"His horse seems to have been trained to other duties than gathering
+herbs for ladies of delicate stomachs," replied the other.
+
+"My horse," interrupted the sergeant, "would have broken clean off if it
+hadn't a been for your honor: they say he belonged to a muster in
+Verginny, and I was warned that he was apt to get rampagious when there
+was anything like a set of sodgers nigh him, and that is about the
+reason, I expect, why he took it into his head to fall into your
+company."
+
+"Get on your beast," said the officer impatiently, "you must go with us.
+If upon further acquaintance I form a better opinion of you, you may go
+about your business."
+
+"I am somewhat in a hurry to get back to the lady."
+
+"Silence! Mount your horse, fall to the rear. Gilbert, attend to this
+fellow, he musn't leave us," said the officer, as he delivered Horse
+Shoe into the charge of one of the leaders of a platoon, and then put
+spurs to his steed and moved to the head of the column.
+
+It was in the afternoon when this incident occurred; and Robinson found
+himself, during the remainder of the day, compelled to follow the troop
+through a series of by-ways across the country, in a direction of which
+he was wholly ignorant,--being also in the same degree unacquainted with
+the object of the march. When the day closed they arrived at a
+farm-house, where it seemed to be their purpose to pass the night; and
+here the sergeant, towards whom no unnecessary rigor had been exercised,
+was freely allowed to participate in the cheer provided for the party.
+This rest was of short duration; for, before the coming of the allotted
+bed-hour, a courier arrived, bringing a despatch to the leader of the
+detachment, which produced an instant order to saddle and resume the
+march.
+
+Once more upon the road, the sergeant became aware, as well as he was
+able to determine in the dark, that the party during the night were
+retracing their steps, and returning upon the same route which they had
+before travelled.
+
+A half hour before the dawn found the troop ascending a long hill, the
+summit of which, as Robinson perceived from the rustling of the blades
+in the morning wind, was covered by a field of standing corn; and he was
+enabled to descry, moving athwart the starlit sky, the figures of men on
+horseback approaching the column. The customary challenge was given; a
+momentary halt ensued, and he could hear the patrole--for such they
+described themselves,--informing the officer of the detachment that
+Colonel Tarleton was close at hand expecting their arrival. This
+intelligence induced an increase of speed which, after a short interval,
+brought the night-worn squadron into the presence of nearly a whole
+regiment of cavalry.
+
+The troops, thus encountered, were stationed upon the high-road where it
+crossed an open and uncultivated plain, the nearer extremity of which
+was bordered by the cornfield of which I have spoken. It was apparent
+that the regiment had passed the night at this place, as a number of
+horses were yet attached to the fence that guarded the field, and were
+feeding on the blades of corn that had been gathered and thrown before
+them. The greater part, however, were now drawn up in column of march,
+as if but recently arrayed to prepare for the toil of the coming day.
+
+Robinson was conducted along the flank of the column, and thence to a
+spot in the neighborhood, where a party of officers assembled by a
+sylvan tent, constructed of the boughs of trees, showed him that he was
+at the head-quarters of the commander of the corps. This tent was
+pitched upon a piece of high ground that afforded a view of the distant
+horizon in the east, where a faint streak of daylight lay like the
+traces of a far-off town in flames, against which the forms of men and
+horses were relieved, in bold profile, as they now moved about in the
+early preparations for their march.
+
+A single faggot gleamed within the tent, and, by its ray, Horse Shoe was
+enabled to discern the well known figure of Tarleton, as he conferred
+with a company of officers around him. After the sergeant had waited a
+few moments, he was ordered into the presence of the group within:
+
+"You were found yesterday," said Tarleton, "in suspicious
+circumstances--what is your name, fellow?"
+
+"I am called Stephen Foster by name," replied the sergeant, "being a
+stranger in these parts. At home I'm a kind of a gardener to a gentleman
+in Virginia; and it isn't long since I set out with his daughter to come
+here into Carolina. She fell sick by the way, and yesterday, whilst I
+was hunting up a little physic for her in the woods, a gang of your
+people came across me and fotch me here--and that's about all that I
+have got to say."
+
+A series of questions followed, by which the sergeant was compelled to
+give some further account of himself, which he contrived to do with an
+address that left his questioners but little the wiser as to his real
+character; and which strongly impressed them with the conviction that
+the man they had to deal with was but a simple and rude clown.
+
+"You say you don't know the name of the person at whose house you
+stopped?" inquired the commander.
+
+"I disremember," replied Horse Shoe; "being, as I said, a stranger in
+the parts, and not liking to make too free with axing after people's
+names."
+
+"A precious lout, this, you have brought me, Lieutenant Munroe," said
+Tarleton, addressing the officer who had hitherto had the custody of the
+sergeant. "You don't _disremember_ the part of Virginia you lived in?"
+he added, pursuing his examination.
+
+"They have given it the name of Amherst," replied Horse Shoe.
+
+"And the father of Miss Lindsay, you say, resided there?"
+
+"Sartainly, sir."
+
+"There is a gentleman of that name somewhere in Virginia," said
+Tarleton, apart to one of his attendants, "and known as a friend to our
+cause, I think."
+
+"I have heard of the family," replied the person addressed.
+
+"What has brought the lady to Carolina?"
+
+"Consarning some business of a friend, as I have been told," answered
+Horse Shoe.
+
+"It is a strange errand for such a time, and a marvellous shrewd
+conductor she has chosen! I can make nothing out of this fellow. You
+might have saved yourself the trouble of taking charge of such a clod,
+lieutenant."
+
+"My orders," replied the lieutenant, "were to arrest all suspicious
+persons; and I had two reasons to suspect this man. First, he was found
+upon a spot that couldn't have been better chosen for a look-out if he
+had been sent to reconnoitre us; and second, his horse showed some
+military training."
+
+"But the booby himself was stupid enough," rejoined the commander, "to
+carry his passport in his face."
+
+"I have a paper, sir, to that purpose," said Horse Shoe, putting his
+hands into his pockets, "it signifies, I was told,--for I can't read of
+my own accord--that I mought pass free without molestification from the
+sodgers of the king--this is it, I believe, sir."
+
+"_To three suppers at the Rising Sun, four and six pence_," said
+Tarleton, reading. "Tush, this is a tavern bill!"
+
+"Ha, ha, so it is," exclaimed Robinson. "Well, I have been keeping that
+there paper for a week past, thinking it was my certificate--and, like a
+fool, I have gone and tore up the t'other."
+
+"We are wasting time, gentlemen," said the commander. "Turn this fellow
+loose, and let him go his ways. But hark you, did you hear of a fight
+lately on Pedee, between some of our people and Marion--three days ago?"
+
+"They talked of such a thing on the river," replied Horse Shoe.
+
+"Well, and what was said?"
+
+"Nothing in particular that I can bear in mind."
+
+"Like all the rest we have tried to get out of him! You don't even know
+which party got the better?"
+
+"Oh, I have hearn that, sir."
+
+"What did you hear? speak out!"
+
+"Shall I give you the circumlocutory account of the matter?" asked Horse
+Shoe, "or did you wish me to go into the particulars?"
+
+"Any account, so that it be short."
+
+"Then I have hearn that Marion gave the t'other side a bit of a
+beating."
+
+"Aye, aye, so I suppose! Another tale of this Jack the Giant Killer! And
+what has become of Marion?"
+
+"That's onbeknownst to me," replied Horse Shoe.
+
+"Do you remember the fool we met at the Waxhaws last May?" asked one of
+the officers present, of another. "This fellow might pass for a full
+brother in blood--only I think this clown has the less wit of the two."
+
+"As heavy a lump, certainly," replied the officer. "This, you say, is
+the first time you have been in Carolina?"
+
+"To my knowledge," replied the sergeant.
+
+"It is broad day, gentlemen," said Tarleton; "we have been squandering
+precious time upon an empty simpleton. Give him his beast and let him be
+gone. Sirrah, you are free to depart. But, look you, if I hear any
+reports along the road of your having seen me, or a word about my
+coming, I'll ferret you out and have you trussed upon a stake twenty
+feet long."
+
+"Thank your honor," said Horse Shoe, as he left the tent. "I never
+troubles my head with things out of my line."
+
+Then seeking his horse he leisurely rode back by the way he had come;
+and as soon as he found himself beyond the outposts of the corps, he
+urged Captain Peter to as much speed as the late arduous duties of the
+good beast left him power to exert.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR NOT UNFAMILIAR TO THE TIME.
+
+
+Breakfast was just over when Robinson was seen, from the windows of Mrs.
+Markham's parlor, pricking along the avenue that conducted to the front
+of the mansion; and when he drew up his horse at the door, the family
+were already assembled there to greet him. The plight, both of himself
+and of his steed, was such as to tell the best part of his story--they
+had travelled far and seen rough service. The rest was supplied by the
+sergeant himself, who, before he moved from the spot where he had
+dismounted, gave a narrative of his adventures, which was listened to
+with great anxiety by the household.
+
+By the sergeant's reckoning, Mrs. Markham's residence could not be more
+than twenty miles from the place where, at daybreak, he had encountered
+the British partisan, whom he had left with a full conviction that the
+expedition then on foot was to be directed against the country lying
+upon the river. These tidings spread consternation throughout the
+mansion, and the morning was passed in all the confusion which such an
+alarm might be supposed to produce. The fright of the females rendered
+them irresolute, and incapable of attending to the most obvious
+precautions necessary to meet the emergency.
+
+In this conjuncture, Robinson felt himself bound to assume the direction
+of affairs. At his suggestion, the plate and such other valuables as
+were likely to attract the cupidity of a licentious soldiery, were
+secreted in hiding-places sufficiently secure to defy a hasty search.
+The family was advised to assume the appearance of as much composure as
+they could command; and the last and most emphatic injunction of the
+sergeant was, to provide an ample and various repast, in the hope that
+the ill-will of the visitants might be conciliated by the display of
+good cheer. All this was accordingly put into a train of
+accomplishment.
+
+In the midst of these precautions, the fears of the inhabitants of the
+mansion were but too truly realized. It was scarcely noon when the long
+column of Tarleton's cavalry was descried descending the high hills that
+lay in the distance, and, soon afterwards, taking the road that led into
+the plantation.
+
+Whilst the panic produced by this sight was still fresh the sound of
+bugles and trumpets showed that the invaders had already turned their
+steps towards the dwelling, and the next view disclosed them deploying
+from a wood and advancing at a full trot. The quick beat of hoofs upon
+the soil, and the jangling sounds of sabres shaken against the flanks of
+the horses, struck upon the terrified ear of the proprietress of the
+estate like the harsh portents of impending ruin; and in the despair and
+agony of her distress, she retreated hastily to her chamber, whither she
+summoned her female domestics, and gave way to a flood of tears. She was
+followed by Mildred, who, touched by the pervading disquiet of the
+family, participated in the alarm, and found herself overcome by a
+terror which she had never before experienced in all the scenes which
+she had lately gone through. Obeying the instinct of her present fears,
+our heroine cowered beside her weeping friend, in the midst of the group
+of clamorous servants, and awaited in mute solicitude the coming events.
+
+The cavalry had turned aside and halted in front of a barn some distance
+from the dwelling-house, and a small party, consisting principally of
+officers attended by a sergeant's guard, were immediately afterwards
+seen galloping up to the door. The air of exultation exhibited in their
+movement, their loud jocularity and frequent laughter, resembled the
+burst of gladsome riot with which a party of fox-hunters are wont to
+announce the first springing of their game, and gave evidence of the
+feelings of men who set little account upon the annoyance they
+threatened to a peaceful and unoffending household.
+
+When the officers of the party had dismounted and entered the hall, the
+first person they encountered was Sergeant Robinson, who had
+thoughtfully posted himself in view of the door; and now, with some
+awkward and ungainly bows and scraping of his feet across the floor,
+bade them welcome.
+
+"What," said Tarleton, who was at the head of the intruders, "have we
+stumbled so soon again upon our shrewd and sensible ox! Wise Master
+Stephen Foster, well met! So you are the gentleman-usher to your good
+friend, Mrs. Markham! By my faith, the old lady is likely to have the
+honors of her house well administered!"
+
+"Your sarvant, sir," said Horse Shoe, again bowing and scraping his foot
+with a look of imperturbable gravity. "Mought I ax your honor to stomp
+as lightly upon the floor as you can? My young lady is sick up
+stairs--and much noise is apt to flurry her narves."
+
+"Tread daintily, gentlemen," said Tarleton, laughing, "for your
+gallantry's sake! A lady's nerves are as delicate as the strings of a
+harp, and must not be rudely struck. The damsel's page here (pointing to
+Horse Shoe), puts down his foot like a most considerate elephant--soft
+as a feather, you perceive; and I would by no means have you give so
+worshipful a master of courtesy cause to complain of you. As your
+wisdom," he added, again addressing the sergeant, "has found out, by
+this time, that you are in the house of Mrs. Markham, although you
+_disremembered_ that this morning, I suppose you can tell whether she is
+at home?"
+
+"I can answer you that she is at home, sir--that is, onless she has went
+out sence I saw her, which is not likely, sir."
+
+"Then, present her Colonel Tarleton's respects, and say that he has come
+to offer his duty to her."
+
+"I suppose by that, you are wishing to see the lady," replied the
+sergeant; "I'll let her know, sir."
+
+Robinson retired for a few moments, and when he returned he announced to
+the commander that Mrs Markham was not willing to come from her chamber.
+"But whatsomever your honor pleases to ax after, the lady promises you
+shall have," continued the sergeant.
+
+"Well, that's a condescension!--a good, comfortable lady! So, gentlemen,
+you see we are in luck; a broad roof over head--a larder well stored, I
+hope--and a cellar not altogether empty, I think I may undertake to
+promise. Where are your waiting-men, my nimble Ganymede? You are a
+sluggish oaf, fellow, not to see that soldiers must have drink!"
+
+Alfred and Henry now entered the hall, and the former approaching
+Tarleton, said, with a firm but respectful tone:
+
+"My mother has before been visited by British troops, and she had so
+little then to thank them for, except their departure, that the fear of
+meeting them again has greatly alarmed her. Our family, sir, has no
+older man in it than myself--and out of regard to helpless women--"
+
+"That's enough, my pert lad," interrupted Tarleton; "I have heard of
+your good mother before; she is somewhat over ready in her zeal in
+behalf of Marion's ragamuffins: and truly I think she is more squeamish
+than she should be at the sight of a soldier, when she could look upon
+such hang-gallows knaves without shuddering. You have another man in
+your house, I see (directing his eye towards Henry Lindsay, who had
+seated himself in the hall)--and full as old, I take it, as yourself."
+
+"I wish I were a man of full age," said Henry, looking fearlessly at the
+British officer, and remaining fixed in his chair.
+
+"Why so, my gay sparrow-hawk?"
+
+"I would have disputed with you your right to enter this door."
+
+"These young cocks are all trained to show their game," said the Colonel
+to one of his companions. "Well, you are a fine fellow, and I should be
+happy to be better acquainted with you. A little too stiff, perhaps: but
+you will learn better as you grow older. You should thank me for making
+holiday in your school to-day."
+
+Here Robinson interposed before Henry could make the saucy reply he
+meditated, by announcing that the company would find some cool water and
+a supply of spirits in the adjoining room. "Besides," he added, "I have
+told the house-folks to make ready somewhat in the way of victuals, as I
+judged you mought be a little hungry."
+
+"Not badly thought of, Mr. Ajax!" said one of the officers, as the party
+now crowded into the room.
+
+"Don't forget Stephen Foster," whispered Robinson, by way of admonition
+in regard to his assumed character, as he passed by the chair where
+Henry was sitting. "And keep a civil tongue in your head."
+
+Henry nodded compliance, and then, with Alfred, left the hall, whilst
+the sergeant repaired to the refreshment room to offer his officious
+attentions to the quests.
+
+Meanwhile, the ladies still kept to their chamber, ever and anon gazing
+out at the window with a solicitous and unhappy interest, and
+occasionally receiving the highly-colored reports of the servants, who,
+as often as any new subject of wonder or fear occurred to them, were
+plying backwards and forwards between the apartment and the head of the
+stair-case.
+
+After an interval of half an hour, during which the uncouth din of
+laughter, of loud oaths, and of the careless swaggering of the party
+below, rose with a harsh note to the ear of the hostess and her
+companion, these sounds abruptly ceased, and it was evident that the
+visitors had quitted the house. It was with an emotion of delight that
+Mrs. Markham, from the window, beheld Colonel Tarleton and his comrades
+galloping towards the main body of his troops that awaited him near the
+barn; but, on repairing to the hall, this sudden gleam of satisfaction
+was as suddenly clouded, when the matron perceived a sentinel posted at
+the front door. As soon as she came within speech of this functionary,
+he threw up his hand to his brow, as he said: "The colonel commanded me
+to make his compliments to the ladies, and asks the honor of their
+company at dinner."
+
+"Colonel Tarleton forgets himself," said Mrs. Markham, with a stately
+reserve that showed she had now dismissed her fears; "a brave soldier
+would hardly think it a triumph to insult unprotected females."
+
+"He is here to speak for himself, madam," replied the sentinel, as
+Tarleton at this moment returned to the door.
+
+The lady of the house, thus taken by surprise, firmly stood her ground,
+and awaited in silence the accost of the officer. Tarleton was somewhat
+disconcerted by this unexpected encounter. He had entered with a hurried
+step, but the moment he was aware of the presence of the dame, he halted
+and removed his cap from his head, as he made a low obeisance.
+
+"I am too happy, madam," he said, "in the persuasion that you have
+overcome your unnecessary alarm at this visit; and feel pleased to be
+afforded an opportunity of making my respects in person."
+
+"I can conceive no sufficient reason, Colonel Tarleton, why a
+defenceless house like mine should provoke the visit of such a host of
+armed men."
+
+"Your house, madam, has some fame upon this border for good
+entertainment. It fell in my way, and you will excuse me for the freedom
+of saying, that I boast myself too much of a cavalier to pass it by
+unmarked by some token of my regard. Besides, I may add without meaning
+to be rude, our necessities in the article of forage, madam, are quite
+as great as General Marion's, who, I understand, does not scruple
+sometimes to take his contribution from you."
+
+"I should more readily excuse your visit," replied the lady, "if you
+would time it when General Marion was levying his contribution. You
+might then adjust your right to the share you claim. This house is
+yours, sir; and it is not fit that I should remain to debate with you
+your claim to dispose of whatever you may find in it."
+
+"Why, what a musty and wrinkled piece of insolence is here!" muttered
+the angry soldier, clenching his teeth under this rebuke as the matron
+withdrew. "Well, let the crones rail and the maidens weep their fill!
+the border is mine, and merrily will I hold it, and blithely will I
+light up the river, too, before I leave it! Curse on these free-spoken
+women! Who says they are defenceless with that supple weapon that God
+has given them? What ho, you bag of chaff--booby--Foster--I say! Look
+you; have you all the provisions in the house set out upon the
+tables--and don't spare your peach brandy, which we have already
+tasted--you have more of it. So let us have the best; I shall feast with
+a good will to-day, and I will do it plentifully, or your ears shall be
+cropped."
+
+"Everything in the kitchen, sir, is going on at a gallop," said Horse
+Shoe; "and as for the drinkables, your honor shall command the house to
+the last jug."
+
+"Then bestir yourself, for I am in no mood to tarry."
+
+In a brief lapse of time an abundant board was spread, and the leaders
+of the corps, consisting of some twenty or thirty officers of all ranks,
+were gathered around it. A scene of uproar succeeded that resounded to
+the roof with the unfeeling and licentious mirth of those engaged in the
+carouse.
+
+When they had eaten and drunk their fill, the greater portion of the
+guests were assembled at the front door. From this position there was
+to be seen, at no great distance, a small inclosure of not above ten
+feet square, constructed with a dark paling, above which a venerable
+willow drooped its branches. Towards this inclosure some five or six of
+the revellers repaired, to gratify an idle and, at present, a maudlin
+curiosity. When they arrived here, they leaned across the paling to read
+the inscription upon a stone that seemed but recently to have been
+placed there. It was a simple memorial of the death of Colonel Markham,
+of the Carolina militia, which was recorded to have taken place but
+eighteen months before on the Savannah river in an engagement with the
+troops under General Prevost. To this was added, in the spirit of the
+times and in accordance with the sentiments of the Whig leaders in the
+war of independence, a bitter expression of censure upon the barbarous
+disposition of the enemy, couched in homely but earnest phrase, and
+speaking the hate of the survivors in the same sentence that commended
+the virtues of the dead.
+
+It was an unpropitious moment for such a tablet to meet the eye of those
+who gazed upon it; and when it was read aloud by the captain of a troop,
+whose natural temper, rendered savage by the rudeness of the war, was
+also at this moment exasperated almost to intoxication by the freedom of
+the table, he vented his curses in loud and coarse rage against the
+memory of him to whom the stone was dedicated. This fire of passion
+spread through the group around the tomb, and each man responded to the
+first execration by others still deeper and more fierce. Proclaiming the
+inscription to be an insult, they made an attack upon the paling, which
+was instantly demolished, and, seizing upon the largest stones at hand,
+they assailed the tablet with such effect as soon to break it in pieces;
+and then, with a useless malice, applied themselves to obliterating the
+inscription upon the fragments. Whilst engrossed with the perpetration
+of this sacrilege, their attention was suddenly aroused by the near
+report of a pistol, the ball of which, it was discovered, had struck
+into the trunk of the willow.
+
+"I will kill some of the scoundrels, if I die for it!" was the
+exclamation heard immediately after the shot, and Alfred Markham was
+seen struggling with an officer who had seized him. The young man had
+been observed and followed, as he madly rushed from a wing of the
+mansion towards the burial-place, and arrested at the moment that he
+was levelling a second pistol.
+
+"Henry, shoot him down!" he screamed to his companion, who was now
+approaching armed with his carbine.
+
+"Let me go, sir! I will not see my father's tomb disturbed by ruffians."
+
+"Loose your hands!" cried Henry, directing his passionate defiance to
+the individual who wrestled with Alfred, "loose your hands, I say, or I
+will fire upon you!"
+
+"Fire at the drunken villains around my father's grave!" shouted Alfred.
+
+"They shall have it," returned Henry, eagerly, "if it is the last shot I
+ever make." And with these words the youth levelled his piece at the
+same group which had before escaped Alfred's aim, but, luckily, the
+carbine snapped and missed fire. In the next instant Horse Shoe's broad
+hand was laid upon Henry's shoulder, as he exclaimed, "Why, Master
+Henry, have you lost your wits? Do you want to bring perdition and
+combustion both, down upon the heads of the whole house?"
+
+"Galbraith Robinson, stand back!" ejaculated Henry. "I am not in the
+humor to be baulked."
+
+"Hush--for God's sake, hush!--foolish boy," returned Robinson with real
+anger. "You are as fierce as a young panther--I am ashamed of you!"
+
+By this time the whole company were assembled around the two young men,
+and the violent outbreak of wrath from those at whom the shot was aimed,
+as well as from others present, rose to a pitch which the authority of
+Tarleton in vain sought to control. Already, in this paroxysm of rage,
+one of the party, whose motions had escaped notice in the confusion of
+the scene, had hurried to the kitchen fire, where he had snatched up a
+burning brand, and hurled it into the midst of some combustibles in a
+narrow apartment on the ground floor.
+
+The clamor had drawn Mrs. Markham and Mildred to the chamber window, and
+whilst they looked down with a frightened gaze upon the confused scene
+below, it was some moments before they became aware of the participation
+of Henry and Alfred in this sudden and angry broil. Mildred was the
+first to discern the two young men as they were dragged violently
+across the open space in front of the mansion by the crowd, and to hear
+the threats with which this movement was accompanied.
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" she exclaimed, "they have laid hands upon Henry and
+Alfred--they will kill my brother, my dear brother!" Almost frantic at
+the danger that threatened Henry and his companion, she fled
+precipitately down the stair-case, and in a moment stood confronted with
+Colonel Tarleton and his soldiers.
+
+"Never fear, sister," cried out Henry, who was already brought into the
+hall, as he saw Mildred descending the stairs. "Don't be alarmed for
+either Alfred or me. We are ready to confess what we did and why we did
+it--and Colonel Tarleton, if he is a true man, will not dare to say we
+did wrong."
+
+"I charge you, Colonel Tarleton," said Mildred with a firm but excited
+voice, "as the soldier of a Christian nation, to save the people of this
+house from an inhuman and most wicked outrage. I implore you as an
+officer who would be esteemed valiant--and as a gentleman who would fly
+from dishonor--to rescue your name from the disgrace of this barbarous
+violence. For the sake of mercy--spare us--spare us!"
+
+As she uttered this last ejaculation her spirit yielded to the vehemence
+of her feelings, and she flung herself upon her knee at the feet of the
+commander. "Oh, sir, do not let harm fall upon my brother. I know not
+what he has done, but he is thoughtless and rash."
+
+"Mildred," said Henry, immediately rushing to his sister, and lifting
+her from the floor, "why should you kneel before him, or any man here?
+This is no place for you--get back to your room." Then turning to
+Tarleton, he continued, "Alfred Markham and I tried to shoot down your
+men, because we saw them breaking the tomb. If it was to do over again
+our hands are ready."
+
+"They have insulted the memory of my father," exclaimed Alfred,
+"trampled upon his grave, and broken the stone that covers him--I aimed
+to kill the drunken coward who did it. That I say, sir, to your face."
+
+Tarleton, for a space, seemed to be bewildered by the scene. He looked
+around him, as if hesitating what course to pursue, and once or twice
+made an effort to obtain silence in the hall; but the tumult of many
+voices in angry contention still continued. At last he presented his
+hand to Mildred, and with a courteous action conducted her to a chair,
+then begged her to calm her fears, as he promised her that no evil
+should befal either of the young men whose indiscreet tempers had
+occasioned the present uproar.
+
+"In God's name! have they fired the dwelling?" he exclaimed, as at this
+moment a volume of smoke rolled into the hall. "What ho, there! O'Neal,
+McPherson. Look where this smoke comes from, and instantly extinguish
+the fire! Stir yourselves, gentlemen. By my hilt, if any follower of
+mine has been so wild as to put a torch to this house, I will hang him
+up to the ridge-pole of the roof! Look to it--every man! Quick,
+quick--there is danger that the flames may get ahead."
+
+In an instant nearly every soldier in the hall departed in obedience to
+this order.
+
+"I beg, madam," Tarleton continued, "that you will dismiss your alarm,
+and rest upon my pledge that no inmate of this house shall be harmed. I
+conjecture that I have the honor to speak to Miss Lindsay--I have been
+informed that that lady has lately found shelter under this roof."
+
+"It is my name, sir--and as the daughter of a friend to your quarrel,
+let me conjure you to see that this house is safe; I cannot speak with
+you until I am assured of that."
+
+At this juncture, Mrs. Markham was observed at the head of the first
+flight of stairs, pale with affright, wringing her hands, and uttering
+loud ejaculations of terror and grief as she made her way down to the
+hall:
+
+"Oh, sir," she said, as she approached the commander, "we are harmless
+women, and have done nothing to call down this vengeance upon us. Take
+what you will--but spare my roof and save my family! God will reward you
+even for that act of humanity to a desolate widow."
+
+Before Tarleton could reply to the matron, a party of officers came
+hastily into his presence, at the head of whom was Captain O'Neal, who
+reported that the fire was extinguished.
+
+"One of the mess, to-day," he said, "heated with drink and roused by the
+foolish temper of these hot-headed boys, threw a blazing billet into a
+closet. Luckily, we reached the spot before any great harm was done. The
+chaps should be switched, and taught better manners. It was a silly
+affair and might have made mischief."
+
+"See that the offender be arrested," replied Tarleton, "I will take
+measures to curb this license. These meddling youngsters, too--however,
+I can't blame them, they had provocation, I confess--and this war gives
+an edge to all the metal of the country. Instead of pop-guns now every
+baby has his powder and ball--dismiss the boys. To your post, captain,
+and order every man to join his company. Now, madam," he added in a tone
+of conciliation to Mrs. Markham, as soon as the hall was cleared, "I am
+sure you will not accuse me of incivility. My people have withdrawn--the
+fire is extinguished--these inconsiderate lads at liberty: have I
+answered your wish?"
+
+"You have won the gratitude of a mother," replied the dame, "and the
+respect of an enemy. I am bound to say to you, in return, that I
+cheerfully surrender to you whatever you may choose to take from my
+estate for the supply of your soldiers. Alfred, my son, give me your
+arm, and help me to my chamber--I am feeble and faint. I must ask your
+permission to withdraw," she continued, as she courtesied to Tarleton,
+and ascended the stairs.
+
+"And I, too, must take my leave," said Tarleton. "But before I go I may
+claim the privilege of a word with Miss Lindsay. You spoke of your
+father, madam? and, especially, as a friend of our arms. I have been
+told he lives in Virginia, Philip Lindsay, the proprietor of a seat
+called 'The Dove Cote,' a royalist too--am I right?"
+
+"So, my father is known, sir."
+
+"That name has stood you in stead to-day, madam. And this is your
+brother? I should think he is hardly of your father's mind in regard to
+our quarrel. This way, my thoughtless young gallant! It was a wild,
+bold, and very conceited thing of you to be challenging my unruly
+dragoons--and would have been no less so, if you had had twenty score of
+tall fellows at your back. But it is past now, and you need not
+apologize for it--it showed mettle at least, and we never quarrel with a
+man for that. May I inquire, Miss Lindsay, in what direction you
+travel? for I learn you are but a sojourner here. It may be in my power
+to insure your safe-conduct."
+
+"I seek your general, Lord Cornwallis, on matters of private concern,"
+replied Mildred, "and if I might venture to ask it of Colonel Tarleton,
+his service in affording me an unquestioned passage, would be a favor
+that I should gratefully acknowledge."
+
+"The obligation will be on my side, madam. It will be a pleasure to me
+to believe that I can serve a lady, much more the daughter of an
+honorable subject of the king. Permit me, without further parley, for
+time presses at this moment, to say that I will leave an escort behind
+me under the command of a trusty officer, who will wait your pleasure to
+conduct you, by the safest and easiest journey to head-quarters. Your
+commands, madam, shall in all respects regulate his motions. My
+communications with his lordship shall announce your coming. Now, Miss
+Lindsay, with my best wishes for your safety and success, I take my
+leave; and, as a parting request, I venture to hope you will do me the
+justice to say, that Tarleton is not such a graceless sinner as his
+enemies have sometimes been pleased to represent him."
+
+These last words were accompanied by a laugh, and a somewhat bluff
+courtesy, as the speaker swayed his rigid and ungainly figure into a
+succession of awkward bows by which he retreated to the door.
+
+"I shall be happy on all occasions," replied Mildred, whilst the soldier
+was thus strenuously playing off the graces of a gallant, "to do justice
+to the kindness which I have experienced at Colonel Tarleton's hands."
+
+"There, Mildred," said Henry, when Tarleton had disappeared, "you see
+things have gone very pat for us. That comes of letting these fellows
+see who they have to deal with. A little powder and ball is a good
+letter of recommendation to the best of their gang. If my carbine hadn't
+missed fire to-day, Tarleton would have been short by one bottle-holder,
+at least, when he set out to steal liquor from the country cupboards."
+
+"It has ended well, brother," replied Mildred, "but it does not become
+you to boast of what you have done. It was a rash and dangerous deed,
+and had nearly brought ruin upon this friendly family."
+
+"Tut, sister! you are only a woman. You wouldn't have found the colonel
+so civil if we hadn't taught him to look after his men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+MILDRED ARRIVES AT THE TERM OF HER JOURNEY.----THE READER IS FAVORED
+WITH A GLIMPSE OF A DISTINGUISHED PERSONAGE.
+
+
+Cornwallis, after the battle of Camden, turned his thoughts to the
+diligent prosecution of his conquests. The invasion of North Carolina
+and Virginia was a purpose to which he had looked, from the commencement
+of this campaign, and he now, accordingly, made every preparation for
+the speedy advance of his army. The sickness of a portion of his troops
+and the want of supplies rendered some delay inevitable, and this
+interval was employed in more fully organizing the civil government of
+the conquered province, and in strengthening his frontier defences; by
+detaching considerable parties of men towards the mountains. The largest
+of these detachments was sent to reinforce Ferguson, to whom had been
+confided the operations upon the north-western border.
+
+The chronicles of the time inform us that the British general lay at
+Camden until the 8th of September, at which date he set forward towards
+North Carolina. His movement was slow and cautious, and for some time,
+his head-quarters were established at the Waxhaws, a position directly
+upon the border of the province about to be invaded. At this post our
+story now finds him, the period being somewhere about the commencement
+of the last quarter of the month.
+
+A melancholy train of circumstances had followed the fight at Camden,
+and had embittered the feelings of the contending parties against each
+other to an unusual degree of exasperation. The most prominent of these
+topics of anger was the unjust and severe construction which the British
+authorities had given to the obligations which were supposed to affect
+such of the inhabitants of South Carolina, as had, after the
+capitulation of Charleston, surrendered themselves as prisoners on
+parole, or received protections from the new government. A
+proclamation, issued by Sir Henry Clinton in June, annulled the paroles,
+and ordered all who had obtained them to render military service, as
+subjects of the king. This order, which the prisoners, as well as those
+who had obtained protections, held to be a dissolution of their contract
+with the new government, was disobeyed by a large number of the
+inhabitants, many of whom had, immediately after the proclamation,
+joined the American army.
+
+Cornwallis permitted himself, on this occasion, to be swayed by
+sentiments unworthy of the character generally imputed to him. Many of
+the liberated inhabitants were found in the ranks of Gates at Camden,
+and several were made prisoners on the field. These latter, by the
+orders of the British general, were hung almost without the form of an
+inquiry: and it may well be supposed that in the heat of war and ferment
+of passion, such acts of rigor, defended on such light grounds, were met
+on the opposite side by a severe retribution.
+
+Almost every day, during the British commander's advance, some of the
+luckless citizens of the province whom this harsh construction of duty
+affected, were brought into the camp of the invaders, and the soldiery
+had grown horribly familiar with the frequent military executions that
+ensued.
+
+It was in the engrossment of the occupations and cares presented in this
+brief reference to the history of the time, that I have now to introduce
+my reader to Cornwallis.
+
+He had resolved to move forward on his campaign. Orders were issued to
+prepare for the march, and the general had announced his determination
+to review the troops before they broke ground. A beautiful, bright, and
+cool autumnal morning shone upon the wide plain, where an army of
+between two and three thousand men was drawn out in line. The tents of
+the recent encampment had already been struck, and a long array of
+baggage-wagons were now upon the high-road, slowly moving to a point
+assigned them in the route of the march. Cornwallis, attended by a score
+of officers, still occupied a small farm-house which had lately been his
+quarters. A number of saddle-horses in the charge of their grooms, and
+fully equipped for service, were to be seen in the neighborhood of the
+door; and the principal apartment of the house showed that some of the
+loiterers of the company were yet engaged in despatching the morning
+meal. The aides-de-camp were seen speeding between the army and the
+general, with that important and neck-endangering haste which
+characterizes the tribe of these functionaries; and almost momentarily a
+courier arrived, bearing some message of interest to the
+commander-in-chief.
+
+Cornwallis himself sat in an inner room, busily engaged with one of his
+principal officers in inspecting some documents regarding the detail of
+his force. Apart from them, stood, with hat in hand and in humble
+silence, a young ensign of infantry.
+
+"Your name, sir?" said Cornwallis, as he threw aside the papers which he
+had been perusing, and now addressed himself to the young officer.
+
+"Ensign Talbot, of the thirty-third Foot," replied the young man: "I
+have come by the order of the adjutant-general to inform your lordship
+that I have just returned to my regiment, having lately been captured by
+the enemy while marching with the third convoy of the Camden prisoners
+to Charleston."
+
+"Ha! you were of that party! What was the number of prisoners you had in
+charge?"
+
+"One hundred and fifty, so please your lordship."
+
+"They were captured"--
+
+"On Santee, by the rebels Marion and Horry," interrupted the ensign. "I
+have been in the custody of the rebels for a week, but contrived, a few
+days since, to make my escape."
+
+"Where found the rebels men to master you?"
+
+"Even from the country through which we journeyed," replied the ensign.
+
+"The beggarly runagates! Who can blame us, Major M'Arthur," said the
+general, appealing to the officer by his side, with an interest that
+obviously spoke the contest in his own mind in regard to the justice of
+the daily executions which he had sanctioned: "who can blame us for
+hanging up these recreants for their violated faith, with such thick
+perfidy before our eyes? This Santee district, to a man, had given their
+paroles and taken my protection: and, now, the first chance they have to
+play me a trick, they are up and at work, attacking our feeble escorts
+that should, in their sickly state, have rather looked to them for aid.
+I will carry out the work; by my sword, it shall go on sternly. Enough,
+Ensign, back to your company," he said, bowing to the young officer, who
+at once left the room.
+
+"What is your lordship's pleasure regarding this Adam Cusack?" inquired
+M'Arthur.
+
+"Oh, aye! I had well nigh forgotten that man. He was taken, I think, in
+the act of firing on a ferry-boat at Cheraw?"
+
+"The ball passed through the hat of my Lord Dunglas," said M'Arthur.
+
+"The lurking hound! A liege subject turning truant to his duty; e'en let
+him bide the fate of his brethren."
+
+M'Arthur merely nodded his head, and Cornwallis, rising from his chair,
+strode a few paces backwards and forwards through the room. "I would
+tune my bosom to mercy," he said, at length, "and win these dog-headed
+rebels back to their duty to their king by kindness; but good-will and
+charity towards them fall upon their breasts like water on a heated
+stone, which is thrown back in hisses. No, no, that day is past, and
+they shall feel the rod. We walk in danger whilst we leave these
+serpents in the grass. Order the gentlemen to horse, Major M'Arthur; we
+must be stirring. Let this fellow, Cusack, be dealt with like the rest.
+Gentlemen," added the chief, as he appeared at the door amidst the group
+who awaited his coming, "to your several commands!"
+
+Captain Brodrick, the principal aide, at this moment arrested the
+preparations to depart, by placing in Cornwallis's hand a letter which
+had just been brought by a dragoon to head-quarters.
+
+The general broke the seal, and, running his eye over the contents,
+said, as he handed the letter to the aide, "This is something out of the
+course of the campaign; a letter from a lady, now at the picquet-guard,
+and it seems she desires to speak with me. Who brought the billet,
+captain?"
+
+"This dragoon, one of a special escort from the legion. They have in
+charge a party of travellers, who have journeyed hither under Tarleton's
+own pledge of passport."
+
+"Captain," replied Cornwallis, "mount and seek the party. Conduct them
+to me without delay. What toy is this that brings a lady to my camp?"
+
+The aide-de-camp mounted his horse, and galloped off with the dragoon.
+He was conducted far beyond the utmost limit of the line of soldiers,
+and at length arrived at a small outpost, where some fifty men were
+drawn up, under the command of an officer of the picquet-guard, which
+was about returning to join the main body of the army. Here he found
+Mildred and Henry Lindsay, and their two companions, Horse Shoe and old
+Isaac, attended by the small escort furnished by Tarleton. This party
+had been two days on the road from Mrs. Markham's, and had arrived the
+preceding night at a cottage in the neighborhood, where they had found
+tolerable quarters. They had advanced this morning, at an early hour, to
+the _corps de garde_ of the picquet, where Mildred preferred remaining
+until Henry could despatch a note to Lord Cornwallis apprising him of
+their visit.
+
+When Captain Brodrick rode up, the travellers were already on horseback
+and prepared to move. The aide-de-camp respectfully saluted Miss Lindsay
+and her brother, and after a short parley with the officer of the
+escort, tendered his services to the strangers to conduct them to
+head-quarters.
+
+"The general, madam," he said, "would have done himself the honor to
+wait on you, but presuming that you were already on your route to his
+quarters, where you might be better received than in the bivouac of an
+outpost, he is led to hope that he consults your wish and your comfort
+both, by inviting you to partake of such accommodation as he is able to
+afford you."
+
+"My mission would idly stand on ceremony, sir," replied Mildred. "I
+thank Lord Cornwallis for the promptness with which he has answered my
+brother's message."
+
+"We will follow you, sir," said Henry.
+
+The party now rode on.
+
+Their path lay along the skirts of the late encampment upon the border
+of an extensive plain, on the opposite side of which the army was drawn
+out; and it was with the exultation of a boy, that Henry, as they moved
+forward, looked upon the long line of troops glittering in the bright
+sunshine, and heard the drums rolling their spirited notes upon the air.
+
+When they arrived at a point where the road emerged from a narrow strip
+of forest, they could discern, at the distance of a few hundred paces,
+the quarters of the commander-in-chief. Immediately on the edge of this
+wood, a small party of soldiers attracted the attention of the visitors
+by the earnest interest with which they stood around a withered tree,
+and gazed aloft at its sapless and huge boughs. Before anything was
+said, Mildred had already ridden within a few feet of the circle, where
+turning her eyes upwards she saw the body of a man swung in the air by a
+cord attached to one of the widest-spreading branches. The unfortunate
+being was just struggling in the paroxysms of death, as his person was
+swayed backwards and forwards, with a slow motion, by the breeze.
+
+"Oh, God! what a sight is here!" exclaimed the lady. "I cannot, will not
+go by this spot. Henry--brother--I cannot pass."
+
+The aide-de-camp checked his horse, and grasped her arm, before her
+brother could reach her, and Horse Shoe, at the same moment, sprang to
+the ground and seized her bridle.
+
+"I should think it but a decent point of war to keep such sights from
+women's eyes," said Robinson, somewhat angrily.
+
+"Peace, sirrah," returned the aide, "you are saucy. I trust, madam, you
+are not seriously ill? I knew not of this execution, or I should have
+spared you this unwelcome spectacle. Pray, compose yourself, and
+believe, madam, it was my ignorance that brought you into this
+difficulty."
+
+"I will not pass it," cried Mildred wildly, as she sprang from her horse
+and ran some paces back towards the wood, with her hands covering her
+face. In a moment Henry was by her side.
+
+"Nay, sister--dear sister," he said, "do not take it so grievously. The
+officer did not know of this. There now, you are better; we will mount
+again, and ride around this frightful place."
+
+Mildred gradually regained her self-possession, and after a few minutes
+was again mounted and making a circuit through the wood to avoid this
+appalling spectacle.
+
+"Who is this man?" asked Henry of the aide-de-camp, in a half whisper;
+"and what has he done, that they have hung him?"
+
+"It is an every-day tale," replied the officer; "a rebel traitor, who
+has broken his allegiance, by taking arms against the king in his own
+conquered province. I keep no count of these fellows; but I believe
+this is a bold rebel by the name of Adam Cusack, that was caught lately
+at the Cheraw ferry; and our boobies must be packing him off to
+head-quarters for us to do their hangman's work."
+
+"If we were to hang all of your men that we catch," replied Henry, "hemp
+is an article that would rise in price."
+
+"What, sir," returned the officer, with a look of surprise, "do you
+class yourself with the rebels? What makes you here under Tarleton's
+safeguard? I thought you must needs be friends, at least, from the
+manner of your coming."
+
+"We ride, sir, where we have occasion," said Henry, "and if we ride
+wrong now, let his lordship decide that for us, and we will return."
+
+By this time the company had reached head-quarters, where Mildred found
+herself in the presence of Lord Cornwallis.
+
+"Though on the wing, Miss Lindsay," said his lordship, as he
+respectfully met the lady and her brother upon the porch of the
+dwelling-house, "I have made it a point of duty to postpone weighty
+matters of business to receive your commands."
+
+Mildred bowed her head, and after a few words of courtesy on either
+side, and a formal introduction of herself and her brother to the
+general as the children of Philip Lindsay, "a gentleman presumed to be
+well known to his lordship," and some expressions of surprise and
+concern on the part of the chief at this unexpected announcement, she
+begged to be permitted to converse with him in private. When, in
+accordance with this wish, she found herself and her brother alone with
+the general, in the small parlor of the house, she began, with a
+trembling accent and blanched cheek--
+
+"I said, my lord, that we were the children of Philip Lindsey, of the
+Dove Cote, in Amherst, in the province of Virginia; and being taught to
+believe that my father has some interest with your lordship--"
+
+"He is a worthy, thoughtful, and wise gentleman, of the best
+consideration amongst the friends of the royal cause," interrupted the
+earl, "so speak on, madam, and speak calmly. Take your time, your
+father's daughter shall not find me an unwilling listener."
+
+"My father was away from home," interposed Henry, "and tidings came to
+us that a friend of ours was most wickedly defamed and belied, by a
+charge carried to the ears of your lordship; as we were told, that Major
+Arthur Butler of the Continental army who had been made a prisoner by
+your red-coats somehow or other--for I forget how--but the charge was
+that he had contrived a plan to carry off my father from the Dove
+Cote--if not to kill him, which was said, besides--and upon that charge,
+it was reported that your people were going to hang or shoot him--hang,
+I suppose, from what we just now saw over here in the woods--and that
+your lordship had given orders to have the thing put off until the major
+could prove the real facts of the case."
+
+"The tale is partly true, young sir," said Cornwallis. "We have a
+prisoner of that name and rank."
+
+"My sister Mildred and myself, thinking no time was to be lost, have
+come to say to your lordship that the whole story is a most sinful lie,
+hatched on purpose to make mischief, and most probably by a fellow by
+the name of----"
+
+"My brother speaks too fast," interrupted Mildred. "It deeply concerned
+us to do justice to a friend in this matter. If my father had been at
+home a letter to your lordship would have removed all doubts; but, alas!
+he was absent, and I knew not what to do, but to come personally before
+your lordship, to assure you that to the perfect knowledge of our whole
+family, the tale from beginning to end is a malicious fabrication. Major
+Butler loves my father, and would be accounted one of his nearest and
+dearest friends."
+
+Cornwallis listened to this disclosure with a perplexed and bewildered
+conjecture, to unravel the strange riddle which it presented to his
+mind.
+
+"How may I understand you, Miss Lindsay?" he said; "this Major Butler is
+in the service of Congress?"
+
+"Even so. Your lordship speaks truly."
+
+"Your father--my friend, Philip Lindsay, is a faithful and persevering
+loyalist."
+
+"To the peril of his life and fortune," replied Mildred.
+
+"And yet Butler is his friend?"
+
+"He would be esteemed so, if it please your lordship--and, in heart and
+feeling, is so."
+
+"He is related to your family, perhaps?"
+
+"Related in affection, my lord, and plighted love," said Mildred,
+blushing and casting her eyes upon the ground.
+
+"So!--Now I apprehend. And there are bonds between you?"
+
+"I may not answer your lordship," returned the lady. "It only imports
+our present business to tell your lordship, that Arthur Butler never
+came to the Dove Cote but with the purest purpose of good to all who
+lodged beneath its roof. He has never come there but that I was apprised
+of his intent; and never thought rose in his heart that did not breathe
+blessings upon all that inhabit near my father. Oh, my lord, it is a
+base trick of an enemy to do him harm; and they have contrived this plot
+to impose upon your lordship's generous zeal in my father's behalf."
+
+"It is a strange story," said Cornwallis. "And does your father know
+nothing of this visit? Have you, Miss Lindsay, committed yourself to all
+the chances of this rude war, and undertaken this long and toilsome
+journey, to vindicate a rebel charged with a most heinous device of
+perfidy? It is a deep and painful interest that could move you to this
+enterprise."
+
+"My lord, my mission requires a frank confidence. I have heard my father
+say you had a generous and feeling heart--that you were a man to whom
+the king had most wisely committed his cause in this most trying war:
+that your soul was gifted with moderation, wisdom, forecast,
+firmness--and that such a spirit as yours was fit to master and command
+the rude natures of soldiers, and to compel them to walk in the paths of
+justice and mercy. All this and more have I heard my father say, and
+this encouraged me to seek you in your camp, and to tell you the plain
+and undisguised truth touching those charges against Major Butler. As
+Heaven above hears me, I have said nothing but the simple truth. Arthur
+Butler never dreamt of harm to my dear father."
+
+"He is a brave soldier," said Henry, "and if your lordship would give
+him a chance, and put him before the man who invented the lie, he would
+make the scoundrel eat his words, and they should be handed to him on
+the major's sword-point."
+
+"The gentleman is happy" said the chief, "in two such zealous friends.
+You have not answered me--is your father aware of this visit, Miss
+Lindsay?"
+
+"He is ignorant even of the nature of the charge against Arthur Butler,"
+replied the lady. "He was absent from the Dove Cote when the news
+arrived; and, fearing that delay might be disastrous, we took the matter
+in hand ourselves."
+
+"You might have written."
+
+"The subject, so please your lordship, was too near to our hearts to put
+it to the hazard of a letter."
+
+"It is a warm zeal, and deserves to be requited with a life's devotion,"
+said Cornwallis. "You insinuated, young sir, just now, that you
+suspected the author of this imputed slander."
+
+"My brother is rash, and speaks hastily," interrupted Mildred.
+
+"Whom were you about to name?" asked the general, of Henry.
+
+"There was a man named Tyrrel," replied the youth, "that has been
+whispering in my father's ear somewhat concerning a proposal for my
+sister" (here Mildred cast a keen glance at her brother and bit her lip)
+"and they say, love sometimes makes men desperate, and I took a passing
+notion that, may be, he might have been at the bottom of it; I know
+nothing positively to make me think so, but only speak from what I have
+read in books."
+
+Cornwallis smiled as he replied playfully: "Tush, my young philosopher,
+you must not take your wisdom from romances. I have heard of Tyrrel, and
+will stand his surety that love has raised no devil to conjure such
+mischief in his breast. What will satisfy your errand hither, Miss
+Lindsay?"
+
+"A word from your lordship, that no harm shall befall Arthur Butler
+beyond the necessary durance of a prisoner of war."
+
+"That is granted you at once," replied the general, "granted for your
+sake, madam, in the spirit of a cavalier who would deny no lady's
+request. And I rather grant it to you, because certain threats have been
+sent me from some of the major's partisans, holding out a determination
+to retaliate blood for blood. These had almost persuaded me to run,
+against my own will, to an extreme. I would have you let it be known,
+that as a free grace to a lady, I have done that which I would refuse to
+the broad sword bullies of the mountains. What next would you have?"
+
+"Simply, an unmolested passage hence, beyond your lordship's posts."
+
+"That too shall be cared for. And thus the business being done, with
+your leave, I will go to more unmannerly employments."
+
+"A letter for your lordship," said an officer, who at this moment
+entered the door, and putting a packet into the general's hand, retired.
+
+Cornwallis opened the letter and read it.
+
+"Ha! by my faith, but this is a rare coincidence! This brings matter of
+interest to you, Miss Lindsay. My officer, Macdonald, who had Butler in
+custody, writes me that, two days since, his prisoner had escaped."
+
+"Escaped!" exclaimed Mildred, forgetting in whose presence she spoke,
+"unhurt--uninjured. Thank Heaven for that!"
+
+Cornwallis sat for a moment silent, as a frown grew upon his brow, and
+he played his foot against the floor, abstracted in thought. "These
+devils have allies," he muttered, "in every cabin in the country. We
+have treachery and deceit lurking behind every bush. We shall be
+poisoned in our pottage by these false and hollow knaves. If it gives
+you content, madam," he said, raising his voice, "that this Major Butler
+should abuse the kindness or clemency of his guard and fly from us at
+the moment we were extending a boon of mercy to him through your
+supplications, you may hereafter hold your honorable soldier in higher
+esteem for his dexterity and cunning."
+
+"I pray your lordship to believe," said Mildred, with a deep emotion,
+which showed itself in the rich, full tones of her voice, "that Major
+Butler knows nothing of my coming hither. I speak not in his name, nor
+make any pledge for him. If he has escaped, it has only been from the
+common instinct which teaches a bird to fly abroad when it finds the
+door of his cage left open by the negligence of his keepers. I knew it
+not--nor, alas! have I heard aught of his captivity, but as I have
+already told your lordship. He is an honorable soldier, rich in all the
+virtues that may commend a man: I would your lordship knew him better
+and in more peaceful times."
+
+"Well, it is but a peevish and silly boy," said Cornwallis, "who whines
+when his pie is stolen. The war has many reckonings to settle, and we
+contrive to make one day's profit pay another's loss. The account for
+the present is balanced; and so, Miss Lindsay, without discourtesy, I
+may leave you, with a fair wish for a happy and prosperous journey back
+to your father's roof. To the good gentleman himself, I desire to be
+well remembered. And to show you that this briery path of war has not
+quite torn away all the habiliments of gentleness from us, I think it
+dutiful to tell you that, as I have become the confidant of a precious
+love-tale, wherein I can guess some secret passage of mystery is laid
+which should not be divulged, I promise you to keep it faithfully
+between ourselves. And when I reach the Dove Cote, which, God willing,
+under the banners of St. George, I do propose within three months to do,
+we may renew our confidence, and you shall have my advice touching the
+management of this dainty and delicate affair. And now, God speed you
+with a fair ride, and good spirits to back it!"
+
+"I am much beholden to your lordship's generosity," said Mildred, as
+Cornwallis rose with a sportive gallantry and betook himself to his
+horse.
+
+"Come hither, Mr. Henry," he said after he had mounted, "farewell, my
+young cavalier. You will find a few files of men to conduct you and your
+party beyond our posts: and here, take this," he added, as now on
+horseback, he scrawled off a few lines with a pencil, upon a leaf of his
+pocket-book, which he delivered to the youth, "there is a passport which
+shall carry you safe against all intrusion from my people. Adieu!"
+
+With this last speech the commander-in-chief put spurs to his horse, and
+galloped to the plain, to review his troops and commence the march by
+which he hoped to make good his boast of reaching the Dove Cote.
+
+How fortune seconded his hopes may be read in the story of the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+A BRITISH PARTISAN.
+
+
+As the events of this history are confined to the duration of the Tory
+Ascendency in South Carolina, it becomes me to prepare my reader for the
+conclusion to which, doubtless much to his content, he will hear that we
+are now hastening. We have reached a period which brings us to take
+notice of certain important operations that were in progress upon the
+frontier, and touching the details of which, to avoid prolixity, I must
+refer to the graver chronicles of the times. It answers my present
+purpose merely to apprise my reader that Colonel Clarke had lately
+assembled his followers and marched to Augusta, where he had made an
+attack upon Brown, but that almost at the moment when his dexterous and
+valiant adversary had fallen within his grasp, a timely succor from Fort
+Ninety-Six, under the command of Cruger, had forced him to abandon his
+ground, and retreat towards the mountain districts of North Carolina. To
+this, it is important to add that Ferguson had now recruited a
+considerable army amongst the native Tories, and had moved to the small
+frontier village of Gilbert-town, with a purpose to intercept Clarke,
+and thus place him under the disadvantage of having a foe both in front
+and rear.
+
+The midnight seizure of Arthur Butler and his friends, whilst returning
+from Ramsay's funeral, was effected by McAlpine, who happened at that
+moment to be hastening, by a forced march, with a detachment of
+newly-recruited cavalry from Ninety-Six, to strengthen Ferguson, and to
+aid in what was expected to be the certain capture of the troublesome
+Whig partisan.
+
+As M'Alpine's purpose required despatch, he made but a short delay after
+sunrise at Drummond's cabin, and then pushed forward with his prisoners
+with all possible expedition. The route of his journey diverged, almost
+at the spot of the capture, from the roads leading towards Musgrove's
+Mill, and he consequently had but little chance to fall in with parties
+who might communicate to him the nature of the accident which threw the
+prisoners into his possession; whilst the prisoners themselves were
+sufficiently discreet to conceal from him everything that might afford a
+hint of Butler's previous condition.
+
+The road lay through a rugged wilderness, and the distance to be
+travelled, before the party could reach Gilbert-town, was something more
+than sixty miles. It was, accordingly, about the middle of the second
+day after leaving Drummond's habitation, before the troop arrived at the
+term of their journey, a period that coincided with that of Cornwallis's
+breaking ground from his late encampment at the Waxhaws, which we have
+seen in the last chapter.
+
+Ferguson was a stout, fearless, and bluff soldier, and instigated
+by the most unsparing hatred against all who took up the Whig cause.
+He had been promoted by Earl Cornwallis to the brevet rank of
+lieutenant-colonel, a short time before the battle of Camden, and
+despatched towards this wild and mountainous border to collect together
+and organize the Tory inhabitants of the district. His zeal and
+activity, no less than his peremptory bearing, had particularly
+recommended him to the duty to be performed; and he is, at least,
+entitled to the commendation of having acquitted himself with great
+promptitude and efficiency in the principal objects of his appointment.
+He was now at the head of between eleven and twelve hundred men, of
+which about one hundred and fifty were regulars of the British line, the
+remainder consisting of the disorderly and untamed population of the
+frontier.
+
+Gilbert-town was a small village, composed of a number of rather
+well-built and comfortable log-houses. It was situated in a mountainous
+but fertile district of North Carolina, about the centre of Rutherford
+country. And I may venture to add (which I do upon report only), that
+although its former name has faded from the maps of the present day,
+under that reprehensible indifference to ancient associations, and that
+pernicious love of change which have obliterated so many of the
+landmarks of our revolutionary history, yet this village is still a
+prosperous and pleasant community, known as the seat of justice to the
+county to which it belongs.
+
+When the troop having charge of Butler and his companions arrived, they
+halted immediately in front of one of the largest buildings of the
+village, and in a short time the prisoners were marched into the
+presence of Ferguson. They were received in a common room of ample
+dimensions, furnished with a table upon which was seen a confused array
+of drinking vessels, and a number of half-emptied bottles of spirit
+surrounding a wooden bucket filled with water. Immediately against one
+of the posts of the door of the apartment, the carcass of a buck,
+recently shot and now stripped of its skin, hung by the tendons of the
+hinder feet; and a soldier was at this moment employed with his knife in
+the butcher-craft necessary to its preparation for the spit. Ferguson
+himself, conspicuous for his robust, athletic, and weather-beaten
+exterior, stood by apparently directing the operation. Around the room
+were hung the hide and antlers of former victims of the chase,
+intermingled with various weapons of war, military cloaks,
+cartridge-boxes, bridles, saddles, and other furniture denoting the
+habitation of a party of soldiers. There was a general air of disorder
+and untidiness throughout the apartment, which seemed to bespeak early
+and late revels, and no great observance of the thrift of even military
+housekeeping. This impression was heightened to the eye of the beholder,
+by the unchecked liberty with which men of all ranks, privates as well
+as officers, flung themselves, as their occasions served, into the room
+and made free with the contents of the flasks that were scattered over
+the table.
+
+The irregular and ill-disciplined host under Ferguson's command lay in
+and around the village, and presented a scene of which the predominating
+features bore a sufficient resemblance to the economy of their leader's
+own quarters, to raise but an unfavorable opinion of their subordination
+and soldier-like demeanor: it was wild, noisy, and confused.
+
+When M'Alpine entered the apartment, the words that fell from Ferguson
+showed that his mind, at the moment, was disturbed by a double
+solicitude--alternating between the operations performed upon the
+carcass of venison, and certain symptoms of uproar and disorder that
+manifested themselves amongst the militia without.
+
+"Curse on these swaggering, upland bullies!" he said, whilst M'Alpine
+and the prisoners stood inside the room, as yet unnoticed. "I would as
+soon undertake to train as many wolves from the mountain, as bring these
+fellows into habits of discipline. Thady, you cut that haunch too
+low--go deep, man--a long sweep from the pommel to the cantle--it is a
+saddle worth riding on! By the infernal gods! if these yelping savages
+do not learn to keep quiet in camp, I'll make a school for them with my
+regulars, where they shall have good taste of the cat! nine hours' drill
+and all the camp duty besides! Ha, M'Alpine, is it you who have been
+standing here all this while? I didn't observe it, man--my quarters are
+like a bar-room, and have been full of comers and goers all day. I
+thought you were but some of my usual free-and-easy customers. Damn
+them, I am sick of these gawky, long-legged, half-civilized recruits!
+but I shall take a course with them yet. What news, old boy? What have
+you to tell of the rebels? Where is my pretty fellow, Clarke?"
+
+"Clarke is still in the woods," replied M'Alpine. "It would take good
+hounds to track him."
+
+"And Cruger, I hope, has nose enough to follow. So, the cunning Indian
+hunter will be caught at last! We have him safe now, M'Alpine. There is
+but one path for the fox to come out of the bush, and upon that path
+Patrick Ferguson has about as pretty a handful of mischievous imps as
+ever lapped blood. The slinking runaway never reaches the other side of
+the mountains while I am awake. With Cruger behind him--our line of
+posts upon his right--the wild mountains, as full of Cherokees as
+squirrels, upon his left--and these devils of mine right before him--we
+have him in a pretty net. Who have you here, captain?"
+
+"Some stray rebel game, that I picked up on my road, as I came from
+Ninety-Six. This gentleman, I learn, is Major Butler of the Continental
+army, and these others, some of his party."
+
+"So, ho, more rebels! damn it, man," exclaimed the commandant, "why do
+you bring them to me? What can I do with them"--then dropping his voice
+into a tone of confidential conference, he added, "but follow the
+fashion and hang them? I have got some score of prisoners already--and
+have been wishing that they would cut some devilish caper, that I might
+have an excuse for stringing them up, to get clear of them. A major in
+the regular Continental line, sir?" he asked, addressing himself to
+Butler.
+
+Butler bowed his head.
+
+"I thought the cuffs your people got at Camden had driven everything
+like a daylight soldier out of the province. We have some skulking
+bush-fighters left--some jack-o'-lantern devils, that live in the swamps
+and feed on frogs and water-snakes--Marion and Sumpter, and a few of
+their kidney: but you, sir, are the first regular Continental officer I
+have met with. What brought you so far out of your latitude?"
+
+"I was on my way to join one," replied Butler, "that but now you seemed
+to think in severe straits."
+
+"Ha! to visit Clarke, eh? Well, sir, may I be bold to ask, do you know
+where that worshipful gentleman is to be found?"
+
+"I am free to answer you," said Butler, "that his position, at this
+moment, is entirely unknown to me. On my journey I heard the report that
+he had been constrained to abandon Augusta."
+
+"Yes, and in haste, let me tell you. And marches in this direction,
+Major Butler, as he needs must. I shall make his acquaintance: and
+inasmuch as you went to seek him, you may count it a lucky accident that
+brought you here--you will find him all the sooner by it."
+
+"Doubtless, sir, Colonel Clarke will feel proud to see you," returned
+Butler.
+
+"Well, M'Alpine," said Ferguson, "I have my hands full of business; for
+I certainly have the wildest crew of devil's babies that ever stole
+cattle, or fired a haystack. I am obliged to coax them into discipline
+by a somewhat free use of this mother's milk"--(pointing to the
+bottles)--"to which I now and then add a gentle castigation at the
+drum-head, and, when that doesn't serve, a dose of powder and lead,
+administered at ten paces from a few files of grenadiers. I have shot a
+brace of them, since you left me, only for impertinence to their
+officers! This waiting for Clarke plays the devil with us. I must be
+moving, and have some thought of crossing the mountains westward, and
+burning out the settlements. Faith! I would do it, just to keep my lads
+in spirits, if I thought Clarke would give me another week. How, now,
+Thady?--that buck should have been half roasted by this time. We shall
+never have dinner with your slow work. Look at that, M'Alpine, there is
+something to make your mouth water--an inch and a half of fat on the
+very ridge of the back. Give over your prisoners to the camp major--he
+will take care of them: and, hark you, captain," he added, beckoning his
+comrade aside, "if you choose, as you seem to think well of this Major
+Butler, you may bring him in to dinner presently, with my compliments.
+Now, away--I must to business."
+
+The prisoners were conducted to a separate building, where they were put
+in charge of an officer, who performed the duties of provost-marshal
+over some twenty or more Whigs that had been captured in the late
+excursions of the Tories, and brought into camp for safe keeping. The
+place of their confinement was narrow and uncomfortable, and Butler was
+soon made aware that in the exchange of his prison at Musgrove's mill
+for his present one, he had made an unprofitable venture. His condition
+with Ferguson, however, was alleviated by the constantly-exciting hope
+that the events which were immediately in prospect might, by the chances
+of war, redound to his advantage.
+
+In this situation Butler remained for several days. For although
+Ferguson found it necessary to keep in almost constant motion, with a
+view to hover about the supposed direction of Clarke's retreat, and,
+conformably to this purpose, to advance into South Carolina, and again
+to fall back towards his present position, yet he had established a
+guard at Gilbert-town which, during all these operations, remained
+stationary with the prisoners, apparently waiting some fit opportunity
+to march them off to Cornwallis's army, that was now making its way
+northwards. That opportunity did not present itself. The communications
+between this post and the commander-in-chief were, by a fatal error,
+neglected; and in a short time from the date of the present events, as
+will be seen in the sequel, a web was woven which was strong enough to
+ensnare and bind up the limbs of the giant who had, during the last five
+months, erected and maintained the Tory Ascendency in Carolina.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+MILDRED TURNS HER STEPS HOMEWARDS.
+
+
+I have seen a generous and brave boy defied to some enterprise of
+terror,--such as, peradventure, to clamber in the dark night, alone, up
+many a winding bout of stair-case to the garret,--and he has undertaken
+the achievement, although sore afraid of goblins, and gone forth upon
+his adventure with a lusty step and with a bold tardiness, whistling or
+singing on his way--his eyes and ears all the time fearfully open to all
+household sights and sounds, now magnified out of their natural
+proportions; and when he had reached the furthest term of his travel, I
+have known him to turn quickly about and come down three steps at a
+leap, feeling all the way as if some spectre tracked his flight and hung
+upon his rear. Calling up such a venture to my mind, I am enabled, by
+comparison with the speed and anxiety of the boy, to show my reader with
+what emotions Mildred, her mission being done, now turned herself upon
+her homeward route. The excitement occasioned by her knowledge of the
+critical circumstances of Butler, and the pain she had suffered in the
+belief that upon the courageous performance of her duty depended even
+his life, had nerved her resolution to the perilous and hardy exploit in
+which we have seen her. But now, when matters had taken such a suddenly
+auspicious turn, and she was assured of her lover's safety, not even the
+abrupt joy which poured in upon her heart was sufficient to stifle her
+sense of uneasiness at her present exposed condition, and she eagerly
+prepared to betake herself back to the Dove Cote.
+
+The scenes around her had wrought upon her nerves; and, although she was
+singularly fortunate in the courtesy which she had experienced from all
+into whose hands she had fallen, yet the rude licentiousness of the
+camp, and the revolting acts of barbarity which were ever present to her
+observation, appalled and distressed her. Besides, she now saw the
+fixed purpose with which Cornwallis was preparing to march forward in
+his course of invasion, and thought with alarm upon the probable event
+of soon having the theatre of war transferred to the neighborhood of her
+native woods.
+
+Robinson's advice seconded her own alacrity. It was to hasten, with all
+despatch, in advance of the invading army; and as this body was now
+about taking up its line of march, no time was to be lost. Accordingly,
+but a brief delay took place after Cornwallis and his suite had departed
+from head-quarters, before our party set forward, accompanied by the
+small guard of cavalry that had been ordered to attend them. The troops
+were just wheeling into column on the ground where they had been lately
+reviewed, when Mildred and her attendants galloped past, and took the
+high road leading to the town of Charlotte, in North Carolina, towards
+which it was understood the invaders were about to direct their journey.
+In less than an hour afterwards they had left behind them the line of
+baggage wagons and the small military parties of the vanguard, and found
+themselves rapidly hastening towards a district occupied by the friends
+of independence.
+
+The sergeant had now occasion for his utmost circumspection. In pursuing
+the destined route of the invasion, he had reason to expect an early
+encounter with some of the many corps of observation, which the opposite
+party were certain to put upon the duty of reporting the approach of
+their enemy. And so it fell out; for, towards the middle of the day,
+whilst the travellers were quietly plying their journey through the
+forest, the discharge of a pistol announced the presence of a hostile
+body of men; and almost instantly afterwards a small handful of Whig
+cavalry were seen hovering upon the road, at the distance of some three
+or four hundred paces in front. Robinson no sooner recognised this squad
+than he took the lady's handkerchief and hoisted it on a rod, as a flag
+of truce, and, at the same moment, directed the escort to retreat,
+apprising them that their presence was no longer necessary, as he had
+now an opportunity to deliver his charge into the hands of friends. The
+British horsemen, accordingly, took their leave; and, in the next
+moment, Horse Shoe surrendered to a patrole, who announced themselves to
+be a part of the command of Colonel Davie, of the North Carolina
+militia--a gallant partisan, then well known to fame, and whose after
+exploits fill up no inconsiderable page of American history.
+
+It does not enter into the purpose of my story to detain my reader with
+a minute account of Mildred's homeward journey; but having now
+transferred her to the protection of a friendly banner, it will suffice
+to say that she arrived the same evening at Charlotte, where she spent
+the night in the midst of the active, warlike preparations which were in
+progress to receive Cornwallis.
+
+It was towards sunset on the following day, when, wearied with the toil
+of a long and rapid journey, our travellers arrived in front of a
+retired farm-house, on the road leading through the upper districts of
+North Carolina. The cultivation around this dwelling showed both good
+husbandry and a good soil, and there was an appearance of comfort and
+repose which was an unusual sight in a country so much alarmed and
+ravaged by war, as that over which the wayfarers had lately journeyed.
+The house stood some short distance apart from the road, and in the
+porch was seated an elderly man of a respectable appearance, to whom a
+young girl was, at this moment, administering a draught of water from a
+small, hooped, wooden vessel which she held in her hand.
+
+"I am parched with thirst," said Mildred, "pray get me some of that
+water."
+
+"The place looks so well, ma'am," replied the sergeant, "that I think we
+could not do better than make a stop here for the night. Good day,
+neighbor! What is the name of the river I see across yon field, and
+where mought we be, just at this time?"
+
+"It is the Yadkin," answered the man, "and this county, I believe, is
+Iredell--though I speak only by guess, for I am but a stranger in these
+parts."
+
+"The lady would be obligated," said Horse Shoe, "for a drop of that
+water; and, if it was agreeable, she mought likewise be pleased to put
+up here for the night."
+
+"The people of the house are kind and worthy," replied the old man, "and
+not likely to refuse a favor. Mary, take a cup to the lady."
+
+The girl obeyed; and, coming up to the party with the vessel in her
+hand, she suddenly started as her eye fell upon Horse Shoe, and her pale
+and wan countenance was seen bathed in tears.
+
+"Mr. Robinson!" she exclaimed, with a faltering voice; "you don't know
+me?--me, Mary Musgrove. Father, it is our friend, Horse Shoe Robinson!"
+Then placing the vessel upon the ground, she ran to the sergeant's side,
+as he sat upon his horse, and leaning her head against his saddle, she
+wept bitterly, sobbing out: "It is me, Mary Musgrove. John--our
+John--that you loved--he is dead--he is dead!"
+
+In an instant Allen Musgrove was at the gate, where he greeted the
+sergeant with the affection of an old friend.
+
+This recognition of the miller and his daughter at once confirmed the
+sergeant in his determination to end his day's journey at this spot. In
+a few moments Mildred and her companions were introduced into the
+farm-house, where they were heartily welcomed by the in-dwellers,
+consisting of a sturdy, cheerful tiller of the soil, and a motherly
+dame, whose brood of children around her showed her to be the mistress
+of the family.
+
+The scene that ensued after the party were seated in the house was, for
+some time, painfully affecting. Poor Mary, overcome by the associations
+called up to her mind at the sight of the sergeant, took a seat near
+him, and silently gazed in his face, visibly laboring under a strong
+desire to express her feelings in words, but at the same time stricken
+mute by the intensity of her emotions.
+
+After a long suspense, which was broken only by her sobs, she was
+enabled to utter a few disjointed sentences, in which she recalled to
+the sergeant the friendship that had existed between him and John
+Ramsay; and there was something peculiarly touching in the melancholy
+tone with which, in accordance with the habits inculcated by her
+religious education, and most probably in the words of her father's
+frequent admonitions, she attributed the calamity that had befallen her
+to the kindly chastisement of heaven, to endure which she devoutly, and
+with a sigh that showed the bitterness of her suffering, prayed for
+patience and submission. Allen Musgrove, at this juncture, interposed
+with some topics of consolation suitable to the complexion of the
+maiden's mind, and soon succeeded in drying up her tears, and restoring
+her, at least, to the possession of a tranquil and apparently a resigned
+spirit.
+
+When this was done, he gave a narrative of the events relating to the
+escape of Butler and his subsequent recapture at the funeral of John
+Ramsay, to which, it may be imagined, Mildred and Henry listened with
+the most absorbed attention.
+
+This tale of the recapture of Butler, so unexpected, and communicated at
+a moment when Mildred's heart beat high with the joyful hopes of
+speedily seeing her lover again in safety, now struck upon her ear with
+the alarm that seizes upon a voyager who, fearing no hidden reef or
+unknown shoal, hears the keel of his ship in mid ocean crash against a
+solid rock. It seemed at once to break down the illusion which she had
+cherished with such fond affection. For the remainder of the evening the
+intercourse of the party was anxious and thoughtful, and betrayed the
+unhappy impression which the intelligence just communicated had made
+upon the feelings of Mildred and her brother. Musgrove, after the
+travellers had been refreshed by food, and invigorated by the kind and
+hearty hospitality of the good man under whose roof they were sheltered,
+proceeded to give the sergeant a history of what had lately befallen in
+the neighborhood of the Ennoree. Some days after the escape of Butler,
+the miller's own family had drawn upon themselves the odium of the
+ruling authority. His mill and his habitation had been reduced to ashes
+by a party of Tories who had made an incursion into this district, with
+no other view than to wreak their vengeance against suspected persons.
+In the same inroad, the family of David Ramsay had once more been
+assailed, and all that was spared from the first conflagration was
+destroyed in the second. Many other houses through this region had met
+the same fate. The expedition had been conducted by Wemyss, who, it is
+said, carried in his pocket a list of dwellings to which the torch was
+to be applied, and who, on accomplishing each item of his diabolical
+mission--so still runs the tradition--would note the consummated work by
+striking out the memorandum from his tablets.
+
+In this general ravage, the desolated families fled like hunted game
+through the woods, and betook themselves with a disordered haste to the
+more friendly provinces northward. Musgrove had sent his wife and
+younger children, almost immediately after the assault upon him, to the
+care of a relative in Virginia, whither they had been conducted some
+days previous to the date of his present meeting with Horse Shoe by
+Christopher Shaw; whilst he and Mary had remained behind, for a short
+space, to render assistance to the family of Ramsay, to whom they felt
+themselves affined almost as closely as if the expected alliance by
+marriage had taken place. When this duty was discharged, and Ramsay's
+family were provided with a place of refuge, Musgrove had set forward
+with his daughter to rejoin his wife and children in their new asylum.
+It was upon this journey that they had now been accidentally overtaken
+by our travellers.
+
+The disclosure of the motives of Mildred's expedition to Mary and her
+father, as may be supposed, warmed up their feelings to a most
+affectionate sympathy in her troubles. They had often heard of Butler's
+attachment to a lady in Virginia, and were aware of her name, from the
+incidents that had occurred at the trial of Butler, and from the nature
+of Horse Shoe's mission to Virginia. Mary had nursed in her mind a
+fanciful and zealous interest in behalf of the lady who was supposed to
+have engrossed Butler's affections, from the earnest devotion which she
+had witnessed in his demeanor, first at Adair's, and often afterwards
+during his captivity. The effect of this preconceived favor now showed
+itself in her behavior to Mildred; and, in the gentle play which it gave
+to her kindly sentiments, a most happy change was wrought in her present
+feelings. She at once warmly and fervently attached herself to Mildred,
+and won her way into our lady's esteem by the most amiable assiduities.
+In these offices of love, the poignancy of her own grief began to give
+way to the natural sweetness of her temper, and they were observed, in
+the same degree, to enliven Mildred's feelings. Mary hung fondly about
+her new acquaintance, proffered her most minute attentions of comfort,
+spoke often of the generous qualities of Butler, and breathed many a
+sincere prayer for future happiness to him and those he loved.
+
+As Mildred pondered over the new aspect which the tidings of this
+evening had given to her condition, her inclination and duty both
+prompted her to the resolve to make an effort to join Butler, instead of
+returning to the Dove Cote. She was apprised by Musgrove that the
+prisoner had been conducted to Ferguson, who, she was told, was at this
+time stationed in the neighborhood of Gilbert-town, not a hundred miles
+from her present position. She had ventured far in his services, and she
+could not, now that she had so nearly approached him, consent to
+abandon the effort of reaching the spot of his captivity. She thought
+with alarm over the dangers that might await him in consequence of his
+previous escape, and this alarm was increased by her remembrance of the
+tone of bitter resentment with which Cornwallis, in a moment of
+unguarded feeling, had referred to the event in her late conference with
+that officer. Above all, it was her duty--such was her view of the
+matter--and whatever might befal, he was the lord of her heart, and all
+dangers and difficulties, now as heretofore, should be cast aside in her
+determination to administer to his safety or comfort. Her decision was
+made, and she so announced it to her companions.
+
+Neither the sergeant nor Henry made the opposition to this resolve that
+might have been expected. To Horse Shoe it was a matter of indifference
+upon what service he might be ordered; his thoughts ran in no other
+current than to obey the order, and make the most thrifty and careful
+provision for its safe execution. To Henry that was always a pleasant
+suggestion which was calculated to bring him more into the field of
+adventure. Allen Musgrove, on this occasion, added an opinion which
+rather favored the enterprise.
+
+"It was not much out of the way," he said, "to go as far as Burk Court
+House, where, at least, the lady was likely to learn something of the
+plans of Ferguson, and she might either wait there, or take such
+direction afterwards as her friends should advise."
+
+Mary begged that whatever route Mildred thought proper to pursue, she
+might be allowed to accompany her; and this request was so much to the
+liking of Mildred, that she earnestly implored the miller's consent to
+the plan. With some reluctance Musgrove acquiesced; and, feeling thus
+doubly interested in the fortunes of the party, he finally determined
+himself to attend them in their present enterprise.
+
+These matters being settled, the wearied travellers parted for the
+night, happy, at least, in having found the weight of their personal
+afflictions relieved by the cheerfulness with which the burden was
+divided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+SIGNS OF A GATHERING STORM.--MUSTER OF THE BACKWOODSMEN.
+
+    In arms the huts and hamlets rise,
+    From winding glen, from upland brown,
+    They poured each hardy tenant down.--LADY OF THE LAKE.
+
+
+In gathering up the ends of our story, as we draw towards a conclusion,
+we are forced, after the fashion of a stirring drama, to a frequent
+change of scene. Accordingly, leaving Mildred and her friends to pursue
+their own way until we shall find leisure to look after their footsteps,
+we must introduce our reader to some new acquaintances, whose motions,
+it will be seen, are destined greatly to influence the interests of this
+history.
+
+The time was about the second of October, when a considerable body of
+troops were seen marching through that district which is situated
+between the Allegany mountain and the head waters of Catawba, in North
+Carolina. This force might have numbered perhaps something over one
+thousand men. Its organization and general aspect were sufficiently
+striking to entitle it to a particular description. It consisted almost
+entirely of cavalry; and a spectator might have seen in the rude,
+weather-beaten faces, and muscular forms of the soldiers, as well as in
+the simplicity of their equipments, a hastily-levied band of
+mountaineers, whose ordinary pursuits had been familiar with the arduous
+toils of Indian warfare and the active labors of the chase. They were,
+almost without exception, arrayed in the hunting shirt--a dress so dear
+to the recollections of the revolution, and which, it is much to be
+regretted, the foppery of modern times has been allowed to displace.
+Their weapons in but few instances were other than the long rifle and
+its accompanying hunting-knife.
+
+It was to be observed that this little army consisted of various corps,
+which were in general designated either by the color of the
+hunting-shirt, or by that of the fringe with which this cheap and
+simple uniform was somewhat ostentatiously garnished. Some few were clad
+in the plain, homespun working-dress of the time; and here and there, an
+officer might be recognised in the blue and buff cloth of the regular
+Continental army. The buck-tail, also, was an almost indispensable
+ornament of the cap, or usual round hat of the soldiers; and where this
+was wanting, its place was not unfrequently supplied by sprigs of green
+pine or holly, or other specimens of the common foliage of the country.
+
+The men were mounted on lean, shaggy, and travel-worn horses of every
+variety of size, shape, and color; and their baggage consisted of
+nothing more cumbersome than a light wallet attached to the rear of
+their saddles, or of a meagrely supplied pair of saddle-bags. The small
+party on foot were in no wise to be distinguished from the mounted men,
+except in the absence of horses, and in the mode of carrying their
+baggage, which was contained in knapsacks of deer-skin strapped to their
+shoulders. These moved over the ground with, perhaps, even more facility
+than the cavalry, and appeared in no degree to regret the toil of the
+march, which was so far the lighter to them, as they were exempt from
+the solicitude which their companions suffered of providing forage for
+their beasts.
+
+The officers in command of this party were young men, in whose general
+demeanor and bearing was to be seen that bold, enterprising, and hardy
+character, which at that period, even more than at present,
+distinguished the frontier population. The frequent expeditions against
+the savages, which the times had rendered familiar to them, as well as
+the service of the common war, in which they had all partaken, had
+impressed upon their exteriors the rugged lines of thoughtful
+soldiership.
+
+The troops now associated, consisted of distinct bodies of volunteers,
+who had each assembled under their own leaders, without the requisition
+of the government, entirely independent of each other, and more
+resembling the promiscuous meeting of hunters than a regularly-organized
+military corps.
+
+They had convened, about a week before the period at which I have
+presented them to my reader, at Wattauga, on the border of Tennessee, in
+pursuance of an invitation from Shelby, who was now one of the principal
+officers in command. He had himself embodied a force of between two and
+three hundred men, in his own district of the mountains; and Colonel
+Campbell, now also present, had repaired to the rendezvous with four
+hundred soldiers from the adjoining county in Virginia. These two had
+soon afterwards formed a junction with Colonels M'Dowell and Sevier, of
+North Carolina, who had thus augmented the joint force to the number
+which I have already mentioned as constituting the whole array. They had
+marched slowly and wearily from the mountains into the district of
+country which lay between the forks of Catawba, somewhere near to the
+present village of Morgantown--and might now be said to be rather
+hovering in the neighborhood of Ferguson, then advancing directly
+towards him. The force of the British partisan was, as yet, too
+formidable for the attack of these allies, and he was still in a
+position to make his way in safety to the main army under Cornwallis--at
+this time stationed at Charlotte, some seventy or eighty miles distant.
+It was both to gain increase of force, from certain auxiliaries who were
+yet expected to join them, as also, without exciting suspicion of their
+purpose, to attain a position from which Ferguson might more certainly
+be cut off from Cornwallis, that the mountain leaders lingered with such
+wily delay upon their march.
+
+Ferguson was all intent upon Clarke--little suspecting the power which
+could summon up, with such incredible alacrity, an army from the woods
+fit to dispute his passage through any path of the country; and,
+profiting by this confidence of the enemy, Shelby and his associates
+were preparing, by secret movements, to put themselves in readiness to
+spring upon their quarry at the most auspicious moment. In accordance
+with this plan, Colonel Williams, who yet preserved his encampment on
+the Fair Forest, was on the alert to act against the British leader, who
+still marched further south--at every step lengthening the distance
+between himself and his commander-in-chief, and so far favoring the
+views of his enemy. Shelby and his comrades only tarried until their
+numbers should be complete, designing as speedily as possible after that
+to form a junction with Williams, and at once enter upon an open and hot
+pursuit of their adversary.
+
+Their uncertainty in regard to the present condition of Clarke added
+greatly to their desire to strike, as early as possible, their
+meditated blow. This officer had, a few weeks before, commenced his
+retreat from Augusta through Ninety-Six, with some five hundred men,
+closely followed by Brown and Cruger, and threatened by the Indian
+tribes who inhabited the wilderness through which he journeyed. The
+perils and hardships of this retreat arose not only from the necessity
+Clarke was under to plunge into the inhospitable and almost unexplored
+wilderness of the Allegany, by a path which would effectually baffle his
+pursuers as well as escape the toils of Ferguson; but they were
+painfully enhanced by the incumbrance of a troop of women and children,
+who, having already felt the vengeance of the savages, and fearing its
+further cruelties, and the scarcely less ruthless hatred of the Tories,
+preferred to tempt the rigors of the mountain rather than remain in
+their own dwellings. It is said that these terrified and helpless
+fugitives amounted to somewhat above three hundred individuals.
+
+There were no incidents of the war of independence that more strikingly
+illustrated the heroism which grappled with the difficulties of that
+struggle at its gloomiest moment, than the patient and persevering
+gallantry of these brave wanderers and their confederates, whom we have
+seen lately assembled in arms. History has not yet conferred upon Clarke
+and his companions their merited tribute of renown. Some future
+chronicler will find in their exploits a captivating theme for his pen,
+when he tells the tale of their constancy, even in the midst of the
+nation's despair; until fortune, at length successfully wooed, rewarded
+their vigilance, bravery, and skill, by enabling them to subdue and
+destroy the Tory Ascendency in the south.
+
+The enemy, swarming in all the strong places, elate with recent victory,
+well provided with the muniments of war, high in hope and proud of
+heart, hunted these scattered, destitute, and slender bands, with a
+keenness of scent, swiftness of foot, and exasperation of temper, that
+can only be compared to the avidity of the bloodhound. This eagerness of
+pursuit was, for the present, directed against Clarke; and it is one of
+the most fortunate circumstances that belong to the events I have been
+relating, that this purpose of waylaying our gallant partisan so
+completely absorbed the attention of Ferguson, as to cause him to
+neglect the most ordinary precautions for securing himself against the
+reverses of the war.
+
+In this state of things, Shelby and his compatriots waited for the
+moment when they might direct their march immediately to the attack of
+the British soldier--their anxiety stimulated to a painful acuteness by
+the apprehension that Clarke might be overpowered by his enemies, or
+that Cornwallis might receive information of the gathering bands, and
+make a timely movement to reinforce or protect his outpost. It was in
+this moment of doubt and concern that we have chosen to present them in
+the course of our narrative.
+
+The troops had halted about the middle of the day, to take some
+refreshment. The ground they had chosen for this purpose was a narrow
+valley or glen, encompassed by steep hills, between which a transparent
+rivulet wound its way over a rough, stony bed. The margin of the stream
+was clothed with grass of the liveliest verdure, and a natural grove of
+huge forest trees covered the whole level space of the valley. The
+season was the most pleasant of the year, being at that period when, in
+the southern highlands, the hoar frost is first seen to sparkle on the
+spray at early dawn. The noon-tide sun, though not oppressively warm,
+was still sufficiently fervid to render the shade of the grove, and the
+cool mountain brook in the deep ravine, no unpleasant objects to wearied
+travellers. Here the whole of our little army were scattered through the
+wood; some intent upon refreshing their steeds in the running water,
+many seated beneath the trees discussing their own slender means, and
+not a few carelessly and idly loitering about the grounds in the
+enjoyment of the mere exemption from the constraint of discipline. The
+march of the troops on this day had not exceeded ten or twelve
+miles:--they might have been said to creep through the woods. Still,
+however, they had been in motion ever since the dawn of day; and as they
+measured the ground with their slow but ceaseless footfall, there was a
+silent disquiet and an eagerness of expectation, that were scarcely less
+fatiguing than more rapid and laborious operations.
+
+"Cleveland will certainly join us?" said Shelby, as, in the vacancy of
+the hour, he had fallen into company with his brother officers, who were
+now assembled on the margin of the brook. "It is time he were here. I am
+sick of this slow work. If we do not make our leap within the next two
+or three days, the game is lost."
+
+"Keep your temper, Isaac," replied Campbell, who, being somewhat older
+than his comrade, assumed the freedom indicated in this reply, and now
+laughed as he admonished the fretful soldier. "Keep your temper!
+Williams is below, and on the look-out; and most usefully employed in
+enticing Ferguson as far out of reach of my lord Buzzard, there at
+Charlotte, as we could wish him. Ben Cleveland will be with us all in
+good time: take my word for that. You forget that he had to muster his
+lads from Wilkes and Surry both."
+
+"And Brandon and Lacy are yet to join us," said M'Dowell.
+
+"Damn it, they should be here, man!" interrupted Shelby again; "I hate
+this creaking of my boots upon the soft grass, as if we had come to fish
+for gudgeons. I am for greasing our horses' heels and putting them to
+service."
+
+"You were always a hot-headed devil," interrupted Campbell again, "and
+have wasted more shoe-leather than discretion in this world, by at least
+ten to one. You are huntsman enough to know, Isaac, that it is sometimes
+well to steal round the game to get the wind of them. Your headlong
+haste would only do us harm."
+
+"You!" rejoined Shelby, with a laugh, excited by Campbell's face of good
+humor. "Verily, you are a pattern of sobriety and moderation yourself,
+to be preaching caution to us youngsters! All wisdom, forecast, and
+discretion, I suppose, have taken up their quarters in your wiry-haired
+noddle! How in the devil it came to pass, William, that yonder green and
+grey shirts should have trusted themselves with such a piece of prudence
+at their head, is more than I can guess."
+
+At this moment a soldier pressed forward into the circle of officers:
+
+"A letter for Colonel Shelby," he said, "brought by a trooper from
+Cleveland."
+
+"Ah, ha! This looks well," exclaimed Shelby, as he ran his eyes over the
+lines. "Cleveland is but ten miles behind, and desires us to wait his
+coming."
+
+"With how many men?" asked one of the party.
+
+"The rogue has forgotten to tell. I'll warrant, with all he could
+find."
+
+"With a good party, no doubt," interrupted Sevier. "I know the Whigs of
+Wilkes and Surry will not be backward."
+
+"From this despatch, gentlemen, I suppose we shall rest here for the
+night--what say you?" was the interrogatory proposed to the group by
+Shelby.
+
+The proposition was agreed to, and the several officers repaired to
+their commands. As soon as this order was communicated to the troops,
+everything assumed the bustle incident to the preparation of a temporary
+camp. Fires were kindled, the horses tethered, guards detailed, and
+shelters erected of green wood cut from the surrounding forest. In
+addition to this, a few cattle had been slaughtered from a small herd
+that had been driven in the rear of the march; and long before night
+came on, the scene presented a tolerably comfortable bivouac of
+light-hearted, laughing woodsmen, whose familiar habits at home had
+seasoned them to this forest-life, and gave to their present enterprise
+something of the zest of a pastime.
+
+In the first intervals of leisure, parties were seen setting out into
+the neighboring hills in pursuit of game; and when the hour of the
+evening meal arrived, good store of fat bucks and wild turkeys were not
+wanting to flavor a repast, to which a sauce better than the wit of man
+ever invented, was brought by every lusty feeder of the camp.
+
+At sundown, a long line of woodland cavalry, in all respects armed and
+equipped in the same fashion with those who already occupied the valley,
+were seen winding down the rugged road which led from the high grounds
+to the camp. At the first intimation of the approach of this body, the
+troops below were ordered out on parade, and the new-comers were
+received with all the military demonstrations of respect and joy usual
+at the meeting of friendly bodies of soldiers. Some dozen horns of the
+harshest tones, and with the most ear-piercing discord, kept up an
+incessant braying, until the alarmed echoes were startled from a
+thousand points amongst the hills. In spite of the commands of officers,
+straggling shots of salutation were fired, and loud greetings of
+individual acquaintances were exchanged from either ranks, as the
+approaching body filed across the whole front of the drawn-up line. When
+this ceremony was over, Colonel Cleveland rode up to the little group
+of officers who awaited his report, and, after a long and hearty
+welcome, announced his command to consist of three hundred and fifty
+stout hearts, ready and tried friends to the issues of the war.
+
+The force of the confederates, by this accession, now amounted to about
+fourteen hundred men. It became necessary, at this juncture, to give to
+these separate bands a more compact character, and with that view it was
+indispensable that the command of the whole should be committed to one
+of the present leaders. In the difficulty and delicacy of selecting an
+individual for this duty, the common opinion inclined to the propriety
+of submitting the appointment to General Gates. A messenger was
+accordingly despatched on that night, to repair to the American
+head-quarters at Hillsborough, to present this subject to the attention
+of the General. In the meantime, Shelby, whose claim, perhaps, to the
+honor of leading the expedition was most worthy of consideration, with
+that patriotic and noble postponement of self which occurs so frequently
+in the history of the men of the Revolution, himself suggested the
+expediency of conferring the command upon his friend Campbell, until the
+pleasure of Gates should be known. The suggestion was heartily adopted,
+and Colonel William Campbell was accordingly, from this moment, the
+chosen leader of our gallant and efficient little army.
+
+On the following day the troops were in motion at an early
+hour--designing to advance, with a steady pace, towards Gilbert-town,
+and thence on the track of the enemy across the border into South
+Carolina. In the course of the forenoon, the vanguard were met by a
+small body of horsemen, whose travel-worn plight and haggard aspects
+showed that they had lately been engaged in severe service. They were
+now in quest of the very party whom they had thus fortunately
+encountered upon the march; and it was with a lively demonstration of
+joy that they now rode with the officer of the guard into the presence
+of Campbell and his staff. Their report announced them to be Major
+Chandler and Captain Johnson, of Clarke's party, who, with thirty
+followers, had been despatched from the western side of the Allegany, to
+announce to the confederated troops the complete success of that
+officer's endeavor to reach the settlements on the Nolachuckie and
+Wattauga rivers. Their tidings were immediately communicated to the
+army; and the deep and earnest interest which officers and men took in
+this agreeable intelligence, was evinced in a spontaneous acclamation
+and cheering from one extremity of the column to the other. The
+messengers proceeded to narrate the particulars of their late hazardous
+expedition, and fully confirmed the most painful anticipations which the
+listeners had previously entertained of the difficulties, toils, and
+sufferings incident to the enterprise. Clarke's soldiers, they further
+reported, were too much disabled to be in condition immediately to
+recross the mountain and unite in the present movement against Ferguson;
+but that, as soon as they should find themselves recruited by needful
+rest, they would lose no time in repairing to the scene of action.
+
+Towards sunset of the succeeding day, our sturdy adventurers entered
+Gilbert-town. This post had been abandoned by Ferguson, and was now in
+the occupation of the two staunch Whig leaders, Brandon and Lacy, at the
+head of about three hundred men, who had repaired thither from the
+adjacent mountains of Rutherford, to await the arrival of Campbell and
+his friends. It was manifest that affairs were rapidly tending towards a
+crisis. Ferguson had hitherto appeared indifferent to the dangers that
+threatened him and his movements indicated either a fatal contempt for
+his adversary, or an ignorance of the extent of his embarrassments--each
+equally discreditable to the high renown which has been attributed to
+him for careful and bold soldiership.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+MILDRED MEETS AN AGREEABLE ADVENTURE.
+
+
+We left Mildred securely lodged with her new and kind-hearted friends,
+under the hospitable roof of the farmer, hard by the Yadkin. The reader
+has, doubtless, found reason in the course of this narrative to marvel
+much that a lady so delicately nurtured should, with so stout a spirit
+and with such singular devotion, have tempted so many dangers, and
+exposed herself to such unwonted hardships, for the sake of the man she
+loved. Perhaps, I might be able to clear up this matter, by referring to
+the extraordinary conjuncture of circumstances that surrounded her. It
+was no secret that she fervently, and with her whole heart,--yea even
+with a fanatical worship,--loved the man she sought. Her affection had
+been nursed in solitude, and, like a central fire, glowed with a fervid
+heat, unobserved at first, silent and steady: and by degrees her
+enthusiasm spread its coloring over the passion, and raised it into a
+fanciful but solemn self-dedication. This warmth of feeling might still
+have been witnessed only within her family precinct, had it not been
+that, at a most critical moment, when her father's absence from the Dove
+Cote left her without other resource than her own unaided counsel, she
+was made acquainted that her lover's life was in imminent peril, and
+that a word from her might perhaps avert his doom. We have seen with
+what anxious alacrity she set forth in that emergency upon her
+pilgrimage of duty; and how, as she became familiar with hardship and
+danger, her constancy and resolution still took a higher tone, growing
+more vigorous even with the impediments that lay across her path. This
+may seem strange to our peace-bred dames,--and little congruous with
+that feminine reserve and shrinkingness which we are wont to praise: but
+war, distress, and disaster work miracles in the female bosom, and
+render that virtuous and seemly, which ease and safety might repel.
+Nature is a wise and cunning charmer, and, in affliction, makes that
+forwardness not unlovely, which in tranquil and happy times she would
+visit with her censure. If these considerations do not suffice to
+explain the present movements of my heroine, I must beg my reader to
+have patience to the end, when, peradventure, he will find a still
+better reason.
+
+When morning came, Mildred was up with the first blush of light. Her
+thoughts had dwelt with a busy restlessness upon the late intelligence,
+and she had slept only in short and disturbed intervals. She was
+impatient to be again upon the road.
+
+Accordingly, as soon as the preparations for their journey could be
+made, our party, now increased by the addition of Musgrove and his
+daughter, set forward on their travel towards Burk Court House.
+
+This journey was protracted through several days. The disturbed state of
+the country, produced by the active hostilities which were now renewed,
+made it prudent for our wayfarers frequently to halt amongst the
+friendly inhabitants of the region through which they travelled, in
+order to obtain information, or wait for the passage of troops whose
+presence might have caused embarrassment.
+
+The considerate kindness of Allen Musgrove, and the unwearied attentions
+of Mary, who, softened by her own griefs, evinced a more touching
+sympathy for the sufferings of Mildred, every day increased the
+friendship which their present companionship had engendered, and greatly
+beguiled the road of its tediousness and discomfort.
+
+The journey, however, was not without its difficulties, nor altogether
+destitute of occurrences of interest to this history. The upper
+districts of North Carolina present to the eye a very beautiful country,
+diversified by mountain and valley, and gifted in general with a rich
+soil. Considerable portions of this region were consequently occupied
+and put into cultivation at an early period of the history of the
+province; and, at the era of the revolution, were noted as the most
+desirable positions for the support of the southern armies. This
+circumstance had drawn the war to that quarter, and had induced a
+frequent struggle to retain a footing there, by each party who came into
+possession of it. Such a state of things had now, as we have before
+remarked, embarrassed the progress of our friends, and had even
+compelled them to diverge largely from the direct route of their
+journey.
+
+It happened, a few days after leaving the Yadkin, that the hour of
+sunset found our little troop pursuing a road through the deep and
+gloomy forest, which, for several miles past, had been unrelieved by any
+appearance of human habitation. Neither Horse Shoe nor Allen Musgrove
+possessed any acquaintance with the region, beyond the knowledge that
+they were upon what was called the upper or mountain road that extended
+from Virginia entirely through this section of North Carolina; and that
+they could not be much more than fifteen or twenty miles north of Burk
+Court House. Where they should rest during the night that was now at
+hand, was a matter that depended entirely upon chance; and stimulated by
+the hope of encountering some woodland cabin, they persevered in riding
+forward, even when the fading twilight had so obscured their path as to
+make it a matter of some circumspection to pick their way. Thus the
+night stole upon them almost unawares.
+
+There is nothing so melancholy as the deep and lonely forest at night;
+and why it should be so I will not stop to inquire, but that melancholy,
+it seems to me, is enhanced by the chilliness of the autumnal evening.
+The imagination peoples the impenetrable depths of the wood with
+spectres, which the gibbering and shrill reptiles that inhabit these
+recesses seem to invest with a voice; the earth beneath the feet,
+carpeted with "the raven down of darkness," has an indefinite surface
+that causes the traveller to think of pitfalls and sudden banks, and
+fearful quagmires; and the grey light of the glow-worm, or the cold
+gleam of the rotten timber, shine up through the gloom, like some
+witch-taper from a haunted ground. Then, high above the head, the sombre
+forms of the trees nod in the night-wind, and the stars,--ineffectual to
+guide us on our way--are seen only in short and rapid glimpses through
+the foliage; all these things affect the mind with sadness, but the
+chattering of the teeth and the cold creep of the blood, rendered
+sluggish by a frosty atmosphere, make it still more sad.
+
+Mildred and Mary Musgrove experienced a full share of these imaginings,
+as they now rode in the dark, side by side; and, peradventure, an
+occasional expression of impatience might have been heard, in whispers,
+between them. By degrees this feeling extended to Henry, and, in due
+course of time, seemed also to have reached the sergeant and the miller;
+for these two, as if suddenly struck with the necessity of making some
+provision for the night, now came to a halt, with a view to inquire into
+the comfort of the weaker members of the troop, and to deliberate on
+what was best to be done. To make a fire, erect a tent, and resort to
+the contents of their havresacks for supper, were the only expedients
+which their situation afforded; and as these arrangements were but the
+customary incidents of travel, in the times to which we refer, they were
+now resolved upon with but little sense of inconvenience or hardship. It
+was proper, however, that the party should encamp in some position where
+they might have water, and, with that object, they continued to move
+forward until they should find themselves in the neighborhood of a
+running stream--an event that, from the nature of the country, was soon
+likely to occur.
+
+"There can be no moon to-night," said the sergeant, as they rode along
+in quest of their lodging-place, "yet yonder light would look as if she
+was rising. No, it can't be, for it is westward, as I judge, Allen."
+
+"It is westward," replied Musgrove, looking towards a faint light which
+brought the profile of the tree-tops into relief against the horizon.
+"There must be fire in the woods."
+
+The party rode on, all eyes being directed to the phenomenon pointed out
+by Horse Shoe. The light grew broader, and flung a lurid beam towards
+the zenith; and, as the travellers still came nearer, the radiance
+increased, and illuminated the summit of a hill, which, it was now
+apparent, lay between them and the light.
+
+"We must rest here for a while," said the sergeant, reining up his horse
+in a dark and narrow ravine; "the fire is just across this hill in
+front. It would be wise to reconnoitre a little; there may be travellers
+camping on the t'other side, or troops for aught we know; or it may be
+an old fire left by the last persons who passed. You, Allen Musgrove,
+stay here with the women, and I will ride forward to look into the
+matter."
+
+Henry accompanied the sergeant, and they both galloped up the hill. When
+they came to the top, a rich and strange prospect broke upon their
+sight. Some three or four hundred yards in advance, at the foot of the
+long slope of the hill, a huge volume of flame was discovered enveloping
+the entire trunk of a tall pine, and blazing forth with sudden flashes
+amongst the withered foliage. The radiance cast around from this
+gigantic torch penetrated the neighboring forest, and lit up the trees
+with a lustre more dazzling than that of day; whilst the strong shades
+brought into such immediate proximity with the sharp, red light, as it
+glanced upon every upright stem or trunk, gave a new and grotesque
+outline to the familiar objects of the wood. The glare fell upon the
+sward of the forest, and towards the rear upon a sheet of water, which
+showed the conflagration to have been kindled on the bank of some river.
+Not less conspicuous than the local features of the scene were the
+figures of a considerable party of soldiers passing to and fro in idle
+disarray through the region of the light, and a short distance from them
+a number of horses attached to the branches of the neighboring trees.
+Horse Shoe and his young companion stood gazing for some moments upon
+the spectacle, the sergeant in silent conjecture and perplexed
+thoughtfulness as to the character of the persons below, Henry intent
+only upon the novel and picturesque beauty of the view.
+
+The light shone directly up the road, and fell upon the persons of our
+two friends, a circumstance to which the sergeant seemed to give no
+heed, until Henry pointed out to him a horseman, from the direction of
+the fire, who was now advancing towards them.
+
+"Sergeant, turn back into the shade," cried Henry; "that man is coming
+after us."
+
+"Keep your ground," replied Horse Shoe; "he has no ill-will to us. He
+wears the dress of an honest man and a good soldier."
+
+"Who goes there?" called out the horseman, as he now came within
+speaking distance. "Stand and tell me who you are!"
+
+"Friends to the hunting-shirt and buck-tail," replied Robinson.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," rejoined the scout, as he advanced still
+nearer. "Where from, and in what direction do you travel?"
+
+"That should be William Scoresby's voice of the Amherst Rangers,"
+shouted Henry, with animation; "as I live, it is the very man!"
+
+"Who have we here!" returned the horseman. "Henry Lindsay! our deputy
+corporal! Why, man, where did you spring from?" he added, in a tone of
+joyful surprise, as he offered Henry his hand.
+
+"Ho, sister Mildred--Mr. Musgrove!" exclaimed Henry, calling out at the
+top of his voice to his friends, who were waiting behind for
+intelligence. "Come up--come up! Here's good luck!"
+
+And with a continued vociferation, he galloped back until he met his
+sister, and conducted her to the top of the hill, whence, following the
+guidance of William Scoresby, the party descended to the bivouac of the
+Amherst Rangers.
+
+Henry eagerly sought out Stephen Foster, and, having brought him into
+the presence of Mildred, received from him a narrative of the course of
+events which had led to this fortunate meeting.
+
+The Rangers had marched from Virginia a few days after Mildred had left
+the Dove Cote. They had fallen in with Gates's shattered army at
+Hillsborough, where, after tarrying almost a fortnight, they were
+furnished an opportunity to take some active share in the operations of
+the day by the enterprise of Shelby against Ferguson, the knowledge of
+which had reached them at Gates's head-quarters, whither a messenger
+from Shelby had come to ask for aid. The Rangers had accordingly
+volunteered for this service, and, with the permission of the general,
+were now on their way towards Burk Court House, there hoping to receive
+intelligence that would enable them to join the allies.
+
+They had for some miles been marching along the same road taken by our
+travellers, not more than two hours ahead of them; and having reached
+the Catawba near sundown, had determined to encamp there for the night.
+The soldiers, unaccustomed to exact discipline, had, in sport, set fire
+to a tall pine which some accident of the storm had killed, and produced
+the conflagration that had lighted Horse Shoe and his charge to the
+scene of the present meeting.
+
+It may be imagined that this incident afforded great satisfaction to
+Mildred and her party, who were thus brought into connexion with a
+numerous body of friends, with whom they determined henceforth to pursue
+their journey. The first good result of this encounter was immediately
+experienced in the comfortable though rude accommodation which the
+prompt and united efforts of the Rangers supplied to Mildred and her
+friend, Mary Musgrove, in enabling them to pass a night of sound and
+healthful sleep.
+
+On the following day, the Rangers and their new companions arrived at
+Burk Court House. They were here made acquainted with the fact that the
+mountain troops were at this time moving towards Gilbert-town. They
+accordingly, after a night's rest, resumed their march, and by a
+toilsome journey through a rugged mountain district, succeeded on the
+third evening in reaching the little village which had but a short time
+since been the head-quarters of Ferguson and the spot of Arthur Butler's
+captivity.
+
+They were now in advance of Campbell and his mountaineers; and, in
+waiting for these troops, they were afforded leisure to recruit
+themselves from the effects of their late fatigues. Good quarters were
+obtained for Mildred and her companions. She required repose, and
+profited by the present opportunity to enjoy it.
+
+The village at this moment was full of troops. Brandon and Lacy, with
+their followers, whom we have referred to in the last chapter, were
+already there, in daily expectation of the arrival of the confederates;
+and amongst these men, Sergeant Robinson and his companion, the miller,
+found the means of relieving the tediousness of delay, to say nothing of
+Henry, who had now become so decidedly martial in his inclinations, that
+the camp was to him a scene of never-fading interest.
+
+In two days Campbell's army entered the village, after a march of which
+we have already given a sketch to our reader. It was a duty of early
+concern, on the part of Allen Musgrove and the sergeant, to apprise him
+of the presence of Mildred and her brother, and to communicate to him
+the singular purpose of her mission. The effect of this was a visit by
+Campbell, Shelby, and Williams, to the lady on the evening of their
+arrival. The two latter of these officers had already been personally
+active in the behalf of Arthur Butler, and all felt the liveliest
+interest in his fortunes. The singular relation in which Mildred seemed
+to stand to the captive officer and the extraordinary zeal which her
+present mission betrayed in his cause, drew forth a warm sympathy from
+the generous soldiers around her, and there was even a tincture of the
+romance of chivalry in the fervor with which, on the present visit, they
+pledged themselves to her service. With the delicacy that always belongs
+to honorable and brave hearts, they refrained from inquiry into the
+special inducements which could so earnestly enlist the lady in the
+service of their fellow-soldier, and sedulously strove to raise her
+spirits into a cheerful and happy tone by the hopes they were able to
+inspire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+FERGUSON ADVANCES SOUTH.--HE HAS REASON TO BECOME CIRCUMSPECT.--ARTHUR
+BUTLER FINDS HIMSELF RETREATING FROM HIS FRIENDS.
+
+
+We return for a moment to look after Butler. As near as my information
+enables me to speak--for I wish to be accurate in dates--it was about
+the 23d of September when our hero arrived at Gilbert-town, and found
+himself committed to the custody of Ferguson. His situation, in many
+respects uncomfortable, was not altogether without circumstances to
+alleviate the rigor of captivity. Ferguson, though a rough soldier, and
+animated by a zealous partisanship in the royal cause which imbued his
+feelings with a deep hatred of the Whigs, was also a man of education,
+and of a disposition to respect the claims of a gentleman fully equal to
+himself in rank and consideration--even when these qualities were found
+in an enemy. His intercourse, of late, had been almost entirely confined
+to the wild spirits who inhabited the frontier, and who, impelled by
+untamed passions, were accustomed to plunge into every excess which the
+license of war enabled them to practise. He had, accordingly, adapted
+his behavior to the complexion of this population, and maintained his
+authority, both over his own recruits and such of the opposite party as
+had fallen into his hands, by a severe, and not unfrequently by even a
+cruel bearing. Following the example set him by Cornwallis himself, he
+had more than once executed summary vengeance upon the Whigs whom the
+chances of war had brought into his power; or, what was equally
+reprehensible, had allowed the Tory bands who had enlisted under his
+banner, to gratify their own thirst of blood in the most revolting
+barbarities. Towards Butler, however, he demeaned himself with more
+consideration--and sometimes even extended to him such little courtesies
+as might be indulged without risk to the principal purpose of his safe
+custody. A separate room was provided for the prisoner, and he was
+allowed the occasional services of Harry Winter and the other companions
+of his late misfortune. Still, the familiar scenes of suffering and
+death which Butler was constrained to witness amongst his compatriots,
+and the consciousness of his own inability to avert these calamities,
+greatly weighed upon his spirits. His persuasion, too, that Ferguson was
+now aiding, by what seemed to be a most effectual participation, in the
+plan for the capture of Clarke, and his belief that this blow would
+sadly afflict, if not altogether dishearten the friends of independence
+in the South, added to his private grief. He knew nothing of the
+mustering of the mountaineers, and saw no hope of extrication from the
+difficulties that threatened to overwhelm his cause.
+
+Such was the condition of Butler during the first four or five days of
+his captivity at Gilbert-town. At the end of this period, circumstances
+occurred to raise in his bosom the most lively excitement. Suddenly, an
+order was issued for the immediate movement of the army southwards--and
+the prisoners were directed to accompany the march. It was apparent that
+information of importance had been received, and that some decisive
+event was at hand. When, in pursuance of this command, the troops were
+marshalled for their journey, and Butler was stationed in the column,
+along with all the other prisoners of the post, he was startled to
+observe the dragoon, James Curry, appear in the ranks, as one regularly
+attached to the corps. Butler had seen nor heard nothing of this man
+since he had parted from him at Blackstock's after the battle of
+Musgrove's mill; and his conviction, that, acting under the control of
+some higher authority, this individual had been the principal agent in
+his present misfortunes, gave him a painful anxiety in regard to the
+future. This anxiety was far from being diminished, when he now
+discovered that the same person, with a party of dragoons, was specially
+intrusted with his guardianship. Winter and the other troopers who had,
+until this moment, been allowed to keep him company, were now directed
+to take a station amongst the common prisoners, and Butler was furnished
+with his horse, and commanded to submit to the particular supervision
+of the dragoon. These arrangements being made, the march of Ferguson
+commenced.
+
+The army moved cautiously towards the upper sections of the district of
+Ninety-Six. It was evident to Butler, from the frequent hints dropped in
+conversation by the royalist officers, that Ferguson supposed himself to
+be getting every moment nearer to Clarke. In this state of suspense and
+weariness the first day's march was concluded.
+
+The second was like the first. Ferguson still moved south, slowly, but
+steadily. Every man that was met upon the road was questioned by the
+commanding officer, to ascertain whether there was any report of troops
+westward. "Had any crossed Saluda--or been heard of towards the
+mountains!"--was an invariable interrogatory.
+
+None, that the person questioned knew of--was the common reply.
+
+"Tush! the devil's in it, that we can hear nothing of the fellow!"
+exclaimed Ferguson, after the fifth or sixth wayfarer had been examined.
+"Clarke and his beggars are flesh and blood--they travel by land, and
+not through the air! Faith, I begin to think Cruger has saved us
+trouble, and has got his hand on the runaway's croup! James Curry."
+
+The dragoon rode to the front and bowed.
+
+"You left Fort Ninety-Six only on Wednesday?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Where was Cruger then?"
+
+"Marching towards Saluda, with Brown--following Clarke, as it was
+supposed--but on rather a cold scent as one of the couriers reported."
+
+"Humph! I must get still nearer to the mountains," said Ferguson, as he
+clenched his teeth and seemed absorbed in thought.
+
+In a short time after this, the column diverged from their former course
+by a road that led westward.
+
+Thus ended the second day.
+
+During the next two days, Ferguson had become manifestly more
+circumspect in his movement, and spent the greater portion of this
+interval upon a road which was said to extend from Ninety-Six, to the
+Allegany mountain. Here he remained, with the wariness of the tiger
+that prepares to spring upon his prey; and it was with a petulant temper
+that, after this anxious watch for forty-eight hours, he turned upon his
+heel and summoned his officers around him, and announced his
+determination to penetrate still further into the forest. Like a man
+perplexed and peevish with crosses, he soon changed his mind, and
+ordered a lieutenant of cavalry into his presence.
+
+"Take six of your best appointed men," he said, "and send one half of
+them up this road towards the mountains--the other half southwards--and
+command them not to stop until they bring me some news of this
+night-hawk, Clarke. Let them be trusty men that you can depend upon. I
+will wait but twenty-four hours for them. Meantime," he added, turning
+to another officer present, "I will send a courier after Cruger, who
+shall find him if he is above ground."
+
+The following day--which brings us to the third of October--a decisive
+change took place in the aspect of affairs. Before either of the scouts
+that had been lately despatched had returned, a countryman was brought
+into Ferguson's camp, who, being submitted to the usual minute
+examination, informed the questioners, that some thirty miles, in the
+direction of Fort Ninety-Six, he had met upon the road a large party of
+cavalry under the command of Colonel Williams--and that that officer had
+shown great anxiety to learn whether certain Whig troops had been seen
+near Gilbert-town. The informant added, that "Williams appeared to him
+to be strangely particular in his inquiries about Ferguson."
+
+This intelligence seemed suddenly to awaken the British partisan from a
+dream. He was now one hundred miles south of Cornwallis; and, both east
+and west of the line of communication between them, it was apparent that
+hostile parties were assembling, with a view to some united action
+against him. It struck him now, for the first time, that an enemy might
+be thrown between the main army at Charlotte and his detachment, and
+thus cause him some embarrassment in his retreat--but it was still with
+the scorn of a presumptuous soldier that he recurred to the possibility
+of his being forced to fight his way.
+
+"They are for turning the tables on me," he said, in a tone of
+derision, "and hope to pounce upon my back while I am taken up with this
+half-starved and long-legged fellow of the mountains, But I will show
+them who is master yet!"
+
+In this temper he commenced his retreat, which was conducted slowly and
+obstinately; and it may be supposed that Butler, as he involuntarily
+followed the fortunes of his enemy, contemplated these movements with an
+anxious interest. The common report of the camp made him acquainted with
+the circumstances which had recommended the retreat, and he, therefore,
+watched the course of events in momentary expectation of some incident
+of great importance to himself.
+
+At night Ferguson arrived at the Cowpens, just twenty-four hours in
+advance of his enemies. Whilst resting here he received intelligence of
+the stout array that had lately assembled at Gilbert-town, and which, he
+was now told, were in full pursuit of him. It was, at first, with an
+incredulous ear that he heard the report of the numbers of this
+suddenly-levied mountain-army. It seemed incredible that such a host
+could have been convened in such brief space and with such secret
+expedition; and even more unworthy of belief, that they could have been
+found in the wild and thinly-peopled regions of the Allegany. His doubt,
+however, yielded to his fear, and induced him to accelerate his pace.
+
+His first care was to despatch, on that night, a courier to Cornwallis,
+to inform the general of his situation and ask for reinforcements. The
+letter which bore this request is still extant, and will show that even
+in the difficult juncture in which we have presented the writer of it,
+his boastful confidence had not abandoned him.
+
+Before the succeeding dawn he was again in motion, directing his hasty
+march towards the Cherokee Ford of Broad river. This point he reached at
+sundown. His journey had been pursued, thus far, with unremitting
+industry. If his motions had corresponded to his affected disesteem of
+his enemy, he would here have halted for rest; but, like one who flies
+with the superstitious dread of a goblin follower, the retreating
+partisan looked over his shoulder with an unquiet spirit, and made a
+sign to his companions still to press forward. They crossed the river at
+night, and did not halt again until they had traversed some six or eight
+miles beyond the further bank.
+
+The anxiety, suspense, and eager expectation of Butler increased with
+these thickening demonstrations of the approach of a period which he
+foresaw must be decisive, not only of his own hopes, but, in a great
+degree, of the hopes of his country. The retreat of Ferguson towards
+King's Mountain, which now lay but a few miles in advance, was a visible
+and most striking type of the vanishing power which for a brief
+half-year had maintained its domination over the free spirits of the
+south, and which had aimed, by a cruel and bloody rule, to extinguish
+all that was generous and manly in these afflicted provinces.
+
+Contenting myself with this rapid survey of events which, of themselves,
+possess an interest that would, if time and space permitted me, have
+justified the detail of a volume, I go back to the regular current of my
+story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+THE WHIGS CONTINUE THEIR MARCH.--MILDRED IS LEFT BEHIND.
+
+
+The army of mountaineers halted at Gilbert-town only until a vidette
+from Williams brought tidings of Ferguson's late movements. These
+reached Campbell early in the day succeeding his arrival at the village,
+and apprised him that Williams followed on the footsteps of the British
+partisan, and would expect to unite his force with that of the allied
+volunteers at the Cowpens--(a field not yet distinguished in
+story)--whither he expected to arrive on the following day. Campbell
+determined, in consequence, to hasten to this quarter.
+
+The present position of Mildred, notwithstanding the kind sympathy with
+which every one regarded her, was one that wrought severely upon her
+feelings. She had heretofore encountered the hardships of her journey,
+and borne herself through the trials, so unaccustomed to her sex, with a
+spirit that had quailed before no obstacle. But now, finding herself in
+the train of an army just moving forth to meet its enemy, with all the
+vicissitudes and peril of battle in prospect, it was with a sinking of
+the heart she had not hitherto known, that she felt herself called upon
+to choose between the alternative of accompanying them in their march,
+or being left behind. To adopt the first resolve, she was painfully
+conscious would bring her to witness scenes, and perhaps endure
+privations, the very thought of which made her shudder; whilst, to
+remain at a distance from the theatre of events in which she was so
+deeply concerned, was a thought that suggested many anxious fears, not
+less intolerable than the untried sufferings of the campaign. She had,
+thus far, braved all dangers for the sake of being near to Butler; and
+now to hesitate or stay her step, when she had almost reached the very
+spot of his captivity, and when the fortunes of war might soon throw her
+into his actual presence, seemed to her like abandoning her duty at the
+most critical moment of trial. She was aware that he was in the camp of
+the enemy; that this enemy was likely to be overtaken and brought to
+combat; and it was with a magnified terror that she summoned up to her
+imagination the possible mischances which might befal Arthur Butler in
+the infliction of some summary act of vengeance provoked by the
+exasperation of conflict. "I have tempted the dangers of flood and storm
+for him--of forest and field--noon-day battle and midnight assault," she
+said, with an earnestness that showed she had shaken all doubts from her
+mind; "I have taken my vow of devotion to his safety--to be performed
+with such fidelity as befits the sacred bond between us. I will not
+blench now, in the last struggle, though perils thicken around me. I'm
+prepared for the worst."
+
+Allen Musgrove, Robinson, and Henry combated this resolve with joint
+expostulation, urging upon Mildred the propriety of her tarrying in the
+village, at least until the active operations of the army were
+terminated--an event that might be expected in a few days. But it was
+not until Campbell himself remonstrated with her against the
+indiscretion of her purpose, and promised to afford her the means of
+repairing to the scene of action at any moment she might think her
+presence there useful, that she relinquished her determination to
+accompany the army on its present expedition. It was, in consequence,
+ultimately arranged that she should remain in the quarters provided for
+her in Gilbert-town, attended by the miller and his daughter, whilst a
+few soldiers were to be detailed as a guard for her person. With this
+train of attendants, she was to be left at liberty to draw as near to
+the centre of events as her considerate and faithful counsellor, Allen
+Musgrove, might deem safe.
+
+Another source of uneasiness to her arose out of the separation which
+she was about to endure from the sergeant and her brother Henry. Horse
+Shoe, swayed by an irresistible and affectionate longing to be present
+at the expected passage of arms, which might so materially affect the
+fortunes of his captive fellow-soldier, Butler, had represented to
+Mildred the value of the services he might be able to render; and as
+the friendly solicitude of the miller and his daughter left nothing
+within their power to be supplied, towards the comfort and protection
+of the lady, she did not refuse her consent to this temporary
+desertion--although it naturally awakened some painful sense of
+bereavement, at a moment when her excited feelings most required the
+consolation of friends.
+
+Henry, captivated with the prospect of military adventure, and magnified
+in his own esteem by the importance which Stephen Foster and the Rangers
+playfully assigned to his position in the ranks, had so far lost sight
+of the special duty he had assumed, as his sister's companion, that he
+now resolutely rebelled against all attempts to persuade him to remain
+in the village; and Mildred, at last, upon the pledge of the sergeant to
+keep the cadet under his own eye, reluctantly yielded to a demand which
+she found it almost impossible to resist.
+
+These matters being settled, it was not long before Mildred and Mary
+Musgrove, seated at the window of the house which had been selected as
+their present abode, saw the long array of the army glide by at a brisk
+pace, and watched the careless and laughing faces of the soldiers, as
+they filed off through the only street in the village, and took the high
+road leading south.
+
+The troops had been gone for several hours, and Allen Musgrove and the
+few soldiers who had been left behind, had scattered themselves over the
+village, to get rid of the tedium of idleness in the gossip of the scant
+population which the place afforded. Mildred had retired to a chamber,
+and Mary loitered from place to place like one disturbed with care. All
+the party felt that deep sense of loneliness which is so acutely
+perceptible to those who suddenly change a life of toil and incident for
+one of rest, while events of busy interest are in expectation.
+
+"They are gone, ma'am," said Mary, as she now crept into Mildred's
+presence, after having travelled over nearly the whole village, in the
+state of disquietude I have described; "they are gone at least twenty
+miles, I should think, by this time; and I never would have believed
+that I could have cared so much about people I never saw before. But we
+are so lonesome, ma'am. And young Mister Henry Lindsay, I should say,
+must be getting tired by this time of day. As for the matter of that,
+people may get tireder by standing still than by going on."
+
+"How far do they march to-day?" inquired Mildred; "have you heard your
+father say, Mary?"
+
+"I heard him and the troopers who are here allow," replied the maiden,
+"that Colonel Campbell wouldn't reach Colonel Williams before to-morrow
+afternoon. They said it was good fifty miles' travel. They look like
+brave men--them that marched this morning, ma'am; for they went out with
+good heart. The Lord send that through Him they may be the means of
+deliverance to Major Butler!"
+
+At the mention of this name, Mildred covered her face with her hands,
+and the tears trickled through her fingers. "The Lord send it!" she
+repeated, after a moment's pause. "May He, in his mercy, come to our
+aid!" Then uncovering her face, and dropping on her knees beside her
+chair, she whispered a prayer for the success of those who had lately
+marched forth against the enemy.
+
+When she arose from this posture, she went to the window, and there
+stood gazing out upon the quiet and unfrequented street, running over in
+her mind the perils to which her brother as well as Butler might be
+exposed, and summoning to her imagination the thousand subjects of
+solicitude, which her present state of painful expectation might be
+supposed to create or recall.
+
+"We will set forth early to-morrow," she said, addressing herself to her
+companion, "so tell your father, Mary. We will follow the brave friends
+who have left us: I cannot be content to linger behind them. I will
+sleep in the lowliest hovel, or in the common shelter of the woods, and
+share all the dangers of the march, rather than linger here in this
+dreadful state of doubt and silence. Tell your father to make his
+preparations for our departure to-morrow: tell him I cannot abide
+another day in this place."
+
+"I should think we might creep near them, ma'am," replied Mary, "near
+enough to see and hear what was going on--which is always a great
+satisfaction, and not get ourselves into trouble neither. I am sure my
+father would be very careful of us, and keep us out of harm's way, come
+what would. And it is distressing to be so far off, when you don't know
+what's going to turn up. I will seek my father--who I believe is over
+yonder with the troopers at the shop, talking to the blacksmith--I will
+go there and try to coax him to do your bidding. I know the troopers
+want it more than we do, and they'll say a word to help it along."
+
+"Say I desire to have it so, Mary. I can take no refusal. Here I will
+not stay longer."
+
+Mary left the apartment, and as she descended the steps, she fell into a
+rumination which arrested her progress full five minutes, during which
+she remained mute upon the stair-case. "No wonder the poor dear lady
+wishes to go!" was the ejaculation which came at last sorrowfully from
+her heart, with a long sigh, and at the same time tears began to flow:
+"no wonder she wants to be near Major Butler, who loves her past the
+telling of it. If John Ramsay was there," she added, sobbing, "I would
+have followed him--followed him--yes, if I died for it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+AFFAIRS BEGIN TO DRAW TO A HEAD. PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE. A PICTURE OF
+THE TWO ARMIES.
+
+
+After leaving Gilbert-town, Campbell moved steadily toward the point at
+which he proposed to meet Williams, and by night-fall had accomplished
+about one half of the journey. The march furnished Henry Lindsay
+unalloyed pleasure. Every incident belonging to it awakened the fancies
+which he had indulged in reference to military life, and he was
+delighted in the contemplation of this actual accomplishment of some of
+the many dreams of glory which his boyish romance had engendered at
+home. Besides, being a favorite of those in command, he was allowed to
+ride in the ranks whenever it suited his pleasure, and to amuse himself
+with what subject of interest the journey afforded; whilst, at the same
+time, he found his personal ease so much attended to as to leave him but
+little room to complain of the discomfort or toil of the campaign.
+
+The night was spent in the woods, and it was scarcely daybreak, when the
+exhilarating though harsh clamor of the horns summoned the troops to the
+renewal of their journey, which was pursued until the afternoon, when,
+about four o'clock, they reached the border of the tract of country
+known as the Cowpens. Afar off, occupying a piece of elevated ground,
+Campbell was enabled to descry a considerable body of cavalry, whose
+standard, dress, and equipment, even at this distance, sufficiently made
+known to him their friendly character,--a fact that was immediately
+afterwards confirmed by the report of some videttes, who had been
+stationed upon the road by which Campbell advanced. A brief interval
+brought the two parties together, and the force of the allied bands was
+thus augmented by the addition of our gallant friend Williams, at the
+head of four hundred sturdy companions.
+
+"Make a short speech of it," said Shelby, addressing Williams, after
+that officer had ridden into the circle of his comrades, and had
+exchanged with them a friendly greeting, "you have been busy,
+fellow-soldier, whilst we were waiting to see the grass grow. What has
+become of the runaway?"
+
+"He left this spot but yesterday," replied Williams; "Ferguson has
+something of the bull-dog in him: his retreat, now that he is forced to
+it, is surly and slow; he stops to snarl and growl as if he defied us to
+follow him. If he had but stood his ground here, we should have had him
+in as pretty a field as one might desire. Devil thank him for his
+prudence! But he is now at the Cherokee Ford of Broad river--so I
+conjecture, by the report of my scouts--hard upon thirty miles from
+here, on his way towards Charlotte."
+
+"Say you so?" exclaimed Campbell; "then, by my faith, we have no time to
+lose! Gentlemen, we will rest but an hour, and then to it, for a night
+march. Pick me out your best men and stoutest horses; leave the footmen
+behind, and the weakest of the cavalry. This fellow may take it into his
+head to show his heels. If I can but tread upon the tail of the
+copperhead with one foot, he will throw himself into his coil for
+fight,--that's the nature of the beast,--and after that, if need be, we
+can threaten him until all our force arrives. Shelby, look to the
+immediate execution of this order."
+
+"That's glorious, sergeant," said Henry, who, with his companion,
+Robinson, had stolen up to the skirts of the circle of officers during
+this conference, and had heard Campbell's order. "I am of this party,
+whoever goes. Colonel Campbell," he added, with the familiarity of his
+privilege, "the Rangers are ready for you, at any rate."
+
+"There's a mettlesome colt," said Campbell, laughing and speaking to the
+officers around him, "that bird shows fight before his spurs are grown.
+Pray, sir," he continued, addressing Henry, "what command have you?"
+
+"I consider myself answerable for the second platoon of the Amherst
+Rangers," replied Henry, with a waggish sauciness, "and they march this
+night, whatever happens."
+
+"You shall serve with me in the staff, master," said Campbell,
+playfully, "such fiery young blades must be looked after. Get your men
+ready; you shall go, I promise you."
+
+Henry, delighted at the notice he had received, rode off with alacrity
+to spread the news.
+
+The council broke up, and the earliest arrangements were set on foot to
+make the draught required by the general orders.
+
+Before the day had departed, nine hundred picked men, well mounted and
+equipped, were seen spurring forward from the line, and taking a
+position in the column of march, which was now prepared to move. All the
+principal officers of the army accompanied this detachment, in which
+were to be seen the Amherst Rangers with their redoubtable recruits,
+Henry Lindsay and the sergeant.
+
+It rained during the night, a circumstance that, however it increased
+the toils of the soldiers, but little abated their speed--and, an hour
+before daybreak, they had reached the destined point on Broad river: but
+the game had disappeared. Ferguson, as we have seen, had pushed his
+march on the preceding evening beyond this spot, and had taken the road,
+as it was reported, towards King's mountain, which was not above twelve
+miles distant.
+
+A few hours were given by Campbell to the refreshment of his troops, who
+halted upon the bank of the river, where, having kindled their fires and
+opened their wallets, they soon found themselves in a condition that
+pleasantly contrasted with the discomforts of their ride during the
+night. The enemy consisted principally of infantry--and Campbell, having
+gained so closely upon their footsteps, felt no doubt of overtaking them
+in the course of the day. He, therefore, determined to allow his men
+full time to recruit their strength for the approaching conflict.
+
+The rain had ceased before the dawn. The clouds had fled from the
+firmament before a brisk and enlivening autumnal breeze, and the sun
+rose with unusual splendor. It was one of those days which belong to
+October, clear, cool, and exhilarating--when all animal nature seems to
+be invigorated by breathing an atmosphere of buoyant health. For more
+than an hour after the sun had cast his broad beams over the landscape,
+the wearied encampment was seen stretched in slumber--the camp-guards
+only, and some occasional parties on fatigue service, were to be
+observed in motion. By degrees, the drowsy soldiers woke up, refreshed
+by the change of weather, no less than by the repose which they had
+snatched in the short moments of the halt. A general summons, at last,
+brought every one into motion. By nine o'clock of the morning, the army
+were in condition to prosecute their march, as little wanting in
+alacrity or vigor as when they first commenced their labors; and, at the
+hour designated, they were seen to prick forth upon their way with an
+elastic movement that had in it the vivacity of a holiday sport. Even
+our young martialist, Henry, had become so inured to the toils of the
+road, that now, with the aid of a sleep which Horse Shoe had
+affectionately guarded until the last moment--to say nothing of a good
+luncheon of broiled venison, which the boy discussed after he had
+mounted into his saddle--he might be considered the most light-hearted
+of the host.
+
+Towards noon, the army reached the neighborhood of King's mountain. The
+scouts and parties of the advance had brought information that Ferguson
+had turned aside from his direct road, and taken post upon this
+eminence, where, it was evident, he meant to await the attack of his
+enemy. Campbell, therefore, lost no time in pushing forward, and was
+soon rewarded with a view of the object of his pursuit. Some two or
+three miles distant, where an opening through the forest first gave him
+a sight of the mass of highland, he could indistinctly discern the array
+of the adverse army perched on the very summit of the hill.
+
+The mountain consists of an elongated ridge, rising out of the bosom of
+an uneven country, to the height of perhaps five hundred feet, and
+presenting a level line of summit or crest, from which the earth slopes
+down, at its southward termination and on each side, by an easy descent;
+whilst northward, it is detached from highlands of inferior elevation by
+a rugged valley--thus giving it the character of an insulated
+promontory, not exceeding half a mile in length. At the period to which
+our story refers, it was covered, except in a few patches of barren
+field or broken ground, with a growth of heavy timber, which was so far
+free from underwood as in no great degree to embarrass the passage of
+horsemen; and through this growth the eye might distinguish, at a
+considerable distance, the occasional masses of grey rock that were
+scattered in huge boulders over its summit and sides.
+
+The adjacent region, lying south from the mountain, was partially
+cleared and in cultivation, presenting a limited range of open ground,
+over which the march of Campbell might have been revealed in frequent
+glimpses to the British partisan, for some three or four miles. We may
+suppose, therefore, that the two antagonists watched each other, during
+the advance of the approaching army across this district, with emotions
+of various and deep interest. Campbell drew at length into a ravine
+which, bounded by low and short hills, and shaded by detached portions
+of the forest, partly concealed his troops from the view of the enemy,
+who was now not more than half a mile distant. The gorge of this dell or
+narrow valley opened immediately towards the southern termination of the
+mountain; and the column halted a short distance within, where a bare
+knoll, or round, low hill, crowned with rock, jutted abruptly over the
+road, and constituted the only impediment that prevented each party from
+inspecting the array of his opponent.
+
+It was an hour after noon, and the present halt was improved by the men
+in making ready for battle. Meanwhile, the chief officers met together
+in front, and employed their time in surveying the localities of the
+ground upon which they were soon to be brought to action. The knoll, I
+have described, furnished a favorable position for this observation, and
+thither they had already repaired.
+
+I turn from the graver and more important matters which may be supposed
+to have occupied the thoughts of the leaders, as they were grouped
+together on the broad rock, to a subject which was, at this moment,
+brought to their notice by the unexpected appearance of two females on
+horseback, on the road, a full half mile in the rear of the army, and
+who were now approaching at a steady pace. They were attended by a man
+who, even thus far off, showed the sedateness of age; and, a short space
+behind them, rode a few files of troopers in military array.
+
+It was with mingled feelings of surprise and admiration at the courage
+which could have prompted her, at such a time, to visit the army, that
+the party recognised Mildred Lindsay and her attendants, in the
+approaching cavalcade. These emotions were expressed by them in the
+rough and hearty phrase of their habitual and familiar intercourse.
+
+"Let me beg, gentlemen," said Campbell, interrupting them, "that you
+speak kindly and considerately of yonder lady. By my honor, I have never
+seen man or woman with a more devoted or braver heart. Poor girl!--she
+has nobly followed Butler through his afflictions, and taken her share
+of suffering with a spirit that should bring us all to shame. Horse Shoe
+Robinson, who has squired her to our camp, even from her father's house,
+speaks of a secret between her and our captive friend, that tells
+plainly enough to my mind of sworn faith and long-tried love. As men and
+soldiers, we should reverence it. Williams, look carefully to her
+comfort and safety. Go, man, at once, and meet her on the road. God
+grant that this day may bring an end to her grief!"
+
+Williams departed on his mission, and when he met the lady her brother
+and the sergeant were already in her train.
+
+Allen Musgrove explained the cause of this unlooked-for apparition. The
+party, in obedience to Mildred's urgent wish, and scarcely less to the
+content of all the others, had quitted their secluded position at
+Gilbert-town on the preceding morning; and learning in the course of the
+day from persons on the road, that Ferguson had moved northwards, the
+miller had taken a direction across the country which enabled him to
+intercept the army at its present post, with little more than half the
+travel which the circuitous route of the march had required. They had
+passed the night under a friendly roof some ten or twelve miles distant,
+and had overtaken their companions at the critical moment at which they
+have been introduced to view.
+
+At Mildred's request she was conducted into the presence of Campbell,
+who still retained his station on the knoll. A thoughtful and amiable
+deference was manifested towards her by the assembled soldiers, who
+received her with many kind and encouraging greetings. That air of
+perturbation and timidity which, in spite of all efforts at
+self-control, the novelty of her position and the consciousness of the
+dreadful scene at hand had thrown over her demeanor, gradually began to
+give way before the assurances and sympathy of her friends; and, at
+length, she became sufficiently self-possessed to look around her and
+mark the events that were in progress.
+
+The important moment of battle drew nigh, and the several leaders
+respectively took their leave of her, with an exhortation to be of good
+cheer, and to remain at her present post under the charge of her trusty
+companion, the miller, who was fully instructed by Campbell as to the
+course he should take for the lady's safety, in whatever emergency might
+arise.
+
+Here we leave her for a moment, whilst we cast a glance at the
+preparations for battle.
+
+It was three o'clock before these arrangements were completed. I have
+informed my reader that the mountain terminated immediately in front of
+the outlet from the narrow dell in which Campbell's army had halted, its
+breast protruding into the plain only some few hundred paces from the
+head of the column, whilst the valley, that forked both right and left,
+afforded an easy passage along the base on either side. Ferguson
+occupied the very summit, and now frowned upon his foe from the midst of
+a host confident in the strength of their position, and exasperated by
+the pursuit which had driven them into this fastness.
+
+Campbell resolved to assail this post by a spirited attack, at the same
+moment, in front and on the two flanks. With this intent his army was
+divided into three equal parts. The centre was reserved to himself and
+Shelby; the right was assigned to Sevier and M'Dowell; the left to
+Cleveland and Williams. These two latter parties were to repair to their
+respective sides of the mountain, and the whole were to make the onset
+by scaling the heights as nearly as possible at the same instant.
+
+The men, before they marched out of the ravine, had dismounted and
+picqueted their horses under the winding shelter of the hills; and,
+being now separated into detached columns formed in solid order, they
+were put in motion to reach their allotted posts. The Amherst Rangers
+were retained on horseback for such duty as might require speed, and
+were stationed close in the rear of Campbell's own division, which now
+merely marched from behind the shelter of the knoll and halted in the
+view of the enemy, until sufficient delay should be afforded to the
+flanking divisions to attain their ground.
+
+Mildred, attended by Allen Musgrove and his daughter, still maintained
+her position on the knoll, and from this height surveyed the
+preparations for combat with a beating heart. The scene within her view
+was one of intense occupation. The air of stern resolve that sat upon
+every brow; the silent but onward movement of the masses of men
+advancing to conflict; the few brief and quick words of command that
+fell from the distance upon her ear; the sullen beat of the hoof upon
+the sod, as an occasional horseman sped to and fro between the more
+remote bodies and the centre division, which yet stood in compact
+phalanx immediately below her at the foot of the hill; then the
+breathless anxiety of her companions near at hand, and the short note of
+dread, and almost terror, that now and then escaped from the lips of
+Mary Musgrove, as the maiden looked eagerly and fearfully abroad over
+the plain; all these incidents wrought upon her feelings and caused her
+to tremble. Yet, amidst these novel emotions, she was not insensible to
+a certain lively and even pleasant interest, arising out of the
+picturesque character of the spectacle. The gay sunshine striking aslant
+these moving battalions, lighting up their fringed and many-colored
+hunting-shirts, and casting a golden hue upon their brown and
+weather-beaten faces, brought out into warm relief the chief
+characteristics of this peculiar woodland army. And Mildred sometimes
+forgot her fears in the fleeting inspiration of the sight, as she
+watched the progress of an advancing column--at one time moving in close
+ranks, with the serried thicket of rifles above their heads, and at
+another deploying into files to pass some narrow path, along which, with
+trailed arms and bodies bent, they sped with the pace of hunters beating
+the hill-side for game. The tattered and service-stricken banner that
+shook its folds in the wind above these detached bodies, likewise lent
+its charm of association to the field the silence and steadfastness of
+the array in which it was borne, and its constant onward motion; showing
+it to be encircled by strong arms and stout hearts.
+
+Turning from these, the lady's eye was raised, with a less joyous
+glance, towards the position of the enemy. On the most prominent point
+of the mountain's crest she could descry the standard of England
+fluttering above a concentrated body, whose scarlet uniforms, as the sun
+glanced upon them through the forest, showed that here Ferguson had
+posted his corps of regulars, and held them ready to meet the attack of
+the centre division of the assailants; whilst the glittering of bayonets
+amidst the dark foliage, at intervals, rearward along the line of the
+summit, indicated that heavy detachments were stationed in this quarter
+to guard the flanks. The marching and countermarching of the frequent
+corps, from various positions on the summit; the speeding of officers on
+horseback, and the occasional movement of small squadrons of dragoons,
+who were at one moment seen struggling along the sides of the mountain,
+and, at another, descending towards the base or returning to the summit,
+disclosed the earnestness and activity of the preparation with which a
+courageous soldier may be supposed to make ready for his foe.
+
+It was with a look of sorrowful concern which brought tears into her
+eyes, that Mildred gazed upon this host, and strained her vision in the
+vain endeavor to catch some evidences of the presence of Arthur Butler.
+
+"We both look, perchance," she said to herself, "at this very instant,
+upon yon hateful banner--and with the same aversion: but oh, with what
+more painful apprehension it is my fortune to behold it! Little does he
+think that Mildred's eyes are turned upon it. 'Tis well he does not--his
+noble heart would chafe itself with ten-fold anguish at the cruel
+thraldom that separates us. Yes, 'tis well he does not dream that his
+Mildred is here to witness this dreadful struggle," she continued,
+musing over the subject of her grief, "it might tempt him to some rash
+endeavor to break his bondage. It is better as it is; the misery of the
+thought of our afflictions should be mine only; the brave patience of a
+manly soldier is his, and should not be embittered with sorrows that
+belong not to the perils of war."
+
+"Sister," said Henry, who had stolen up the hill unobserved, and now
+stood beside Mildred, "take courage and keep a good heart! The very day
+I often prayed to see has come--and it has come sooner than you promised
+it should. Here I am in the field, amongst men, and no play-game is it,
+either, to keep us busy, but downright earnest battle. And then, dear
+sister, you are here to look on--isn't that a piece of good luck?"
+
+"Ah, brother, I could talk to you with a boastful tongue when all
+around us was peace and security. I cannot exhort you now. If I dare, I
+would beg you to stay by my side. I have need of your comfort, and
+shudder with a chilly fear. Henry, that small hand of yours can do no
+service to-day--and in truth, I cannot bear to see you exposed to
+danger."
+
+"In tears, sister! Come now, this is not like you. Hasn't Arthur fought
+many a day and often? And didn't you set him on, with good brave words
+for it?"
+
+"I was not there to see him," interrupted Mildred.
+
+"Well, sister, I must get to my post," said Henry. "I serve as
+aide-de-camp, and Horse Shoe is to help me. By-the-by, Mildred, the
+sergeant is uncommonly silent and busy to-day. He smells this battle
+like an old soldier, and I heard him give a few hints to Campbell,
+concerning the marching up yonder hill:--he told him the column should
+not display until they got near the top, as Ferguson has no cannon; and
+the Colonel took it very gladly. Horse Shoe, moreover, thinks we will
+beat them--and the men have great dependence on what he says. I shall
+not lose sight of him to-day."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, Henry," exclaimed Mildred, "my dear brother, do not
+think of following the sergeant! I cannot part with you," she added,
+with great earnestness; "it is an awful time for brother and sister to
+separate--stay with me."
+
+The cadet turned a look upon his sister of surprise, at the new light in
+which her present fears represented her.
+
+"I thought, Mildred," he said, "you were brave. Hav'n't we come all this
+way from home to assist Butler? And are you now, for the first
+time--just when we are going to pluck him from the midst of the wolves
+upon that mountain--are you now to weep and play the coward, sister?"
+
+"Go, go!" said Mildred, as she covered her eyes with her hand, "but,
+dear Henry, remember you have a weak arm and a slender frame, and are
+not expected to take upon you the duties of a man."
+
+"Besides," said Mary Musgrove, who had been a silent and perplexed
+witness of this scene, and who now put in her word of counsel, out of
+the fulness of her heart, "besides, Mister Henry Lindsay, what trouble
+would it give to Sergeant Robinson, and all the rest of them, if you
+should get lost scampering about the hills, and they shouldn't know
+where to find you? It would take up so much of their precious time in
+looking for you: and, I am sure, they hav'n't much to spare!"
+
+"You are as valiant as a mouse," replied Henry, laughing, "and monstrous
+wise, Mary Musgrove. Do you take care of my sister, and speak a word now
+and then to keep up her spirits--that is, if your tongue doesn't grow
+too thick with fright. Your teeth chatter now. A kiss, Mildred. There:
+God bless you! I must get to my post."
+
+With these words, Henry bounded off towards the valley to rejoin his
+comrades. Half way, he met Allen Musgrove, who was now on his return to
+the top of the hill, whence he had withdrawn for a brief space to hold
+some converse with Robinson.
+
+"A word," said Allen to Henry, as they met; "you are but a stripling.
+Remember that this day's work is to be wrought by men of might--those
+who are keen of eye and steady of foot. In the tempest of battle your
+weight, Mister Henry, would be but as a feather in the gale. Yet in this
+fight none might be crushed whose fall would bring more anguish than
+yours. Let me beg you, as a rash and thoughtless youth, to think of
+that. The good lady, your sister--"
+
+"I cannot stay to hear you," interrupted Henry; "the column is beginning
+to move."
+
+And in a moment he was at the foot of the hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.
+
+THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.
+
+    They closed full fast on every side,
+    No slackness there was found
+    And many a gallant gentleman
+    Lay gasping on the ground.
+
+    O dread! it was a grief to see,
+    And likewise for to hear
+    The cries of men lying in their gore
+    And scattered here and there.--_Chevy Chase._
+
+
+Every corps was now in motion, and the two flanking divisions were soon
+lost to view in the intervening forest. An incident of some interest to
+our story makes it necessary that we should, for a moment, follow the
+track of Cleveland in his march upon the left side of the mountain.
+
+The principal road of travel northwards extended along the valley on
+this side; and upon this road Cleveland and Williams conducted their
+men, until they arrived at a point sufficiently remote to enable them,
+by ascending the height, to place themselves in Ferguson's rear. They
+had just reached this point when they encountered a picquet of the
+enemy, which, after a few shots, retired hastily up the mountain.
+
+The little outpost had scarcely begun to give ground, before the leading
+companies of the Whigs had their attention drawn to the movements of a
+small party of horsemen who at that moment appeared in sight upon the
+road, some distance in advance. They were approaching the American
+column; and, as if taken by surprise at the appearance of this force,
+set spurs to their horses and made an effort to ride beyond the reach of
+Cleveland's fire, whilst they took a direction up the mountain towards
+Ferguson's stronghold. From the equipment of these individuals, it might
+have been inferred that they were two gentlemen of some distinction
+connected with the royal army, attended by their servants, and now about
+arriving, after a long journey, at the British camp. The first was
+habited in the uniform of an officer, was well mounted, and displayed a
+light and active figure, which appeared to advantage in the dexterous
+management of his horse. The second was a gentleman in a plain riding
+costume, of slender and well-knit proportions, and manifestly older than
+his companion. He rode a powerful and spirited horse, with a confidence
+and command not inferior to those of his associates. The others in
+attendance, from their position in the rear, and from the heavy
+portmanteaus that encumbered their saddles, we might have no difficulty
+in conjecturing to be menials in the service of the two first.
+
+The course taken by this party brought them obliquely across the range
+of the fire of the Whigs.
+
+"It is a general officer and his aide," exclaimed one of the subalterns
+in the advance. "Ho there! Stand. You are my prisoners!"
+
+"Spur, spur, and away! For God's sake, fly!" shouted the younger of the
+two horsemen to his companion, as he dashed the rowels into his steed
+and fled up the mountain. "Push for the top--one moment more and we are
+out of reach!"
+
+"Stop them, at all hazards!" vociferated Cleveland, the instant his eye
+fell upon them. "Quick, lads--level your pieces--they are messengers
+from Cornwallis. Rein up, or I fire!" he called aloud after the flying
+cavalcade.
+
+The appeal and the threat were unheeded. A score of men left the ranks
+and ran some distance up the mountain side, and their shots whistled
+through the forest after the fugitives. One of the attendants was seen
+to fall, and his horse to wheel round and run back, with a frightened
+pace, to the valley. The scarlet uniform of the younger horseman,
+conspicuous through the foliage some distance up the mountain, showed
+that he had escaped. His elder comrade, when the smoke cleared away, was
+seen also beyond the reach of Cleveland's fire; but his altered pace and
+his relaxed seat in his saddle, made it apparent that he had received
+some hurt. This was confirmed when, still nearer to the summit, the
+stranger was seen to fall upon his horse's neck, and thence to be lifted
+to the ground by three or four soldiers who had hastened to his relief.
+
+These incidents scarcely occupied more time in their performance than I
+have taken in the narrative; and all reflection upon them, for the
+present, was lost in the uproar and commotion of the bloody scene that
+succeeded.
+
+Meanwhile, Campbell and Shelby, each at the head of his men in the
+centre division of the army, steadily commenced the ascent of the
+mountain. A long interval ensued, in which nothing was heard but the
+tramp of the soldiers and a few words of almost whispered command, as
+they scaled the height; and it was not until they had nearly reached the
+summit that the first peal of battle broke upon the sleeping echoes of
+the mountain.
+
+Campbell here deployed into line, and his men strode briskly upwards
+until they had come within musket-shot of the British regulars, whose
+sharp and prolonged volleys, at this instant, suddenly burst forth from
+the crest of the hill. Peal after peal rattled along the mountain side,
+and volumes of smoke, silvered by the light of the sun, rolled over and
+enveloped the combatants.
+
+When the breeze had partially swept away this cloud, and opened glimpses
+of the battle behind it, the troops of Campbell were seen recoiling
+before an impetuous charge of the bayonet, in which Ferguson himself led
+the way. A sudden halt by the retreating Whigs, and a stern front
+steadfastly opposed to the foe, checked the ardor of his pursuit at an
+early moment, and, in turn, he was discovered retiring towards his
+original ground, hotly followed by the mountaineers. Again, the same
+vigorous onset from the royalists was repeated, and again the shaken
+bands of Campbell rallied and turned back the rush of battle towards the
+summit. At last, panting and spent with the severe encounter, both
+parties stood for a space eyeing each other with deadly rage, and
+waiting only to gather breath for the renewal of the strife.
+
+At this juncture, the distant firing heard from either flank furnished
+evidence that Sevier and Cleveland had both come in contact with the
+enemy. The uprising of smoke above the trees showed the seat of the
+combat to be below the summit on the mountain sides, and that the enemy
+had there half-way met his foe; whilst the shouts of the soldiers,
+alternating between the parties of either army, no less distinctly
+proclaimed the fact that, at these remote points, the field was
+disputed with bloody resolution and various success.
+
+It would overtask my poor faculty of description, to give my reader even
+a faint picture of this rugged battle-field. During the pause of the
+combatants of the centre, Campbell and Shelby were seen riding along the
+line, and by speech and gesture encouraging their soldiers to still more
+determined efforts. Little need was there for exhortation; rage seemed
+to have refreshed the strength of the men, who, with loud and fierce
+huzzas, rushed again to the encounter. They were met with a defiance not
+less eager than their own; and, for a time, the battle was again
+obscured under the thick haze engendered by the incessant discharges of
+fire-arms. From this gloom, a yell of triumph was sometimes heard, as
+momentary success inspired those who struggled within; and the frequent
+twinkle of polished steel glimmering through the murky atmosphere, and
+the occasional apparition of a speeding horseman, seen for an instant as
+he came into the clear light, told of the dreadful earnestness and zeal
+with which the unseen hosts had now joined in conflict. The impression
+of this contact was various. Parts of each force broke before their
+antagonists; and in those spots where the array of the fight might be
+discerned through the shade of the forest or the smoke of battle, both
+royalists and Whigs were found, at the same instant, to have driven back
+detached fragments of their opponents. Foemen were mingled hand to hand,
+through and among their adverse ranks; and for a time no conjecture
+might be indulged as to the side to which victory would turn.
+
+The flanking detachments seemed to have fallen into the same confusion,
+and might have been seen retreating and advancing upon the rough slopes
+of the mountain, in partisan bodies, separated from their lines; thus
+giving to the scene an air of bloody riot, more resembling the sudden
+insurrection of mutineers from the same ranks, than the orderly war of
+trained soldiers.
+
+Through the din and disorder of this fight, it is fit that I should take
+time to mark the wanderings of Galbraith Robinson, whose exploits this
+day would not ill deserve the pen of Froissart. The doughty sergeant
+had, for a time, retained his post in the ranks of the Amherst Rangers,
+and with them had travelled towards the mountain top, close in the rear
+of Campbell's line. But when the troops had recoiled before the frequent
+charges of the royalists, finding his station, at best, but that of an
+inactive spectator, he made no scruple of deserting his companions and
+trying his fortune on the field in such form of adventure as best suited
+his temper. With no other weapon than his customary rifle, he stood his
+ground when others retreated; and saw the ebb and flow of "flight and
+chase" swell round him, according to the varying destiny of the day. In
+these difficulties, it was his good fortune to escape unhurt; a piece of
+luck that may, perhaps, be attributed to the coolness with which he
+either galloped over an adversary or around him, as the emergency
+rendered most advisable.
+
+In the midst of this busy occupation, at a moment when one of the
+refluxes of battle brought him almost to the summit, he descried a small
+party of British dragoons, stationed some distance in the rear of
+Ferguson's line, whose detached position seemed to infer some duty
+unconnected with the general fight. In the midst of these, he thought he
+recognised the figure and dress of one familiar to his eye. The person
+thus singled out by the sergeant's glance stood bare-headed upon a
+projecting mass of rock, apparently looking with an eager gaze towards
+the distant combat. No sooner did the conjecture that this might be
+Arthur Butler flash across his thought, than he turned his steed back
+upon the path by which he had ascended, and rode with haste towards the
+Rangers.
+
+"Stephen Foster," he said, as he galloped up to the lieutenant, and drew
+his attention by a tap of the hand upon his shoulder, "I have business
+for you, man--you are but wasting your time here--pick me out a
+half-dozen of your best fellows and bring them with you after me.
+Quick--Stephen--quick!"
+
+The lieutenant of the Rangers collected the desired party and rode after
+the sergeant, who now conducted this handful of men with as much
+rapidity as the broken character of the ground allowed, by a circuit for
+a considerable distance along the right side of the mountain, until they
+reached the top. The point at which they gained the summit brought them
+between Ferguson's line and the dragoons, who, it was soon perceived,
+were the party charged with the custody of Butler, and who had been thus
+detached in the rear for the more safe guardianship of the prisoner.
+Horse Shoe's manoeuvre had completely cut them off from their friends
+in front, and they had no resource but to defend themselves against the
+threatened assault, or fly towards the parties who were at this moment
+engaged with the flanking divisions of the Whigs. They were taken by
+surprise--and Horse Shoe, perceiving the importance of an immediate
+attack, dashed onwards along the ridge of the mountain with precipitate
+speed, calling out to his companions to follow. In a moment the dragoons
+were engaged in a desperate pell-mell with the Rangers.
+
+"Upon them, Stephen! Upon them bravely, my lads! Huzza for Major Butler!
+Fling the major across your saddle--the first that reaches him," shouted
+the sergeant with a voice that was heard above all the uproar of battle.
+"What ho--James Curry!" he cried out, as soon as he detected the
+presence of his old acquaintance in this throng; "stand your ground, if
+you are a man!"
+
+The person to whom this challenge was directed had made an effort to
+escape towards a party of his friends, whom he was about summoning to
+his aid; and in the attempt had already ridden some distance into the
+wood, whither the sergeant had eagerly followed him.
+
+"Ah ha, old Truepenny, are you there?" exclaimed Curry, turning short
+upon his pursuer, and affecting to laugh as if in scorn. "Horse Shoe
+Robinson, well met!" he added sternly, "I have not seen a better sight
+to-day than that fool's head of yours upon this hill. No, not even when
+just now Patrick Ferguson sent your yelping curs back to hide themselves
+behind the trees."
+
+"Come on, James!" cried Horse Shoe, "I have no time to talk. We have an
+old reckoning to settle, which, perhaps, you mought remember. I am a man
+of my word; and, besides, I have set my eye upon Major Butler," he
+added, with a tone and look that were both impressed with the fierce
+passion of the scene around him.
+
+"The devil blast you, and Major Butler to boot!" exclaimed Curry, roused
+by Horse Shoe's air of defiance. "To it, bully! It shall be short work
+between us, and bloody," he shouted, as he discharged a pistol-shot at
+the sergeant's breast; which failing to take effect, he flung the weapon
+upon the ground, brandished his sword, and spurred immediately against
+his challenger. The sweep of the broadsword fell upon the barrel of
+Horse Shoe's uplifted rifle, and in the next instant the broad hand of
+our lusty yeoman had seized the trooper by the collar and dragged him
+from his horse. The two soldiers came to the ground, locked in a mutual
+embrace; and, for a brief moment, a desperate trial of strength was
+exhibited in the effort to gain their feet.
+
+"I have you there," said Robinson, as at length, with a flushed cheek,
+quick breath, and blood-shot eye, he rose from the earth and shook the
+dragoon from him, who fell backwards on his knee. "Curse you, James
+Curry, for a fool and villain! You almost drive me, against my will, to
+the taking of your life. I don't want your blood. You are beaten, man,
+and must say so. I grant you quarter upon condition--"
+
+"Look to yourself! I ask no terms from you," interrupted Curry, as
+suddenly springing to his feet, he now made a second pass, which was
+swung with such unexpected vigor at the head of his adversary, that
+Horse Shoe had barely time to catch the blow, as before, upon his rifle.
+The broadsword was broken by the stroke, and one of the fragments of the
+blade struck the sergeant upon the forehead, inflicting a wound that
+covered his face with blood. Horse Shoe reeled a step or two from his
+ground, and clubbing the rifle, as it is called, by grasping the barrel
+towards the muzzle, he paused but an instant to dash the blood from his
+brow with his hand, and then, with one lusty sweep, to which his sudden
+anger gave both precision and energy, he brought the piece full upon the
+head of his foe, with such fatal effect as to bury the lock in the
+trooper's brain, whilst the stock was shattered into splinters. Curry,
+almost without a groan, fell dead across a ledge of rock at his feet.
+
+"The grudge is done, and the fool has met his desarvings," was Horse
+Shoe's brief comment upon the event, as he gazed sullenly, for an
+instant, upon the dead corpse. He had no time to tarry. The rest of his
+party were still engaged with the troopers of the guard, who now
+struggled to preserve the custody of their prisoner. The bridle-rein of
+Captain Peter had been caught by one of the Rangers, and the good steed
+was now quickly delivered up to his master, who, flinging himself again
+into his saddle, rushed into the throng of combatants. The few
+dragoons, dispirited by the loss of their leader, and stricken with
+panic at this strenuous onset, turned to flight, leaving Butler in the
+midst of his friends.
+
+"God bless you, major!" shouted Robinson, as he rode up to his old
+comrade, who, unarmed, had looked upon the struggle with an interest
+corresponding to the stake he had in the event. "Up, man--here, spring
+across the pommel. Now, boys, down the mountain, for your lives! Huzza,
+huzza! we have won him back!" he exclaimed, as seizing Butler's arm, he
+lifted him upon the neck of Captain Peter, and bounded away at full
+speed towards the base of the mountain, followed by Foster and his
+party.
+
+The reader may imagine the poignancy of Mildred's emotions as she sat
+beside Allen Musgrove and his daughter on the knoll, and watched the
+busy and stirring scene before her. The centre division of the assailing
+army was immediately in her view, on the opposite face of the mountain,
+and no incident of the battle in this quarter escaped her notice. She
+could distinctly perceive the motions of the Amherst Rangers, to whom
+she turned her eyes with a frequent and eager glance, as the corps with
+which her brother Henry was associated; and when the various fortune of
+the fight disclosed to her the occasional retreat of her friends before
+the vigorous sallies of the enemy, or brought to her ear the renewed and
+angry volleys of musketry, she clenched Mary Musgrove's arm with a
+nervous grasp, and uttered short and anxious ejaculations that showed
+the terror of her mind.
+
+"I see Mister Henry, yet," said Mary, as Campbell's troops rallied from
+the last shock, and again moved towards the summit. "I see him plainly,
+ma'am--for I know his green dress, and caught the glitter of his brass
+bugle in the sun. And there now--all is smoke again. Mercy, how stubborn
+are these men! And there is Mister Henry once more--near the top. He is
+safe, ma'am."
+
+"How earnestly," said Mildred, unconsciously speaking aloud as she
+surveyed the scene, "Oh, how earnestly do I wish this battle was done! I
+would rather, Mr. Musgrove, be in the midst of yonder crowd of angry
+men, could I but have their recklessness, than here in safety, to be
+tortured with my present feelings."
+
+"In God is our trust, madam," replied the miller. "His arm is abroad
+over the dangerous paths, for a shield and buckler to them that put
+their trust in him. Ha! there is Ferguson's white horse, rushing, with a
+dangling rein and empty saddle, down the mountain, through Campbell's
+ranks: the rider has fallen; and there, madam--there, look on it!--is a
+white flag waving in the hands of a British officer. The fight is done.
+Hark, our friends are cheering with a loud voice!"
+
+"Thank Heaven--thank Heaven!" exclaimed Mildred as she sprang upon her
+feet; "It is even so!"
+
+The loud huzzas of the troops rose upon the air; the firing ceased; the
+flag of truce fluttered in the breeze, and the confederated bands of the
+mountaineers, from every quarter of the late battle, were seen hurrying
+towards the crest of the mountain, and mingling amongst the ranks of the
+conquered foe. Again and again, the clamorous cheering of the victors
+broke forth from the mountain-top, and echoed along the neighboring
+valleys.
+
+During this wild clamor and busy movement, a party of horsemen were
+seen, through the occasional intervals of the low wood that skirted the
+valley on the right, hastening from the field with an eager swiftness
+towards the spot where Mildred and her companions were stationed.
+
+As they swept along the base of the mountain, and approached the knoll,
+they were lost to view behind the projecting angles of the low hills
+that formed the ravine, through which, my reader is aware, the road held
+its course. When they re-appeared it was in ascending the abrupt
+acclivity of the knoll, and within fifty paces of the party on the top
+of it.
+
+It was now apparent that the approaching party consisted of Stephen
+Foster and three or four of the Rangers led by Horse Shoe Robinson, with
+Butler still seated before him, as when the sergeant first caught him up
+in the fight. These were at the same moment overtaken by Henry Lindsay,
+who had turned back from the mountain at the first announcement of
+victory, to bring the tidings to his sister.
+
+Mildred's cheek grew deadly pale, and her frame shook, as the cavalcade
+rushed into her presence.
+
+"There--take him!" cried Horse Shoe, with an effort to laugh, but which
+seemed to be half converted into a quaver by the agitation of his
+feelings, as, springing to the ground, he swung Butler from the horse,
+with scarce more effort than he would have used in handling a child;
+"take him, ma'am. I promised myself to-day, that I'd give him to you.
+And, now, you've got him. That's a good reward for all your troubles.
+God bless us--but I'm happy to-day!"
+
+"MY HUSBAND!--MY DEAR HUSBAND!" were the only articulate words that
+escaped Mildred's lips, as she fell senseless into the arms of Arthur
+Butler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+THE CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The victory was won. In the last assault, Campbell had reached the crest
+of the mountain, and the loyalists had given ground with decisive
+indications of defeat. Ferguson, in the hopeless effort to rally his
+soldiers, had flung himself into their van, but a bullet at this instant
+reached his heart; he fell from his seat, and his white horse, which had
+been conspicuous in the crowd of battle, bounded wildly through the
+ranks of the Whigs, and made his way down the mountain side.
+
+Campbell passed onward, driving the royalists before him. For a moment
+the discomfited bands hoped to join their comrades in the rear, and, by
+a united effort, to effect a retreat: but the parties led by Sevier and
+Cleveland, cheered by the shouts of their victorious companions, urged
+their attacks with new vigor, and won the hill in time to intercept the
+fugitives. All hopes of escape being thus at an end, a white flag was
+displayed in token of submission; and the remnant of Ferguson's late
+proud and boastful army, now amounting to between eight and nine hundred
+men, surrendered to the assailants.
+
+It has scarcely ever happened that a battle has been fought, in which
+the combatants met with keener individual exasperation than in this. The
+mortal hatred which embittered the feelings of Whig and Tory along this
+border, here vented itself in the eagerness of conflict, and gave the
+impulse to every blow that was struck--rendering the fight, from
+beginning to end, relentless, vindictive, and bloody. The remembrance of
+the thousand cruelties practised by the royalists during the brief Tory
+dominion to which my narrative has been confined, was fresh in the minds
+of the stern and hardy men of the mountains, who had pursued their foe
+with such fierce animosity to this his last stage. Every one had some
+wrong to tell, and burned with an unquenchable rage of revenge. It was,
+therefore, with a yell of triumph that they saw the symbol of submission
+raised aloft by the enemy; and for a space, the forest rang with their
+loud and reiterated huzzas.
+
+Many brave men fell on either side. Upon the slopes of the mountain and
+on its summit, the bodies of the dead and dying lay scattered amongst
+the rocks, and the feeble groans of the wounded mingled with the fierce
+tones of exultation from the living. The Whigs sustained a grievous loss
+in Colonel Williams, who had been struck down in the moment of victory.
+He was young, ardent, and brave; and his many soldier-like virtues,
+combined with a generous and amiable temper, had rendered him a
+cherished favorite with the army. His death served still more to
+increase the exacerbation of the conquerors against the conquered.
+
+The sun was yet an hour high when the battle was done. The Whigs were
+formed in two lines on the ridge of the mountain; and the prisoners,
+more numerous than their captors, having laid down their arms, were
+drawn up in detached columns on the intervening ground. There were many
+sullen and angry glances exchanged, during this period of suspense,
+between victors and vanquished; and it was with a fearful rankling of
+inward wrath, that many of the Whigs detected, in the columns of the
+prisoners, some of their bitterest persecutors.
+
+This spirit was partially suppressed in the busy occupation that
+followed. Preparations were directed to be made for the night-quarters
+of the army; and the whole host was, accordingly, ordered to march to
+the valley. The surgeons of each party were already fully employed in
+their vocation. The bodies of the wounded were strewed around; and, for
+the protection of such as were not in a condition to be moved, shelters
+were made of the boughs of trees, and fires kindled to guard them from
+the early frost of the season. All the rest retired slowly to the
+appointed encampment.
+
+Whilst Campbell was intent upon these cares, a messenger came to summon
+him to a scene of unexpected interest. He was informed that a gentleman,
+not attached to the army, had been dangerously wounded in the fight, and
+now lay at the further extremity of the mountain ridge. It was added
+that he earnestly desired an interview with the commanding officer.
+Campbell lost no time in attending to the request.
+
+Upon repairing to the spot, his attention was drawn to a stranger who
+lay upon the ground. His wan and haggard cheek, and restless eye, showed
+that he suffered acute pain; and the blood upon his cloak, which had
+been spread beneath him, indicated the wound to have been received in
+the side. A private soldier of the British army was his only attendant.
+To Campbell's solicitous and kind inquiry, he announced himself, in a
+voice that was almost over-mastered by his bodily anguish, to be Philip
+Lindsay, of Virginia.
+
+"You behold," he said, "an unhappy father in pursuit of his children."
+Then, after a pause, he continued, "My daughter Mildred, I have been
+told, is near me: I would see her, and quickly."
+
+"God have mercy on us!" exclaimed Campbell, "is this the father of the
+lady who has sought my protection? Wounded too, and badly, I fear! Where
+is Major Butler, who was lately prisoner with Ferguson?" he said,
+addressing the attendant--"Go, go, sir," he added, speaking to the same
+person, "bring me the first surgeon you can find, and direct some three
+or four men from the ranks to come to your aid. Lose no time."
+
+The soldier went instantly upon the errand, and soon returned with the
+desired assistance. Lindsay's wound had been already staunched, and all
+that remained to be done was to put him in some place of shelter and
+comfort. A cottage at the foot of the mountain was pointed out by
+Campbell; a litter was constructed, and the sick man was borne upon the
+shoulders of four attendants to the designated spot. Meantime, Campbell
+rode off to communicate the discovery he had made to Mildred and her
+brother.
+
+Lindsay's story, since we last parted from him, may be briefly told. He
+and Tyrrel had journeyed into the low country of Virginia, to meet the
+friends of the royal government. These had wavered, and were not to be
+brought together. A delay ensued, during which Tyrrel had prevailed upon
+Lindsay to extend his journey into North Carolina; whence, after an
+ineffectual effort to bring the Tory party to some decisive step, they
+both returned to the Dove Cote, having been nearly three weeks absent.
+
+Upon their arrival, the afflicting intelligence met Lindsay of the
+departure of Mildred and her brother for the seat of war, Mildred's
+letter was delivered to him; and its contents almost struck him dumb. It
+related the story of Arthur Butler's misfortunes, and announced, that,
+for nearly a year past, Mildred had been the wedded wife of the captive
+officer. The marriage had been solemnized in the preceding autumn, in a
+hasty moment, as Butler travelled south to join the army. The only
+witnesses were Mistress Dimock, under whose roof it had occurred, Henry
+Lindsay, and the clergyman. The motives that induced this marriage were
+explained: both Mildred and Arthur hoped, by this irremediable step, to
+reconcile Lindsay to the event, and to turn his mind from its unhappy
+broodings: the increased exasperation of his feelings, during the
+succeeding period, prevented the disclosure which Mildred had again and
+again essayed to make. The recent dangers which had beset Arthur Butler,
+had determined her to fly to his rescue. AS HIS WIFE she felt it to be
+her duty, and she had, accordingly, resolved to encounter the peril of
+the journey.
+
+For a day or two after the perusal of this letter, Lindsay fell into a
+deep melancholy. His presentiments seemed to have been fatally realized,
+and his hopes suddenly destroyed. From this despondency, Tyrrel's
+assiduous artifice aroused him. He proposed to Lindsay the pursuit of
+his children, in the hope of thus luring him into Cornwallis's camp, and
+connecting him with the fortunes of the war. The chances of life, he
+reasoned, were against Butler, if indeed, as Tyrrel had ground to hope,
+that officer were not already the victim of the snares that had been
+laid for him.
+
+Upon this advice, Lindsay had set out for Cornwallis's head-quarters,
+where he arrived within a week after the interview of Mildred and Henry
+with the British chief.
+
+Whilst he delayed here, he received the tidings that his daughter had
+abandoned her homeward journey, and turned aside in quest of Butler.
+This determined him to continue his pursuit. Tyrrel still accompanied
+him; and the two travellers having arrived at the moment of the attack
+upon King's mountain, Lindsay was persuaded by his companion to make the
+rash adventure which, we have already seen, had been the cause of his
+present misfortune.
+
+It is not my purpose to attempt a description of the scene in the
+cottage, where Arthur Butler and his wife, and Henry, first saw Lindsay
+stretched upon a rude pallet, and suffering the anguish of a dangerous
+wound. It is sufficient to say that, in the midst of the deep grief of
+the bystanders, Lindsay was composed and tranquil, like one who thought
+it vain to struggle with fate. "I have foreseen this day, and felt its
+coming," he muttered, in a low and broken voice; "it has happened as it
+was ordained. I have unwisely struggled against my doom. There, take
+it," he added, as he stretched forth his hand to Butler, and in tones
+scarcely audible breathed out, "God bless you, my children! I forgive
+you."
+
+During the night fever ensued, and with it came delirium. The patient
+acquired strength from his disease, and raved wildly, in a strain
+familiar to his waking superstition. The same vision of fate and destiny
+haunted his imagination; and he almost frightened his daughter from
+beside his couch, with the fervid eloquence of his madness.
+
+The cottage was situated near half a mile from the encampment of the
+army. Towards daylight, Lindsay had sunk into a slumber, and the
+attendant surgeon began to entertain hopes that the patient might
+successfully struggle with his malady. Mildred and Mary Musgrove kept
+watch in the apartment, whilst Butler, with Horse Shoe Robinson and
+Allen Musgrove, remained anxiously awake in the adjoining room. Henry
+Lindsay, wearied with the toils of the preceding day, and old Isaac the
+negro, not so much from the provocation of previous labor as from
+constitutional torpor, lay stretched in deep sleep upon the floor.
+
+Such was the state of things when, near sunrise, a distant murmur
+reached the ears of those who were awake in the cottage. These sounds
+attracted the notice of Horse Shoe, who immediately afterwards stole out
+of the apartment and repaired to the camp. During his walk thither the
+uproar became more distinct, and shouts were heard from a crowd of
+soldiers who were discovered in a confused and agitated mass in the
+valley, at some distance from the encampment. The sergeant hastened to
+this spot, and, upon his arrival, was struck with the shocking sight of
+the bodies of some eight or ten of the Tory prisoners suspended to the
+limbs of a large tree.
+
+The repose of the night had not allayed the thirst of revenge amongst
+the Whigs. On the contrary, the opportunity of conference and
+deliberation had only given a more fatal certainty to their purpose. The
+recent executions which had been permitted in Cornwallis's camp, after
+the battle of Camden, no less than the atrocities lately practised by
+some of the Tories who were now amongst the captured, suggested the idea
+of a signal retribution. The obnoxious individuals were dragged forth
+from their ranks at early dawn, and summary punishment was inflicted by
+the excited soldiery in the manner which we have described, in spite of
+all remonstrance or command.
+
+This dreadful work was still in progress when Horse Shoe arrived. The
+crowd were, at that moment, forcing along to the spot of execution a
+trembling wretch, whose gaunt form, crouching beneath the hands that
+held him, and pitiful supplications for mercy, announced him to the
+sergeant as an old acquaintance. The unfortunate man had caught a glance
+of Robinson, and, almost frantic with despair, sprang with a tiger's
+leap from the grasp of those who held him, and, in an instant, threw his
+arms around the sergeant's neck, where he clung with the hold of a
+drowning man.
+
+"Oh save me, save me, Horse Shoe Robinson!" he exclaimed wildly. "Friend
+Horse Shoe, save me!"
+
+"I am no friend of yours, Wat Adair," said Robinson, sternly.
+
+"Speak for me--Galbraith--speak, for old acquaintance sake!"
+
+"Hold!" said Robinson to the crowd who had gathered round to pluck the
+fugitive from his present refuge. "One word, friends! stand back, I have
+somewhat to say in this matter."
+
+"He gave Butler into Hugh Habershaw's hands," cried out some of the
+crowd.
+
+"He took the price of blood, and sold Butler's life for money--he shall
+die!" shouted others.
+
+"No words!" exclaimed many, "but up with him!"
+
+"Mr. Robinson," screamed Adair, with tears starting from his eyes, "only
+hear me! I was forced to take sides against Major Butler. The Tories
+would have burnt down my house; they suspected me,--I was obliged,--Mike
+Lynch was witness,--mercy, mercy!" and here the frightened culprit cried
+loud and bitterly.
+
+"Friends," said Horse Shoe calmly to the multitude, "there is better
+game to hunt than this mountain-cat. Let me have my way."
+
+"None has a better right than Horse Shoe Robinson," said a speaker from
+the group, "to say what ought to be done to Wat Adair. Speak out, Horse
+Shoe!"
+
+"Speak! We leave it to you," shouted some of the leaders: and instantly
+the crowd fell back and formed a circle round Horse Shoe and Adair.
+
+"I give you your choice," said the sergeant, addressing the captive,
+"for though your iniquities, Wat Adair, desarve that you should have
+been the first that was strung up to yonder tree, yet you shall have
+your choice, to tell us fully and truly, without holding back name of
+high or low, who put you on to ambush Major Arthur Butler's life at
+Grindall's Ford. Tell us that, to our satisfaction, and answer all other
+questions besides that we may ax you, and you shall have your life,
+taking, howsever, one hundred lashes to the back of it."
+
+"I will confess all, before God, truly," cried Adair with eagerness.
+"James Curry told me of your coming, and gave me and Mike Lynch money to
+help Hugh Habershaw."
+
+"James Curry had a master in the business," said Robinson: "His name?"
+
+Adair hesitated for an instant and stammered out "Captain St. Jermyn."
+
+"He was at your house? Speak it, man, or think of the rope!"
+
+"He was there," said Adair.
+
+"By my soul! Wat Adair, if you do not come out with the whole truth,"
+said Robinson, with angry earnestness, "I take back my promise. Tell me
+all you know."
+
+"Curry acted by the captain's directions," continued the woodsman, "he
+was well paid for it, as he told me, and would have got more, if a
+quarrel amongst Habershaw's people hadn't stopped them from taking Major
+Butler's life. So I have heard from the men myself."
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"That's all," replied Adair.
+
+"Do you know nothing about the court-martial?" asked Robinson.
+
+"Nothing, except that as the Major wasn't killed at the Ford, it was
+thought best to have a trial, wherein James Curry and Hugh Habershaw, as
+I was told, had agreed to swear against the Major's life."
+
+"And were paid for it?"
+
+"It was upon a consideration, in course," replied Adair.
+
+"And Captain St. Jermyn contrived this?"
+
+"It was said," answered Adair, "that the captain left it all to Curry,
+and rather seemed to take Major Butler's side himself at the trial. He
+didn't want to be known in the business!"
+
+"Where is this Captain St. Jermyn?" demanded many voices.
+
+This interrogatory was followed by the rush of the party towards the
+quarter in which the prisoners were assembled, and, after a lapse of
+time which seemed incredibly short for the performance of the deed, the
+unhappy victim of this tumultuary wrath was seen struggling in the
+agonies of death, as he hung from one of the boughs of the same tree
+which had supplied the means of the other executions.
+
+By this time Butler and Henry Lindsay, attracted by the shouts that
+reached them at the cottage, had arrived at the scene of these dreadful
+events. Wat Adair was, at this moment, undergoing the punishment for
+which his first sentence was commuted. The lashes were inflicted by a
+sturdy arm upon his uncovered back; and it was remarkable that the
+wretch who but lately had sunk, with the most slavish fear, under the
+threat of death, now bore his stripes with a fortitude that seemed to
+disdain complaint or even the confession of pain. Butler and Henry
+hurried with a natural disgust from this spectacle, and soon found
+themselves near the spot where the lifeless forms of the victims of
+military vengeance were suspended from the tree.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed Butler, "is not that St. Jermyn? What has
+he done to provoke this doom?"
+
+"It is Tyrrel!" ejaculated Henry. "Major Butler, it is Tyrrel! That
+face, black and horrible as it is to look at, I would know it among a
+thousand!"
+
+"Indeed!" said Butler, gazing with a melancholy earnestness upon the
+scene, and speaking scarce above his breath, "is it so? Tyrrel and St.
+Jermyn the same person! This is a strange mystery."
+
+Robinson, at this moment, approached, and, in answer to Butler's
+questions, told the whole story of the commotions that had just agitated
+the camp.
+
+"St. Jermyn was not with Ferguson," said Butler, when the sergeant had
+finished his narrative. "How came he here to-day?"
+
+"First or last," replied Robinson, "it is my observation, Major, that
+these schemers and contrivers against others' lives are sure to come to
+account. The devil put it into this St. Jermyn's head to make Ferguson a
+visit. He came yesterday with Mr. Lindsay, and got the poor gentleman
+his hurt. James Curry has done working for him now, Major. Master and
+man have travelled one road."
+
+The scene was now closed. The business of the day called the troops to
+other labors. Campbell felt the necessity of an immediate retreat with
+his prisoners to the mountains, and his earliest orders directed the
+army to prepare for the march.
+
+When Butler returned to the cottage, he found himself surrounded by a
+mournful group. The malady of Lindsay had unexpectedly taken a fatal
+turn. Mildred and Henry were seated by the couch of their father,
+watching in mute anguish the last ebbings of life. The dying man was
+composed and apparently free from pain, and the few words he spoke were
+of forgiveness and resignation.
+
+In the midst of their sorrow and silence, the inmates of the dwelling
+had their attention awakened by the military music of the retiring army.
+These cheerful sounds vividly contrasted with the grief of the mourners,
+and told of the professional indifference of soldiers to the calamities
+of war. By degrees, the martial tones became more faint, as the troops
+receded up the valley; and before they were quite lost to the ear,
+Campbell and Shelby appeared at the door of the cottage to explain the
+urgency of their present departure, and to take a sad farewell of their
+friends.
+
+Stephen Foster, with Harry Winter and a party of the Rangers, remained
+behind to await the movements of Butler. Horse Shoe Robinson, Allen
+Musgrove, and his daughter, were in constant attendance.
+
+Here ends my story.
+
+In a lonely thicket, close upon the margin of the little brook which
+waters the valley on the eastern side of King's mountain, the traveller
+of the present day may be shown an almost obliterated mound, and hard by
+he will see the fragment of a rude tombstone, on which is carved the
+letters P. L. This vestige marks the spot where the remains of Philip
+Lindsay were laid, until the restoration of peace allowed them to be
+transported to the Dove Cote.
+
+There, also, in a happier day, Arthur Butler and Mildred took up their
+abode; and notwithstanding the fatal presentiment in regard to the
+fortunes of his house which had thrown so dark a color upon the life of
+Philip Lindsay, lived long enough after the revolution to see grow up
+around them a prosperous and estimable family.
+
+Mary Musgrove, too, attended Mildred, and attained an advanced, and I
+hope a happy old age, at the Dove Cote.
+
+Wat Adair, I have heard it said in Carolina, died a year after the
+battle of King's mountain, of a horrible distemper, supposed to have
+been produced by the bite of a rabid wolf. I would fain believe, for the
+sake of poetical justice, that this was true.
+
+Another item of intelligence, to be found in the history of the war, may
+have some reference to our tale. I find that, in the summer of 1781,
+Colonel Butler was engaged in the pursuit of Cornwallis in his retreat
+from Albemarle towards Williamsburgh: my inquiries do not enable me to
+say, with precision, whether it was our friend Arthur Butler who had met
+this promotion. His sufferings in the cause certainly deserved such a
+reward.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: This stricture, true in 1835, the date of the first edition
+of these volumes has, I am happy to notice, lost much of its point in
+the lapse of sixteen years.]
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON***
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Horse-Shoe Robinson</p>
+<p>       A Tale of the Tory Ascendency</p>
+<p>Author: John Pendleton Kennedy</p>
+<p>Release Date: August 21, 2010  [eBook #33478]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Mary Meehan<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/horseshoerobinso00kennrich">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/horseshoerobinso00kennrich</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON.</h1>
+
+<h3>A TALE OF THE TORY ASCENDENCY.</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>BY JOHN P. KENNEDY</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "SWALLOW BARN," "ROB OF THE BOWL," ETC.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>"I say the tale as 't was said to me."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Lay of the Last Minstrel</span></h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>REVISED EDITION.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>NEW YORK<br />
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</h4>
+
+<h4>182 <span class="smcap">Fifth Avenue</span><br />
+1876</h4>
+
+<h4>Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1852, by<br />
+GEORGE P. PUTNAM,<br />
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.</h4>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>To WASHINGTON IRVING, Esq.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Irving</span>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>With some little misgiving upon the score of having wasted time and
+paper both, which might have been better employed, I feel a real
+consolation in turning to you, as having, by your success, furnished our
+idle craft an argument to justify our vocation.</p>
+
+<p>You have convinced our wise ones at home that a man may sometimes write
+a volume without losing his character&mdash;and have shown to the incredulous
+abroad, that an American book may be richly worth the reading.</p>
+
+<p>In grateful acknowledgment of these services, as well as to indulge the
+expression of a sincere private regard, I have ventured to inscribe your
+name upon the front of the imperfect work which is now submitted to the
+public.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Very truly, yours, &amp;c.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">JOHN P. KENNEDY.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Baltimore</span>, <i>May 1, 1885</i>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a><br />
+<a href="#PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_EDITION">PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">CHAPTER XLIV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">CHAPTER XLV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">CHAPTER XLVI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">CHAPTER XLVII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">CHAPTER XLVIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX">CHAPTER XLIX.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_L">CHAPTER L.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LI">CHAPTER LI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LII">CHAPTER LII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LIII">CHAPTER LIII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LIV">CHAPTER LIV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LV">CHAPTER LV.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LVI">CHAPTER LVI.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LVII">CHAPTER LVII.</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_LVIII">CHAPTER LVIII.</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the winter of eighteen hundred and eighteen-nineteen, I had occasion
+to visit the western section of South Carolina. The public conveyances
+had taken me to Augusta, in Georgia. There I purchased a horse, a most
+trusty companion, with whom I had many pleasant experiences: a sorrel,
+yet retained by me in admiring memory. A valise strapped behind my
+saddle, with a great coat spread upon that, furnished all that I
+required of personal accommodation. My blood beat temperately with the
+pulse of youth and health. I breathed the most delicious air in the
+world. My travel tended to the region of the most beautiful scenery. The
+weather of early January was as balmy as October; a light warm haze
+mellowed the atmosphere, and cast the softest and richest hues over the
+landscape. I retraced my steps from Augusta to Edgefield, which I had
+passed in the stage coach. From Edgefield I went to Abbeville, and
+thence to Pendleton. I was now in the old district of Ninety Six, just
+at the foot of the mountains. My course was still westward. I journeyed
+alone, or rather, I ought to say, in good company, for my horse and I
+had established a confidential friendship, and we amused ourselves with
+a great deal of pleasant conversation&mdash;in our way. Besides, my fancy was
+busy, and made the wayside quite populous&mdash;with people of its own: there
+were but few of any other kind.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of my journey I met an incident, which I have preserved in
+my journal. The reader of the tale which occupies this volume has some
+interest in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon a day," as the old ballads have it, one of the best days of this
+exquisite climate, my road threaded the defiles of some of the grandest
+mountains of the country. Huge ramparts of rock toppled over my path,
+and little streams leaped, in beautiful cascades, from ledge to ledge,
+and brawled along the channels, which often supplied the only footway
+for my horse, and, gliding through tangled screens of rhododendron,
+laurel, arbor vitæ, and other evergreens, plunged into rivers, whose
+waters exceed anything I had ever conceived of limpid purity. It may be
+poetical to talk of liquid crystal, but no crystal has the absolute
+perfection of the transparency of these streams. The more distant
+mountain sides, where the opening valley offered them to my view, were
+fortified with stupendous walls, or banks of solid and unbroken rock,
+rising in successive benches one above another, with masses of dark pine
+between; the highest forming a crest to the mountain, cutting the sky in
+sharp profile, with images of castellated towers, battlements, and
+buttresses, around whose summits the inhabiting buzzard, with broad
+extended wings, floated and rocked in air and swept in majestic circles.</p>
+
+<p>The few inhabitants of this region were principally the tenants of the
+bounty lands, which the State of South Carolina had conferred upon the
+soldiers of the Revolution; and their settlements, made upon the rich
+bottoms of the river valleys, were separated from each other by large
+tracts of forest.</p>
+
+<p>I had much perplexity in some portions of this day's journey in finding
+my way through the almost pathless forest which lay between two of these
+settlements. That of which I was in quest was situated upon the Seneca,
+a tributary of the Savanna river, here called Tooloolee. It was near
+sundown, when I emerged from the wilderness upon a wagon road, very
+uncertain of my whereabout, and entertaining some rather anxious
+misgivings as to my portion for the night.</p>
+
+<p>I had seen no one for the last five or six hours, and upon falling into
+the road I did not know whether I was to take the right or the left
+hand&mdash;a very material problem for my solution just then.</p>
+
+<p>During this suspense, a lad, apparently not above ten years of age,
+mounted bare back on a fine horse, suddenly emerged from the wood about
+fifty paces ahead of me, and galloped along the road in the same
+direction that I had myself resolved to take. I quickened my speed to
+overtake him, but from the rapidity of his movement, I found myself, at
+the end of a mile, not as near him as I was at the beginning. Some open
+country in front, however, showed me that I was approaching a
+settlement. Almost at the moment of making this discovery, I observed
+that the lad was lying on the ground by the road-side. I hastened to
+him, dismounted, and found him sadly in want of assistance. His horse
+had run off with him, thrown him, and dislocated, as it afterwards
+appeared, his shoulder-joint.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst I was busy in rendering such aid as I could afford, I was joined
+by a gentleman of venerable aspect, the father of the youth, who came
+from a dwelling-house near at hand, which, in the engrossment of my
+occupation, I had not observed. We lifted the boy in our arms and bore
+him into the house.</p>
+
+<p>I was now in comfortable quarters for the night. The gentleman was
+Colonel T&mdash;&mdash;, as I was made aware by his introduction, and the kindly
+welcome he offered me, and I very soon found myself established upon the
+footing of a favored guest. The boy was laid upon a bed in the room
+where we sat, suffering great pain, and in want of immediate attention.
+I entered into the family consultation on the case. Never have I
+regretted the want of an acquisition, as I then regretted that I had no
+skill in surgery. I was utterly incompetent to make a suggestion worth
+considering. The mother of the family happened to be absent that night;
+and, next to the physician, the mother is the best adviser. There was an
+elder son, about my own age, who was playing a fiddle when we came in;
+and there was a sister younger than he, and brothers and sisters still
+younger. But we were all alike incapable. The poor boy's case might be
+critical, and the nearest physician, Dr. Anderson, resided at Pendleton,
+thirty miles off. This is one of the conditions of frontier settlement
+which is not always thought of.</p>
+
+<p>In the difficulty of the juncture, a thought occurred to Colonel T.,
+which was immediately made available. "I think I will send for
+Horse-Shoe Robinson," he said, with a manifest lighting up of the
+countenance, as if he had hit upon a happy expedient. "Get a horse, my
+son," he continued, addressing one of the boys, "and ride over to the
+old man, and tell him what has happened to your brother; and say, he
+will oblige me if he will come here directly." At the same time, a
+servant was ordered to ride to Pendleton, and to bring over Dr.
+Anderson.</p>
+
+<p>In the absence of the first messenger the lad grew easier, and it became
+apparent that his hurt was not likely to turn out seriously. Colonel T.,
+assured by this, drew his chair up to the fire beside me, and with many
+expressions of friendly interest inquired into the course of my journey,
+and into the numberless matters that may be supposed to interest a
+frontier settler in his intercourse with one just from the world of busy
+life. It happened that I knew an old friend of his, General &mdash;&mdash;-, a
+gentleman highly distinguished in professional and political service, to
+whose youth Colonel T. had been a most timely patron. This circumstance
+created a new pledge in my favor, and, I believe, influenced the old
+gentleman in a final resolve to send that night for his wife, who was
+some seven or eight miles off, and whom he had been disinclined to put
+to the discomfort of such a journey in the dark, ever since it was
+ascertained that the boy's case was not dangerous. I am pretty sure this
+influenced him, as I heard him privately instructing a servant to go for
+the lady, and to tell her that the boy's injury was not very severe,
+and "that there was a gentleman there who was well acquainted with
+General &mdash;&mdash;." I observed, hanging in a little black frame over the
+fire-place, a miniature engraved portrait of the general, which was the
+only specimen of the fine arts in the house&mdash;perhaps in the settlement.
+It was my recognition of this likeness that led, I fear, to the weary
+night ride of the good lady.</p>
+
+<p>In less than an hour the broad light of the hearth&mdash;for the apartment
+was only lit up by blazing pine faggots, which, from time to time, were
+thrown upon the fire&mdash;fell upon a goodly figure. There was first a sound
+of hoofs coming through the dark&mdash;a halt at the door&mdash;a full, round,
+clear voice heard on the porch&mdash;and then the entrance into the apartment
+of a woodland hero. That fine rich voice again, in salutation, so gentle
+and so manly! This was our expected counsellor, Horse-Shoe Robinson.
+What a man I saw! With near seventy years upon his poll, time seemed to
+have broken its billows over his front only as the ocean breaks over a
+rock. There he stood&mdash;tall, broad, brawny, and erect. The sharp light
+gilded his massive frame and weather-beaten face with a pictorial effect
+that would have rejoiced an artist. His homely dress, his free stride,
+as he advanced to the fire; his face radiant with kindness; the natural
+gracefulness of his motion; all afforded a ready index to his character.
+Horse Shoe, it was evident, was a man to confide in.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear your boy's got flung from his horse, Colonel," he said, as he
+advanced to the bed-side. "Do you think he is much hurt?" "Not so badly
+as we thought at first, Mr. Robinson," was the reply. "I am much obliged
+to you for coming over to-night. It is a great comfort to have your
+advice in such times."</p>
+
+<p>"These little shavers are so venturesome&mdash;with horses in particular,"
+said the visitor; "it's Providence, Colonel, takes care of 'em. Let me
+look at you, my son," he continued, as he removed the bed-clothes, and
+began to handle the shoulder of the boy. "He's got it out of joint," he
+added, after a moment. "Get me a basin of hot water and a cloth,
+Colonel. I think I can soon set matters right."</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before the water was placed beside him, and Robinson
+went to work with the earnestness of a practised surgeon. After applying
+wet cloths for some time to the injured part, he took the shoulder in
+his broad hand, and with a sudden movement, which was followed by a
+shriek from the boy, he brought the dislocated bone into its proper
+position. "It doesn't hurt," he said, laughingly; "you are only
+pretending. How do you feel now?"</p>
+
+<p>The patient smiled, as he replied, "Well enough now; but I reckon you
+was joking if you said that it didn't hurt."</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe came to the fire-side, and took a chair, saying, "I larnt
+that, Colonel, in the campaigns. A man picks up some good everywhere, if
+he's a mind to; that's my observation."</p>
+
+<p>This case being disposed of, Horse Shoe determined to remain all night
+with the family. We had supper, and, after that, formed a little party
+around the hearth. Colonel T. took occasion to tell me something about
+Horse Shoe; and the Colonel's eldest son gave me my cue, by which he
+intimated I might draw out the old soldier to relate some stories of the
+war.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him," said the young man, "how he got away from Charleston after
+the surrender; and then get him to tell you how he took the five
+Scotchmen prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>We were all in good humor. The boy was quite easy, and everything was
+going on well, and we had determined to sit up until Mrs. T. should
+arrive, which could not be before midnight. Horse Shoe was very
+obliging, and as I expressed a great interest in his adventures, he
+yielded himself to my leading, and I got out of him a rich stock of
+adventure, of which his life was full. The two famous passages to which
+I had been asked to question him&mdash;the escape from Charleston, and the
+capture of the Scotch soldiers&mdash;the reader will find preserved in the
+narrative upon which he is about to enter, almost in the very words of
+my anthology. I have&mdash;perhaps with too much scruple&mdash;retained Horse
+Shoe's peculiar vocabulary and rustic, doric form of speech&mdash;holding
+these as somewhat necessary exponents of his character. A more truthful
+man than he, I am convinced, did not survive the war to tell its story.
+Truth was the predominant expression of his face and gesture&mdash;the truth
+that belongs to natural and unconscious bravery, united with a frank and
+modest spirit. He seemed to set no especial value upon his own exploits,
+but to relate them as items of personal history, with as little comment
+or emphasis as if they concerned any one more than himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was long after midnight before our party broke up; and when I got to
+my bed it was to dream of Horse Shoe and his adventures. I made a record
+of what he told me, whilst the memory of it was still fresh, and often
+afterwards reverted to it, when accident or intentional research brought
+into my view events connected with the times and scenes to which his
+story had reference.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will thus see how I came into possession of the leading
+incidents upon which this "Tale of the Tory Ascendency" in South
+Carolina is founded.</p>
+
+<p>It was first published in 1835. Horse-Shoe Robinson was then a very old
+man. He had removed into Alabama, and lived, I am told, upon the banks
+of the Tuskaloosa. I commissioned a friend to send him a copy of the
+book. The report brought me was, that the old man had listened very
+attentively to the reading of it, and took great interest in it.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say to all this?" was the question addressed to him, after
+the reading was finished. His reply is a voucher which I desire to
+preserve: "It is all true and right&mdash;in its right place&mdash;excepting about
+them women, which I disremember. That mought be true, too; but my memory
+is treacherous&mdash;I disremember."</p>
+
+<p><i>April 12, 1852.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_EDITION" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_EDITION"></a>PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION</h2>
+
+
+<p>The events narrated in the following pages, came to my knowledge in the
+progress of my researches into the personal history of some of the
+characters who figure in the story. I thought them worth being embodied
+into a regular narrative, for two reasons:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>First, because they intrinsically possess an interest that may amuse the
+lovers of adventure, and,</p>
+
+<p>Second, because they serve to illustrate the temper and character of the
+War of our Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>As yet, only the political and documentary history of that war has been
+written. Its romantic or picturesque features have been left for that
+industrious tribe of chroniclers, of which I hold myself to be an
+unworthy member, and who have of late, as the public is aware, set about
+the business in good earnest. It shall go hard with us if we do not soon
+bring to light every remnant of tradition that the war has left!</p>
+
+<p>An opinion has heretofore prevailed that the Revolution was too recent
+an affair for our story-telling craft to lay hands upon it. But this
+objection, ever since the fiftieth anniversary, has been nullified by
+common consent,&mdash;that being deemed the fair poetical limit which
+converts tradition into truth, and takes away all right of
+contradiction from a surviving actor in the scene. The pension roll is
+manifestly growing thinner, and the widows&mdash;married young after the
+peace&mdash;make a decided majority on the list. These are the second-hand
+retailers of the marvels of the war; and it is observed that, like wine
+which has descended to the heir, the events have lost none of their
+flavor or value by the transmission. This is all so much clear gain to
+our fraternity; and it is obvious, therefore, that we must thrive.</p>
+
+<p>My reader will perceive that I have been scrupulous to preserve the
+utmost historical accuracy in my narrative: and I hope, when he has
+finished the perusal, that he may find reason to award me the
+commendation of having afforded him some pleasure, by the sketch I have
+attempted of the condition of things in the south during the very
+interesting period of the "Tory Ascendency."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The Author.</span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>May 1, 1835.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HORSE SHOE ROBINSON.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A TOPOGRAPHICAL DISCOURSE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The belt of mountains which traverses the state of Virginia diagonally,
+from north-east to south-west, it will be seen by an inspection of the
+map, is composed of a series of parallel ranges, presenting a
+conformation somewhat similar to that which may be observed in miniature
+on the sea-beach, amongst the minute lines of sand hillocks left by the
+retreating tide. This belt may be said to commence with the Blue Ridge,
+or more accurately speaking, with that inferior chain of highlands that
+runs parallel to this mountain almost immediately along its eastern
+base. From this region westward the highlands increase in elevation, the
+valleys become narrower, steeper and cooler, and the landscape
+progressively assumes the wilder features which belong to what is
+distinctly meant by "the mountain country."</p>
+
+<p>The loftiest heights in this series are found in the Alleghany, nearly
+one hundred and fifty miles westward from the first thread of the belt;
+and as the principal rivers which flow towards the Chesapeake find their
+sources in this overtopping line of mountain, it may be imagined that
+many scenes of surpassing beauty exist in those abrupt solitudes where
+the rivers have had to contend with the sturdy hills that nature had
+thrown across their passage to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The multiplication of the facilities of travel which the spirit of
+improvement has, of late years, afforded to this region; the
+healthfulness, or,&mdash;to use a term more germain to its excellence,&mdash;the
+voluptuousness of the climate, and the extraordinary abundance of waters
+of the rarest virtue, both for bathing and drinking, have all
+contributed, very recently, to render the mountains of Virginia
+notorious and popular amongst that daintily observant crowd of
+well-conditioned people who yearly migrate in quest of health, or of a
+refuge from the heats of summer, or who, perchance, wander in pursuit of
+those associations of hill and dale which are supposed to repair a jaded
+imagination, and to render it romantic and fruitful.</p>
+
+<p>The traveller of either of these descriptions, who holds his journey
+westward, will find himself impelled to halt at Charlottesville, as a
+pleasant resting-place in the lap of the first mountains, where he may
+stop to reinforce his strength for the prosecution of the rugged task
+that awaits him. His delay here will not be unprofitable. This neat
+little village is not less recommended to notice by its position in the
+midst of a cultivated and plentiful country, than by its contiguity to
+the seats of three Presidents of the Union; and, especially, by its
+immediate proximity to Monticello, whose burnished dome twinkles through
+the crown of forest that adorns the very apex of its mountain pyramid,
+and which, as it has now grown to be the Mecca of many a pilgrim, will
+of itself furnish a sufficient inducement for our traveller's tarrying.
+An equal attraction will be found in the University of Virginia, which,
+at the distance of one mile, in the opposite direction from that leading
+to Monticello, rears its gorgeous and fantastic piles of massive and
+motley architecture&mdash;a lively and faithful symbol (I speak it
+reverently) of the ambitious, parti-colored and gallican taste of its
+illustrious founder.</p>
+
+<p>From Charlottesville, proceeding southwardly, in the direction of Nelson
+and Amherst, the road lies generally over an undulating country, formed
+by the succession of hills constituting the subordinate chain of
+mountains which I have described as first in the belt. These hills
+derive a beautiful feature from the manner in which they are
+commanded,&mdash;to use a military phrase,&mdash;by the Blue Ridge, which, for the
+whole distance, rests against the western horizon, and heaves up its
+frequent pinnacles amongst the clouds, clothed in all the variegated
+tints that belong to the scale of vision, from the sombre green and
+purple of the nearer masses, to the light and almost indistinguishable
+azure of its remotest summits.</p>
+
+<p>The constant interruption of some gushing rivulet, which hurries from
+the neighboring mountain into the close vales that intercept the road,
+communicates a trait of peculiar interest to this journey, affording
+that pleasant surprise of new and unexpected scenery, which, more than
+any other concomitant of travel, wards off the sense of fatigue. These
+streams have worn deep channels through the hills, and constantly seem
+to solicit the road into narrow passes and romantic dells, where fearful
+crags are seen toppling over the head of the traveller, and sparkling
+waters tinkle at his feet; and where the richest and rarest trees of the
+forest seem to have chosen their several stations, on mossy bank or
+cloven rock, in obedience to some master mind intent upon the most
+tasteful and striking combination of these natural elements.</p>
+
+<p>A part of the country embraced in this description, has obtained the
+local designation of the South Garden, perhaps from its succession of
+fertile fields and fragrant meadows, which are shut in by the walls of
+mountain on either hand; whilst a still more remote but adjacent
+district of more rugged features, bears the appellation of the Cove, the
+name being suggested by the narrow and encompassing character of the
+sharp and precipitous hills that hem in and over-shadow a rough and
+brattling mountain torrent, which is marked on the map as the Cove
+creek.</p>
+
+<p>At the period to which my story refers, the population of this central
+district of Virginia, exhibited but few of the characteristics which are
+found to distinguish the present race of inhabitants. A rich soil, a
+pure atmosphere, and great abundance of wood and water, to say nothing
+of the sylvan beauties of the mountain, possessed a great attraction for
+the wealthy proprietors of the low country; and the land was, therefore,
+generally parcelled out in large estates held by opulent owners, whose
+husbandry did not fail, at least, to accumulate in profusion the
+comforts of life, and afford full scope to that prodigal hospitality,
+which, at that period even more than at present, was the boast of the
+state. The laws of primogeniture exercised their due influence on the
+national habits; and the odious division of property amongst undeserving
+younger brothers, whom our modern philosophy would fain persuade us have
+as much merit, and as little capacity to thrive in the world as their
+elders, had not yet formed part of the household thoughts of these
+many-acred squires. From Charlottesville, therefore, both north and
+south, from the Potomac to the James river, there extended a chain of
+posts, occupied by lordly and open-hearted gentlemen,&mdash;a kind of civil
+cordon of bluff free-livers who were but little versed in the mystery of
+"bringing the two ends of the year together."</p>
+
+<p>Since that period, well-a-day! the hand of the reaper has put in his
+sickle upon divided fields; crowded progenies have grown up under these
+paternal roof-trees; daughters have married and brought in strange
+names; the subsistence of one has been spread into the garner of ten;
+the villages have grown populous; the University has lifted up its
+didactic head; and everywhere over this abode of ancient wealth, the hum
+of industry is heard in the carol of the ploughman, the echo of the
+wagoner's whip, the rude song of the boatman, and in the clatter of the
+mill. Such are the mischievous interpolations of the republican system!</p>
+
+<p>My reader, after this topographical sketch and the political reflections
+with which I have accompanied it, is doubtless well-prepared for the
+introduction of the worthy personages with whom I am about to make him
+acquainted.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO TWO WORTHIES WITH WHOM HE IS LIKELY
+TO FORM AN INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>It was about two o'clock in the afternoon of a day towards the end of
+July, 1780, when Captain Arthur Butler, now holding a brevet, some ten
+days old, of major in the continental army, and Galbraith Robinson were
+seen descending the long hill which separates the South Garden from the
+Cove. They had just left the rich and mellow scenery of the former
+district, and were now passing into the picturesque valley of the
+latter. It was evident from the travel-worn appearance of their horses,
+as well as from their equipments, that they had journeyed many a mile
+before they had reached this spot; and it might also have been perceived
+that the shifting beauties of the landscape were not totally disregarded
+by Butler, at least,&mdash;as he was seen to halt on the summit of the hill,
+turn and gaze back upon the wood-embowered fields that lay beneath his
+eye, and by lively gestures to direct the notice of his companion to the
+same quarter. Often, too, as they moved slowly downward, he reined up
+his steed to contemplate more at leisure the close, forest-shaded ravine
+before them, through which the Cove creek held its noisy way. It was not
+so obvious that his companion responded to the earnest emotions which
+this wild and beautiful scenery excited in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur Butler was now in the possession of the vigor of early manhood,
+with apparently some eight and twenty years upon his head. His frame was
+well proportioned, light and active. His face, though distinguished by a
+smooth and almost beardless cheek, still presented an outline of decided
+manly beauty. The sun and wind had tanned his complexion, except where a
+rich volume of black hair upon his brow had preserved the original
+fairness of a high, broad forehead. A hazel eye sparkled under the
+shade of a dark lash, and indicated, by its alternate playfulness and
+decision, an adventurous as well as a cheerful spirit. His whole
+bearing, visage and figure, seemed to speak of one familiar with
+enterprise and fond of danger:&mdash;they denoted gentle breeding
+predominating over a life of toil and privation.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his profession, which was seen in his erect and
+peremptory carriage, his dress, at this time, was, with some slight
+exceptions, merely civil. And here, touching this matter of dress, I
+have a prefatory word to say to my reader. Although custom, or the
+fashion of the story-telling craft, may require that I should satisfy
+the antiquarian in this important circumstance of apparel of the days
+gone by, yet, on the present occasion, I shall be somewhat chary of my
+lore in that behalf;&mdash;seeing that any man who is curious on the score of
+the costume of the revolution time, may be fully satisfied by studying
+those most graphic "counterfeit presentments" of sundry historical
+passages of that day, wherewith Colonel Trumbull has furnished this age,
+for the edification of posterity, in the great rotunda of the Capitol of
+the United States. And I confess, too, I have another reason for my
+present reluctance,&mdash;as I feel some faint misgiving lest my principal
+actor might run the risk of making a sorry figure with the living
+generation, were I to introduce him upon the stage in a coat, whose
+technical description, after the manner of a botanical formula, might be
+comprised in the following summary:&mdash;long-waisted&mdash;wide-skirted&mdash;narrow-
+collared&mdash;broad-backed&mdash;big-buttoned&mdash;and large-lapelled;&mdash;and then to
+add to this, what would be equally outlandish, yellow small-clothes,
+and dark-topped boots, attached by a leather strap to the buttons at
+the knee,&mdash;without which said boots, no gentleman in 1780 ventured to
+mount on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>But when I say that Captain Butler travelled on his present journey,
+habited in the civil costume of a gentleman of the time, I do not mean
+to exclude a round hat pretty much of the fashion of the present
+day&mdash;though then but little used except amongst military men&mdash;with a
+white cockade to show his party; nor do I wish to be considered as
+derogating from that peaceful character when I add that his saddle-bow
+was fortified by a brace of horseman's pistols, stowed away in large
+holsters, covered with bear skin;&mdash;for, in those days, when hostile
+banners were unfurled, and men challenged each other upon the highways,
+these pistols were a part of the countenance (to use an excellent old
+phrase) of a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>Galbraith Robinson was a man of altogether rougher mould. Nature had
+carved out, in his person, an athlete whom the sculptors might have
+studied to improve the Hercules. Every lineament of his body indicated
+strength. His stature was rather above six feet; his chest broad; his
+limbs sinewy, and remarkable for their symmetry. There seemed to be no
+useless flesh upon his frame to soften the prominent surface of his
+muscles; and his ample thigh, as he sat upon horseback, showed the
+working of its texture at each step, as if part of the animal on which
+he rode. His was one of those iron forms that might be imagined almost
+bullet proof. With all these advantages of person, there was a radiant,
+broad, good nature upon his face; and the glance of a large, clear, blue
+eye told of arch thoughts, and of shrewd, homely wisdom. A ruddy
+complexion accorded well with his sprightly, but massive features, of
+which the prevailing expression was such as silently invited friendship
+and trust. If to these traits be added an abundant shock of yellow,
+curly hair, terminating in a luxuriant queue, confined by a narrow
+strand of leather cord, my reader will have a tolerably correct idea of
+the person I wish to describe.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson had been a blacksmith at the breaking out of the revolution,
+and, in truth, could hardly be said to have yet abandoned the craft;
+although of late, he had been engaged in a course of life which had but
+little to do with the anvil, except in that metaphorical sense of
+hammering out and shaping the rough, iron independence of his country.
+He was the owner of a little farm in the Waxhaw settlement, on the
+Catawba, and having pitched his habitation upon a promontory, around
+whose base the Waxhaw creek swept with a regular but narrow circuit,
+this locality, taken in connexion with his calling, gave rise to a
+common prefix to his name throughout the neighborhood, and he was
+therefore almost exclusively distinguished by the sobriquet of Horse
+Shoe Robinson. This familiar appellative had followed him into the army.</p>
+
+<p>The age of Horse Shoe was some seven or eight years in advance of that
+of Butler&mdash;a circumstance which the worthy senior did not fail to use
+with some authority in their personal intercourse, holding himself, on
+that account, to be like Cassius, an elder, if not a better soldier. On
+the present occasion, his dress was of the plainest and most rustic
+description: a spherical crowned hat with a broad brim, a coarse grey
+coatee of mixed cotton and wool, dark linsey-woolsey trowsers adhering
+closely to his leg, hob-nailed shoes, and a red cotton handkerchief tied
+carelessly round his neck with a knot upon his bosom. This costume, and
+a long rifle thrown into the angle of the right arm, with the breech
+resting on his pommel, and a pouch of deer-skin, with a powder horn
+attached to it, suspended on his right side, might have warranted a
+spectator in taking Robinson for a woodsman, or hunter from the
+neighboring mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the two personages who now came "pricking o'er the hill." The
+period at which I have presented them to my reader was, perhaps, the
+most anxious one of the whole struggle for independence. Without falling
+into a long narrative of events which are familiar, at least to every
+American, I may recall the fact that Gates had just passed southward, to
+take command of the army destined to act against Cornwallis. It was now
+within a few weeks of that decisive battle which sent the hero of
+Saratoga "bootless home and weather-beaten back," to ponder over the
+mutations of fortune, and, in the quiet shades of Virginia, to strike
+the balance of fame between northern glory and southern discomfiture. It
+may be imagined then, that our travellers were not without some share of
+that intense interest for the events "upon the gale," which every where
+pervaded the nation. Still, as I have before hinted, Arthur Butler did
+not journey through this beautiful region without a lively perception of
+the charms which nature had spread around him. The soil of this district
+is remarkable for its blood-red hue. The side of every bank glowed in
+the sun with this bright vermillion tint, and the new-made furrow,
+wherever the early ploughman had scarred the soil, turned up to view the
+predominating color. The contrast of this with the luxuriant grass and
+the yellow stubble, with the grey and mossy rock, and with the deep
+green shade of the surrounding forest, perpetually solicited the notice
+of the lover of landscape; and from every height, the eye rested with
+pleasure upon the rich meadows of the bottom land&mdash;upon the varied
+cornfields spread over the hills; upon the adjacent mountains, with
+their bald crags peeping through the screen of forest, and especially
+upon the broad lines of naked earth that, here and there, lighted up and
+relieved, as a painter would say, with its warm coloring, the heavy
+masses of shade.</p>
+
+<p>The day was hot, and it was with a grateful sense of refreshment that
+our wayfarers, no less than their horses, found themselves, as they
+approached the lowland, gradually penetrating the deep and tangled
+thicket and the high wood that hung over and darkened the channel of the
+small stream which rippled through the valley. Their road lay along this
+stream and frequently crossed it at narrow fords, where the water fell
+from rock to rock in small cascades, presenting natural basins of the
+limpid flood, embosomed in laurel and alder, and gurgling that busy
+music which is one of the most welcome sounds to the ear of a wearied
+and overheated traveller.</p>
+
+<p>Butler said but little to his companion, except now and then to express
+a passing emotion of admiration for the natural embellishments of the
+region; until, at length, the road brought them to a huge mass of rock,
+from whose base a fountain issued forth over a bed of gravel, and soon
+lost itself in the brook hard by. A small strip of bark, that some
+friend of the traveller had placed there, caught the pure water as it
+was distilled from the rock, and threw it off in a spout, some few
+inches above the surface of the ground. The earth trodden around this
+spot showed it to be a customary halting place for those who journeyed
+on the road.</p>
+
+<p>Here Butler checked his horse, and announced to his comrade his
+intention to suspend, for a while, the toil of travel.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing, Galbraith," said he, as he discounted, "wherein all
+philosophers agree&mdash;man must eat when he is hungry, and rest when he is
+weary. We have now been some six hours on horseback, and as this
+fountain seems to have been put here for our use, it would be sinfully
+slighting the bounties of providence not to do it the honor of a halt.
+Get down, man; rummage your havresac, and let us see what you have
+there."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson was soon upon his feet, and taking the horses a little distance
+off, he fastened their bridles to the impending branches of a tree; then
+opening his saddle-bags, he produced a wallet with which he approached
+the fountain, where Butler had thrown himself at full length upon the
+grass. Here, as he successively disclosed his stores, he announced his
+bill of fare, with suitable deliberation between each item, in the
+following terms:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't march without provisions, you see, captain&mdash;or major, I suppose
+I must call you now. Here's the rear division of a roast pig, and along
+with it, by way of flankers, two spread eagles (holding up two broiled
+fowls), and here are four slices from the best end of a ham. Besides
+these, I can throw in two apple-jacks, a half dozen of rolls, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your wallet is as bountiful as a conjurer's bag, sergeant; it is a
+perfect cornucopia. How did you come by all this provender?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't so overmuch, major, when you come to consider," said Robinson.
+"The old landlady at Charlottesville is none of your heap-up,
+shake-down, and running-over landladies, and when I signified to her
+that we mought want a snack upon the road, she as much as gave me to
+understand that there wa'n't nothing to be had. But I took care to make
+fair weather with her daughter, as I always do amongst the creatures,
+and she let me into the pantry, where I made bold to stow away these few
+trifling articles, under the denomination of pillage. If you are fond of
+Indian corn bread, I can give you a pretty good slice of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Pillage, Galbraith! You forget you are not in an enemy's country. I
+directed you scrupulously to pay for everything you got upon the road. I
+hope you have not omitted it to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, sir! what do these women do for the cause of liberty but cook,
+and wash, and mend!" exclaimed the sergeant. "I told the old Jezebel to
+charge it all to the continental congress."</p>
+
+<p>"Out upon it, man! Would you bring us into discredit with our best
+friends, by your villanous habits of free quarters?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not the only man, major, that has been spoiled in his religion by
+these wars. I had both politeness and decency till we got to squabbling
+over our chimney corners in Carolina. But when a man's conscience begins
+to get hard, it does it faster than anything in nature: it is, I may
+say, like the boiling of an egg&mdash;it is very clear at first, but as soon
+as it gets cloudy, one minute more and you may cut it with a knife."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well! Let us fall to, sergeant; this is no time to argue points
+of conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to take no notice of this here bottle of peach brandy major,"
+said Robinson. "It's a bird that came out of the same nest. To my
+thinking it's a sort of a file leader to an eatable, if it ar'n't an
+eatable itself."</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, Galbraith! it is the vice of the army to set too much store by
+this devil brandy."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant was outwardly moved by an inward laugh that shook his head
+and shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose, major, that Troy town was taken without brandy? It's
+drilling and countermarching and charging with the bagnet, all three,
+sir. But before we begin, I will just strip our horses. A flurry of cool
+air on the saddle spot is the best thing in nature for a tired horse."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson now performed this office for their jaded cattle; and having
+given them a mouthful of water at the brook, returned to his post, and
+soon began to despatch, with a laudable alacrity, the heaps of provision
+before him. Butler partook with a keen appetite of this sylvan repast,
+and was greatly amused to see with what relish his companion caused
+slice after slice to vanish, until nothing was left of this large supply
+but a few fragments.</p>
+
+<p>"You have lost neither stomach nor strength by the troubles, sergeant;
+the short commons of Charleston would have gone something against the
+grain with you, if you had stayed for that course of diet."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a little over two months," said Robinson, "since I got away from
+them devils; and if it hadn't been for these here wings of mine
+(pointing to his legs), I might have been a caged bird to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"You have never told me the story of your escape," said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"You were always too busy, or too full of your own thoughts, major, for
+me to take up your time with such talk," replied the other. "But, if you
+would like me to tell you all about it, while you are resting yourself
+here on the ground, and have got nothing better to think about, why,
+I'll start like old Jack Carter of our mess, by beginning, as he used to
+say when he had a tough story ahead, right at the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so, sergeant, and do it discreetly; but first, swallow that
+mouthful, for you don't speak very clear."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wash down the gutter, major, according to camp fashion and then
+my throat will be as clear as the morning gun after sun rise."</p>
+
+<p>And saying this, the tall soldier helped himself to a hearty draught of
+cool water mingled in fair proportion with a part of the contents of his
+flask, and setting the cup down by his side, he commenced as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You was with us, major, when Prevost served us that trick in Georgia,
+last year&mdash;kept us, you remember, on the look out for him t'other side
+of the Savannah, whilst all the time he was whisking of it down to
+Charleston."</p>
+
+<p>"You call this beginning at the beginning? Faith, you have started a
+full year before your time. Do you think yourself a Polybius or a
+Xenophon&mdash;who were two famous old fellows, just in your line,
+sergeant&mdash;that you set out with a history of a whole war."</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew any persons in our line&mdash;officers or men&mdash;of either of
+them names,"&mdash;replied Robinson,&mdash;"they were nicknames, perhaps;&mdash;but I
+do know, as well as another, when a thing turns up that is worth notice,
+major; and this is one of 'em:&mdash;and that's the reason why I make mention
+of it. What I was going to say was this&mdash;that it was a sign fit for
+General Lincoln's consarnment, that these here British should make a
+push at Charleston on the tenth of May, 1779, and get beaten, and that
+exactly in one year and two days afterwards, they should make another
+push and win the town. Now, what was it a sign of, but that they and the
+tories was more industrious that year than we were?"</p>
+
+<p>"Granted," said Butler, "now to your story, Mister Philosopher!"</p>
+
+<p>"In what month was it you left us?" inquired the sergeant gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"In March," answered Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"General Lincoln sent you off, as we were told, on some business with
+the continental congress: to get us more troops, if I am right. It was a
+pity to throw away a good army on such a place&mdash;for it wa'nt worth
+defending at last. From the time that you set out they began to
+shut us in, every day a little closer. First, they closed a door on
+one side, and then on t'other: till, at last they sent a sort of
+flash-o'-lightning fellow&mdash;this here Colonel Tarleton&mdash;up to Monk's
+corner, which, you know, was our back door, and he shut that up and
+double bolted it, by giving Huger a most tremenjious lathering. Now,
+when we were shut in, we had nothing to do but look out. I'll tell you
+an observation I made, at that time."</p>
+
+<p>"Well."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, when a man has got to fight, it's a natural sort of thing
+enough;&mdash;but when he has got nothing to eat, it's an onnatural state. I
+have hearn of men who should have said they would rather fight than
+eat:&mdash;if they told truth they would have made honest fellows for our
+garrison at Charlestown. First, our vegetables&mdash;after that devil took up
+his quarters at Monk's corner&mdash;began to give out then, our meat; and,
+finally, we had nothing left but rice, which I consider neither fish,
+flesh, nor good salt herring"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You had good spirits, though, sergeant."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean rum or brandy, major, we hadn't much of that;&mdash;but if you
+mean jokes and laughs, it must be hard times that will stop them in
+camp.&mdash;I'll tell you one of them, that made a great hurra on both sides,
+where we got the better of a Scotch regiment that was plaguing us from
+outside the town. They thought they would make themselves merry with our
+starvation&mdash;so, they throwed a bomb shell into our lines, that, as it
+came along through the air, we saw had some devilment in it, from the
+streak it made in daylight; and, sure enough, when we come to look at it
+on the ground, we found it filled with rice and molasses&mdash;just to show
+that these Scotchmen were laughing at us for having nothing to eat.
+Well, what do we do but fill another shell with brimstone and hogslard,
+and just drop it handsomely amongst the lads from the land o'cakes? Gad,
+sir, it soon got to the hearing of the English regiment, and such a
+shouting as they sot up from their lines against the Scotchmen! That's
+what I call giving as good as they saunt, major&mdash;ha ha ha!"</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't a bad repartee, Galbraith," said Butler, joining in the
+laugh. "But go on with your siege."</p>
+
+<p>"We got taken, at last," proceeded Horse Shoe, "and surrendered on the
+12th of May. Do you know that they condescended to let us go through the
+motions of marching outside the lines? Still it was a sorry day to see
+our colors tied as fast to their sticks as if a stocking had been drawn
+over them. After that, we were marched to the barracks and put into
+close confinement."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have heard that; and with heavy hearts&mdash;and a dreary prospect
+before you, sergeant."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't have minded it much, Major Butler, it was the fortune of
+war. But they insulted us as soon as they got our arms from us. It was a
+blasted cowardly trick in them to endeavor to wean us from our cause,
+which they tried every day; it was seduction, I may say. First, they
+told us that Colonel Pinckney and some other officers had gone over; but
+that was too onprobable a piece of rascality,&mdash;we didn't believe one
+word on't. So, one morning Colonel Pinckney axed that we mought be
+drawed up in a line in front of the barracks; and there he made us a
+speech. We were as silent as so many men on a surprise party. The
+colonel said&mdash;yes, sir, and right in their very teeth&mdash;that it was an
+infamious, audacious calamy: that whenever he desarted the cause of
+liberty, he hoped they would take him, as they had done some Roman
+officer or other&mdash;I think one Officious, as I understood the
+colonel&mdash;you've hearn of him, may be&mdash;and tie his limbs to wild horses,
+and set them adrift, at full speed, taking all his joints apart, so that
+not one traitorious limb should be left to keep company with another. It
+was a mighty severe punishment, whoever he mought'a been. The British
+officers began to frown&mdash;and I saw one chap put his hand upon his sword.
+It would have done you good to witness the look the colonel gave him, as
+he put his own hand to his thigh to feel if his sword was there&mdash;he so
+naturally forgot he was a prisoner. They made him stop speaking
+howsever, because they gave out that it was perditious language; and so,
+they dismissed us&mdash;but we let them have three cheers to show that we
+were in heart."</p>
+
+<p>"It was like Pinckney," said Butler; "I'll warrant him a true man,
+Galbraith."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll thribble that warrant," replied Galbraith, "and afterwards make it
+nine. I wish you could have hearn him. I always thought a bugle horn the
+best music in the world, till that day. But that day Colonel Charles
+Cotesworth Pinckney's voice was sweeter than shawns and trumpets, as the
+preacher says, and bugles to boot. I have hearn people tell of speeches
+working like a fiddle on a man's nerves, major: but, for my part, I
+think they sometimes work like a battery of field-pieces, or a whole
+regimental band on a parade day. Howsever, I was going on to tell you,
+Colonel Pinckney put a stop to all this parleying with our poor fellows;
+and knowing, major, that you was likely to be coming this way, he axed
+me if I thought I could give the guard the slip, and make off with a
+letter to meet you. Well, I studied over the thing for a while, and then
+told him a neck was but a neck any how, and that I could try; and so,
+when his letter was ready, he gave it to me, telling me to hide it so
+that, if I was sarched, it couldn't be found on my person. Do you see
+that foot?" added Horse Shoe, smiling, "it isn't so small but that I
+could put a letter between the inside sole and the out, longways, or
+even crossways, for the matter of that, and that, without so much as
+turning down a corner. Correspondent and accordingly I stitched it in.
+The colonel then told me to watch my chance and make off to you in the
+Jarseys, as fast as I could. He told me, besides, that I was to stay
+with you, because you was likely to have business for me to do."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true, good sergeant."</p>
+
+<p>"There came on a darkish, drizzly evening; and a little before roll
+call, at sun set, I borrowed an old forage cloak from Corporal
+Green&mdash;you mought have remembered him&mdash;and out I went towards the lines,
+and sauntered along the edge of the town, till I came to one of your
+pipe-smoking, gin-drinking Hessians, keeping sentry near the road that
+leads out towards Ashley ferry:&mdash;a fellow that had no more watch in
+him&mdash;bless your soul!&mdash;as these Dutchmen hav'n't&mdash;than a duck on a rainy
+day. So, said I, coming up boldly to him, 'Hans, wie gehet es'&mdash;'Geh zum
+Teufel,' says he, laughing&mdash;for he knowed me. That was all the Dutch I
+could speak, except I was able to say it was going to rain, so I told
+him&mdash;'Es will regnen'&mdash;which he knowed as well as I did, for it was
+raining all the time. I had a little more palaver with Hans, and, at
+last, he got up on his feet and set to walking up and down. By this time
+the drums beat for evening quarters, and I bid Hans good night; but,
+instead of going away, I squatted behind the Dutchman's sentry
+box;&mdash;and, presently, the rain came down by the bucket full; it got very
+dark and Hans was snug under cover. The grand rounds was coming; I could
+hear the tramp of feet, and as no time was to be lost, I made a long
+step and a short story of it, by just slipping over the lines and
+setting out to seek my fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Well done, sergeant! You were ever good at these pranks."</p>
+
+<p>"But that wasn't all," continued Robinson. "As the prime file leader of
+mischief would have it, outside of the lines I meets a cart with a man
+to drive it, and two soldiers on foot, by way of guard.</p>
+
+<p>"The first I was aware of it, was a hallo, and then a bagnet to my
+breast. I didn't ask for countersigns, for I didn't mean to trade in
+words that night; but, just seizing hold of the muzzle of the piece, I
+twisted it out of the fellow's hand, and made him a present of the
+butt-end across his pate. I didn't want to hurt him, you see, for it
+wa'n't his fault that he stopped me. A back-hander brought down the
+other, and the third man drove off his cart, as if he had some suspicion
+that his comrades were on their backs in the mud. I didn't mean to
+trouble a peaceable man with my compliments, but on the contrary, as the
+preacher says, I went on my way rejoicing."</p>
+
+<p>"You were very considerate, sergeant; I entirely approve of your
+moderation. As you are a brave man, and have a natural liking for
+danger, this was a night that, doubtless, afforded you great
+satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>"When danger stares you in the face," replied Horse Shoe, "the best way
+is not to see it. It is only in not seeing of it, that a brave man
+differs from a coward: that's my opinion. Well, after that I had a hard
+time of it. I was afraid to keep up the Neck road, upon account of the
+sodgers that was upon it; so I determined to cross the Ashley, and make
+for the Orangeburg district. When I came to the ferry, I was a little
+dubious about taking one of the skiffs that was hauled up, for fear of
+making a noise; so I slipped off my shoe that had your letter, and put
+it betwixt my teeth and swum the river. I must have made some splashing
+in the water&mdash;although I tried to muffle my oars, too, for first, I
+heard a challenge from the ferry-house, and then the crack of a musket:
+but it was so dark you couldn't see an egg on your own nose. There was a
+little flustering of lights on the shore, and a turnout of the guard,
+may be; but, I suppose, they thought it was a sturgeon, or some such
+beast, and so made no more of it; and I got safe to the other bank."</p>
+
+<p>"Faithfully and bravely, sergeant!"</p>
+
+<p>"For the first three or four days the chances were all against me. The
+whole country was full of tories, and it wasn't safe to meet a man on
+the road: you couldn't tell whether he was friend or enemy. I durstn't
+show my face in day-time at all, but lay close in the swamps; and when
+it began to grow dark, I stole out, like a wolf, and travelled across
+the fields, and along the by-ways."</p>
+
+<p>"You had a good stomach to bear it, sergeant."</p>
+
+<p>"A good stomach enough, but not much in it. I'll tell you another
+observation I made; when a man travels all night long on an empty
+stomach, he ought either to fill it next morning or make it smaller."</p>
+
+<p>"And how is that to be managed, friend Horse Shoe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indian fashion," replied the sergeant. "Buckle your belt a little
+tighter every two or three hours. A man may shrivel his guts up to the
+size of a pipe stem. But I found a better way to get along than by
+taking in my belt"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now, for another stratagem!"</p>
+
+<p>"I commonly, about dark, crept as near to a farm house as I mought
+venture to go; and, putting on a poor mouth, told the folks I had a
+touch of the small-pox, and was dying for a little food. They were
+Christians enough to give me a dish of bread and milk, or something of
+that sort, and cowards enough to keep so much out of the way, as not to
+get a chance to look me in the face. They laid provisions on the ground,
+and then walked away while I came up to get them. Though I didn't think
+much of the fashion I was waited on, and had sometimes to quarrel with a
+bull-dog for my supper, I don't believe I ever ate with a better
+appetite in my life. The first bread of freedom, no matter how coarse, a
+man eats after his escape from prison, is the sweetest morsel in nature.
+And I do think it is a little pleasanter when he eats it at the risk of
+his life."</p>
+
+<p>Butler nodded his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, after this," continued Horse Shoe, "I had like to have lost all
+by another mishap. My course was for the upper country, because the
+nearer I got to my own home the better I was acquainted with the people.
+That scrummaging character, Tarleton, you may have hearn, scampered off,
+as soon as ever Charlestown was taken, after Colonel Abraham Buford, who
+was on his way down to the city when the news was fotch him of our
+surrender. Buford accordingly came to the right about, to get out of
+harm's way as fast as he could, and Tarleton followed close on his
+heels. Think of that devil, major, trying to catch a man a hundred
+miles away! It was a brazen hearted thing! considering, besides, that
+Buford had a good regiment with him. When nobody thought it anything
+more than a brag, sure enough, he overhauls Buford yonder at the
+Waxhaws&mdash;onawares, you may say&mdash;and there he tore him all to pieces.
+They say it was a bloody cruel sight, to see how these English troopers
+did mangle the poor fellows. I doubt there wasn't fair play. But, major,
+that Tarleton rides well and is a proper soldier, take him man to man.
+It so happened that as I was making along towards Catawba, who should I
+come plump upon, but Tarleton and his lads, with their prisoners, all
+halting beside a little run to get water!"</p>
+
+<p>"Again in trouble, sergeant! Truly you have had full measure of
+adventures!"</p>
+
+<p>"I was pretty near nonplushed, major," said Horse Shoe, with a broad
+laugh, "but I thought of a stratagem. I let fall my under jaw, and sot
+my eyes as wild as a madman, and twisted my whole face out of joint&mdash;and
+began to clap my hands, and hurra for the red coats, like a natural
+fool. So, when Tarleton and two or three of his people came to take
+notice of me, they put me down for a poor idiot that had been turned
+adrift."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they hold any discourse with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"A good deal; and, just to try me, they flogged me with the flats of
+their swords; but I laughed and made merry when they hurt me worst, and
+told them I thanked them for their politeness. There were some of our
+people amongst the prisoners, that I knew, and I was mortally afeard
+they would let on, but they didn't. Especially, there was Seth Cuthbert,
+from Tryon, who had both of his hands chopped off in the fray at the
+Waxhaws; he was riding double behind a trooper, and he held up the
+stumps just to let me see how barbarously he was mangled. I was dubious
+they would see that he knowed me, but he took care of that. Bless your
+soul, major! he saw my drift in the first shot of his eye. Thinking that
+they mought take it into their noddles to carry me along with them back,
+I played the quarest trick that I suppose ever a man thought of; it
+makes me laugh now to tell it. I made a spring that fetched me right
+upon the crupper of Colonel Tarleton's horse, which sot him to kicking
+and flirting at a merry rate; and, whilst the creature was floundering
+as if a hornet had stung him, I took the colonel's cap and put it upon
+my own head, and gave him mine. And after I had vagaried in this sort of
+way for a little while, I let the horse fling me on the ground. You
+would have thought the devils would have died a laughing. And the
+colonel himself, although at first he was very angry, couldn't help
+laughing likewise. He said that I was as strange a fool as he ever saw,
+and that it would be a pity to hurt me. So he threw me a shilling, and,
+whilst they were all in good humor, I trudged away."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a bold experiment, and might be practised a thousand times
+without success. If I did not know you, Robinson, to be a man of truth,
+as well as courage, I should scarce believe this tale. If any one,
+hereafter, should tell your story, he will be accounted a
+fiction-monger."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not boast, Major Butler; and, as to my story, I care very little
+who tells it. Every trick is good in war. I can change my face and voice
+both, so that my best friends shouldn't know me: and, in these times, I
+am willing to change every thing but my coat, and even that, if I have a
+witness to my heart, and it will serve a turn to help the country. Am I
+not right?"</p>
+
+<p>"No man ever blames another for that, sergeant, and if ever you should
+be put to the trial, you will find friends enough to vouch for your
+honesty."</p>
+
+<p>"When I got away from Tarleton it wasn't long before I reached my own
+cabin. There I mustered my horse and gun, and some decent clothes; and
+after a good sleep, and a belly full of food, I started for the north,
+as fast as I could, with my letter. I put it into your own hands, and
+you know the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"This will be a good tale for a winter night," said Butler, "to be told
+hereafter, in a snug chimney corner, to your wife and children, when
+peace, as I trust it may, will make you happy in the possession of both.
+Your embassy has had marvellous good luck so far. I hope it may prove a
+happy omen for our future enterprise. Now it is my turn, Galbraith, to
+tell you something of our plans. Colonel Pinckney has apprised me of the
+state of things in the upper country. Our good friend Clarke there
+meditates an attempt to regain Augusta and Ninety-six; and we have
+reason to believe that some levies will be made by our confederates in
+Virginia and elsewhere. My business is to co-operate in this
+undertaking; and as it was essential I should have the guidance of some
+man acquainted with that country&mdash;some good soldier, true and
+trusty&mdash;the colonel has selected you to accompany me. These red coats
+have already got possession of all the strongholds; and the tories, you
+know, swarm in the country, like the locusts of Egypt. I stand in need,
+sergeant, of a friend with a discreet head and a strong arm. I could not
+have picked out of the army a better man than Sergeant Galbraith
+Robinson. Besides, Horse Shoe," he added, putting his hand gently upon
+the sergeant's shoulder, "old acquaintance has bred an affection between
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a man that can eat my allowance, major," said Robinson, with an
+awkward diffidence at hearing the encomium just passed upon him, "and
+that's a matter that doesn't turn to much profit in an empty country.
+But I think I may make bold to promise, that you are not like to suffer,
+if a word or a blow from me would do you any good."</p>
+
+<p>"Your belt may be serviceable in two ways in this expedition, Horse
+Shoe: it may be buckled closer in scant times, and will carry a sword in
+dangerous ones."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask, major," inquired Horse Shoe, "since you have got to talking
+of our business, what has brought us so high up the country, along here?
+It seems to me that the lower road would have been nearer."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I say, Galbraith," replied Butler, with animation, "that there
+is a bird nestles in these woods, I was fond of hearing sing, would it
+be unsoldier-like, think you, to make a harder ride and a larger circuit
+for that gratification?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I understand, major," said Horse Shoe, laughing, "whether it be
+peace or whether it be war, these women keep the upper hand of us men.
+For my part, I think it's more natural to think of them in war than in
+peace. For, you see, the creatures are so helpless, that if a man don't
+take care of them, who would? And then, when a woman's frightened, as
+she must be in these times, she clings so naturally to a man! It stands
+to reason!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will keep my counsel, Galbraith," interrupted Butler, "I have a
+reason which, perhaps, you may know by and by, why you should not speak
+of any thing you may see or hear. And now, as we have spent a good hour
+in refreshment, sergeant, make our horses ready. We'll take the road
+again."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson promised caution in all matters that might be committed to his
+charge, and now set himself about saddling the horses for the journey.
+Whilst he was engaged in this occupation, Butler was startled to hear
+the sergeant abruptly cry out&mdash;"You devil, Captain Peter Clinch! what
+are you about?" and, looking hastily around, saw no one but the trusty
+squire himself, who was now sedately intent upon thrusting the bit into
+his horse's mouth,&mdash;a liberty which the animal seemed to resent by
+sundry manifestations of waywardness.</p>
+
+<p>"To whom are you talking, Galbraith?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only to this here contrary, obstropolous beast, major."</p>
+
+<p>"What name did you call him by?" inquired Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, ha! was it that you was listening too?" said Horse Shoe. "I
+have christened him Captain Peter&mdash;sometimes Captain Peter Clinch. I'll
+tell you why. I am a little malicious touching the name of my horse.
+After the surrender of Charlestown, our regiment was put in the charge
+of a provost marshal, by the name of Captain Clinch, and his first name
+was Peter. He was a rough, ugly, wiry-haired fellow, with no better
+bowels than a barrel of vinegar. He gave us all sorts of ill usage,
+knowing that we wa'n't allowed to give him the kind of payment that such
+an oncomfortable fellow desarved to get. If ever I had met him again,
+major, <i>setters parbus</i>&mdash;as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say&mdash;which is
+lingo, I take it, for a fair field, I would'a cudgelled his pate for
+him, to the satisfaction of all good fellows. Well, when I got home, I
+gave his name to my beast, just for the pleasure of thinking of that
+hang-gallows thief, every time I had occasion to give the creetur a dig
+in the ribs, or lay a blow across his withers! And yet he is a most an
+excellent horse, major, and a hundred times more of a gentleman than his
+namesake,&mdash;though he is a little hard-headed too&mdash;but that he larnt from
+me. It really seems to me that the dumb beast thinks his name a
+disgrace, as he has good right, but has got used to it. And, besides, I
+hear that the cross-grained, growling dog of a captain has been killed
+in a scuffle since I left Charlestown, so now I consider my horse a sort
+of tombstone with the ugly sinner's name on it; and as I straddle it
+every day you see, that's another satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sergeant, there are few men enjoy their revenge more
+good-humoredly than you. So, come, straddle your tombstone again, and
+make the bones beneath it jog."</p>
+
+<p>In good glee, our travellers now betook themselves once more to the
+road.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN INCIDENT THAT SAVORS OF ROMANCE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>By the time the sun had fallen to the level of the summits of the Blue
+Ridge, Butler and Robinson had progressed so far in their journey, as to
+find themselves in the vicinity of the Rockfish river&mdash;a rapid mountain
+stream, that traverses the southern confine of Albemarle, and which, at
+that period, separated this county from Amherst. Their path had led
+them, by a short circuit, out of the ravine of Cove creek, along upon
+the ridges of the neighboring hills; and they were now descending from
+this elevation, into the valley of the Rockfish, near to the point where
+the Cove creek forms its junction with this river. The hill was covered
+with a stately forest, and a broad, winding road had been cut down the
+steep side, in such a manner as to present a high bank on one hand, and
+an abrupt sheer descent on the other. From this road might be seen, at
+intervals, glimmering through the screen of underwood, the waters of the
+small river below; whilst, at the same time, the circuitous course of
+the descending track left but few paces of its length visible from any
+one point, except where, now and then, it came boldly forth to the verge
+of some wild crag, from which glimpses were to be obtained of its
+frequent traverses towards the deep and romantic dell that received the
+mingled tribute of the two streams.</p>
+
+<p>Here, as our travellers journeyed downward, their attention was awakened
+by the cry of hounds in pursuit of game. These sounds came from the wood
+on the crest of the hill above them; and the clamorous earnestness with
+which they assailed the ear, and roused the far echo of the highlands,
+showed the object of chase to have been suddenly surprised and hotly
+followed. The outcry was heard, for some moments, pursuing a direction
+towards the river, when, suddenly from the midst of the forest, the
+sharp twang of a rifle-shot showed that some hunter was on the watch to
+profit by the discovery of the dogs.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson, as soon as he heard the report, urged his horse forward with
+speed, to the first turn of the road below; dismounted, and, throwing
+his rifle into the palm of his left hand, stood ready to give his fire
+wherever he might find occasion. Butler followed, and reined up close
+beside his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is game afoot," said Galbraith, "and if that shot has not done
+its business, it may be my turn to try a hand."</p>
+
+<p>These words were hardly spoken, when a wounded buck rushed to the brink
+of the bank, some twelve or fifteen feet above the heads of the
+travellers, and regardless of the presence of enemies, made one frantic
+bound forward into the air, and fell dead almost at Robinson's feet. So
+effectually had the work of death been done upon the poor animal, that
+he seemed to have expired, in the convulsion of this last leap, before
+he reached the ground; his antlers were driven into the clay; his eyes
+were fixed, and not a struggle followed.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a home-shot that brought this poor fugitive to the earth," said
+Butler, as he stood gazing at the piteous spectacle before him, "and
+sped by a practised hand."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't count him a good man, major," said Galbraith, with professional
+indifference, "who would mangle his meat by random firing. Now, this
+buck was taken sideways, as he leaped above the tops of the bushes,
+which is the ticklishest of all the ways of shooting a deer. The man
+that plucked this fellow, I'll warrant, can plant his ball just where he
+likes: right under the arm is the place for certainty; and the thing
+couldn't have been prettier done if the man had had a rest and a
+standing shot."</p>
+
+<p>During this short interval, the hounds had arrived on the spot where the
+buck lay bleeding, and these, after a few minutes, were followed by two
+hunters of very dissimilar appearance, who came on foot, slowly leading
+their horses up the hill.</p>
+
+<p>The first was a tall, gaunt woodman, of a sallow complexion, jet black
+eyes, and round head of smooth black hair. His dress was simply a coarse
+linen shirt and trowsers, the heat of the day being such as to allow him
+to dispense with coat and waistcoat. He carried, in one hand, a battered
+straw hat, and in the other, trailed a long rifle. His feet were
+covered with a pair of moccasins of brown leather, and the ordinary
+hunting equipments were suspended about his person.</p>
+
+<p>The second was a youth apparently about sixteen, dressed in a suit of
+green summer-cloth, neatly and fancifully adapted to his figure, which
+was graceful and boyish. The jacket was short, and gathered into a small
+skirt behind; and both this and the pantaloons were garnished with a
+profusion of black cord and small black buttons. A highly polished
+leather belt was buckled around his waist; a cap of green cloth rested,
+somewhat conceitedly, amongst the rich locks of a head of light, curly
+hair that fell, with girlish beauty, over a fair brow, and gave softness
+to a countenance of pure white and red; and a neat foot showed to
+advantage in a laced boot. The whole appearance of the youth was of one
+of an amiable and docile bearing, and the small rifle or carbine which
+he bore in his hand, as well as the dainty accoutrements that belonged
+to it, amongst which was a diminutive bugle, looked more like the toys
+of a pampered boy, than any apparatus of service.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had these two approached near enough to Butler and his
+attendant for recognition, than the youth, quitting the hold of his
+horse, sprang forward with a joyous alacrity and seized Butler by the
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Butler," he cried with great animation, "how glad I am you have
+come! And how fortunate it is that I should meet you! Get down from your
+horse, I have something to tell you. Here, Stephen Foster, take this
+gentleman's horse."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fine fellow, Harry," said Butler, dismounting. "That smiling
+face of yours is full of pleasant news; it assures me that all are well
+at the Dove Cote." Then having given his horse in charge to Robinson,
+and walked a few paces apart with his young friend, he enquired, in a
+low and anxious tone, "Mildred, my dear Henry, what of your sister
+Mildred? Has she received my letter? Does she expect me? Is your
+father&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, captain," interrupted the other&mdash;"but heigh! don't the newspapers
+say you are brevetted? I am a pretty fellow to forget that! Well then,
+Major Butler, let me answer one question at a time. In the first place,
+sister Mildred is as well as any girl can be, that has a whole bushel of
+crosses to keep her out of spirits. Poor thing, she frets so, about you
+and my father. In the second place, she received your letter a week ago,
+and has had me patrolling this ridge every day since, just to keep a
+look-out for you; and, for the sake of company, I have had Stephen
+Foster hunting here all the time&mdash;more for an excuse than anything else,
+because on this side of the river the drives are not the best for
+deer&mdash;a man might be here a fortnight and not get a shot. Sister Mildred
+wanted me, if I should see you first, just to whisper to you that it is
+impossible to do anything with my father, especially at this time, for
+he has one of these English officers staying at the Dove Cote now, who,
+I am afraid, and so is sister Mildred, has come to do some mischief.
+Mildred says I must make some appointment with you to see her privately.
+I thought of Mrs. Dimock's, but this Englishman has a servant staying
+over there, and may be it wouldn't do. So, major, you will have to ride
+down to the big chestnut, on the bank of the river, just under the rock
+that we call the Fawn's Tower&mdash;you know where that is? it isn't more
+than two miles from here."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it well, Henry, I will wait there patiently," replied Butler, as
+he now returned to his horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't we been in luck," said Henry, "to get so fine a buck at last?
+This fellow has eight branches. It is Stephen's rifle that has done it."</p>
+
+<p>The woodman, during this conversation, had taken possession of his
+spoil, and was now busily engaged with his knife in cutting open and
+preparing the animal for transportation, according to the usages of
+woodcraft, whilst Robinson stood by, admiring the dexterity with which
+this office was performed. When the buck was, at last, thrown by Stephen
+across his horse, Henry gave him orders to ride forward.</p>
+
+<p>"You will carry our game to your own house, Stephen; and don't forget,
+to-morrow, to let us have the saddle at the Dove Cote. And Stephen, you
+need not say that we have found any acquaintances upon the road, you
+understand!"</p>
+
+<p>The man bowed his head, in token of obedience, and getting upon his
+long-backed steed, behind the buck, was soon lost to view in the
+windings of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"Sister Mildred is sometimes downright melancholy," said the young
+hunter, after he had remounted, and now rode beside Butler. "She is
+troubled about you, and is always telling me of some unpleasant dream. I
+almost think she is over-fanciful; and then she reads everything about
+the army, and talks almost like a man about soldiering. Do you know she
+is making a soldier of me? I am constantly reading military books, and
+practising drill, and laying out fortifications, just as if I was going
+into camp. My father doesn't know a word of it; his time is taken up
+with these English officers, writing to them, and every now and then
+there are some of them at our house. Mildred knows them&mdash;a famous spy
+she would make! Isn't she an excellent girl, Major Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"You and I should guard her, Henry, with more care than we guard our
+lives," replied Butler, with a serious emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," returned Henry, "she will be in better spirits after she sees
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I would to heaven," said Butler, "that we all had more reason to be of
+good cheer, than we are likely to have. It is as cloudy a day, Henry, as
+you may ever behold again, should you live, as I pray you may, to the
+ripest old age."</p>
+
+<p>Henry looked up towards the west.</p>
+
+<p>"There are clouds upon the sky," he said, "and the sun has dropped below
+them; but there is a streak of yellow light, near to the line of the
+mountain, that our wise people say is a sign that the sun will rise in
+beauty to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a light beyond the mountain," replied Butler, half speaking to
+himself, "and it is the best, the only sign I see of a clear to-morrow.
+I wish, Henry, it were a brighter beam."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know Gates has passed South?" said Henry, "and has some
+pretty fellows with him, they say. And ar'n't we all mustering
+here&mdash;every man most? Ask Stephen Foster what I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"And what will he tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that I am his deputy-corporal in the mounted riflemen; Stephen is
+the lieutenant."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I crave your favor, brother officer, good master deputy-corporal,
+Henry Lindsay! and does your father allow you to ride in the ranks of
+the friends of liberty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sister Mildred persuaded him that as I am a mere lad, as she
+says,&mdash;look at me, major,&mdash;a pretty well grown lad, I take it, there is
+no harm in my playing soldier. So I ride always with Stephen Foster, and
+Mildred got me this light rifle-carbine. Now, major, I fancy I am pretty
+nearly as good a marksman as rides in the corps. Who is this with you?"
+asked Henry, looking back at Robinson, who loitered some distance in the
+rear purposely to avoid what might be deemed an intrusion upon the
+private conference of the two friends.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a famous soldier, Henry; he was at the siege of Charleston, and
+last year at Savannah. He has had some hard blows, and can tell you more
+of war than you have ever read in all your studies."</p>
+
+<p>"He wears a curious uniform," said Henry, "for a regular soldier. What
+is his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Galbraith Robinson&mdash;or Horse Shoe Robinson&mdash;to give him his most
+popular distinction. But it would be well to keep his name secret."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of Horse Shoe," said Henry, with an expression of great
+interest. "So, this is the man himself? From all reports he is as brave
+as"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"As who?" asked Butler, smiling at the tone of wonder with which Henry
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"As Caius Marcius Coriolanus, who, I make no doubt, major, was about the
+bravest man in the books."</p>
+
+<p>Butler laughed, and applauded the young martialist for his
+discrimination.</p>
+
+<p>The road from the foot of the hill pursued the left, or northern, bank
+of the Rockfish, which shot along, with a rapid flood, over the rocks
+that lay scattered in its bed; and the gush of whose flight fell upon
+the ear like the loud tones of the wind. From either margin it was
+shaded by huge sycamores, whose tops, at this twilight hour, were marked
+in broad lines upon the fading sky, and whose wide spreading boughs met,
+from side to side, over the middle of the stream, throwing a deeper
+night upon the clear and transparent waters. The valley was closely
+bound by high precipitous hills, whose steep crags and narrow passes
+seemed to echo and prolong the gush of the stream, that was now mingled
+with the occasional lowing of cattle, the shriek of the owl, and the
+frequent hoarse scream of the whip-poor-will.</p>
+
+<p>When our party had advanced about a mile along this road, Henry Lindsay
+took his bugle and blew a blast which seemed to dance in its
+reverberations from one side of the river to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred knows my signal," said he; "that is the scout's warning:
+cavalry approaches: dress your line: prepare to receive a general
+officer."</p>
+
+<p>"Henry, pray drop your military phrase, and tell me what this means?"
+said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Ride on till you arrive beneath the Fawn's Tower. Wait for me there. I
+will give you a signal when I approach: and trust me for a faithful
+messenger. The river is deep at the rock, but you will find a boat
+fastened to this bank. When you hear my signal come across. Mr. Dimock's
+is only another mile; and, I'll warrant, the old lady will make you
+comfortable. Love, they say, major," added Henry, sportively, "is meat
+and drink, and a blanket to boot; but for all that, Mrs. Dimock's will
+not be amiss&mdash;especially for Horse Shoe, who, I take it, will have the
+roughest time of the party. If love is a blanket, Mr. Robinson," Henry
+continued, addressing himself to that worthy, "it doesn't cover two, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"To my thinking, young sir," replied Horse Shoe, with a laugh, "it
+wouldn't fold so cleverly in a knapsack."</p>
+
+<p>"Now that I have given my orders," said Henry, "and done my duty, I must
+leave you, for my road lies across the ford here. Where are my hounds?
+Hylas, Bell, Blanche, you puppies, where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Here Henry blew another note, which was immediately responded to by the
+hounds; and, plunging into the rapid and narrow stream, followed by the
+dogs, who swam close behind him, he was seen, the next moment, through
+the twilight, galloping up the opposite hill, as he called out his "good
+night" to his friends.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Henry had disappeared, the other two pricked their steeds
+forward at a faster pace. The rapid flow of the river, as they advanced
+along its bank, began to change into a more quiet current, as if some
+obstruction below had dammed up the water, rendering it deep and still.
+Upon this tranquil mirror the pale crescent of the moon and the faintly
+peeping stars were reflected; and the flight of the fire-fly was traced,
+by his own light and its redoubled image, upon the same surface.</p>
+
+<p>The high toppling cliff of the Fawn's Tower, that jutted forth like a
+parapet above the road, soon arrested the attention of Butler; and at
+its base the great chestnut flung abroad his "vast magnificence of
+leaves," almost in emulation of the aspiring crag.</p>
+
+<p>"We have reached our appointed ground," said Butler. "I shall want my
+cloak, Galbraith; the dews begin to chill my limbs."</p>
+
+<p>They dismounted, and Butler threw his cloak around his shoulders. Then,
+in a thoughtful, musing state of mind, he strolled slowly along the bank
+of the river, till he was temporarily lost to view in the thick shades
+and sombre scenery around him. Robinson, having secured the horses, sat
+himself down at the foot of the chestnut, unwilling to interrupt, by
+conversation, the anxious state of feeling which he had the shrewdness
+to perceive predominated in Butler's mind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A MEETING OF LOVERS&mdash;&mdash;SOME INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The twilight had subsided and given place to a beautiful night. The moon
+had risen above the tree tops, and now threw her level rays upon the
+broad face of the massive pile of rocks forming the Fawn's Tower, and
+lit up with a silvery splendor, the foliage that clothed the steep cliff
+and the almost perpendicular hill in its neighborhood. On the opposite
+side of the river, a line of beech and sycamore trees, that grew almost
+at the water's edge, threw a dark shadow upon the bank. Through these,
+at intervals, the bright moonlight fell upon the earth, and upon the
+quiet and deep stream. The woods were vocal with the whispering noises
+that give discord to the nights of summer; yet, was there a stillness in
+the scene which invited grave thoughts, and recalled to Butler's mind
+some painful emotions that belonged to his present condition.</p>
+
+<p>"How complicated and severe are those trials"&mdash;such was the current of
+his meditations&mdash;"which mingle private grief with public misfortune:
+that double current of ill which runs, on one side, to the overthrow of
+a nation's happiness, and, on the other, to the prostration of the
+individual who labors in the cause! What a struggle have I to encounter
+between my duty to my country and my regard for those tender relations
+that still more engross my affections, nor less earnestly appeal to my
+manhood for defence! Upon the common quarrel I have already staked my
+life and fortune, and find myself wrapt up in its most perilous
+obligations. That cause has enough in it to employ and perplex the
+strongest mind, and to invoke the full devotion of a head and heart that
+are exempt from all other solicitude: yet am I embarrassed with personal
+cares that are woven into the very web of my existence; that have
+planted themselves beside the fountain of my affections, and which, if
+they be rudely torn from me, would leave behind&mdash;but a miserable and
+hopeless wreck. My own Mildred! to what sad trials have I brought your
+affection; and how nobly hast thou met them!</p>
+
+<p>"Man lives in the contentious crowd; he struggles for the palm that
+thousands may award, and far-speeding renown may rend the air with the
+loud huzza of praise. His is the strife of the theatre where the world
+are spectators; and multitudes shall glorify his success, or lament his
+fall, or cheer him in the pangs of death. But woman, gentle, silent,
+sequestered&mdash;thy triumphs are only for the heart that loves thee&mdash;thy
+deepest griefs have no comforter but the secret communion of thine own
+pillow!"</p>
+
+<p>Whilst Butler, who had now returned beneath the cliff of the Fawn's
+Tower, was absorbed in this silent musing, his comrade was no less
+occupied with his own cares. The sergeant had acquired much of that
+forecast, in regard to small comforts, which becomes, in some degree, an
+instinct in those whose profession exposes them to the assaults of wind
+and weather. Tobacco, in his reckoning, was one of the most
+indispensable muniments of war; and he was, accordingly, seldom without
+a good stock of this commodity. A corn cob, at any time, furnished him
+the means of carving the bowl of a pipe; whilst, in his pocket, he
+carried a slender tube of reed which, being united to the bowl, formed a
+smoking apparatus, still familiar to the people of this country, and
+which, to use the sergeant's own phrase, "couldn't be touched for
+sweetness by the best pipe the very Queen of the Dutch herself ever
+smoked; and that"&mdash;he was in the habit of adding&mdash;"must be, as I take
+it, about the tenderest thing for a whiff that the Dutchman knowed how
+to make."</p>
+
+<p>A flint and steel&mdash;part also of his gear&mdash;now served to ignite his
+tobacco, and he had been, for some time past, sedately scanning the
+length and breadth of his own fancies, which were, doubtless rendered
+the more sublime by the mistiness which a rich volume of smoke had shed
+across his vision and infused into the atmosphere around his brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Twelve shillings and nine pence," were the first words which became
+audible to Butler in the depth of his revery. "That, major," said the
+sergeant, who had been rummaging his pocket, and counting over a handful
+of coin, "is exactly the amount I have spent since this time last night.
+I paid it to the old lady of the Swan at Charlottesville, taking a
+sixpence for mending your bridle rein. Since you must make me paymaster
+for our march, I am obliged to square accounts every night. My noddle
+wont hold two days reckoning. It gets scrimped and flustered with so
+many numberings, that I lose the count clean out."</p>
+
+<p>"It is of little consequence, Galbraith," replied Butler, seeking to
+avoid his companion's interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"Squaring up, and smoothing off, and bringing out this and that shilling
+straight to a penny, don't come natural to me," continued Robinson, too
+intent upon his reckoning to observe the disinclination of Butler to a
+parley, "money matters are not in my line. I take to them as
+disunderstandingly as Gill Bentley did to the company's books, when they
+made him Orderly on the Waccamaw picquet. For Gill, in the first place,
+couldn't write, and, in the next place, if he could'a done that, he
+never larnt to read, so you may suppose what a beautiful puzzleification
+he had of it to keep the guard roster straight."</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant, look if yonder boat is loose; I shall want it presently,"
+said Butler, still giving no ear to his comrade's gossip.</p>
+
+<p>"It is tied by an easy knot to the root of the tree," said Robinson, as
+he returned from the examination.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," added Butler with more than usual abstractedness.</p>
+
+<p>"Something, major, seems to press upon your spirits to-night," said the
+sergeant, in the kindest tones of inquiry. "If I could lend a hand to
+put any thing, that mought happen to have got crooked, into its right
+place again, you know, Major Butler, I wouldn't be slow to do it, when
+you say the word."</p>
+
+<p>"I would trust my life to you, Galbraith, sooner than to any man
+living," replied the other, with an affectionate emphasis:&mdash;"But you
+mistake me, I am not heavy at heart, though a little anxious, sergeant,
+at what has brought me here, comrade," he added as he approached the
+sergeant, upon whose broad shoulder he familiarly laid his hand, with a
+smile; "you will keep a fellow soldier's counsel?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I keep my heart in my body," interrupted Galbraith.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of it; even as you keep your faith to your country my true
+and worthy brother," added Butler with animation, "and that is with no
+less honesty than a good man serves his God. Then, Galbraith, bear it
+in mind, I have come here for the sake of a short meeting with one that
+I love, as you would have a good soldier love the lady of his soul. You
+will hereafter speak of nothing that may fall within your notice. It
+concerns me deeply that this meeting should be secret."</p>
+
+<p>"Major, I will have neither eyes nor ears, if it consarns you to keep
+any thing that mought chance to come to my knowledge, private."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not for myself, sergeant, I bespeak this caution; I have nothing
+to conceal from you; but there is a lady who is much interested in our
+circumspection. I have given you a long and solitary ride on her
+account, and may hereafter ask other service from you. You shall not
+find it more irksome, Galbraith, to stand by a comrade in love, than you
+have ever found it in war, and that, I know, you think not much."</p>
+
+<p>"The war comes naturally enough to my hand," replied Galbraith, "but as
+for the love part, major, excepting so far as carrying a message, or, in
+case of a runaway, keeping off a gang of pestifarious intermeddlers, or
+watching, for a night or so, under a tree, or any thing, indeed, in the
+riding and running, or watching, or scrimmaging line&mdash;I say, excepting
+these, my sarvice moughtn't turn to much account. I can't even play a
+fiddle at a wedding, and I've not the best tongue for making headway
+amongst the women. Howsomdever, major, you may set me down for a
+volunteer on the first forlorn hope you may have occasion for."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Lindsay lives on the hill across the river. There are reasons why I
+cannot go to his house; and his daughter, Galbraith, is an especial
+friend to us and to our cause."</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to see into it," interrupted the sergeant, laughing, "you have
+a notion of showing the old gentleman the same trick you played off upon
+Lord Howe's provost marshal, when you was lieutenant at Valley Forge,
+touching your stealing away his prisoner, Captain Roberts. That was a
+night affair, too. Well, the best wife a man can have, major, is the
+woman that takes to him through fire and water. There was Colonel
+Gardiner, that stole his wife just in that way, against all opposition
+of both father and mother, and a better woman never stitched up a seam,
+to my knowledge and belief."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no thought of such an enterprise, sergeant," said Butler; "our
+purpose, for the present, must be confined to a short visit. We are
+houseless adventurers, Galbraith, and have little to offer to sweetheart
+or wife that might please a woman's fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"When a woman loves a man, especially a sodger," replied the sergeant,
+"she sets as little store by house and home as the best of us. Still, it
+is a wise thing to give the creatures the chance of peace, before you
+get to tangling them with families. Hark, I hear something like
+footsteps on t'other side of the river! Mister Henry must be on his
+march."</p>
+
+<p>After an interval, a low whistle issued from the opposite bank, and, in
+a moment, Butler was in the skiff, pushing his way through the sparkling
+waters.</p>
+
+<p>As the small boat, in which he stood upright, shot from the bright
+moonlight into the shade of the opposite side, he could obscurely
+discern Mildred Lindsay leaning on her brother's arm, as they both stood
+under the thick foliage of a large beech. And scarcely had the bow
+struck upon the pebbly margin, before he bounded from it up the bank,
+and was, in the next instant, locked in the embrace of one whose
+affection he valued above all earthly possessions.</p>
+
+<p>When that short interval had passed away, in which neither Mildred nor
+Arthur could utter speech; during which the lady leant her head upon her
+lover's bosom, in that fond familiarity which plighted faith is allowed
+to justify in the most modest maiden, sobbing the while in the intensity
+of her emotions, she then at last, as she slowly regained her
+self-possession, said, in a soft and melancholy voice, in which there
+was nevertheless a tone of playfulness:</p>
+
+<p>"I am a foolish girl, Arthur. I can boast like a blustering coward, when
+there is nothing to fear; and yet I weep, like a true woman, at the
+first trial of my courage."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my dear Mildred, you are a brave girl," replied Butler, as he held
+both of her hands and looked fondly into her face, "and a true and a
+tried girl. You have come kindly to me, and ever, like a blessed and
+gentle spirit of good, are prompt to attend me through every mischance.
+It is a long and weary time, love, since last we met."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very, very long, Arthur."</p>
+
+<p>"And we are still as far off, Mildred, from our wishes as at first we
+were."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so," said Mildred sorrowfully. "A year of pain drags heavily by,
+and brings no hope. Oh, Arthur, what have I suffered in the thought that
+your life is so beset with dangers! I muse upon them with a childish
+fear, that was not so before our last meeting. They rise to disturb my
+daily fancies, and night finds them inhabiting my pillow. I was so
+thankful, that you escaped that dreary siege of Charleston!"</p>
+
+<p>"Many a poor and gallant fellow soldier there bit his lip with a chafed
+and peevish temper," said Butler; "but the day will come, Mildred, when
+we may yet carry a prouder head to the field of our country's honor."</p>
+
+<p>"And your share," interrupted Mildred, "will ever be to march in the
+front rank. In spite of all your perils past, your hard service, which
+has known no holiday, your fatigues, that I have sometimes feared would
+break down your health, and in spite too, of the claims, Arthur, that
+your poor Mildred has upon you, you are even now again bound upon some
+bold adventure, that must separate us, ah, perhaps, for ever! Our fate
+has malice in it. Ever beginning some fresh exploit!"</p>
+
+<p>"You would not have your soldier bear himself otherwise than as a true
+knight, who would win and wear his lady-love by good set blows when
+there was need for them?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I were the genius that conjured up this war, I would give my own
+true knight a breathing space. He should pipe and dance between whiles,"
+replied Mildred sportively.</p>
+
+<p>"He that puts his sickle into this field amongst the reapers," said
+Butler, with a thoughtful earnestness, "should not look back from his
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, though my heart break while I say it&mdash;for, in truth, I am very
+melancholy, notwithstanding I force a beggar's smile upon my cheek; no,
+I would not have you stay or stand, Arthur, until you have seen this
+wretched quarrel at an end. I praised your first resolve&mdash;loved you for
+it&mdash;applauded and cheered you; I will not selfishly now, for the sake of
+my weak, womanish apprehension, say one word to withhold your arm."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are still," said Butler, "that same resolute enthusiast that I
+found in the young and eloquent beauty who captivated my worthless
+heart, when the war first drew the wild spirits of the country together
+under our free banner?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same foolish, conceited, heady, prattling truant, Arthur, that
+first took a silly liking to your pompous strut, and made a hero to her
+imagination out of a boasting ensign&mdash;the same in all my follies, and in
+all my faults&mdash;only altered in one quality."</p>
+
+<p>"And pray, what is that one quality?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not tell you," said Mildred carelessly. "'Twould make you vainer
+than you are."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not well to hide a kind thought from me, Mildred."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it is not, Arthur. And so, I will muster courage to speak it,"
+said the confiding girl with vivacity, after a short pause during which
+she hung fondly upon her lover's arm; and then suddenly changing her
+mood, she proceeded in a tone of deep and serious enthusiasm, "it is,
+that since that short, eventful and most solemn meeting, I have loved
+you, Arthur, with feelings that I did not know until then were mine. My
+busy fancy has followed you in all your wanderings&mdash;painted with
+stronger hues than nature gives to any real scene the difficulties and
+disasters that might cross your path&mdash;noted the seasons with a nervous
+acuteness of remark, from very faint-heartedness at the thought that
+they might blight your health or bring you some discomfort. I have pored
+over the accounts of battles, the march of armies, the tales of
+prisoners relating the secrets of their prisons; studied the plans of
+generals and statesmen, as the newspapers or common rumor brought them
+to my knowledge, with an interest that has made those around me say I
+was sadly changed. It was all because I had grown cowardly and feared
+even my own shadow. Oh, Arthur, I am not indeed what I was."</p>
+
+<p>The solemnity, force and feeling with which Mildred gave utterance to
+these words, strangely contrasted with the light and gay tone in which
+she had commenced; but her thoughts had now fallen into a current that
+bore her forward into one of those bursts of excited emotion, which were
+characteristic of her temper, and which threw a peculiar energy and
+eloquence into her manner. Butler, struck by the rising warmth of her
+enunciation, and swayed in part by the painful reflections to which her
+topic gave rise, replied, in a state of feeling scarcely less solemn
+than her own&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mildred," and as he spoke, he parted her hair upon her pale
+forehead and kissed it, "dearest girl, the unknown time to come has no
+cup of suffering for me that I would not hold a cheap purchase for one
+moment like this. Even a year of painful absence past, and a still more
+solicitous one to come, may be gallantly and cheerfully borne when
+blessed with the fleeting interval of this night. To hear your faith,
+which though I never dwelt upon it but with a confidence that I have
+held it most profane to doubt, still, to hear it avowed from your own
+lips, now again and again, repeating what you have often breathed
+before, and in letter after letter, written down, it falls upon my
+heart, Mildred, like some good gift from heaven, specially sent to
+revive and quicken my resolution in all the toils and labors that yet
+await me. There must be good in store for such a heart as thine; and,
+trusting to this faith, I will look to the future with a buoyant
+temper."</p>
+
+<p>"The future," said Mildred, as she lifted her eyes to the pale moon that
+now sheeted with its light her whole figure, as she and her lover
+strayed beyond the shade of the beech, "I almost shudder when I hear
+that word. We live but in the present; that, Arthur, is, at least, our
+own, poor as we are in almost all beside. That future is a perplexed and
+tangled riddle&mdash;a dreadful uncertainty, in the contemplation of which I
+grow superstitious. Such ill omens are about us! My father's inexorable
+will, so headstrong, so unconscious of the pain it gives me; his rooted,
+yes, his fatal aversion to you; my thraldom here, where, like a poor
+bird checked by a cord, I chafe myself by fluttering on the verge of my
+prison bounds; and then, the awful perils that continually impend over
+your head&mdash;all these are more than weak imaginings; they are the
+realities of my daily life, and give me, what I am almost ashamed to
+confess, a sad and boding spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay, dearest Mildred! Away with all these unreasonable
+reckonings!" replied Butler, with a manner that too plainly betrayed the
+counterfeit of mirth. "Seclusion has dealt unworthily with you. It has
+almost turned thee into a downright sentimental woman. I will have none
+of this stepping to the verge of melancholy. You were accustomed to
+cheer me with sunny and warm counsel; and you must not forget it was
+yourself who taught me to strike aside the waves of fortune with a glad
+temper. The fates can have no spite against one so good as thou art!
+Time may bear us along like a rough trotting horse; and our journey may
+have its dark night, its quagmires, and its jack-o'lanterns, but there
+will come a ruddy morning at last&mdash;a smoother road, and an easier gait;
+and thou, my girl, shalt again instruct me how to win a triumph over the
+ills of life."</p>
+
+<p>"And we will be happy, Arthur, because all around us will be so," added
+Mildred, catching the current of Butler's thoughts, with that ready
+versatility which eminently showed the earnestness and devotion of her
+feelings&mdash;"Ah, may heaven grant this boon, and bring these dreams to
+life! I think, Arthur, I should be happier now, if I could but be near
+you in your wanderings. Gladly would I follow you through all the
+dangers of the war."</p>
+
+<p>"That were indeed, love, a trial past your faculty to endure. No, no,
+Mildred, she who would be a soldier's wife, should learn the soldier's
+philosophy&mdash;to look with a resigned submission on the present events,
+and trust to heaven for the future. Your share in this struggle is to
+commune with your own heart in solitude, and teach it patience. Right
+nobly have you thus far borne that grievous burden! The sacrifice that
+you have made&mdash;its ever present and unmitigated weight, silently and
+sleeplessly inflicting its slow pains upon your free and generous
+spirit; that, Mildred, is the chief and most galling of my cares."</p>
+
+<p>"This weary war, this weary war," breathed Mildred, in a pensive under
+key, "when will it be done!"</p>
+
+<p>"The longest troubles have their end," replied Butler, "and men, at
+last, spent with the vexations of their own mischief, fly, by a selfish
+instinct, into the bosom of peace. God will prosper our enterprise, and
+bring our battered ship into a fortunate haven."</p>
+
+<p>"How little like it seems it now!" returned Mildred. "The general
+sorrow, alone, might well weigh down the stoutest heart. That cause
+which you have made mine, Arthur, to which you have bestowed your life,
+and which, for your sake," she added proudly, "should have this feeble
+arm of mine, could it avail, is it not even now trembling on the verge
+of ruin? Have not your letters, one after another told me of the sad
+train in which misfortunes have thickened upon the whole people? of
+defeat, both north and south, and, at this very time, of disgraceful
+mutiny of whole regiments under the very eye of Washington&mdash;that
+Washington who loves his country and her soldiers as a husband loves his
+bride, and a father his children. Have not those, to whom we all looked
+for champions, turned into mere laggards in the war for freedom? Oh,
+Arthur, do you not remember that these are the thoughts, the very words,
+which were penned by your own hand, for my especial meditation? How can
+I but fear that the good end is still far off? How can I but feel some
+weight upon my heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have grown overwise, Mildred, in these ruminations. I am to blame
+for this, that in my peevish humor, vexed with the crosses of the day, I
+should have written on such topics to one so sensitive as yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Still it is true, Arthur, all report confirms it."</p>
+
+<p>"These things do not become your entertainment, Mildred. Leave the
+public care to us. There are bold hearts, love, and strong arms yet to
+spare for this quarrel. We have not yet so exhausted our mines of
+strength, but that much rough ore still lies unturned to the sun, and
+many an uncouth lump of metal remains to be fashioned for serviceable
+use. History tells of many a rebound from despondency, so sudden and
+unreckoned, that the wisest men could see in it no other spring than the
+decree of God. He will fight the battle of the weak, and set the right
+upon a sure foundation."</p>
+
+<p>"The country rings," said Mildred, again taking the more cheerful hue of
+her lover's hopes, and following out, with an affectionate sympathy, his
+tone of thought, "with anticipation of victory from Gates's southern
+march."</p>
+
+<p>"That may turn out to be a broken reed," interrupted Butler, as if
+thinking aloud, and struck by Mildred's reference to a subject that had
+already engrossed his thoughts; "they may be deceived, Washington would
+have put a different man upon that service. I would have a leader in
+such a war, wary, watchful, humble&mdash;diffident as well as brave. I fear
+Gates is not so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, I trust, Arthur," exclaimed Mildred, with anxious alacrity, "that
+your present expedition does not connect you with his fortunes!"</p>
+
+<p>"I neither follow his colors nor partake of his counsels," replied
+Butler. "Still my motions may not be exempt from the influence of his
+failure or success. The enemy, you are aware, has possessed himself of
+every post of value in South Carolina and Georgia. I go commissioned to
+advise with discreet and prudent men upon the means to shake off this
+odious domination. So far only, and remotely, too, I am a fellow-laborer
+with Gates. There are gallant spirits now afoot, Mildred, to strip these
+masters of their power. My office is to aid their enterprise."</p>
+
+<p>"If you needs must go, Arthur, I have no word to say. You will leave
+behind you an aching heart, that morning, noon, and night, wearies
+heaven with its prayers for your safety. Alas, I have no other aid to
+give! How soon&mdash;how soon," she said, with a voice that faltered with the
+question, "does your duty compel you to leave me?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow's sunrise, love, must find me forth upon my way."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, Arthur? so quickly to part!"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not linger; not even for the rich blessing of thy presence."</p>
+
+<p>"And the utmost length of your journey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I know not. At present my farthest aim is Ninety-six and
+Augusta. It much depends upon the pleasure of our proud and wilful
+masters."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred stood for some moments looking upon the ground in profound
+silence. Her bosom heaved with a sad emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a dangerous duty," said she, at last. "I cannot speak my
+apprehension at the thought of your risks amongst the fierce and
+treacherous men that overrun the country to which you travel."</p>
+
+<p>"These perils are exaggerated by distance," returned Butler. "A thousand
+expedients of protection and defence occur when present, which the
+absent cannot fancy. It is a light service, Mildred, and may more
+securely be performed with a gay heart than with a sad one. I pray you,
+do not suffer that active imagination of yours to invest the every day
+adventures of your poor soldier with a romantic interest of which they
+are not worthy. I neither slay giants, nor disenchant ladies, nor yoke
+captive griffins together. No, no, I shall outrun some over-fed clown,
+and outwit some simple boobies; and, perhaps, soil my boots in a great
+slough, and then hasten back, love, to boast of my marvels to the
+credulous ear of my own sweet girl, who, I warrant, will think me a most
+preposterous hero."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you laugh, Arthur? And yet I would not have you catch my
+foolish sadness, either."</p>
+
+<p>"I have with me, besides, Mildred, a friend good at need; one Galbraith
+Robinson, a practised and valiant soldier, who sits on yonder bank. He
+is to be the companion of my journey; he is shrewd, vigilant and
+cautious, an inhabitant, moreover, of the district to which I am bound;
+his wisdom can do much for my success. Then I travel, too, in peaceful
+guise. My business is more concerned with negotiation than with battle."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a waylaid path, Arthur," said Mildred, in the same faint voice
+with which she had spoken before.</p>
+
+<p>"Never take it so heavily, my love!" exclaimed Butler, familiarly
+seizing her hand, whose trembling now betrayed her agitation,&mdash;"it is
+the mere sport of the war to be upon a running service, where a light
+stratagem or so will baffle a set of dull-pated clodpoles! I scarcely
+deem it a venture, to dodge through a forest, where every man flies from
+his neighbor out of mutual distrust. These fellows have brought
+themselves upon such bad terms with their own consciences, that they
+start like thieves at the waving of a bulrush."</p>
+
+<p>"They would be the more cruel," replied Mildred, "if some ill luck
+should throw you into their power. If that should happen," she added,
+and for a while she hesitated to speak, as a tear fell upon Butler's
+hand&mdash;"If that should happen, I cannot bear the thought."</p>
+
+<p>"They dare offer me no wrong, Mildred. The chances of battle are
+sufficiently various to compel even the victors to pursue the policy of
+humanity to prisoners. The conqueror of to-day may himself be a captive
+to-morrow, and a bloody reprisal would await his barbarity. Again, let
+me remind you, these are not fit topics for your meditation."</p>
+
+<p>"They are topics for my heart, Arthur, and will not be driven from it.
+If your lot should put you in the power of the enemy, the name of
+Mildred Lindsay, and the relation you bear her, whispered in their ears,
+may, perhaps, unlock their charity. My father has many friends in those
+ranks, and it may be that I am not unknown to some of them: oh, remember
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have little need to teach me to think or speak of Mildred Lindsay,"
+said Butler, eagerly. "I cannot forget that name. But I may well doubt
+its charm upon the savage bulldogs who are now baiting our citizens in
+Carolina; those ruthless partizans who are poisoning the fountains of
+contentment at every fire-side. It is not a name to conjure evil spirits
+with."</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler," said Henry, who during this long interval had been
+strolling backward and forward, like a sentinel, at some distance from
+his sister and her lover, and who, with the military punctilio of a
+soldier on duty, forbore even to listen to what he could not have helped
+overhearing, if it had not been for humming a tune&mdash;"Major, I don't like
+to make or meddle with things that don't belong to me&mdash;but you and
+Mildred have been talking long enough to settle the course of a whole
+campaign. And as my father thinks he can't be too careful of Mildred,
+and doesn't like her walking about after night-fall, I shouldn't be
+surprised if a messenger were despatched for us&mdash;only I think that man
+Tyrrel is hatching some plot with him to-night, and may keep him longer
+in talk than usual."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Tyrrel?" inquired Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"One that I wish had been in his grave before he had ever seen my
+father," answered Mildred with a bitter vehemence. "He is a wicked
+emissary of the royal party sent here to entrap my dear father into
+their toils. Such as it has ever been his fate to be cursed with from
+the beginning of the war; but this Tyrrel, the most hateful of them
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, alas, your poor father! Mildred, what deep sorrow do I feel that
+he and I should be so estranged. I could love him, counsel with him,
+honor him, with a devotion that should outrun your fondest wish. His
+generous nature has been played upon, cheated, abused; and I, in whom
+fortune and inclination should have raised him a friend, have been made
+the victim of his perverted passion."</p>
+
+<p>"True, true," exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears, and resting her
+head against her lover's breast, "I can find courage to bear all but
+this&mdash;I am most unhappy;" and for some moments she sobbed audibly.</p>
+
+<p>"The thought has sometimes crossed me," said Butler, "that I would go to
+your father and tell him all. It offends my self-respect to be obliged
+to practise concealment towards one who should have a right to know all
+that concerns a daughter so dear to him. Even now, if I may persuade you
+to it, I will go hand in hand with you, and, with humble reverence,
+place myself before him and divulge all that has passed between us."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Arthur, no," ejaculated Mildred with the most earnest
+determination. "It will not come to good. You do not understand my
+father's feelings. The very sight of you would rouse him into frenzy;
+there is no name which might fall upon his ear with deeper offence than
+yours. Not yet, Arthur, the time has not yet come."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been patient," said Butler, "patient, Mildred, for your sake."</p>
+
+<p>"To try him now," continued Mildred, whose feelings still ran, with a
+heady impetuosity, upon this newly-awakened and engrossing topic; "now,
+in the very depth of his bitterest aversion to what he terms an impious
+rebellion, and whilst his heart is yet moved with an almost
+preternatural hate against all who uphold the cause, and to you,
+especially, above whose head there hovers, in his belief, some horrid
+impending curse that shall bring desolation upon him and all who claim
+an interest in his blood&mdash;no, no, it must not be!"</p>
+
+<p>"Another year of pent-up vexation, self-reproach and anxious concealment
+must then glide by, and perhaps another," said Butler. "Well, I must be
+content to bear it, though, in the mean time, my heart bleeds for you,
+Mildred; it is a painful trial."</p>
+
+<p>"For good or for evil our vow is now registered in heaven," replied
+Mildred, "and we must abide the end."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have it other than it is, dearest girl, except this stern
+resolve of your father&mdash;not for the world's wealth," said Butler warmly.
+"But you spoke of this Tyrrel&mdash;what manner of man is he? How might I
+know him?"</p>
+
+<p>"To know him would answer no good end, Arthur. His soul is absorbed in
+stratagem, and my dear father is its prey. I too am grievously tormented
+by him; but it is no matter, I need not vex your ear with the tale of
+his annoyance."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed Butler with a sudden expression of resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"All that concerns my father, concerns me," said Mildred. "It is my evil
+destiny, Arthur, to be compelled to endure the associations of men,
+whose principles, habits, purposes, are all at war with my own. Alas,
+such are now my father's constant companions. This man Tyrrel, whose
+very name is a cheat put on, I doubt not, to conceal him from
+observation&mdash;goes farther than the rest in the boldness of his practice.
+I have some misgiving that he is better acquainted with the interest you
+take in me, than we might suspect possible to a stranger. I fear him.
+And then, Arthur, it is my peculiar misery that he has lately set up a
+disgusting pretension to my regard. Oh! I could give him, if my sex had
+strength to strike, the dagger, sooner than squander upon him one kind
+word. Yet am I obliged by circumstance to observe a strained courtesy
+towards him, which, frugal as it is, makes me an unwilling hypocrite to
+my own heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Tyrrel," ejaculated Butler, "Tyrrel! I have heard no such name abroad!"
+then, muttering a deep curse, as he bit his lip with passion, he added,
+"Oh, that I could face this man, or penetrate his foul purpose! How is
+it likely I might meet him?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have no temptation to a quarrel," said Mildred; "your quick
+resentment would but give activity to his venom. For the sake of my
+peace, Arthur, and of your own, inquire no further. Time may disclose
+more than rash pursuit."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to sister Mildred and myself, major," said Henry, who
+listened with great interest to this conversation, "I have my eye upon
+him&mdash;let that satisfy you; and when sister Mildred puts up the game,
+depend upon it, I will bring him down."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, thanks, dear Henry! I can trust you for a ready friend, and
+will even follow your good advice. A more favorable season for this
+concern may soon arrive; meantime, I will bear this hint in mind."</p>
+
+<p>Again Henry made an appeal to the lovers to bring their conference to an
+end. It was a sorrowful moment, the events of which were brief, earnest
+and impassioned, and such as a dull scribbler, like myself, might easily
+mar in the telling; yet they were such as zealous and eager natures, who
+have loved with an intense and absorbing love, and who have parted in
+times of awful danger and uncertainty, may perchance be able to picture
+to themselves, when they recall the most impressive incident of their
+lives to memory. I will only say, that, in that dark shade where the
+beech tree spread his canopy of leaves over the cool bank, and marked
+his shadow's profile on the green sward&mdash;that grassy sward, on which
+"the constant moon" lit up the dewy lamps, hung by the spider on blade
+and leaf; and in that silent time, when the distant water-fall came
+far-sounding on the ear, when sleepless insects chirped in the thicket,
+and dogs, at some remote homestead, howled bugle-like to the moon; and
+in that chill hour, when Mildred drew her kerchief close around her
+dew-besprinkled shoulders, whilst Arthur, fondly and affectionately,
+half enveloped her in the folds of a military cloak, as he whispered
+words of tender parting in her ear, and imprinted a kiss upon her cheek;
+and when, moreover, Henry's teeth chattered like a frozen warder's, then
+it was, and there, that this enthusiastic girl again pledged her
+unalterable devotion to the man of her waking thoughts and nightly
+dreams, come weal, come woe, whatever might betide; and the soldier paid
+back the pledge with new ardor and endearment, in the strong language
+that came unstudied from the heart, meaning all that he said, and rife
+with a feeling beyond the reach of words. And, after "mony a locked and
+fond embrace," full tearfully, and lingeringly, and, in phrase oft
+repeated, the two bade "farewell," and invoked God's blessing each upon
+the other, and then, not without looking back, and breathing a fresh
+prayer of blessings, they separated on their dreary way, Mildred
+retiring, as she had come, on the arm of her brother, and Butler,
+springing hurriedly into the skiff and directing its swift passage to
+the middle of the stream, where, after a pause to enable him to discern
+the last footsteps of his mistress, as her form glided into the obscure
+distance, he sighed a low "God bless her," then resumed his oar, and
+sturdily drove his boat against the "opponent bank."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>A COMFORTABLE INN, AND A GOOD LANDLADY&mdash;&mdash;THE MISFORTUNES OF HEROES DO
+NOT ALWAYS DESTROY THE APPETITE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>As soon as Butler landed from the skiff, he threw his cloak into the
+hands of the sergeant; then, with a disturbed haste, sprang upon his
+horse, and, commanding Robinson to follow, galloped along the road down
+the river as fast as the nature of the ground and the obscurity of the
+hour would allow. A brief space brought them to the spot where the road
+crossed the stream, immediately in the vicinity of the widow Dimock's
+little inn, which might here be discerned ensconced beneath the cover of
+the opposite hill. The low-browed wooden building, quietly stationed
+some thirty paces off the road, was so adumbrated in the shelter of a
+huge willow, that the journeyer, at such an hour as this, might
+perchance pass the spot unconsciously by, were it not for an insulated
+and somewhat haggard sign-post that, like a hospitable seeker of
+strangers, stood hard by the road side, and there displayed a shattered
+emblem in the guise of a large blue ball, a little decayed by wind and
+weather, which said Blue Ball, without superscription or device, was
+universally interpreted to mean "entertainment for man and horse, by the
+widow Dimock." The moonlight fell with a broad lustre upon the sign post
+and its pendent globe; and our travellers, besides, could descry,
+through the drapery of the willow, a window, of some rear building of
+the inn, richly illuminated by what, from the redness of the light,
+might be conjectured to be a bundle of blazing faggots.</p>
+
+<p>As the horses had, immediately upon entering the ford, compelled their
+masters to a halt, whilst they thrust their noses into the water and
+drank with the greediness of a long and neglected thirst, it was with no
+equivocal self-gratulation that Robinson directed his eye to the
+presignifications of good cheer which were now before him. Butler had
+spoken "never a word," and the sergeant's habits of subordination, as
+well as an honest sympathy in what he guessed to be the griefs of his
+superior officer, had constrained him to a respectful silence. The
+sergeant, however, was full of thoughts which, more than once during the
+gallop from the Fawn's Tower, he was on the point of uttering by way of
+consolation to Butler, and which nothing prevented but that real
+delicacy of mind that lies at the bottom of a kind nature, and inhabits
+the shaggy breast of the rustic, at least full as often as it lodges in
+the heart of the trim worldling. The present halt, seemed, in Horse
+Shoe's reckoning, not only to furnish a pretext to speak, but, in some
+degree, to render it a duty; and, in truth, an additional very
+stimulating subject presented itself to our good squire, in his
+instantaneous conviction that the glare from the tavern window had its
+origin in some active operation which, at this late hour, might be going
+on at the kitchen chimney; to understand the full pungency of which
+consideration, it is necessary to inform my reader, that Robinson had,
+for some time past, been yielding himself to certain doubts, whether his
+friend and himself might not arrive at the inn at too late an hour to
+hope for much despatch in the preparation for supper. In this state of
+feeling, partly bent to cheer the spirits of Butler, and partly to
+express his satisfaction at the prospect of his own comfort, he broke
+forth in the following terms&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"God bless all widows that set themselves down by the road-side, is my
+worst wish! and, in particular, I pray for good luck to the widow
+Dimock, for an orderly sort of body, which I have no doubt she is; and
+keeps good hours&mdash;to judge by the shine of the kitchen fire which is
+blazing yonder in the rear&mdash;and which, to tell truth, major, I began to
+be afeard would be as dead, by this time o' night, as the day the
+hearth-stone was first laid. She desarves to be spoken of as a
+praiseworthy woman. And, moreover, I should say she has popped her house
+down in a most legible situation, touching our day's march, by which I
+mean it isn't one step too near a reasonable bed hour. I count it lucky,
+major, on your account; and although it isn't for me to give advice in
+woman affairs&mdash;for I know the creatures do try the grit and edge of a
+man amazingly sometimes&mdash;yet, if I mought say what was running in my
+head fit for a gentleman and an officer like you to do in such a
+tribulation, it would be this: drop thinking and chawing over your
+troubles, and take them with a light heart, as things that's not to be
+mended by a solemncolly long-facedness. A good victual's meal and a fair
+night's rest would make another man of you. That's my observation; and I
+remember once to hear you say the same yourself, upon occasion of your
+losing the baggage wagons last fall on the Beaufort convoy. You ha'n't
+forgot it, major?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, thank you, sergeant. Your counsel is kindly offered and
+wisely said, and I will follow it. But it is a little hard, fellow
+soldier," added Butler, with something like an approach to jocularity,
+"it's a little hard to have one's misfortunes cast in his teeth by a
+comrade."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it would make you laugh, major!" replied Robinson, with a
+good-natured solicitude, "for it wan't in the possibilities of a mortal
+earthly man to save the baggage; and, I remember, you laughed then, as
+well as the rest of us, when them pestifarious, filching sheep stealers
+made off with our dinners: nobody ever blamed you for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Galbraith, you are a good friend, and you shall say what you please
+to me," said Butler, with a returning cheerfulness; "sorrow is a dull
+companion to him who feeds it, and an impertinent one to everybody
+beside. So, ride forward, and we will endeavor to console ourselves with
+the good cheer of the widow. And, hark, Galbraith, this Mistress Dimock
+is an especial friend of mine: pray you, let her see, by your
+considerateness towards her, that you are aware of that&mdash;for my sake,
+good Horse Shoe."</p>
+
+<p>The two soldiers soon reached the inn, and, having dismounted, Butler
+aroused the attention of the inmates by a few strokes upon the door with
+his riding rod.</p>
+
+<p>The reply to this summons was a shrill invitation, in a feminine voice,
+to "walk in;" and no sooner had Butler thrown open the door and advanced
+a few paces into the passage, than the head of an elderly female was
+seen thrust through the partially expanded doorway of the adjoining
+room. Another instant, and the dusky figure of Mistress Dimock herself
+was visible to our travellers.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you be pleased to have, sir?" inquired the dame, with
+evident distrust at this untimely approach of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>"Accommodation for the night, and whatever you have good to offer a
+friend, Mistress Dimock."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you that ride so late?" again interrogated the hostess; "I am
+cowardly, sir, and cautious, and have reason to be careful who comes
+into my house; a poor unprotected woman, good man."</p>
+
+<p>"A light, mother," said Butler, "and you shall know us better. We are
+travellers and want food and rest, and would have both with as little
+trouble to you as possible; a light will show you an old friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," returned the dame; and then added, as she observed
+Butler walk into a room on the left, "Take care, sir, it is risking a
+fall to grope in the dark in a strange house."</p>
+
+<p>"The house is not so strange to me as you suppose. Unless you have moved
+your furniture I can find the green settee beyond the cupboard," said
+Butler, familiarly striding across the room, and throwing himself into
+the old commodity he had named.</p>
+
+<p>The landlady, without heeding this evidence of the conversancy of her
+visitor with the localities of the little parlor, had hastily retreated,
+and, in a moment afterwards, returned with a light, which, as she held
+it above her head, while she peered through a pair of spectacles, threw
+its full effulgence upon the face of her guest.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, good lack!" she exclaimed, after a moment's gazing; "Arthur
+Butler, o' my conscience! And is it you, Mr. Butler?" Then, putting the
+candle upon the table, she seized both of his hands and gave them a long
+and hearty shake. "That Nancy Dimock shouldn't know your voice, of all
+others! Where have you been, and where are you going? Mercy on me! what
+makes you so late? And why didn't you let me know you were coming? I
+could have made you so much more comfortable. You are chilled with the
+night air; and hungry, no doubt. And you look pale, poor fellow! You
+surely couldn't have been at the Dove Cote?" which last interrogatory
+was expressed with a look of earnest and anxious inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not there," replied Butler, almost in a whisper; "alas, my kind
+dame, not there," he added, with a melancholy smile, as he held the hand
+of the hostess and shook his head; "my fortune has in no jot improved
+since I left you almost a year ago. I broke from you hastily then to
+resume my share in the war, and I have had nothing but hard blows ever
+since. The tide, Mistress Dimock, sets sadly against us."</p>
+
+<p>"Never let your heart fail you," exclaimed the landlady; "it isn't in
+the nature of things for the luck to be for ever on the shady side.
+Besides, take the good and bad together, you have not been so hardly
+dealt by, Captain Butler."</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler, madam, of the second Carolina continental reg'lar
+infantry," interrupted Robinson, who had stood by all this time
+unnoticed, "<i>Major</i> Butler; the captain has been promoted, by occasion
+of the wiping out of a few friends from the upper side of the adjutant's
+roll, in the scrimmage of Fort Moultrie. He is what we call, in common
+parley, brevetted."</p>
+
+<p>This annunciation was made by the sergeant with due solemnity,
+accompanied by an attempt at a bow, which was abundantly stiff and
+ungraceful.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend Sergeant Robinson," said Butler; "I commend him, Mistress
+Dimock, to your especial favor, both for a trusty comrade, and a most
+satisfactory and sufficient trencher man."</p>
+
+<p>"You are welcome and free to the best that's in the house, sergeant,"
+said the landlady, courtesying; "and I wish, for your sake, it was as
+good as your appetite, which ought to be of the best. Mr. Arthur
+Butler's word is all in all under this roof; and, whether he be captain
+or major, I promise you, makes no difference with me. Bless me! when I
+first saw you, major, you was only an ensign; then, whisk and away! and
+back you come a pretty lieutenant, about my house: and then a captain,
+forsooth! and now, on the track of that, a major. It is up-up-up-the
+ladder, till you will come, one of these days, to be a general; and too
+proud, I misdoubt, to look at such a little old woman as me! hegh, hegh,
+hegh! a pinch of snuff, Mr. Arthur." And here the good dame prolonged
+her phthisicky laugh for some moments, as she presented a box of Scotch
+snuff to her guest. "But I'll engage promotion never yet made the
+appetite of a travelling man smaller than before; so, gentlemen, you
+will excuse me while I look after your supper."</p>
+
+<p>"The sooner the better, ma'am," said Robinson; "your night air is a sort
+of a whetstone to the stomach; but first, ma'am, I would be obligated to
+you, if you would let me see the ostler."</p>
+
+<p>"Hut, tut! and have I been drivelling here all this time," exclaimed the
+dame, "without once spending a thought upon your cattle! Tony, Tony,
+To-ny, I say," almost shrieked the hostess, as she retreated along the
+passage towards the region of the kitchen, and then back again to the
+front door. "Are you asleep? Look to the gentlemen's horses; lead them
+to the stable, and don't spare to rub them down; and give them as much
+as they can eat. Where are you, old man?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the use of all this fuss, Missus Dimck? Arn't I here on the
+spot, with the cretur's in my hand?" grumbled out an old, stunted negro,
+who answered to the appellation of ostler; "Arn't I getting the baggage
+off, as fast as I can onbuckle the straps?&mdash;I don't want nobody to tell
+me when I ought to step out. If a hos could talk, he ain't got nothing
+new to say to me. Get out, you varmints," he shouted, with a sudden
+vivacity of utterance, at three or four dogs that were barking around
+him; "Consarn you! What you making such a conbobberation about? You all
+throat when you see gentmen coming to the house; better wait tell you
+see a thief; bound, you silent enough then, with your tail twixt your
+legs! Blossom, ya sacy slut, keep quiet, I tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>In the course of this din and objurgation, the old negro succeeded in
+disburdening the horses of their furniture, and was about to lead them
+to the stable, when Robinson came to give him some directions.</p>
+
+<p>"Mind what you are after with them there cattle. Give them not a
+mouthful for a good hour, and plenty of fodder about their feet; I'll
+look at them myself before you shut up. Throw a handful of salt into the
+trough, Tony, and above all things, don't let me catch you splashing
+water over their backs; none of that; do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Haw, haw, haw!" chuckled Tony; "think I don't know how to take care of
+a hos, mass! Been too use to creturs, ever sense so high. Bless the
+gentman! one of the best things on arth, when you're feared your hos is
+too much blowed, is to put a sprinkling of salt in a bucket o'water, and
+just stir a leetle Indian meal in with it; it sort of freshes the cretur
+up like, and is onaccountable good in hot weather, when you ain't got no
+time to feed. But cold water across the lines! oh, oh, I too cute in hos
+larning for that! Look at the top of my head&mdash;gray as a fox!"</p>
+
+<p>"Skip then, or I'll open upon you like a pack of hounds," said
+Robinson, as he turned on his heel to re-enter the house, "I'll look in
+after supper."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind me," replied Tony, as he led the horses off, "I have tended
+Captain Butler's hos afore this, and he wan't never onsatisfied with
+me."</p>
+
+<p>These cares being disposed of, Horse Shoe returned to the parlor. The
+tidy display of some plain furniture, and the scrupulous attention to
+cleanliness in every part of the room, afforded an intelligent
+commentary upon the exact, orderly and decent character of the Widow
+Dimock. The dame herself was a pattern of useful thrift. Her short
+figure, as she now bustled to and fro, through the apartment, was
+arrayed in that respectable, motherly costume which befitted her years;
+and which was proper to the period of my story, when the luxury of dress
+was more expensive than at present, and when a correspondent degree of
+care was used to preserve it in repair. Evidences of this laudable
+economy were seen in the neatness with which a ruffle was darned, or a
+weak point fortified by a nicely adjusted patch, presenting, in some
+respect, a token both of the commendable pride of the wearer, and of the
+straitness of the national means, since the prevalence of war for five
+years had not only reduced the wealth of individuals and rendered
+frugality indispensable, but had, also, literally deprived the country
+of its necessary supply of commodities; thus putting the opulent and the
+needy, to a certain extent, upon the same footing. On the present
+occasion, our good landlady was arrayed in a gown of sober-colored
+chintz, gathered into plaits in the skirt, whilst the body fitted
+closely over a pair of long-waisted stays, having tight sleeves that
+reached to the elbow. The stature of the dame was increased a full inch
+by a pair of high-heeled, parti-colored shoes, remarkable for their
+sharp toes; and a frilled muslin cap, with lappets that reached under
+the chin, towered sufficiently high to contribute, also, something
+considerable to the elevation of the tripping little figure of its
+wearer.</p>
+
+<p>In such guise did Mistress Dimock appear, as she busied herself in
+preparing needful refreshment for the travellers; and for some time the
+house exhibited all that stir which belongs to this important care when
+despatched in a retired country inn.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, the table began to show the bounties of the kitchen. A
+savory dish of fried bacon, the fumes of which had been, for a quarter
+of an hour, gently stimulating the appetite of the guests, now made its
+appearance, in company with a pair of broiled pullets; and these were
+followed by a detachment of brown-crested hoecakes&mdash;the peculiar
+favorite of the province; an abundance of rich milk, eggs, butter, and
+other rural knicknackeries, such as no hungry man ever surveys with
+indifference. These were successively deposited upon a homespun table
+cloth, whose whiteness rivalled the new snow, with an accuracy of
+adjustment that, by its delay, produced the most visible effects upon
+the sergeant, who, during the spreading of the board, sat silently by,
+watching, with an eager and gloating earnestness, the slow process, ever
+and anon uttering a short hem, and turning about restlessly on his
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>I may pause here, after the fashion of our worthy friend Horse Shoe, to
+make an observation. There is nothing that works so kindly upon the
+imagination of a traveller, if he be in any doubt as to his appetite, as
+the display of such a table. My particularity of detail, on the present
+occasion, will, therefore, be excused by my reader, when I inform him
+that Butler had arrived at the inn in that depressed tone of spirits
+which seemed to defy refreshment; and that, notwithstanding this
+impediment, he played no insignificant part afterwards at supper; a
+circumstance mainly attributable to that gentle but irresistible
+solicitation, which the actual sight and fragrance of the board
+addressed to his dormant physical susceptibility. I might, indeed, have
+pretermitted the supper altogether, were there not a philosophical truth
+at the bottom of the matter, worthy of the notice of the speculative and
+curious reader; namely, that where a man's heart is a little teased with
+love, and his temper fretted by crossings, and his body jolted by
+travel; especially, when he has been wandering through the night air,
+with owls hooting in his ears; and a thin drapery of melancholy has been
+flung, like cobwebs, across his spirits, then it is my doctrine, that a
+clean table, a good-humored landlady and an odorous steaming-up of good
+things, in a snug, cheerful little parlor, are certain to beget in him a
+complete change of mood, and to give him, instead, a happy train of
+thoughts and a hearty relish for his food. Such was precisely Butler's
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>He and the sergeant now sat down at the table, and each drew the
+attention of the other by the unexpected vigor of their assaults upon
+the dainties before them; Robinson surprised to find the major so
+suddenly revived, and Butler no less unprepared to see a man, who had
+achieved such wonders at dinner, now successively demolish what might be
+deemed a stout allowance for a well fed lion.</p>
+
+<p>"It almost seems to go against the credit of my house," said the
+hostess, "to set gentlefolks down at my table without a cup of tea; but
+so it is; we must get used to be stripped of all the old-fashioned
+comforts. It is almost treason for an honest woman to have such an
+article in her house now, even if it could be fairly come by. Still,
+I'll engage I am tory enough yet to like the smell of hyson. They have
+no mercy upon us old women, major; they should have a care, or they will
+drive us into the arms of the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith then, ma'am," interrupted Horse Shoe bluntly, as he threw his eye
+over his shoulder at the landlady, who had broken into a laugh at her
+own sally of humor, "it would be no wonder if you were soon driven back
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Shame on you, Mr. Sergeant Robinson," retorted the dame, laughing
+again, "I didn't expect to hear such a speech from you; that's a very
+sorry compliment to a poor country woman. If the men on our side think
+so little of us as you do, it would be no wonder if we all desert to
+King George; but Major Arthur Butler, I am sure, will tell you that we
+old bodies can sometimes make ourselves very useful&mdash;gainsay it who
+will."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to be rather hard, Galbraith," said Butler, "on my good friend
+Mistress Dimock. I am sure, madam, the sergeant has only been unlucky in
+making himself understood; for I know him to be a man of gallantry to
+your sex, and to cherish an especial liking for the female friends of
+our cause, amongst whom, Mistress Dimock, I can certify he is prepared
+to set a high value upon yourself. The sergeant was only endeavoring to
+provoke your good humor. Try this honey, Galbraith; Mistress Dimock is
+famous for her beehives; and perhaps it will give a sweeter edge to your
+tongue."</p>
+
+<p>"I spoke, major," replied Robinson, awkwardly endeavoring to extricate
+himself under this joint rebuke, and, at the same time, plunging a spoon
+into the dish to which Butler had invited his notice, "consarning the
+difficulty of having ladies&mdash;whether old or young makes no difference,
+it wan't respecting the age of Mistress Dimock, nor her beauty, by no
+means, that I said what I did say; but it was consarning of the
+difficulty of having the women with them in their marches and their
+counter-marches. What could such tender creatures have done at such a
+place as the sieging of Charlestown? Certain, this is most elegant
+honey!" he added, by way of parenthesis, as he devoured a large slice of
+bread, well covered with a fragment of honeycomb, as if anxious to gain
+time to collect his ideas; for, with all Horse Shoe's bluntness, he was
+essentially a diffident man. "It is my opinion, ma'am, the best thing
+the women can do, in these here wars, is to knit; and leave the fighting
+of it out, to us who hav'n't faces to be spoiled by bad weather and
+tough times."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to have art nor part in these quarrels," replied the
+widow. "The saints above are witnesses, I think it unnatural enough to
+see a peaceable country, and a quiet honest people, vexed and harried,
+and run down with all this trooping of horses, and parading of armies,
+and clattering of drums, amongst the hills that never heard any thing
+worse than the lowing of a heifer before. But still, I wish well to
+liberty; and if it must be fought for, why, I am even content to take my
+share of the suffering, in my own lonesome way; and they that bear the
+heat of the day, and their friends, shall always be served in my house
+with the best that's in it, and at the most reasonable rates. Even if
+they come without money, I am not the woman to turn them off with an
+empty stomach; I mean them of the right side."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's as sensible a speech, Mistress Dimock," said Horse Shoe,
+quickly seizing the occasion to make amends to the landlady for his
+former bluntness, "and as much to the purpose, and spoken with as much
+wisdom and circumscription, as mought come out of the mouth of e'er a
+lady in the land&mdash;high born or low born&mdash;I don't care where the other
+comes from. And it does a man's heart good to hear the woman-kind
+holding out such presentments. It's encouraging on the face of it."</p>
+
+<p>During this conversation the supper was finished, and Mrs. Dimock had
+now seated herself, with her elbows upon the table, so placed as to
+allow her to prop her chin upon her hands, in which position she fell
+into an earnest but quiet, under-toned confabulation with Butler, who
+partook of it with the more interest, as it related to the concerns of
+the family at the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Lindsay, poor man," said the dame, in the course of this
+conference, "is wofully beset. It almost looks as if he was haunted by
+an evil spirit, sure enough, which folks used to say of him after his
+wife's death&mdash;and which, to tell you the truth, our young lady Mildred
+has sometimes more than half hinted to me; he is so run at, and
+perplexed, and misguided by strangers that can have no good intention in
+coming to see him. There is Mr. Tyrrel, over at the Dove Cote at this
+very time, on his third visit, major, in less now than two months past;
+yes, let me see, he brought the news here of the recapitulation&mdash;I think
+you military call it&mdash;though, heaven knows, I have but a poor head for
+these bloodthirsty words&mdash;I mean the taking of Charleston; three times
+has he been here, counting from that day. Where he comes from, and who
+are his kith and kin, I am sure I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Tyrrel, ha! yes, I have heard of him to-night, for the first time,"
+said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"He must be a rich man," continued the hostess, "for he travels with two
+white servants, and always pays his way in gold. One of his men is now
+in the house; and, between you and me, major, this man is a very
+inquisitive sort of person, and would hardly be taken for a serving man;
+and he is a cautious fellow too, although there is a good deal of
+swagger and bullying about him, which might deceive one at first sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, in the house to-night?" inquired Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak low, major, the man is now walking the porch before our windows."</p>
+
+<p>"What does Mildred say of this Tyrrel?" asked Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Has she been here lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"The good lady never stirs from home whilst Tyrrel is at the Dove Cote;
+for fear, I believe, that he will follow her, for they do whisper about
+in the neighborhood&mdash;though I don't say it to alarm you, Mr. Arthur,
+that this man is of the high quality, a nobleman, some say, and that he
+has come here a-courting. Only think of the assurance of the man! But if
+he was a prince, and every hair of his head strung with diamonds, and
+Miss Mildred was as free as the day you first saw her, I can say with
+safety he would find but cold comfort in that game; for she despises
+him, major, both for himself and for his tory principles. She does hate
+him with a good will. No, no, her heart and soul are both where they
+ought to be, for all her father, poor man, and this rich gentleman! Oh,
+it is a cruel thing that you and our pretty lady cannot live quietly
+together; but Mr. Lindsay is past talking to about it. I declare I think
+his mind is touched: I positively believe it would kill him if he knew
+all that has passed in this house; but he is, in the main, a good man,
+and a kind father, and is very much to be pitied. I see you are sad and
+sorrowful, Mr. Arthur: I didn't mean to distress you with my prating.
+You tell me, you think you may travel as far as Georgie."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so far, good dame, if some accident should not shorten my career.
+These are doubtful times, and my path is as uncertain as the chances of
+war. It may be long before I return.</p>
+
+<p>"I grieve night and day, and my heart bleeds for Miss Mildred, for she
+is so good, so constant, so brave, too, for a woman," said the widow
+with unaffected emotion. "Well-a-day! what woes these wars have brought
+upon us! You told her your plans, Mr. Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our interview was short and painful," replied Butler. "I scarcely know
+what I said to her. But, one thing I entreat of you: my letters will be
+directed to your charge; you will contrive to have them promptly and
+secretly delivered: oblige me still in that, good mother. Henry will
+often visit you."</p>
+
+<p>"And a brave and considerate young man he is, major; I'll be surety for
+his making of an honorable and a real gentleman. Do you join the army in
+Carolina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. My route lies into the mountains, our troops struggle for
+a footing in the low country."</p>
+
+<p>"If I may make bold, Major Butler, to drop a word of advice into your
+ear, which, seeing that I'm an older man than you," interrupted the
+sergeant, in an admonitory whisper, "I think I have got good right to
+do, why I would just say that there may be no great disconvenience in
+talking before friends; but sometimes silence brings more profit than
+words. So, I vote that we leave off telling the course of our march till
+such time as it is done, and all is safe. There will be briers enough in
+our way, without taking the trouble to sow them by the road-side. The
+man that stands a little aside from that window, out on the porch,
+throws his shadow across the sill oftener than is honest, according to
+my reckoning. You said, ma'am," continued Horse Shoe, addressing the
+widow, "that the fellow in the porch yon is Mr. Tyrrel's man."</p>
+
+<p>"He walks later than usual to-night," replied Mrs. Dimock, "for though
+he can't be called a man of regular hours, yet, unless he can find an
+idler to keep him company, he is accustomed to be in his bed before
+this."</p>
+
+<p>"He is after no good, depend upon that," said Horse Shoe. "I have twice
+seen the light upon his face behind the shutter: so, true man or spy,
+it's my admonishment not to speak above the purring of a cat."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Galbraith," said Butler. "We have many reasons to
+distrust him; and it is at least safest to keep our affairs private."</p>
+
+<p>"If I thought he was prying," continued Galbraith, "which I do
+measurably insinuate and believe, I would take the freedom to give him
+the benefit of a drilling on good manners. Ha, major! as I have a hand,
+he is reconnoitring us now at this identical time! Didn't you see him
+pass up and down before the door, and look in as greedily as if our
+faces were picture-books for him to read? I will have a word with him,
+and, wise or simple, I will get his calibre before I am done with him.
+Never let on, major; stay where you are. I promised to look after our
+horses."</p>
+
+<p>The hostess and her guest now continued their communion; in which we
+leave them, whilst we follow Horse Shoe towards the stable.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There're two at fisty-cuffs about it;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sir, I may say at dagger's drawing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But that I cannot say, because they have none.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Mayor of Quinborough.</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>When Horse Shoe left the apartment, he discovered the person, whose
+demeanor had excited his suspicion, leaning against a post of the porch,
+in front of the house. The moonlight, as it partially fell upon this
+man's figure, disclosed a frame of sufficient mould to raise a surmise,
+that, in whatever form of communication the sergeant might accost him,
+he was not likely to find a very tractable subject to his hand.
+Robinson, however, without troubling himself with the contemplation of
+such a contingency, determined to delay his visit to the stable long
+enough to allow himself the expression of a word of warning or rebuke,
+to indicate to the stranger the necessity for restraining his curiosity
+in regard to the guests of the inn. With this view he halted upon the
+porch, while he scanned the person before him, and directed an earnest
+gaze into his face. The stranger, slightly discomfited by this eager
+scrutiny, turned his back upon his visitor, and, with an air of idle
+musing, threw his eyes towards the heavens, in which position he
+remained until summoned by the familiar accost of Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! and what do you make of the moon? As sharp an eye as you have in
+your head, neighbor, I'm thinking it will do you no great sarvice there.
+You're good at your spying trade; but you will get nothing out of her;
+she keeps her secrets."</p>
+
+<p>Startled by this abrupt greeting, which was made in a tone half-way
+between jest and earnest, the stranger quickly confronted his
+challenger, and bestowed upon him a keen and inquiring inspection; then
+breaking into a laugh, he replied with a free and impudent swagger&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken, Master Jack Pudding. What says the proverb? Wit's in
+the wane when the moon's at full. Now, our mistress has let me into a
+secret. She tells me that you will not lose your wits, when she comes to
+her growth. The reason why? first, because she never troubles herself
+with so small a stock as yours, and second, because your thick skull is
+moon-proof; so, you're safe, friend."</p>
+
+<p>"A word in your ear," said Horse Shoe; "<i>you</i> are not safe, friend, if
+you are cotched again peeping through the chinks of the window, or
+sneaking upon the dark side of the doorway, to pick up a crumb of talk
+from people that are not axing your company. Keep that in your memory."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a base lie, Mr. Bumpkin, if you mean to insinuate that I did
+either."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, quiet and easy, good man! No flusterifications here! I am civil and
+peaceable. Take my advice, and chaw your cud in silence, and go to bed
+at a reasonable hour, without minding what folks have to say who come to
+the widow Dimock's. It only run in my head to give you a polite sort of
+a warning. So, good night; I have got business at the stable."</p>
+
+<p>Before the other could reply, Robinson strode away to look after the
+accommodations of the horses.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil take this impertinent ox-driver!" muttered the man to
+himself, after the sergeant had left him; "I have half a mind to take
+his carcase in hand, just to give it the benefit of a good, wholesome
+manipulation. A queer fellow, too&mdash;a joker! A civil, peaceable man!&mdash;the
+hyperbolical rogue! Well, I'll see him out, and, laugh or fight, he
+shan't want a man to stand up to him!"</p>
+
+<p>Having by this train of reflection brought himself into a mood which
+might be said to hover upon the isthmus between anger and mirth, ready
+to fall to either side as the provocation might serve, the stranger
+sauntered slowly towards the stable, with a hundred odd fancies as to
+the character of the man he sought running through his mind. Upon his
+arrival there he found that Horse Shoe was occupied in the interior of
+the building, and being still in a state of uncertainty as to the manner
+in which it was proper he should greet our redoubtable friend, he took a
+seat on a small bench at the door, resolved to wait for that worthy's
+reappearance. This delay had a soothing effect upon his temper, for as
+he debated the subject over in his mind, certain considerations of
+policy seemed to indicate to him the necessity of making himself better
+acquainted with the business and quality of the individual whom he came
+to meet.</p>
+
+<p>After a few moments, Horse Shoe was seen with old Tony at the stable
+door, where, notwithstanding the unexpected presence of the man to whom
+he had so lately offered his unwelcome advice, and upon whom he now
+conferred not the slightest notice, he continued uninterruptedly, and
+with deliberate composure, to give his orders upon what, at that moment,
+doubtless, he deemed matter of much graver importance than any concern
+he might have in the visit of his new acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do what I tell you, Tony; get a piece of linen, rub it well over with
+tallow, and bring it here along with a cup of vinegar. The beast's back
+is cut with the saddle, and you must wash the sore first with the
+vinegar, and then lay on the patch. Go, old fellow, and Mrs. Dimock, may
+be, can give you a strip of woollen cloth to sarve as a pad."</p>
+
+<p>With these instructions the negro retired towards the house.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you understand your business," said the stranger. "You look to
+your horse's back at the end of a day's journey, and you know how to
+manage a sore spot. Vinegar is the thing! You have had a long ride?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that?" inquired Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"Know it! any man might guess as much by the way you shovelled down your
+supper. I happened by chance to pass your window, and seeing you at it,
+faith! for the soul of me I couldn't help taking a few turns more, just
+to watch the end of it. Ha! ha! ha! give me the fellow that does honor
+to his stomach! And your dolt head must be taking offence at my looking
+at you! Why, man, your appetite was a most beautiful rarity; I wouldn't
+have lost the sport of it for the pleasure of the best supper I ever ate
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" said Robinson, drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Pease upon the trencher!" exclaimed the other, with the air of a pot
+companion; "that's the true music for good fellows of your kidney! But
+it isn't every where that you will find such bountiful quarters as you
+get here at the Blue Ball in that cursed southern country a man like
+you would breed a famine, if you even do not find one ready made to your
+hand when you get there."</p>
+
+<p>"Where mought you be from?" asked the sergeant, with great gravity,
+without responding to the merriment of his visitor, and purposely
+refraining from the answer which he saw it was the other's drift to
+obtain relative to the course of his travel.</p>
+
+<p>"It was natural enough that you should have mistaken my object,"
+continued the stranger, heedless of Horse Shoe's abrupt question, "and
+have suspected me for wanting to hear some of your rigmarole; but there
+you did me wrong. I forgive you for that, and, to tell you the truth, I
+hate your&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's not to the purpose," said Horse Shoe; "I axed you a civil
+question, and maybe, that's more than you have a right to. You can
+answer it or let it alone. I want to know where mought you be from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Since you are bent upon it, then," replied the other, suddenly changing
+his tone, and speaking with a saucy emphasis, "I'll answer your
+question, when you tell me what <i>mought</i> be your right to know."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the custom of our country," rejoined Horse Shoe, "I don't know
+what it may be in yourn, to larn a little about the business of every
+man we meet; but we do it by fair, out-and-out question and answer&mdash;all
+above board, and we hold in despise all sorts of contwistifications,
+either by laying of tongue-traps, or listening under eaves of houses."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, most wise and shrewd master, what do you call my country? Ha! ha!
+ha! I would be sworn you think you have found some mare's nest! If it
+were not that your clown pate is somewhat addled by over feeding, I
+would hold your speech to be impertinent. My country, I'd have your
+sagacity to understand&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, man, it arn't worth the trouble of talking about it! I never saw
+one of your people that I didn't know him by the first word that came
+out of his lips. You are an Englishman, and a red coat into the bargain,
+as we call them in these parts. You have been a sodger. Now, never
+bounce at that, man! There's no great harm in belonging to that craft.
+They listed you, as likely as not, when you was flusticated with liquor,
+and you took your pay; there was a bargain, and it was your business to
+stand to it. But I have got a piece of wisdom to whisper to you,
+insomuch as you are not in the most agreeablest part of the world to men
+of your colors, it would be best to be a little more shy against giving
+offence. You said some saucy things to me just now, but I don't grudge
+your talking, because you see, I am an onaccountable hard sort of person
+to be instigated by speeching."</p>
+
+<p>"Verily, you are a most comical piece of dulness," said the other, in a
+spirit of raillery. "In what school did you learn your philosophy,
+friend? You have been brought up to the wholesome tail of the plough, I
+should say&mdash;an ancient and reputable occupation."</p>
+
+<p>"When I obsarved, just now," replied Robinson, somewhat sternly, "that I
+couldn't be instigated, I meant to be comprehended as laying down a kind
+of general doctrine that I was a man not given to quarrels; but still,
+if I suspicioned a bamboozlement, which I am not far from at this
+present speaking, if it but come up to the conflagrating of only the
+tenth part of the wink of an eye, in a project to play me off, fore God,
+I confess myself to be as weak in the flesh as e'er a rumbunctious
+fellow you mought meet on the road."</p>
+
+<p>"Friend," said the other, "I do not understand thy lingo. It has a most
+clodpolish smack. It is neither grammar, English, nor sense."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, you are a damned, onmannerly rascal," said Horse-Shoe, "and
+that's grammar, English, and sense, all three."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, you are at that! Now, my lubberly booby, I understand you,"
+returned the other, springing to his feet. "Do you know to whom you are
+speaking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better than you think for," replied the sergeant, placing himself in an
+erect position to receive what he had a right to expect, the threatened
+assault of his adversary, "I know you, and guess your arrand here."</p>
+
+<p>"You do?" returned the other sharply. "You have been juggling with me,
+sir. You are not the gudgeon I took you for. It has suited your purpose
+to play the clown, eh? Well, sir, and pray, what do you guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing good of you, considering how things go here. Suppose I was to
+say you was, at this self-same identical time, a sodger of the king's? I
+have you there!"</p>
+
+<p>The stranger turned on his heel and retreated a few paces, evidently
+perplexed at the new view in which the sergeant suddenly rose to his
+apprehension. His curiosity and his interest were both excited to gain a
+more distinct insight into a man whom he had mistaken for a mere
+simpleton, but whose hints showed him to be shrewdly conversant with the
+personal concerns of one, whom, apparently, he had seen to-night for the
+first time in his life. With this anxiety upon his mind, he again
+approached the sergeant, as he replied to the last question.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and if I were? It is a character of which I should have no reason
+to be ashamed."</p>
+
+<p>"That's well said!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "Up and speak out, and never
+be above owning the truth; that's the best sign that can be of a man.
+Although it mought be somewhat dangerous, just hereabouts, to confess
+yourself a sodger of King George&mdash;let me tell you, that, being against
+you, I am not the person to mislest you on that head, by spreading the
+news abroad, or setting a few dozen of whigs upon your scent, which is a
+thing easily done. If your business here is peaceable and lawful, and
+you don't let your tongue brawl against quiet and orderly people, you
+are free to come and go for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, sir: but look you; it isn't my way to answer questions about
+my own business, and I scorn to ask any man's leave to come and go where
+and when my occasions call me."</p>
+
+<p>"If it isn't your way to answer questions about your own business,"
+replied Horse Shoe, "it oughtn't to be your way to ax them about other
+people's; but that don't disturb me; it is the rule of the war to
+question all comers and goers that we happen to fall in with, specially
+now, when there's a set of your devils scampering and raging about in
+Carolina, hardly a summer day's ride off this province, burning houses
+and killing cattle, and turning everything topsy-turvy, with a pack of
+rascally tories to back them. In such times all sorts of tricks are
+played, such as putting on coats that don't belong to a man, and
+deceiving honest people by lies, and what not."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a stranger to me," said the other; "but let me tell you,
+without circumlocution or periphrase, I am a free born subject of the
+king, and I see no reason why, because some of his people have turned
+rebels a true man, who travels his highway, should be obliged to give
+an account of himself to every inquisitive fellow who chooses to
+challenge it. Suppose I tell you that you meddle with matters that don't
+concern you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you mought chance to get your head in your hand, that's all. And,
+hark you, if it wan't that I am rather good-natured, I mought happen to
+handle you a little rough for that nicknaming of the friends of liberty,
+by calling them rebels. It doesn't suit such six-pence-a-day fellows as
+you, who march right or left at the bidding of your master, to rob a
+church or root up an honest man's peaceful hearth, without so much as
+daring to have a thought about the righteousness of the matter&mdash;it
+doesn't suit such to be befouling them that fight for church and
+fire-side both, with your scurvy, balderdash names."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, egad! you are a fine bold fellow who speaks his thoughts, that's
+not to be denied!" said the stranger, again suddenly changing his mood,
+and resorting to his free and easy address. "You suit these times
+devilish well. I can't find it in my heart to quarrel with you. We have
+both been somewhat rough in speech, and so, the account is square. But
+now tell me, after all, are you sure you have guessed me right? How do
+you know I am not one of these very rebels myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"For two good and point-blank reasons. First, you dar'n't deny that you
+have pocketed the king's money and worn his coat&mdash;that's one. And,
+second, you are now here under the orders of one of his officers."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, good friend," said the man, with a voice of less boldness than
+heretofore, "you are mistaken for once in your life. So far what you
+say, I don't deny&mdash;I am in the service of a gentleman, who for some
+private affairs of his own has come on a visit to this part of the
+province, and I admit I have been in the old country."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not mistaken, good friend," drawled out Robinson, affectedly. "You
+come from the south. I can tell men's fortunes without looking into the
+palms of their hands."</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong again," said the other tartly, as he grew angry at being
+thus badgered by his opponent, "I come from the north."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true and it's false both," returned Robinson. "From the north, I
+grant you&mdash;to the south with Sir Henry, and from the south up here. You
+will find I can conjure a little, friend."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil take your conjuring!" exclaimed the other, as he bit his lip
+and strode restlessly backward and forward; which perplexity being
+observed by the sergeant, he did not fail to aggravate it by breaking
+into a hoarse laugh, as he said&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It wa'n't worth your while to try to deceive me. I knowed you by
+manifold and simultaneous signs. Him that sets about scouting after
+other people's secrets, ought to be wary enough to larn to keep his own.
+But don't take it so to heart, neighbor, there's no occasion for
+oneasiness&mdash;I have no mind to harm you."</p>
+
+<p>"Master bully," said the stranger, planting himself immediately in front
+of the sergeant, "in England, where I was bred, we play at cudgels, and
+sometimes give broken heads; and some of us are gifted with heavy fists,
+wherewith we occasionally contrive to box a rude fellow who pries too
+much into our affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"In our country," replied Horse Shoe, "we generally like to get a share
+of whatever new is stirring, and, though we don't practise much with
+cudgels, yet, to sarve a turn, we do, now and then, break a head or so;
+and, consarning that fist work you happened to touch upon, we have no
+condesentious scruples against a fair rap or two over the knowledge-box,
+and the tripping-up of a fractious chap's heels, in the way of a sort of
+a rough-and-tumble, which, may be, you understand. You have been long
+enough here, mayhap, to find that out."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, it is likely, it would please you to have a chance at such a
+game? I count myself a pretty tolerable hand at the play," said the
+stranger, with a composure corresponding to that exhibited by Horse
+Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, ho! I don't want to hurt you, man," replied the Sergeant. "You will
+get yourself into trouble. You are hot-headeder than is good for your
+health."</p>
+
+<p>"As the game was mentioned, I thought you might have a fancy to play
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure I would," said Horse Shoe, "rather than disappoint you in
+any reasonable longing. For the sake of quiet&mdash;being a peaceable man, I
+will take the trouble to oblige you. Where, do you think, would be the
+likeliest spot to have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We may readily find a piece of ground at hand," replied the other. "It
+is a good moonlight play, and we may not be interrupted if we get a
+little distance off before the negro comes back. Toe to toe, and face to
+face, suits me best with both friend and foe."</p>
+
+<p>"A mule to drive and a fool to hold back, are two of the contrariest
+things I know," said Robinson, "and so, seeing that you are in arnest
+about it, let us go at it without more ado upon the first good bit of
+grass we can pop upon along the river."</p>
+
+<p>In this temper the two antagonists left the vicinity of the stable, and
+walked some hundred paces down along the bank of the stream. The man
+with whom Horse Shoe was about to hold this strange encounter, and who
+now walked quietly by his side, had the erect and soldierly port of a
+grenadier. He was square-shouldered, compact and muscular, and the
+firmness of his gait, his long and easy stride, and the free swing of
+his arm as he moved onward in the moonlight, showed Robinson that he was
+to engage with an adversary of no common capacity. There was, perhaps,
+on the other side, some abatement in this man's self-confidence, when
+the same light disclosed to his deliberate inspection the brawny
+proportions of the sergeant, which, in the engrossment of the topics
+bandied about in the late dialogue, he had not so accurately regarded.</p>
+
+<p>When they had walked the distance I have mentioned, they had little
+difficulty to select a space of level ground with a sufficient mould for
+the purpose of the proposed trial of strength.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's as pretty a spot as we mought find on the river," said Robinson,
+"and so get ready, friend. Before we begin, I have a word to say. This
+here bout is not a thing of my seeking, and I take it to be close akin
+to downright tom-foolery, for grown up men to set about thumping and
+hammering each other, upon account of a brag of who's best man, or such
+like, when the whole univarse is full of occasions for scuffles, and
+stands in need of able-bodied fellows, to argufy the pints of right and
+wrong, that can't be settled by preachers, or books, or lawyers. I look
+upon this here coming out to fight no better than a bit of arrant
+nonsense. But, as you will have it, it's no consarn of mine to stop
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are welcome to do your worst," replied the other, "and the less
+preaching you make with it, the more saving of time."</p>
+
+<p>"My worst," interrupted Horse Shoe, "is almost more than I have the
+conscience to do to any man who isn't a downright flagratious enemy;
+and, once more, I would advise you to think before you draw me into a
+fray; you are flustrated, and sot upon a quarrel, and mayhap, you
+conjecture that by drawing me out from behind my retrenchments, by which
+is signified my good nature, and forcing me to deploy into line and open
+field, you'll get the advantage of an old sodger over me; but there, Mr.
+Dragoon, you are mistaken. In close garrison or open field, in siege or
+sally, crossing a defile or reconnoitring on a broad road, I am not apt
+to lose my temper, or strike without seeing where my blow is to hit.
+Now, that is all I have to say: so, come on."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not what you seem," said the antagonist, in a state of wonder
+at the strain of the sergeant's composed and deliberate speech, and at
+the familiarity which this effusion manifested with the details of
+military life. "In the devil's name, who are you? But, don't fancy I
+pause to begin our fight, for any other reason than that I may know who
+I contend with. On the honor of a soldier, I promise you, I will hold
+you to your game&mdash;man, or imp of hell&mdash;I care not. Again, who in the
+devil are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have hit it," replied Horse Shoe. "My name is Brimstone, I am first
+cousin to Belzebub."</p>
+
+<p>"You have served?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have."</p>
+
+<p>"And belong to the army yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"True again; and I am as tough a sodger, and may be I mought say, as old
+a sodger as yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Your hand, fellow soldier. I mistook you from the beginning. You
+continentals&mdash;that's the new-fangled word&mdash;are stout fellows, and have a
+good knack at the trick of war, though you wear rough coats, and are
+savagely unrudimented in polite learning. No matter what colors a man
+fights under, long usage makes a good comrade of him; and, by my faith!
+I am not amongst the last to do him honor, even though we stand in
+opposite ranks. As you say, most sapient Brimstone, we are not much
+better than a pair of fools for this conspiracy to knock about each
+other's pates, here at midnight; but you have my pledge to it, and so,
+we will go at it, if it be only to win a relish for our beds; I will
+teach you, to-night, some skill in the art of mensuration. You shall
+measure two full ells upon this green sod."</p>
+
+<p>"There's my hand," said Horse Shoe; "now, if I am flung, I promise you
+I won't be angry. If I sarve you in the same fashion, you must larn to
+bear it."</p>
+
+<p>"With all my heart. So here I stand upon my guard. Begin."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me feel your weight," said Robinson, laughing, as he put one hand
+upon his adversary's shoulder, and the other against his side. "Hark
+you, master, I feel something hard here about your ribs; you have
+pistols under your coat, friend. For the sake of fair play and keeping
+rid of foul blood, you had best lay them aside before we strike. Anger
+comes up onawares."</p>
+
+<p>"I never part from my weapons," replied the other, stepping back and
+releasing himself from Robinson's grasp. "We are strangers; I must know
+the company I am in, before I dismiss such old cronies as these. They
+have got me out of a scrape before this."</p>
+
+<p>"We took hands just now," said Robinson, angrily. "When I give my hand,
+it is tantamount to a book oath that I mean fair, round dealing with the
+man who takes it. I told you, besides, I was a sodger&mdash;that ought to
+have contented you&mdash;and you mought sarch my breast, inside and out,
+you'd seen in it nothing but honest meanings. There's something of a
+suspectable rascality, after that, in talking about pistols hid under
+the flaps of the coat. It's altogether onmanful, and, what's more,
+onsodgerly. You are a deceit, and an astonishment, and a hissing, all
+three, James Curry, and no better, to my comprehension, than a coward. I
+know you of old, although, mayhap, you disremember me. I have hearn
+said, by more than one, that you was a double-faced, savage-hearted,
+disregardless beast, that snashed his teeth where he darsn't bite, and
+bullied them that hadn't the heart to fight; I have hearn that of you,
+and, as I live, I believe it. Now, look out for your bull head, for I
+will cuff you in spite of your pistols."</p>
+
+<p>With these words, Horse Shoe gave his adversary some half dozen
+overpowering blows, in such quick succession as utterly defied and broke
+down the others guard; and then, seizing him by the breast, he threw the
+tall and stalwart form of Curry at full length upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"There's your two ells for you! there's the art of menstirration, you
+disgrace to the tail of a drum," exclaimed Horse Shoe, with accumulating
+wrath, as the prostrate man strove to extricate himself from the lion
+grasp that held him. In this strife, Curry several times made an effort
+to get his hand upon his pistol, in which he was constantly foiled by
+the superior vigor of the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," continued the latter, as he became aware of this attempt,
+"James Curry, you shall never lay hold upon your fire-arms whilst I have
+the handling of you. Give them up, you twisting prevaricationer; give
+them up, you disgracer of powder and lead; and larn this from a rebel,
+that I don't blow out your brains, only because I wouldn't accommodate
+the devil by flinging such a lump of petrifaction into his clutches.
+There, man," he added, as he threw the pistols far from him into the
+river, his exasperation, at the same time, moderating to a lower
+temperature, "get upon your feet; and now, you may go hunt for your
+cronies in yonder running stream. You may count it a marcy that I
+haven't tossed you after them, to wash the cowardly blood off your face.
+Now that you are upon your legs, I tell you here, in the moonlight, man
+to man, with nobody by to hold back your hand, that you are a lying,
+deceitful skulker, that loves the dark side of a wall better than the
+light, and steals the secrets of honest folks, and hasn't the heart to
+stand up fairly to the man that tells you of it. Swallow that, James
+Curry, and see how it will lay upon your stomach."</p>
+
+<p>"I will seek a time!" exclaimed Curry, "to right myself with your
+heart's blood."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! man," replied Horse Shoe, "don't talk about heart's blood. The
+next time we come into a field together, ax for Galbraith Robinson,
+commonly called Horse Shoe Robinson. Find me out, that's all. We may
+take a frolic together then, and I give you my allowance to wear your
+pistols in your belt."</p>
+
+<p>"We may find a field yet, Horse Shoe Robinson," returned Curry, "and
+I'll not fail of my appointment. Our game will be played with
+broadswords."</p>
+
+<p>"If it should so turn out, James, that you and me are to work through a
+campaign in the same quarter of the world, as we have done afore, James,
+I expect, I'll take the chance of some holiday to pay my respects to
+you. I wont trouble you to ride far to find me; and then, it may be
+broadsword or pistol, rifle or bagnet, I'm not over-scrumptious which.
+Only promise I shall see you when I send for you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bargain, Galbraith Robinson! Strong as you think yourself in
+your cursed rough-and-tumble horseplay, I am soldier enough for you any
+day. I only ask that the time may come quickly."</p>
+
+<p>"You have no objection to give us a hand to clinch that bargain, James?"
+asked Horse Shoe. "There's my paw; take it, man, I scorn to bear malice
+after the hot blood cools."</p>
+
+<p>"I take it with more pleasure now," said Curry, hastily seizing the
+hand, "than I gave mine to you before to-night, because it is a pledge
+that suits my humor. A good seat in a saddle, four strong legs below me,
+and a sharp blade, I hold myself a match for the best man that ever
+picked a flint in your lines."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, friend Curry," exclaimed the sergeant, "good night! Go look for
+your pop-guns in the river; and if you find them, hold them as a
+keepsake to remember Horse Shoe Robinson. Good night."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson left his adversary, and returned to the inn, ruminating, as he
+walked, over the strange incident in which he had just been engaged. For
+a while his thoughts wore a grave complexion; but, as his careless good
+humor gradually broke forth through the thin mist that enveloped it, he
+was found, before he reached the porch, laughing, with a quiet chuckle,
+at the conceit which rose upon his mind, as he said, half-audibly, "Odd
+sport for a summer night! Howsever, every one to his liking, as the old
+woman said; but to my thinking, he mought have done better if he had
+gone to sleep at a proper hour, like a moralised and sober Christian."</p>
+
+<p>When he entered the parlor, he found Butler and the landlady waiting for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is late, sergeant," said the Major. "You have forgotten the hour;
+and I began to fear you had more to say to your friend, there, than
+suited the time of night."</p>
+
+<p>"All is right, by your smiling," added the landlady; "and that's more
+than I expected at the time you walked out of the room. I couldn't go to
+my bed, till I was sure you and my lodger had no disagreeable words;
+for, to tell you the truth, I am greatly afraid of his hot and hasty
+temper."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing hot or hasty about him, ma'am," replied Robinson; "he
+is about as peaceable a man as you mought expect to meet in such times
+as these. I only told him a little scrap of news, and you would have
+thought he would have hugged me for it, ha, ha, ha."</p>
+
+<p>"We are to sleep in the same room, sergeant," said Butler, "and our good
+hostess will show us the way to it."</p>
+
+<p>The dame, upon this hint, took a candle, and conducted her guests to a
+chamber in the upper story, where, after wishing them "a good night,"
+she courtesied respectfully, and left them to their repose.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, sergeant, what you made out of that fellow," said Butler, as
+he undressed himself. "I see that you have had some passage with him;
+and, from your tarrying so long, I began to be a little apprehensive of
+rough work between you. What passed, and what have you learned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Enough, major, to make us more circumscriptious against scouts, and
+spies, and stratagems. When I was a prisoner at Charlestown, there was
+an amazing well-built fellow, a dragoon, that had been out with
+Tarleton; but, when I saw him, he was a sort of rithmatical
+account-keeper and letter-scribbler for that young fighting-cock, the
+Earl of Caithness, him that was aidegong to Sir Henry Clinton. Well,
+this fellow had a tolerable bad name, as being a chap that the devil had
+spiled, in spite of all the good that had been pumped into him at
+school; for, as I have hearn, he was come of gentle people, had a first
+rate edication, and I reckon, now, major, he talks as well as a book,
+whereupon I have an observation."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep that until to-morrow, sergeant," interrupted Butler, "and go on
+with what you had to tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"You must be a little sleepy, major: however, this fellow, they say, was
+cotched cheating with cards one day, when he was playing a game of five
+shilling loo with the King or the Queen, or some of the dukes or
+colonels in the guards&mdash;for he wa'n't above any thing rascally. So, it
+was buzzed about, as you may suppose when a man goes to cheating one of
+them big fish&mdash;and the King gave him his choice to enlist, or go to the
+hulks; and he, being no fool, listed, as a matter of course. In that way
+he got over here; and, as I tell you, was a sort of sarvent to that
+young Earl. He sometimes came about our quarters to list prisoners and
+make Tories of 'em, for his own people kept him to do all that sort of
+dirty work, upon account of the glibness of his tongue. He was a
+remarkable saucy fellow and got nothing but ill-will from the
+prisoners&mdash;though, I make no doubt, the man is a tolerable sodger on
+sarvice. Now, after telling you all this, major, you must know that the
+identical, same, particular man that we saw looking through the porch
+window at us to-night"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is the man you have been describing? Is it possible? Are you sure of
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I knowed him the minute I clapped eyes on him: his name is James Curry:
+but, as I didn't stay long at Charlestown, and hadn't any thing to do
+with him in particular, it seems he didn't remember me."</p>
+
+<p>"You conversed with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most sartainly I did. I wanted to gather a little consarning of his
+visit up here: but the fellow's been so battered about in the wars, that
+he knows how to hold his tongue. I had some mischief in me, and did want
+to make him just angry enough to set his speech loose; and, besides, I
+felt a little against him upon account of his misdoings with our people
+in Carolina, and so, I said some rough things to him; and, as my
+discourse ar'n't none of the squarest in pint of grammar and
+topographical circumlocution&mdash;as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say&mdash;why he
+set me down for a piece of an idiot, and began to hoax and bamboozle me.
+I put that matter straight for him very soon, by just letting him say so
+much and no more. And then, as I was a peaceable man, major, he seemed
+to see that I didn't want to have no quarrel with him, which made him
+push it at me rather too hard, and all my civility ended in my giving
+him what he wanted at first&mdash;a tolerable, regular thrashing."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant continued to relate to Butler the details of this
+adventure, which he did with more prolixity than the weariness of his
+listener was able to endure; for the major, having in the progress of
+the narrative got into bed, and having, in the increasing oscitancy of
+his faculties, exhausted every expression of assent by which one who
+listens to a tale is accustomed to notify his attention&mdash;he at length
+dropped into a profound sleep, leaving the sergeant to conclude at his
+leisure.</p>
+
+<p>When Robinson perceived this, he had nothing left but to betake himself,
+with all expedition, to his own rest; whereupon he threw off his coat,
+and taking the coverings of the bed appropriated to his use, spread
+them upon the floor, as he pronounced an anathema against sleeping on
+feathers, (for it must be observed, that our good hostess, at that early
+day, was liable to the same censure of an unnatural attachment to
+feather beds in summer, which may, at the present time,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> be made
+against almost every country inn in the United States,) and then
+extinguishing the candle, he stretched himself upon the planks, as he
+remarked to his unconscious companion, "that he was brought up on a hard
+floor;" and after one or two rolls, he fell into that deep oblivion of
+cares, by which nature re-summons and supplies the strength which toil,
+watching and anxiety wear down.</p>
+
+<p>The speed of Horse Shoe's journey through this pleasant valley of sleep
+might be measured somewhat in the same manner that the route of a mail
+stage may sometimes be traced through a mountain defile, by the notes of
+the coachman's horn; it was defined by the succession of varying
+intonations through which he ascended the gamut, beginning with a low
+but audible breathing, and rising through the several stages of an
+incipient snore, a short quick bark, and up to a snort that constituted
+the greatest altitude of the ascent. Occasionally a half articulated
+interjection escaped him, and words that showed in what current his
+dreams were sailing: "No pistols! Look in the water, James! Ha ha!"
+These utterings were accompanied with contortions of body that more than
+once awaked the sleeper; but, at last, the huge bulk of Horse Shoe grew
+motionless in a deep and strong sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, at early dawn, our travellers resumed their journey,
+which I will leave them to prosecute, whilst I conduct my reader to the
+affairs and interests that dwell about the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SOME ACCOUNT OF PHILIP LINDSAY&mdash;SENSIBILITY AND RETIREMENT APT TO
+ENGENDER A PERNICIOUS PHILOSOPHY.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The thread which I have now to take up and weave into this history
+requires that my narrative should go back for some years. It briefly
+concerns the earlier fortunes of Philip Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>His father emigrated from England, and was established in Virginia about
+the year 1735, as a secretary to the governor of the province. He was a
+gentleman of good name and fortune. Philip was born within a year after
+this emigration. As America was then comparatively a wilderness, and
+afforded but few facilities for the education of youth, the son of the
+secretary was sent at an early age to England, where he remained, with
+the exception of an occasional visit to his parents, under the
+guardianship of a near relative, until he had completed, not only his
+college course, but also his studies in the Temple&mdash;an almost
+indispensable requirement of that day for young gentlemen of condition.</p>
+
+<p>His studies in the Temple had been productive of one result, which Lord
+Coke, if I remember, considers idiosyncratic in the younger votaries of
+the law&mdash;he had fallen in love with an heiress. The natural consequence
+was a tedious year, after his return home, spent at the seat of the
+provincial government, and a most energetic and persevering interchange
+of letters with the lady, whom my authority allows me to name Gertrude
+Marshall. This was followed by another voyage across the Atlantic, and
+finally, as might be predicted, by a wedding with all proper observance
+and parental sanction. Lindsay then returned, a happier and more
+tranquil man, to Virginia, where he fulfilled the duties of more than
+one public station of dignity and trust.</p>
+
+<p>In due course of time he fell heir to his father's wealth, which with
+the estate of his wife made him one of the most opulent and considerable
+gentlemen of the Old Dominion.</p>
+
+<p>He had but two children&mdash;Mildred and Henry&mdash;with four years difference
+between their ages. These were nurtured with all the care and indulgent
+bounty natural to parents whose affections are concentrated upon so
+small a family circle.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay's character was grave and thoughtful, and inclined him to avoid
+the contests of ambition and collision with the world. A delicate taste,
+a nice judgment, and a fondness for inquiry made him a student and an
+ardent lover of books. The ply of his mind was towards metaphysics; he
+delved into the obsolete subtleties of the old schools of philosophy,
+and found amusement, if not instruction, in those frivolous but
+ingenious speculations which have overshadowed even the best wisdom of
+the schoolmen with the hues of a solemn and absurd pedantry. He dreamed
+in the reveries of Plato, and pursued them through the aberrations of
+the Coryphæans. He delighted in the visions of Pythagoras, and in the
+intellectual revels of Epicurus. He found attraction in the Gnostic
+mysteries, and still more in the phantasmagoria of Judicial Astrology.
+His library furnished a curious index to this unhealthy appetite for the
+marvellous and the mystical. The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, Raymond
+Lully, and Martin Delvio, and others of less celebrity in this circle of
+imposture, were found associated with truer philosophies and more
+approved and authentic teachers.</p>
+
+<p>These studies, although pursued with an acknowledgment of their false
+and dangerous tendency, nevertheless had their influence upon Lindsay's
+imagination. There are few men in whom the mastery of reason is so
+absolute as to be able totally to subdue the occasional uprising of that
+element of superstition which is found more or less vigorous in every
+mind. A nervous temperament, which is almost characteristic of minds of
+an imaginative cast, is often distressingly liable to this influence, in
+spite of the strongest resolves of the will and the most earnest
+convictions of the judgment. If those who possess this temperament would
+confess, they might certify to many extraordinary anxieties and troubles
+of spirit, which it would pain them to have the world believe.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay's pursuits had impressed his understanding with some sentiment
+of respect for that old belief in the supernatural, and had, perhaps,
+even warmed up his faith to a secret credulity in these awful agencies
+of the spiritual world, or at least to an unsatisfied doubt as to their
+existence. Many men of sober brow and renown for wisdom are unwilling to
+acknowledge the extent of their own credulity on the same topic.</p>
+
+<p>His relations to the government, his education, pursuits and temper, as
+might be expected, had deeply imbued Lindsay with the politics of the
+tory party, and taught him to regard with distrust, and even with
+abhorrence, the revolutionary principles which were getting in vogue. In
+this sentiment he visited with a dislike that did not correspond with
+the more usual development of his character, all those who were in any
+degree suspected of aiding or abetting the prevailing political heresy
+of the times.</p>
+
+<p>About two years after the birth of Mildred, he had purchased a tract of
+land in the then new and frontier country lying upon the Rockfish river.
+Many families of note in the low country had possessed themselves of
+estates at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in this neighborhood, and were
+already making establishments there. Mr. Lindsay, attracted by the
+romantic character of the scenery, the freshness of the soil, and the
+healthfulness of the climate, following the example of others, had laid
+off the grounds of his new estate with great taste, and had soon built,
+upon a beautiful site, a neat and comfortable rustic dwelling, with such
+accommodation as might render it a convenient and pleasant retreat
+during the hot months of the summer.</p>
+
+<p>The occupation which this new establishment afforded his family; the
+scope which its improvement gave to their taste; and the charms that
+intrinsically belonged to it, by degrees communicated to his household
+an absorbing interest in its embellishment. His wife cherished this
+enterprise with a peculiar ardor. The plans of improvement were hers;
+the garden, the lawns, the groves, the walks&mdash;all the little appendages
+which an assiduous taste might invent, or a comfort-seeking fancy might
+imagine necessary, were taken under her charge; and one beauty quickly
+following upon another, from day to day, evinced the dominion which a
+refined art may exercise with advantage over nature. It was a quiet,
+calm, and happy spot, where many conveniences were congregated together,
+and where, for a portion of every succeeding year, this little family
+nestled, as it were, in the enjoyment of voluptuous ease. From this
+idea, and especially as it was allied with some of the tenderest
+associations connected with the infancy of Mildred, it was called by the
+fanciful and kindly name of "The Dove Cote."</p>
+
+<p>The education of Mildred and Henry became a delightful household care.
+Tutors were supplied, and the parents gave themselves up to the task of
+supervision with a fond industry. They now removed earlier to the Dove
+Cote with every returning spring, and remained there later in the
+autumn. The neighborhood furnished an intelligent and hospitable
+society; and the great western wilderness smiled with the contentment of
+a refined and polished civilization, which no after day in the history
+of this empire has yet surpassed&mdash;perhaps, not equalled. It is not to be
+wondered at, that a mind so framed as Lindsay's, and a family so
+devoted, should find an exquisite enjoyment in such a spot.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst this epoch of happiness was in progression, the political heaven
+began to be darkened with clouds. The troubles came on with harsh
+portents; war rumbled in the distance, and, at length, broke out in
+thunder. Mildred had, in the meantime, grown up to the verge of
+womanhood,&mdash;a fair, ruddy, light-haired beauty, of exceeding graceful
+proportions, and full of the most interesting impulses. Henry trod
+closely upon her heels, and was now shooting through the rapid stages of
+boyhood. Both had entwined themselves around their parents' affections,
+like fibres that conveyed to them their chief nourishment; and the
+children were linked to each other even, if that where possible, by a
+stronger band.</p>
+
+<p>The war threw Lindsay into a perilous predicament. His estates were
+large, and his principles exposed him to the sequestration which was
+rigidly enforced against the royalist party. To avoid this blow, or, at
+least, to mitigate its severity, he conveyed the estate of the Dove Cote
+to Mildred; assigning, as his reason for doing so, that, as it was
+purchased with moneys belonging to his wife, he consulted and executed
+her wish, in transferring the absolute ownership of it to his daughter.
+The rest of his property was converted into money, and invested in funds
+in Great Britain. As soon as this arrangement was made, about the second
+year of the war, the Dove Cote became the permanent residence of the
+family; Lindsay preferring to remain here rather than to retire to
+England, hoping to escape the keen notice of the dominant party, and to
+find, in this classic and philosophical privacy, an oblivion of the rude
+cares that beset the pillow of every man who mingled in the strife of
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>He was destined to a grievous disappointment. His wife, to whom he was
+romantically attached, was snatched from him by death, just at this
+interesting period. This blow, for a time, almost unseated his reason.
+The natural calm of such a mind as Lindsay's is not apt to show
+paroxysms in grief. Its sorrow was too still and deep for show. The
+flight of years, however, brought healing on their wings; and Mildred
+and Henry gradually relumed their father's countenance with flashes of
+cheerful thought, that daily grew broader and more abiding; till, at
+last, sense and duty completed their triumph, and once more gave Lindsay
+to his family, unburdened of his grief, or, if not unburdened,
+conversing with it only in the secret hours of self-communion.</p>
+
+<p>His hopes of ease and retirement were disappointed in another way. The
+sequesterment of the Dove Cote was not sufficient to shut out the noise
+nor the intrigues of the war. His reputation, as a man of education, of
+wealth, of good sense, and especially as a man of aristocratic
+pretensions, irresistibly drew him into the agitated vortex of politics.
+His house was open to the visits of the tory leaders, no less than to
+those of the other side; and, although this intercourse could not be
+openly maintained without risk, yet pretexts were not wanting,
+occasionally, to bring the officers and gentlemen in the British
+interest to the Dove Cote. They came stealthily and in disguise, and
+they did not fail to involve him in the insidious schemes and base
+plottings by which a wary foe generally endeavors to smoothe the way of
+invasion. The temporary importance which these connections conferred,
+and the assiduous appeal which it was the policy of the enemy to make to
+his loyalty, wrought upon the vanity of the scholar, and brought him, by
+degrees, from the mere toleration of an intercourse that he at first
+sincerely sought to avoid, into a participation of the plans of those
+who courted his fellowship. Still, however, this was grudgingly
+given&mdash;as much from the inaptitude of his character, as from a secret
+consciousness, at bottom, that it was contrary to the purpose that had
+induced him to seek the shelter of the woods. Unless, therefore, the
+spur was frequently applied to the side of his reluctant resolution, his
+zeal was apt to weary in its pace, or, to change my figure for one
+equally appropriate, to melt away in the sunny indolence of his temper.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that, during the tenderer years of the children, and up to
+the period of the loss of their mother, they had received the most
+unremitting attention from their parents. The bereavement of his wife,
+the deep gloom that followed this event, and the now engrossing
+character of the war, had in some degree relaxed Lindsay's vigilance
+over their nurture, although it had in no wise abated his affection for
+them; on the contrary, perhaps this was more concentrated than ever.
+Mildred had grown up to the blossom-time of life, in the possession of
+every personal attraction. From the fanciful ideas of education adopted
+by her father, or rather from the sedulous care with which he
+experimented upon her capacity, and devoted himself to the task of
+directing and waiting upon the expansion of her intellect, she had made
+acquirements much beyond her years, and altogether of a character
+unusual to her sex. An ardent and persevering temper had imparted a
+singular enthusiasm to her pursuits; and her air, though not devoid of
+playfulness, might be said to be habitually abstracted and
+self-communing.</p>
+
+<p>As the war advanced, her temper and situation both enlisted her as a
+partisan in the questions which it brought into discussion; and, whilst
+her father's opinions were abhorrent to this struggle for independence,
+she, on the other hand, unknown to him, was casting her thoughts,
+feelings, affections, and hopes upon the broad waters of rebellion; and,
+if not expecting them to return to her, after many days, with increase
+of good, certainly believing that she was mingling them with those of
+patriots who were predestined to the brightest meed of glory.</p>
+
+<p>A father is not apt to reason with a daughter; the passions and
+prejudices of a parent are generally received as principles by the
+child; and most fathers, counting upon this instinct, deem it enough to
+make known the bent merely of their own opinions, without caring to
+argue them. This mistake will serve to explain the wide difference which
+is sometimes seen between the most tenderly attached parent and child,
+in those deeper sentiments that do not belong to the every-day concerns
+of life. Whilst, therefore, Mr. Lindsay took no heed how the seed of
+doctrine fructified and grew in the soil where he desired to plant it,
+it in truth fell upon ungenial ground, and either was blown away by the
+wind, or perished for want of appropriate nourishment.</p>
+
+<p>As the crisis became more momentous, and the discussion of national
+rights more rife, Mildred's predilections ran stronger on the republican
+side; and, at the opening of my story, she was a sincere and
+enthusiastic friend of American independence,&mdash;a character (however it
+may be misdoubted by my female readers of the present day, nursed as
+they are in a lady-like apathy to all concerns of government, and little
+aware, in the lazy lap of peace, how vividly their own quick
+sensibilities may be enlisted by the strife of men) neither rare nor
+inefficient amongst the matrons and maidens of the year seventy-six,
+some of whom&mdash;now more than fifty years gone by&mdash;are embalmed in the
+richest spices and holiest ointment of our country's memory.</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, due to truth to say, that Mildred's eager attachment to
+this cause was not altogether the free motion of patriotism. How often
+does some little under-current of passion, some slight and amiable
+prepossession, modest and unobserved, rise to the surface of our
+feelings, and there give its direction to the stream upon which floats
+all our philosophy! What is destiny but these under-currents that come
+whencesoever they list, unheeded at first, and irresistible ever
+afterwards!</p>
+
+<p>My reader must be told that, before the war broke out, this enthusiastic
+girl had flitted across the path of Arthur Butler, then a youth of rare
+faculty and promise, who combined with a gentle and modest demeanor an
+earnest devotion to his country, sustained by a chivalrous tone of honor
+that had in it all the fanciful disinterestedness of boyhood. It will
+not, therefore, appear wonderful that, amongst the golden opinions the
+young man was storing up in all quarters, some fragments of this grace
+should have made a lodgment in the heart of Mildred Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>Butler was a native of one of the lower districts of South Carolina, and
+was already the possessor, by inheritance, of what was then called a
+handsome fortune. He first met Mildred, under the safe-conduct of her
+parents, at Annapolis in Maryland, at that time the seat of opulence and
+fashion. There the wise and the gay, the beautiful and the rarely-gifted
+united in a splendid little constellation, in which wealth threw its
+sun-beam glitter over the wings of love, and learning and eloquence
+were warmed by the smiles of fair women: there gallant men gave the
+fascinations of wit to a festive circle unsurpassed in the new world, or
+the old, for its proportion of the graces that embellish, and the
+endowments that enrich life. In this circle there was no budding beauty
+of softer charm than the young Mildred, nor was there amongst the gay
+and bright cavaliers that thronged the "little academy" of Eden, (the
+governor of the province,) a youth of more favorable omen than Arthur
+Butler.</p>
+
+<p>The war was at the very threshold, and angry men thought of turning the
+ploughshare into the sword. Amongst these was Butler; an unsparing
+denouncer of the policy of Britain, and an unhesitating volunteer in the
+ranks of her opposers. It was at this eventful time that he met Mildred.
+I need hardly add that under these inauspicious circumstances they began
+to love. Every interview afterwards (and they frequently saw each other
+at Williamsburg and Richmond) only developed more completely the tale of
+love that nature was telling in the heart of each.</p>
+
+<p>Butler received from Congress an ensign's commission in the continental
+army, and was employed for a few months in the recruiting service at
+Charlottesville. This position favored his views and enabled him to
+visit at the Dove Cote. His intercourse with Mildred, up to this period,
+had been allowed by Lindsay to pass without comment: it was regarded but
+as the customary and common-place civility of polite society. Mildred's
+parents had no sympathy in her lover's sentiments, and consequently no
+especial admiration of his character, and they had not yet doubted their
+daughter's loyalty to be made of less stern materials than their own.
+Her mother was the first to perceive that the modest maiden awaited the
+coming of the young soldier with a more anxious forethought than
+betokened an unoccupied heart. How painfully did this perception break
+upon her! It opened upon her view a foresight of that unhappy sequence
+of events that attends the secret struggle between parental authority
+and filial inclination, when the absorbing interests of true love are
+concerned: a struggle that so frequently darkens the fate of the noblest
+natures, and whose history supplies the charm of so many a melancholy
+and thrilling page. Mrs. Lindsay had an invincible objection to the
+contemplated alliance, and immediately awakened the attention of her
+husband to the subject. From this moment Butler's reception at the Dove
+Cote was cold and formal, and Mr. Lindsay did not delay to express to
+his daughter a marked aversion to her intimacy with a man so uncongenial
+to his own taste. I need not dwell upon the succession of incidents that
+followed: are they not written in every book that tells of young hearts
+loving in despite of authority? Let it suffice to say that Butler, "many
+a time and oft," hied stealthily and with a lover's haste to the Dove
+Cote, where, "under the shade of melancholy boughs," or sometimes of
+good Mistress Dimock's roof, he found means to meet and exchange vows of
+constancy with the lady of his love.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed the first year of the war. The death of Mrs. Lindsay, to
+which I have before adverted, now occurred. The year of mourning was
+doubly afflictive to Mildred. Her father's grief hung as heavily upon
+her as her own, and to this was added a total separation from Butler. He
+had joined his regiment and was sharing the perils of the northern
+campaigns, and subsequently of those which ended in the subjugation of
+Carolina and Georgia. During all this period he was enabled to keep up
+an uncertain and irregular correspondence with Mildred, and he had once
+met her in secret, for a few hours only, at Mistress Dimock's, during
+the autumn immediately preceding the date of the opening of my story.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lindsay, upon her death-bed, had spoken to her husband in the most
+emphatic terms of admonition against Mildred's possible alliance with
+Butler, and conjured him to prevent it by whatever means might be in his
+power. Besides this, she made a will directing the distribution of a
+large jointure estate in England between her two children, coupling,
+with the bequest, a condition of forfeiture, if Mildred married without
+her father's approbation.</p>
+
+<p>I have now to relate an incident in the life of Philip Lindsay, which
+throws a sombre coloring over most of the future fortunes of Mildred and
+Arthur, as they are hereafter to be developed in my story.</p>
+
+<p>The lapse of years, Lindsay supposed, would wear out the first favorable
+impressions made by Arthur Butler upon his daughter. Years had now
+passed: he knew nothing of the secret correspondence between the
+parties, and he had hoped that all was forgotten. He could not help,
+however, perceiving that Mildred had grown reserved, and that her
+deportment seemed to be controlled by some secret care that sat upon
+her heart. She was anxious, solicitous, and more inclined, than became
+her youth, to be alone. Her household affections took a softer tone,
+like one in grief. These things did not escape her father's eye.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a night in June, a little more than a year before the visit of
+Butler and Robinson which I have narrated in a former chapter, that the
+father and daughter had a free communion together, in which it was his
+purpose to penetrate into the causes of her disturbed spirit. The
+conference was managed with an affectionate and skilful address on the
+part of the father, and "sadly borne" by Mildred. It is sufficient to
+say that it revealed to him a truth of which he was previously but
+little aware, namely, that neither the family afflictions nor the flight
+of two years had rooted out the fond predilection of Mildred for Arthur
+Butler. When this interview ended Mildred retired weeping to her
+chamber, and Lindsay sat in his study absorbed in meditation. The object
+in life nearest to his heart was the happiness of his daughter; and for
+the accomplishment of this what sacrifice would he not make? He minutely
+recalled to memory all the passages of her past life. What error of
+education had he committed, that she thus, at womanhood, was found
+wandering along a path to which he had never led her, which, indeed, he
+had ever taught her to avoid? What accident of fortune had brought her
+into this, as he must consider it, unhappy relation? "How careful have I
+been," he said, "to shut out all the inducements that might give a
+complexion to her tastes and principles different from my own! How
+sedulously have I waited upon her footsteps from infancy onward, to
+shield her from the influences that might mislead her pliant mind! And
+yet in this, the most determinate act of her life, that which is to give
+the hue to the whole of her coming fortune, the only truly momentous
+event in her history&mdash;how strangely has it befallen!"</p>
+
+<p>In such a strain did his thoughts pursue this harassing subject. The
+window of his study was open, and he sat near it, looking out upon the
+night. The scene around him was of a nature to awaken his imagination
+and lead his musings towards the preternatural and invisible world. It
+was past midnight, and the bright moon was just sinking down the western
+slope of the heavens, journeying through the fantastic and gorgeous
+clouds, that, as they successively caught her beam, stood like
+promontories jutting upon a waveless ocean, their rich profiles tipped
+with burnished silver. The long black shadows of the trees slept in
+enchanted stillness upon the earth: the night-wind breathed through the
+foliage, and brought the distant gush of the river fitfully upon his
+ear. There was a witching harmony and music in the landscape that sorted
+with the solitary hour, and conjured up thoughts of the world of
+shadows. Lindsay's mind began to run upon the themes of his favorite
+studies: the array of familiar spirits rose upon his mental vision; the
+many recorded instances of what was devoutly believed the interference
+of the dead in the concerns of the living, came fresh, at this moment,
+to his memory, and made him shudder at his lonesomeness. Struggling with
+this conception, it struck him with an awe that he was unable to master:
+"some invisible counsellor," he muttered, "some mysterious intelligence,
+now holds my daughter in thrall, and flings his spell upon her
+existence. The powers that mingle unseen in the affairs of mortals, that
+guide to good or lead astray, have wafted this helpless bark into the
+current that sweeps onward, unstayed by man. I cannot contend with
+destiny. She is thy child, Gertrude," he exclaimed, apostrophizing the
+spirit of his departed wife. "She is thine, and thou wilt hover near her
+and protect her from those who contrive against her peace: thou wilt
+avert the ill and shield thy daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>Excited almost to phrensy, terrified and exhausted in physical energy,
+Lindsay threw his head upon his hand and rested it against the
+window-sill. A moment elapsed of almost inspired madness, and when he
+raised his head and looked outward upon the lawn, he beheld the pale
+image of the being he had invoked, gliding through the shrubbery at the
+farthest verge of the level ground. The ghastly visage was bent upon
+him, the hand steadily pointed towards him, and as the figure slowly
+passed away the last reverted gaze was directed to him. "Great God!" he
+ejaculated, "that form&mdash;that form!" and fell senseless into his chair.</p>
+
+<p>During the night, Mildred was awakened by a low moan, which led her to
+visit her father's chamber. He was not there. In great alarm she betook
+herself to his study, where she found him extended upon a sofa, so
+enfeebled and bewildered by this recent incident that he was scarcely
+conscious of her presence.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks restored Lindsay to his usual health, but it was long before
+he regained the equanimity of his mind. He had seen enough to confirm
+his faith in the speculations of that pernicious philosophy which is
+wrapt up in the studies of which I have before given the outline; and he
+was, henceforth, oftentimes melancholy, moody, and reserved in spite of
+all the resolves of duty, and in defiance of a temper naturally placid
+and kind.</p>
+
+<p>Let us pass from this unpleasant incident to a theme of more cheerful
+import: the loves of Mildred and Arthur. I have said these two had
+secret meetings. They were not entirely without a witness. There was a
+confidant in all their intercourse: no other than Henry Lindsay, who
+united to the reckless jollity of youth an almost worshipping love of
+his sister. His thoughts and actions were ever akin to hers. Henry was
+therefore a safe depository of the precious secret; and as he could not
+but think Arthur Butler a good and gallant comrade, he determined that
+his father was altogether on the wrong side in respect to the love
+affair, and, by a natural sequence, wrong also in his politics.</p>
+
+<p>Henry had several additional reasons for this last opinion. The whole
+country-side was kindled into a martial flame, and there was nothing to
+be heard but drums and trumpets. There were rifle-corps raising, and
+they were all dressed in hunting-shirts, and bugles were blowing, and
+horses were neighing: how could a gallant of sixteen resist it? Besides,
+Stephen Foster, the woodman, right under the brow of the Dove Cote, was
+a lieutenant of mounted riflemen, and had, for some time past, been
+training Henry in the mystery of his weapon, and had given him divers
+lessons on the horn to sound the signals, and had enticed him furtively
+to ride in a platoon on parade, whereof he had dubbed Henry corporal or
+deputy corporal. All this worked well for Arthur and Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lindsay was not ignorant of Henry's popularity in the neighborhood,
+nor how much he was petted by the volunteer soldiery. He did not object
+to this, as it served to quiet suspicion of his own dislike to the
+cause, and diverted the observation of the adherents of what he called
+the rebel government, from his own motions; whilst, at the same time, he
+deemed it no other than a gewgaw that played upon the boyish fancy of
+Henry without reaching his principles.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, on the contrary, did not so regard it. She had inspired Henry
+with her own sentiments, and now carefully trained him up to feel warmly
+the interests of the war, and to prepare himself by discipline for the
+hard life of a soldier. She early awakened in him a wish to render
+service in the field, and a resolution to accomplish it as soon as the
+occasion might arrive. Amongst other things, too, she taught him to love
+Arthur Butler and keep his counsel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MANSION OF A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The site of the Dove Cote was eminently picturesque. It was an area of
+level ground, containing, perhaps, two acres, on the summit of a hill
+that, on one side, overhung the Rockfish river, and on the other rose by
+a gentle sweep from the champaign country below. This summit might have
+been as much as two hundred feet above the bed of the stream, and was
+faced on that side by a bold, rocky precipice, not absolutely
+perpendicular, but broken into stages or platforms, where grassy mould
+had accumulated, and where the sweet-brier and the laurel, and clusters
+of the azalea, shot up in profuse luxuriance. The fissures of the crag
+had also collected their handful of soil and gave nourishment to
+struggling vines, and everywhere the ash or pine, and not unfrequently
+the dogwood, took possession of such spots upon the rocky wall, as these
+adventurous and cliff-loving trees had found congenial to their nature.
+The opposite or northern bank of the river had an equal elevation, and
+jutted forward so near to the other as to leave between them a cleft,
+which suggested the idea of some sudden abruption of the earth in those
+early paroxysms that geologists have deemed necessary to account for
+some of the features of our continent. Below was heard the ceaseless
+brattle of the waters, as they ran over and amongst the rocks which
+probably constituted the <i>debris</i> formed in the convulsion that opened
+this chasm. It was along through this obscure dell that the road, with
+which my reader is acquainted, found place between the margin of the
+stream and the foot of the rocks. The general aspect of the country was
+diversified by high knolls and broken masses of mountain land, and the
+Dove Cote itself occupied a station sufficiently above the surrounding
+district to give it a prospect, eastward, of several miles in extent.
+From this point the eye might trace the valley of the Rockfish, by the
+abrupt hill-sides that hemmed it in, and by the growth of sombre pines
+that coated the steeps where nothing else could find a foot-hold. Not
+far below, in this direction, was to be seen the Fawn's tower, a
+singular pinnacle of rock, which had acquired its name from the
+protection it was said to have afforded to a young deer against the
+assault of the hounds; the hard-pressed animal, as the tradition
+relates, having gained this insulated point by a bound that baffled the
+most adventurous of his pursuers, and admiration of the successful
+boldness of the leap having won from the huntsman the favor that spared
+his life.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of a large chestnut near the edge of the cliff, and
+of some venerable oaks, that had counted centuries before the white man
+rested his limbs beneath their shade, the native growth of the forest
+had been removed by Lindsay from the summit I have described, and he had
+substituted for the wild garniture of nature a few of the choicest trees
+of the neighboring woods. Here he had planted the elm, the holly and the
+linden tree, the cedar and the arbor vitæ. This platform was
+semicircular, and was bounded by a terrace or walk of gravel that swept
+around its circumference. The space inclosed was covered with a natural
+grass, which the frequent use of the scythe had brought to the
+resemblance of velvet; and the lower side of the terrace was guarded by
+a hedge-row of cedar. Over this green wall, as the spectator walked
+forth in fair summer time, might he look out upon the distant woods and
+meadows; and there he might behold the high-road showing itself, at
+distant intervals, upon the hill-sides; and in the bottom lands, that
+lay open to the sun through the forest-bound valleys, might he see herds
+of grazing cattle, or fields of yellow grain, or, perchance, the slow
+moving wain burdened with hay, or slower moving plough.</p>
+
+<p>The mansion itself partook of the character of the place. It was
+perched&mdash;to use a phrase peculiarly applicable to its position&mdash;almost
+immediately at that point where the terrace made an angle with the
+cliff, being defended by a stone parapet, through which an iron wicket
+opened upon a flight of rough-hewn steps, that terminated in a pathway
+leading down to the river.</p>
+
+<p>The main building was of stone, consisting of one lofty story, and
+capped with a steep roof, which curved so far over the front as to
+furnish a broad rustic porch that rested almost upon the ground. The
+slim pillars of this porch were concealed by lattice-work, which was
+overgrown with creeping vines; and the windows of the contiguous rooms,
+on either side of a spacious hall, opened to the floor, and looked out
+upon the lawn and upon the quiet landscape far beyond. One of these
+apartments was also accessible through the eastern gable, by a private
+doorway shaded by a light veranda, and was appropriated by Lindsay to
+his library. This portal seemed almost to hang over the rock, having but
+the breadth of the terrace between it and the declivity, and showing no
+other foreground than the parapet, which was here a necessary defence
+against the cliff, and from which the romantic dell of the river was
+seen in all its wildness.</p>
+
+<p>There were other portions of the mansion constructed in the same style
+of architecture, united to this in such a manner as to afford an
+uninterrupted communication, and to furnish a range of chambers for the
+use of the family. A rustic effect was everywhere preserved. Stacks of
+chimneys shot up in grotesque array; and heavy, old-fashioned windows
+looked quaintly down from the peaked roof. Choice exotics, planted in
+boxes, were tastefully arranged upon the lawn; cages with singing-birds
+were suspended against the wall and the whole mass of building,
+extending along the verge of the cliff, so as to occupy the entire
+diameter of the semicircle, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet, sorted
+by its simplicity of costume, if I may so speak, and by its tidy beauty,
+with the close-shaven grass-plot and its trim shades.</p>
+
+<p>Above the whole, flinging their broad and gnarled arms amongst the
+chimney tops, and forming a pleasing contrast with the artificial
+embellishments of this spot, some ancient oaks, in primeval
+magnificence, reared their time-honored trunks, and no less sheltered
+the habitation from the noon-tide heats, than they afforded an asylum to
+the ringdove and his mate, or to the countless travellers of the air
+that here stopped for rest or food.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the general aspect of the Dove Cote; a spot where a philosopher
+might glide through life in unbroken contemplation; where a wearied
+statesman might betake himself to reassemble the scattered forces of
+intellect for new enterprises; where the artist might repair to study
+with advantage the living graces of God's own painting; and where young
+beauty might bud and bloom amongst the most delicate and graceful forms
+of earth.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the dwelling was capacious and comfortable. Its
+furniture, suitable to the estate of the owner, was plain, and adapted
+to a munificent rather than to an ostentatious hospitality. It was only
+in the library that evidence might be seen of large expense. Here, the
+books were ranged from the floor to the ceiling, with scarcely an
+interval, except where a few choice paintings had found space, or the
+bust of some ancient worthy. One or two ponderous lounging chairs stood
+in the apartment; and the footstep of the visitor was dulled into
+silence by the soft nap of (what, in that day, was a rare and costly
+luxury) a Turkey carpet. This was in all respects an apartment of ease,
+and it was provided with every incentive to beguile a student into
+silent and luxurious communion with the spirit of the sages around
+him,&mdash;whose subtlest thoughts and holiest breathings, whose most
+volatile fancies, had been caught up, fixed, and turned into tangible
+substance, more indestructible than adamant, by the magic of letters.</p>
+
+<p>I have trespassed on the patience of my reader to give him a somewhat
+minute description of the Dove Cote, principally because I hope thereby
+to open his mind to a more adequate conception of the character of
+Philip Lindsay. By looking at a man in his own dwelling, and observing
+his domestic habits, I will venture to affirm, it shall scarcely in any
+instance fail to be true, that, if there be seen a tasteful arrangement
+of matters necessary to his comfort; if his household be well ordered,
+and his walks clean and well rolled, and his grassplots neat; and if
+there be no slovenly inattention to repairs, but thrift against waste,
+and plenty for all; and, if to these be added habits of early rising and
+comely attire&mdash;and, above all, if there be books, many books, well
+turned and carefully tended&mdash;that man is one to warm up at the coming of
+a gentleman; to open his doors to him; to take him to his heart, and to
+do him the kindnesses of life. He is a man to hate what is base, and to
+stand apart from the mass, as one who will not have his virtue tainted.
+He is a man, moreover, whose worldly craft may be so smothered and
+suppressed, in the predominance of the household affections, that the
+skilful and designing, alas, may ever practise with success their plans
+against him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN INTRIGUE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>I must now introduce my reader to the library described in the last
+chapter, where, beside a small table covered with papers, and lighted by
+two tall candles, sate Philip Lindsay, with a perplexed and thoughtful
+brow. Opposite to him, in an easy chair, reclined his guest, Mr. Tyrrel;
+a man whose appearance might entitle him to claim something like
+thirty-five years; and whose shrewd and intellectual expression of
+countenance, to which an air of decision was given by what might be
+called an intense eye, denoted a person conversant with the business of
+life; whilst an easy and flexible address no less distinctly announced
+him one habituated to the most polished society. The time of this
+meeting corresponded with that of the interview of Arthur and Mildred,
+beneath the Fawn's Tower.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary only to premise that these two had frequently conferred
+together, within the last two or three days, upon the subject with which
+they were now engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Henry Clinton does me too much honor by this confidence," said
+Lindsay. "He overrates my influence amongst the gentlemen of the
+province. Truly, Mr. Tyrrel, I am well persuaded that neither my precept
+nor my example would weigh a feather in the scale against the heady
+course of this rebellion."</p>
+
+<p>"We are seldom competent to judge of the weight of our own influence,"
+said Tyrrel. "I might scarce expect you to speak otherwise than you do.
+But I, who have the opportunity to know, take upon myself to say that
+many gentlemen of note in this province, who are at present constrained
+by the fear of the new government, look with anxiety to you. They repose
+faith in your discretion, and would follow your lead. If an excuse be
+necessary, you might afford them some pretext of pastime to visit the
+Dove Cote. Here you might concert your plan to co-operate with our
+friends in the south."</p>
+
+<p>"Tis a rash thought," replied Lindsay. "This little nook of woodland
+quiet has never yet been disturbed with the debates of men who meditated
+the spilling of blood. God forbid that these peaceful walls should
+hereafter echo back the words that speak of such a purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"It is to spare the shedding of blood, Mr. Lindsay, and to bring speedy
+peace to a distracted country that we invoke you and other friends to
+counsel. A single battle may decide the question of mastery over the
+province. We are well assured that the moment Lord Cornwallis reaches
+the Roanoke"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Cornwallis has yet to win the ground he stands upon," interrupted
+Lindsay: "there may be many a deadly blow struck before he slakes his
+thirst in the waters of that river: many a proud head may be low before
+that day."</p>
+
+<p>"Think you, sir," said Tyrrel, rising as he spoke, "that this patched
+and ragged levy&mdash;this ague-stricken army that is now creeping through
+the pines of North Carolina, under the command of that pompous
+pretender, Gates, are the men to dispute with his majesty's forces their
+right to any inch of soil they choose to occupy? It will be a merry day
+when we meet them, Mr. Lindsay. We have hitherto delayed our campaign
+until the harvest was gathered: that is now done, and we shall speedily
+bring this hero of Saratoga to his reckoning. Then, following at the
+heels of the runagates, his Lordship, you may be prepared to hear,
+within two months from this day, will be within friendly hail of the
+Dove Cote."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak like a boastful soldier, Mr. Tyrrel. It is not unlikely that
+his lordship may foil Gates and turn him back; such I learn to be the
+apprehension of the more sagacious amongst the continental officers
+themselves; but whether that mischance is to favor your incursion into
+this province may be worth a soberer study than, I doubt, you have given
+the question. The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it
+leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the
+means of these republicans. They have bold partisans in the field, and
+eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well
+with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's-play of war we
+breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since
+marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What
+was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into
+principle, like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and
+then turns into stone. The delusion of republicanism, like all
+delusions, is embraced with more enthusiasm than men ever embrace truth.
+We deem too lightly of these men and their cause, and we have already,
+more than once, suffered for the error. When they expelled Dunmore they
+committed treason against the British crown; and they are wise enough to
+know that that cup, once tasted, must be drained to the bottom: they
+have, therefore, imbrued their hands the deeper in rebellion. They have
+raised their idol of democracy high, and have fenced it about with the
+penalties of confiscation and death to those who refuse to bow before
+it: and now they stand pledged to the prosecution of their unnatural
+war, by such a bond of fate as unites mariners who have rashly ventured
+forth upon a raging sea, in a bark of doubtful strength; their minds
+braced up, by the thought of instant perdition, to the daring effort
+necessary to reach their haven."</p>
+
+<p>"That haven shall they never reach," cried Tyrrel impatiently. "Let them
+invoke the aid of their patron devils! We have a spell shall conjure
+them back again to their own hell, else there is no virtue in the forged
+steel which these rebels have felt before."</p>
+
+<p>"The battle is not always to the strong," said Lindsay, "nor is the
+craft of soldiership without its chances."</p>
+
+<p>"If we had listened, my friend," said Tyrrel, "to musty proverbs,
+Charleston would have this day been in the secure and peaceful
+possession of the enemy. All that you say against our present scheme was
+heretofore urged, though not with such authority, perhaps, against the
+invasion of Carolina. And yet how prettily have we gainsaid the
+prophets! Look at their principal town surrendered&mdash;all the country
+strongholds delivered up&mdash;the people flocking to our standard for
+protection&mdash;and the whole province lifting up a voice of gratitude for
+the deliverance we have wrought them. They are even now arming
+themselves in our behalf, whilst the shattered fragments of the rebel
+force are flying to the swamps and their mountain fastnesses. Why should
+not the same game be as well played in Virginia? Trust me, Mr. Lindsay,
+your caution somewhat over-leaps that wholesome moderation, which I do
+not deny is necessary to check a too sanguine reckoning. Come, good sir,
+lend us a more auspicious counsel. Sir Henry relies much upon your
+wisdom, and will not, with good heart, forego your service."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Henry has sadly disturbed my repose," returned Lindsay. "To tell
+the truth, I have no stomach for this business. Here, I am native to the
+province: I have found old friends separated from me; early associations
+torn up by the roots; and the elements which fed my strongest personal
+attachments poisoned, by this accursed spirit of revolution. I would
+hide my head from the storm and die in these shades in peace."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not for Mr. Philip Lindsay, nor such as he," replied Tyrrel, "to
+desert his sovereign in his hour of need."</p>
+
+<p>"God forgive me for the thought, Mr. Tyrrel, but it remains yet to be
+proved who most faithfully serve their sovereign; they who counsel
+peace, or they who push war to its fatal extremes. There lives not a man
+within the realm of England, to whom I would yield in devotion to the
+glory of our country. Once make it clear to my judgment that we may hope
+to regain the lost allegiance of this province by the sacrifice of life
+and fortune, and, dearly as I cherish the welfare of those around me, I
+will obey the first summons to the field, and peril this worthless
+existence of mine in bloody fight. Yea, if need be, I will, with my own
+hand, apply the torch to this peaceful abode, and give it over a smoking
+ruin to the cause."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you too well," replied Tyrrel, "to doubt the sincerity of your
+words. But is it not obvious that the war must inevitably tend to this
+field? Having gained the Carolinas, should we turn our backs as soon as
+we have reached the confines of Virginia? On the contrary, does not
+every obligation of honor impel us to maintain and protect our friends
+here? The conquest of Virginia is an easier enterprise than you deem it.
+If the continentals can muster ten thousand men, we, assuredly, may
+double that number, counting our provincials levied in the south. We
+have money and all the means of war, whilst this crippled Congress has
+drained from the people their last groat; their wretched troops will
+disband from mere want of supplies. They may expect no aid from the
+north; for there Sir Henry will furnish them sufficient motive to stay
+at home! We come animated by victories, full of mettle and vigor, they
+meet us broken by defeats, dejected and torn to pieces by mutiny. Never
+did treason or rebellion array itself with more certainty of punishment
+than this!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have read," said Lindsay, "how John Hampden resisted the exaction of
+twenty shillings of ship money, and for that pittance dared the
+displeasure of Charles and his Star Chamber: how he voted the
+impeachment of the judges who were supple enough to warrant the
+imposition: how, in this cause, he drew the sword and threw away the
+scabbard: how he brought Strafford to the block for levying war against
+the commons of England: and through all that disastrous time, have I
+read that Charles promised the cavaliers splendid victories, and derided
+the feeble means of those who were in arms against him; yet Hampden
+shrunk not from the struggle. To me it seems there is a strange
+resemblance between the congress now sitting at Philadelphia and the
+parliament of 1640; and this George Washington might claim kindred with
+John Hampden. I will not seek for further likenesses."</p>
+
+<p>"If I read that history right," replied Tyrrel, "Hampden met his reward
+at Chalgrove, and Cromwell turned his crop-eared parliament out of
+doors. We may, perhaps, find a Chalgrove on this continent;&mdash;and Sir
+Henry Clinton will most probably save the wiseacres at Philadelphia from
+the intrusion of an upstart Cromwell."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be too bold in us to count on that, Mr. Tyrrel. I am the enemy
+of these men and their purpose, but I cannot deem otherwise of them than
+as misguided subjects of the king, frenzied by the imagination of
+grievances. They are men of good intellects and honest hearts, misled by
+passion. I would that we could give their tempers time to cool. I would,
+even now, preach moderation and compromise to his majesty's ministers."</p>
+
+<p>"The die is long since cast," said Tyrrel, "and all that remains now is
+to take the hazard of the throw. At this moment, whilst we debate,
+friend and foe are whetting their swords for a deadly encounter on the
+fields of Carolina. It is too late to talk of other arbitrement.
+Assuredly, my good friend, our destiny directs us to this province: and
+the time has come when you must decide what course you will take. It has
+been our earnest wish&mdash;Sir Henry's letters, there upon the table,
+anxiously unfold it&mdash;to have you up and active in the cause. Why will
+you disappoint so fair a hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! Mr. Tyrrel,&mdash;it is a thorny path you would have me tread. Think
+you I am the man to win my way through these intricacies? I that live in
+the shelter of these woods by sufferance merely&mdash;an unmolested outlaw,
+to speak soberly, whom these fanatics of liberty have forborne for the
+sake of past acquaintance and present peaceful habits? Am I not girded
+round about with the hot champions of independence? Look amongst these
+hills&mdash;there is not a cabin, not a woodman's hut, no, nor stately
+dwelling, whose roof defends one friend to the royal cause, but my own.
+My lips are sealed; my very thoughts are guarded, lest I give room to
+think I mean to fly from my neutrality. These papers that lie upon that
+table might cost me my life: your presence here, were your purpose
+known, might consign me to captivity or exile:&mdash;one random word spoken
+might give me over to the censures of the power that holds its usurped
+domination in the province. What aid may be expected from one so
+guarded, fettered, watched and powerless?"</p>
+
+<p>"And can you patiently," exclaimed Tyrrel, "bow to this oppression? You,
+a native born freeman of the province&mdash;a Briton, nursed in the sunny
+light of liberty! Shall your freedom of speech be circumscribed, your
+footsteps be followed by spies and traitors, your very inmost thoughts
+be read and brought up to the censure of the judgment seat? Shall these
+things be, and the blood still continue to run coolly and temperately
+through your veins! There are ills, Mr. Lindsay, which even your calm
+philosophy may not master. But, perhaps, I have mistaken your temper:
+these evidences, at least, shall not put you in peril," he said, as he
+took up the letters from the table and held them over the candle, and
+then threw the flaming mass upon the hearth. "That fear, I hope, is
+removed; and as for my presence here, one word briefly spoken, and it
+shall not longer jeopard your safety."</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay looked fixedly at his companion as he destroyed the papers, and
+then said with a stern emphasis&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your duty, sir, is in the field. You have been bred to a profession
+that teaches you blind obedience to orders. It is not your part to weigh
+the right of the cause, nor to falter in the execution of any foul
+purpose of blood, so that it come under the name of honorable warfare.
+Therefore I excuse this unbecoming warmth: but do not presume upon the
+hazardous nature of your calling, and fancy that it implies more
+fidelity to the king than the allegiance of his more peaceful subjects.
+It is a thought unworthy of you that fear of disaster to myself&mdash;be it
+ten-fold more imminent than it has yet been&mdash;should arrest my step in
+that path where my country's honor, or my sovereign's command, bids me
+advance."</p>
+
+<p>"Worthy and excellent friend," said Tyrrel, taking Lindsay's hand, "I
+have done you wrong. I am rash and headlong in my temper, and my tongue
+often speaks what my heart disavows. I am little better than a boy, Mr.
+Lindsay, and a foolish one; I humbly crave your pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak on," said Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>"Then briefly this. Your situation is all that you have described it.
+Sir Henry is aware of the trial he imposes upon you. He would have you
+act with the caution which your wisdom dictates; and if it should become
+necessary to speak that word which is to bring the wrath of the rebels
+upon your head, remember there is sanctuary and defence under the broad
+banner of England. Who so welcome there as Philip Lindsay? Even at this
+moment our councils should be tempered by your presence, and it becomes
+almost a patriotic duty to pluck you from the seclusion of the Dove
+Cote, and give you a share in the stirring events of the day. Sir, the
+country has a claim upon your services, scarce compatible with the idle
+contemplation of this momentous trial of strength."</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay had advanced to the window, where he remained looking over the
+moon-lit scene. His companion stood close beside him, and after a short
+interval took his arm, when they stepped forth upon the porch, and
+sauntered backward and forward, as Tyrrel continued,</p>
+
+<p>"The government would not be unmindful of the benefits you might confer.
+There are offices of trust and dignity to be filled in this province
+when it shall be restored to its allegiance. The highest post would not
+be unfitly bestowed, if it should be assigned to you. Sir Henry Clinton
+bids me speak of that, as of a subject that has already occupied his
+thoughts. It would give grace and dignity to our resumed authority, to
+have it illustrated by the accomplished scholar and discreet statesman,
+who has, before this, discharged important and difficult trusts with a
+fidelity that has won all men's esteem. And then, my dear sir," he added
+after a pause, "who may say that it shall not be Sir Philip Lindsay, or
+even something yet higher?&mdash;a coronet would not be an honor unsuited
+even to the wilds of Virginia. His majesty is not slow to discern worth,
+nor backward to raise it to its proper station. These are toys and
+baubles to you, Mr. Lindsay, but they are still worth the seeking. You
+have a son to follow you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! there, Mr. Tyrrel, you touch me more nearly than you imagine. You
+remind me by this language that I have also a daughter. As to Henry, he
+has a temper and a capacity to make his own way through the world. I
+fear not for him&mdash;nor would I seek for honors to add to his name. But my
+Mildred! You know not what emotions the thought of her, in these
+troubles, costs me. Who shall guard and defend her, whilst I pursue this
+waylaid road of ambition? What sanctuary would she find under a
+war-encircled banner, should misfortune assail me, and adversity
+separate us? Alas, alas!&mdash;that is the spell that, like a net cast over
+my limbs, makes me feeble and submissive."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not been without my solicitude, Mr. Lindsay, on that subject,"
+said Tyrrel. "You yesterday did me the honor to say that my proposal in
+regard to Miss Lindsay was not distasteful to you. Could my ardent wish
+but be accomplished, she should be placed in safety, assured of ample
+and kind protection. If, haply, her thoughts should incline to a
+favorable reception of my offer, which I would fain persuade myself her
+reverence for you may render not altogether improbable, when she knows
+that you deem well of my suit, we might remove her to Charleston, where,
+secure amidst assiduous friends, she would pass the brief interval of
+alarm, and leave you free to act on this theatre as your honor and duty
+may impel you."</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred will not leave me," said Lindsay; "my dear daughter would
+suffer a thousand deaths in the anxiety of such a separation."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why not accompany her to Charleston?" asked Tyrrel. "Your presence
+there would be equally efficient as at head-quarters&mdash;perhaps more so."</p>
+
+<p>"There are other obstacles, Mr. Tyrrel. You talk of Mildred as if her
+heart were to be disposed of at my bidding. You do not know her. I have
+long struggled to subdue an attachment that has bound her to our worst
+enemy, I fear with little success. I have trusted to time to wear out
+what I deemed a mere girlish liking; but it seems to me the traces fade
+but slowly from her heart."</p>
+
+<p>"I know of whom you speak," said Tyrrel&mdash;"that harebrained enthusiast
+Butler. It is a freakish and transient passion, and cannot but fall into
+forgetfulness. Miss Lindsay has from circumstances been but little
+conversant with the world, and, like an inexperienced girl, has fostered
+in solitude a romantic affection. That alone should be a motive to
+remove her into a busier scene. Besides, this Butler will be himself
+forced to give over his hopeless aim&mdash;if he has not done so before this:
+measures are already taken, and I do not scruple to tell you, at my
+instance&mdash;to confiscate his lands in Carolina to his majesty's use. The
+close of this war will find him penniless, and not unlikely, my dear
+sir, I myself may be the possessor of his inheritance&mdash;I have some
+pledge of the preemption of these lands at a small fee."</p>
+
+<p>"It will win you no favor with Mildred," said Lindsay, "to tell her that
+you succeed by such a title to this man's wealth. She is a wayward girl,
+and is not used to crosses. Her devotion to her purpose, as it sometimes
+excites my admiration, gives me, in the present case, cause of profound
+alarm."</p>
+
+<p>"You have spoken to her on this subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not," replied Lindsay, "and almost fear to broach it. I can,
+therefore, give you no encouragement. Some little time hence&mdash;perhaps
+to-morrow&mdash;I may sound her feelings. But remember, as her father, I
+claim no right beyond that of advice. I shall think myself fortunate if,
+by giving a new direction to the current of her affections, I can divert
+her mind from the thoughts of an alliance to me the most hateful&mdash;to her
+full of future misery. A maiden's fancies are scarcely intelligible even
+to a father."</p>
+
+<p>"These subjects require meditation," said Tyrrel. "I will not press them
+further upon your thoughts to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven guide us in the way of safety and happiness!" said Lindsay,
+almost in a whisper. "Good night, my friend."</p>
+
+<p>When Tyrrel was left alone he strolled forward to the terrace, and
+passing round to that end which overhung the cliff, near the door that
+opened from the library, he leaned his breast upon the parapet and
+looked down upon the wild and beautiful scenery of the valley. The
+night was calm and full of splendor. The tops of the trees that grew in
+the ravine, almost perpendicularly beneath his eye, here and there
+caught the bright moon-beam where it glowed like silver, and the shades,
+rendered deeper by the contrast, seemed to brood over a black and
+impenetrable abyss. Occasional glimpses were seen of the river below, as
+it sparkled along such portions of its channel as were not hidden in
+darkness. The coolness of the hour and the solitude of the spot were not
+ungrateful to the mood of Tyrrel's mind, whilst the monotonous music of
+the river fell pleasantly upon his ear. He was not unheedful of these
+charms in the scene, though his thoughts were busily employed with a
+subject foreign to their contemplation.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I advanced," was the tenor of his present self-communion, "the
+purpose I have so much at heart, by this night's conference? Could I but
+engage Lindsay in the issues of this war, so commit him in its purposes
+and its plots as to render his further residence at the Dove Cote
+insecure, then would I already have half-compassed my point. Where could
+he remove but to Charleston? And there, amidst the blandishments of
+friends and the allurements of gay society, I might make sure of
+Mildred. There, cut off from all means of hearing of this Butler, and
+swayed, as she must necessarily be, by the current of loyal feelings,
+she would learn to detest his foul rebellion, and soon lose her favor
+for the rebel. Then, too, the confiscation of his lands&mdash;but I am not so
+sure of that!&mdash;she is rich and would make a merit of sharing her fortune
+with a man whose brave resistance of oppression&mdash;for so, doubtless,
+Butler persuades her it is&mdash;has cost him his wealth: the confiscation
+should not seem, at least, to be my doing. Well, well, let her be
+brought to Charleston. Any change were better than to remain here, where
+anxiety and suspense and solitude nurse and soften her woman's
+affections, and teach her to fancy her lover whatsoever her imagination
+delights to think on. Then may not the chances of war assist me? This
+Butler, all men say, is brave and adventurous. He should be short-lived.
+Whatever ill may befall him cannot but work good to me. Yet Lindsay has
+such a sickly caution&mdash;such scruple against involving himself in the
+scheme&mdash;I could almost find it in my heart to have it told amongst his
+neighbors that he is in correspondence with the enemy. Ha, that would be
+a bright device!&mdash;inform against myself! No, no, I will not abuse his
+generous nature. Let him come fairly into the fold, and I will guard
+his gentle lambkin like a very shepherd. Then if we make him governor of
+the province&mdash;that will work well. Mildred will thank me for my zeal in
+that good purpose, at least, and I will marry her and possess her
+estate, if it be only to enable her to be grateful to me. 'Twill be a
+brave reward, and bravely shall it be won."</p>
+
+<p>As Tyrrel ruminated over these topics, in the strain indicated by this
+sketch, the noise of footsteps ascending the rugged stairway of the
+cliff, and the opening of the iron wicket, but a short distance from
+where he leaned over the parapet, roused his attention, and put an end
+to this insidious and selfish communion with his own heart.</p>
+
+<p>The cause of this interruption was soon apparent. Henry and Mildred
+entered through the gate, and hurried along the path to that part of the
+terrace where Tyrrel stood. The shade of the house concealed him from
+their view until they were within a few paces. "Ha, Miss Lindsay! You
+are a late rambler," he said, in a tone of gallantry. "The dampness of
+the valley, at this hour, is not altogether safe; the ague is a sore
+enemy to romance; beware of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid of the night," replied Mildred, as she increased the
+rapidity of her gait; then, turning immediately upon the porch, she
+almost ran, leaving Henry and Tyrrel in pursuit, until she reached the
+farthest window which was heard descending the moment she passed through
+it into the parlor. When Tyrrel and Henry entered the same apartment,
+she had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"My sister is not well this evening," said Henry. "We strolled too late
+upon the river bank."</p>
+
+<p>"It was still an over-hasty retreat," muttered Tyrrel to himself. "It
+bodes not well for me. I will wager, Henry," he said, raising his voice,
+"that I can guess what you and your sister have been talking about."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me hear," said Henry.</p>
+
+<p>"First," replied Tyrrel, "she repeated some verses from Shakspeare about
+the moonlight sleeping on the bank&mdash;this is just the night for
+poetry&mdash;and then you both fell to talking sentiment, and then, I'll be
+bound, you had a ghost story, and by that time, you found you had got
+too far from the house and were a little frightened, and so came back as
+fast as you could."</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong," said Henry. "I have been telling sister Mildred how to
+bob for eels. Did you know that an eel will never pass a streak of
+moonlight for fear of being found out by the watchers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sister Mildred is wiser than you are; and as I have taught you
+that, I will go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>Tyrrel was again left to resume his meditations, and to hatch his plots
+for invading the peace of the Dove Cote, on his pillow. To that
+sleepless pillow he now betook himself.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>TYRREL RETREATS.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The next morning Tyrrel rose with the sun. He had passed a restless
+night, and now sought refreshment in the early breeze. With this purpose
+he descended to the river, and strayed along the dewy pathway which
+crept through the shrubbery on the right bank in the direction of the
+Fawn's Tower. He had not wandered far before he perceived a horseman
+moving along the road upon the opposite side.</p>
+
+<p>"Halloo, James Curry!&mdash;which way?&mdash;What news have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I seek you, sir, I was on my way to the Dove Cote," replied the
+horseman, who at the same time turned his horse's head to the river,
+and, spurring the animal forward, plunged into the stream which was here
+still and deep enough to reach above his saddle flaps. After some
+floundering, the horse and rider gained the margin, where Tyrrel awaited
+them! The vigor of the animal, as well as the practised hand that held
+the rein, was shown in the boldness of the attempt to climb the steep
+bank and break through the briers and bushes that here guarded it. As
+soon as Curry reached the level ground, he dismounted.</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name, man, what is the matter with your face?" asked Tyrrel.</p>
+
+<p>"It is of that, amongst other things, that I came to speak to you," was
+the reply; "I have news for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak, without prelude. Tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler slept last night at Mrs. Dimock's."</p>
+
+<p>"And is there still?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. He started at early dawn this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"To join Gates?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not. He talked of going to Ninety-Six&mdash;perhaps to Georgia."</p>
+
+<p>"So, ho! The hawk hovers over that field! Does he travel alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has a giant in his company, a great ploughman by the name of Horse
+Shoe Robinson. A quarrelsome rascal; he would needs pick a quarrel with
+me last night. And in the skirmish I got this face."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not command you to bear yourself peaceably? Fool! will you risk
+our lives with your infernal broils? Now, I would wager you told the
+fellow your name."</p>
+
+<p>"Little need of that, sir. He told it to me: said he knew me before. The
+fellow, for all his rough coat, is a regular trained soldier in the
+rebel service, and has met me somewhere&mdash;Heaven knows!&mdash;I don't remember
+him; yet he isn't a man to see once and forget again."</p>
+
+<p>"And me, did he speak of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"He knew that I was in the employ of an English gentleman who was here
+at the Dove Cote. I have nothing especial to complain of in the man. He
+speaks soldierly enough; he said he would take no advantage of me for
+being here as long as our visit was peaceable."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! And you believed him. And you must fight with him, like a
+brawling knave. When will you get an ounce of wit into that fool's head!
+What time of day was it when this Butler arrived?"</p>
+
+<p>"Long after night-fall."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you understand any thing of the purpose of his visit?"</p>
+
+<p>"He talked much with Mistress Dimock, and I think their conversation
+related to the lady at the Dove Cote. I could hear but a few scattered
+words."</p>
+
+<p>"Away.&mdash;Here (throwing his purse to the horseman), pay up your score at
+the inn, and at your greatest haste attend me on the river bank,
+immediately below Mr. Lindsay's house. Ask Mrs. Dimock to have a
+breakfast prepared for me.&mdash;Away, I will expect you in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>Curry mounted his horse, and choosing a more convenient ford than that
+which he had passed (for the jutting rocks, on this side, prevented his
+reaching Mrs. Dimock's without recrossing the river to the road), he
+soon regained the track, and was seen, almost at high speed, sweeping
+around the base of the Fawn's Tower.</p>
+
+<p>Tyrrel returned hastily to the Dove Cote, and, seeking his valet, gave
+orders to have his portmanteau packed, his horse saddled and to be in
+waiting for him at the foot of the hill. These commands were speedily
+obeyed, and everything was in readiness for his journey before any of
+the family had made their appearance in the breakfast room.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst Tyrrel meditated writing a line to explain to Lindsay his present
+sudden movement, and had drawn near a table for that purpose, he was
+saluted by the voice of Henry, who had entered the apartment, and stolen
+unobserved almost immediately behind his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Booted and spurred, Mr. Tyrrel!" said Henry. "You are for a ride. Will
+you take a fowling-piece? There are pheasants over upon the hills."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ho! Master Henry, you are up! I am glad of it. I was just writing a
+word to say that business calls me away this morning. Is your father yet
+abed?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is sound asleep," said Henry; "I will wake him."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my lad. You must not do that. Say I have received news this morning
+that has called me suddenly to my friends. I will return before long. Is
+your sister stirring?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was in the garden but a moment since," replied Henry; and the young
+man left the room, to which he returned after a short space. "Sister
+Mildred is engaged in her chamber, and begs you will excuse her," said
+he, as he again entered the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Tush, Henry, I didn't tell you to interrupt your sister. Make her my
+most respectful adieu. Don't forget it. I have all my way to win," he
+said to himself, "and a rough road to travel, I fear."</p>
+
+<p>Tyrrel now left the house and descended to the river, accompanied by
+Henry, who sought in vain to know why he departed in such haste as not
+to stay for breakfast. James Curry waited below; and, when Henry saw his
+father's guest mount in his saddle and cross the ford, attended by his
+two servants, he turned about and clambered up the hill again, half
+singing and half saying to him self,&mdash;"I'm glad he's gone, I'm glad he's
+gone," accompanied with a trolling chorus, expressive of the
+satisfaction of his feelings at the moment. "He'd a got a flea in his
+ear, if he had stay'd. I should like to know what Major Butler would say
+to Mr. Tyrrel, if he was to meet him. Zooks! may be Butler will see him
+this very morning at Mrs. Dimock's. Now, I wonder! Shall I whisper that
+to sister Mildred? She would be glad, for one, I'll be bound! May be,
+they might have a fight. And if they do, let Mr. Tyrrel look out! He
+never had his bread so buttered in his life, as it would be then."</p>
+
+<p>In such a strain of cogitation and conjecture, Henry reached the parlor,
+where he found Mildred. The melancholy that hung upon her spirits, the
+evening before, seemed to have been dispelled by the repose of the
+night, and was doubtless relieved, in part, by the intelligence that
+Tyrrel had quitted the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, sister," said Henry, throwing his arm round her waist, and almost
+dancing, as he forced her through the open window, "come, it will be a
+good while before father is ready for his breakfast. Let us look at your
+flowers; I have something to tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite an important personage, this morning," replied Mildred,
+moving off towards the lawn with her brother. "Your face looks as wise
+as a book of proverbs."</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before the brother and sister returned to the parlor,
+and when they did so, their father had not yet appeared. The delay was
+unusual; for Lindsay generally rose at an early hour, and frequently
+walked abroad before his morning meal. When he at last entered the room,
+there was an expression of care and thought upon his brow that made him
+haggard. Mildred, as was her custom, approached him with a kiss, and,
+taking both of his hands, as she looked up in his face, she said, with
+some earnestness:</p>
+
+<p>"You are not well, my dear father."</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay paused a moment, while he gazed affectionately upon her, and
+then pressing her to his bosom, uttered in a low voice, with a smile,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"God bless my dear child! How carefully does she read my looks! Come
+hither, Henry," he continued, as he gave his son one hand, and still
+held Mildred with the other, and then turned his eyes alternately upon
+each. "Now, tell me, which of you love me best? Who has waited most
+patiently for me this morning? I see by that glance of your blue eye,
+master Henry, that you have been chiding your lazy father for lying so
+long abed. Now, I dare say, if the truth were known, you have had your
+rifle ready to go out and shoot squirrels an hour ago. I beg your
+pardon, Mr. Sportsman&mdash;not to shoot the squirrel, but to shoot at him.
+Or, perhaps, you mean to bring us a deer to-day; you know you have
+promised to do that every morning for a week."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall eat a slice from as fine a saddle of venison to-day, father,
+as you ever saw smoke over a chafing-dish."</p>
+
+<p>"In good truth, shall I, boy? You are a brave promiser! You remember
+your own adage,&mdash;Brag was a good dog, but Holdfast was better."</p>
+
+<p>"In right down earnest, father, you shall. You needn't laugh. Now,
+you're thinking I have the deer to shoot; there's your mistake. The
+saddle is this minute lying on the dresser in the kitchen. He was a
+running buck yesterday; and I could tell where the powder and ball came
+from (here Henry made the motion of opening a hunting pouch at his side)
+that put an end to his capers."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a monstrous braggart; is he not, Mildred?" said Lindsay,
+directing a look of incredulity at his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"What Henry tells you is true," replied Mildred. "Stephen Foster was
+here at sunrise with a part of a buck, which he says was shot
+yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Then it is to Stephen's rifle we are indebted. You kill your
+bucks by proxy, master."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bet," said Henry, "that Stephen Foster hasn't the impudence to
+charge one penny for that venison. And why? Because, by the laws of
+chace, one-half belongs to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I understand," interrupted Lindsay, with affected gravity; "it is a
+matter of great doubt which of you shot it. You both fired at once; or,
+perhaps, Stephen first, and you afterwards; and the poor animal dropped
+the moment you took your aim,&mdash;even before your piece went off. You know
+your aim, Harry, is deadly,&mdash;much worse than your bullet."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt who killed him," said Henry; "for Stephen was on that
+side of the hill, and I was a little below him, and the buck ran right
+to Stephen, who, of course, gave him the first shot. But there was I,
+father, just ready, if Stephen had missed, to bring old Velvet-Horns to
+the ground, before he could have leaped a rod."</p>
+
+<p>"But, unluckily, Stephen's first shot killed him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that," replied Henry. "Another person's knife might have
+done the business; for the deer jumped down the bank into the road, and
+there"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Mildred cast a sidelong look of caution at her brother, to warn him
+against alluding to a third person, whom it was not discreet to mention.</p>
+
+<p>"And there," said Henry, taking the sign, "when I got up to him he was
+stone dead. I would almost think a deer couldn't be shot dead so
+suddenly. But Stephen can pitch his lead, as he calls it, just where he
+likes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it isn't fair to inquire who killed him," said Lindsay. "One
+hunter often turns the game to the other's rifle. And, at all events,
+your dogs, Henry, I dare say, did as much as either of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Hylas was just at his heels when he was shot," replied Henry; "and a
+better dog there isn't in Amherst, or Albemarle to boot."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well! Let us to breakfast. Where is our guest? Tyrrel is surely
+out before this."</p>
+
+<p>"He has been gone from the Dove Cote more than an hour," said Henry. "He
+told me to say, that some sudden news took him off in haste. I would
+have waked you, but he forbade it. His man, Curry, who was waiting for
+him at the ford, I dare say, brought him some dispatches."</p>
+
+<p>"It was very sudden," said Lindsay, musing; "the great game will be
+shortly played."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father, you have not your usual look of health," said Mildred
+again. "I fear something disturbs you."</p>
+
+<p>"A slight cold, only, from exposure to the night air, perhaps. You did
+not see Tyrrel this morning, Mildred?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not wish to see him, father. I was up when he set out, but I was
+not in his way."</p>
+
+<p>"Fie, girl, you almost speak crossly! Tyrrel, I must think, is not a man
+to win his way with ladies. But he is a loyal subject to his king. I can
+tell you, Mildred, loyalty is a virtue of good associations in these
+times."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the last virtue, my dear father, that a woman ever writes down in
+the list of noble qualities. We generally forget it altogether. History
+is so full of the glory of disloyal heroes, that the indiscriminate and
+persevering loyalty of brave men has come to be but little noticed.
+Brutus was disloyal, and so was Tell; and the English barons, of whom
+you boast so much, when you call them sturdy, were disloyal; and
+Washington&mdash;who knows, my dear father, but that he may be written down
+by some future nation, (and she laid an emphasis on this word,) as
+another name to give credit to this word, disloyal."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art a shrewd orator, Mildred," exclaimed her father, as he sought
+to change the subject, "and I doubt not, if Heaven had made you man, you
+would now be flattering these rebels by persuading them they were all
+born for heroes. We may thank the gods that they have given you the
+petticoat instead of the soldier's cloak, and placed you at the head of
+a breakfast table instead of a regiment."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think," replied Mildred smiling, "that I should altogether
+disgrace the cloak now, woman as I am, if the occasion required me to
+put it on."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray drop this subject, my dear child; you know it makes me sad. My
+family, I fear, are foredoomed to some strange mishap from these civil
+broils. Attend me presently in the library, I have matters to
+communicate that concern you. Henry, my boy," Lindsay continued, as he
+rose from his breakfast, "pay Stephen Foster the full value of the
+venison; as a sportsman you have a right perhaps to your share of the
+game, but a gentleman shows his courtesy by waiving such claims; he
+should suffer no friend to be his creditor, even in opinion. Stephen may
+not expect to be paid; no matter, it concerns your own character to be
+liberal."</p>
+
+<p>"I have promised Stephen a new rifle," replied Henry; "since they have
+elected him lieutenant of the Amherst Rangers he wants something better
+than his old deer gun."</p>
+
+<p>"I positively forbid it," interrupted Lindsay hastily, returning towards
+the middle of the room from the door through which he was about to
+depart. "What! would you purchase weapons for those clowns to enable
+them to shoot down his majesty's liege subjects? to make war upon their
+rightful king, against his laws and throne? to threaten your life, your
+sister's and mine, unless we bowed to this impious idol of democracy,
+which they have set up&mdash;this Washington?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, dear father," interposed Mildred as she came up to him and
+flung her arms about his neck. "Consider, Henry is a thoughtless boy,
+and does not look to consequences."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven bless you both, my children! I beg your pardons. I am over
+captious. Henry, pay Stephen for the venison, and give him something
+better than a rifle. Mildred, I will see you presently."</p>
+
+<p>When Lindsay had left the parlor Mildred besought her brother, in the
+most earnest terms, to be more guarded against giving expression to any
+sentiment which might bring their father's thoughts to the existing war.
+Her own observation had informed her of the nature of the struggle that
+agitated his mind, and her effort was continually directed to calm and
+soothe his feelings by the most unremitting affection, and thus to
+foster his resolution against taking any part in those schemes in which,
+she shrewdly guessed, it was the purpose of the emissaries of the royal
+party to involve him.</p>
+
+<p>Her attachment to Arthur Butler she feared to mention to her father,
+whilst her self-respect and her conviction of her duty to a parent who
+loved her with unbounded devotion, would not allow her altogether to
+conceal it. Upon this subject, Lindsay had sufficiently read her heart
+to know much more about it than she chose to confess; and it did not
+fail to kindle up in his mind a feverish excitement, that occasionally
+broke forth in even a petulant reproof, and to furnish the only occasion
+that had ever arisen of serious displeasure against his daughter. The
+unhappy association between this incident in the life of Mildred, and
+the current of a feeling which had its foundation in a weak piece of
+superstition, to which I have alluded in a former chapter, gave to the
+idea of Mildred's marriage with Butler a fatal complexion in Lindsay's
+thoughts. "For what purpose," he asked himself, "but to avert this
+ill-omened event could I have had such an extraordinary warning?" It had
+occurred to him that the surest method of protecting his family against
+this misfortune would be to throw Mildred into other associations, and
+encourage the growth of other attachments, such as might be expected to
+grow up in her heart out of the kindness of new friendships. He had even
+meditated removing her to England, but that plan became so repulsive to
+him when he found the mention of it distasteful to his children, and it
+suited so little his own fondness for the retirement he had already
+cultivated, that he had abandoned it almost as soon as it occurred to
+him. His next alternative was to favor&mdash;though he did so with no great
+zeal&mdash;the proposal lately made by Tyrrel. He little knew the character
+of the woman he had to deal with. Never was more devotion enshrined in a
+woman's heart than in Mildred's. Never was more fixed and steady purpose
+to encounter all hazards and hold cheap all dangers more deeply rooted
+in man's or woman's resolution, than was Mildred's to cherish the love
+and follow the fortunes of Arthur Butler.</p>
+
+<p>This conflict between love and filial duty sadly perplexed the
+daughter's peace; and not less disturbing was the strife between
+parental affection and the supposed mandate of fate, in the breast of
+the father.</p>
+
+<p>Henry protested his sorrow for his recent indiscretion and promised more
+caution for the future, and then recurring to what more immediately
+concerned his sister's interest, he said, "I do much wonder what
+Tyrrel's man had to say this morning; it took our good gentleman away so
+suddenly. I can't help thinking it has something to do with Butler and
+Horse Shoe. They must have been seen by Curry at Mrs. Dimock's, and old
+Tony knows the major very well, and has told his name. Besides, do you
+know, sister, I think Curry is a spy? Else, why should he be left at
+Mrs. Dimock's always? There was room enough here for both of Mr.
+Tyrrel's servants. I have a thought that I will reconnoitre: I will ride
+over to the Blue Ball, and see what I can learn."</p>
+
+<p>"Do, my good brother," replied Mildred, "and in the meantime I must go
+to my father, who has something disagreeable to tell me&mdash;so I
+fear&mdash;concerning that busy plotter who has just left us. My spirits grow
+heavy at the thought of it. Ah, Henry, if I could but speak out, and
+unpack my heart, what a load would I throw off! How does it grieve me to
+have a secret that I dare not tell my dear father! Thank heaven,
+brother, your heart and mine have not yet had a secret that they could
+not whisper to each other!"</p>
+
+<p>"Give care the whip, sister," said Henry, like a young gallant, "it
+belongs to the bat family and should not fly in day-time. Farewell for
+the next two hours!" and saying these words the sprightly youth kissed
+his hand, and, with an alert step, left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred now retired to prepare for the interview with her father.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SCENE BETWEEN A FATHER AND DAUGHTER.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>When Mildred entered the library Lindsay was already there. He stood
+before one of the ranges of book shelves, and held a volume in his hand
+which, for a moment after his daughter's entrance, seemed to engross his
+attention. Mildred was sufficiently astute to perceive that by this
+device he struggled to compose his mind for an interview of which she
+more than guessed the import. She was of a constitution not easily to be
+driven from her self-possession; but the consciousness of her father's
+embarrassment, and some perplexity in her own feelings at this moment,
+produced by a sense of the difficult part she had to perform, slightly
+discomposed her; there was something like alarm in her step, and also in
+the expression of her features, as she almost stealthily seated herself
+in one of the large lounging chairs. For a moment she unconsciously
+employed herself in stripping a little flower that she held in her hand
+of its leaves, and looked silently upon the floor; at length, in a low
+accent, she said, "Father, I am here at your bidding." Lindsay turned
+quickly round, and, throwing down the volume he had been perusing,
+approached his daughter with a smile that seemed rather unnaturally to
+play over his grave and almost melancholy countenance, and it was with a
+forced attempt at pleasantry he said, as he took her hand:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I dare say, you think you have done something very wrong, and that
+I have brought you here to give you a lecture."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, father, I have done nothing wrong," was Mildred's grave and
+almost tremulous reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art a good child, Mildred," said Lindsay, drawing a chair close
+beside hers, and then, in a more serious tone, he continued, "you are
+entirely sure, my daughter, that I love you, and devoutly seek your
+happiness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear father, you frighten me by this solemn air. Why ask me such a
+question?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, my girl, but my feelings are full with subjects of serious
+import, and I would have you believe that what I have now to say springs
+from an earnest solicitude for your welfare."</p>
+
+<p>"You have always shown it, father."</p>
+
+<p>"I come to speak to you, without reserve, of Tyrrel," resumed Lindsay;
+"and you will not respond to my confidence, unless you answer me in the
+very truth of your heart. This gentleman, Mr. Tyrrel, has twice avowed
+to me of late an earnest attachment to you, and has sought my leave to
+prosecute his suit. Such things are not apt to escape a woman's notice,
+and you have doubtless had some hint of his predilection before he
+disclosed it to me."</p>
+
+<p>All the woman's bashfulness disappeared with this announcement. Mildred
+grew erect in her seat, and as the native pride of her character beamed
+forth from every feature of her face, she replied&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He has never, father, vouchsafed to give me such a proof of his good
+opinion. Mr. Tyrrel is content to make his bargain with you: he is well
+aware that whatever hope he may be idle enough to cherish, must depend
+more on your command than on my regard."</p>
+
+<p>"He has never spoken to you, Mildred?" asked Lindsay, without making any
+comment on the indignant reception his daughter had given to his
+disclosure. "Never a word? Bethink you, my daughter, of all that has
+lately passed between you. A maiden is apt to misconstrue attentions.
+Can you remember nothing beyond the mere civilities of custom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can think of nothing in the conduct of Mr. Tyrrel but his devotion to
+the purpose of embroiling my dear father in his miserable politics. I
+can remember nothing of him but his low voice and noiseless step, his
+mysterious insinuations, his midnight sittings, his fulsome flattery of
+your services in the royal cause, the base means by which he has robbed
+you of your rest and taken the color from your cheek. I thought him too
+busy in distracting your peace to cast a thought upon me. But to speak
+to me, father, of attachment," she said, rising and taking a station so
+near Lindsay's chair as to be able to lean her arm upon his shoulder,
+"to breathe one word of a wish to win my esteem, that he dared not do."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak under the impulse of some unnecessarily excited feeling,
+daughter. You apply terms and impute motives that sound too harsh from
+your lips, when the subject of them is a brave and faithful gentleman.
+Mr. Tyrrel deserves nothing at our hands but kindness."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, my dear father, alas, that you should think so!"</p>
+
+<p>"What have you discovered, Mildred, or heard, that you should deem so
+injuriously of this man? Who has conjured up this unreasonable aversion
+in your mind against him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am indebted to no sources of information but my own senses," replied
+Mildred; "I want no monitor to tell me that he is not to be trusted. He
+is not what he seems."</p>
+
+<p>"True, he is not what he seems, but better. Tyrrel appears here but as a
+simple gentleman, wearing, for obvious reasons, an assumed name. The
+letters he has brought me avouch him to be a man of rank and family,
+high in the confidence of the officers of the king, and holding a
+reputable commission in the army: a man of note, worthy to be trusted
+with grave enterprises, distinguished for sagacity, bravery, and honor,
+of moral virtues which would dignify any station, and, as you cannot but
+acknowledge from your own observation, filled with the courtesy and
+grace of a gentleman. Fie, daughter! it is sinful to derogate from the
+character of an honorable man."</p>
+
+<p>"Wearing an assumed name, father, and acting a part, here, at the Dove
+Cote! Is it necessary for his purpose that, under this roof, he should
+appear in masquerade? May I know whether he treats with you for my hand
+in his real or assumed character&mdash;does he permit me to know who he is?"</p>
+
+<p>"All in good time, Mildred. Content you, girl, that he has sufficiently
+certified himself to me. These are perilous times, and Tyrrel is obliged
+to practise much address to find his way along our roads. You are aware
+it would not be discreet to have him known even to our servants. But the
+time will come when you shall know him as himself, and then, if I
+mistake not, your generous nature will be ashamed to have wronged him by
+unworthy suspicions."</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, father," exclaimed Mildred, rising to a tone of animation
+that awakened the natural eloquence of her feelings, and gave them vent
+in language which more resembled the display of a practised orator than
+the declamation of a girl, "believe me, he imposes on you. His purposes
+are intensely selfish. If he has obtained an authority to treat with you
+or others under an assumed name, it has only been to further his
+personal ends. Already has he succeeded in plunging you, against your
+will, into the depth of this quarrel. Your time, my dear father, which
+once glided as softly and as happily as yon sparkling waters through our
+valley, is now consumed in deliberations that wear out your spirits:
+your books are abandoned for the study of secret schemes of politics:
+you are perplexed and anxious at every account that reaches us of
+victory or defeat. It was not so, until you saw Tyrrel: your nights,
+that once knew a long and healthful sleep, are now divided by short and
+unrefreshing slumbers: you complain of unpleasant dreams and you
+foretell some constantly coming disaster. Indeed, dearest father, you
+are not what you were. You wrong yourself by these cares, and you do not
+know how anxiously my brother Henry and myself watch, in secret, this
+unhappy change in your nature. How can I think with patience of this
+Tyrrel when I see these things?"</p>
+
+<p>"The times, Mildred, leave me no choice. When a nation struggles to
+throw off the rule of lawful authority, the friends of peace and order
+should remember that the riotous passions of the refractory people are
+not to be subdued without personal sacrifices."</p>
+
+<p>"You promised yourself, father, here at the Dove Cote to live beyond the
+sphere of these excitements. And, as I well remember, you often, as the
+war raged, threw yourself upon your knees, and taught us,&mdash;your
+children,&mdash;to kneel by your side, and we put up our joint expressions of
+gratitude to God, that, at least, this little asylum was undisturbed by
+the angry passions of man."</p>
+
+<p>"We did, we did, my dearest child. But I should think it sinful to pray
+for the same quiet when my services might be useful to restore harmony
+to a distracted and misguided country."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you now think," asked Mildred, "that your efforts are or can be of
+any avail to produce peace?"</p>
+
+<p>"The blessing of heaven has descended upon the arms of our sovereign,"
+replied Lindsay. "The southern provinces are subdued, and are fast
+returning to their allegiance. The hopes of England brighten, and a
+speedy close of this unnatural rebellion is at hand."</p>
+
+<p>"There are many valleys, father, amongst these mountains, and the wide
+forests shade a solitude where large and populous nations may be hid
+almost from human search. They who possess the valleys and the
+wilderness, I have heard it said by wise men, will for ever choose their
+own rulers."</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred, you are a dutiful daughter, and are not wont to oppose your
+father's wishes. I could desire to see you, with that shrewd
+apprehension of yours, that quick insight, and that thoughtful mind,
+thoughtful beyond the quality of your sex, less favorably bent towards
+the enterprise of these rebel subjects. I do utterly loathe them and
+their cause, and could wish that child of mine abated in no one jot of
+my aversion to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven, father, and your good tutoring have made me what I am,"
+returned Mildred, calmly; "I am but a woman, and speak with a weak
+judgment and little knowledge. To my unlearned mind it seems that the
+government of every nation should be what the people wish it. There are
+good men here, father, amongst your friends&mdash;men, who, I am sure, have
+all kindness in their hearts, who say that this country his suffered
+grievous wrongs from the insolence of the king's representatives. They
+have proclaimed this in a paper which I have heard even you say was
+temperate and thoughtful: and you know nearly the whole land has roused
+itself to say that paper was good. Can so many men be wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a girl," replied Lindsay, "and a subtile one: you are tainted
+with the common heresy. But what else might I expect! There are few
+<i>men</i> who can think out of fashion. When the multitude is supposed to
+speak, that is warrant enough for the opinions of the majority. But it
+is no matter, this is not a woman's theme, and is foreign to our present
+conference. I came to talk with you about Tyrrel. Upon that subject I
+will use no persuasions, express no wish, not in the slightest point
+essay to influence your choice. When he disclosed his purpose to me, I
+told him it was a question solely at your disposal. Thus much it is my
+duty to say, that should his suit be favored"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"From the bottom of my heart, father," interrupted Mildred eagerly, and
+with increasing earnestness, "I abhor the thought. Be assured that if
+age, poverty, and deformity were showered upon me at once, if friends
+abandoned me, if my reason were blighted, and I was doomed to wander
+barefooted amongst thorns and briers, I would not exchange that lot, to
+be his wife amidst ten-fold his honors and wealth. I never can listen to
+his hateful proposal: there is that in my condition which would make it
+wicked. Pray, dearest father, as you love your daughter, do not speak of
+it to me again."</p>
+
+<p>"Resume your calmness, child: your earnestness on this subject afflicts
+me; it has a fearful omen in it. It tells of a heart fatally devoted to
+one whom, of all men, I have greatest reason to hate. This unhappy,
+lingering passion for the sworn enemy of his king and country, little
+becomes my daughter, or her regard for me. It may rouse me, Mildred, to
+some unkind wish against thee. Oh, I could curse myself that I ever
+threw you in the way of this insidious rebel, Butler. Nay you need not
+conceal your tears; well do they deserve to flow for this persevering
+transgression against the peace of your father's house. It requires but
+little skill to read the whole history of your heart."</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay now walked to and fro across the apartment, under the influence
+of emotions which he was afraid to trust himself to utter. At length
+resuming his expostulation, in a somewhat moderate tone, he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Will no lapse of time wear away this abhorred image from your memory?
+Are you madly bent on bringing down misery on your head? I do not speak
+of my own suffering. Will you for ever nurse a hopeless attachment for a
+man whom, it must be apparent to yourself, you can never meet again?
+Whom if the perils of the field, the avenging bullet of some loyal
+subject, do not bring him merited punishment, the halter may reward, or,
+in his most fortunate destiny, disgrace, poverty, and shame pursue. Are
+you for ever to love that man?"</p>
+
+<p>Mildred stood before her father as he brought this appeal to a close;
+her eyes filled with tears, her breast heaving as if it would burst; and
+summoning up all her courage for her reply, when this last question was
+asked, she looked with an expression of almost angry defiance in his
+face, as she answered "For ever, for ever," and hastily left the room.</p>
+
+<p>The firm tone in which Mildred spoke these last words, her proud and
+almost haughty bearing, so unlike anything Lindsay had ever seen before,
+and her abrupt departure from his presence, gave a check to the current
+of his thoughts that raised the most painful emotions. For an instant a
+blush of resentment rose into his cheeks, and he felt tempted to call
+his daughter back that he might express this sentiment: it was but of a
+moment's duration, however, and grief, at what he felt was the first
+altercation he had ever had with his child, succeeded, and stifled all
+other emotions. He flung himself into the chair, and, dropping his
+forehead upon his hand, gave way to the full tide of his feelings. His
+spirits gradually became more composed, and he was able to survey with a
+somewhat temperate judgment the scene that had just passed. His manner,
+he thought, might have been too peremptory&mdash;perhaps it was harsh, and
+had offended his daughter's pride: he should have been more conciliatory
+in his speech. "The old," he said, "are not fit counsellors to the
+young; we forget the warmth of their passions, and would reason when
+they only feel. How small a share has prudence in the concerns of the
+heart!" But then this unexpected fervor of devotion to Butler&mdash;that
+alarmed him, and he bit his lip, as he felt his anger rising with the
+thought. "Her repugnance to Tyrrel, her prompt rejection of his suit,
+her indignant contempt for the man, even that I could bear with
+patience," he exclaimed. "I seek not to trammel her will by any
+authority of mine. But this Butler! Oh! there is the beginning of the
+curse upon my house! there is the fate against which I have been so
+solemnly warned! That man who had been the author of this unhappiness,
+and whose alliance with my name has been denounced by the awful
+visitation of the dead,&mdash;that Mildred should cherish his regard, is
+misery. It cannot and shall not be!"</p>
+
+<p>These and many such reflections passed through Lindsay's mind, and had
+roused his feelings to a tone of exacerbation against Arthur Butler, far
+surpassing any displeasure he had ever before indulged against this
+individual. In the height of this self-communion he was interrupted by
+the return of Mildred to the apartment, almost as abruptly as she had
+quitted it. She approached his chair, knelt, laid her head upon his lap,
+and wept aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my dear father," she said, at length, looking up in his face while
+the tears rolled down her cheeks, "why do you address language to me
+that makes me forget the duty I owe you? If you knew my heart, you would
+spare and pity my feelings. Pardon me, dear father, if my conduct has
+offended you. I knew not what I spoke; I am wretched, and cannot answer
+for my words. Do not think I would wound your affection by unkindness;
+but indeed, indeed, I cannot hear you speak of Tyrrel without agony."</p>
+
+<p>"Rise, daughter," said Lindsay, almost lifting her up, "I do not chide
+you for your repugnance to Tyrrel. You mistake me if you think I would
+dictate to your affections: my grief has a deeper source. This Arthur
+Butler"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Spare that name, father?" interrupted Mildred, retiring to a seat near
+the window and covering her face with her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Curse him!" exclaimed Lindsay. "May all the plagues that torment the
+human bosom fall upon him! Mark me, daughter, I trust I am not an
+unreasonable father; I know I am not an unkind one; there are few
+requests that you could make which I would not freely grant. But to hear
+with patience the name of that man on your lips, to think of him as
+allied to you by any sympathy, as sharing any portion of your
+esteem&mdash;him, a rebel traitor who has raised his sacrilegious hand
+against his king, who has sold his name to infamy, who has contributed
+to fill these peaceful provinces with discord, and to subvert the
+happiness of this land, which heaven had appointed to be an asylum where
+man, disgusted with the lusts, rapine, and murder of his fellow, might
+betake himself as a child to the bosom of his parent&mdash;I cannot endure
+the thought of him! Never again, Mildred, I charge you, never allude to
+him again!"</p>
+
+<p>"If I could but tell you all!" interrupted Mildred, sobbing, "if I could
+but patiently have your hearing."</p>
+
+<p>"Never a word of him! as you desire to preserve my affection, I will not
+hear. Get to your chamber," said Lindsay, almost sternly. "Get to your
+chamber, this perverse and resolute temper of thine, needs the restraint
+of solitude."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred rose from her chair and moved towards the door, and as she was
+about to depart she turned her weeping countenance towards her father.</p>
+
+<p>"Come hither," he said, "thou art a foolish girl, and would bring down
+wretchedness and woe upon thee. God forgive you, from the bottom of my
+heart, I forgive you. This thing is not of your own imagining: some
+malignant spirit has spread his baleful wing above our house. Go,
+child, forget what has been said, and believe that your father buffets
+thus harshly with fate for your own welfare. Kiss me, and may heaven
+shield you against this impending ill!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear father, hear me," said Mildred, as Lindsay imprinted a kiss upon
+her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Away, away!" interrupted Lindsay, "I would be temperate nor again
+forget myself. In all love, Mildred, away."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred left the room, and Lindsay, to restore the equanimity of his
+temper, which had been so much overthrown by this interview, wandered
+forth into the valley, whence it was some hours before he returned.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long after the termination of this conference before Henry
+rode up to the door. The clatter of his horse's hoofs brought Mildred
+from her chamber into the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>"What! sister, your eyes red with tears?" said Henry. "Who has
+distressed you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, brother, I have had a weary time in your absence. Our poor father
+is sadly displeased with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you told him all?" asked Henry, with an expression of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"He bade me," replied Mildred, "never mention Arthur's name again. He
+would not hear me speak of Arthur. Have I not reason, dear brother, to
+be miserable?"</p>
+
+<p>"I love you, Mildred," said Henry, kissing his sister, "and what's more,
+I love Arthur Butler, and will stand up for him against the world. And I
+have a good mind to go to my father and tell him I am man enough to
+think for myself&mdash;and more than that&mdash;that I, for one, believe these
+rebels, as he calls them, have the right of it. Why shouldn't I? Can't I
+shoot a rifle as well as the best of them, and stand by a friend in a
+quarrel, and make good my words as well as many a man who writes twenty
+years to his age? Tush! I am tired of this boy-play&mdash;shooting with
+blunted arrows, and riding with my father's hand ever on the neck of my
+horse, as if I could not hold the reins. Give me sharp steel, Mildred,
+and throw me on the world, and I'll be bound I make my way as well as
+another."</p>
+
+<p>"We are surrounded with difficulties, brother," said Mildred, "and have
+a hard part to perform. We must soothe our dear father's feelings, for
+he loves us, Henry; and if he could but think as we do, how happy should
+we be! But there is something fearful in his passions, and it makes me
+tremble to see them roused."</p>
+
+<p>"This all comes," replied Henry, "from that devil's imp Tyrrel. Oh, I
+could find it in my heart to trounce that fellow, sister. But you
+hav'n't asked me about my reconnoitring! I'll tell you. Tyrrel's man,
+Curry, talked a great deal to old Tony and Mrs. Dimock both, about our
+friends who went there last night, and found out their names and all
+about them: and there was some fray between Horse Shoe and Curry, in
+which, I'll warrant you, Horse Shoe gave him a drubbing; so Tony told
+me. Well, Butler and Horse Shoe set out this morning at daylight. And
+Tyrrel went over there to breakfast: and you may suppose he was lucky in
+not meeting the major, for I am sure there would have been a spot of
+work if he had. Furthermore, I found out that Tyrrel followed on the
+same road after Butler, so they may meet yet, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I pray not," said Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"Why pray not, sister? I pray they may meet. Let Tyrrel have all the
+good of it. There, now I believe I have given you all the news, sister,
+exactly as I picked it up. But here is a trifle I forgot," said Henry,
+producing a letter addressed to Mildred. "Ah, ha, you brighten up now!
+This was left by the major with Mrs. Dimock, to be forwarded to you with
+care and speed."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred tore open the letter, and eagerly perused its contents. They
+consisted of a few lines hastily penned by Butler, at early dawn, as he
+was about mounting his horse for the prosecution of his journey. Their
+purpose was to apprise her of the discovery Robinson had made of the
+true character of Curry, and also to express his fears that this latter
+person might disclose to Tyrrel the fact of his, Butler's, visit. He
+cautioned her to observe the conduct of Tyrrel, and to communicate with
+him at Gates's head-quarters where he expected to be delayed a few days
+on his journey: her letter, he said, might be forwarded by some of the
+parties who at that time were continually passing southward: Henry might
+look to this; and he concluded by assuring her that he would write as
+often as he might find means of conveying a packet to the care of good
+Mistress Dimock, who was sufficiently in the interest of the lovers to
+keep faithfully any secret which they might confide to her.</p>
+
+<p>This letter served to explain the cause of Tyrrel's sudden departure,
+and to confirm Mildred in the opinion, which she had before expressed,
+that this guest of her father was not ignorant of the interest Butler
+had in her regard. Her determination therefore was to watch his motions
+narrowly, and to make her lover acquainted with whatever she might
+discover.</p>
+
+<p>"It is even so," she said musing; "Tyrrel either fears or hates Arthur.
+I shudder to think that that man should have any motive supplied him to
+contrive against the peace or safety of one so dear to me. Wretch," she
+exclaimed, "that he should be insolent enough to hope for my regard! Oh!
+my father, my father, what a snare has been spread for you by this man!
+Thank you, brother," she continued, addressing Henry. "You have well
+executed your mission. Be discreet and ready: I shall have much need of
+your head and hand both: your heart is mine already, good brother."</p>
+
+<p>"I will ride for you, sister," said Henry, "I will run for you, speak
+for you, pray for you&mdash;if my prayers be worth anything&mdash;and strike for
+you, if need be. If I am but turned of sixteen, I am a man, I trow; and
+that's more than you are. Good bye! a soldier ought to look after his
+horse, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, dear brother, for an excellent boy," said Mildred
+smiling, "man I mean&mdash;aye and a brave one!"</p>
+
+<p>Henry now walked away, and Mildred betook herself to other cares.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A POLITICAL RETROSPECT.&mdash;BUTLER ENTERS SOUTH CAROLINA.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>It was the misfortune of South Carolina, during the revolutionary war,
+to possess a numerous party less attached to the union or more tainted
+with disaffection than the inhabitants of any of the other states.
+Amongst her citizens the disinclination to sever from the mother country
+was stronger, the spread of republican principles more limited, and the
+march of revolution slower, than in either of the other colonies,
+except, perhaps, in the neighbor state of Georgia, where the people
+residing along the Savannah river, were so closely allied to the
+Carolinians in sentiment, habits, and pursuits, as to partake pretty
+accurately of the same political prejudices, and to unite themselves in
+parties of the same complexion. Upon the first invasion of Georgia, at
+the close of the year 1778, the city of Savannah was made an easy
+conquest, and a mere handful of men, early in 1779, were enabled to
+penetrate the interior as far as Augusta, and to seize upon that post.
+The audacity with which Prevost threatened Charleston in the same year,
+the facility of his march through South Carolina, and the safety which
+attended his retreat, told a sad tale of the supineness of the people of
+that province. The reduction of Charleston in the following year, by Sir
+Henry Clinton, was followed with singular rapidity by the conquest of
+the whole province. A civil government was erected. The most remote
+posts in the mountains were at once occupied by British soldiers or
+provincial troops, mustered under the officers of the royal army.
+Proclamations were issued to call back the wandering sheep to the royal
+fold; and they, accordingly, like herds that had been scattered from
+beneath the eye of the shepherd by some rough incursion of wolves,
+flocked in as soon as they were aware of the retreat of their enemy.
+Lord Cornwallis, upon whom the command devolved after the return of Sir
+Henry Clinton in June to New York, recruited his army from these
+repentant or unwilling republicans; and the people rejoiced at what they
+thought the end of strife and the establishment of law. The auxiliaries
+who had marched from Virginia and North Carolina under Colonel Buford,
+to assist in the defence of the southern capital, were informed of its
+surrender as they journeyed thither, and soon found themselves obliged
+to fly through a country they had come to succor;&mdash;and when even at the
+distance of one hundred and fifty miles from the city, were overtaken by
+the ruthless troopers of Tarleton, and butchered under circumstances
+peculiarly deplorable.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, a large proportion of the population of South Carolina seem to
+have regarded the revolution with disfavor, and they were slow to break
+their ancient friendship for the land of their forefathers. The colonial
+government was mild and beneficent in its action upon the province, and
+the people had a reverence for the mother country deeper and more
+affectionate than was found elsewhere. They did not resent, because,
+haply, they did not feel the innovations of right asserted by the
+British crown, so acutely as some of their neighbors; to them it did not
+seem to be so unreasonable that taxation should be divorced from
+representation. They did not quarrel with the assumption of Great
+Britain to regulate their trade for them in such manner as best suited
+her own views of interest; nor did they see in mere commercial
+restrictions the justification of civil war and hot rebellion;&mdash;because,
+peradventure, (if I may hazard a reason) being a colony of planters
+whose products were much in demand in England, neither the regulations
+of their trade nor the restrictions upon commerce, were likely to be so
+adjusted as to interfere with the profitable expansion of their labors.</p>
+
+<p>Such might be said to be the more popular sentiment of the State at the
+time of its subjugation by Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis. To
+this common feeling there were many brilliant exceptions; and the more
+brilliant because they stood, as it were, apart from the preponderating
+mass of public judgment. There is no trial of courage which will bear
+comparison with that of a man whose own opinions stand in opposition,
+upon fearful questions of passion, to those of the "giddy-paced" and
+excited multitude, and who, nevertheless, carries them "into act." That
+man who can stand in the breach of universal public censure, with all
+the fashions of opinion disgracing him in the thoughts of the lookers
+on, with the tide of obloquy beating against his breast, and the fingers
+of the mighty, combined many, pointing him to scorn; nay, with the fury
+of the drunken rabble threatening him with instant death; and, worse
+than all, having no present friend to whisper a word of defence or
+palliative, in his behalf, to his revilers, but bravely giving his naked
+head to the storm, because he knows himself to be virtuous in his
+purpose; that man shall come forth from this fierce ordeal like tried
+gold; philosophy shall embalm his name in her richest unction, history
+shall give him a place on her brightest page, and old, yea, hoary,
+far-off posterity shall remember him as of yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>There were heroes of this mould in South Carolina, who entered with the
+best spirit of chivalry into the national quarrel, and brought to it
+hearts as bold, minds as vigorous, and arms as strong as ever, in any
+clime, worked out a nation's redemption. These men refused submission to
+their conquerors, and endured exile, chains, and prisons, rather than
+the yoke. Some few, still undiscouraged by the portents of the times,
+retreated into secret places, gathered their few patriot neighbors
+together, and contrived to keep in awe the soldier-government that now
+professed to sway the land. They lived on the scant aliment furnished in
+the woods, slept in the tangled brakes and secret places of the fen,
+exacted contributions from the adherents of the crown, and by rapid
+movements of their woodland cavalry and brave blows, accomplished more
+than thrice their numbers would have achieved in ordinary warfare.</p>
+
+<p>The disaffected abounded in the upper country, and here Cornwallis
+maintained some strong garrisons. The difficulties that surrounded the
+republican leaders may well be supposed to have been appalling in this
+region, where regular posts had been established to furnish the Tories
+secure points of union, and the certainty of prompt assistance whenever
+required. Yet notwithstanding the numerical inferiority of the friends
+of independence, their guarded and proscribed condition, their want of
+support, and their almost absolute destitution of all the necessaries of
+military life, the nation was often rejoiced to hear of brilliant
+passages of arms, where, however unimportant the consequences, the
+display of soldiership and bravery was of the highest order. In such
+encounters, or frays they might almost be called, from the smallness of
+the numbers concerned and the hand-to-hand mode of fighting which they
+exhibited, Marion, Sumpter, Horry, Pickens, and many others, had won a
+fame that in a nation of poetical or legendary associations would have
+been reduplicated through a thousand channels of immortal verse: but,
+alas! we have no ballads: and many men, who as well deserve to be
+remembered as Percy or Douglas, as Adam Bell or Clym of the Clough, have
+sunk down without even a couplet-epitaph upon the rude stone, that in
+some unfenced and unreverenced grave-yard still marks the lap of earth
+whereon their heads were laid.</p>
+
+<p>One feature that belonged to this unhappy state of things in Carolina
+was the division of families. Kindred were arrayed against each other in
+deadly feuds, and, not unfrequently, brother took up arms against
+brother, and sons against their sires. A prevailing spirit of treachery
+and distrust marked the times. Strangers did not know how far they might
+trust to the rites of hospitality; and many a man laid his head upon his
+pillow, uncertain whether his fellow lodger, or he with whom he had
+broken bread at his last meal, might not invade him in the secret
+watches of the night and murder him in his slumbers. All went armed, and
+many slept with pistols or daggers under their pillows. There are tales
+told of men being summoned to their doors or windows at midnight by the
+blaze of their farm-yards to which the incendiary torch had been
+applied, and shot down, in the light of the conflagration, by a
+concealed hand. Families were obliged to betake themselves to the
+shelter of the thickets and swamps, when their own homesteads were
+dangerous places. The enemy wore no colors, and was not to be
+distinguished from friends either by outward guise or speech. Nothing
+could be more revolting than to see the symbols of peace thus misleading
+the confident into the toils of war; nor is it possible to imagine a
+state of society characterized by a more frightful insecurity.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the condition of the country to which my tale now makes it
+necessary to introduce my reader. Butler's instructions required that
+he should report himself to General Gates, and, unless detained for more
+pressing duty, to proceed with all the circumspection which the
+enterprise might require, to Colonel Clarke, who, it was known, was at
+that time in the upland country of South Carolina, raising troops to act
+against Augusta and other British posts. He accordingly arrived at
+head-quarters, on the borders of the two Carolinas, in about a week
+after leaving the Dove Cote. The army of the brave and unfortunate De
+Kalb, which had been originally destined for the relief of Charleston,
+had been increased, by reinforcements of militia from Virginia and the
+adjoining States, to double the computed strength of the British forces;
+and Gates, on taking command of it, was filled with the most lofty
+presentiments of victory. Vainglorious and unadvisable, he is said to
+have pushed forward with an indiscreet haste, and to have thrown himself
+into difficulties which a wiser man would have avoided. He professed
+himself to stand in no need of recruits to his army, and Butler,
+therefore, after the delay of a few days, was left at liberty to pursue
+his original scheme.</p>
+
+<p>The wide-spread disaffection of the region through which our adventurers
+were about to pass, inculcated the necessity of the utmost vigilance to
+avoid molestation from the numerous parties that were then abroad
+hastening to the seat of war. Under the almost entire guidance of
+Robinson, who was familiar with every path in this neighborhood,
+Butler's plan was to temporize with whatever difficulties might beset
+his way, and to rely upon his own and his comrade's address for escape.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant's first object was to conduct his superior to his own
+dwelling, which was situated on the Catawba, a short distance above the
+Waxhaws. This was safely accomplished on the second day after they had
+left Gates. A short delay at this place enabled Butler to exchange the
+dress he had hitherto worn, for one of a more homely and rustic
+character, a measure deemed necessary to facilitate his quiet passage
+through the country. With these precautions he and the trusty sergeant
+resumed their expedition, and now shaped their course across the region
+lying between the Catawba and Broad rivers, with the intention of
+reaching the habitation of Wat Adair, a well known woodsman who lived on
+the southern side of the latter river, somewhat above its confluence
+with the Pacolet. The route they had chosen for this purpose consisted
+of such circuitous and unfrequented paths as were least likely to be
+infested by the scouts of the enemy, or by questioners who might be too
+curious regarding the object of their journey.</p>
+
+<p>The second week of August had half elapsed when, towards the evening of
+a day that had been distinguished for the exhilarating freshness of the
+atmosphere, such as is peculiar to the highlands of southern latitudes
+at this season, our travellers found themselves descending through a
+long and shady defile to the level ground that lay along the margin of
+the Broad river. The greater part of the day had been spent in threading
+the mazes of a series of sharp and abrupt hills covered with the native
+forest, or winding through narrow valleys, amongst tangled thickets of
+briers and copse-wood, by a path scarce wide enough to permit the
+passage of a single horse. They had now emerged from the wilderness upon
+a public highway, which extended across the strip of lowland that
+skirted the river. The proximity of the river itself was indicated by
+the nature of the ground, that here retained vestiges of occasional
+inundations, as also by the rank character of the vegetation. The road
+led through a swamp, which was rendered passable by a causey of timber,
+and was shaded on either side by a mass of shrubbery, composed of
+laurel, magnolia, and such other plants as delight in a moist soil, over
+whose forms a tissue of creeping plants was woven in such profusion as
+to form a fastness or impregnable retreat for all kinds of noxious
+animals. Above this wilderness, here and there, might be seen in the
+depths of the morass, the robust cypress or the lurid pine, high enough
+for the mast of the largest ship, the ash, and gum, and, towering above
+all, the majestic poplar, with its branchless trunk bound up in the
+embraces of a huge serpent-like grapevine.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Butler found himself extricated from the difficult path that
+had so much embarrassed his journey, and once more introduced upon a
+road that allowed him to ride abreast with his companion, he could not
+help congratulating himself upon the change.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here at last, Galbraith," he said, "is an end to this bridle
+path, as you call it. Thank heaven for it! The settlement of the
+account between this and the plain road would not leave much in our
+favor: on one side, I should have to set down my being twice unhorsed in
+riding up perpendicular hills; one plunge up to the belly in the mud of
+a swamp; a dozen times in danger of strangling from grapevines; and how
+often torn by briers, I leave you to reckon up by looking at my clothes.
+And all this is to be cast up against the chance of meeting a few
+rascally Tories. Faith! upon the whole, it would have been as cheap to
+fight."</p>
+
+<p>"Whist, Major, you are a young man, and don't study things as I do. You
+never catch me without reason on my side. As to standing upon the trifle
+of a man or two odds in the way of a fight, when there was need of
+scratching, I wouldn't be so onaccommodating as to ax you to do that.
+But I had some generalship in view, which I can make appear. This road,
+which we have just got into, comes up through Winnsborough, which is one
+of the randyvoos of the Tories: now I thought if we outflanked them by
+coming through the hills, we mought keep our heads out of a hornets'
+nest. The best way, Major Butler, to get along through this world is not
+to be quarrelsome; that's my principle."</p>
+
+<p>"Truly, it comes well from you, sergeant, who within two days past have
+been in danger of getting your crown cracked at least six times! Were
+you not yesterday going to beat a man only for asking a harmless
+question? A rough fellow to-boot, Horse Shoe, who might, from
+appearance, have turned out a troublesome customer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, ho, ho, Major! Do you know who that character was? That was mad
+Archy Gibbs, from the Broken Bridge, one of the craziest devils after a
+fracaw on the Catawba; a tearing Tory likewise."</p>
+
+<p>"And was that an argument for wishing to fight him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you see, Major, I've got a principle on that subject. It's an
+observation I have made, that whenever you come across one of these
+rampagious fellows, that's always for breeding disturbances, the best
+way is to be as fractious as themselves. You have hearn of the way of
+putting out a house on fire by blowing it up with gunpowder?"</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty effectual method, Sergeant."</p>
+
+<p>"Dog won't eat dog," continued Horse Shoe. "Ho, ho! I know these
+characters; so I always bullies them. When we stopped yesterday at the
+surveyor's, on Blair's Range, to get a little something to eat, and that
+bevy of Tories came riding up, with mad Archy at their head, a thought
+struck me that the fellows mought be dogging us, and that sot me to
+thinking what answer I should make consarning you, if they were to
+question me. So, ecod, I made a parson of you, ha, ha, ha! Sure enough,
+they began as soon as they sot down in the porch, to axing me about my
+business, and then about yourn. I told them, correspondent and
+accordingly, that you was a Presbyterian minister, and that I had
+undertook to show you the way to Chester, where you was going to hold
+forth. And, thereupon, mad Archy out with one of his tremengious oaths,
+and swore he would have a sarmint from you, for the good of his
+blackguards, before they broke up."</p>
+
+<p>"Mad Archy and his blackguards would have profited, no doubt, by my
+spiritual lessons."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather than let him have anything to say to you," proceeded Robinson,
+"for you wa'n't prepared, seeing that you didn't hear what was going on,
+though I spoke loud enough, on purpose, Major, for you to hear us
+through the window; I up and told Archy, says I, I am a peaceable man,
+but I'll be d&mdash;&mdash;d if any minister of the gospel shall be insulted
+whilst I have the care of him; and, furthermore, says I, I didn't come
+here to interrupt no man; but if you, Archy Gibbs, or any one of your
+crew, says one ondecent word to the parson, they'll run the risk of
+being flung sprawling on this here floor, and that's as good as if I had
+sworn to it; and as for you, Archy, I'll hold you accountable for the
+good conduct of your whole squad. But, Major, you are about the hardest
+man to take a wink I ever knowed. There was I a motioning of you, and
+signifying to get your horse and be off, at least ten minutes before you
+took the hint."</p>
+
+<p>"I was near spoiling all, Galbraith, for from your familiarity with
+these fellows I at first thought them friends."</p>
+
+<p>"They were mighty dubious, you may depend. And it was as much as I could
+do to keep them from breaking in on you. They said it was strange, and
+so it was, to see a parson riding with pistols; but I told them you was
+obliged to travel so much after night that it was as much as you could
+do to keep clear of panthers and wolves; and in fact, major, I had to
+tell them a monstrous sight of lies, just to keep them in talk whilst
+you was getting away: it was like a rare guard scrummaging by platoons
+on a retreat to get the advance off. I was monstrous afeard, major, you
+wouldn't saddle my horse."</p>
+
+<p>"I understood you at last, Galbraith, and made everything ready for a
+masterly retreat, and then moved away with a very sober air, leaving you
+to bring up the rear like a good soldier. And you know, sergeant, I
+didn't go so far but that I was at hand to give you support, if you had
+stood in need of it. I wonder now that they let you off so easily."</p>
+
+<p>"They didn't want to have no uproar with me, Major Butler. They knowed
+me, that although I wa'n't a quarrelsome man, they would'a got some of
+their necks twisted if I had seen occasion: in particular, I would have
+taken some of mad Archy's crazy fits out of him&mdash;by my hand I would,
+major! But I'll tell you,&mdash;I made one observation, that this here sort
+of carrying false colors goes against a man's conscience: it doesn't
+seem natural for a man, that's accustomed and willing to stand by his
+words, to be heaping one lie upon top of another as fast as he can speak
+them. It really, Major Butler, does go against my grain."</p>
+
+<p>"That point of conscience," said Butler laughing, "has been duly
+considered, and, I believe, we are safe in setting it down as entirely
+lawful to use any deceit of speech to escape from an enemy in time of
+war. We have a dangerous trade, sergeant, and the moralists indulge us
+more than they do others: and as I am a minister, you know, you need not
+be afraid to trust your conscience to my keeping."</p>
+
+<p>"They allow that all's fair in war, I believe. But it don't signify, a
+man is a good while before he gets used to this flat lying, for I can't
+call it by any other name."</p>
+
+<p>"If we should be challenged on this road, before we reach Wat Adair's,"
+said Butler, "it is your opinion that we should say we are graziers
+going to the mountains to buy cattle."</p>
+
+<p>"That's about the best answer I can think of. Though you must be a
+little careful about that. If you see me put my hand up to my mouth and
+give a sort of a hem, major, then leave the answer to me. A gang of raw
+lads might be easily imposed upon, but it wouldn't do if there's an old
+sodger amongst them; he mought ax some hard questions."</p>
+
+<p>"I know but little of this grazier craft to bear an examination. I fear
+I should fare badly if one of these bullies should take it into his head
+to cross-question me."</p>
+
+<p>"If a man takes on too much with you," replied Robinson, "it is well to
+be a little saucy to him. If he thinks you are for a quarrel, the
+chances are he won't pester you. But if any of these Tories should only
+take it into their heads, without our telling them right down in so many
+words, for I would rather a lie, if it is to come out, should take a
+roundabout way, that we are sent up here by Cornwallis, or Rawdon, or
+Leslie, or any of their people to do an arrand, they will be as civil,
+sir, as your grandmother's cat, for, major, they are a blasted set of
+cringin' whelps, the best of them, and will take anything that has G. R.
+marked on it with thanks, even if it was a cat-o'nine tails, which they
+desarve every day at rollcall, the sorry devils!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am completely at my wits' end, Galbraith. I have not done much
+justice to your appointment of me as a parson, and when I come to play
+the grazier it will be still worse; even in this disguise of a plain
+countryman I make a poor performer; I fear I shall disgrace the boards."</p>
+
+<p>"If the worst comes to the worst, major, the rule is run or fight. We
+can manage that, at any rate, for we have had a good deal of both in the
+last three or four years."</p>
+
+<p>"God knows we have had practice enough, sergeant, to make us perfect in
+that trick. Let us make our way through this treacherous ground as
+quickly and as quietly as we can. Get me to Clarke by the shortest
+route, and keep as much among friends as you know how."</p>
+
+<p>"As to that, Major Butler, it is all a matter of chance, for, to tell
+you the plain truth, I don't know who to depend upon. A quick eye, a
+nimble foot, and a ready hand, will be our surest friends. Then with the
+pistols at your saddle, besides a pair in your pocket, and a dirk for
+close quarters, and my rifle here for a long shot, major, I am not much
+doubtful but what we shall hold our own."</p>
+
+<p>"How far are we from Adair's?" asked Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Not more than a mile," replied Horse Shoe. "You may see the ferry just
+ahead. Wat lives upon the top of the first hill on the other side."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that fellow to be trusted, sergeant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better with the help of gold, major, than without it. Wat was never
+over honest. But it is worth our while to make a friend of him if we
+can."</p>
+
+<p>Our travellers had now reached the river, which was here a smooth and
+deep stream, though by no means so broad as to entitle it to the
+distinction by which, in its lower portion, it has earned its name. It
+here flowed sluggishly along in deep and melancholy shade.</p>
+
+<p>Butler and his companion were destined to encounter a difficulty at this
+spot which less hardy travellers would have deemed a serious
+embarrassment. The boat was not to be seen on either side of the river,
+having been carried off a few hours before, according to the information
+given by the inmates of a negro cabin, constituting the family of the
+ferryman, by a party of soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson regarded this obstacle with the resignation of a practised
+philosopher. He nodded his head significantly to his companion upon
+receiving the intelligence, as he said,</p>
+
+<p>"There is some mischief in the wind. These Tories are always dodging
+about in gangs; and when they collect the boats on the river, it is
+either to help them forward on some house-burning and thieving business,
+or to secure their retreat when they expect to have honest men at their
+heels. It would be good news to hear that Sumpter was near their
+cruppers, which, by the by, is not onlikely neither. You would be told
+of some pretty sport then, major."</p>
+
+<p>"Sumpter's means, sergeant," replied Butler, "I fear, are not equal to
+his will. There are heavy odds against him, and it isn't often that he
+can venture from his hiding-place. But what are we to do now,
+Galbraith?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! do as we have often done before this, launch our four-legged
+ships, and take a wet jacket coolly and dispassionately, as that quare
+devil Lieutenant Hopkins used to tell us when he was going to make a
+charge of the bagnet. We hav'n't no time to lose, major, and if we had,
+I don't think the river would run dry. So, here goes."</p>
+
+<p>With these words Robinson plunged into the stream, and, with his rifle
+resting across his shoulder, he plied his voyage towards the opposite
+bank with the same unconcern as if he had journeyed on dry land. As soon
+as he was fairly afloat he looked back to give a few cautions to Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Head slantwise up stream, major, lean a little forward, so as to sink
+your horse's nose nearer to the water, he swims all the better for it.
+Slacken your reins and give him play. You have it now. It isn't
+oncomfortable in a day's ride to get a cool seat once in a while. Here
+we are safe and sound," he continued, as they reached the further
+margin, "and nothing the worse for the ferrying, excepting it be a
+trifle of dampness about the breeches."</p>
+
+<p>The two companions now galloped towards the higher grounds of the
+adjacent country.</p>
+
+<p>By the time that they had gained the summit of a long hill that rose
+immediately from the plain of the river, Robinson apprised Butler that
+they were now in the vicinity of Adair's dwelling. The sun had sunk
+below the horizon, and the varied lustre of early twilight tinged the
+surrounding scenery with its own beautiful colors. The road, as it wound
+upwards gradually emerged from the forest upon a tract of open country,
+given signs of one of those original settlements which, at that day,
+were sparsely sprinkled through the great wilderness. The space that had
+been snatched from the ruggedness of nature, for the purpose of
+husbandry, comprehended some three or four fields of thinly cultivated
+land. These were yet spotted over with stumps of trees, that seemed to
+leave but little freedom to the course of the ploughshare, and bespoke a
+thriftless and slovenly tillage. A piece of half cleared ground,
+occupying the side of one of the adjacent hills, presented to the eye of
+our travellers a yet more uncouth spectacle. This spot was still clothed
+with the native trees of the forest, all of which had been
+death-stricken by the axe, and now heaved up their withered and sapless
+branches towards the heavens, without leaf or spray. In the phrase of
+the woodman, they had been <i>girdled</i> some years before, and were
+destined to await the slow decay of time in their upright attitude. It
+was a grove of huge skeletons that had already been bleached into an
+ashy hue by the sun, and whose stiff and dry members rattled in the
+breeze with a preternatural harshness. Amongst the most hoary of these
+victims of the axe, the gales of winter had done their work and thrown
+them to the earth, where the shattered boles and boughs lay as they had
+fallen, and were slowly reverting into their original dust. Others,
+whose appointed time had not yet been fulfilled, gave evidence of their
+struggle with the frequent storm, by their declination from the
+perpendicular line. Some had been caught in falling by the boughs of a
+sturdier neighbor, and still leaned their huge bulks upon these
+supports, awakening the mind of the spectator to the fancy, that they
+had sunk in some deadly paroxysm into charitable and friendly arms, and,
+thus locked together, abided their tardy but irrevocable doom. It was a
+field of the dead; and the more striking in its imagery from the
+contrast which it furnished to the rich, verdurous, and lively forest
+that, with all the joyousness of health, encompassed this blighted spot.
+Its aspect was one of unpleasant desolation; and the traveller of the
+present day who visits our western wilds, where this slovenly practice
+is still in use, will never pass through such a precinct without a sense
+of disgust at the disfiguration of the landscape.</p>
+
+<p>The field thus marred might have contained some fifty acres, and it was
+now occupied, in the intervals between the lifeless trunks, with a
+feeble crop of Indian corn, whose husky and parched blades, as they
+fluttered in the evening wind, added new and appropriate features to the
+inexpressible raggedness of the scene. The same effect was further aided
+and preserved by the cumbrous and unseemly worm fence that shot forth
+its stiff angles around the tract.</p>
+
+<p>On the very apex of the hill up which our travellers were now
+clambering, was an inclosure of some three or four acres of land, in the
+middle of which, under the shade of a tuft of trees, stood a group of
+log cabins so situated as to command a view, of nearly every part of the
+farm. The principal structure was supplied with a rude porch that
+covered three of its sides; whilst the smoke that curled upwards from a
+wide-mouthed chimney, and the accompaniment of a bevy of little negroes
+that were seen scattered amongst the out-houses, gave an air of
+habitation and life to the place that contrasted well with the
+stillness of the neighboring wood. A well-beaten path led into a narrow
+ravine where might be discerned, peeping forth from the weeds, the roof
+of a spring house; and, in the same neighborhood, a rough garden was
+observable, in which a bed of broad-leaved cabbages seemed to have their
+ground disputed by a plentiful crop of burdock, thistles, and other
+intruders upon a manured soil. In this inclosure, also, the hollyhock
+and sunflower, rival coxcombs of the vegetable community, gave their
+broad and garish tribute to the beautifying of the spot.</p>
+
+<p>The road approached within some fifty paces of the front of the cabins,
+where access was allowed, not by the help of a gate, but only by a kind
+of ladder or stile formed of rails, which were so arranged as to furnish
+steps across the barrier of the worm fence at four or five feet from the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of entertainment here, Galbraith?" inquired Butler, as
+they halted at the stile. "This Wat Adair is not likely to be churlish,
+I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I am in much humor to be turned away," replied Robinson.
+"It's my opinion that a man who has rode a whole day has a sort of right
+to quarters wherever the night finds him&mdash;providing he pays for what he
+gets. But I have no doubt of Wat, Major. Holloa! who's at home? Wat
+Adair! Wat Adair! Travellers, man! Show yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you that keep such a racket at the fence there?" demanded a
+female voice. "What do you mean by such doings before a peaceable
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your dogs silent, ma'am," returned Horse Shoe, in a blunt and loud
+key, "and you will hear us. If you are Wat Adair's wife you are as good
+as master of this house. We want a night's lodging and must have it&mdash;and
+besides, we have excellent stomachs, and mean to pay for all we get.
+Ain't that reason enough to satisfy a sensible woman, Mrs. Adair?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you come to make disturbance," said a man of a short and sturdy
+figure, who at this moment stepped out from the house and took a
+position in front of it, with a rifle in his hand&mdash;"if you come here to
+insult a quiet family you had best turn your horses' heads up the road
+and jog further."</p>
+
+<p>"We might do that, sir, and fare worse," said Butler, in a conciliatory
+tone. "You have no need of your gun; we are harmless travellers who have
+come a long way to get under your roof."</p>
+
+<p>"Where from?" asked the other.</p>
+
+<p>"From below," said Horse Shoe promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"What side do you take?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your side for to-night," returned Robinson again. "Don't be
+obstropolous, friend," he continued, at the same time dismounting, "we
+have come on purpose to pay Wat a visit, and if you ha'n't got no
+brawlers in the house, you needn't be afraid of us."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the sergeant had crossed the stile and approached the
+questioner, to whom he offered his hand. The man gazed for a moment upon
+his visitor, and then asked&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't this Galbraith Robinson?"</p>
+
+<p>"They call me so," replied Horse Shoe; "and if I ain't mistaken, this is
+Michael Lynch. You wan't going to shoot at us, Michael?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man must have sharp eyes when he looks in the face of a neighbor
+now-a-days," said the other. "Come in; Wat's wife will be glad to see
+you. Wat himself will be home presently. Who have you here, Galbraith?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is Mr. Butler," answered Horse Shoe, as the Major joined them. "He
+and me are taking a ride across into Georgia, and we thought we would
+give Wat a call just to hear the news."</p>
+
+<p>"You are apt to fetch more news than you will take away," replied the
+other; "but there is a good deal doing now in all quarters. Howsever, go
+into the house, we must give you something to eat and a bed besides."</p>
+
+<p>After putting their horses in charge of a negro who now approached in
+the character of an ostler, our adventurers followed Michael Lynch into
+the house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A WOODMAN'S FAMILY.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The apartment into which the travellers were introduced was one of large
+dimensions, conspicuous for its huge kitchen-like fire-place and ample
+chimney. The floor, consisting of broad planks, was so much warped as,
+in several places, to show the ground through the chinks. The furniture
+was of the rudest form and most homely materials. Three or four rifles
+were suspended against the walls, together with some trapping implements
+and various skins of such wild animals of prey and game as abounded in
+the woods of this region: these were associated with the antlers of the
+buck, powder-horns, hunting pouches, and a few articles of
+clothing,&mdash;the whole array giving to the room that air of woodland life
+which denotes the habitation of a hunter, and which so distinctly
+characterizes the dwellings of our frontier population.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst other articles of household use was a large spinning-wheel that
+was placed near the door, and beside it stood the dame who had first
+challenged the visitors. She was a woman who could scarcely be said to
+have reached the middle period of life, although her wan and somewhat
+haggard features, and a surly, discontented expression of face, might
+well induce an observer to attribute more years to her worldly account
+than she had actually seen. The presence of a rough and untidy cradle
+and some five or six children, the majority of whom might be below three
+feet in stature, served in some degree to explain the care-worn and
+joyless countenance of the hostess. When Butler and his companion were
+ushered by Lynch into her presence, she gave them no other welcome than
+a slight nod of the head, and continued to ply her task at the wheel
+with unremitted assiduity.</p>
+
+<p>In another corner of the room sat a smart-looking young girl who, at
+this moment, was employed in carding wool. She was sylvan Hebe, just
+verging upon womanhood, with a round, active, and graceful figure, which
+was adorned with that zealous attention to neatness and becoming
+ornament which, in every station of life, to a certain extent,
+distinguishes those of the sex who are gifted with beauty. Her cheek had
+the rich bloom of high health; a full round blue eye seemed habitually
+to laugh with pleasure; and the same trick of a happy temperament had
+stamped its mark upon the lines of her mouth. Her accost was altogether
+different from that of the mistress of the house. She arose from her
+work immediately upon the entrance of the strangers, courtesied with a
+modest and silent reserve, and then proceeded to gather up the rolls of
+carded wool at her feet and to dispose of them in a chest near at hand.
+Having done this, she left the apartment, not without casting sundry
+prying glances towards the guests.</p>
+
+<p>Another member of the family was an aged female: she had perhaps seen
+her eightieth winter. Her attenuated frame seemed to be hovering on the
+verge of dissolution: a hollow cheek, a sunken, moist eye, and a
+tremulous palsied motion of the head denoted the melancholy period of
+dotage; and it was apparent at a glance that this unfortunate being had
+far outlived both her capacity for enjoyment and the sympathy of her
+kindred. She now sat in a low elbow-chair, with her head almost in
+contact with her knees, upon the stone hearth, bending over a small fire
+of brushwood which had been kindled as well for the purpose of preparing
+the evening meal as for the comfort of the ancient dame herself&mdash;the
+chilliness of night-fall rendering this additional warmth by no means
+unpleasant. The beldam silently smoked a short pipe, unmoved by anything
+that occurred in the apartment, and apparently engrossed with the
+trivial care of directing the smoke, as she puffed it from her lips,
+into a current that should take it up the chimney.</p>
+
+<p>Michael Lynch, who acted as landlord in the casual absence of Wat Adair,
+had no other connexion with the family than that of being joint owner,
+with the lord of this wild domain, of a small saw-mill in the vicinity,
+the particular superintendence of which was his especial province. He
+was, therefore, at particular seasons of the year, an in-dweller at the
+homestead, and sufficiently in authority to assume a partial direction
+in the affairs of the house. This man now replaced his rifle upon the
+pegs appropriated to receive it, and then offered Butler and Robinson
+chairs, as he said to the mistress of the family:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Here's Horse Shoe Robinson, Mrs. Adair; and this other man I think they
+call Mr. Butler. They've come for a night's lodging. I believe Wat will
+be right glad to see them."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not often visited with travellers in this part of the country,"
+said Butler, addressing the matron as he drew his chair near to the fire
+to dry his clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"We have enough of them, such as they are," replied the woman; "and it's
+a dangerous thing, when there's so many helpless women at home, to be
+opening the door to all sorts of persons."</p>
+
+<p>"You, at least, run no risk in offering shelter to us this evening,"
+returned Butler; "we are strangers to the quarrel that prevails in your
+district."</p>
+
+<p>"People puts on so many pretences," said the woman, "that there's no
+knowing them."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a fine troop of boys and girls," continued Butler, patting the
+head of one of the boys who had summoned courage to approach him, after
+various shy reconnoitrings of his person. "Your settlement will require
+enlargement before long."</p>
+
+<p>"There is more children than is needful," replied the hostess; "they are
+troublesome brats; but poor people generally have the luck that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Does your husband ever serve with the army, madam?" asked Butler.</p>
+
+<p>The woman stopped spinning for a moment, and turning her face towards
+Butler with a scowl, muttered,</p>
+
+<p>"How does that matter concern you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," replied Butler; "I was recommended to Mr. Adair as a
+friend, and supposed I might approach his house without suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat Adair is a fool," said the wife; "who is never content but when he
+has other people thrusting their spoons into his mess."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat's a wiser man than his wife," interrupted Robinson bluntly, "and
+takes good care that no man thrusts his spoon into his mess without
+paying for it. You know Wat and me knows each other of old, Mrs. Adair;
+and devil a ha'penny did Wat ever lose by good manners yet."</p>
+
+<p>"And who are you to talk, forsooth, Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed the
+ill-favored dame, tartly. "Who are you to talk of Wat Adair? If he knows
+you he knows no good of you, I'm sure? I warrant you have come here on
+honest business now&mdash;you and your tramping friend. What do you do up
+here in the woods, when there is work enough for hearty men below? No
+good, I will undertake. It is such as you, Horse Shoe Robinson, and your
+drinking, rioting, broadsword cronies that has given as all our troubles
+here. You know Wat Adair!"</p>
+
+<p>"A little consideration, good woman! Not so fast; you run yourself out
+of breath," said Robinson mildly, interrupting this flood of
+objurgation. "Why, you are as spiteful as a hen with a fresh brood!
+Remember, Wat and me are old friends. Wat has been at my house both
+before the war and since, and I have been here&mdash;all in friendship you
+know. And many's the buck I have helped Wat to fetch down. What's the
+use of tantrums? If we had been thieves, Mrs. Adair, you couldn't have
+sarved us worse. Why, it's unreasonable in you to fly in a man's face
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll vouch for Horse Shoe Robinson, Mrs. Peggy Adair," said Lynch. "You
+oughtn't to think harm of him; and you know it isn't long since we heard
+Wat talk of him, and say he would like to see him once more!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's my way," replied the hostess, soothed down into a placid
+mood by this joint expostulation. "We have had cause to be suspicious,
+and I own I am suspicious. But, Horse Shoe Robinson, I can't say I have
+anything against you; you and your friend may be welcome for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Heyday!" exclaimed the old crone from the chimney corner "Who is
+talking about Horse Shoe Robinson? Is this Horse Shoe? Come here, good
+man," she said, beckoning with her finger to the sergeant. "Come close
+and let me look at you. Galbraith Robinson, as I am a sinner! All the
+way from the Waxhaws. Who'd 'a thought to find you here amongst the
+Tories? Such a racketing whig as you. Heyday!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whisht, granny!" said Robinson almost in a whisper. "Don't call names."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all Tories here," said the old woman, heedless of the sergeant's
+caution, "ever since last Thursday, when the handsome English officer
+was here to see Watty, and to count out his gold like pebble-stones."</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother, you talk nonsense," said the wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Mistress Crosby," interposed Robinson, "is as knowing as she ever
+was. It's a mark of sense to be able to tell the day of the week when a
+man changes his coat. But, granny, you oughtn't to talk of Wat's seeing
+an English officer in his house."</p>
+
+<p>"Golden guineas, honey!" continued the drivelling old woman. "All good
+gold! And a proud clinking they make in Watty's homespun pocket. A
+countryman's old leather bag, Galbraith Robinson, doesn't often scrape
+acquaintance with the image of the king's head&mdash;ha, ha, ha! It makes me
+laugh to think of it! Ha, ha, ha! Watty's nose cocked up so high too!
+Who but he, the proud gander! Strutting like quality. Well, well, pride
+will have a fall, some day, that's the Lord's truth. Both pockets full!"
+she continued, muttering broken sentences and laughing so violently that
+the tears ran down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"If you call Wat Adair your friend," interrupted the wife sullenly, and
+addressing Robinson, "you will show your sense by keeping away from this
+foolish old woman. She is continually raving with some nonsense that she
+dreams of nights. You ought to see that she is only half witted. It's
+sinful to encourage her talking. Grandmother, you had better go to your
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Come this way, deary," said the beldam, addressing an infant that
+toddled across the floor near to her seat, at the same time extending
+her shrivelled arm to receive it. "Come to the old body, pretty
+darling!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," lisped the child with an angry scream, and instantly made its way
+towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Then do you come to me, Peggy," she said, looking up at her
+granddaughter, the mistress of the family, who was still busy with her
+wheel. "Wipe my old eye with your handkerchief. Don't you see I have
+laughed my eyes dim at Watty and his gold? And fill my pipe again,
+Peggy."</p>
+
+<p>Instead of obeying this command, the mother left her spinning, and ran
+with some precipitation towards the door to catch up the child, who had
+staggered to the very verge of the sill, where it paused in imminent
+peril of falling headlong down the step; and having rescued it from its
+danger, she returned with the infant in her arms to a chair, where,
+without scruple at the presence of her visitors, she uncovered her bosom
+and administered to her off-spring that rich and simple bounty which
+nature has so lavishly provided for the sustenance of our first and
+tenderest days of helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Well-a-day, I see how it is!" muttered the grandmother in an accent of
+reproof, "that's the way of the world. Love is like a running river, it
+goes downwards, but doesn't come back to the spring. The poor old granny
+in the chimney corner is a withered tree up the stream, and the youngest
+born is a pretty flower on the bank below. Love leaves the old tree and
+goes to the flower. It went from me to Peggy's mother, and so downwards
+and downwards, but it never will come back again. The old granny's room
+is more wanted than her company; she ought to be nailed up in her coffin
+and put to sleep down, down in the cold ground. Well, well! But Watty's
+a proud wretch, that's for certain!"</p>
+
+<p>In this strain the aged dame continued to pour forth a stream of
+garrulity exhibiting a mixture of the silly dreamings of dotage, with a
+curious remainder of the scraps and saws of former experience&mdash;a strange
+compound of futile drivelling and shrewd and quick sagacity.</p>
+
+<p>During the period of the foregoing dialogue, preparations were making
+for supper. These were conducted principally under the superintendence
+of our Hebe, who, my reader will recollect, some time since escaped from
+the room, and who, as Butler learned, in the course of the evening, was
+a niece of Adair's wife and bore the kindly name of Mary Musgrove. The
+part which she took in the concerns of the family was in accordance with
+the simple manners of the time, and such as might be expected from her
+relationship. She was now seen arranging a broad table, and directing
+the domestics in the disposition of sundry dishes of venison, bacon, and
+corn bread, with such other items of fare as belonged to the sequestered
+and forest-bound region in which Adair resided.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was frequently caught directing her regards towards Butler, whose
+face was handsome enough to have rendered such a thing quite natural
+from a young girl: but she seemed to be moved by more than ordinary
+interest, as the closeness of her scrutiny almost implied a suspicion in
+her mind of his disguise. In truth there was some incongruity between
+his manners and the peasant dress he wore, which an eye like Mary's
+might have detected, notwithstanding the plainness of demeanor which
+Butler studied to assume.</p>
+
+<p>"We have nothing but corn bread in the house," said Mary in a low tone
+to her kinswoman, "perhaps the gentlemen (here she directed her eye, for
+the fiftieth time, to Butler) expected to get wheat. Had I not better
+pull some roasting-ears from the garden and prepare them? they will not
+be amiss with our milk and butter."</p>
+
+<p>"Bless you, my dear," said Butler, thrown completely off his guard, and
+showing more gallantry than belonged to the station he affected. "Give
+yourself no trouble on my account; we can eat anything. I delight in
+corn cakes, and will do ample justice to this savory venison. Pray do
+not concern yourself for us."</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy as running to the garden," said Mary in a sweet and almost
+laughing tone.</p>
+
+<p>"That's further, my dear," replied Butler, "than I choose you should run
+at this time of night. It is dark, my pretty girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious!" returned Mary with natural emotion, "do you think I am
+afraid to go as far as the garden in the dark? We have no witches or
+fairies in our hills to hurt us: and if we had, I know how to keep them
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"And how might that be?"</p>
+
+<p>"By saying my prayers, sir. My father taught me, before my head was as
+high as the back of this chair, a good many prayers: and he told me they
+would protect me from all sorts of harm, if I only said them in right
+earnest. And I hear many old people, who ought to know, say the same
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Your father taught you well and wisely," replied Butler; "prayer will
+guard us against many ills, and chiefly against ourselves. But against
+the harm that others may do us, we should not forget that prudence is
+also a good safeguard. It is always well to avoid a dangerous path."</p>
+
+<p>"But, for all that," said the maiden smiling, "I am not afraid to go as
+far as the garden."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean to get the corn," interrupted Mistress Adair, in no very
+kindly tone, "you had as well go without all this talk. I warrant if you
+listen to every man who thinks it worth while to jabber in your ear, you
+will find harm enough, without going far to seek it."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was only civil to speak when I was spoken to," replied
+Mary, with an air of mortification. "But I will be gone this moment:"
+and with these words the girl went forth upon her errand.</p>
+
+<p>A moment only elapsed when the door was abruptly thrown open, and the
+tall and swarthy figure of Wat Adair strode into the room. The glare of
+the blazing faggots of pine which had been thrown on the fire to light
+up the apartment, fell broadly over his person, and flung a black and
+uncouth shadow across the floor and upon the opposite wall; thus
+magnifying his proportions and imparting a picturesque character to his
+outward man. A thin, dark, weather-beaten countenance, animated by a
+bright and restless eye, expressed cunning rather than hardihood, and
+seemed habitually to alternate between the manifestations of waggish
+vivacity and distrust. The person of this individual might be said, from
+its want of symmetry and from a certain slovenly and ungraceful stoop in
+the head and shoulders, to have been protracted, rather than tall. It
+better deserved the description of sinewy than muscular, and
+communicated the idea of toughness in a greater degree than strength.
+His arms and legs were long; and the habit of keeping the knee bent as
+he walked, suggested a remote resemblance in his gait to that of a
+panther and other animals of the same species; it seemed to be adapted
+to a sudden leap or spring.</p>
+
+<p>His dress was a coarse and short hunting-shirt of dingy green, trimmed
+with a profusion of fringe, and sufficiently open at the collar to
+disclose his long and gaunt neck; a black leather belt supported a
+hunting knife and wallet; whilst a pair of rude deer-skin moccasins and
+a cap manufactured from the skin of some wild animal, and now deprived
+of its hair by long use, supplied the indispensable gear to either
+extremity of his person.</p>
+
+<p>Adair's first care was to bestow in their proper places his rifle and
+powder-horn; then to disburden himself of a number of squirrels which
+were strung carelessly over his person, and, finally, to throw himself
+into a chair that occupied one side of the fire-place. The light for a
+moment blinded him, and it was not until he shaded his brow with his
+hand and looked across the hearth, that he became aware of the presence
+of the strangers. His first gaze was directed to Butler, to whom he
+addressed the common interrogatory, "Travelling in these parts, sir?"
+and, before time was afforded for a reply to this accost, his eye
+recognised the sergeant, upon which, starting from his seat, he made up
+to our sturdy friend, and slapping him familiarly on the back, uttered a
+chuckling laugh, as he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Galbraith, is it you, man? To be sure it is! What wind has blown
+you up here? Have you been running from red coats, or are you hunting of
+Tories, or are you looking for beeves? Who have you got with you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wat, it don't consarn you to know what brought us here&mdash;it is only your
+business to do the best you can for us whilst we are here," replied the
+sergeant. "This here gentleman is Mr. Butler, a friend of mine that
+wants to get across into Georgia; and trouble enough we've had to find
+our way this far, Wat Adair. You've got such an uproarious country, and
+such a cursed set of quarrelsome devils in it, that a peaceable man is
+clean out of fashion amongst you. We are as wet as muskrats in swimming
+the river, and as hungry as wolves in winter."</p>
+
+<p>"And happy," said Butler, "to be at last under the roof of a friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am glad to see you both," replied Wat. "What put it in my head,
+Galbraith, I am sure I can't tell, but I was thinking about you this
+very day; said I to myself, I should just like to see Horse Shoe
+Robinson, the onconceivable, superfluous, roaring devil! Haw, haw, haw!"</p>
+
+<p>"You were ashamed of your own company, Wat, and wanted to see a decent
+man once more," replied Horse Shoe, echoing the laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Musgrove, bustle, girl," said the woodman, as the maiden entered
+the room with her arms loaded with ears of Indian corn, "bustle, mink!
+here are two runaways with stomachs like mill stones to grind your corn.
+Horse Shoe, get up from that chist, man; I can give you a little drop of
+liquor, if you will let me rummage there for it. Marcus, boy, go bring
+us in a jug of cool water. Wife, I'm 'stonished you didn't think of
+giving our friends something to drink afore."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I don't pretend to know friend from foe," returned the dame;
+"and it is a bad way to find that out by giving them liquor."</p>
+
+<p>When the boy returned with the water, and the host had helped his guests
+to a part of the contents of a flask which had been extracted from the
+chest, Butler took occasion to commend the alacrity of the young
+servitor.</p>
+
+<p>"This is one of your children, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"A sort of a pet cub," replied the woodman; "just a small specimen of my
+fetching up: trees squirrels like a dog&mdash;got the nose of a hound&mdash;can
+track a raccoon in the dark&mdash;and the most meddlesome imp about fire-arms
+you ever see. Here t' other day got my rifle and shot away half the hair
+from his sister's head; but I reckon I skinned him for it! You can
+answer for that, Marcus, you shaver, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you did," answered the boy pertly, "but I don't mind a
+whipping when I've got room to dodge."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Mr. Butler, how I come to call that boy Marcus?" said
+Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of your family names, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. There's nare another boy nor man in this whole country round
+has such a name&mdash;nor woman, neither. It's a totally oncommon name. I
+called him after that there Frenchman that's come out here to help
+General Washington&mdash;Marcus Lafayette; and I think it sounds mighty
+well."</p>
+
+<p>Butler laughed, as he replied, "That was a soldierly thought of yours. I
+think you must call your next Baron, after our old Prussian friend De
+Kalb."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear that, wife?" exclaimed Wat. "Keep that in your head, if it
+will hold there a twelvemonth. No occasion to wait longer, haw! haw!
+haw!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wat talks like a natural born fool," retorted the wife. "We have no
+friends nor enemies on any side. The boy was called Marcus because Watty
+was headstrong, and not because we cared any more for one general nor
+another. I dare say there is faults enough on both sides, if the truth
+was told; and I can't see what people in the woods have to do with all
+this jarring about liberty and such nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue!" said Wat. "Boil your kettle, and give us none of
+your tinkling brass, as the Bible calls it. You see, Horse Shoe, there's
+such ridings and burnings, and shooting and murder about here, that
+these women are scared out of the little wits God has given them; and
+upon that account we are obliged sometimes to play a little double, just
+to keep out of harm's way. But I am sure I wish no ill to the
+Continental army."</p>
+
+<p>"If we thought you did, Wat," replied Robinson, "we would have slept on
+the hill to-night, rather than set foot across the sill of your door.
+Howsever, let's say nothing about that; I told Mr. Butler that you would
+give us the best you had, and so you will. I have known Wat Adair, Mr.
+Butler, a good many years. We used to call him Wat with the double hand.
+Show us your fist here, Wat. Look at that, sir! it's as broad as a
+shovel!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cutting of trees," said the woodman, as he spread his large
+horny-knuckled hand upon the supper table, "and handling of logs, will
+make any man's paw broad, and mine wa'n't small at first."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated the sergeant, "you ha'n't forgot Dick Rowley
+over here on Congaree, Wat,&mdash;Walloping Dick, as they nicknamed him&mdash;and
+the scrimmage you had with him when he sot to laughing at you because
+they accused you for being light-fingered, and your letting him see that
+you had a heavy hand, by giving him the full weight of it upon his ear
+that almost drove him through the window of the bar-room at the Cross
+Roads? You ha'n't forgot that&mdash;and his drawing his knife on you?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure I ha'n't. That fellow was about as superfluous a piece of
+wicked flesh as I say&mdash;as a man would meet on a summer's day journey.
+But for all that, Horse Shoe, he wa'n't going to supererogate me,
+without getting as good as he sent. When I come across one of your merry
+fellows that's for playing cantraps on a man, it's my rule to make them
+pay the piper; and that's a pretty good rule, Horse Shoe, all the world
+through. But come, here is supper; draw up, Mr. Butler."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Musgrove having completed the arrangement of the board whilst this
+conversation was in progress, the family now sat down to their repast.
+It was observable, during the meal, that Mary was very attentive in the
+discharge of the offices of the table, and especially when they were
+required by Butler. There was a modest and natural courtesy in her
+demeanor that attracted the notice of our soldier, and enhanced the
+kindly impression which the artless girl had made upon him; and it was,
+accordingly, with a feeling composed, in one degree, of curiosity to
+learn more of her character, and, in another, of that sort of tenderness
+which an open-hearted man is apt to entertain towards an ingenuous and
+pretty female, that he took occasion after supper, when Mary had seated
+herself on the threshold of the porch, to fall into conversation with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not live here, I think I have gathered, but are only on a
+visit?" was the remark addressed to the maiden.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; it is thirty good long miles by the shortest road, from this
+to my father's house. Mistress Adair is my mother's sister, and that
+makes her my aunt, you know, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And your father's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Allen Musgrove. He has a mill, sir, on the Ennoree."</p>
+
+<p>"You are the miller's daughter, then. Well, that's a pretty title. I
+suppose they call you so?"</p>
+
+<p>"The men sometimes call me," replied Mary, rising to her feet, and
+leaning carelessly against one of the upright timbers that supported the
+porch, "the miller's pretty daughter, but the women call me plain Mary
+Musgrove."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, my dear, the men come nearer to the truth than the women."</p>
+
+<p>"They say not," replied the maiden, "I have heard, and sometimes I have
+read in good books&mdash;at least, they called them good books&mdash;that you
+mustn't believe the men."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't well know why not," returned the girl doubtingly, "but I am
+young, and maybe I shall find it out by and by."</p>
+
+<p>"God forbid," said Butler, "that you should ever gain that experience!
+But there are many toils spread for the feet of innocence in this world,
+and it is well to have a discreet eye and good friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I am seventeen, sir," replied Mary, "come next month; and though I have
+travelled backwards and forwards from here to Ennoree, and once to
+Camden, which, you know, sir, is a good deal of this world to see, I
+never knew anybody that thought harm of me. But I don't dispute there
+are men to be afraid of, and some that nobody could like. And yet I
+think a good man can be told by his face."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. My father is a good man, and every one says you may see it in his
+looks."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know your father," said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he would be glad to know you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my pretty miller's daughter, why do you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are a gentleman," replied the girl, courtesying, "for all
+your homespun clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! pray how have you found that out?"</p>
+
+<p>"You talk differently from our people, sir. Your words or your voice, I
+can't rightly tell which, are softer than I have been used to hear. And
+you don't look, and walk, and behave as if homespun had been all you
+ever wore."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"You stop to consider, as if you were studying what would please other
+people; and you do not step so heavy, sir; and you do not swear; and you
+do not seem to like to give trouble. I can't think, sir, that you have
+been always used to such as are hereabouts. And then there's another
+reason, sir," added the maiden, almost in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" asked Butler, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, when you stooped down to pick up your fork, that fell from
+the table, I saw a blue ribbon round your neck, and a beautiful gold
+picture hanging to it. None but gentlemen of quality carry such things
+about them: and as there is so much contriving and bloody doings going
+on about here, I was sure you wasn't what you seemed."</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake, my dear," exclaimed Butler, startled by the
+disclosure of the maiden's suspicion, which was so naturally accounted
+for, "keep this to yourself, and the time may come when I shall be able
+to reward your fidelity. If you have any good will towards me, as I hope
+you have, tell nobody what you have seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear me, sir," returned the maid. "I wouldn't let on to any one
+in the house for the world. I am for General Washington and the
+Congress, which is more than I think the people here are."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" muttered Butler, thoughtfully, and scarce above his breath.
+"What side does your father take, Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father is an old man, sir. And he reads his Bible, and every night,
+before we go to bed, he prays aloud before us all, I mean all that
+belong to his house, for quiet once more and peace. His petition is that
+there may be an end of strife, and that the sword and spear may be
+turned into the pruning-hook and ploughshare&mdash;you know the words, sir,
+perhaps, for they are in the good book, and so he doesn't take any side.
+But then, the English officers are not far off, and they take his house
+and use it as they please, so that he has no mind of his own. And almost
+all the people round us are Tories, and we are afraid of our lives if we
+do not say whatever they say."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! that's the misfortune of many more than your father's household.
+But how comes it that you are a friend of General Washington?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, I think he is our friend; and then he is a good man. And I
+have a better reason still to be on his side," added the maiden
+tremulously, with her head averted.</p>
+
+<p>"What reason, my good girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"John Ramsay, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! a very cogent reason, I doubt not, my pretty maid of the mill.
+And how does this reason operate?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have a liking, sir," she replied bashfully, but with innocent
+frankness; "he is for Washington, and we are to be married when the war
+is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Truly, that is a most excellent reason! Who is John Ramsay?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is a trooper, sir, and out with General Sumpter. We don't see him
+often now, for he is afraid to come home, excepting when the Tories are
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"These Tories are very troublesome, Mary," said Butler, laughing; "they
+annoy us all, on our side of the question. But love John Ramsay, my
+dear, and don't be ashamed of it, for I'll warrant he is a brave fellow,
+and deserves a pretty girl with a true heart, for his love to his
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"That he does!" replied Mary, "for his greatest fault is that he
+ventures too much. If you should see him, sir, I would like you just to
+drop him a hint that he ought to take more care of himself. He would
+mind it from you, but he puts me off with a laugh when I tell him so."</p>
+
+<p>"If I have the schooling of him, he shall be more cautious, for your
+sake. But the current of true love never did run smooth, Mary; remember
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"I must go into the house, my aunt Peggy calls me," interrupted the
+maiden. "I will keep the secret, sir," she added, as she retired from
+the porch to the household service where her presence was demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Simple, innocent, and confiding girl," ejaculated Butler, as he now
+strolled forth under the starlit canopy of night; "how are you
+contrasted with the rough and savage natures around you! I wear but a
+thin disguise, when this unpractised country girl is able so soon to
+penetrate it. And this miniature, too! Oh, Mildred! that the very
+talisman I bear about me to guard me from evil, should betray me! Well,
+this discovery admonishes me that I should wear that image nearer to my
+heart. There," he continued, as he buttoned his waistcoat across his
+breast; "lie closer and more concealed. I doubt this double-faced
+woodman, and almost believe in the seeming frivolous dotings of the
+crone at his fire-side. Now, God defend us from treachery and
+ambuscade!"</p>
+
+<p>Robinson, at this moment, being on his way to the stable, was met by
+Butler, who half whispered, "Good sergeant, keep your eyes about you,
+and, mark me, do not omit to take our weapons to our chamber. I have
+reasons for this caution. I would not trust these people too far."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat dare not play us a trick, major," replied the sergeant. "He knows
+I would shake the life out of his carcase if I saw him take one step of
+a traitor. Besides, in this here war time, it's a part of my discipline
+to be always ready for stolen marches. As you say, major, we will stack
+arms where we sleep. There is no trust in this dubious country that
+isn't something the surer with powder and ball to back it."</p>
+
+<p>With this intimation the sergeant continued his walk, and Butler,
+retiring to the family group, seated himself near the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Wat Adair and his crony, Michael Lynch, had each lighted a pipe, and
+were now in close conference under the cover of their own smoke, amidst
+the combined din of romping children and of the noisy spinning-wheel of
+the wife, which gave life and occupation to the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"How far do you expect to travel to-morrow?" asked the host, as Butler
+drew a chair near him.</p>
+
+<p>"That will depend very much," replied Butler, "upon the advice you may
+give us."</p>
+
+<p>"You wish to get across here into Georgia?" continued Wat.</p>
+
+<p>"By the route least liable to molestation," added the major.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see, Michael, Grindall's Ford is the best point to make: then
+there's Christie's, about three miles beyont."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," replied Lynch; "that will make about twenty-seven and three
+are thirty miles: an easy day's journey."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," said Adair, "if you know the road&mdash;doesn't Horse Shoe
+know it, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I rather think not," answered Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's a little tangled, to be sure; but if you will wait in the
+morning until I look at my wolf trap, which is only a step off, I will
+go with you part of the way, just to see you through one or two cross
+paths: after that all is clear enough. You will have a long day before
+you, and, with good horses, not much to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we likely to meet parties on the road?" asked Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lord, sir, no chance of it," replied the woodman; "everything is
+drawing so to a head down below at Camden 'twixt Cornwallis and Gates,
+that we have hardly anything but old women left to keep the country free
+of Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"And how have you escaped the levy?" inquired the major.</p>
+
+<p>"He, he, he!" chuckled our host; "there's a trick in that. They call me
+a man of doubtful principles, and neither side are willing to own me,"
+he added, with a tone that seemed to indicate a sense of his own
+cleverness. "But, bless you, sir, if I chose to speak out, there
+wouldn't be much doubt in the case. Would there, Michael?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if you was to be plain in declaring your sentiments," answered
+Lynch, sedately puffing out a huge cloud of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Betwixt you and me, sir," continued Wat, putting his hand up to his
+mouth, and winking an eye at Butler, "the thing's clear enough. But
+these are ticklish times, Mr. Butler, and the wise man keepeth his own
+counsel, as the Scripture says. You understand me, I dare say."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, I do," returned Butler. And here the conversation dropped, Wat
+and his companion gravely pouring forth volumes of tobacco-fumes in
+silence, until the sergeant, having made his visit to the stable, now
+re-entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Wat," said Robinson, "show us where we are to sleep. Mr. Butler, to my
+thinking, it's time to be turning in."</p>
+
+<p>Then throwing his rifle upon one arm, and Butler's holsters over the
+other, the sergeant waited in the middle of the floor until Mary
+Musgrove, at the order of Adair, took a candle in her hand, and beckoned
+our travellers to follow her out at the door. The maiden conducted her
+charge along the porch to the opposite end of the cabin, where she
+pointed out their chamber. After bidding their pretty conductress "good
+night," our travellers prepared themselves for that repose which their
+wearied frames did not long seek in vain.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>SOMETHING VERY LIKE A DREAM.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>It was after midnight, and the inmates of the woodman's cabin had been
+some hours at rest, when Mary Musgrove's sleep was disturbed by strange
+and unwonted alarms. She was dreaming of Arthur Butler, and a crowd of
+pleasant visions flitted about her pillow, when, suddenly, clouds
+darkened the world of her dream, and images of bloodshed caused her to
+shudder. Horrid shapes appeared to her, marching with stealthy pace
+through her apartment, and a low and smothered footfall seemed to strike
+her ear like the ticking of a death-watch. The fright awakened her, but
+when she came to herself all was still. Her chamber was at the opposite
+end of the cabin from that where Butler and Robinson slept, and it was
+separated from the room occupied by Lynch only by a thin partition of
+boards. The starlight through her window fell upon the floor, just
+touching, as it passed, the chair over which Mary had hung her clothes,
+and lighting with a doubtful and spectral light the prominent points of
+the pile of garments, in such manner as to give it the semblance of some
+unearthly thing. Mary Musgrove had the superstition common to rustic
+education, and, as her dream had already filled her mind with
+apprehensions, she now trembled when her eye fell upon what seemed to
+her a visitant from another world. For some moments she experienced that
+most painful of all sufferings, the agony of young and credulous minds
+when wrought upon by their horror of spectres in the night. Gradually,
+however, the truth came to her aid, and she saw the dreaded ghost
+disrobed of his terrors, and changed into a familiar and harmless
+reality. But this night-fear was scarcely dissipated before she again
+heard, what in her sleep had conjured up the train of disagreeable
+images, the noise of footsteps in the adjoining room. In another instant
+she recognised the sound of voices conversing in a half whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Michael," said the first voice; "Damn it, man, will you never awake?
+Rouse yourself; it is time to be stirring."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat!" exclaimed the second voice, with a loud yawn, whilst at the same
+moment the creaking of the bedstead and a sullen sound upon the floor
+showed that the speaker had risen from his couch. "Is it you? I have
+hardly gone to bed, before you are here to rouse me up. What o'clock is
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is nearly one," replied Wat Adair. "And let me tell you, you have no
+time to lose. Hugh Habershaw is good ten miles off, and you must be back
+by daylight."</p>
+
+<p>"You might have given me another hour, I think, if it was only to
+consider over the right way of setting about this thing. Always look
+before you leap, that's common sense."</p>
+
+<p>"You were always a heavy-headed devil," said Adair; "and take as much
+spurring as a spavined horse. What have you to do with considering?
+Isn't all fixed? Jog, man, jog. You have a beautiful starlight: and I
+had the crop-ear put up in the stable last night, that no time might be
+lost; so up, and saddle, and away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you needn't be so d&mdash;&mdash;d busy; don't you see that I am getting
+ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quiet, Mike; you talk too loud. Take your shoes in your hand, you can
+put them on when you get into the porch."</p>
+
+<p>"There, give me my coat, Wat; and I think I should have no objection to
+a drop before I set out. It's raw riding of a morning. Now tell me
+exactly what I am to say to Hugh Habershaw."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him," replied Wat, "that we have got Horse Shoe Robinson and Major
+Butler of the Continental army, as snug as a pair of foxes in a bag, and
+that I will let them run exactly at seven; and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to interrupt you, Wat," said the other, "let me ask you a question
+before you go on. Suppose this shouldn't be the man? Are you sure of it?
+It would be a d&mdash;&mdash;d unchristian job to give over any other human being
+to such a set of bloodhounds as Hugh Habershaw and his gang."</p>
+
+<p>"Shaw, Mike; you are a fool! Who, in the name of all the imps, could it
+be, but Major Butler! Weren't we expecting him along with Horse Shoe,
+and just at this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"It looks likely enough," replied Lynch. "So go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Hugh to be ready at the Dogwood Spring, at the latest, by eight
+o'clock. I'll give him a game to play that will supple his joints for
+him. And mind me Mike, warn the greasy captain to have his whole squad
+with him; for Horse Shoe Robinson, you know, is not to be handled by
+boys; it will be a bull-fight, or I'm mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"The major seems to have a wicked eye too, Wat," said Lynch. "I
+shouldn't like much to be in his way, if he was angry; these copperheads
+are always in a coil ready to strike. But, Wat, how if they don't ride
+by the Dogwood Spring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to me; I'll contrive to go as far as the forks of the road
+with them. And then, if they don't take the right hand fork, why, you
+may say it's for the want of my not knowing how to tell a lie."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Wat Adair, I don't like to spoil sport, but, may be, you have
+never thought whether it would be worth while just to take t'other side,
+and tell Horse Shoe the whole business. Couldn't we, don't you think,
+get as much money, and just as honestly, by hoisting colors with Major
+Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I <i>have</i> thought of that, and it won't do, for two reasons. First,
+these Continentals are on the down-hill, and money is as scarce with
+them as honesty with the red-coats: and, second, the Tories have got so
+much the upper hand in the whole country, that I should have my house
+burnt down and my children thrown into the blaze of it, in less than
+three days, if I was to let these fellows slip through my fingers."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I never knew," said Mike Lynch, "any piece of villany that hadn't
+some good reasons to stand by it, and that's what makes it agreeable to
+my conscience to take a hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you off-scouring," replied Wat, "it is enough to make Old Scratch
+laugh, to hear you talk about conscience! There ain't no such a thing
+going in these days. So be off; I'll look for you at daylight."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll ride, Wat, as if the devil was on my crupper; so good bye!"</p>
+
+<p>The cessation of the voices, the distant tramp of Lynch when he had left
+the cabin, and the cautious retreat of Wat Adair to his chamber, told
+to Mary that the affair was settled, and the plan of treachery in full
+career towards its consummation.</p>
+
+<p>The dialogue that had just passed in the hearing of the maiden,
+disclosed a plot that deeply agitated and distressed her. What did it
+become her to do, was the first question that presented itself to her
+reflection, as soon as she was sufficiently self-possessed to turn her
+thoughts upon herself. Was it in her power to avert the impending
+disaster which threatened the lives, perhaps, of those who had sought
+the hospitality of her kinsman? Perplexed, dismayed, and uncertain how
+to act, she had recourse to an expedient natural to her education, and
+such as would appear most obvious to a feeble and guileless female: it
+was to the simple and faith-inspired expedient of prayer. And now, in
+artless but sincere language, having first risen up in her bed, and bent
+her body across her pillow, in the attitude of supplication, she
+fervently implored the support of Heaven in her present strait, and
+besought wisdom and strength to conceive and to do that which was
+needful for the security of the individuals whose peace was threatened
+by this conspiracy.</p>
+
+<p>"I will arise," she said, as she finished her short and earnest prayer,
+"with the first light of the dawn, and wait the coming of the strangers
+from their chamber, and I will then be the first to tell them of the
+snare that is prepared for them." With this resolve she endeavored to
+compose herself to rest, but sleep fled her eyelids, and her anxious
+thoughts dwelt upon and even magnified the threatened perils. It might
+be too late, she reflected, to wait for the dawn of day; Adair might be
+before her at the door of the guests, and his constant presence might
+take from her all hope of being able to communicate the important secret
+to them: it was undoubtedly her surest course to take advantage of the
+stillness of the night, whilst the household were wrapt in sleep, and
+apprise the strangers of their danger. But then, how was she to make her
+way to their apartment, and arouse them, at this hour, from their
+slumbers? To what suspicions might the attempt expose her, even from
+Arthur Butler himself? And, more particularly, what would John Ramsay
+think of it, if the story should be afterwards told to her disadvantage?</p>
+
+<p>This last was an interrogatory which Mary Musgrove was often found
+putting to herself, in winding up a self-communion. On the present
+occasion this appeal to the opinion of John Ramsay had the opposite
+effect from that which might have been expected from it. It suggested
+new lights to her mind, and turned her thoughts into another current,
+and brought that resolution to her aid which her prayer was intended to
+invoke. What would John Ramsay think&mdash;he, the friend of liberty, and of
+Washington, the compatriot of Butler and Robinson, now toiling with them
+in the same cause! What would he think, if she, his own Mary (and the
+maiden rested a moment on this phrase), did <i>not</i> do everything in her
+power to save these soldiers of independence from the blow which
+treachery was now aiming at them? "John would have good right to be
+angry with me," she breathed out in a voice that even startled herself,
+"if I did not give them full warning of what I have heard. This I am
+sure of, he will believe <i>my</i> story whatever others may say."</p>
+
+<p>Innocence and purity of mind are both sword and shield in this world,
+and no less inspire confidence to defy the malice and uncharitableness
+of enemies than they strengthen the arm to do what is right. Mary,
+therefore, resolved to forego all maidenly scruples and bravely to
+perform her duty, come what might; and having settled upon this
+conclusion she impatiently awaited the moment when she might venture
+forth upon her office of humanity. In this situation it was not long
+before she heard the distant footfall of a horse's gallop along the
+road, indicating to her the departure of Michael Lynch upon his
+traitorous embassy.</p>
+
+<p>The time seemed to be propitious, so Mary arose and dressed herself.
+Then tripping stealthily to the door that opened upon the porch, she
+undid the bolt. A loud and prolonged creak, from the wooden hinges,
+caused her to shake from head to foot. She listened for a moment, and,
+finding that no one stirred, stepped forth with the timid and faltering
+step which would no less have marked the intent of the burglar, than, as
+now it did, the frightened motion of a guardian spirit bent upon an
+errand of good. Midway along the porch she had to pass the window of
+Adair's apartment; first, the low growl, and then the sudden bark of the
+watch-dog saluted her ear, and made her blood run cold. The maiden's
+hand, however, soothed him into silence; but the noise had attracted
+the notice of Wat Adair, who grumbled out a short curse from within,
+which was distinctly audible to Mary. She hastily fled to the further
+end of the porch, and there stood cowering close against the wall,
+almost as mute and motionless as a statue, scarce daring to breathe, and
+poised, as in the act to run, with her weight resting on one foot, the
+other raised from the floor. In this position she remained during a long
+interval of fear, until, at length, convinced that all was quiet, she
+again ventured forward. The window of the travellers' chamber looked out
+from the gable end of the dwelling, and she was now immediately before
+it. One of the beds of the room, she knew, was placed beside this
+window, and was occupied by either Butler or Robinson. Tremblingly and
+mistrustfully, she gave a feeble tap with her hand against the sash.
+There was no answer: the sleep within was the sleep of tired men, and
+was not to be broken by the light play of a maiden's fingers. She now
+picked up a pebble from the ground, and with it again essayed to wake
+the sleepers. This, too, was unsuccessful. In utter hopelessness of
+accomplishing her purpose by other means, she ventured upon raising the
+sash; and having done so, she thrust her head partially into the room as
+she held up the window-frame with one hand, crying out with an almost
+choked voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Butler! Mr. Butler! For mercy, awake!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no other response but the deep breathings of the sleep-subdued
+inmates.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! what shall I do?" she exclaimed, as her heart beat with a violent
+motion. "I might as well call to the dead. Mr. Galbraith Robinson! Ah
+me, I cannot rouse them without alarming the whole house! Major Butler,"
+she continued, laying a particular stress upon this designation of his
+rank, "Oh, good sir, awake!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" muttered Butler in a smothered and sleep-stifled
+voice, as he turned himself heavily on his pillow, like one moved by a
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, heaven, sir, make no noise! I am ashamed to tell you who I am,"
+said the terrified girl, "but I come for your good&mdash;I have something to
+tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Away, away!" cried Butler, speaking in his sleep, "I will not be
+disturbed: I do not fear you. Begone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, hear me," entreated the maiden, "the people in this house know
+you and they are contriving evil against you."</p>
+
+<p>"It makes no difference," muttered the only half-awakened soldier. "I
+will ride where it suits me, if the Tories were as thick as the leaves
+of the trees."</p>
+
+<p>"There are people gathering to do you harm to-morrow," continued Mary,
+not suspecting the unconsciousness of the person to whom she addressed
+herself, "and I only come with a word of warning to you. Do not ride by
+the Dogwood Spring to-morrow, nor take the right hand road at the first
+forks: there are wicked men upon that road. Have your eye," she
+whispered, "upon my uncle Walter. Ride fast and far, before you stop;
+and pray, sir, as you think fairly of me&mdash;Mary Musgrove, sir,&mdash;the
+daughter of Allen Musgrove, the miller&mdash;oh, do not tell my name. If you
+knew John Ramsay, sir, I am certain you would believe me."</p>
+
+<p>The watch-dog had growled once or twice during the period while Mary
+spoke, and at this moment the door of the principal room of the cabin
+was heard to move slightly ajar, and the voice of Adair, in a whisper,
+reached the girl's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist, Michael! In the devil's name what brought you back? Why do you
+loiter, when time is so precious?"</p>
+
+<p>A long, heavy, and inarticulate exclamation, such as belongs to
+disturbed sleep, escaped from Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Father of heaven, I shall let the window fall with fright!" inwardly
+ejaculated Mary, as she still occupied her uneasy station. "Hush, it is
+the voice of my uncle."</p>
+
+<p>There was a painful pause.</p>
+
+<p>A heavy rush of wind agitated the trees, and sweeping along the porch
+caused some horse-gear that was suspended against the wall to vibrate
+with a rustling noise: the sound pierced Mary's ear like the accents of
+a ghost, and her strength had well nigh failed her from
+faint-heartedness.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was Michael," said Adair, speaking to some one within,
+"but it is only the rattling of harness and the dreaming of Drummer.
+These dogs have a trick of whining and growling in their sleep according
+to a way of their own. They say a dog sometimes sees a spirit at night.
+But man or devil it's all one to old Drummer! Sleep quiet, you
+superfluous, and have done with your snoring!"</p>
+
+<p>With these words, the door was again closed, and Mary, for the moment,
+was released from suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember," she uttered in the most fear-stricken tone, as she lowered
+the sash. "Be sure to take the left hand road at the first fork!"</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name, what is it? Where are you?" was the exclamation heard by
+Mary as the window was closing. She did not halt for further parley or
+explanation, but now hastily stole back, like a frightened bird towards
+its thicket. Panting and breathless, she regained her chamber, and with
+the utmost expedition betook herself again to bed, where, gratified by
+the consciousness of having done a good action, and fully trusting that
+her caution would not be disregarded, she gradually dismissed her
+anxiety, and, before the hour of dawning, had fallen into a gentle
+though not altogether unperturbed slumber.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>HORSE SHOE AND BUTLER RESUME THEIR JOURNEY, WHICH IS DELAYED BY A SAVAGE
+INCIDENT.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Morning broke, and with the first day-streak Robinson turned out of his
+bed, leaving Butler so thoroughly bound in the spell of sleep, that he
+was not even moved by the loud and heavy tramp of the sergeant, as that
+weighty personage donned his clothes. Horse Shoe's first habit in the
+morning was to look after Captain Peter, and he accordingly directed his
+steps towards the rude shed which served as a stable, at the foot of the
+hill. Here, to his surprise, he discovered that the fence-rails which,
+the night before, had been set up as a barrier across the vacant
+doorway, had been let down, and that no horses were to be seen about the
+premises.</p>
+
+<p>"What hocus-pocus has been here?" said he to himself, as he gazed upon
+the deserted stable. "Have these rummaging and thieving Tories been out
+maraudering in the night? or is it only one of Captain Peter's
+old-sodger tricks, letting down bars and leading the young geldings into
+mischief? That beast can snuff the scent of a corn field or a pasture
+ground as far as a crow smells gunpowder. He'd dislocate and corruptify
+any innocent stable of horses in Carolina!"</p>
+
+<p>In doubt to which of these causes to assign this disappearance of their
+cavalry, the sergeant ascended the hill hard-by, and directed his eye
+over the neighboring fields, hoping to discover the deserters in some of
+the adjacent pastures. But he could get no sight of them. He then
+returned to the stable and fell to examining the ground about the door,
+in order to learn something of the departure of the animals by their
+tracks. These were sufficiently distinct to convince him that Captain
+Peter, whose shoes had a peculiar mark well known to the sergeant, had
+eloped during the night, in company with the major's gelding and two
+others, these being all, as Horse Shoe had observed, that were in the
+stable at the time he had retired to bed. He forthwith followed the
+foot-prints which led him into the high road, and thence along it
+westward for about two hundred paces, where a set of field bars, now
+thrown down, afforded entrance into the cornfield. At this point the
+sergeant traced the deviation of three of the horses into the field,
+whilst the fourth, it was evident, had continued upon the road.</p>
+
+<p>The conclusion which Galbraith drew from this phenomenon was expressed
+by a wise shake of the head and a profound fit of abstraction. He took
+his seat upon a projecting rail at the angle of the fence, and began to
+sum up conjectures in the following phrase:</p>
+
+<p>"The horse that travelled along that road, never travelled of his own
+free will: that's as clear as preaching. Well, he wa'n't rode by Wat nor
+by Mike Lynch, or else they are arlier men than I take them to be: but
+still, I'll take a book oath that creetur went with a bridle across his
+head, and a pair o' legs astride his back. And whoever held that bridle
+in his hand, did it for no good! Scampering here and scampering there,
+and scouring woods in the night too, when the country is as full of
+Tories as a beggar's coat with&mdash;&mdash;, it's a dogmatical bad sign, take it
+which way you will. Them three horses had the majority, and it is the
+nature of these beasts always to follow the majority: that's an
+observation I have made; and, in particular, if there's a cornfield, or
+an oatpatch, or a piece of fresh pasture to be got into, every
+individual horse is unanimous on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Whilst the sergeant was engrossed with these reflections, "he was ware,"
+as the old ballads have it, of a man trudging past him along the road.
+This was no other than Wat Adair, who was striding forward with a long
+and rapid step, and with all the appearance of one intent upon some
+pressing business.</p>
+
+<p>"Halloo! who goes there? where away so fast, Wat?" was Robinson's
+challenge.</p>
+
+<p>"Horse Shoe!" exclaimed Adair, in a key that bespoke surprise, and even
+alarm,&mdash;"Ha, ha, ha!&mdash;By the old woman's pipe, you frightened me! I'll
+swear, Galbraith Robinson, I heard you snoring as I passed by your
+window three minutes ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll swear that's not the truest word you ever spoke in your life,
+Wat; though true enough for you, mayhap. Do you see how cleverly yon
+light has broke across the whole sky? When I first turned out this
+morning it was a little ribbon of day: the burning of a block-house at
+night, ten miles off, would have made a broader streak. It was your own
+snoring you heard, Wat; you have only forgot under whose window it was."</p>
+
+<p>"What old witch has been pinching you, Horse Shoe, that <i>you</i> are up so
+early?" asked Adair. "Get back to the house, man, I will be with you
+presently; I have my farm to look after, I'll see you presently."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to me to be in a very onreasonable hurry, Wat, considering
+that you have the day before you. But, softly, I'll walk with you, if
+you have no unliking to it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, I'm busy, Galbraith; I'm going to look after my traps; I'd
+rather you'd go back to the house and hurry breakfast. Go! You would
+only get scratched with briers if you followed me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, ha! Wat! Briers, did you say? Look here, man, do you see them
+there legs? Do they look as if they couldn't laugh at yourn in any sort
+of scrambling I had a mind to set them to? Tut, I'll go with you just to
+larn you the march drill."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll not budge a foot after the traps."</p>
+
+<p>"You are crusty, Wat Adair; what's the matter with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is Major Butler up yet?" asked the woodman thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Who</i> do you say? <i>Major</i> Butler."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Major!</i>" cried Adair, with affected surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you called him Major Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had some dream, I think, about him: or, didn't you call him so
+yourself, Horse Shoe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most undoubtedly, I did not," replied Robinson seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I dreamt it, Horse Shoe: these dreams sometimes get into the head,
+like things we have been told. But, Galbraith, tell me the plain
+up-and-down truth, what brings you and Mr. Butler into these parts? What
+are you after in Georgia? It does seem strange to find men that are
+wanted below, straggling here in our woods at such a time as this."</p>
+
+<p>"There are two sorts of men in this world, Wat," said the sergeant, with
+a smile, "them that axes questions, and them that won't answer
+questions. Now, which, do you think, I belong to? Why, to the last, you
+tinker! Where are our horses, Wat? Tell me that. Who let them out of the
+stable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps they let themselves out," replied Adair, "they were not
+haltered."</p>
+
+<p>"You are either knave or fool, Wat. Come here. There are the tracks of
+the beast that carried the man up this road, who sot loose all the
+horses that were in that stable."</p>
+
+<p>"Mike Lynch, perhaps," said Adair, with an assumed expression of
+ignorance. "Where can that fellow have been so early? Oh, I remember, he
+told me last night that he was going this morning to the blacksmith's.
+He ought to be back by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are here to larn the news from him?" said the sergeant, eyeing
+Adair with a suspicious scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"You have just hit it, Horse Shoe," returned Wat, laughing. "I did want
+to know if there were any more squads of troopers foraging about this
+district: for these cursed fellows whip in upon a man and cut him up
+blade and ear, without so much as thanks for their pillage, and so I
+told Mike to inquire of the blacksmith, for he is more like to know than
+anybody else, whether there was any more of these pestifarious
+scrummagers abroad."</p>
+
+<p>"And your traps, Wat?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was only a lie, Galbraith&mdash;I confess it. I was afeard to make you
+uneasy by telling you what I was after. But still it wasn't a broad,
+stark, daylight lie neither; it was only a civil fib, for I was going
+after my wolf trap before I got my breakfast. But here comes Mike."</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture Lynch was seen emerging from the wood, mounted on a
+rough, untrimmed pony, which he was urging forward under repeated blows
+with his stick. The little animal was covered with foam; and, from his
+travel-worn plight, gave evidence of having been taxed to the utmost of
+his strength in a severe journey. At some hundred paces distant, the
+rider detected the presence of Adair and his companion, and came to a
+sudden halt. He appeared to deliberate as if with a purpose to escape
+their notice; but finding that he was already observed by them, he put
+his horse again in motion, advancing only at a slow walk. Adair hastily
+quitted Robinson, and, walking forward until he met Lynch, turned about
+and accompanied him along the road, conversing during this interval in
+a key too low to be heard by the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's Horse Shoe thrusting his head into our affairs. Conjure a lie
+quickly about your being at the blacksmith's; I told him you were there
+to hear the news."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, aye! I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"You saw Hugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The gang will be at their post."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! Be merry; laugh and have a joke&mdash;Horse Shoe is very suspicious."</p>
+
+<p>"You have ridden the crop-ear like a stolen horse," continued Adair, as
+soon as he found himself within the sergeant's hearing. "See what a
+flurry you have put the dumb beast in. If it had been your own nag, Mike
+Lynch, I warrant you would have been more tedious with him."</p>
+
+<p>"The crop-ear is not worth the devil's fetching, Wat. He is as lazy as a
+land-turtle, and too obstinate for any good-tempered man's patience.
+Look at that stick&mdash;I have split it into a broom on the beast."</p>
+
+<p>"You look more like a man at the end of the day than at the beginning of
+it," said Robinson. "How far had you to ride, Michael?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only over here to the shop of Billy Watson, in the Buzzard's nest,"
+replied Lynch, "which isn't above three miles at the farthest. My saw
+wanted setting, so I thought I'd make an early job of it, but this beast
+is so cursed dull I have been good three-quarters of an hour since I
+left the smith's."</p>
+
+<p>"What news do you bring?" inquired Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, none worth telling again. That cross-grained, contrary,
+rough-and-tumble bear gouger, old Hide-and-Seek, went down yesterday
+with the last squad of Ferguson's new draughts."</p>
+
+<p>"Wild Tom Eskridge," said Wat Adair. "You knowed him, Horse Shoe, a
+superfluous imp of Satan!" continued the woodman, laying a particular
+accent on the penultimate of this favorite adjective, which he was
+accustomed to use as expressive of strong reprobation. "So he is cleared
+out at last! Well, I'm glad on't, for he was the only fellow in these
+hills I was afeard would give you trouble, Galbraith."</p>
+
+<p>"Superfluous or not," replied the sergeant, pronouncing the word in the
+same manner as the woodman, and equally ignorant of its meaning, "it
+will be a bad day for Tom Eskridge, the rank, obstropolous Tory, when he
+meets me, Wat Adair. I have reason to think that he tried to clap some
+of Tarleton's dragoons on my back over here at the Waxhaws. There's hemp
+growing for that scape-grace at this very time."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard of no red coats about the Tiger?" asked Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"Not one," replied Lynch; "the nearest post is Cruger's, in Ninety-Six."</p>
+
+<p>"Then your way, Mr. Robinson, is tolerable for to-day," added Adair:
+"but war is war, and there is always some risk to be run when men are
+parading with their rifles in their hands. But see! it is hard upon
+sunrise. Let us go and give some directions about breakfast. I will send
+out some of the boys to hunt up the horses; they will be ready by the
+time we have had something to eat."</p>
+
+<p>Without further delay, Adair strode rapidly up the hill to the
+dwelling-house, the sergeant and Lynch following as soon as the latter
+had put his jaded beast in the stable. By the time these were assembled
+in the porch the family began to show signs of life, and it was a little
+after sunrise when Butler came forth ready for the prosecution of his
+journey. A few words were exchanged in private between Lynch and the
+woodman, and after much idle talk and contrived delay, two lazy and
+loitering negro boys were sent off in quest of the travellers' horses.
+Not long after this the animals were seen coursing from one part of the
+distant field to another, defying all attempts to get them into a
+corner, or to compel them to pass through the place that had been opened
+in order to drive them towards the stable.</p>
+
+<p>There was an air of concern and silent bewilderment visible upon
+Butler's features, and an occasional expression of impatience escaped
+his lips as he watched from the porch the ineffectual efforts of the
+negroes to force the truant steeds towards the house.</p>
+
+<p>"All in good time," said Adair, answering the thoughts and looks of
+Butler, rather than his words, "all in good time; they must have their
+play out. It is a good sign, sir, to see a traveller's horse so
+capersome of a morning. Wife, make haste with your preparations; Horse
+Shoe and his friend here mustn't be kept back from their day's journey.
+Stir yourself, Mary Musgrove!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will the gentlemen stay for breakfast?" inquired Mary, with a doubtful
+look at Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Will they? To be sure they will! Would you turn off friends from the
+door with empty stomachs, you mink, and especially with a whole day's
+starvation ahead of them?" exclaimed the woodman.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought they had far to ride," replied the girl, "and would choose,
+rather than wait, to take some cold provision to eat upon the road."</p>
+
+<p>"Tush! Go about your business, niece! The horses are not caught yet, and
+you may have your bacon fried before they are at the door."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be ready, then, in a moment," returned Mary, and she betook
+herself diligently to her task of preparation. During the interval that
+followed, the maiden several times attempted to gain a moment's speech
+with Butler, but the presence of Adair or Lynch as frequently forbade
+even a whisper; and the morning meal was at length set smoking on the
+table without the arrival of the desired opportunity. The repast was
+speedily finished, and the horses having surrendered to the emissaries
+who had been despatched to bring them in, were now in waiting for their
+masters. Horse Shoe put into the woodman's hand a small sum of money in
+requital for the entertainment afforded to his comrade and himself, and
+having arranged their baggage upon the saddles, announced that they were
+ready to set forward on their journey. Whilst the travellers were
+passing the farewells customary on such occasions, Mary Musgrove, whose
+manner during the whole morning gave many indications of a painful
+secret concern, now threw herself in Butler's way, and as she modestly
+offered him her hand at parting, and heard the little effusion of
+gallantry and compliment with which it was natural for a well-bred man
+and a soldier to speak at such a moment, she took the opportunity to
+whisper&mdash;"The left hand road at the Fork&mdash;remember!" and instantly
+glided away to another part of the house. Butler paused but for an
+instant, and then hurried forward with the sergeant to their horses.</p>
+
+<p>"Wat, you promised to put us on the track to Grindall's Ford," said
+Horse Shoe, as he rose into his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready to go part of the way with you," replied the woodman, "I
+will see you to the Fork, and after that you must make out for
+yourselves. Michael, fetch me my rifle."</p>
+
+<p>It was not more than half past six when the party set forth on their
+journey. Our two travellers rode along at an easy gait, and Wat Adair,
+throwing his rifle carelessly across his shoulder, stepped out with a
+long swinging step that kept him, without difficulty, abreast of the
+horsemen, as they pursued their way over hill and dale.</p>
+
+<p>They had not journeyed half a mile before they reached a point in the
+woods at which Adair called a halt.</p>
+
+<p>"My trap is but a little off the road," he said, "and I must beg you to
+stop until I see what luck I have this morning. It's a short business
+and soon done. This way, Horse Shoe; it is likely I may give you sport
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Our time is pressing," said Butler. "Pray give us your directions as to
+the road, and we will leave you."</p>
+
+<p>"You would never find it in these woods," replied Wat; "there are two or
+three paths leading through here, and the road is a blind one till you
+come to the fork; the trap is not a hundred yards out of your way."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather than stop to talk about it, Wat," said the sergeant, "we will
+follow you, so go on."</p>
+
+<p>The woodman now turned into the thickets, and opening his way through
+the bushes, in a few moments conducted the two soldiers to the foot of a
+large gum tree.</p>
+
+<p>"By all the crows, I have got my lady!" exclaimed Wat Adair, with a
+whoop that made the woods ring. "The saucy slut! I have yoked her, Horse
+Shoe Robinson! There's a picture worth looking at."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" cried Butler; "of whom are you speaking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look for yourself, sir," replied the woodman. "There's the mischievous
+devil; an old she-wolf that I have been hunting these two years. Oh, ho,
+madam! Your servant!"</p>
+
+<p>Upon looking near the earth, our travellers descried the object of this
+triumphant burst of joy, in a large wolf that was now struggling to
+release herself from the thraldom of her position. The trap was
+ingeniously contrived. It consisted of a long opening into the hollow
+trunk of the tree, beginning about four feet from the ground and cut out
+with an axe down to the root. An aperture had been made at the upper end
+of the slit about a foot wide, and the wood had been hewed away
+downwards, in such a manner as to render the slit gradually narrower as
+it approached the lower extremity, until near the earth it was not more
+than four inches in width, thus forming a wedge-shaped loophole into the
+hollow body of the tree. A part of the carcase of a sheep had been
+placed on the bottom inside, the scent of which had attracted the wolf,
+and, in her eagerness to possess herself of this treasure she had risen
+on her hind legs high enough to find the opening sufficiently wide to
+allow her head to be thrust in, whence, slipping downwards, the slit
+became so narrow as to prevent her from withdrawing her jaws. The only
+mode of extrication from this trap was to rear her body to the same
+height at which she found admission, an expedient which, it seems,
+required more cunning than this proverbially cunning animal was gifted
+with. She now stood captive pretty much in the same manner that oxen are
+commonly secured in their stalls.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments after the prisoner was first perceived, and during the
+extravagant yelling of Adair at the success of his stratagem, she made
+several desperate but ineffectual efforts to withdraw her head; but as
+soon as Butler and Robinson had dismounted, and, together with their
+guide, had assembled around her, she desisted from her struggles, and
+seemed patiently to resign herself to the will of her captor. She stood
+perfectly still with that passive and even cowardly submission for
+which, in such circumstances, this animal is remarkable: her hind legs
+drooped and her tail was thrust between them, whilst not a snarl nor an
+expression of anger or grief escaped her. Her characteristic sagacity
+had been completely baffled by the superior wolfish cunning of her
+ensnarer.</p>
+
+<p>Wat laughed aloud with a coarse and almost fiendish laugh, as he cried
+out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have cotched the old thief at last, in spite of her cunning! With a
+warning to boot. Here is a mark I sot upon her last winter," he added,
+as he raised her fore leg, which was deprived of the foot; "but she
+would be prowling, the superfluous devil! It is in the nature of these
+here blood-suckers, to keep a going at their trade, no matter how much
+they are watched. But I knowed I'd have her one of these days. These
+varmints have always got to pay, one day or another, for their
+villanies. Wa'n't she an old fool, Horse Shoe, to walk into this here
+gum for a piece of dead mutton? Ha, ha, ha! if she had had only the
+sense to rear up, she might have had the laugh on us! But she hadn't;
+ha, ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Wat Adair," said Robinson, "you had a mischievous head when you
+contrived that trap."</p>
+
+<p>"Feel her ribs, Mr. Butler," cried Wat, not heeding the sergeant; "I
+know who packed that flesh on her. There isn't a lamb in my flock to-day
+that wouldn't grin if he was to hear the news."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what are you going to do with her, Adair?" inquired Butler;
+"remember you are losing time here."</p>
+
+<p>"Do with her!" ejaculated the woodman; "that's soon told: I will skin
+the devil alive."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not," exclaimed Butler. "It would be an unnecessary cruelty.
+Despatch her on the spot with your rifle."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't waste powder and ball on the varmint," replied Adair. "No,
+no, the knife, the knife!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then cut her throat and be done with it."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not used to these hellish thieves, sir," said the woodman.
+"There is nothing that isn't too good for them. By the old sinner, I'll
+skin her alive! That's the sentence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Once more, I pray not," said Butler imploringly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is past praying for," returned Adair, as he drew forth his knife and
+began to whet it on a stone. "She shall die by inches, and be damned to
+her!" he added, as his eye sparkled with savage delight. "Now look and
+see a wolf punished according to her evil doings."</p>
+
+<p>The woodman stood over his captive and laughed heartily, as he pointed
+out to his companions the quailing and subdued gestures of his victim,
+indulging in coarse and vulgar jests whilst he described minutely the
+plan of torture he was about to execute. When he had done with his
+ribaldry, he slowly drew the point of his knife down the back-bone of
+the animal, from the neck to the tail, sundering the skin along the
+whole length. "That's the way to unbutton her jacket," he said, laughing
+louder than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, desist!" ejaculated Butler. "For my sake, save the poor
+animal from this pain! I will pay you thrice the value of the skin."</p>
+
+<p>"Money will not buy her," said Wat, looking up for an instant. "Besides,
+the skin is spoiled by that gash."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a guinea, if you will cut her throat," said Butler, "and
+destroy her at once."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be murder out-right," replied Adair; "I never take money to
+do murder; it goes agin my conscience. No, no, I will undress the old
+lady, and let her have the benefit of the cool air in this hot weather.
+And if she should take cold, you know, and fall sick and die of that,
+why then, Mr. Butler, you can give me the guinea. That will save my
+conscience," he added, with a grin that expressed a struggle between his
+avarice and cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Galbraith, I will not stay to witness the barbarity of this
+savage. Mount your horse, and let us take our chance alone through the
+woods. Fellow, I don't wish your further service."</p>
+
+<p>"Look there now!" said Adair; "where were you born, that you are so
+mighty nice upon account of a blood-sucking wolf? Man, it's impossible
+to find your way through this country; and you might, by taking a wrong
+road, fall in with them that would think nothing of serving you as I
+serve this beast."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat, curse your onnatural heart," interposed the sergeant. "Stob her at
+once. It's no use, Mr. Butler," he said, finding that Adair did not heed
+him, "we can't help ourselves. It's wolf agin wolf."</p>
+
+<p>"I knowed you couldn't, Horse Shoe," cried Wat, with another laugh. "So
+you may as well stay to see it out."</p>
+
+<p>Butler had now walked to his horse, mounted, and retired some distance
+into the wood to avoid further converse with the tormentor of the
+ensnared beast, and to withdraw himself from a sight so revolting to his
+feelings. In the meantime, Adair proceeded with his operation with an
+alacrity that showed the innate cruelty of his temper. He made a cross
+incision through the skin, from the point of one shoulder to the other,
+the devoted subject of his torture remaining, all the time, motionless
+and silent. Having thus severed the skin to suit his purpose, the
+woodman now, with an affectation of the most dainty precision,
+flourished his knife over the animal's back, and then burst into a loud
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help laughing," he exclaimed, "to think what a fine, dangling,
+holiday coat I am going to make of it. I shall strip her as low as the
+ribs, and then the flaps will hang handsomely. She will be considered a
+beauty in the sheep-folds, and then she may borrow a coat, you see, from
+some lamb; a wolf in sheep's clothing is no uncommon sight in this
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat Adair," said Horse Shoe, angrily, "I've a mind to take the wolf's
+part and give you a trouncing. You are the savagest wolf in sheep's
+clothing yourself that it was ever my luck to see."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so, Horse Shoe!" cried Wat, tauntingly. "You might chance to
+miss your way to-day, so don't make a fool of yourself! Ill will would
+only take away from you a finger-post&mdash;and it isn't every road through
+this district that goes free of the Tory rangers."</p>
+
+<p>"Your own day will come yet," replied Horse Shoe, afraid to provoke the
+woodman too far on account of the dependence of himself and his
+companion upon Adair's information in regard to the route of their
+journey. "We have to give and take quarter in this world."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Horse Shoe," said Adair, beginning to expostulate, "I don't
+like these varmints, no how; that's the reason why. They are cruel
+themselves and I like to be cruel to them. It's a downright pleasure to
+see them winch, for, bless your soul! they don't mind common
+throat-cutting, no more than a calf. Now here's the way to touch their
+feelings."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment he applied the point of his knife to separating the hide
+from the flesh on either side of the spine, and then, in his eagerness
+to accomplish this object, he placed his knife between his teeth and
+began to tug at the skin with his hands, accompanying the effort with
+muttered expressions of delight at the involuntary and but
+ill-suppressed agonies of the brute. The pain, at length became too
+acute for the wolf, with all her characteristic habits of submission,
+to bear, and, in a desperate struggle that ensued between her and her
+tormentor, she succeeded, by a convulsive leap, in extricating herself
+from her place of durance. The energy of her effort of deliverance
+rescued her from the woodman's hand, and turning short upon her
+assailant, she fixed her fangs deep into the fleshy part of his thigh,
+where, as the foam fell from her lips, she held on firmly as if
+determined to sell her life dearly for the pain she suffered. Adair
+uttered a groan from the infliction, and, in the hurry of the instant,
+dropped his knife upon the ground. He was thus compelled to bear the
+torment of the grip, until he dragged the still pertinaciously-adhering
+beast a few paces forward, where, grasping up his knife, he planted it,
+by one deeply driven blow, through and through her heart. She silently
+fell at his feet, without snarl or bark, releasing her hold only in the
+impotency of death.</p>
+
+<p>"Curse her!" cried Adair, "the hard-hearted, bloody-minded devil! That's
+the nature of the beast&mdash;cruel and wicked to the last, damn her!" he
+continued, raving with pain, as he stamped his heel upon her head: "damn
+her in the wolf's hell to which she has gone!"</p>
+
+<p>Robinson stood by, unaiding, and not displeased to see the summary
+vengeance thus inflicted by the victim upon the oppressor. This calmness
+provoked the woodman, who, with that stoicism which belongs to
+uncivilized life, seemed determined to take away all pretext for the
+sergeant's exultation, by affecting to make light of the injury he had
+received.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind the scratch of the cursed creature," he said, assuming a
+badly counterfeited expression of mirth, "but I don't like to be cheated
+out of the pleasure of tormenting such mischievous varmints. It's well
+for her that she put me in a passion, or she should have carried a
+festered carcase that the buzzards might have fed upon before she died.
+But come&mdash;where is Mr. Butler? I want that guinea. Ho, sir!" he
+continued, bawling to Butler, as he tied up his wound with a strap of
+buckskin taken from his pouch, "my guinea! I've killed the devil to
+please you, seeing you would have it."</p>
+
+<p>Butler now rode up to the spot, and, in answer to this appeal, gave it
+an angry and indignant refusal.</p>
+
+<p>"Lead us on our way, sir," he added. "We have lost too much time already
+with your brutal delay. Lead on, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will get soon enough to your journey's end," replied Adair with a
+smile, and then sullenly took up his rifle and led the way through the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>A full half hour or more was lost by the incident at the trap, and
+Butler's impatience and displeasure continued to be manifested by the
+manner with which he urged the woodman forward upon their journey. After
+regaining the road, and traversing a piece of intricate and tangled
+woodland, by a bridle-path into which their guide had conducted them,
+they soon reached a broader and more beaten highway, along which they
+rode scarce a mile before they arrived at the Fork.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen you safe as far as I promised," said the woodman, "and you
+must now shift for yourselves. You take the right hand road; about ten
+miles further you will come to another prong, there strike to the left,
+and if you have luck you will get to the ford before sundown. Three
+miles further is Christie's. Good bye t' ye! And Horse Shoe, if you
+should come across another wolf stuck in a tree, skin her, d' ye hear?
+Ha! ha! ha! Good bye!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ride on!" said Butler to the sergeant, who was about making some reply
+to Adair; "ride on! Don't heed or answer that fellow, but take the road
+he directs. He is a beast and scoundrel. Faster, good sergeant, faster!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he set his horse to a gallop. Robinson followed at equal
+speed, the woodman standing still until the travellers disappeared from
+his view behind the thick foliage that overhung their path. Having seen
+them thus secure in his toil, the treacherous guide turned upon his
+heel, shouldered his rifle, and limped back to his dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a strange misgiving of that ruffian, sergeant," said Butler,
+after they had proceeded about a quarter of a mile. "My mind is
+perplexed with some unpleasant doubts. What is your opinion of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He plays on both sides," replied Horse Shoe, "and knows more of you
+than by rights he ought. He spoke consarning of you, this morning, as
+<i>Major</i> Butler. It came out of his mouth onawares."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! Is my name on any part of my baggage or dress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of," replied the sergeant; "and if it was, Wat can't
+read."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you interrupted in your sleep last night, Galbraith? Did you hear
+noises in our room?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, Major, louder nor the gnawing of a mouse at the foot of the
+plank partition. Did you see a spirit that you look so solemn?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, sergeant!" said Butler, with great earnestness of manner. "I had
+a dream that had something more than natural in it."</p>
+
+<p>"You amaze me, Major! If you saw anything, why didn't you awake me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't time before it was gone, and then it was too late. I dreamed,
+Galbraith, that somehow&mdash;for my dream didn't explain how she came
+in&mdash;Mary Musgrove, the young girl we saw&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! Major, that young girl's oversot you! Was that the sperit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, Galbraith, I am in earnest; listen to me. I dreamt Mary Musgrove
+came into our room and warned us that our lives were in danger; how, I
+forget, or perhaps she did not tell, but she spoke of our being waylaid,
+and, I think, she advised that at this very fork of the road we have
+just passed, we should take the left hand&mdash;the right, according to my
+dream, she said, led to some spring."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps the Dogwood, Major," said Robinson, laughing; "there is such a
+place, somewhere in these parts."</p>
+
+<p>"The Dogwood! by my life," exclaimed Butler; "she called it the Dogwood
+spring."</p>
+
+<p>"That's very strange," said Robinson gravely; "that's very strange,
+unless you have hearn some one talk about the spring before you went to
+bed last night. For, as sure as you are a gentleman, there is such a
+spring not far off, although I don't know exactly where."</p>
+
+<p>"And what perplexes me," continued Butler, "is that, this morning,
+almost in the very words of my dream, Mary Musgrove cautioned me, in a
+whisper, to take the left road at the fork. How is she connected with my
+dream? Or could it have been a reality, and was it the girl herself who
+spoke? I have no recollection of such a word from her before I retired
+to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have hearn of these sort of things before, major, and never could
+make them out. For my share, I believe in dreams. There is something
+wrong here," continued the sergeant, after pondering over the matter for
+a few moments, and shaking his head, "there is something wrong here,
+Major Butler, as sure as you are born. I wasn't idle in making my own
+observations: first, I didn't like the crossness of Wat's wife last
+night; then, the granny there, she raved more like an old witch, with
+something wicked in her that wouldn't let her be still, than like your
+decent old bodies when they get childish. What did she mean by her
+palaver about golden guineas in Wat's pocket, and the English officer?
+Such notions don't come naturally into the head, without something to go
+upon. And, moreover, when I turned out this morning, before it was
+cleverly day, who do you think I saw?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I cannot guess."</p>
+
+<p>"First, Wat walking up the road with a face like a man that had sot a
+house on fire; and when I stopped him to ax what he was after, down
+comes Mike Lynch&mdash;that peevish bull-dog&mdash;from the woods, on a little
+knot of a pony, pretty nigh at full speed, and covered with lather; and
+there was a sort of colloguing together, and then a story made up about
+Mike's being at Billy Watson's, the blacksmith's. It didn't tell well,
+major, and it sot me to suspicions. The gray of the morning is not the
+time for blacksmith's work: there's the fire to make up, and what not.
+Besides, it don't belong to the trade, as I know, here in the country,
+to be at work so arly. I said nothing; but I made a sort of reckoning in
+my own mind that they looked like a couple of desarters trying to sham a
+sentry. Then again, there was our horses turned loose. There is
+something in these signs, you may depend upon it, Major Butler!"</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow has designs against us, Galbraith," said Butler, musing,
+and paying but little attention to the surmises of the sergeant, "I can
+hardly think it was a dream. It may have been Mary Musgrove herself, but
+how she got there is past my conjecture. I saw nothing, I only heard the
+warning. And I would be sworn she addressed me as Major Butler. You say
+Wat Adair gave me the same title?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I am a living man," replied Horse Shoe, "he wanted to deny it; and
+then he pretended it was a fancy of his own."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very strange, and looks badly," said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, let the worst come to the worst, we have arms and legs
+both," returned the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"I will take the hint for good or for ill," said the major. "Sergeant,
+strike across into the left hand road; in this I will move no farther."</p>
+
+<p>"That's as wise a thing as we can do," replied Robinson. "If you have
+doubts of a man, seem to trust him, but take care not to follow his
+advice. There is another hint I will give you, let us examine our
+fire-arms to see that we are ready for a battle."</p>
+
+<p>Butler concurring in this precaution, the sergeant dismounted, and
+having primed his rifle afresh, attempted to fire it into the air, but
+it merely flashed, without going off. Upon a second trial the result was
+the same. This induced a further examination, which disclosed the fact
+that the load which had been put in the day previous had been
+discharged, and a bullet was now driven home in the place of the powder.
+It was obvious that this was designed. The machination of an enemy
+became more apparent when, upon an investigation into the condition of
+Butler's pistols, they were also found incapable of being used.</p>
+
+<p>"This is some of Michael Lynch's doings whilst we were eating our
+breakfast," said Horse Shoe, "and it is flat proof of treason in our
+camp. I should like to go back if it was only for the satisfaction of
+blowing out Wat's brains. But there is no use in argufying about it. We
+must set things to rights, and move on with a good look-out ahead."</p>
+
+<p>With the utmost apparent indifference to the dangers that beset them,
+the sergeant now applied himself to the care of restoring his rifle to a
+serviceable condition. With the aid of a small tool which he carried for
+such a use, he opened the breach and removed the ball: Butler's pistols
+were likewise put in order, and our travellers, being thus restored to
+an attitude of defence, turned their horses' heads into the thicket upon
+their left, and proceeded across the space that filled up the angle made
+by the two branches of the road; and, having gained that branch which
+they sought, they pressed forward diligently upon their journey.</p>
+
+<p>The path they had to travel was lonely and rugged, and it was but once
+or twice, during the day, that they met a casual wayfarer traversing
+the same wild. From such a source, however, they were informed that they
+were on the most direct road to Grindall's ford, and that the route they
+had abandoned would have conducted them to the Dogwood spring, a point
+much out of their proper course, and from which the ford might only have
+been reached by a difficult and tortuous by-way.</p>
+
+<p>These disclosures opened the eyes of Butler and his companion to the
+imminent perils that encompassed them, and prompted them to the exercise
+of the strictest vigilance. Like discreet and trusty soldiers, they
+pursued their way with the most unwavering courage, confident that the
+difficulty of retreat was fully equal to that of the advance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>TORY TROOPERS, A DARK ROAD AND A FRAY.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"By the whiskers of the Grand Turk, I have got the four points on you,
+bully Buff! High, low, jack and the game!" exclaimed Peppercorn.</p>
+
+<p>"You have luck enough to worry out the nine lives of a cat. That's an
+end to Backbiter, the best horse 'twixt Pedee and the Savannah. So,
+blast me, if I play any more with you! There, send the cards to hell!"
+roared out Hugh Habershaw, rising and throwing the pack into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at the closing in of night, when a party of
+ruffianly-looking men were assembled beneath a spreading chestnut, that
+threw forth its aged arms over a small gravelly hillock, in the depths
+of the forest that skirted the northern bank of the Pacolet, within a
+short distance of Grindall's ford. The spot had all the qualities of a
+secret fastness. It was guarded on one side by the small river, and on
+the other by a complicated screen of underwood, consisting principally
+of those luxuriantly plaited vines which give so distinct a character to
+the southern woodland. The shrubbery, immediately along the bank of the
+river, was sufficiently open to enable a horseman to ride through it
+down to the road which, at about two hundred paces off, led into the
+ford.</p>
+
+<p>The group who now occupied this spot consisted of some ten or twelve men
+under the command of Hugh Habershaw. Their appearance was half rustic
+and half military; some efforts at soldierly costume were visible in the
+decoration of an occasional buck-tail set in the caps of several of the
+party, and, here and there, a piece of yellow cloth forming a band for
+the hat. Some wore long and ungainly deer-skin pantaloons and moccasins
+of the same material; and two or three were indued with coats of coarse
+homespun, awkwardly garnished with the trimmings of a British uniform.
+All were armed, but in the same irregular fashion. There were rifles to
+be seen stacked against the trunk of the tree; most of the men wore
+swords, which were of different lengths and sizes; and some of the gang
+had a horseman's pistol bestowed conspicuously about their persons.
+Their horses were attached to the drooping ends of the boughs of the
+several trees that hemmed in the circle, and were ready for service at
+the first call. A small fire of brushwood had been kindled near the foot
+of the chestnut, and its blaze was sufficiently strong to throw a bright
+glare over the motley and ill-looking crew who were assembled near it.
+They might well have been taken for a bivouac of banditti of the most
+undisciplined and savage class. A small party were broiling venison at
+the fire: the greater number, however, were stretched out upon the
+ground in idleness, waiting for some expected summons to action. The two
+I have first noticed, were seated on the butt-end of a fallen trunk,
+immediately within the light of the fire, and were engaged with a pack
+of dirty cards, at the then popular game of "all fours."</p>
+
+<p>These two personages were altogether different in exterior from each
+other. The first of them, known only by the sobriquet of Peppercorn, was
+a tall, well-proportioned and active man, neatly dressed in the uniform
+of a British dragoon. His countenance indicated more intelligence than
+belonged to his companions, and his manners had the flexible, bold, and
+careless port that generally distinguishes a man who has served much in
+the army, and become familiar with the varieties of character afforded
+by such a career. The second was Hugh Habershaw, the captain of the
+gang. He was a bluff, red-visaged, corpulent man, with a face of gross,
+unmitigated sensuality. A pale blood-shot eye, which was expressionless,
+except in a sinister glance, occasioned by a partial squint, a small
+upturned nose, a mouth with thin and compressed lips inclining downwards
+at the corners, a double chin, bristling with a wiry and almost white
+beard, a low forehead, a bald crown, and meagre, reddish whiskers, were
+the ill-favored traits of his physiognomy. The figure of this person was
+as uncouth as his countenance. He was rather below the middle height,
+and appeared still shorter by the stoop of his massive round shoulders,
+by the ample bulk of his chest, and by the rotundity of his
+corporation. In consideration of his rank, as the leader of this
+vagabond squadron, he aimed at more military ornament in his dress than
+his comrades. A greasy cocked hat, decorated after the fashion described
+by Grumio, "with the humor of forty fancies pricked in it for a
+feather," was perched somewhat superciliously upon his poll, and his
+body was invested in an old and much abused cloth coat of London brown,
+as it was then called, to the ample shoulders of which had been attached
+two long, narrow, and threadbare epaulets of tarnished silver lace. A
+broad buckskin belt was girded, by the help of a large brass buckle,
+around his middle, on the outside of his coat, and it served as well to
+suspend a rusty sabre, as to furnish support to a hunting knife, which
+was thrust into it in front. His nether person was rendered conspicuous
+by a pair of dingy small-clothes, and long black boots. Close at the
+feet of this redoubtable commander lay a fat, surly bull-dog, whose
+snarlish temper seemed to have been fostered and promoted by the
+peremptory perverseness with which his master claimed for him all the
+privileges and indulgencies of a pampered favorite.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the unattractive exterior and circumstances of the man who
+assumed control over the band of ruffians now assembled.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you and the cards had been broiled on the devil's gridiron
+before I ever saw you!" continued Habershaw, after he had consigned the
+pack to the flames. "That such a noble beast as Backbiter should be
+whipped out of my hand by the turn of a rascally card! Hark'ee, you imp
+of Satan, you have the knack of winning! your luck, or something
+else&mdash;you understand me&mdash;something else, would win the shirt off my back
+if I was such a fool as to play longer with you. I suspect you are a
+light-fingered Jack&mdash;a light-fingered Jack&mdash;d'ye hear that, Master
+Peppercorn?"</p>
+
+<p>"How now, Bully!" cried Peppercorn; "are you turning boy in your old
+days, that you must fall to whining because you have lost a turn at
+play? Is every man a rogue since you have set up the trade? For shame!
+If I were as hot a fool as you, I would give you steel in your guts. But
+come, noble Captain, there's my hand. This is no time for us to be
+catching quarrels; we have other business cut out. As to Backbiter, the
+rat-tailed and spavined bone-setter, curse me if I would have him as a
+gift: a noble beast! ha, ha, ha! Take him back, man, take him back! he
+wasn't worth the cards that won him."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, you tailor's bastard! Would you breed a mutiny in the camp?
+Look around you: do you expect me to preserve discipline amongst these
+wild wood-scourers, with your loud haw-haws to my very teeth? You make
+too free, Peppercorn; you make too free! It wouldn't take much to make
+me strike; damn me, there's fighting blood in me, and you know it. When
+I am at the head of my men, you must know your distance, sir. Suffice
+it, I don't approve of this familiarity to the commander of a squad. But
+it is no matter: I let it pass this time. And, hark in your ear, as you
+underrate Backbiter, you are a fool, Peppercorn, and know no more of the
+points of a good horse than you do of the ten commandments. Why, blast
+you, just to punish you, I'll hold you to the word of a gentleman, and
+take him back. Now there's an end of it, and let's have no more
+talking."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, noble Captain!" ejaculated Peppercorn, with a free and
+swaggering laugh, "right! I will uphold the discipline of the valiant
+Hugh Habershaw of the Tiger against all the babblers the world over. By
+the God of war, I marvel that Cruger hasn't forced upon you one of his
+commissions, before this; the army would be proud of such a master of
+tactics."</p>
+
+<p>"The time will come, Peppercorn; the time will come, and then I'll teach
+them the elements of military construction. Mark that word, Peppercorn,
+there's meaning in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Huzza for Captain Tiger of Habershaw&mdash;Habershaw of Tiger, I mean!"
+cried Peppercorn. "Here's Tiger Habershaw, my boys! Drink to that." And
+saying these words, the dragoon snatched up a leathern canteen from the
+ground, and, pouring out some spirits into the cup, drank them off.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the crew sprang from the grass, and followed the example set
+them by their comrade, roaring out the pledge until the woods rang with
+their vociferation.</p>
+
+<p>"Peace! you rapscallions!" screamed the captain. "Have you so little
+notion where you are, that you bellow like bulls? Is this your
+discipline, when you should be as silent as cats in a kitchen,
+hellhound! And you, you coarse-throated devil, Beauty," he said as he
+kicked his dog, that had contributed to the chorus with a loud
+sympathetic howl, "you must be breaking the laws of service guard with
+your infernal roar, like the other fools of the pack. Be still, puppy!"</p>
+
+<p>The clamor upon this rebuke ceased, and the bull-dog crouched again at
+his master's feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it time that we were at the ford? Oughtn't our friends to be near
+at hand?" inquired Peppercorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Black Jack will give us notice," replied Habershaw. "Depend upon him. I
+have thought of everything like a man that knows his business. I have
+sent that rascal up the road, with orders to feel the enemy; and I'll
+undertake he'll clink it back when he once lays eyes on them, as fast as
+four legs will carry him. But it is always well to be beforehand,
+Peppercorn. Learn that from me: I never in my campaigns knowed any harm
+done by being too early. So, Master Orderly, call the roll."</p>
+
+<p>"Ready, sir; always ready when you command," answered Peppercorn. "Shall
+I call the ragamuffins by their nicknames, or will you have them handled
+like christians."</p>
+
+<p>"On secret service," said Habershaw, "it is always best to use them to
+their nicknames."</p>
+
+<p>"As when they go horse-stealing, or house-burning, or throat-cutting,"
+interrupted Peppercorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Order, sir, no indecencies! do you hear? Go on with your roll, if you
+have got it by heart. Be musical, dog!"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith will I, most consummate captain! It is just to my hand: I'll sing
+you like a bagpipe. I have learnt the rollcall handsomely, and can go
+through it as if it were a song."</p>
+
+<p>"Begin then: the time is coming when we must move. I think I hear Black
+Jack's horse breaking through the bushes now."</p>
+
+<p>"Attention, you devil's babies, the whole of you!" shouted Peppercorn.
+"Horse and gun, every mother's imp of you!"</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the idlers sprang to their weapons and mounted their horses.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer to your names," said the orderly; "and see that you do it
+discreetly. Pimple!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here," answered one of the disorderly crew, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Silence in the ranks!" cried Habershaw, "or, by the blood of your
+bodies, I'll make my whinger acquainted with your hearts!"</p>
+
+<p>"Long Shanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Here! if you mean me," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"Good! Black Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"On patrole," said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Red Mug."</p>
+
+<p>"At the book," answered the man in the ranks; and here rose another
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Red Mug! do you mind me?" said Habershaw, in a threatening tone, as his
+eye squinted fiercely towards the person addressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Platter Breech."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll stand out against the nickname," said the person intended to be
+designated, whilst the whole squad began to give symptoms of a mutiny of
+merriment. "I'll be d&mdash;&mdash;d if I will have it, and that's as good as if I
+swore to it. I am not going to be cajoled at by the whole company."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence! Blood and butter, you villains!" roared the captain. "Don't
+you see that you're in line? How often have I told you that it's against
+discipline to chirp above a whisper when you are drawn out? Take care
+that I hav'n't to remind you of that again! Andy Clopper, you will keep
+the denomination I have set upon you. Platter Breech is a good
+soldier-like name, and you shall die in it, if I bid you. Go on,
+Orderly&mdash;proceed!"</p>
+
+<p>"Marrow Bone."</p>
+
+<p>"Here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fire Nose."</p>
+
+<p>"Fire Nose yourself, Mister Disorderly!" replied another refractory
+member, sullenly from the ranks.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let him pass. That's a cross-grained devil," said the captain,
+aside to Peppercorn. "I'll bring that chap into order yet, the d&mdash;&mdash;d
+mutineering back hanger! Pass him."</p>
+
+<p>"Screech Owl."</p>
+
+<p>"Here!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a decent, good-natured Screech Owl," said Peppercorn. "Clapper
+Claw! Bow Legs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Both here."</p>
+
+<p>"They are all here, most comfortable Captain, all good fellows and true,
+and as ready to follow you into the belly of an earthquake as go to
+supper, it is all the same to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them follow where I lead, Peppercorn; that is all I ask, said
+Habershaw significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have forgot one name on your roll, Mister Orderly," said he who had
+been written down by the name of Fire Nose.</p>
+
+<p>"Whose was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You forgot Captain Moonface Bragger&mdash;captain of the squad."</p>
+
+<p>"Gideon Blake!" shouted Habershaw, with a voice choked by anger, until
+it resembled the growl of a mastiff, whilst, at the same time, he drew
+his sword half out of the scabbard. "Howsever, it is very well," he
+said, restraining his wrath and permitting the blade to drop back into
+its sheath. "Another time, sir. I have marked you, you limb of a
+traitor. May all the devils ride over me if I don't drive a bullet
+through your brain if you ever unfringe my discipline again! Yes, you
+foul-mouthed half-whig, I have had my suspicions of you before to-day.
+So look to yourself. A fine state of things when skunks like you can be
+setting up a mutiny in the service! Take care of yourself, sir, you know
+me. Now, my lads, to business. Remember the orders I issued at the
+Dogwood Spring, this morning. This Whig officer must be taken dead or
+alive, and don't be chicken-hearted about it. Give him the lead&mdash;give
+him the lead! As to the lusty fellow that rides with him&mdash;big Horse
+Shoe&mdash;have a care of him; that's a dog that bites without barking. But
+be on the watch that they don't escape you again. Since we missed them
+at the spring they have cost us a hard ride to head them here, so let
+them pay for it. See that they are well into the ford before you show
+yourselves. Wait for orders from me, and if I fall by the fortune of
+war, take your orders from Peppercorn. If by chance we should miss them
+at the river, push for Christie's; Wat has taken care that they shall
+make for that, to-night. If any of you, by mistake, you understand me,
+take them prisoners, bring them back to this spot. Now you have heard my
+orders, that's enough. Keep silent and ready. Mind your discipline.
+Black Jack is long coming, Orderly; these fellows must travel slow."</p>
+
+<p>"I hear him now," replied Peppercorn.</p>
+
+<p>In the next moment the scout referred to galloped into the circle. His
+report was hastily made. It announced that the travellers were moving
+leisurely towards the ford, and that not many minutes could elapse
+before their arrival. Upon this intelligence Habershaw immediately
+marched his troop to the road and posted them in the cover of the
+underwood that skirted the river, at the crossing-place. Here they
+remained like wild beasts aware of the approach of their prey, and
+waiting the moment to spring upon them when it might be done with the
+least chance of successful resistance.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Butler and Robinson advanced at a wearied pace. The twilight
+had so far faded as to be only discernible on the western sky. The stars
+were twinkling through the leaves of the forest, and the light of the
+fire-fly spangled the wilderness. The road might be descried, in the
+most open parts of the wood, for some fifty paces ahead; but where the
+shrubbery was more dense, it was lost in utter darkness. Our travellers,
+like most wayfarers towards the end of the day, rode silently along,
+seldom exchanging a word, and anxiously computing the distance which
+they had yet to traverse before they reached their appointed place of
+repose. A sense of danger, and the necessity for vigilance, on the
+present occasion, made them the more silent.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I heard a wild sort of yell just now&mdash;people laughing a great
+way off," said Robinson, "but there's such a hooting of owls and piping
+of frogs that I mought have been mistaken. Halt, Major. Let me
+listen&mdash;there it is again."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the crying of a panther, sergeant; more than a mile from us, by
+my ear."</p>
+
+<p>"It is mightily like the scream of drunken men," replied the sergeant;
+"and there, too! I thought I heard the clatter of a hoof."</p>
+
+<p>The travellers again reined up and listened.</p>
+
+<p>"It is more like a deer stalking through the bushes, Galbraith."</p>
+
+<p>"No," exclaimed the sergeant, "that's the gallop of a horse making down
+the road ahead of us, as sure as you are alive; I heard the shoe strike
+a stone. You must have hearn it too."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't be sure," answered Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Look to your pistols, Major, and prime afresh."</p>
+
+<p>"We seem to have ridden a great way," said Butler, as he concluded the
+inspection of his pistols and now held one of them ready in his hand.
+"Can we have lost ourselves? Should we not have reached the Pacolet
+before this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen no road that could take us astray," replied Robinson, "and,
+by what we were told just before sundown, I should guess that we
+couldn't be far off the ford. We hav'n't then quite three miles to
+Christie's. Well, courage, major! supper and bed were never spoiled by
+the trouble of getting to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat Adair, I think, directed us to Christie's?" said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"He did; and I had a mind to propose to you, since we caught him in a
+trick this morning, to make for some other house, if such a thing was
+possible, or else to spend the night in the woods."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it would be wise, sergeant; and if you think so still, I will
+be ruled by you."</p>
+
+<p>"If we once got by the river-side where our horses mought have water, I
+almost think I should advise a halt there. Although I have made one
+observation, Major Butler&mdash;that running water is lean fare for a hungry
+man. Howsever, it won't hurt us, and if you say the word we will stop
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, sergeant, I do say the word."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that the glimmering of a light yonder in the bushes?" inquired
+Horse Shoe, as he turned his gaze in the direction of the bivouac, "or
+is it these here lightning bugs that keep so busy shooting about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I saw the light you speak of, Galbraith; but it has
+disappeared."</p>
+
+<p>"It is there again, major; and I hear the rushing of the river&mdash;we are
+near the ford. Perhaps this light comes from some cabin on the bank."</p>
+
+<p>"God send that it should turn out so, Galbraith! for I am very weary."</p>
+
+<p>"There is some devilment going on in these woods, major. I saw a figure
+pass in front of the light through the bushes. I would be willing to
+swear it was a man on horseback. Perhaps we have, by chance, fallen on
+some Tory muster; or, what's not so likely, they may be friends. I think
+I will ride forward and challenge."</p>
+
+<p>"Better pass unobserved, if you can, sergeant," interrupted Butler. "It
+will not do for us to run the risk of being separated. Here we are at
+the river; let us cross, and ride some distance; then, if any one follow
+us, we shall be more certain of his design."</p>
+
+<p>They now cautiously advanced into the river, which, though rapid, was
+shallow; and having reached the middle of the stream, they halted to
+allow their horses water.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Peter is as thirsty as a man in a fever," said Horse Shoe. "He
+drinks as if he was laying in for a week. Now, major, since we are here
+in the river, look up the stream. Don't you see, from the image in the
+water, that there's a fire on the bank? And there, by my soul! there are
+men on horseback. Look towards the light. Spur, and out on the other
+side! Quick&mdash;quick&mdash;they are upon us!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant that Horse Shoe spoke, a bullet whistled close by
+his ear; and, in the next, six or eight men galloped into the river,
+from different points. This was succeeded by a sharp report of fire-arms
+from both parties, and the vigorous charge of Robinson, followed by
+Butler, through the array of the assailants. They gained the opposite
+bank, and now directed all their efforts to outrun their pursuers; but
+in the very crisis of their escape, Butler's horse, bounding under the
+prick of the spur, staggered a few paces from the river and fell dead. A
+bullet had lodged in a vital part, and the energy of the brave steed was
+spent in the effort to bear his master through the stream. Butler fell
+beneath the stricken animal, from whence he was unable to extricate
+himself. The sergeant, seeing his comrade's condition, sprang from his
+horse and ran to his assistance, and, in the same interval, the ruffian
+followers gained the spot and surrounded their prisoners. An ineffectual
+struggle ensued over the prostrate horse and rider, in which Robinson
+bore down more than one of his adversaries, but was obliged, at last, to
+yield to the overwhelming power that pressed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Bury your swords in both of them to the hilts!" shouted Habershaw; "I
+don't want to have that work to do to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Stand off!" cried Gideon Blake, as two or three of the gang sprang
+forward to execute their captain's order; "stand off! the man is on his
+back, and he shall not be murdered in cold blood;" and the speaker took
+a position near Butler, prepared to make good his resolve. The spirit
+of Blake had its desired effect, and the same assailants now turned upon
+Robinson.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!" cried Peppercorn, throwing up his sword and warding off the
+blows that were aimed by these men at the body of the sergeant. "Hold,
+you knaves! this is my prisoner. I will deal with him to my liking.
+Would a dozen of you strike one man when he has surrendered? Back, ye
+cowards; leave him to me. How now, old Horse Shoe; are you caught, with
+your gay master here? Come, come, we know you both. So yield with a good
+grace, lest, peradventure, I might happen to blow out your brains."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, fellows! You carrion crows!" roared Habershaw. "Remember the
+discipline I taught you. No disorder, nor confusion, but take the
+prisoners, since you hav'n't the heart to strike; take them to the
+rendezvous. And do it quietly&mdash;do you hear? Secure the baggage; and
+about it quickly, you hounds!"</p>
+
+<p>Butler was now lifted from the ground, and, with his companion, was
+taken into the custody of Blake and one or two of his companions, who
+seemed to share in his desire to prevent the shedding of blood. The
+prisoners were each mounted behind one of the troopers, and in this
+condition conducted across the river. The saddle and other equipments
+were stripped from the major's dead steed; and Robinson's horse, Captain
+Peter, was burdened with the load of two wounded men, whose own horses
+had escaped from them in the fray. In this guise the band of
+freebooters, with their prisoners and spoils, slowly and confusedly made
+their way to the appointed place of re-assembling. In a few moments they
+were ranged beneath the chestnut, waiting for orders from their
+self-important and vain commander.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SCENE IN THE BIVOUAC.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"Bustle, my lads&mdash;bustle! These are stirring times," exclaimed
+Habershaw, riding with an air of great personal consequence into the
+midst of the troop, as they were gathered, still on horseback, under the
+chestnut. "We have made a fine night's work of it, and, considering that
+we fought in the dark against men ready armed for us, this has not been
+such a light affair. To be sure, in point of numbers, it is a trifle;
+but the plan, Peppercorn&mdash;the plan, and the despatch, and the neatness
+of the thing&mdash;that's what I say I am entitled to credit for. Bless your
+soul, Peppercorn, these fellows were sure to fall into my trap&mdash;there
+was no getting off. That's the effect of my generalship, you see,
+Peppercorn. Study it, boy! We could have managed about twenty more of
+the filthy rebels handsomely; but this will do&mdash;this will do. I took, as
+a commanding officer ought always to do, the full responsibility of the
+measure, and a good share of the fight. Did I not, Peppercorn? Wasn't I,
+in your opinion, about the first man in the river?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bear witness, valiant and victorious captain," answered the
+dragoon, "that you fired the first shot; and I am almost willing to make
+oath that I saw you within at least twenty paces of the enemy, exhorting
+your men."</p>
+
+<p>"Now lads&mdash;wait for the word&mdash;dismount!" continued the captain, "and
+make up your minds to pass the night where you are. Peppercorn, the
+prisoners I put under your identical charge. Remember that! keep your
+eyes about you. Set a guard of four men upon them; I will make you
+accountable." He then added, in an under tone, "hold them safe until
+to-morrow, man, and I promise you, you shall have no trouble in watching
+them after that."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall find them," replied Peppercorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Silence," interrupted the captain; "hear my orders, and give no reply.
+Now, sir, before you do anything else, call your roll, and report your
+killed, wounded, and missing."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this order, the dragoon directed the men, after disposing of their
+horses, to form a line. He then called over the squad by their real
+names, and immediately afterwards reported to his superior, who, in
+order to preserve a proper dignified distance, had retreated some paces
+from the group, the following pithy and soldier-like account:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Two men wounded, noble captain, in the late action; two missing; one
+horse, saddle and bridle lost; one horse and two prisoners taken from
+the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>"The names of the wounded, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tom Dubbs and Shadrach Green; one slightly scratched, and the other
+bruised by a kick from the blacksmith."</p>
+
+<p>"The missing, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dick Waters, commonly called Marrow Bone, and Roger Bell, known in your
+honor's list by the name of Clapper Claw."</p>
+
+<p>"They have skulked," said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Marrow Bone is as dead as a door nail, sir," said the orderly with
+perfect indifference, and standing affectedly erect. "He fell in the
+river, and the probability is that Clapper Claw keeps him company."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" roared Habershaw, "have the diabolical scoundrels made away with
+any of my good fellows? Have the precious lives of my brave soldiers
+been poured out by the d&mdash;&mdash;d rebels? By my hand, they shall feel
+twisted rope, Peppercorn!&mdash;cold iron is too good for them."</p>
+
+<p>"Softly, captain!" said the orderly. "You don't blame the enemy for
+showing fight? We mustn't quarrel with the chances of war. There is not
+often a fray without a broken head, captain. We must deal with the
+prisoners according to the laws of war."</p>
+
+<p>"Of Tory war, Peppercorn, aye, that will I! String the dogs up to the
+first tree. The devil's pets, why didn't they surrender when we set upon
+them! To-morrow: let them look out to-morrow. No words, orderly; send
+out two files to look for the bodies, and to bring in the stray horse
+if they can find him. A pretty night's work! to lose two good pieces of
+stuff for a brace of black-hearted whigs!"</p>
+
+<p>The two files were detailed for the duty required, and immediately set
+out, on foot, towards the scene of the late fray. The rest of the troop
+were dismissed from the line.</p>
+
+<p>"I would venture to ask, sir," said Butler, addressing the captain, "for
+a cup of water: I am much hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, and be d&mdash;&mdash;d to you!" said Habershaw gruffly, "silence, and
+know your place, sir. You are a prisoner, and a traitor to boot."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you hear the gentleman say he is hurt?" interposed Robinson.
+"It's onnatural, and more like a beast than a man to deny a prisoner a
+little water."</p>
+
+<p>"By my sword, villain, I will cleave your brain for you, if you open
+that rebel mouth of yours again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw, pshaw! Captain Habershaw, this will never do," said Peppercorn;
+"men are men, and must have food and drink. Here, Gideon Blake, give me
+your flask of liquor and bring me some water from the river. It is my
+duty, captain, to look after the prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>Gideon Blake, who was a man of less savage temper than most of his
+associates, obeyed this command with alacrity, and even added a few
+words of kindness, as he assisted in administering refreshment to the
+prisoners. This evidence of a gentler nature did not escape the comment
+of the ruffian captain, who still remembered his old grudge against the
+trooper.</p>
+
+<p>"Away, sir," he said in a peremptory and angry tone, "away and attend to
+your own duty. You are ever fond of obliging these beggarly whigs. Hark
+you, Peppercorn," he added, speaking apart to the dragoon, "take care
+how you trust this skulking vagabond: he will take bribes from the
+rebels, and turn his coat whenever there is money in the way. I have my
+eye upon him."</p>
+
+<p>"If I chose to speak," said Gideon Blake.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your peace, you grey fox," cried the captain. "Not a word! I know
+your doublings. Remember you are under martial law, and blast me, if I
+don't make you feel it! There are more than myself suspect you."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know," said Butler, "why I and my companion are
+molested on our journey. Have we fallen amongst banditti, or do you bear
+a lawful commission? If you do, sir, let me tell you, you have disgraced
+it by outrage and violence exercised towards unoffending men, and shall
+answer for it when the occasion serves. On what pretence have we been
+arrested?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hark, my young fighting-cock," replied the captain. "You will know your
+misdemeanors soon enough. And if you would sleep to-night with a whole
+throat, you will keep your tongue within your teeth. It wouldn't take
+much to persuade me to give you a little drum-head law. Do you hear
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is my advice, major," whispered Robinson, "to ax no questions of
+these blackguards."</p>
+
+<p>"Be it so, sergeant," said Butler, "I am weary and sick."</p>
+
+<p>When other cares were disposed of, and the excited passions of the
+lawless gang had subsided into a better mood, the dragoon took Butler's
+cloak from the baggage and spread it upon the ground beneath the shelter
+of the shrubbery, and the suffering officer was thus furnished a bed
+that afforded him some small share of comfort, and enabled to take that
+rest which he so much needed. Robinson seated himself on the ground
+beside his companion, and in this situation they patiently resigned
+themselves to whatever fate awaited them.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this the whole troop were busy in the preparations for
+refreshment and sleep. The horses were either <i>hobbled</i>, by a cord from
+the fore to the hind foot, and turned loose to seek pasture around the
+bivouac, or tethered in such parts of the forest as furnished them an
+opportunity to feed on the shrubbery. The fire was rekindled, and some
+small remnants of venison roasted before it; and in less than an hour
+this reckless and ill-governed band were carousing over their cups with
+all the rude ribaldry that belonged to such natures.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, boys," said Peppercorn, who seemed to take a delight in urging
+the band into every kind of excess, and who possessed that sort of sway
+over the whole crew, including their leader no less than the privates,
+which an expert and ready skill in adapting himself to the humor of the
+company gave him, and which faculty be now appeared to exercise for the
+increase of his own influence. "Come, boys, laugh while you can&mdash;that's
+my motto. This soldiering is a merry life, fighting, drinking, and
+joking. By the God of war! I will enlist the whole of you into the
+regular service&mdash;Ferguson or Cruger, which you please, boys! they are
+both fine fellows and would give purses of gold for such charming, gay,
+swaggering blades. Fill up your cans and prepare for another bout. I'm
+not the crusty cur to stint thirsty men. A toast, my gay fellows!"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to Peppercorn," cried out some three or four voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's to the honor of the brave captain Hugh Habershaw, and his
+glorious dogs that won the battle of Grindall's ford!"</p>
+
+<p>A broad and coarse laugh burst from the captain at the announcement of
+this toast.</p>
+
+<p>"By my sword!" he exclaimed, "the fight was not a bad fight."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you find a joint of venison, Gideon?" said Peppercorn, aside. "If
+you can, give it, and a cup of spirits, to the prisoners. Stop, I'll do
+it myself, you will have the old bull-dog on your back."</p>
+
+<p>And saying this the dragoon rose from his seat, and taking a few
+fragments of the meat which had been stripped almost to the bone, placed
+them, together with a canteen, beside Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Make the best of your time," he said, "you have but short allowance and
+none of the best. If I can serve you, I will do it with a good heart;
+so, call on me."</p>
+
+<p>Then turning to the sergeant, who sat nigh, he whispered in his ear,
+and, with a distinct and somewhat taunting emphasis, inquired,</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Horse Shoe, mayhap thou knowest me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I do, James Curry," replied the sergeant, "and I have a mean
+opinion of the company you keep. I don't doubt but you are ashamed to
+say how you come by them."</p>
+
+<p>"All is fish that comes into the Dutchman's net," said Curry. "To-night
+I have caught fat game. You are a sturdy fellow, master Blacksmith, and
+good at a tug, but remember, friend, I owe you a cuff, and if you
+weren't a prisoner you should have it."</p>
+
+<p>"Show me fair play, James Curry, and you shall have a chance now," said
+Horse Shoe; "I'll keep my parole to surrender when it is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, fool!" returned Curry, at the same time rudely pinching
+Robinson's ear. "You will be a better man than I take you to be, if you
+ever wrestle with me again. I have not forgotten you."</p>
+
+<p>The dragoon now rejoined his comrades.</p>
+
+<p>"Peppercorn," cried Habershaw, "d&mdash;&mdash;n the prisoners, let them fast
+to-night. The lads want a song. Come, the liquor's getting low, we want
+noise, we want uproar, lad! Sing, bully, sing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything to get rid of the night, noble captain. What shall I give
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The old catch, master Orderly. The Jolly Bottle, the Jolly Bottle,"
+cried Habershaw, pronouncing this word according to ancient usage, with
+the accent on the last syllable, as if spelt "bottel;" "give us the
+Jolly Bottle, we all know the chorus of that song. And besides it's the
+best in your pack."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, listen, my wet fellows!" said Peppercorn, "and pipe lustily in
+the chorus."</p>
+
+<p>Here the orderly sang, to a familiar old English tune, the following
+song, which was perhaps a common camp ditty of the period.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"You may talk as you please of your candle and book,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And prate about virtue, with sanctified look;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Neither priest, book, nor candle, can help you so well<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To make friends with the world as the Jolly Bottle."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Chorus, my lads; out with it!" shouted the singer; and the whole crew
+set up a hideous yell as they joined him.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"Sing heave and ho, and trombelow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The Jolly Bottle is the best I trow.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Then take the bottle, it is well stitched of leather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And better than doublet keeps out the wind and weather:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let the bottom look up to the broad arch of blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And then catch the drippings, as good fellows do.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With heave and ho, and trombelow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">'Tis sinful to waste good liquor, you know.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The soldier, he carries his knapsack and gun.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And swears at the weight as he tramps through the sun<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, devil a loon, did I ever hear tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who swore at the weight of the Jolly Bottle.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">So heave and ho, and trombelow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The Jolly Bottle is a feather, I trow."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here the song was interrupted by the return of the two files who had
+been sent to bring in the bodies of the dead. They had found the missing
+horse, and now led him into the circle laden with the corpses of Bell
+and Waters. The troopers halted immediately behind the ring of the
+revellers, and in such a position as to front Peppercorn and the
+captain, who were thus afforded a full view of the bodies by the blaze
+of the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy," almost whispered Habershaw, now half-intoxicated, to the two
+troopers, as he lifted his hands and motioned to them to halt; "put them
+down gently on the ground. Go on, Peppercorn; let the dead help
+themselves: finish the song! That chorus again, my boys!" And here the
+last chorus was repeated in the highest key of merriment.</p>
+
+<p>Peppercorn cast an eye at the bodies which, during the interval, had
+been thrown on the earth, and while the men who had just returned were
+helping themselves to the drink, he proceeded, in an unaltered voice,
+with the song.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When drinkers are dry, and liquor is low,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A fray that takes off a good fellow or so,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, what does it do, but help us to bear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The loss of a comrade, in drinking his share?<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Then heave and ho, and trombelow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A fray and a feast are brothers, you know.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The philosophers say it's a well-settled fact,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That a vessel will leak whose bottom is cracked;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a belly that's drilled with a bullet, I think,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is a very bad belly to stow away drink.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">So heave and ho, and trombelow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The dead will be dry to-night, I trow."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"There they are, captain," said one of the returning troopers, after the
+song, to which he and his companions had stood listening with delighted
+countenances, was brought to an end, "there they are. We found Dick
+Waters lying in the road, and when we first came to him he gave a sort
+of groan, but we didn't lift him until we came back from hunting Roger
+Bell; by that time the fellow was as dead as a pickled herring. Where do
+you think we found Clapper Claw? Why, half a mile, almost, down the
+stream. He was washed along and got jammed up betwixt the roots of a
+sycamore. We had a long wade after him, and trouble enough to get
+him&mdash;more, I'm thinking, than a dead man is worth. So, give us some more
+rum; this is ugly work to be done in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>"Scratch a hole for them, lads, under the bushes," said Habershaw; "put
+a sod blanket over them before morning. That's the fortune of war, as
+Peppercorn calls it. How are the wounded men getting along?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh bravely, captain," replied Shad Green, or, according to his
+nickname, Red Mug: "this here physic is a main thing for a scratch."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravely!" echoed Screech Owl, or Tom Dubbs, the same who had been
+reported by the dragoon as "kicked by the blacksmith;" "we are
+plastering up sores here with the jolly bottle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Sing heave and ho, and trombelow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Jolly Bottle is a feather, I trow."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"What's a cracked crown, so as it holds a man's brains?" continued the
+drunken carouser, whilst a laugh deformed his stupid physiognomy.</p>
+
+<p>"How are we off for provisions, quarter-master?" inquired the captain of
+one of the gang.</p>
+
+<p>"Eaten out of skin, from nose to tail," replied Black Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the squad must forage to-night," continued Habershaw. "We must
+take a buck, my sweet ones; there are plenty along the river. Get your
+rifles and prepare lights, and, to keep out of the way of our horses,
+don't stop short of a mile. Be about it, lads. Black Jack, this is your
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"True, Captain," replied the person addressed: "I shall have all things
+ready directly."</p>
+
+<p>It was near midnight when Black Jack, having prepared some faggots of
+pitch-pine, and selected three or four of the best marksmen, left the
+bivouac to look for deer. Habershaw himself, though lazy and
+inordinately impressed with a sense of his own dignity, and now confused
+with liquor, could not resist the attraction of this sport. He
+accordingly, not long after the others had departed, took a rifle, and,
+attended by his bull-dog, whom he never parted from on any occasion,
+slowly followed in the direction chosen by the hunters.</p>
+
+<p>Those in advance had scarcely walked along the margin of the river a
+mile before they lighted their faggots, and began to beat the
+neighboring thickets; and their search was not protracted many minutes
+when the light of their torches was thrown full upon the eyes of a buck.
+A shot from one of the marksmen told with unerring precision in the
+forehead of the animal.</p>
+
+<p>The report and the light brought the corpulent captain into the
+neighborhood. He had almost walked himself out of breath and, as he did
+not very well preserve his perpendicularity, or a straight line of
+march, he had several times been tripped up by the roots of trees, or by
+rocks and briers in his path. Exhausted, at length, and puzzled by the
+stupefaction of his own brain, as well as by the surrounding darkness,
+he sat down at the foot of a tree, determined to wait the return of the
+hunting party. His faithful and congenial "Beauty," not less pursy and
+short-winded than himself, and not more savage or surly in disposition,
+now couched upon his haunches immediately between his master's legs; and
+here this pair of beastly friends remained, silent and mutually soothed
+by their own companionship. During this interval the person who bore the
+fire, followed by one of the marksmen, crept slowly onward to the
+vicinity of the spot where the captain had seated himself. The lapse of
+time had proved too much for Habershaw's vigilance, and he had, at
+length, with his head resting against the trunk of the tree, fallen into
+a drunken slumber. The short crack of a rifle at hand, and the yell of
+his dog awakened him. He started upon his feet with sudden surprise, and
+stepping one pace forward, stumbled and fell over the dead body of his
+favorite Beauty, who lay beneath him weltering in blood. The shot was
+followed by a rush of the hunter up to the spot: it was Gideon Blake.</p>
+
+<p>"Buck or doe, it is my shot!" cried Gideon, as he halted immediately
+beside Habershaw.</p>
+
+<p>"May all the devils blast you, Gideon Blake!" thundered on the incensed
+captain. "You have sought my life, you murdering wolf, and your bullet
+has killed Beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"I shot at the eyes of what I thought a deer," returned Blake. "You were
+a fool, Hugh Habershaw, to bring a dog into such a place.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor dog! my brave dog! Beauty was worth ten thousand such bastard
+villains as you! And to have him killed! May the devil feast upon your
+soul this night, Gideon Blake! Go! and account for your wickedness. Take
+that, snake! tiger! black-hearted whig and rebel! and be thankful that
+you didn't come to your end by the help of hemp!" and in this gust of
+passion he struck his knife into the bosom of the trooper, who groaned,
+staggered, and fell.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the person bearing the fire, hearing the groan of his
+comrade, rushed up to the spot and seized Habershaw's arm, just as the
+monster was raising it over the fallen man to repeat the blow.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn him! see what he has done!" exclaimed the captain, as he lifted up
+the dead body of the dog so as to show in the light the wound inflicted
+by the ball between the eyes; "this poor, faithful, dumb beast was worth
+a hundred such hell-hounds as he!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am murdered," said the wounded man; "I am murdered in cold blood."</p>
+
+<p>The noise at this place brought together the rest of the hunters, who
+were now returning with the buck thrown across a horse that had been led
+by one of the party. Blake's wound was examined by them, and some linen
+applied to staunch the blood. The man had fainted, but it was not
+ascertained whether the stab was mortal. Habershaw stood sullenly
+looking on during the examination, and, finding that life had not
+instantly fled, he coolly wiped his knife and restored it to his girdle.</p>
+
+<p>"The fellow has no idea of dying," he said with a visible concern, "and
+has got no more than he deserves. He will live to be hung yet. Take him
+to quarters."</p>
+
+<p>"Make a hurdle for him," said one of the bystanders, and, accordingly,
+two men cut a few branches from the neighboring wood, and twisting them
+together, soon constructed a litter upon which they were able to bear
+the body of the wounded hunter to the rendezvous. The others, scarcely
+uttering a word as they marched along, followed slowly with the buck,
+and in half an hour the troop was once more assembled under the
+chestnut.</p>
+
+<p>For a time there was a sullen and discontented silence amongst the whole
+crew, that was only broken by the groans of the wounded trooper.
+Occasionally there was a slight outburst of sedition from several of the
+troop, as a sharper scream, indicating some sudden increase of pain,
+from Gideon Blake, assailed their ears. Then there were low and muttered
+curses pronounced by Habershaw, in a tone that showed his apprehension
+of some vengeance against himself; and these imprecations were mingled
+with hints of the disloyalty of the trooper, and charges of a pretended
+purpose to betray his fellow-soldiers, evidently insinuated by the
+captain to excuse his act of violence. Then he approached the sick man
+and felt his pulse, and examined his wound, and pronounced the hurt to
+be trifling. "It will do him good," he said, with affected unconcern,
+"and teach him to be more true to his comrades hereafter." But still the
+fate of the man was manifestly doubtful, and the rising exasperation of
+the troop became every instant more open. Alarmed and faint-hearted at
+these symptoms of discontent, Habershaw at last called the men into a
+circle and made them a speech, in which he expressed his sorrow for the
+act he had committed, endeavored to excuse himself by the plea of
+passion at the loss of his dog, and, finally, perceiving that these
+excuses did not satisfy his hearers, acknowledged his drunken condition
+and his unconsciousness of the deed he had done until the horrible
+consequences of it were before his eyes. Here Peppercorn interposed in
+his favor, alleging that he had examined the wound, and that, in his
+opinion, the trooper's life was not in danger.</p>
+
+<p>"And as the captain is sorry for it, lads," he concluded, "why, what is
+to be done but let the thing drop? So, if there's another canteen in the
+squad, we will wet our whistles, boys, and go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>This appeal was effectual, and was followed by a hearty cheer. So,
+draining the dregs of the last flask, this debauched company retired to
+rest&mdash;Habershaw sneaking away from them with a heart loaded with malice
+and revenge.</p>
+
+<p>A few men were employed, for a short time, in burying the bodies of the
+troopers who were killed in the fray; and, excepting the guard, who
+busied themselves in skinning the buck and broiling some choice slices
+before the fire, and in watching the prisoners, or attending upon their
+sick comrade, all were sunk into silence if not repose.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TROOPERS MOVE WITH THEIR PRISONERS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oft he that doth abide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is cause of his own paine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But he that flieth in good tide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perhaps may fight again."&mdash;<i>Old Proverb.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>It was with the most earnest solicitude that Butler and his companion
+watched the course of events, and became acquainted with the character
+of the ruffians into whose hands they had fallen. The presence of James
+Curry in this gang excited a painful consciousness in the mind of the
+soldier, that he had powerful and secret enemies at work against him,
+but who they were was an impenetrable mystery. Then the lawless habits
+of the people who had possession of him, gave rise to the most anxious
+distrust as to his future fate: he might be murdered in a fit of
+passion, or tortured with harsh treatment to gratify some concealed
+malice. His position in the army was, it seemed, known too; and, for
+aught that he could tell, his mission might be no secret to his captors.
+Robinson's sagacity entered fully into these misgivings. He had narrowly
+observed the conduct of the party who had made them prisoners, and with
+that acute insight which was concealed under a rude and uneducated
+exterior, but which was strongly marked in his actions, he had already
+determined upon the course which the safety of Butler required him to
+pursue. According to his view of their present difficulties it was
+absolutely necessary that he should effect his escape, at whatever
+personal hazard. Butler, he rightly conjectured, was the principal
+object of the late ambuscade; that, for some unknown purpose, the
+possession of this officer became important to those who had procured
+the attack upon him, and that James Curry had merely hired this gang of
+desperadoes to secure the prize. Under these circumstances, he concluded
+that the Major would be so strictly guarded as to forbid all hope of
+escape, and that any attempt by him to effect it would only be punished
+by certain death. But, in regard to himself, his calculation was
+different. "First," said he, "I can master any three of this beggarly
+crew in an open field and fair fight; and, secondly, when it comes to
+the chances of a pell-mell, they will not think me of so much account as
+to risk their necks by a long chase; their whole eyes would undoubtedly
+be directed to the Major." The sergeant, therefore, determined to make
+the attempt, and, in the event of his success, to repair to Sumpter, who
+he knew frequented some of the fastnesses in this region; or, in the
+alternative, to rally such friends from the neighboring country as were
+not yet overawed by the Tory dominion, and bring them speedily to the
+rescue of Butler. Full of these thoughts, he took occasion during the
+night, whilst the guard were busy in cooking their venison, and whilst
+they thought him and his comrade wrapt in sleep, to whisper to Butler
+the resolution he had adopted.</p>
+
+<p>"I will take the first chance to-morrow to make a dash upon these
+ragamuffins," he said; "and I shall count it hard if I don't get out of
+their claws. Then, rely upon me, I shall keep near you in spite of these
+devils. So be prepared, if I once get away, to see me like a witch that
+travels on a broomstick or creeps through a keyhole. But whisht! the
+drunken vagabonds mustn't hear us talking."</p>
+
+<p>Butler, after due consideration of the sergeant's scheme, thought it,
+however perilous, the only chance they had of extricating themselves
+from the dangers with which they were beset, and promised the most ready
+co-operation; determining also, to let no opportunity slip which might
+be improved to his own deliverance. "Your good arm and brave heart,
+Galbraith, never stood you in more urgent stead than they may do
+to-morrow," was his concluding remark.</p>
+
+<p>When morning broke the light of day fell upon a strange and disordered
+scene. The drunken and coarse wretches of the night before, now lessened
+in number and strength by common broil and private quarrel, lay
+stretched on their beds of leaves. Their motley and ill-assorted weapons
+lay around in disarray; drinking cups and empty flasks were scattered
+over the trodden grass, the skin and horns of the buck, and disjointed
+fragments of raw flesh were seen confusedly cast about beneath the tree,
+and a conspicuous object in the scene were the clots of blood and gore,
+both of men and beast, that disfigured the soil. Two new-made graves, or
+rather mounds, hastily scratched together and imperfectly concealing the
+limbs of the dead, prominently placed but a few feet from the ring of
+last night's revelry, told of the disasters of the fight at the ford.
+The brushwood fire had burned down into a heap of smouldering ashes, and
+the pale and sickly features of the wounded trooper were to be discerned
+upon a pallet of leaves, hard by the heap of embers, surrounded by the
+remnants of bones and roasted meat that had been flung carelessly aside.
+In a spot of more apparent comfort, sheltered by an overhanging canopy
+of vines and alder, lay Butler stretched upon his cloak, and, close
+beside him, the stout frame of Horse Shoe Robinson. In the midst of all
+these marks of recent riot and carousal, sat two swarthy figures,
+haggard and wan from night-watching, armed at every point, and keeping
+strict guard over the prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The occasional snort and pawing of horses in the neighboring wood showed
+that these animals were alert at the earliest dawn; whilst among the
+first who seemed aware of the approach of day, was seen rising from the
+earth, where it had been flung in stupid torpor for some hours, the
+bloated and unsightly person of Hugh Habershaw, now much the worse for
+the fatigue and revelry of the preceding night. A savage and surly
+expression was seated on his brow, and his voice broke forth more than
+ordinarily harsh and dissonant, as he ordered the troop to rouse and
+prepare for their march.</p>
+
+<p>The summons was tardily obeyed; and while the yawning members of the
+squad were lazily moving to their several duties and shaking off the
+fumes of their late debauch, the captain was observed bending over the
+prostrate form of Gideon Blake, and directing a few anxious inquiries
+into his condition. The wounded man was free from pain, but his limbs
+were stiff, and the region of the stab sore and sensitive to the least
+touch. The indications, however, were such as to show that his wound was
+not likely to prove mortal. By the order of Habershaw, a better litter
+was constructed, and the troopers were directed to bear him, by turns,
+as far as Christie's, where he was to be left to the nursing of the
+family. It was a full hour before the horses were saddled, the scattered
+furniture collected, and the preparations for the march completed. When
+these were accomplished the prisoners were provided with the two
+sorriest horses of the troop, and they now set forward at a slow pace,
+under the escort of four men commanded by James Curry. The two troopers
+who bore the sick man followed on foot; Habershaw with the remainder,
+one of whom had appropriated Captain Peter, whilst he led the horses of
+the dismounted men, brought up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>On the journey there was but little spoken by any member of the party;
+the boisterous and rude nature of the men who composed the troop seemed
+to have been subdued by sleep into a temper of churlish indifference or
+stolid apathy. Peppercorn, or James Curry, as the reader now recognises
+him, strictly preserved his guard over the prisoners, manifesting a
+severity of manner altogether different from the tone of careless
+revelry which characterized his demeanor on the preceding night. It
+never relaxed from an official and sullen reserve. A moody frown sat
+upon his brow, and his communication with the prisoners was confined to
+short and peremptory commands; whilst, at the same time, he forbade the
+slightest intercourse with them on the part of any of the guard. During
+the short progress to Christie's he frequently rode apart with
+Habershaw; and the conversation which then occupied these two was
+maintained in a low tone, and with a serious air that denoted some grave
+matter of deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>It was more than an hour after sunrise when the cavalcade reached the
+point of their present destination. There were signs of an anxious
+purpose in the silence of the journey, broken as it was only by low
+mutterings amongst the men, above which sometimes arose an expression of
+impatience and discontent, as the subject of their whispered discussions
+appeared to excite some angry objection from several of the party; and
+this mystery was not less conspicuous in the formal order of the halt,
+and in the pause that followed upon their arrival at the habitation.</p>
+
+<p>The house, in front of which they were drawn up, was, according to the
+prevailing fashion of the time, a one-storied dwelling covering an ample
+space of ground, built partly of boards and partly of logs, with a long
+piazza before it, terminating in small rooms, made by inclosing the
+sides for a few feet at either extremity. Being situated some twenty
+paces aside from the road, the intervening area was bounded by a fence
+through which a gate afforded admission. A horse-rack, with a few
+feeding troughs, was erected near this gate; and a draw-well, in the
+same vicinity, furnished a ready supply of water. With the exception of
+a cleared field around the dwelling, the landscape was shaded by the
+natural forest.</p>
+
+<p>A consultation of some minutes' duration was held between Habershaw and
+Curry, when the order to dismount was given, accompanied with an
+intimation of a design to tarry at this place for an hour or two; but
+the men, at the same time, were directed to leave their saddles upon
+their horses. One or two were detailed to look after the refreshment of
+the cattle, whilst the remainder took possession of the principal room.
+The first demands of the troop were for drink, and this being indulged,
+the brute feeling of conviviality which in gross natures depends
+altogether upon sensual excitement, began once more to break down the
+barriers of discipline, and to mount into clamor.</p>
+
+<p>The scenes of the morning had made a disagreeable impression upon the
+feelings of Butler and his comrade. The changed tone and the ruffian
+manners of the band, the pause, and the doubts which seemed to agitate
+them, boded mischief. The two prisoners, however, almost instinctively
+adopted the course of conduct which their circumstances required. They
+concealed all apprehension of harm, and patiently awaited the end. Horse
+Shoe even took advantage of the rising mirth of the company when drink
+began to exhilarate them, and affected an easy tone of companionship
+which was calculated to throw them off their guard. He circulated freely
+amongst the men, and by private conference with some of the individuals
+around him, who, attracted by his air of confiding gaiety, seemed
+inclined to favor his approaches of familiarity, he soon discovered that
+the gang were divided in sentiment in regard to some important subject
+touching the proposed treatment of himself and his friend. A party, at
+least, he was thus made aware, were disposed to take his side in the
+secret disputes which had been in agitation. He was determined to profit
+by this dissension, and accordingly applied himself still more
+assiduously to cultivate the favorable sentiment he found in existence.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst breakfast was in preparation, and Habershaw and Curry were
+occupied with the wounded man in an adjoining apartment, the sergeant,
+playing the part of a boon companion, laughed with the rioters, and,
+uninvited, made himself free of their cups.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know," he said to one of the troopers, "why you are
+giving yourselves all this trouble about a couple of simple travellers
+that happened to be jogging along the road? If you wanted to make a
+pitched battle you ought to have sent us word; but if it was only upon a
+drinking bout you had set your hearts, there was no occasion to be
+breaking heads for the honor of getting a good fellow in your company,
+when he would have come of his own accord at the first axing. There was
+no use in making such a mighty secret about it; for, as we were
+travelling the same road with you, you had only to show a man the
+civility of saying you wanted our escort, and you should have had it at
+a word. Here's to our better acquaintance, friend!"</p>
+
+<p>"You mightn't be so jolly, Horse Shoe Robinson," said Shad Green&mdash;or,
+according to his nickname, Red Mug, in a whisper; "if some of them that
+took the trouble to find you, should have their own way. It's a d&mdash;&mdash;d
+tight pull whether you are to be kept as a prisoner of war, or shoved
+under ground this morning without tuck of drum. That for your private
+ear."</p>
+
+<p>"I was born in old Carolina myself," replied Horse Shoe, aside to the
+speaker; "and I don't believe there is many men to be found in it who
+would stand by and see the rules and regulations of honorable war
+blackened and trod down into the dust by any cowardly trick of murder.
+If it comes to that, many as there are against two, our lives will not
+go at a cheap price."</p>
+
+<p>"Whisht!" returned the other, "with my allowance, for one, it shan't be.
+A prisoner's a prisoner, I say; and damnation to the man that would make
+him out worse."</p>
+
+<p>"They say you are a merry devil, old Horse Shoe," exclaimed he who was
+called Bow Legs, who now stepped up and slapped the sergeant on the
+back. "So take a swig, man; fair play is a jewel!&mdash;that's my doctrine.
+Fight when you fight, and drink when you drink&mdash;and that's the sign to
+know a man by."</p>
+
+<p>"There is some good things," said the sergeant, "in this world that's
+good, and some that's bad. But I have always found that good and bad is
+so mixed up and jumbled together, that you don't often get much of one
+without a little of the other. A sodger's a sodger, no matter what side
+he is on; and they are the naturalest people in the world for
+fellow-feeling. One day a man is up, and then the laugh's on his side;
+next day he is down, and then the laugh's against him. So, as a sodger
+has more of these ups and downs than other folks, there's the reason his
+heart is tenderer towards a comrade than other people's. Here's your
+health, sir. This is a wicked world, and twisted, in a measure, upside
+down; and it is well known that evil communications corrupts good
+manners; but sodgers were made to set the world right again, on its
+legs, and to presarve good breeding and Christian charity. So there's a
+sarmon for you, you tinkers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well done, mister preacher!" vociferated a prominent reveller. "If you
+will desert and enlist with us you shall be the chaplain of the troop.
+We want a good swearing, drinking, and tearing blade who can hold a
+discourse over his liquor, and fence with the devil at long words.
+You're the very man for it! Huzza for the blacksmith!"</p>
+
+<p>"Huzza for the blacksmith!" shouted several others in the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Butler, during this scene, had stretched himself out at full length upon
+a bench, to gain some rest in his present exhausted and uncomfortable
+condition, and was now partaking of the refreshment of a bowl of milk
+and some coarse bread, which one of the troopers had brought him.</p>
+
+<p>"What's all this laughing and uproar about?" said Habershaw, entering
+the room with Curry, just at the moment of the acclamation in favor of
+the sergeant "Is this a time for your cursed wide throats to be braying
+like asses! We have business to do. And you, sir," said he, turning to
+Butler, "you must be taking up the room of a half dozen men on a bench
+with your lazy carcase! Up, sir; I allow no lolling and lying about to
+rascally whigs and rebels. You have cost me the death of a dog that is
+worth all your filthy whig kindred; and you have made away with two of
+the best men that ever stept in shoe leather. Sit up, sir, and thank
+your luck that you haven't your arms pinioned behind you, like a horse
+thief."</p>
+
+<p>"Insolent coward," said Butler, springing upon his feet; "hired ruffian!
+you shall in due time be made to pay for the outrage you have inflicted
+upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"Tie him up!" cried Habershaw; "tie him up! And now I call you all to
+bear witness that he has brought the sentence upon himself; it shall be
+done without waiting another moment. Harry Gage, I give the matter over
+to you. Draw out four men, take them into the yard, and dispatch the
+prisoners off-hand! shoot the traitors on the spot, before we eat our
+breakfasts! I was a fool that I didn't settle this at daylight this
+morning&mdash;the rascally filth of the earth! Have no heart about it, men;
+but make sure work by a short distance. This is no time for whining.
+When have the Whigs shown mercy to us!"</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be four against four, then!" cried out Shadrach Green,
+seconded by Andrew Clopper; "and the first shot that is fired shall be
+into the bowels of Hugh Habershaw! Stand by me, boys!"</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the parties were divided, and had snatched up their weapons,
+and then stood looking angrily at each other as if daring each to
+commence the threatened affray.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how now, devil's imps!" shouted Habershaw. "Have you come to a
+mutiny? Have you joined the rebels? James Curry, look at this! By the
+bloody laws of war, I will report every rascal who dares to lift his
+hand against me!"</p>
+
+<p>"The thing is past talking about," said the first speaker, coolly. "Hugh
+Habershaw, neither you nor James Curry shall command the peace if you
+dare to offer harm to the prisoners. Now, bully, report that as my
+saying. They are men fairly taken in war, and shall suffer no evil past
+what the law justifies. Give them up to the officer of the nearest
+post&mdash;that's what we ask&mdash;carry them to Innis's camp if you choose; but
+whilst they are in our keeping there shall be no blood spilled without
+mixing some of your own with it, Hugh Habershaw."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrest the mutineers!" cried Habershaw, trembling with rage. "Who are
+my friends in this room? Let them stand by me, and then&mdash;blast me if I
+don't force obedience to my orders!"</p>
+
+<p>"You got off by the skin of your teeth last night," said Green, "when
+you tried to take the life of Gideon Blake. For that you deserved a
+bullet through your skull. Take care that you don't get your reckoning
+this morning, captain and all as you are."</p>
+
+<p>"What in the devil would you have?" inquired Habershaw, stricken into a
+more cautious tone of speech by the decided bearing of the man opposed
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>"The safety of the prisoners until they are delivered to the commander
+of a regular post; we have resolved upon that!" was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Curry!" said Habershaw, turning in some perplexity to the dragoon as if
+for advice.</p>
+
+<p>"Softly, Captain; we had better have a parley here," said Curry, who
+then added in a whisper: "There's been some damned bobbery kicked up
+here by the blacksmith. This comes of giving that fellow the privilege
+of talking."</p>
+
+<p>"A word, men," interposed Horse Shoe, who during this interval had
+planted himself near Butler, and with him stood ready to act as the
+emergency might require. "Let me say a word. This James Curry is my man.
+Give me a broadsword and a pair of pistols, and I will pledge the hand
+and word of a sodger, upon condition that I am allowed five minutes'
+parole, to have a pass, here in the yard, with him&mdash;it shall be in sight
+of the whole squad&mdash;I pledge the word of a sodger to deliver myself back
+again to the guard, dead or alive, without offering to take any chance
+to make off in the meantime. Come, James Curry, your word to the back of
+that, and then buckle on your sword, man. I heard your whisper."</p>
+
+<p>"Soldiers," said Curry, stepping into the circle which the party had now
+formed round the room, "let me put in a word as a peace-maker. Captain
+Habershaw won't be unreasonable. I will vouch for him that he will
+fulfil your wish regarding the conveying of the prisoners to a regular
+post. Come, come, let us have no brawling! For shame! put down your
+guns. There may be reason in what you ask, although it isn't so much
+against the fashion of the times to shoot a Whig either. But anything
+for the sake of quiet amongst good fellows. Be considerate, noble
+captain, and do as the babies wish. As for Horse Shoe's brag&mdash;he is an
+old soldier, and so am I; that's enough. We are not so green as to put a
+broadsword and a brace of pistols into the hands of a bullying prisoner.
+No, no, Horse Shoe! try another trick, old boy! Ha, ha, lads! you are a
+set of fine dashing chaps, and this is only one of your mad-cap bits of
+spunk that boils up with your liquor. Take another cup on it, my merry
+fellows, and all will be as pleasant as the music of a fife. Come,
+valiant Captain of the Tiger, join us. And as for the prisoners&mdash;why let
+them come in for snacks with us. So there's an end of the business. All
+is as mild as new milk again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, get your breakfasts," said Habershaw gruffly. "Blast you! I
+have spoiled you by good treatment, you ungrateful, carnivorous dogs!
+But, as Peppercorn says, there's an end of it! So go to your feeding,
+and when that's done we will push for Blackstock's."</p>
+
+<p>The morning meal was soon despatched, and the party reassembled in the
+room where the late disturbance had taken place. The good-nature of
+Robinson continued to gain upon those who had first taken up his cause,
+and even brought him into a more lenient consideration with the others.
+Amongst the former I have already noted Andrew Clopper, a rough and
+insubordinate member of the gang, who, vexed by some old grudge against
+the fat captain, had efficiently sustained Green in the late act of
+mutiny, and who now, struck with Horse Shoe's bold demeanor towards
+Curry, began to evince manifest signs of a growing regard for the worthy
+sergeant. With this man Horse Shoe contrived to hold a short and secret
+interview that resulted in the quiet transfer of a piece of gold into
+the freebooter's hand, which was received with a significant nod of
+assent to whatever proposition accompanied it. When the order of "boot
+and saddle" was given by Habershaw, the several members of the troop
+repaired to their horses, where a short time was spent in making ready
+for the march; after which the whole squad returned to the porch and
+occupied the few moments of delay in that loud and boisterous carousal
+which is apt to mark the conduct of such an ill-organized body in the
+interval immediately preceding the commencement of a day's ride. This
+was a moment of intense interest to the sergeant, who kept his eyes
+steadily fixed upon the movements of Clopper, as that individual
+lingered behind his comrades in the equipment of his horse. This
+solicitude did not, however, arrest his seeming mirth, as he joined in
+the rude jests of the company and added some sallies of his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me that cup," he said at length, to one of the men, as he pointed
+to a gourd on a table; "before we start I have a notion to try the
+strength of a little cold water, just by way of physic, after all the
+liquor we have been drinking," and, having got the implement in his
+hand, he walked deliberately to the draw-well, where he dipped up a
+draught from the bucket that stood on its brink. As he put the water to
+his lips and turned his back upon the company, he was enabled to take a
+survey of the horses that were attached to the rack near him: then,
+suddenly throwing the gourd from him, he sprang towards his own trusty
+steed, leaped into his saddle at one bound, and sped, like an arrow from
+a bow, upon the highway. This exploit was so promptly achieved that no
+one was aware of the sergeant's purpose until he was some twenty paces
+upon his journey. As soon as the alarm of his flight was spread, some
+three or four rifles were fired after him in rapid succession, during
+which he was seen ducking his head and moving it from side to side with
+a view to baffle the aim of the marksmen. The confusion of the moment in
+which the volley was given rendered it ineffectual, and the sergeant was
+already past the first danger of his escape.</p>
+
+<p>"To horse and follow!" resounded from all sides.</p>
+
+<p>"Look to the other prisoner!" roared out Habershaw; "if he raises his
+head blow out his brains! Follow, boys, follow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Two or three of you come with me," cried Curry, and a couple of files
+hastened with the dragoon to their horses. Upon arriving at the rack it
+was discovered that the bridles of the greater part of the troop were
+tied in hard knots in such a manner as to connect each two or three
+horses together.</p>
+
+<p>A short delay took place whilst the horsemen were disentangling their
+reins, and Curry, being the first to extricate his steed, mounted and
+set off in rapid pursuit. He was immediately followed by two others.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of half an hour the two privates returned and reported that
+they had been unable to obtain a view of the sergeant or even of Curry.
+Shortly afterwards the dragoon himself was descried retracing his steps
+at a moderate trot towards the house. His plight told a tale upon him of
+discomfiture. One side of his face was bleeding with a recent bruise,
+his dress disarranged and his back covered with dust. The side of his
+horse also bore the same taint of the soil.</p>
+
+<p>He rode up to Habershaw&mdash;who was already upon the road at the head of
+the remaining members of the squad, having Butler in charge&mdash;and
+informed him that he had pursued the sergeant at full speed until he
+came in sight of him, when the fugitive had slackened his gait as if on
+purpose to allow himself to be overtaken.</p>
+
+<p>"But, the devil grip the fellow!" he added, "he has a broad-side like a
+man-of-war! In my hurry I left my sword behind me, and, when I came up
+with him, I laid my hand upon his bridle; but, by some sudden sleight
+which he has taught his horse, he contrived, somehow or other, to upset
+me&mdash;horse and all&mdash;down a bank on the road-side. And, when I lay on the
+ground sprawling, do you think the jolly runagate didn't rein up and
+give me a broad laugh, and ask me if he could be of any <i>sarvice</i> to me?
+He then bade me good bye, saying he had an engagement that prevented him
+from favoring me any longer with his company. Gad! it was so civilly
+done that all I could say was, luck go with you, Mr. Horse Shoe; and,
+since we are to part company so soon, may the devil pad your saddle for
+you! I'll do him the justice to say that he's a better horseman than I
+took him for. I can hardly begrudge a man his liberty who can win it as
+cleverly as he has done."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's no more to be said about it," remarked Habershaw. "He is
+only game for another day. He is like a bear's cub; which is as much as
+to signify that he has a hard time before him. He would have only given
+us trouble; so let him go. Now, boys, away for Blackstock's; I will
+engage I keep the fox that's left safely enough."</p>
+
+<p>With these words the troop proceeded upon their march.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Horse Shoe's successful escape from the hands of the Tories, it will be
+conjectured, had been aided by Clopper. The sergeant had sufficiently
+assured himself of the present safety of Butler, from the spirit with
+which a strong party of Habershaw's followers had resisted the bloody
+purpose of their leader before breakfast; and he had also, by the timely
+reward secretly conveyed to Clopper, received a pledge from that
+individual that the same protection should still be accorded to the
+major, in the event of his own extrication from the gang by the perilous
+exploit which he then meditated. It is no doubt apparent to the reader,
+that the favor which saved the lives of the prisoners was won from the
+captors by the address of Robinson, and that whatever good will was
+kindled up amongst them, was appropriated principally to the sergeant,
+Butler having elicited but little consideration from the band, beyond
+that interest which the roughest men are apt to take in the fortunes of
+a young and enterprising soldier. Neither the major's manners nor temper
+were adapted to conciliate any special regard from such natures.</p>
+
+<p>The escape of the sergeant, therefore, although it added nothing to the
+perils of Butler's situation, still operated in some degree to his
+present inconvenience. It caused him to be more rigorously guarded than
+before, and consequently to be more restricted in his personal comfort.
+He was hurried forward at a rough and uneasy pace; and both from
+Habershaw and Curry, and those more immediately of their party, he
+experienced a surly indifference to the pain that this occasioned him.
+They seemed to have no regard either to his wants or feelings, and in
+the passing remarks that fell from them he could gather harsh surmises
+as to the manner in which he was now likely to be disposed of.</p>
+
+<p>"It is their own fault," said one of them to his companion, as Butler
+overheard the conversation; "if every prisoner is strung up and shot
+now-a-days. He makes no more of hanging out people than so many wolves;
+and there was Captain Huck&mdash;will any man say that Sumpter hadn't him
+murdered in cold blood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," added the other, "let a Tory be caught over yonder amongst the
+Iredell Whigs, on t'other side of the line, or in Tryon, or down here at
+the Waxhaws, why, a grey fox in a barn yard with forty dogs would have
+as good a chance for his life. So, for my share, I am glad to see our
+folks break up that blasted breed, root and branch."</p>
+
+<p>"Innis has got as keen a nose for a Whig as a bloodhound," said the
+first speaker, "and won't stop long to consider what's right to be done,
+if he gets this chap in his clutches; so it is of no great account that
+we didn't make short work of it this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Such remarks produced a gloomy effect upon Butler's mind. He had
+witnessed enough, in the scenes of the morning, to convince him that
+Habershaw had been employed to waylay him and take his life, and that
+the latter purpose had only failed by the lucky conjuncture of
+circumstances which led to the mutiny. He was aware, too, that Curry was
+the prime conductor of the scheme, and drove matters, by a secret
+influence, as far as he could towards its accomplishment, whilst with a
+professional hardihood and most hypocritical bearing he affected to be
+indifferent to the issue. This fellow's malice was the more venomous
+from his address, and the gay, swaggering, remorseless levity with which
+he could mask the most atrocious designs: nothing could baffle his
+equanimity; and he seemed to be provided, at all times, with a present
+expedient to meet the emergency of his condition.</p>
+
+<p>The most perplexing feature in this man's present position was his
+recent connexion with Tyrrel; a fact that recurred to Butler with many
+alarming doubts. All the other circumstances accompanying Butler's
+condition, at this moment, were subjects of distressful uncertainty.
+Ignorant of the place to which he was to be taken, into whose hands he
+was to be delivered, how he was to be disposed of, he could only
+anticipate the worst. It was obvious that his journey was an expected
+one, and that the gang who held him were employed by persons in
+authority, set on, no doubt, by the agency of Tyrrel: but where was
+he&mdash;and who was he?&mdash;and what influence could he bring to bear against
+his, Butler's life, now that he had failed in his bloody purpose of
+lying in wait; and that it was resolved by these ruffians, who had in
+part only obeyed his behests, to deliver their prisoner up to the
+regular authorities of the British army? The mention of the name of
+Innis by one of the troopers was not calculated to allay his inquietude.
+This person he knew to have been an active confederate and eager adviser
+of the new court, lately established at Charleston, to promote the
+confiscation of the estates of the inhabitants of Carolina disaffected
+to the royal cause. He was, besides, a zealous Tory partisan, and,
+having lately joined the army, was now in command of a detachment of
+loyalists on the Ennoree.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, there was abundant cause of anxiety to the unfortunate
+officer in the question whether Robinson could be kept acquainted with
+his condition, or even of the place to which he might be removed&mdash;and if
+acquainted with these particulars, whether, in the disturbed state of
+the country, he could render any service. These thoughts all contributed
+to sink his spirits.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the usual assumed levity of Curry, he had now become
+resentful towards Butler, and did not give himself the trouble to
+conceal it. His manner was quick and unaccommodating, showing his
+vexation at his own want of sagacity, inferred by the successful flight
+of Robinson. Expressions occasionally escaped him that indicated a
+self-reproof on this subject, though they were partially disguised by an
+affected undervaluing of the importance of having such a prisoner, so
+long as he retained the custody of the principal object of the
+enterprise. But the consciousness of being again baffled by a man who
+had once before obtained the mastery over him, roused his pride into the
+exhibition of a peevish and vindictive demeanor. In this temper he
+seconded the brutal disposition of Habershaw, and abandoned the captive
+officer to the coarse insults of those who exercised control over him.
+There was some mitigation to this annoyance, in the reserved and partial
+spirit in which the insurgent party of the squad manifested some slight
+signs of good will towards him. An instance of this spirit was afforded
+in a passing hint conveyed by Clopper, on one occasion when the troop
+had halted to water their horses. "Whatever is to come of it, after we
+give you up to other hands," he said, apart to Butler, "we will stick to
+the ground we have taken, that no harm shall be done to you in our
+keeping."</p>
+
+<p>The day was intensely hot, and the road, over which the party travelled,
+rugged and fatiguing; it was, therefore, near one o'clock when they came
+in sight of the Tiger, a rough, bold, impetuous stream that rushed over
+an almost unbroken bed of rocks. On the opposite bank was Blackstocks, a
+rude hamlet of some two or three houses, scattered over a rugged
+hill-side&mdash;a place subsequently rendered famous by the gallant repulse
+of Tarleton by Sumpter. The troop struck into a narrow ford, and, with
+some scrambling amongst the rocks, succeeded in crossing the stream;
+they then galloped rapidly up the hill, towards a farm-house which
+seemed to be the principal place of resort for the people of the
+neighborhood. The approach of the party of cavalry drew to the door a
+bevy of women, children, and negroes, who stood idly gaping at the
+spectacle; and, in addition to these, a detachment of militia,
+consisting of between twenty and thirty men, were seen to turn out and
+form a line in front of the house. Habershaw, with an air of magnified
+importance, halted opposite this detachment, gave a few prompt orders to
+Curry in regard to the disposition of the troop, and in an authoritative
+tone of command, ordered the officer of the militia to detail a guard
+for the safe keeping of a prisoner of state. The personage addressed&mdash;a
+tall, ungainly, and awkward subaltern&mdash;signified his acquiescence with a
+bow, and immediately took possession of Butler by seizing the rein of
+his horse and leading him to one side, where two men, armed with rifles,
+placed themselves at either stirrup. Habershaw now directed his men to
+alight, accompanying the order with a caution that the prisoner was not
+to be allowed to enter the house. "The d&mdash;&mdash;d rascal," he added, "shall
+not play the trick of his rebel associate: no more privilege of going
+into bar-rooms, and lounging about doors! See the man stowed away in the
+barn; and tell the sentinels never to take their eyes off of him&mdash;do you
+hear, lieutenant?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may depend upon my look-out," replied the lieutenant, with a
+flourish of a hacked and rusty sword. "Men, march your prisoner straight
+to the barn. Have a relief, Corporal, every two hours, and towards
+night, set four on the watch at a time."</p>
+
+<p>"Look to it, Lieutenant!" shouted Habershaw. "No words, sir: do your
+duty!"</p>
+
+<p>And having thus given vent to his own high opinion of himself the bulky
+captain withdrew into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Butler was now marched into a large log barn, in one corner of which an
+armful of fodder, or dried blades of Indian corn, were shaken out for
+his bed; and this, he was told, was to be his prison until other orders
+awaited him. The guard, consisting of two sentinels, were stationed on
+the inner side of the door, having the prisoner immediately under their
+eye; and, this disposition being completed, the officer commanding the
+detachment retired to mingle with the troopers in the farm-house.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour had scarcely elapsed after the arrival of the troopers at
+Blackstocks, before James Curry had refreshed himself with a hasty meal,
+and had his horse brought to the door. He seemed bound upon some urgent
+mission.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain St. Jermyn, you say, left this at sunrise this morning?" said
+the dragoon, addressing the lieutenant of the militia.</p>
+
+<p>"He did. He was here all day yesterday, and thought he should hear from
+you last night."</p>
+
+<p>"What route did he take?"</p>
+
+<p>"To Turnbull, at Ninety-Six."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Turnbull there now, think you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is," replied the lieutenant. "They say orders have gone up from
+Cornwallis to the post for four light companies, and it is expected that
+Captain Campbell is now on his way with them towards Camden; neither
+Turnbull nor Cruger would leave the post."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that this corps was marching to head-quarters Are you sure
+St. Jermyn is not with Campbell?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said nothing about it yesterday, but I think he wishes to join
+Colonel Innis with the loyalist cavalry."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Innis?" inquired Curry.</p>
+
+<p>"Over on Ennoree, about two miles from Musgrove's mill."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" said Curry, thoughtfully, "I must ride to the garrison at
+Ninety-Six. The devil take this cantering about the country! I have had
+more than enough of it."</p>
+
+<p>And saying this, the dragoon mounted his horse, and clapping spurs to
+the restive animal, was soon out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the day before the wants of Butler were attended to. He
+had thrown aside his coat, from the oppressive heat of the weather, and,
+placing it under his head for a pillow, had fallen into a sleep, from
+which he was awakened by a summons from one of the sentinels to partake
+of food. There was more kindness apparent in the demeanor of the soldier
+than Butler had been accustomed to meet from the persons who held him
+captive, and this circumstance won upon his heart and induced him to
+accept with courtesy the proffered attentions.</p>
+
+<p>"You live in a divided country, and witness much to make a good man wish
+this unhappy war was at an end," said Butler, after he had eaten of the
+provisions placed before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we do, sir," replied the soldier, "and it is enough to make a
+man's heart bleed to see brothers fighting against each other, and
+kindred that ought to hold together seeking each other's lives. Men will
+have, and ought to have their opinions, sir; but it is hardly good
+reason for treating one another like savage Indians, because all cannot
+think alike."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you live in this neighborhood?" inquired Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Not far away," answered the man.</p>
+
+<p>"You are married?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and have six children."</p>
+
+<p>"They should be young," said Butler, "judging by your own age."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, sir!" exclaimed the soldier, with fervor, "they are young!
+And I would pray that they may never live to be old if these wars are to
+last. No father can count upon his own child's living in harmony with
+him. My boys, if they were grown enough, might be the first I should
+meet in battle."</p>
+
+<p>"Your name, friend?" said Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Bruce," replied the other.</p>
+
+<p>"A good and a brave name; a name once friendly to the liberty of his
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, sir!" said the sentinel. "This is not the place to talk upon
+questions that might make us angry with each other. It is a name still
+friendly to the liberty of his country; that liberty that supports the
+king and laws, and punishes treason."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot debate with you," replied Butler; "I am your prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a man," said the soldier, firmly, "and would not take advantage of
+him that cannot take his own part; but these questions, sir, are best
+dropped&mdash;they have made all the provinces mad. However, I do not blame
+you, sir; I will not deny that there are good men on your side."</p>
+
+<p>"And on yours, doubtless," returned Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"We have many bad ones, sir," returned the soldier; "and as you have
+spoken like a well-tempered gentleman to me, I will give you a friendly
+hint." Here the sentinel spoke in a lowered tone. "Have your eyes about
+you; these men are none of the best, and would think but little of
+taking from you anything of value. As you slept, just now, I saw a
+golden trinket hanging by a ribbon in your bosom. You are a young man,
+sir, and a soldier, I hear; this may be some present from your lady, as
+I guess you have one. If others had seen it, as I saw it, you might have
+been the loser. That's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, honest friend! from my heart, I thank you!" replied Butler
+eagerly. "Oh, God! that bauble is a consolation to me that in this hour
+I would not part with&mdash;no, no! Thank you, friend, a thousand times!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have done," said the soldier, "and in future be more careful. The
+relief is coming this way."</p>
+
+<p>And the sentinel, taking up his rifle, repaired to his post. In a few
+moments the guard was changed, and those lately on duty were marched to
+the dwelling-house.</p>
+
+<p>When night came on the immediate guard around Butler's person was
+doubled. Some few comforts were added to his forlorn prison by the
+kindness of the soldier Bruce, and he was left to pass the weary hours
+of darkness in communion with his own thoughts, or in the enjoyment of
+such repose as his unhappy state of thraldom allowed. If the agitation
+of his spirit had permitted sleep, there were but few moments of the
+night when it might have been indulged. The outbursts of revelry, the
+loud and boisterous laugh, and still louder oaths of the party who
+occupied the dwelling-house near at hand, showed that they had plunged
+into their usual debauch, and now caroused over their frequently filled
+cups; and the clamor that broke upon the night might have baffled the
+slumbers of a mind less anxious and wakeful than his own.</p>
+
+<p>The party of troopers and militia sat at the door to take advantage of
+the coolness of the night, and as they plied the busy flagon, and with
+heavy draught grew more noisy, scarce a word fell from their lips that
+was not distinctly heard by Butler. It was with intense interest,
+therefore, that he listened to the conversation when it led to a topic
+that greatly concerned himself; and that he might not alarm the
+suspicion of the speakers he affected sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Sumpter has been hovering about Ninety-Six," said the lieutenant; "and
+if one could believe all the stories that are told about him, he must be
+a full cousin at least to a certain person that it wouldn't be right to
+mention in respectable company; for, by the accounts, he is one day on
+the Wateree, and the next, whoop and away!&mdash;and there he is, almost over
+at Augusta. It seems almost past the power of human legs for a mortal
+man to make such strides as they tell of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Who says Sumpter is near Ninety-Six?" inquired one of the party; "I can
+only say, if that's true, he is a ghost&mdash;that's all. Here's Harry Turner
+will swear that he saw him, day before yesterday, in North Carolina, on
+his march towards Burk."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed did I," responded Harry, one of the militia-men.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no mistake about it," interposed the lieutenant. "A vidette of
+Brown's came scampering through here this morning, who reported the
+news; and the man had good right to know, for he saw Cruger yesterday,
+who told him all about it, and then sent him off to Wahab's plantation,
+near the Catawba fords, for Hanger's rangers. It was on his way back
+this morning that he stopped here five minutes, only to give us
+warning?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is only some story that your drunken head has been dreaming about,
+Gabriel," said Habershaw. "There is not a word of truth in it; the
+rangers went down to Camden three days ago. Who saw the vidette besides
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"The whole detachment," replied the lieutenant. "We talked to the man
+and had the story from him&mdash;and a queer fellow he was&mdash;a good stout chap
+that liked to have been caught by a pair of reconnoitring Whigs, a few
+miles back between this and Pacolet; they pushed him up to the
+saddleflaps. But you must have seen him yourself, Captain Habershaw;
+for he told us you were on the road."</p>
+
+<p>"From towards Pacolet!" exclaimed the captain with surprise. "We saw
+nobody on that road. When did the man arrive?"</p>
+
+<p>"About an hour before you. He came at full speed, with his horse&mdash;a
+great, black, snorting beast seventeen hands high at least&mdash;all in a
+foam. He was first for passing by without stopping, but we challenged
+him and brought him short upon his haunches, and then he told us he was
+in a hurry, and mustn't be delayed."</p>
+
+<p>"What kind of a looking man was he?" inquired Habershaw.</p>
+
+<p>"A jolly fellow," replied the lieutenant: "almost as big as his horse. A
+good civil fellow, too, that swigs well at a canteen. He made a joke of
+the matter about your coming up, and called you old Cat-o'-nine
+tails&mdash;said that you were the cat, and your nine tag-rags were the
+tails&mdash;ha, ha ha!"</p>
+
+<p>"Blast the bastard!" exclaimed Habershaw; "who could he be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why we asked that, but he roared out with a great haw-haw&mdash;took another
+drink, and said he was never christened."</p>
+
+<p>"You should, as a good soldier," said Habershaw, "have made him give his
+name."</p>
+
+<p>"I tried him again, and he would only let us have a nickname; he told us
+then that he was called Jack-o'-Lantern, and had a special good stomach,
+and that if we wanted more of him we must give him a snatch of something
+to eat. Well, we did so. After that, he said he must have our landlord's
+sword, for his own had been torn from him by the Whig troopers that
+pushed him so hard, and that the bill for it must be sent to Cruger. So
+he got the old cheese-knife that used to hang over the fire-place and
+strung it across his shoulder. He laughed so hard, and seemed so
+good-natured, that there was no doing anything with him. At last he
+mounted his horse again, just stooped down and whispered in my ear at
+parting, that he was an old friend of yours, and that you could tell us
+all the news, and away he went, like a mad bully, clinking it over the
+hill at twenty miles to the hour."</p>
+
+<p>"A black horse did you say?" inquired Habershaw. "Had he a white star in
+the forehead, and the two hind legs white below the knee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said the lieutenant and several others of the party.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Habershaw, "by all the black
+devils!"</p>
+
+<p>"Horse Shoe, Horse Shoe, to be sure!" responded half a dozen voices.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a famous good rider, Horse Shoe or anybody else," said the
+lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>"That beats all!" said one of the troopers; "the cunning old fox! He
+told the truth when he said you would tell the news, captain: but to
+think of his lies getting him past the guard, with a sword and a
+bellyfull into the bargain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you report instantly upon our arrival?" asked Habershaw.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless you," replied the lieutenant, "I never suspicioned him, more than
+I did you. The fellow laughed so naturally that I would never have
+thought him a runaway."</p>
+
+<p>"There it is," said Habershaw; "that's the want of discipline. The
+service will never thrive till these loggerheads are taught the rules of
+war."</p>
+
+<p>Butler had heard enough to satisfy him on one material point, namely,
+that Robinson had secured his escape, and was in condition to take
+whatever advantage of circumstances the times might afford him. It was a
+consolation to him also to know that the sergeant had taken this route,
+as it brought him nearer to the scene in which the major himself was
+likely to mingle. With this dawn of comfort brightening up his doubts,
+he addressed himself more composedly to sleep, and before daylight, the
+sounds of riot having sunk into a lower and more drowsy tone, he
+succeeded in winning a temporary oblivion from his cares.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"What ho! What ho!&mdash;thy door undo:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Art watching or asleep?"&mdash;<i>Burger's Leonora.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>On the banks of the Ennoree, in a little nook of meadow, formed by the
+bend of the stream which, fringed with willows, swept round it almost in
+a semicircle, the inland border of the meadow being defined by a gently
+rising wall of hills covered with wood, was seated within a few paces of
+the water, a neat little cottage with a group of out-buildings,
+presenting all the conveniences of a comfortable farm. The
+dwelling-house itself was shaded by a cluster of trees which had been
+spared from the native forest, and within view were several fields of
+cultivated ground neatly inclosed with fences. A little lower down the
+stream and within a short distance of the house, partially concealed by
+the bank, stood a small low-browed mill, built of wood. It was near
+sundown, and the golden light of evening sparkled upon the shower which
+fell from the leaky race that conducted the water to the head gate, and
+no less glittered on the spray that was dashed from the large and slowly
+revolving wheel. The steady gush of the stream, and the monotonous clack
+of the machinery, aided by the occasional discordant scream of a flock
+of geese that frequented the border of the race, and by the gambols of a
+few children, who played about the confines of the mill, excited
+pleasant thoughts of rural business and domestic content. A rudely
+constructed wagon, to which were harnessed two lean horses, stood at the
+door of the mill, and two men, one of them advanced in years, and the
+other apparently just beyond the verge of boyhood, were occupied in
+heaping upon it a heavy load of bags of meal. The whitened habiliments
+of these men showed them to be the proper attendants of the place, and
+now engaged in their avocation. A military guard stood by the wagon, and
+as soon as it was filled, they were seen to put the horses in motion,
+and to retire by a road that crossed the stream and take the descending
+direction of the current close along the opposite bank.</p>
+
+<p>When this party had disappeared, the old man directed the mill to be
+stopped. The gates were let down, the machinery ungeared, and, in a few
+moments, all was still. The millers now retired to the little habitation
+hard by.</p>
+
+<p>"There is so much work lost," said the elder to his companion, as they
+approached the gate that opened into the curtilage of the dwelling. "We
+shall never be paid for that load. Colonel Innis doesn't care much out
+of whose pocket he feeds his men; and as to his orders upon Rawdon's
+quarter-master, why it is almost the price of blood to venture so far
+from home to ask for payment&mdash;to say nothing of the risk of finding the
+army purse as low as a poor miller's at home. I begrudge the grain,
+Christopher, and the work that grinds it; but there is no disputing with
+these whiskered foot-pads with bayonets in their hands&mdash;they must have
+it and will have it, and there's an end of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," replied the man addressed by the name of Christopher, "as you
+say, they will have it; and if they are told that a poor man's sweat has
+been mixed with their bread, they talk to us about the cause&mdash;the
+cause&mdash;the cause. I am tired of this everlasting preaching about king
+and country. I don't know but if I had my own way I'd take the country
+against the king any day. What does George the Third care for us, with a
+great world of water between?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whisht, Christopher Shaw&mdash;whisht, boy! We have no opinions of our own;
+trees and walls have ears at this time. It isn't for us to be bringing
+blood and burning under our roof, by setting up for men who have
+opinions. No, no. Wait patiently; and perhaps, Christopher, it will not
+be long before this gay bird Cornwallis will be plucked of his feathers.
+The man is on his way now that, by the help of the Lord, may bring down
+as proud a hawk as ever flew across the water. If it should be
+otherwise, trust to the power above the might of armies, and wiser than
+the cunning of men, that, by a righteous and peaceful life, we shall
+make our lot an easier one than it may ever be in mingling in the strife
+of the evil-minded."</p>
+
+<p>"It is hard, for all that&mdash;wise as it is&mdash;to be still," said
+Christopher, "with one's arms dangling by one's side, when one's
+neighbors and kinsmen are up and girding themselves for battle. It will
+come to that at last; fight we must. And, I don't care who knows it, I
+am for independence, uncle Allen."</p>
+
+<p>"Your passion, boy, and warmth of temper, I doubt, outrun your
+discretion," said the old man. "But you speak bravely and I cannot chide
+you for it. For the present, at least, be temperate, and, if you can,
+silent. It is but unprofitable talk for persons in our condition."</p>
+
+<p>The uncle and nephew now entered the house, and Allen Musgrove&mdash;for this
+was the person to whom I have introduced my reader&mdash;was soon seated at
+his family board, invoking a blessing upon his evening meal, and
+dispensing the cares of a quiet and peaceful household.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder Mary stays so long with her aunt," he said, as the early hour
+of repose drew nigh. "It is an ill place for her, wife, and not apt to
+please the girl with anything she may find there. Wat Adair is an
+irregular man, and savage as the beasts he hunts. His associates are not
+of the best, and but little suited to Mary's quiet temper."</p>
+
+<p>The wife, a staid, motherly-looking woman of plain and placid exterior,
+who was busily engaged amongst a thousand scraps of coarse,
+homespun-cloth, which she was fashioning into a garment for some of the
+younger members of her family, paused from her work, upon this appeal to
+her, and, directing her glances above her spectacles to her husband,
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Mary has been taught to perform her duties to her kinsfolk, and it
+isn't often that she counts whether it is pleasant to her or not.
+Besides, Watty, rough as he is, loves our girl; and love goes a great
+way to make us bear and forbear both, husband. I'll warrant our daughter
+comes home when she thinks it right. But it is a weary way to ride over
+a wild country, and more so now when Whig and Tory have distracted the
+land. I wish Christopher could be spared to go for her."</p>
+
+<p>"He shall go to-morrow, wife," returned Allen Musgrove. "Wat Adair, love
+her or not, is not the man to go out of his way for a wandering girl,
+and would think nothing to see the child set out by herself. But come,
+it is Saturday night and near bed-time. Put aside your work, wife; a
+lesson from the Book of Truth, and prayers, and then to rest," he said,
+as he took down a family Bible from a shelf and spread it before him.</p>
+
+<p>The old man put on a pair of glasses, which, by a spring, sustained
+themselves upon his nose, and with an audible and solemn voice he read a
+portion of scripture; then, placing himself on his knees, whilst the
+whole family followed his example, he poured forth a fervent and
+heart-inspired prayer. It was a simple and homely effusion, delivered
+from the suggestions of the moment, in accordance with a devout habit of
+thanksgiving and supplication to which he had long been accustomed. He
+was a Presbyterian, and had witnessed, with many a pang, the profligate
+contempt and even savage persecution with which his sect had been
+visited by many of the Tory leaders&mdash;especially by the loyalist
+partisan, Captain Huck, who had been recently killed in an incursion of
+Sumpter's at Williams's plantation, not far distant from Musgrove's
+present residence. It was this unsparing hostility towards his religion,
+and impious derision of it, that, more than any other circumstance, had
+begotten that secret dislike of the Tory cause which, it was known to a
+few, the miller entertained, although his age, situation, and, perhaps,
+some ancient prejudice of descent (for he was the son of an early Scotch
+emigrant), would rather have inclined him to take the royal side; that
+side which, in common belief and in appearance, he still favored.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast bent thy bow," he said, in the warmest effusion of his
+prayer, "and shot thine arrows, O Lord, amongst this people; thou hast
+permitted the ministers of vengeance, and the seekers of blood to ride
+amongst us, and thy wrath hath not yet bowed the stubborn spirit of
+sin&mdash;but the hard hearts are given strong arms, and with curses they
+have smitten the people. Yet even the firebrand that it did please thee
+not to stay because of our sins&mdash;yea, even the firebrand that did cause
+conflagration along our border, until by the light the erring children
+of men might read in the dark night, from one end of our boundary even
+unto the other, the enormity of their own backslidings, and their
+forgetfulness of thee; that firebrand hath been thrown into the blaze
+which it had itself kindled, and, like a weapon of war which hath grown
+dull in the work of destruction, hath been cast into the place of
+unprofitable lumber, and hath been utterly consumed. The persecutor of
+the righteous and the scoffer of the word hath paid the price of blood,
+and hath fallen into the snares wherewith he lay in wait to ensnare the
+feet of the unthinking. But stay now, O Lord of Hosts, the hand of the
+destroyer, and let the angel of peace again spread his wing over our
+racked and wearied land. Take from the wicked heart his sword and
+shield, and make the righteous man safe beside his family hearth.
+Shelter the head of the wanderer, and guide in safety the hunted
+fugitive who flees before the man of wrath; comfort the captive in his
+captivity, and make all hearts in this rent and sundered province to
+know and bless thy mercies for ever more. In especial, we beseech thee
+to give the victory to him that hath right, and to 'stablish the
+foundations of the government in justice and truth, giving liberty of
+conscience and liberty of law to those who know how to use it." At this
+point the worship of the evening was arrested by a slight knocking at
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Who goes there?" exclaimed the old man, starting from his kneeling
+position. "Who raps at my door?"</p>
+
+<p>"A stranger, good man," replied a voice without. "A poor fellow that has
+been hot pressed and hard run."</p>
+
+<p>"Friend or foe?" asked Allen Musgrove.</p>
+
+<p>"A very worthless friend to any man at this present speaking," replied
+the person on the outside of the door; "and not fit to be counted a foe
+until he has had something to eat. If you be Allen Musgrove, open your
+door."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you alone, or do you come with followers at your heels? My house is
+small and can give scant comfort to many?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, it is more than I know," responded the other; "but if I have
+followers it is not with my will that they shall cross your door-sill.
+If you be Allen Musgrove, or if you be not, open, friend. I am as
+harmless as a barndoor fowl."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not fear you, sir," said Musgrove, opening the door; "you are
+welcome to all I can give you, whatever colors you serve."</p>
+
+<p>"Then give us your hand," said Horse Shoe Robinson, striding into the
+apartment. "You are a stranger to me, but if you are Allen Musgrove, the
+miller, that I have hearn men speak of, you are not the person to turn
+your back on a fellow creature in distress. Your sarvent, mistress," he
+added, bowing to the dame. "Far riding and fast riding gives a sort of
+claim these times; so excuse me for sitting down."</p>
+
+<p>"You are welcome, again; your name, sir?" said Musgrove.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I guessed yours?" inquired Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"You have."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must guess mine; for it isn't convenient to tell it."</p>
+
+<p>"Some poor Whig soldier," said Christopher Shaw privately to Musgrove.
+"It isn't right to make him betray himself. You are hungry, friend,"
+added Christopher; "and we will first get you something to eat, and then
+you may talk all the better for it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good word," said Horse Shoe, "and a brave word, as things go;
+for it isn't every man has the courage to feed an enemy in these days,
+though I made the devils do it for me this morning, ha, ha, ha! Some
+water, Mr. Musgrove, and it will not come badly to my hand if you can
+tangle it somewhat."</p>
+
+<p>The refreshment asked for was produced by Christopher Shaw; and Horse
+Shoe, taking the brimming cup in his hand, stood up, and with a rather
+awkward courtesy, pledged the draught with "Your health, good mistress,
+and luck to the little ones! for we grown-up babies are out of the days
+of luck, except the luck of escaping twisted hemp, or drum-head law,
+which for to-night, I believe, is mine;" and he swallowed the mixture at
+a draught; then, with a long sigh, placed the cup upon the table and
+resumed his seat. "That there spirit, Mr. Musgrove," he added, "is a
+special good friend in need, preach against it who will!"</p>
+
+<p>"You say you have ridden far to-day," remarked the miller: "you must be
+tired."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not apt to get tired," replied the sergeant, turning his
+sword-belt over his head, and flinging the weapon upon a bench; "but I
+am often hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"My wife," said Musgrove, smiling, "has taken that hint before you spoke
+it; she has already ordered something for you to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"That's an excellent woman!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "You see, Allen
+Musgrove, I don't stand much upon making myself free of your house. I
+have hearn of you often before I saw you, man; and I know all about you.
+You are obliged to keep fair weather with these Tories&mdash;who have no
+consideration for decent, orderly people&mdash;but your heart is with the
+boys that go for liberty. You see I know you, and am not afeard to trust
+you. Perchance, you mought have hearn tell of one Horse Shoe Robinson,
+who lived over here at the Waxhaws?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard many stories about that man," replied the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I won't tell you that he is in your house to-night, for fear the
+Tories might take you to account for harboring such a never-do-well. But
+you have got a poor fellow under your roof that has had a hard run to
+get here."</p>
+
+<p>"In my house!" exclaimed Musgrove; "Horse Shoe Robinson!" and then,
+after a pause, he continued, "well, well, there is no rule of war that
+justifies a Christian in refusing aid and comfort to a houseless and
+hunted stranger, who comes with no thought of harm to a peaceful family
+hearth. I take no part in the war on either side; and, in your ear,
+friend Robinson, I take none <i>against</i> you or the brave men that stand
+by you."</p>
+
+<p>"Your hand again," said Horse Shoe, reaching towards the miller. "Allen,
+I have come to you under a sore press of heels. An officer of the
+Continental army and me have been travelling through these here parts,
+and we have been most onaccountably ambushed by a half wild-cat, half
+bull-dog, known by the name of Captain Hugh Habershaw, who cotched us in
+the night at Grindall's ford."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven have mercy on the man who has anything to do with Hugh
+Habershaw!" exclaimed the miller's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Amen, mistress," responded the sergeant; "for a surlier, misbegotten
+piece of flesh, there's not in these wild woods, giving you the choice
+of bear, panther, catamount, rattlesnake, or what not. We were sot
+upon," continued the sergeant, "by this bully and a bevy of his
+braggadocios, and made prisoners; but I took a chance to slip the noose
+this morning, and after riding plump into a hornet's nest at
+Blackstock's, where I put on a new face and tricked the guard out of a
+dinner and this here old sword, I took a course for this mill, axing
+people along the road where I should find Allen Musgrove; and so, after
+making some roundabouts and dodging into the woods until night came on,
+to keep clear of the Tories, here I am."</p>
+
+<p>"And the officer?" said Musgrove.</p>
+
+<p>"He is in the hands of the Philistines yet&mdash;most likely now at
+Blackstock's."</p>
+
+<p>"What might be his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler&mdash;a bold, warm gentleman&mdash;that's been used to tender life
+and good fortune. He has lands on the sea-coast&mdash;unless that new-fangled
+court at Charlestown, that they call the Court of Seekerstations, has
+made them null and void&mdash;as they have been making the estates of better
+gentleman than they could ever pretend to be; taking all the best lands,
+you see, Allen, to themselves, the cursed iniquiters!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you come from with this gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"A long way off, Mr. Musgrove&mdash;from old Virginny&mdash;but lastly from Wat
+Adair's."</p>
+
+<p>"Wat's wife is a relation of my family."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he is a filthy disgrace to all who claim kin with him, Allen
+Musgrove. Wat was the man who put us into the wild-cat's claws&mdash;at
+least, so we had good reason to think. There was a tidy, spruce, and
+smart little wench there&mdash;tut, man&mdash;I am talking of your own kith and
+kindred, for her name was Mary Musgrove."</p>
+
+<p>"Our girl!" said the dame with an animated emphasis; "our own Mary; what
+of <i>her</i>, Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson?"</p>
+
+<p>"That she is as good a child, Mistress Musgrove, as any honest parent
+mought wish for. She got some sort of inkling of what was contrived; and
+so she appeared to Major Butler in a dream&mdash;or her ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy on us! the child has not been hurt?" cried the mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Ondoubtedly not, ma'am," said Robinson; "but it is as true as you are
+there, she gave us, somehow or other, a warning that there was harm in
+the wind; and we took her advice, but it didn't do."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish the child were home," said Musgrove. "Christopher, at daylight,
+boy, saddle a horse and be off to Adair's for Mary."</p>
+
+<p>The nephew promised to do the errand.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Mr. Robinson, draw near the table and eat something."</p>
+
+<p>"With right good heart," replied Horse Shoe; "but it's a kind of camp
+rule with me, before I taste food&mdash;no matter where&mdash;just to look after
+Captain Peter Clinch; that's my horse, friend Musgrove. So, by your
+leave, I'll just go take a peep to see that the Captain is sarved. A
+good beast is a sort of right arm in scrapish times; and as God ha'n't
+given them the gift of speech, we must speak for them."</p>
+
+<p>"Christopher shall save you the trouble," replied Musgrove.</p>
+
+<p>"A good horse never loses anything by the eye of his master," said Horse
+Shoe; "so, Christopher, I'll go with you."</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the sergeant returned into the house, and took his seat
+at the table, where he fell to, at what was set before him, with a
+laudable dispatch.</p>
+
+<p>"How far off," he inquired, "is the nearest Tory post, Mr. Musgrove?"</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Innis has some light corps stationed within two miles. If you
+had been a little earlier you would have found some of them at my mill."</p>
+
+<p>"Innis!" repeated Horse Shoe, "I thought Floyd had these parts under
+command?"</p>
+
+<p>"So he has," replied the miller, "but he has lately joined the garrison
+at Rocky Mount."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated Robinson, "that's a pot into which Sumpter will
+be dipping his ladle before long. All the land between Wateree and Broad
+belongs to Tom Sumpter, let mad-cap Tarleton do his best! We Whigs, Mr.
+Musgrove, have a little touch of the hobgoblin in us. We travel pretty
+much where we please. Now, I will tell you, friend, very plainly what I
+am after. I don't mean to leave these parts till I see what is to become
+of Major Butler. Innis and Floyd put together sha'n't hinder me from
+looking after a man that's under my charge. I'm an old sodger, and they
+can't make much out of me if they get me."</p>
+
+<p>"The country is swarming with troops of one kind or another," said the
+miller; "and a man must have his wits about him who would get through
+it. You are now, Mr. Robinson, in a very dangerous quarter. The fort at
+Ninety-Six on one side of you, and Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock on the
+other&mdash;the road between the three is full of loyalists. Colonel Innis is
+here to keep the passage open, and, almost hourly, his men are passing.
+You should be careful in showing yourself in daylight. And as for your
+poor friend, Major Butler, there is not likely to be much good will
+shown towards him. I greatly fear his case is worse than it seems to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is somewhere," said Robinson, "in that book that lies open on the
+table&mdash;which I take to be the Bible&mdash;the story of the campaigns of King
+David; and as I have hearn it read by the preacher, it tells how David
+was pushed on all sides by flying corps of the enemy, and that, seeing
+he had no sword, he came across a man who gave him victuals and the
+sword of Goliath&mdash;as I got my dinner and a sword this morning from the
+tavern-keeper at Blackstock's; and then he set off on his flight to some
+strange place, where he feigned himself crazy and scrabbled at the gate,
+and let the spit run down on his beard&mdash;as I have done before now with
+Tarleton, Mr. Musgrove; and then King David took into a cave&mdash;which I
+shouldn't stand much upon doing if there was occasion; and there the
+King waited, until he got friends about him and was able to drub the
+Philistians for robbing the threshing-floors&mdash;as I make no doubt these
+Tories have robbed yours, Allen Musgrove. But you know all about it,
+seeing that you are able to read, which I am not. Now, I don't pretend
+to say that I nor Major Butler are as good men as David&mdash;not at all; but
+the cause of liberty is as good a cause as ever King David fought for,
+and the Lord that took his side in the cave, will take the side of the
+Whigs, sooner or later, and help them to beat these grinding, thieving,
+burning, and throat-cutting Tories. And, moreover, a brave man ought
+never to be cast down by such vermin; that's my religion, Mr. Musgrove,
+though you mought hardly expect to find much thought of such things left
+in a rough fellow like me, that's been hammered in these here wars like
+an old piece of iron that's been one while a plough coulter, and after
+that a gun-barrel, and finally that's been run up with others into a
+piece of ordnance&mdash;not to say that it moughtn't have been a horse shoe
+in some part of its life, ha! ha! ha! There's not likely to be much
+conscience or religion left after all that hammering."</p>
+
+<p>"'He shall keep the simple folk by their right,'" said Musgrove, quoting
+a passage from the Psalms, "'defend the children of the poor and punish
+the wrong-doer.' You have finished your supper, Mr. Robinson," he
+continued, "and before we retire to rest you will join us in the
+conclusion of our family worship, which was interrupted by your coming
+into the house. We will sing a Psalm which has been given to us by that
+man whose deliverance has taught you where you are to look for yours."</p>
+
+<p>"If I cannot help to make music, Allen," said Horse Shoe, "I can listen
+with good will."</p>
+
+<p>The miller now produced a little book in black-letter, containing a
+familiar and ancient version of the Psalms, and the following quaint and
+simple lines were read by him in successive couplets, the whole family
+singing each distich as soon as it was given out&mdash;not excepting Horse
+Shoe, who, after the first couplet, having acquired some slight
+perception of the tune, chimed in with a voice that might have alarmed
+the sentinels of Innis's camp:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A king that trusteth in his host<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall not prevail at length;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The man that of his might doth boast<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall fall, for all his strength.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The troops of horsemen eke shall fail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their sturdy steeds shall starve:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The strength of horse shall not prevail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The rider to preserve.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"But so the eyes of God intend,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And watch to aid the just;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With such as fear him to offend,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on his goodness trust.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"That he of death and great distress<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May set their souls from dread;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And if that dearth their land oppress,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In hunger them to feed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Wherefore our soul doth whole depend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On God, our strength and stay;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He is our shield us to defend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And drive all darts away."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>When this act of devotion was concluded the old man invoked a blessing
+upon his household, and gave his orders that the family should betake
+themselves to rest. Horse Shoe had already taken up his sword and was
+about retiring to a chamber, under the guidance of Christopher Shaw,
+when the door was suddenly thrown wide open, and in rushed Mary
+Musgrove. She ran up, threw herself into her father's arms, and cried
+out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how glad I am that I have reached home to-night!" then kissing both
+of her parents, she flung herself into a chair, saying "I am tired&mdash;very
+tired. I have ridden the livelong day, alone, and frightened out of my
+wits."</p>
+
+<p>"Not alone, my daughter!&mdash;on that weary road, and the country so
+troubled with ill-governed men! Why did you venture, girl? Did you not
+think I would send your cousin Christopher for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father," replied Mary, "there have been such doings! Ah! and here
+is Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson; Major Butler, where is he, sir?" she
+exclaimed, turning to the sergeant, who had now approached the back of
+her chair to offer his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Blessings on you for a wise and a brave girl!" said Robinson. "But it
+wouldn't do; we were ambushed, and the Major is still a prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"I feared it," said Mary, "and therefore I stole away. They are
+bloody-minded and wicked, father; and uncle Adair's house has been the
+place where mischief and murder has been talked of. Oh, I am very sick!
+I have had such a ride!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor wench!" said the father, taking her to his bosom. "You have not
+the temper nor the strength to struggle where ruthless men take up their
+weapons of war. What has befallen? Tell us all!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" interposed the mother; "no, Allen, not now. The girl must have
+food and sleep, and must not be wearied with questions to-night. Wait,
+my dear Mary, until to-morrow. She will tell us everything to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I must hear of Major Butler," said Mary; "I cannot sleep until I have
+heard all that has happened. Good Mr. Robinson, tell me everything."</p>
+
+<p>In few words the sergeant unfolded to the damsel the eventful history of
+the last two days, during the narrative of which her cheek waxed pale,
+her strength failed her, and she sank almost lifeless across her
+father's knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me some water," she said. "My long ride has worn me out. I ran off
+at daylight this morning, and have not stopped once upon the road."</p>
+
+<p>A glass of milk with a slice of bread restored the maiden to her
+strength, and she took the first opportunity to inform the circle who
+surrounded her of all the incidents that had fallen under her
+observation at Adair's.</p>
+
+<p>Her father listened with deep emotion to the tale, and during its
+relation clenched his teeth with anger, as he walked, to and fro,
+through the apartment. There was an earnest struggle in his feelings to
+withhold the expression of the strong execration, which the narrative
+brought almost to his lips, against the perfidy of his wife's kinsman.
+But the habitual control of his temper, which his religious habits
+inculcated, kept him silent; and considerations of prudence again swayed
+him from surrendering to the impulse, which would have led him to
+declare himself openly against the cause of the royal government and its
+supporters in the district where he lived. He cross-questioned his
+daughter as to many minute points of her story, but her answers were
+uniform and consistent, and were stamped with the most unequivocal
+proofs of her strict veracity. Indeed, the collateral evidences
+furnished by Robinson, left no doubt on the miller's mind that the whole
+of Mary's disclosures were the testimony of a witness whose senses could
+not have been disturbed by illusions, nor distempered by fear.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a dreadful tale," he said, "and we must think over it more
+maturely. Be of good heart, my daughter, you have acted well and wisely;
+God will protect us from harm."</p>
+
+<p>"And so it was no ghost, nor spirit," said Horse Shoe, "that the major
+saw in the night? But I wonder you didn't think of waking me. A word to
+me in the night&mdash;seeing I have sarved a good deal on outposts, and have
+got used to being called up&mdash;would have had me stirring in a wink. But
+that's part of Wat's luck for I should most ondoubtedly have strangled
+the snake in his bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I called you," said Mary, "as loudly as I durst, and more than once,
+but you slept so hard!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's like me too," replied Horse Shoe. "I'm both sleepy and watchful,
+according as I think there is need of my sarvices."</p>
+
+<p>"Now to bed, my child," said Musgrove. "Your bed is the fittest place
+for your wearied body. God bless you, daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>Once more the family broke up, and as Robinson left the room Mary
+followed him to the foot of the little stair that wound up into an attic
+chamber; here she detained him one moment, while she communicated to him
+in a half whisper,</p>
+
+<p>"I have a friend, Mr. Robinson, that might help you to do something for
+Major Butler. His name is John Ramsay: he belongs to General Sumpter's
+brigade. If you would go to his father's, only six miles from here, on
+the upper road to Ninety-Six, you might hear where John was. But, may
+be, you are afraid to go so near to the fort?"</p>
+
+<p>"May be so," said Robinson, with a look of comic incredulity. "I know
+the place, and I know the family, and, likely, John himself. It's a good
+thought, Mary, for I want help now, more than I ever did in my life.
+I'll start before daylight&mdash;for it won't do to let the sun shine upon
+me, with Innis's Tories so nigh. So, if I am missed to-morrow morning,
+let your father know how I come to be away."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell John," said Mary, "I sent you to him. Mary Musgrove, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"If I can't find John," replied Horse Shoe, "you're such a staunch
+little petticoat sodger, that I'll, perhaps, come back and enlist you.
+'Tisn't everywhere that we can find such valiant wenches. I wish some of
+our men had a little of your courage; so, good night!"</p>
+
+<p>The maiden now returned to the parlor, and Horse Shoe, under the
+guidance of Christopher Shaw, found a comfortable place of deposit for
+his hard-worked, though&mdash;as he would have Christopher believe&mdash;his
+unfatigued frame. The sergeant, however, was a man not born to cares,
+notwithstanding that his troubles were "as thick as the sparks that fly
+upward," and it is a trivial fact in his history, that, on the present
+occasion, he was not many seconds in bed before he was as sound asleep
+as the trapped partridges, in the fairy tale, which, the eastern
+chronicle records, fell into a deep sleep when roasting upon the spit,
+and did not wake for a hundred years.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Now if you ask who gave the stroke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I cannot tell, so mote I thrive;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It was not given by man alive."&mdash;<i>Lay of the last Minstrel.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>It was a little before daybreak on Sunday morning, the fifteenth of
+August (a day rendered memorable by the exploit of Sumpter, who
+captured, in the vicinity of Rocky Mount, a large quantity of military
+stores, and a numerous escort, then on their way from Ninety-Six to
+Camden), that James Curry was travelling in the neighborhood of the
+Ennoree, some four miles distant from Musgrove's mill. He had a few
+hours before left the garrison of Ninety-Six, and was now hieing with
+all haste to Blackstock's on a mission of importance. The night had been
+sultry, but the approach of the dawn had brought with it that refreshing
+coolness which is always to be remarked in the half hour that precedes
+the first blush of morning. The dragoon had had a weary night-ride, but
+the recent change of temperature had invigorated his system and given
+buoyancy to his spirits. This effect was exhibited in his first
+whistling a tune, then humming the words of a ditty, and, finally, in
+breaking forth into a loud full song, which, as he had a good voice and
+practised skill, increased in loudness as he became better pleased with
+the trial of his powers. The song was occasionally intermitted to give
+room to certain self-communings which the pastime suggested.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"You may take it for sooth, that wit without gold,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>he sang in the loudest strain, trying the words on different keys, and
+introducing some variations in the tune&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Will make a bad market whenever 'tis sold."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"That's true; your poor moneyless devil, how should his wit pass
+current? He was a shrewd fellow that wrote it down. Your rich man for
+wit, all the world over, and so the song runs:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'But all over the world it is well understood<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That the joke of a rich man is sure to be good.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"True, true as gospel! Give the knaves dinners, plenty of Burgundy and
+Port, and what signifies an empty head? Go to college, and how is it
+there? What is a sizer's joke? If the fellow have the wit of Diogenes,
+it is sheer impertinence. But let my young lord Cr&oelig;sus come out with
+his flatulent nonsense, oh, that's the true ware for the market! James
+Curry, James Curry, what ought you to have been, if the supple jade
+fortune had done your deserts justice! Instead of a d&mdash;&mdash;d dodging
+dragoon, obedient to the beck of every puppy who wears his majesty's
+epaulets; but it's no matter, that's past; the wheel has made its turn,
+and here I am, doing the work of the scullion, that ought to sit above
+the salt-cellar. Vogue la galére! We will play out the play. Meantime,
+I'll be merry in spite of the horoscope: come then, I like these words
+and the jolly knave, whoever he was, that penned them.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'You may take it for sooth that wit without gold.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The singer was, at this instant, arrested at the top of his voice by a
+blow against the back of his head, bestowed, apparently, by some
+ponderous hand, that so effectually swayed him from the line of gravity,
+as to cause him to reel in his saddle, and, by an irrecoverable impetus,
+to swing round to the ground, where he alighted on his back, with the
+reins of his horse firmly held in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Singing on Sunday is against the law," said a hoarse voice, that came
+apparently from the air, as the darkness of the hour&mdash;which was
+increased by an overcast and lowering sky, as well as by the thick wood
+through which the road ran, prevented the stricken man from discerning
+anything that might have done him harm, even if such thing had been
+bodily present. The soldier lay for a moment prostrate, bewildered by
+the suddenness of this mysterious visitation; and when, at length, he
+regained his feet, he almost fancied that he heard receding from him,
+at a great distance, the dull beat of a horse's foot upon the sandy
+road.</p>
+
+<p>Curry, who as a soldier was insensible to fear, now shook in every
+joint, as he stood beside his horse in a state of confused and ravelled
+wonderment. He strained his ear to catch the sound in the direction
+towards which he thought he had heard the retreating footsteps, but his
+more deliberate attention persuaded him that he was mistaken in his
+first impression. Still more puzzled as he came into the possession of
+his faculties, of which the abruptness of the surprise had almost bereft
+him, he stood for some time mute; then drawing his sword with the
+alacrity of a man, who all at once believes himself in danger of an
+uplifted blow, he called out loudly,</p>
+
+<p>"Speak, and show yourself, if you be a man! Or if there be a party, let
+them come forth. Who waylays me? Remember, I warn him, in the name of
+the king, that I am on his majesty's errand, and that they are not far
+off who will punish any outrage on my person. By all the powers of
+Satan, the place is bewitched!" he exclaimed, after a pause. "Once more,
+speak; whether you are to be conjured in the name of the king or of the
+devil!"</p>
+
+<p>All remained silent, except the leaves of the forest that fluttered in
+the breeze; and it was with an awkward and unacknowledged sense of
+faint-heartedness that Curry put up his sword and remounted into his
+saddle. He first moved slowly forward in continuation of his journey;
+and, as his thoughts still ran upon the extraordinary incident, he
+applied spurs to his horse's side, and gradually increased his pace from
+a trot to a gallop, and from that to almost high speed, until he emerged
+from the wood upon a track of open country. When he reached this spot
+the day had already appeared above the eastern horizon; and reassured,
+as the light waxed stronger, the dragoon, by degrees, fell into his
+customary travelling pace, and resumed the equanimity of his temper.</p>
+
+<p>About ten o'clock in the day he reached Blackstock's, where he arrived
+in a heavy rain, that had been falling for the last three hours, and
+which had drenched him to the skin. So, rapidly dismounting and giving
+his horse into the charge of some of the idlers about the door, he
+entered the common room in which were assembled the greater part of the
+militia guard and of Habershaw's troopers. His first movement was to
+take the burly captain aside, and to communicate to him certain orders
+from the commanding officer at Ninety-Six, respecting the prisoner;
+which being done, he mingled with his usual affectedly careless and
+mirthful manner amongst the throng.</p>
+
+<p>Butler, through the intercession of Bruce, had been indulged with some
+mitigation of the restraints at first imposed upon him; and he was, at
+this moment, availing himself of the privilege that had been allowed
+him, on account of the leaky condition of the barn in which he had spent
+the night, to take his morning meal inside of the dwelling-house. He was
+accordingly seated at a table, in a corner of the room, with some
+eatables before him in a more comfortable state of preparation than he
+had hitherto enjoyed. Two soldiers stood sufficiently near to render his
+custody effectual without much personal annoyance. As yet he had been
+unable to glean anything from the conversation of those around him, by
+which he might form the least conjecture as to his probable destiny. His
+intercourse with his captors was restricted to the mere supply of his
+immediate wants. All other communication was strictly interdicted. Even
+Habershaw himself seemed to be under some authoritative command, to deny
+himself the gratification of either exhibiting his own importance, or of
+wreaking his spleen upon his prisoner; and when Butler attempted to gain
+from Bruce some hint as to what was intended, the only answer he
+received was conveyed by the soldier's putting his finger on his lip.</p>
+
+<p>Butler knew enough of Robinson's hardihood and venturesome disposition,
+to feel perfectly confident that he would make good his promise to be
+near him, at whatever personal hazard; and he was, therefore, in
+momentary expectation of receiving further intelligence from the
+sergeant in some of those strange, bold, and perilous forms of
+communication, which the character of the trusty soldier warranted him
+in counting upon. His knowledge that Robinson had passed by Blackstock's
+on the day preceding, gave him some assurance that the sergeant was in
+the diligent prosecution of his purpose to seek Sumpter, or some other
+of the partisan Whig corps in their hiding-places, and to try the
+hazardous experiment of his (Butler's) rescue from his present thraldom,
+by a vigorous incursion into the district where he was now confined.
+With this calculation of the course of events, he was prepared to hear,
+at every hour of the day, of some sudden alarm; and ready to co-operate,
+by seizing the first moment of confusion to snatch up a weapon, and
+force his way through the ranks of his guard. It was with such
+anticipations that now, whilst seemingly engrossed with the satisfaction
+of his physical wants at the table, he lent an attentive ear to the
+conversation which passed in the house between Curry and the company who
+were clustered around him. The dragoon, at first, in a light and merry
+vein of narrative, recounted to his hearers the singular visitation he
+had experienced before daybreak; and he contrived to fling over his
+story an additional hue of mystery, by the occasional reflections with
+which he seasoned it, tending to inculcate the belief to which he
+himself partly inclined, that the incident was brought about through the
+agency of some pranking and mischievous spirit,&mdash;a conclusion which, at
+that period, and amongst the persons to whom the adventure was related,
+did not require any great stretch of faith to sustain it. Some of his
+auditors fortified this prevailing inclination of opinion, by expressing
+their own conviction of the interference of malignant and supernatural
+influences in the concerns of mankind, and gave their personal
+experience of instances in which these powers were active. The
+conversation by degrees changed its tone from that of levity and
+laughter into one of grave and somewhat fearful interest, according to
+the increasing marvel which the several stories that were told excited
+in the superstitious minds of the circle; and in the same proportion
+that this sentiment took possession of the thoughts of the company, they
+became more unreserved in their language, and louder in the utterance of
+it, thus giving Butler the full benefit of all that was said.</p>
+
+<p>"But, after all," said one of the men, "mightn't you have been asleep on
+your horse, James Curry, and had a sort of jogging dream, when a limb of
+a tree across the road, for it was a dark morning, might have caught you
+under the throat and flung you out of your saddle: and you, not knowing
+whether you was asleep or awake, for a man who is on duty, without his
+night's rest, sometimes can't tell the difference, thought it was some
+hobgoblin business?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Curry, "that's impossible; for I was singing a song at the
+time, and almost at the top of my voice. I had been sleepy enough before
+that, just after I left Ninety-Six, near midnight, for I had ridden a
+long way; but as it grew towards daylight I began to rouse up, so that
+when this thing happened I was as much awake as I am now."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's a downright case of ghost," said the other. "It knew you was
+upon a wicked errand, and so that back-handed blow was a warning to you.
+These things are sometimes meant to be friendly; and who knows but this
+oversetting you in the road might have been intended to signify that you
+had better not meddle in cases of life and death. If you would take my
+advice, you would just treat this Major Butler, that you took
+prisoner"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Curry looked at the speaker with a frown, as he made a motion to him to
+be silent. "Remember where you are, and who may hear you," he said in a
+cautious voice, as he glanced his eye towards Butler, who was leaning
+his head upon the table, as if in slumber.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I understand," replied the soldier of the guard. "I forgot he was
+in the room."</p>
+
+<p>"The weather holds up," said Habershaw, who now walked into the house.
+"The rain has slackened; and so, orderly, if you have had a bite of
+something to eat, the boys had better be got ready to march. We have a
+long way to go, and as the infantry march with us we shall get on
+slowly."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, noble Captain," replied Curry. "I shall be ready to join
+you before you get your line formed."</p>
+
+<p>Orders were now issued by Habershaw, both to the troopers of his own
+squad and to the militia detachment, to put themselves in condition for
+an immediate movement. The clouds, during the last half hour, had been
+breaking away, and the sun soon burst forth upon the wet and glittering
+landscape, in all the effulgence of mid summer. During a brief interval
+of preparation the party of infantry and cavalry that now occupied the
+hamlet exhibited the bustle incident to the gathering of the corps. Some
+ran to one quarter for their arms, others to the stables for their
+horses; a cracked trumpet in the hands of a lusty performer, who here
+joined the troop, kept up a continual braying, and was seconded by the
+ceaseless beat of a slack and dull drum. There were some who, having put
+on their military equipments, thronged the table of the common room of
+the house, where spirits and water had been set out for their
+accommodation, and rude jokes, laughter, and oaths, were mingled
+together in deafening clamor.</p>
+
+<p>"Move out the prisoner," shouted Habershaw; "he goes with the infantry
+afoot. I'll never trust another of the tribe with a horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Follow, sir," said one of the sentinels near Butler's person, as he
+faced to the right with his musket at an "advance," and led the way to
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>Butler rose, and, before he placed himself in the position required,
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is it you purpose to conduct me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence!" said Habershaw sternly. "Obey orders, sir, and march where
+you are directed."</p>
+
+<p>Butler folded his arms and looked scornfully at the uncouth savage
+before him as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I am a prisoner, sir, and therefore bound to submit to the force that
+constrains me. But there will be a day of reckoning, both for you and
+your master. It will not be the lighter to him for having hired such a
+ruffian to do the business in which he is ashamed to appear himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Devil's leavings!" screamed Habershaw, almost choked with choler, "dare
+you speak to me so? By my heart, I have a mind to cleave your skull for
+you! My master, sir! You will find out, before long, who is master, when
+Hugh Habershaw has tied the knot that is to fit your neck."</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, villain!" exclaimed Butler; "I cannot come too soon into the
+presence of those who claim to direct your motions."</p>
+
+<p>Here James Curry interposed to draw off the incensed captain, and
+Butler, having received another order from the officer of the guard,
+moved out upon the road and took the place that was assigned him,
+between two platoons of the foot soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>The troopers being mounted and formed into column of march with
+Habershaw and his trumpeter at the head and Curry in the rear, now moved
+forward at a slow gait, followed by the detachment of infantry who had
+the prisoner under their especial charge.</p>
+
+<p>It was near noon when the party took up the line of march, and they
+prosecuted their journey southward with such expedition as to tax
+Butler's powers to the utmost to keep even pace with them over roads
+that were in many places rendered miry by the late rain. Towards
+evening, however, the sun had sufficiently dried the soil to make the
+travel less fatiguing; and by that hour when the light of day only
+lingered upon the tops of the western hills, the military escort, with
+their prisoner, were seen passing through a defile that opened upon
+their view an extensive bivouac of some two or three hundred horse and
+foot, and occupying a space of open field, encompassed with wood and
+guarded in its rear by a smooth and gentle river.</p>
+
+<p>The spot at which they had arrived was the camp of a partisan corps
+under the command of Colonel Innis. A farm-house was seen in the
+immediate neighborhood, which was used as the head-quarters of a party
+of officers. Numerous horses were attached to the trees that bounded the
+plain, and various shelters were made in the same quarter, in the rudest
+form of accommodation, of branches and underwood set against
+ridge-poles, that were sustained by stakes, to protect the men against
+the weather. Groups of this irregular soldiery were scattered over the
+plain, a few wagons were seen collected in one direction, and, not far
+off, a line of fires, around which parties were engaged in cooking food.
+Here and there a sentinel was seen pacing his short limits, and
+occasionally the roll of a drum and the flourish of a fife announced
+some ceremony of the camp police.</p>
+
+<p>The escort marched quickly across this plain until it arrived in front
+of the farm-house. Here a guard was drawn up to receive them; and, as
+soon as the usual military salute was passed and the order to "stand at
+ease" given, Habershaw put the detachment under the command of the
+lieutenant of infantry, and, accompanied by Curry, walked into the house
+to make his report to the commanding officer of the post.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments afterwards Colonel Innis, attended by two or three
+military men&mdash;some of whom wore the uniform of the British regular
+army&mdash;came from the house and passed hastily along the line of the
+escort, surveying Butler only with a rapid glance. Having regained the
+door, he was heard to say&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is very well; let the prisoner have a room above stairs. See that he
+wants nothing proper to his situation; and, above all, be attentive that
+he be kept scrupulously under the eye of his guard."</p>
+
+<p>When this order was given, the Colonel retired with his attendants to
+his quarters, and Butler was forthwith conducted, by a file of men, up a
+narrow, winding stair, to a small apartment in the angle of the roof,
+where he was provided with a chair, a light, and a comfortable bed. His
+door was left open, and on the outside of it, full in his view, was
+posted a sentinel. He was too weary even to be troubled with the cares
+of his present condition; and, without waiting, therefore, for food, or
+seeking to inquire into whose hands he had fallen, or even to turn his
+thoughts upon the mysterious train of circumstances that hung over him,
+he flung himself upon the couch and sank into a profound and grateful
+sleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ADVENTURE WHEREIN IT IS APPARENT THAT THE ACTIONS OF REAL LIFE ARE
+FULL AS MARVELLOUS AS THE INVENTIONS OF ROMANCE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>David Ramsay's house was situated on a by-road, between five and six
+miles from Musgrove's mill, and at about the distance of one mile from
+the principal route of travel between Ninety-six and Blackstock's. In
+passing from the military post that had been established at the former
+place, towards the latter, Ramsay's lay off to the left, with a piece of
+dense wood intervening. The by-way leading through the farm, diverged
+from the main road, and traversed this wood until it reached the
+cultivated grounds immediately around Ramsay's dwelling. In the journey
+from Musgrove's mill to this point of divergence, the traveller was
+obliged to ride some two or three miles upon the great road leading from
+the British garrison, a road that, at the time of my story, was much
+frequented by military parties, scouts, and patroles, that were
+concerned in keeping up the communication between the several posts
+which were established by the British authorities along that frontier.
+Amongst the whig parties, also, there were various occasions which
+brought them under the necessity of frequent passage through this same
+district, and which, therefore, furnished opportunities for collision
+and skirmish with the opposite forces.</p>
+
+<p>It is a matter of historical notoriety, that immediately after the fall
+of Charleston, and the rapid subjugation of South Carolina that followed
+this event, there were three bold and skilful soldiers who undertook to
+carry on the war of resistance to the established authorities, upon a
+settled and digested plan of annoyance, under the most discouraging
+state of destitution, as regarded all the means of offence, that,
+perhaps, history records. It will not detract from the fame of other
+patriots of similar enthusiasm and of equal bravery, to mention the
+names of Marion, Sumpter, and Pickens, in connexion with this plan of
+keeping up an apparently hopeless partisan warfare, which had the
+promise neither of men, money, nor arms,&mdash;and yet which was so nobly
+sustained, amidst accumulated discomfitures, as to lead eventually to
+the subversion of the "Tory ascendency" and the expulsion of the British
+power. According to the plan of operations concerted amongst these
+chieftains, Marion took the lower country under his supervision; Pickens
+the south-western districts, bordering upon the Savannah; and to Sumpter
+was allotted all that tract of country lying between the Broad and the
+Catawba rivers, from the angle of their junction, below Camden, up to
+the mountain districts of North Carolina. How faithfully these men made
+good their promise to the country, is not only written in authentic
+history, but it is also told in many a legend amongst the older
+inhabitants of the region that was made the theatre of action. It only
+concerns my story to refer to the fact, that the events which have
+occupied my last five or six chapters, occurred in that range more
+peculiarly appropriated to Sumpter, and that the high road from
+Blackstock's towards Ninety-six was almost as necessary for
+communication between Sumpter and Pickens, as between the several
+British garrisons.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning that succeeded the night in which Horse Shoe Robinson
+arrived at Musgrove's, the stout and honest sergeant might have been
+seen, about eight o'clock, leaving the main road from Ninety-six, at the
+point where that leading to David Ramsay's separated from it, and
+cautiously urging his way into the deep forest, by the more private path
+into which he had entered. The knowledge that Innis was encamped along
+the Ennoree, within a short distance of the mill, had compelled him to
+make an extensive circuit to reach Ramsay's dwelling, whither he was now
+bent; and he had experienced considerable delay in his morning journey,
+by finding himself frequently in the neighborhood of small foraging
+parties of Tories, whose motions he was obliged to watch for fear of an
+encounter. He had once already been compelled to use his horse's heels
+in what he called "fair flight;" and once to ensconce himself, a full
+half hour, under cover of the thicket afforded him by a swamp. He now,
+therefore, according to his own phrase, "dived into the little road
+that scrambled down through the woods towards Ramsay's, with all his
+eyes about him, looking out as sharply as a fox on a foggy morning:" and
+with this circumspection, he was not long in arriving within view of
+Ramsay's house. Like a practised soldier, whom frequent frays has taught
+wisdom, he resolved to reconnoitre before he advanced upon a post that
+might be in possession of an enemy. He therefore dismounted, fastened
+his horse in a fence corner, where a field of corn concealed him from
+notice, and then stealthily crept forward until he came immediately
+behind one of the out-houses.</p>
+
+<p>The barking of a house-dog brought out a negro boy, to whom Robinson
+instantly addressed the query&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is your master at home?"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. He's got his horse, and gone off more than an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your mistress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shelling beans, Sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't ask you," said the sergeant, "what she is doing, but where she
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"In course, she is in the house, Sir,"&mdash;replied the negro with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Any strangers there?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was plenty on 'em a little while ago, but they've been gone a
+good bit."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson having thus satisfied himself as to the safety of his visit,
+directed the boy to take his horse and lead him up to the door. He then
+entered the dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"Mistress Ramsay," said he, walking up to the dame, who was occupied at
+a table, with a large trencher before her, in which she was plying that
+household thrift which the negro described; "luck to you, ma'am, and all
+your house! I hope you haven't none of these clinking and clattering
+bullies about you, that are as thick over this country as the frogs in
+the kneading troughs, that they tell of."</p>
+
+<p>"Good lack, Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson," exclaimed the matron, offering the
+sergeant her hand. "What has brought you here? What news? Who are with
+you? For patience sake, tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am alone," said Robinson, "and a little wettish mistress;" he added,
+as he took off his hat and shook the water from it "it has just sot up a
+rain, and looks as if it was going to give us enough on't. You don't
+mind, doing a little dinner-work of a Sunday, I see&mdash;shelling of beans,
+I s'pose, is tantamount to dragging a sheep out of a pond, as the
+preachers allow on the Sabbath&mdash;ha, ha!&mdash;Where's Davy?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone over to the meeting-house on Ennoree, hoping to hear
+something of the army at Camden: perhaps you can tell us the news from
+that quarter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, that's a mistake, Mistress Ramsay. Though I don't doubt that
+they are hard upon the scratches, by this time. But, at this present
+speaking, I command the flying artillery. We have out one man in the
+corps&mdash;and that's myself; and all the guns we have got is this piece of
+ordnance, that hangs in this old belt by my side (pointing to his
+sword)&mdash;and that I captured from the enemy at Blackstock's. I was hoping
+I mought find John Ramsay at home&mdash;I have need of him as a recruit."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Robinson, John has a heavy life of it over there with Sumpter.
+The boy is often without his natural rest, or a meal's victuals; and the
+general thinks so much of him, that he can't spare him to come home. I
+hav'n't the heart to complain, as long as John's service is of any use,
+but it does seem, Mr. Robinson, like needless tempting of the mercies of
+providence. We thought that he might have been here to-day; yet I am
+glad he didn't come&mdash;for he would have been certain to get into trouble.
+Who should come in, this morning, just after my husband had cleverly got
+away on his horse, but a young cock-a-whoop ensign, that belongs to
+Ninety-Six, and four great Scotchmen with him, all in red coats; they
+had been out thieving, I warrant, and were now going home again. And who
+but they! Here they were, swaggering all about my house&mdash;and calling for
+this&mdash;and calling for that&mdash;as if they owned the fee-simple of
+everything on the plantation. And it made my blood rise, Mr. Horse Shoe,
+to see them run out in the yard, and catch up my chickens and ducks, and
+kill as many as they could string about them&mdash;and I not daring to say a
+word: though I did give them a piece of my mind, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is at home with you?" inquired the sergeant eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody but my youngest boy, Andrew," answered the dame. "And then, the
+filthy, toping rioters&mdash;" she continued, exalting her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What arms have you in the house?" asked Robinson, without heeding the
+dame's rising anger.</p>
+
+<p>"We have a rifle, and a horseman's pistol that belongs to John.&mdash;They
+must call for drink, too, and turn my house, of a Sunday morning, into a
+tavern."</p>
+
+<p>"They took the route towards Ninety-Six, you said, Mistress Ramsay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;they went straight forward upon the road. But, look you, Mr.
+Horse Shoe, you're not thinking of going after them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't there an old field, about a mile from this, on that road?"
+inquired the sergeant, still intent upon his own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"There is," replied the dame; "with the old school-house upon it."</p>
+
+<p>"A lop-sided, rickety log-cabin in the middle of the field. Am I right,
+good woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And nobody lives in it? It has no door to it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There ha'n't been anybody in it these seven years."</p>
+
+<p>"I know the place very well," said the sergeant, thoughtfully; "there is
+woods just on this side of it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," replied the dame: "but what is it you are thinking
+about, Mr. Robinson?"</p>
+
+<p>"How long before this rain began was it that they quitted this house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not above fifteen minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Mistress Ramsay, bring me the rifle and pistol both&mdash;and the
+powder-horn and bullets."</p>
+
+<p>"As you say, Mr. Horse Shoe," answered the dame, as she turned round to
+leave the room; "but I am sure I can't suspicion what you mean to do."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the woman returned with the weapons, and gave them to
+the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Andy?" asked Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>The hostess went to the door and called her son, and, almost immediately
+afterwards, a sturdy boy of about twelve or fourteen years of age
+entered the apartment, his clothes dripping with rain. He modestly and
+shyly seated himself on a chair near the door, with his soaked hat
+flapping down over a face full of freckles, and not less rife with the
+expression of an open, dauntless hardihood of character.</p>
+
+<p>"How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole
+your mother's chickens this morning?" asked Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm agreed," replied the boy, "if you will tell me what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going to take the boy out on any of your desperate
+projects, Mr. Horse Shoe?" said the mother, with the tears starting
+instantly into her eyes. "You wouldn't take such a child as that into
+danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bless your soul, Mrs. Ramsay, there ar'n't no danger about it! Don't
+take on so. It's a thing that is either done at a blow, or not
+done,&mdash;and there's an end of it. I want the lad only to bring home the
+prisoners for me, after I have took them."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Robinson, I have one son already in these wars&mdash;God protect
+him!&mdash;and you men don't know how a mother's heart yearns for her
+children in these times. I cannot give another," she added, as she threw
+her arms over the shoulders of the youth and drew him to her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it aint nothing," said Andrew, in a sprightly tone. "It's only
+snapping of a pistol, mother,&mdash;pooh! If I'm not afraid, you oughtn't to
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"I give you my honor, Mistress Ramsay," said Robinson, "that I will
+bring or send your son safe back in one hour; and that he sha'n't be put
+in any sort of danger whatsomedever: come, that's a good woman!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are not deceiving me, Mr. Robinson?" asked the matron wiping away a
+tear. "You wouldn't mock the sufferings of a weak woman in such a thing
+as this?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the honesty of a sodger, ma'am," replied Horse Shoe, "the lad shall
+be in no danger, as I said before&mdash;whatsomedever."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will say no more," answered the mother. "But Andy, my child, be
+sure to let Mr. Robinson keep before you."</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe now loaded the fire-arms, and having slung the pouch across
+his body, he put the pistol into the hands of the boy; then shouldering
+his rifle, he and his young ally left the room. Even on this occasion,
+serious as it might be deemed, the sergeant did not depart without
+giving some manifestation of that light-heartedness which no
+difficulties ever seemed to have the power to conquer. He thrust his
+head back into the room, after he had crossed the threshold, and said
+with an encouraging laugh, "Andy and me will teach them, Mistress
+Ramsay, Pat's point of war&mdash;we will <i>surround</i> the ragamuffins."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Andy, my lad," said Horse Shoe, after he had mounted Captain
+Peter, "you must get up behind me. Turn the lock of your pistol down,"
+he continued, as the boy sprang upon the horse's rump, "and cover it
+with the flap of your jacket, to keep the rain off. It won't do to hang
+fire at such a time as this."</p>
+
+<p>The lad did as he was directed, and Horse Shoe, having secured his rifle
+in the same way, put his horse up to a gallop, and took the road in the
+direction that had been pursued by the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as our adventurers had gained a wood, at the distance of about
+half a mile, the sergeant relaxed his speed, and advanced at a pace a
+little above a walk.</p>
+
+<p>"Andy," he said, "we have got rather a ticklish sort of a job before us,
+so I must give you your lesson, which you will understand better by
+knowing something of my plan. As soon as your mother told me that these
+thieving villains had left her house about fifteen minutes before the
+rain came on, and that they had gone along upon this road, I remembered
+the old field up here, and the little log hut in the middle of it; and
+it was natural to suppose that they had just got about near that hut,
+when this rain came up; and then, it was the most supposable case in the
+world, that they would naturally go into it, as the driest place they
+could find. So now, you see, it's my calculation that the whole batch is
+there at this very point of time. We will go slowly along, until we get
+to the other end of this wood, in sight of the old field, and then, if
+there is no one on the look-out, we will open our first trench; you know
+what that means, Andy?"</p>
+
+<p>"It means, I s'pose, that we'll go right smack at them," replied Andrew.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty exactly," said the sergeant. "But listen to me. Just at the edge
+of the woods you will have to get down, and put yourself behind a tree.
+I'll ride forward, as if I had a whole troop at my heels, and if I
+catch them, as I expect, they will have a little fire kindled, and, as
+likely as not, they'll be cooking some of your mother's fowls."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I understand," said the boy eagerly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't," replied Horse Shoe, "but you will when you hear what I
+am going to say. If I get at them onawares, they'll be mighty apt to
+think they are surrounded, and will bellow, like fine fellows, for
+quarter. And, thereupon, Andy, I'll cry out 'stand fast,' as if I was
+speaking to my own men, and when you hear that, you must come up full
+tilt, because it will be a signal to you that the enemy has surrendered.
+Then it will be your business to run into the house and bring out the
+muskets, as quick as a rat runs through a kitchen: and when you have
+done that, why, all's done. But if you should hear any popping of
+fire-arms&mdash;that is, more than one shot, which I may chance to let
+off&mdash;do you take that for a bad sign, and get away as fast as you can
+heel it. You comprehend."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes," replied the lad, "and I'll do what you want, and more too,
+may be, Mr. Robinson."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Captain</i> Robinson,&mdash;remember, Andy, you must call me captain, in the
+hearing of these Scotsmen."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll not forget that neither," answered Andrew.</p>
+
+<p>By the time that these instructions were fully impressed upon the boy,
+our adventurous forlorn hope, as it may fitly be called, had arrived at
+the place which Horse Shoe Robinson had designated for the commencement
+of active operations. They had a clear view of the old field, and it
+afforded them a strong assurance that the enemy was exactly where they
+wished him to be, when they discovered smoke arising from the chimney of
+the hovel. Andrew was soon posted behind a tree, and Robinson only
+tarried a moment to make the boy repeat the signals agreed on, in order
+to ascertain that he had them correctly in his memory. Being satisfied
+from this experiment that the intelligence of his young companion might
+be depended upon, he galloped across the intervening space, and, in a
+few seconds, abruptly reined up his steed, in the very doorway of the
+hut. The party within was gathered around a fire at the further end,
+and, in the corner near the door, were four muskets thrown together
+against the wall. To spring from his saddle and thrust himself one pace
+inside of the door, was a movement which the sergeant executed in an
+instant, shouting at the same time&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Halt! File off right and left to both sides of the house, and wait
+orders. I demand the surrender of all here," he said, as he planted
+himself between the party and their weapons. "I will shoot down the
+first man who budges a foot."</p>
+
+<p>"Leap to your arms," cried the young officer who commanded the little
+party inside of the house. "Why do you stand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to do you or your men any harm, young man," said Robinson,
+as he brought his rifle to a level, "but, by my father's son, I will not
+leave one of you to be put upon a muster-roll if you raise a hand at
+this moment."</p>
+
+<p>Both parties now stood, for a brief space, eyeing each other in a
+fearful suspense, during which there was an expression of doubt and
+irresolution visible on the countenances of the soldiers, as they
+surveyed the broad proportions, and met the stern glance of the
+sergeant, whilst the delay, also, began to raise an apprehension in the
+mind of Robinson that his stratagem would be discovered.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I let loose upon them, captain?" said Andrew Ramsay, now
+appearing, most unexpectedly to Robinson, at the door of the hut. "Come
+on, boys!" he shouted, as he turned his face towards the field.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep them outside of the door&mdash;stand fast," cried the doughty sergeant,
+with admirable promptitude, in the new and sudden posture of his affairs
+caused by this opportune appearance of the boy. "Sir, you see that it's
+not worth while fighting five to one; and I should be sorry to be the
+death of any of your brave fellows; so, take my advice, and surrender to
+the Continental Congress and this scrap of its army which I command."</p>
+
+<p>During this appeal the sergeant was ably seconded by the lad outside,
+who was calling out first on one name, and then on another, as if in the
+presence of a troop. The device succeeded, and the officer within,
+believing the forbearance of Robinson to be real, at length said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Lower your rifle, sir. In the presence of a superior force, taken by
+surprise, and without arms, it is my duty to save bloodshed. With the
+promise of fair usage, and the rights of prisoners of war, I surrender
+this little foraging party under my command."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll make the terms agreeable," replied the sergeant. "Never doubt me,
+sir. Right hand file, advance, and receive the arms of the prisoners!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm here, captain," said Andrew, in a conceited tone, as if it were a
+mere occasion of merriment; and the lad quickly entered the house and
+secured the weapons, retreating with them some paces from the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sir," said Horse Shoe to the Ensign, "your sword, and whatever
+else you mought have about you of the ammunitions of war!"</p>
+
+<p>The officer delivered up his sword and a pair of pocket pistols.</p>
+
+<p>As Horse Shoe received these tokens of victory, he asked, with a lambent
+smile, and what he intended to be an elegant and condescending
+composure, "Your name, sir, if I mought take the freedom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ensign St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's seventy-first regiment of light
+infantry."</p>
+
+<p>"Ensign, your sarvent," added Horse Shoe, still preserving this unusual
+exhibition of politeness. "You have defended your post like an old
+sodger, although you ha'n't much beard on your chin; but, seeing you
+have given up, you shall be treated like a man who has done his duty.
+You will walk out, now, and form yourselves in line at the door. I'll
+engage my men shall do you no harm; they are of a marciful breed."</p>
+
+<p>When the little squad of prisoners submitted to this command, and came
+to the door, they were stricken with equal astonishment and
+mortification to find, in place of the detachment of cavalry which they
+expected to see, nothing but a man, a boy, and a horse. Their first
+emotions were expressed in curses, which were even succeeded by laughter
+from one or two of the number. There seemed to be a disposition on the
+part of some to resist the authority that now controlled them; and
+sundry glances were exchanged, which indicated a purpose to turn upon
+their captors. The sergeant no sooner perceived this, than he halted,
+raised his rifle to his breast, and, at the same instant, gave Andrew
+Ramsay an order to retire a few paces, and to fire one of the captured
+pieces at the first man who opened his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"By my hand," he said, "if I find any trouble in taking you, all five,
+safe away from this here house, I will thin your numbers with your own
+muskets! And that's as good as if I had sworn to it."</p>
+
+<p>"You have my word, sir," said the Ensign. "Lead on."</p>
+
+<p>"By your leave, my pretty gentleman, you will lead, and I'll follow,"
+replied Horse Shoe. "It may be a new piece of drill to you; but the
+custom is to give the prisoners the post of honor."</p>
+
+<p>"As you please, sir," answered the Ensign. "Where do you take us to?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will march back by the road you came," said the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>Finding the conqueror determined to execute summary martial law upon the
+first who should mutiny, the prisoners submitted, and marched in double
+file from the hut back towards Ramsay's&mdash;Horse Shoe, with Captain
+Peter's bridle dangling over his arm, and his gallant young auxiliary
+Andrew, laden with double the burden of Robinson Crusoe (having all the
+fire-arms packed upon his shoulders), bringing up the rear. In this
+order victors and vanquished returned to David Ramsay's.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have brought you your ducks and chickens back, mistress," said
+the sergeant, as he halted the prisoners at the door; "and, what's more,
+I have brought home a young sodger that's worth his weight in gold."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven bless my child! my brave boy!" cried the mother, seizing the lad
+in her arms, and unheeding anything else in the present perturbation of
+her feelings. "I feared ill would come of it; but Heaven has preserved
+him. Did he behave handsomely, Mr. Robinson? But I am sure he did."</p>
+
+<p>"A little more venturesome, ma'am, than I wanted him to be," replied
+Horse Shoe; "but he did excellent service. These are his prisoners,
+Mistress Ramsay; I should never have got them if it hadn't been for
+Andy. In these drumming and fifing times the babies suck in quarrel with
+their mother's milk. Show me another boy in America that's made more
+prisoners than there was men to fight them with, that's all!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SHOWING HOW A GOOD SOLDIER WILL TURN THE ACCIDENTS OF WAR TO
+THE BEST ACCOUNT. ENSIGN ST. JERMYN IN A DISAGREEABLE DILEMMA.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Robinson having thus succeeded in his enterprise, now found himself in
+circumstances of peculiar perplexity in regard to the disposal of his
+prisoners. Here he was, in the neighborhood of the British posts&mdash;in a
+district of country of which the enemy might be said to have, at this
+moment, complete possession&mdash;(for Horse Shoe himself was almost the only
+belligerent in the field against them)&mdash;and, more than that, he was but
+a few miles' distant from a camp whose scouts had chased him almost to
+his present place of refuge. It was scarcely probable, therefore, that
+he could hope to retain his captives long under his control, or prevent
+the enemy from receiving intelligence of the capture. He was, however,
+notwithstanding these embarrassments, as usual, cheerful, confident, and
+self-possessed. He had no wish or motive to detain the private soldiers
+as prisoners of war, and would at once have dismissed them, if he could
+have assured himself that they would not make the earliest use of their
+liberty to convey information of their misadventure to the first corps
+of loyalists they should meet, and thus get up a hot pursuit of him
+through the whole district. But he had cogent and most important reasons
+for holding the ensign, St. Jermyn, in close custody. It occurred to
+him, that this officer might be used to control the procedure that
+should be adopted by those who meditated injury to Arthur Butler; and he
+therefore, at once formed the resolution of communicating with the
+nearest British authorities, in order to assure them that he would
+retaliate upon the Ensign any pain that might be inflicted upon his late
+comrade. His plan was speedily formed&mdash;it was to keep his prisoners
+until night-fall, move off under cover of the darkness to some remote
+and concealed spot with St. Jermyn, and release the others, on their
+parole or pledge not to take up arms until regularly exchanged.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst the sergeant was deliberating over these arrangements, the
+prisoners were allowed to shelter themselves from the rain under a shed
+near the door of the dwelling, where Andrew, with all the pride and
+importance of his new station, marched to and fro, before them, like a
+trained sentinel. There was a small log building in the yard of Ramsay's
+mansion, which had been recently erected as a store-house, and which
+being well secured at the door by a padlock, Robinson determined to
+convert for the nonce into a prison. It contained but one room, not
+above twelve feet square, with an earthen floor, and received no light
+except such as was admitted under the door, and through a few crannies
+about the roof. Into this narrow apartment the soldiers were now
+marched; a bundle of straw was thrown upon the floor; sundry flitches of
+bacon, that hung upon the walls, were removed; and a few comforts, in
+the way of food and drink, were supplied to render the accommodation as
+tolerable to the inmates as was compatible with their safe custody. This
+being done, our friend Andrew was posted in the passage-way of the
+dwelling, in full view of the door of the store-house, which was
+carefully locked, with a musket in his hand, and with orders to make a
+circuit every five minutes round the little building, to guard against
+any attempts at escape by under-mining the foundation.</p>
+
+<p>As noon approached the weather began to clear up, and with the first
+breaking forth of the sun came David Ramsay, the proprietor of the farm
+which was the scene of the present operations. His recognition of Horse
+Shoe Robinson was accompanied by a hearty greeting, and with an
+expression of wonder that he should have ventured, in hostile guise,
+through a country so beset as this was by the forces of the enemy; but
+when he heard the narrative of the exploit of the morning, and saw the
+trophies of its success in the weapons piled against the wall, and, more
+especially, when he received from the lips of his wife a circumstantial
+account of the part which had been performed in this adventure by his
+son Andrew, his delight seemed almost to be absorbed by his astonishment
+and incredulity. The proofs, however, were all around him; and after
+assuring himself, by an actual inspection of the prisoners through one
+of the chinks of the store-house, he came into his own parlour, sat
+down, and laughed out-right.</p>
+
+<p>Ramsay was a staunch friend of the independence of his country; and
+although he had not been up in arms in the cause, he gave it all the aid
+he could by the free expression of opinion, and by a resolute refusal to
+comply with the requisitions of the royalists. His eldest son had joined
+Sumpter, and had already been active in the field; and he himself
+looked, with an almost certain expectation, to see visited upon himself
+that proscription under which thousands were already suffering, and
+which he had only escaped as yet by the temporizing delays of his
+opponents, or by their neglect, arising out of the incessant hurry and
+pressure of their military operations in the organization of the new
+dominion which the royal forces had but lately acquired. He was a man of
+sturdy frame&mdash;now only in the prime of life&mdash;brave, thoughtful, and
+intelligent, and firmly resolved to stand by his principles through
+whatever adverse chances. The present aspect of affairs was, to his
+mind, almost decisive of his fate: the capture of these prisoners, made
+from information derived from his own family, and in which his own son
+had been a principal agent; their confinement, too, in his own house,
+were facts of so unequivocal a character as inevitably to draw upon him
+the prompt ire of the Tories, and compel him to assume the attitude and
+abide by the issues of a partisan. As he had faith in the justice of his
+quarrel, and a strong devotion to the principles upon which it was
+sustained, he did not hesitate in the crisis before him, but heroically
+determined to meet the worst that might befal. He, therefore, in the
+present emergency, became a useful and efficient ally to Robinson, who
+opened to him the full history of Butler, and the course of measures he
+was about to pursue for the relief of that unfortunate officer.</p>
+
+<p>We must now leave the sergeant holding watch and ward over his
+vanquished foes, and shift our scene to Musgrove's Mill. The
+family of Allen Musgrove were in a state of great disquietude. Horse
+Shoe Robinson had disappeared before daylight; and when the miller and
+his nephew left their beds, a little after the dawn, the only
+intelligence they had of the departure of their guest was inferred from
+finding the stable door open and the sergeant's horse absent. This fact
+was explained when Mary met them at breakfast. Horse Shoe had set out
+for Ramsay's to learn some tidings of John, and to enlist him in an
+effort to liberate Butler. He had departed under cover of darkness to
+avoid molestation from Innis's scouts, and she, Mary Musgrove, had
+placed the key of the stable, the night before, in a place where Horse
+Shoe might find it. Such was the extent of the maiden's information. The
+day passed wearily upon her hand: she was anxious to hear something of
+Butler&mdash;something of Horse Shoe&mdash;and something, we suppose, of John
+Ramsay. Frequently during the morning she and Christopher Shaw held
+secret conferences: they spoke in whispers: suspense, care, and doubt
+were pictured upon her face; and as the rain pattered against the
+windows she oftentimes stood before them, and looked out upon the
+distant road, and across the wide fields, and then upwards to the
+clouded sky. The sun at length appeared, and his rays seemed to shoot a
+glimpse of joy into the breast of the maiden, as she walked forth to
+note the drying of the roads, and to see the clear blue, which, in that
+climate, outvies the mellow and rich tints of a Tuscan heaven.</p>
+
+<p>The day waxed, and the birds sang, and nature was gay, but the maiden
+was restless and unquiet: the day waned, and the sun rode downwards on
+the western slope in gorgeous beauty; but Mary was ill at ease, and
+thought little of the grand and glorious firmament. Her communings with
+Christopher Shaw, meantime, became more eager: she and her cousin were
+seen to wander towards the mill; then Christopher left her, and,
+presently, he might be discovered leading two horses, one bearing a
+side-saddle, down to the margin of the stream. There was a short visit
+to the house by the young man&mdash;a word whispered in the ear of the
+mother&mdash;a shake of her head, an expression of doubt, a final nod of
+assent,&mdash;and, in the next moment, Mary and Christopher were seen
+trotting off on horseback, on the road that led towards Ramsay's.</p>
+
+<p>When they had ridden some two or three miles, and had entered upon the
+high-road between Ninety-Six and Blackstock's&mdash;somewhere near to that
+piece of haunted ground, where, on the morning of this very day, a
+goblin had struck down James Curry from his steed&mdash;they descried a
+military party of horse and foot slowly advancing from the direction to
+which they were travelling. In a few moments they met the first platoon
+of the cavalry, headed by a trumpeter and the unsightly captain Hugh
+Habershaw. They were detained at the head of this column, whilst some
+questions were asked respecting the object of their journey, the troops
+in their neighborhood, and other matters connected with the affairs of
+the times. Christopher's answers were prompt and satisfactory: he was
+only riding with his kinswoman on a visit to a neighbor; Innis's camp
+was not above two miles and a half away, and the country in general was
+quiet, as far as he had the means of knowing. The travellers were now
+suffered to pass on. In succession, they left behind them each platoon
+of threes, and then encountered the small column of march of the
+infantry. Mary grew pale as her eyes fell upon the form of Arthur
+Butler, posted in the centre of a guard. Her feeling lest he might not
+recognise her features, and guess something of her errand, almost
+overpowered her. She reined up her horse, as if to gratify an idle
+curiosity to see the soldiers passing, and halted in a position which
+compelled the ranks to file off, in order to obtain a free passage round
+her. Every look seemed to be turned upon her as the escort marched near
+her horse's head, and it was impossible to make the slightest sign to
+Butler without being observed. She saw him, however, lift his eyes to
+hers, and she distinctly perceived the flash of surprise with which it
+was kindled as he became aware of her features. A faint and transient
+smile, which had in it nothing but pain, was the only return she dared
+to make. An order from the van quickened the march; and the detachment
+moved rapidly by. As Mary still occupied the ground on which she had
+halted, and was gazing after the retreating corps, she saw Butler turn
+his face back towards her; she seized the moment to nod to him and to
+make a quick sign with her hand, which she intended should indicate the
+fact that she was now engaged in his service. She thought she perceived
+a response in a slight motion of Butler's head, and now resumed her
+journey, greatly excited by the satisfaction of having, in this
+accidental encounter, obtained even this brief insight into the
+condition of the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was set, when Mary with her convoy, Christopher Shaw, arrived at
+Ramsay's. Always an acceptable guest at this house, she was now more
+than ever welcome. There was business to be done in which she could
+discharge a most important part, and the service of Christopher Shaw in
+reinforcing the garrison was of the greatest moment. When the
+intelligence regarding the movement of Butler to Innis's camp was
+communicated to the sergeant, it suggested a new device to his mind,
+which he determined instantly to adopt. Butler was at this moment, he
+concluded, in the hands of those who had engaged the ruffians to set
+upon him at Grindall's ford, and it was not improbable that he would be
+summarily dealt with: there was no time, therefore, to be lost. The
+sergeant's plan, in this new juncture, was, to compel the young ensign
+to address a letter to the British commandant, to inform that officer of
+his present imprisonment, and to add to this information the
+determination of his captors to put him to death, in the event of any
+outrage being inflicted upon Butler. This scheme was communicated to
+Ramsay, Shaw, and Mary. The letter was to be immediately written; Mary
+was to return with it to the mill, and was to contrive to have it
+secretly delivered, in the morning, at Innis's head-quarters; and David
+Ramsay himself was to escort the maiden back to her father's house,
+whilst Shaw was to attend the sergeant and assist him to transport the
+young ensign to some fit place of concealment. The private soldiers were
+to remain prisoners, under the guard of Andrew, until his father's
+return, when they were to be released on parole, as prisoners of war.</p>
+
+<p>The plan being thus matured, Robinson went forthwith to the
+prison-house, and directed Ensign St. Jermyn to follow him into the
+dwelling. When the young officer arrived in the family parlor, he was
+ordered to take a chair near a table, upon which was placed a light,
+some paper, pen, and ink.</p>
+
+<p>"Young man," said Robinson, "take up that pen and write as I bid you."</p>
+
+<p>"To what end am I to write? I must know the purpose you design to
+answer, before I can put my hand to paper."</p>
+
+<p>"To the end," replied Horse Shoe firmly, and with unwonted gravity, "of
+the settlement of your worldly affairs, if the consarns of to-morrow
+should bring ill luck to a friend of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you, sir. If my life is threatened to accomplish an
+unrighteous purpose, it is my duty to tell you at once, that that life
+belongs to my king; and if his interests are to suffer by any forced act
+of mine, I am willing to resign it at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Never was purpose more righteous, sir, in the view of God and man, than
+ours," said David Ramsay.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a friend," added Horse Shoe, greatly excited as he spoke, "who
+has been foully dealt by. Some of your enlisted gangs have laid an
+ambuscade to trap him: villany has been used, by them that ought to be
+ashamed to see it thriving under their colors, to catch a gentleman who
+was only doing the common duties of a good sodger; and by mean
+bush-fighting, not by fair fields and honest blows&mdash;they have seized him
+and carried him to the camp of that blood-sucking Tory, Colonel Innis. I
+doubt more harm is meant him than falls to the share of a common
+prisoner of war."</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing of the person, nor of the circumstances you speak
+about," said the ensign.</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better for you," replied the sergeant. "If your people are
+brave sodgers or honest men, you will not have much occasion to be
+afeard for yourself; but, by my right hand! if so much as one hair of
+Major Arthur Butler's head be hurt by Colonel Innis, or by any other man
+among your pillaging and brandishing bullies, I myself will drive a
+bullet through from one of your ears to the other. This game of war is a
+stiff game, young man, but we will play it out."</p>
+
+<p>"Major Arthur Butler!" exclaimed the officer, with astonishment, "is he
+taken?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! you've hearn of him, and know something, mayhap, of them that were
+on the look-out for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot write," said the officer sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"No words, sir," interrupted Horse Shoe, "but obey my orders; write what
+I tell you, or take your choice. I will bind you hand and foot to a tree
+on yonder mountain, to starve till you write that letter; or to feed the
+wild vermin with your body, if you refuse."</p>
+
+<p>The ensign looked in Robinson's face, where a frown of stern resolution
+brooded upon his brow, and a kindling tempest of anger showed that this
+was not a moment to hazard the trial of his clemency.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you have the purport of my letter?" asked the officer, in a
+subdued voice.</p>
+
+<p>"That you have got into the hands of the Whigs," replied the sergeant;
+"and that if so be any mischief should fall upon Major Butler, by the
+contrivings of your friends, you die the first minute that we hear of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had no hand in the taking of Major Butler," said the young St.
+Jermyn.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad of it," answered Robinson, "for your sake. You will die with
+a better conscience. If you had a hand in it, young man, I wouldn't ask
+you to write a line to any breathing man: your brains would spatter that
+door-post. Take up the pen and write, or stand by the consequences."</p>
+
+<p>The officer took up the pen, then, hesitating a moment, flung it down,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"I will not write; do with me as you choose."</p>
+
+<p>"The young man drives me to it, against my own nature," said Robinson,
+speaking under strong excitement. "If he will not pen that letter, then,
+David Ramsay, you will write to Innis, in my name, and say Galbraith
+Robinson has got the Ensign where no Tory foot will ever follow him, and
+holds him to answer the first mischief that is done to Arthur Butler.
+But, I swear to this sulky boy, that if that letter goes to Innis for
+want of a better, as I am a man and a sodger, he will never taste food
+or water till I hear that Major Butler is free. He shall starve in the
+mountain."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, God! oh, God!" ejaculated the young soldier, in bitterness of
+heart; and covering his face with his hands, he threw his head upon the
+table, where he wept tears of agony. At length, looking in the
+countenance of Robinson, he said: "I am young, sir&mdash;not above twenty
+years. I have a mother and sisters in England."</p>
+
+<p>"We have no time to spare," interrupted Robinson, "much less to talk
+about kinsfolk. Major Butler has them that love his life better than
+e'er an Englishwoman loves her son. If they are brought to grief by this
+onnatural rascality, it matters nothing to me if every daughter and
+sister in England pines away of heart-sickness, for the loss of them
+that they love best. Take my advice, my lack-beard," added Robinson,
+patting him on the shoulder, "and write the letter. You have the
+chances of war in your favor, and may save your neck."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do your bidding, sir," said the ensign, after a pause. "Under
+the compulsion of force, I agree to write," and he once more took up the
+pen.</p>
+
+<p>"You speak now like a reasonable gentleman," said Horse Shoe. "I pity
+you, friend, and will preserve you against harm, so far as it can be
+done in the circumstances of the case."</p>
+
+<p>The ensign then wrote a few lines, in which he communicated to Colonel
+Innis, or to whatever officer his letter might be delivered, the straits
+in which he found himself, and the resolution of his captors to hold his
+life forfeit upon the event of any rigors, beyond those of an ordinary
+prisoner of war, imposed upon Major Butler. When he had finished, he
+gave the paper to Robinson.</p>
+
+<p>"Read it aloud, Mr. Ramsay," said Horse Shoe, delivering the scrawl to
+his friend.</p>
+
+<p>Ramsay read what was written.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be wrote over again," said Horse Shoe, after he had heard the
+contents. "First, it must make no mention of his being only a few miles
+off; that must be left out. Secondly, my name needn't be told; though if
+the runagates knowed he was in my hands, they wouldn't think his chance
+any better on that account. Let him say that the Whigs have got
+him&mdash;that's enough. And, lastly, he must write his own name in full at
+the bottom. And, look you, young man, don't be scrawling out the lines
+in such a way that your own hand-write moughtn't be known. That must
+speak for itself, because upon this letter depends your life. You
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give it me," said the ensign; "I will write it as you desire."</p>
+
+<p>And again the unfortunate officer applied himself to the task that was
+imposed upon him; and in a short time produced a letter, which, being
+subjected to the criticism of the bystanders, was pronounced
+satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as this was done, St. Jermyn was conducted into another
+apartment, and there confided to the guardianship of Christopher Shaw.
+Horse Shoe now took a light and the writing materials from the table,
+and repaired with David Ramsay&mdash;both of them well armed&mdash;to the
+store-house, where the other prisoners were confined. After they had
+entered and closed the door, posting Andrew with his musket on the
+outside, Horse Shoe addressed the men in a gay and cheerful tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Come, my lads, as you are good, honest fellows, that can have no great
+love for these little country cabins, judging by your bad luck and
+oncomfortable circumstances in that one where I found you this morning,
+I have come to set you free. By the laws of war, you have the right, if
+I choose to take it, to give me your parole. So now, if you have a mind
+to promise me, on the honor of sodgers, not to sarve again until you are
+fairly exchanged, you shall all leave this before daybreak. What do you
+say to the terms?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are all agreed," replied the men, with one accord.</p>
+
+<p>"Then write out something to that effect," said the sergeant to Ramsay.
+"You that can't scratch like scholards, stick your marks to the
+paper&mdash;d'ye hear?"</p>
+
+<p>The parole was written out by Ramsay, and duly signed or marked by each
+of the four men. This being done, the sergeant informed them that,
+exactly at three in the morning, the door would be opened, and they
+would be at liberty to go where they pleased, provided they pledged
+themselves to visit no post of the enemy within twenty miles, nor
+communicate any particulars relating to their capture or detention to
+any British or Tory officer or soldier, within seven days. This pledge
+was cheerfully given, and after a few words of jocular good-nature were
+exchanged on both sides, Horse Shoe and his companion retired.</p>
+
+<p>David Ramsay now ordered out his own and Mary Musgrove's horses, with an
+intention to set out immediately for the mill.</p>
+
+<p>"Does Major Butler know that you are in his neighborhood?" inquired
+Ramsay of the sergeant, before the horses were brought to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, bless you, yes," replied Horse Shoe. "I left word for him yesterday
+at Blackstock's, by giving the babblers there something to talk about,
+which I knew he would hear." And the sergeant went on to relate the
+particulars of his stop at that post: "And I sent him a message,"
+continued he, "this morning, by James Curry, in the same sort of
+fashion. A little before daylight, I heard the devil singing one of his
+staves upon the road back here, so loud that he seemed to be frightened
+by ghosts or sperits; so I rode up fast behind him, and cuffed him out
+of his saddle, and then away I went like a leather-winged bat. I knowed
+the curmudgeon's voice, and I expect he knowed my hand, for he has felt
+it before. I'll be bound, he made a good story out of it; and, as such
+things fly, I make no doubt it wasn't long reaching the ear of the
+major, who would naturally think it was me, whether James told my name
+or not, because he knows my way. It was as good as writing a letter to
+the major, to signify that I was lurking about, close at hand. I never
+went to school, Mr. Ramsay, so I write my letters by making my mark. I
+can make a blow go further than a word upon occasion, and that's an
+old-fashioned way of telling your thoughts, that was found out before
+pen and ink."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Horse Shoe, you are a man after your own sort," replied Ramsay,
+laughing. "Come, Mary, take the letter; our horses are at the door."</p>
+
+<p>"Good bye t'ye, David," said Horse Shoe, shaking Ramsay's hand; "it may
+be some days before we see each other again. Kit and me will be off with
+this young ensign before you get back. Don't forget the prisoners at
+three o'clock. And, a word, David&mdash;where had we best take this young
+sparrow, the ensign, to keep him out of the way of these fellows that
+are scouring the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to Christopher Shaw," replied Ramsay; "he knows every nook
+in the country. So, now, friend Robinson, good night, and luck go with
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a clear starlit night, and every tree and pool sent forth a
+thousand notes from the busy insects and reptiles that animate the
+summer hours of darkness, when David Ramsay set out with Mary Musgrove
+for her father's house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>NEW DIFFICULTIES OPEN UPON BUTLER.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>With the last notes of the reveillée everything was stirring in Innis's
+camp. It was a beautiful, fresh morning; a cool breeze swept across the
+plain, and each spray and every blade of grass sparkled with the dew;
+whilst above, an unclouded firmament gave promise of a rich and
+brilliant mid-summer's day. The surrounding forest was alive with the
+twittering of birds; and the neighing of horses showed that this portion
+of the animal creation partook of the hilarity of the season. From every
+little shed or woodland lair, crept forth parties of soldiers, who
+betook themselves to their several posts to answer at the rollcall; and
+by the time the sun had risen, officers, on horseback and on foot, were
+seen moving hurriedly across the open plain, to join the groups of
+infantry and cavalry, which were now forming in various quarters for the
+purposes of the morning drill. Companies were seen in motion, passing
+through the rapid evolutions of the march, the retreat, and the many
+exercises of service. Drums were beating, and fifes were piercing the
+air with their high notes, and, ever and anon, the trumpet brayed from
+the further extremities of the field. Picquet-guards were seen mustering
+on the edge of the camp&mdash;wearied and night-worn: salutes were exchanged
+by the small detachments on service; and, here and there, sentinels
+might be descried, stationed at the several outlets of the plain, and
+presenting their arms as an officer passed their lines.</p>
+
+<p>The troops that occupied this space were mostly of the irregular kind.
+Some were distinguished by ill-fitted and homely uniforms; others were
+clad in the common dress of the country, distinguished as soldiers only
+by their arms and accoutrements; but amongst them was also a
+considerable party of British regulars, clad in the national livery of
+scarlet. Amongst the officers, who were in command of the subordinate
+departments of this mixed and parti-colored little army, were several
+who, from their costume, might be recognised as belonging to the
+regiments that had come from the other side of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Innis himself was seen upon the parade, directing the movements
+of divisions that, under their proper officers, were practising the
+customary lessons of discipline. He was a tall, thin man, of an
+emaciated complexion, with a countenance of thoughtful severity. A keen
+black eye seemed almost to burn within its orb, and to give an
+expression of petulant and peevish excitability, like the querulousness
+of a sick man. A rather awkward and ungainly person, arrayed in a
+scarlet uniform that did but little credit to the tailor-craft employed
+in its fabrication, conveyed to the spectator the idea of a man unused
+to the pride of appearance that belongs to a soldier by profession; and
+would have suggested the conclusion, which the fact itself sustained,
+that the individual before him had but recently left the walks of civil
+life to assume a military office. His demeanour, however, showed him to
+be a zealous if not a skilful officer. He gave close attention to the
+duties of his command, and busied himself with scrupulous exactitude in
+enforcing the observances necessary to a rigorous system of tactics.</p>
+
+<p>This officer, as we have before hinted, had been an active participator
+in the proceedings of the new court of sequestrations at Charleston; and
+had rendered himself conspicuous by the fierce and unsparing industry
+with which he had brought to the judgment of that tribunal, the imputed
+delinquencies of some of the most opulent and patriotic citizens of the
+province.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the cases upon which he had been called into consultation was
+that of Arthur Butler, whose possessions being ample, and whose
+position, as a rebellious belligerent, being one of "flagrant delict,"
+there was but little repugnance, on the part of the judges and their
+adviser, to subject him to the severest law of confiscation. The
+proceedings, however, had been delayed, not from any tenderness to the
+proprietor, but, as it was whispered in the scandal of the day, on
+account of certain dissensions, amongst a few prominent servants of the
+British crown, as to which of them the privilege of a cheap purchase
+should be extended. The matter was still in suspense, with a view (as
+that busybody, common rumor, alleged) to reward a particular favorite of
+the higher powers with the rich guerdon of these good lands, in
+compensation for private and valuable secret services, rendered in a
+matter of great delicacy and hazard&mdash;no less a service than that of
+seducing into the arena of politics and intrigue, an opulent and
+authoritative gentleman of Virginia, Mr. Philip Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the odious nature of the duty which Colonel Innis had
+assumed to perform, he became peculiarly hateful to the Whigs; and this
+sentiment was in no degree abated when, relinquishing his occupation as
+a counsellor to the court at Charleston, he accepted a commission to
+command a partisan corps of royalists in the upper country. He was, at
+the juncture in which I have exhibited him to my reader, new in his
+command, and had not yet "fleshed his maiden sword:" the day, however,
+was near at hand when his prowess was to be put to the proof.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the person into whose hands Arthur Butler had now fallen.</p>
+
+<p>After the morning exercises of the camp were finished, and the men were
+dismissed to prepare their first repast, the principal officers returned
+to the colonel's head-quarters in the farm-house, where, it will be
+remembered, Butler had been delivered by the escort that had conducted
+him from Blackstock's. The prisoner had slept soundly during the whole
+night; and now, as the breakfast hour drew nigh, he had scarcely awaked
+and put on his clothes, before he heard an inquiry, made by some one
+below, of the orderly on duty, whether the Whig officer was yet in a
+condition to be visited; and, in the next moment, the noise of
+footsteps, ascending the stair towards his chamber, prepared him to
+expect the entrance of the person who had asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>A British officer, in full uniform, of a graceful and easy carriage,
+neat figure, and of a countenance that bespoke an intelligent and
+cultivated mind, made his appearance at the door. He was apparently of
+five or six and thirty years of age; and whilst he paused a moment, as
+with a purpose to apologize for the seeming intrusion, Butler was struck
+with the air of refined breeding of the individual before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler, I understand, of the Continental army?" said the
+stranger. "The unpleasant nature of the circumstances in which you are
+placed, I hope will excuse the trespass I have committed upon your
+privacy. Captain St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's army, and lately an
+aide-de-camp of Lord Rawdon."</p>
+
+<p>Butler bowed coldly, as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"To meet a gentleman, as your rank and name both import, is a privilege
+that has not been allowed me of late. Without knowing wherefore, I have
+been waylaid and outraged by bravoes and ruffians. You, perhaps, sir,
+may be able to afford me some insight into the causes of this
+maltreatment."</p>
+
+<p>"Even if it were proper for me to hold discourse with you on such a
+subject, I could only speak from common report," replied the officer. "I
+know nothing of your seizure, except that, by the common chances of war,
+you have fallen into the hands of the ruling authorities of the
+province, and you will, doubtless, as a soldier, appreciate my motives
+for declining any reference to the circumstances in which you have been
+found. My visit is stimulated by other considerations, amongst which is
+foremost a desire to mitigate the peculiarly uncomfortable captivity to
+which I am sorry to learn you have been subjected."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," replied Butler, "for the intention with which your good
+offices are proffered; but you can render me no service that I should
+value so much as that of informing me why I have been brought hither, at
+whose suggestion, and for what purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be plain with you, Major Butler. Your situation demands
+sympathy, however inexorably the present posture of our affairs may
+require the decrees of stern justice, in respect to yourself, to be
+executed. I feel for you, and would gladly aid you to any extent which
+my duty might allow, in averting the possible calamity that may hang
+over you. You are known as a gentleman of consideration and influence in
+the colonies. I may further add, as a brave and venturesome soldier. You
+are believed to have, more boldly than wisely, enterprised the
+accomplishment of certain schemes against the safety of his majesty's
+acknowledged government in this province; besides having committed other
+acts in violation of a faith plighted for you by those who had full
+authority to bind you, thus bringing yourself within the penalties
+appropriate to the violation of a military parole, if not within those
+of treason itself."</p>
+
+<p>"He lies in his throat," cried Butler, "who charges me with forfeiture
+of plighted word or honor, in any action of my life. That I have arrayed
+myself against what you are pleased to term his majesty's acknowledged
+government in this province, I am proud to confess, here in the midst of
+your bands, and will confess it again at your judgment seat; but if
+aught be said against me that shall be intended to attaint my honor as a
+gentleman, I will, in the same presence and before God, throw the lie in
+the teeth of my accuser. Aye, and make good my word, now or hereafter,
+wheresoever it may be allowed me to meet the slanderer."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not condemn your warmth," said St. Jermyn, calmly, "in a matter
+that so deeply stirs your self-esteem; and only desire now to second it
+in all things wherein an honorable enemy may claim the support of those
+who themselves value a good name. The authorities of this post have
+considerately resolved to give you the benefit of a court of inquiry.
+And I hope you will take it as it was meant, in all kindness to you,
+that I have come, before the communication of an official order, to
+apprise you that charges will be duly exhibited against you, and a trial
+be instantly had. If you will accept of my services, feeble and
+inadequate as they may be, I would gladly tender them to afford you such
+facilities as the pressure of the present emergency may allow."</p>
+
+<p>"To be tried! when, and for what? If the charge is that I carry on open
+war against those who are in the habit of calling me and my compatriots
+rebels&mdash;I am ready to confess the charge. What need of court or trial?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are graver and more serious offences than that imputed to you,"
+said St. Jermyn.</p>
+
+<p>"When am I to be informed of them, and to what do they tend?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will hear them this morning; when, I am sorry to add, the nature of
+our military operations also enforces the necessity of your trial."</p>
+
+<p>"You can be of little service, if that be true," returned Butler,
+thoughtfully. "My cause can only be defended by my country, long after I
+am made the victim of this unrighteous procedure."</p>
+
+<p>"There is one alternative," said St. Jermyn, with some hesitation in his
+manner, "which a mature deliberation upon your relations as a
+subject,&mdash;pardon me, for I do not deem this ill-timed rebellion to have
+obliterated them&mdash;may present to your mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak it," said Butler, vehemently; "speak out the base thought that is
+rising to your lip, if you dare. Prisoner as I am, I will avenge the
+insult on the spot with the certainty of loss of life. The alternative
+you suggest, is to dishonor me and all who are dear to me by the foul
+opprobrium of treason to my country. You would have me, I suppose,
+renounce the cause to which I have dedicated my life, and take shelter
+with the recreants that have crowded under the banner of St. George?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold! remember, sir, that you are a prisoner," said St. Jermyn, with
+great coolness; and then after a pause, he added with a sigh: "I will
+not wound, by further converse, the exaggerated and delusive sense of
+honor which is too fatally predominant in your breast, and, as I have
+found it, in the breasts of many of your misguided countrymen. I came to
+serve you, not to excite your feelings; and I will now, even in your
+displeasure, serve you as far as the occasion may afford me means: I
+pray you, call on me without reserve. For the present, believe me, in
+pain and sorrow I take my leave."</p>
+
+<p>With these words, the officer retired.</p>
+
+<p>Butler paced to and fro through his narrow chamber for some minutes, as
+his mind revolved the extraordinary and unexpected disclosures which had
+been made to him in this short visit. A thousand conjectures rose into
+his thoughts as to the nature of the supposed charges that were to be
+brought against him. He minutely retraced all the incidents of his late
+adventures, to ascertain how it was possible to found upon them an
+accusation of violated faith, or to pervert them into an imputation of
+treason against the present doubtful and disputed authority of the
+self-styled conquerors of Carolina. If his attempt to join Clarke was
+treason, it could be no less treason in the followers of Gates to array
+themselves against the royal army; and, that every prisoner hereafter
+taken in battle was to be deemed a traitor to the contested power of
+Cornwallis, seemed to be a pretension too absurd for the most inveterate
+partisans to assert. There was nothing in this review of his actions
+that the most ingenious malice could pervert into an offence punishable
+by the laws of war, by other rigor than such as might be inflicted upon
+an ordinary prisoner taken in arms. Still, there were unhappy doubts of
+some secret treachery that rose to his reflections: the perfidy of
+Adair, manifestly the effect of a bribe; the ambuscade promoted and
+managed by James Curry; the bloody purpose of the brutal gang who
+captured him, frustrated only by the accidental fray in which Blake was
+wounded. Then the "doubtful givings out" which fell from the lips of
+some of the soldiers at Blackstock's, of his case still being one of
+life and death; the insinuation of the savage Habershaw, at the same
+place, conveyed in the threat of twisted hemp; the knowledge which his
+present keepers affected to have of his rank and consequence, of his
+past life and present aims; and, above all, his being brought for
+immediate trial, in a matter affecting his life, before the very man,
+now in the capacity of a military commander, who had heretofore been
+active in promoting the design of confiscating his estate. All these
+considerations, although unconnected with any circumstance of specific
+offence within his knowledge, led him into the most anxious and
+melancholy forebodings as to the result of this day's proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>"I am doomed to fall," he said, "under some secret stroke of vengeance,
+and my country is to have in my case another stirring appeal against the
+enormity of that iron rule that seeks to bow her head into the dust. So
+be it! The issue is in the hand of God, and my fate may turn to the
+account of the establishment of a nation's liberty. Oh, Mildred, I
+tremble to think of thee! Heaven grant, my girl, that thy fortitude may
+triumph over the martyrdom of him that loves thee better than his
+life!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A TRIAL.&mdash;A GRAVE ACCUSATION THAT STILL FURTHER CONFIRMS BUTLER IN HIS
+BELIEF OF A SECRET ENEMY.&mdash;A SUDDEN RESPITE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Butler's baggage, ever since he left Robinson's habitation on the
+Catawba, had been divided into two parcels, one of which he carried in a
+portmanteau on his own horse, and the other had been stowed away in a
+pair of black leather saddle-bags that were flung across Captain Peter.
+These latter sufficed, also, to inclose, in addition to the sergeant's
+own wardrobe, sundry stores of provender, which the careful appetite and
+soldier-like foresight of the trusty squire had, from time to time,
+accumulated for their comfort upon the road-side. After the escape of
+the sergeant, this baggage had been kept with more scrupulousness than
+might have been expected from the character of the freebooters into
+whose possession it had fallen; and now, when Butler had been
+surrendered up to the custody of Colonel Innis, it was restored to the
+prisoner without the loss of any article of value. On this morning,
+therefore, Butler had thrown aside the rustic dress in which he had
+heretofore travelled, and appeared habited as we have described him when
+first introduced to the reader.</p>
+
+<p>After a very slight meal, which had been administered with more personal
+attention and consideration for his rank and condition than he was
+prepared to expect, an officer entered his apartment and communicated an
+order to him to repair to the yard in front of the quarters. Here he
+found a sergeant's guard mustered to receive him, and he was directed to
+march with them to the place that had been selected for his trial. The
+spot pitched upon for this purpose, was at the foot of a large mulberry
+that stood on the border of the plain, at a short distance from the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>When the guard arrived with the prisoner, Colonel Innis was already
+seated at the head of a table, around which were placed several
+officers, both of the regular and militia forces. Writing materials were
+also arranged upon the board, and at the lower end, a few paces removed
+from it, stood a vacant chair. Behind this was erected a pile of drums,
+with one or two colours laid transversely across them. Sentinels were
+stationed at different points near this group, and within their lines
+were collected the principal officers of Innis's command. Somewhat more
+remote, a number of idle spectators were assembled, amongst whom might
+have been discerned Habershaw, Curry, and many of the heroes who had
+figured at Grindall's ford. Captain St. Jermyn had taken a station a
+little to the left of the presiding officer at the table, and in the
+rear of those who appeared to have the management of the approaching
+procedure, and now stood, with his hands folded, apparently an anxious
+and interested looker-on.</p>
+
+<p>There was a thoughtful and even stern expression upon every face when
+Butler appeared&mdash;and a silence that was scarce broken by the occasional
+whispers in which the several individuals present communicated with each
+other. The guard marched the prisoner around the circle, and inducted
+him into the vacant chair, where he was received by a quiet and cold
+inclination of the head from each member of the court.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments he looked around him with a scornful gaze upon the
+assemblage that were to sit in judgment upon him, and bit his lip, as
+his frame seemed to be agitated with deep emotion: at length, when every
+look was bent upon him, and no one breathed a word, he rose upon his
+feet and addressed the company.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that I am in the presence of a military court, which has
+been summoned for the purpose of inquiring into certain offences, of the
+nature of which I have not yet had the good fortune to be informed,
+except in so far as I am given to infer that they purport of treason. I
+ask if this be true."</p>
+
+<p>The presiding officer bowed his head in token of assent, and then
+presented a paper, which he described as containing the specification of
+charges.</p>
+
+<p>"As an officer of the American army, and the citizen of an independent
+republic," continued Butler, "I protest against any accountability to
+this tribunal; and, with this protest, I publish my wrongs in the face
+of these witnesses, and declare them to arise out of facts disgraceful
+to the character of an honorable nation. I have been drawn by treachery
+into an ambuscade, overpowered by numbers, insulted and abused by
+ruffians. I wish I could say that these outrages were practised at the
+mere motion of the coarse banditti themselves who assailed me; but their
+manifest subserviency to a plan, the object of which was to take my
+life, leaves me no room to doubt that they have been in the employ and
+have acted under the orders of a more responsible head"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your temper," interrupted Innis, calmly. "Something is to be
+allowed to the excited feelings of one suddenly arrested in the height
+of a bold adventure, and the court would, therefore, treat your
+expression of such feelings at this moment with lenity. You will,
+however, consult your own welfare, by giving your thoughts to the
+charges against you, and sparing yourself the labor of this useless
+vituperation. Read that paper, and speak to its contents. We will hear
+you patiently and impartially."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, it can avail me nothing to read it. Let it allege what it may, the
+trial, under present circumstances, will be but a mockery. By the
+chances of war, my life is in your hands; it is an idle ceremony and
+waste of time to call in aid the forms of justice, to do that which you
+have the power to do, without insulting Heaven by affecting to assume
+one of its attributes."</p>
+
+<p>"That we pause to inquire," replied Innis, "is a boon of mercy to you.
+The offence of rank rebellion which you and all your fellow-madmen have
+confessed, by taking up arms against your king, carries with it the last
+degree of punishment. If, waiving our right to inflict summary pain for
+this transgression, we stay to hear what you can say against other and
+even weightier charges, you should thank us for our clemency. But this
+is misspending time. Read the paper to the prisoner," he added,
+addressing one of the officers at the table.</p>
+
+<p>The paper was read aloud. It first presented a charge against the
+prisoner for violating the terms of the parole given at the capitulation
+of Charleston. The specification to support this charge was that, by the
+terms of the surrender, General Lincoln had engaged that the whole
+garrison should be surrendered as prisoners of war, and that they should
+not serve again until exchanged. The prisoner was described as an
+officer of that garrison, included in the surrender, and lately taken in
+the act of making war upon his majesty's subjects.</p>
+
+<p>The second charge was, that the prisoner had insinuated himself, by
+false representations, into the territory conquered by the royal army;
+and that, in the quality of a spy, he had visited the family of a
+certain Walter Adair, with a view to obtain a knowledge of the forces,
+plans, movements, and designs of the various detachments engaged in his
+majesty's service in the neighborhood of Broad River.</p>
+
+<p>And, third and last, that he, together with certain confederates, had
+contrived and partially attempted to execute a plan to seize upon and
+carry away a subject of his majesty's government, of great consideration
+and esteem&mdash;Mr. Philip Lindsay, namely, of the Dove Cote, in the
+province of Virginia. That the object of this enterprise was to possess
+himself of the papers as well as of the person of the said Philip
+Lindsay, and, by surrendering him up to the leaders of the rebel army,
+to bring upon him the vengeance of the rebel government, thus exposing
+him to confiscation of property, and even to peril of life.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the general import and bearing of the accusations against the
+prisoner, expressed with the usual abundance of verbiage and minuteness
+of detail. Butler listened to them, at first, with indifference, and
+with a determination to meet them with inflexible silence; but, as the
+enunciation of them proceeded, and the extraordinary misrepresentations
+they contained were successively disclosed, he found his indignation
+rising to a height that almost mastered his discretion, and he was on
+the point of interrupting the court with the lie direct, and of
+involving himself in an act of contumacy which would have been instantly
+decisive of his fate. His better genius, however, prevailed, and,
+smothering his anger by a strong effort of self-control, he merely
+folded his arms and abided until the end, with a contemptuous and proud
+glance at his accusers.</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard the allegations against you, sir," said Colonel Innis;
+"what say you to them?"</p>
+
+<p>"What should an honorable man," replied Butler, "say to such foul
+aspersions? The first and second charges, sir, I pronounce to be
+frivolous and false. As to the last, sir, there are imputations in it
+that mark the agency of a concealed enemy, lost to every impulse of
+honor&mdash;a base and wicked liar. Confront me with that man, and let the
+issue stand on this&mdash;if I do not prove him to be, in the judgment of
+every true gentleman of your army, an atrocious and depraved slanderer,
+who has contrived against my life for selfish purposes, I will submit
+myself to whatever penalty the most exasperated of my enemies may
+invent. It was my purpose, sir, to remain silent, and to refuse, by any
+act of mine, to acknowledge the violation of the rights of war by which
+I have been dragged hither. Nothing could have swayed me from that
+determination, but the iniquitous falsehood conveyed in the last
+accusation."</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot bandy words with one in your condition," interrupted the
+president of the court. "I must remind you again, that our purpose is to
+give you a fair trial, not to listen to ebullitions of anger. Your honor
+is concerned in these charges, and you will best consult your interest
+by a patient demeanor in your present difficulties."</p>
+
+<p>"I am silent," said Butler, indignantly, taking his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the trial proceed," continued the president. "You will not deny,"
+he said, after an interval of reflection, "that you are a native of
+Carolina?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can scarcely deny that before you," replied Butler, "who, in my
+absence, as report says, have been busy in the investigation of my
+affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"There are bounds, sir, to the forbearance of a court," said Innis,
+sternly. "I understand the taunt. Your estates have been the subject of
+consideration before another tribunal; and if my advice were listened
+to, the process relating to them would be a short one."</p>
+
+<p>"You are answered," returned Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor can you deny that you were an officer belonging to the army under
+the command of General Lincoln."</p>
+
+<p>Butler was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"You were at Charleston during the siege?" inquired one of the court.</p>
+
+<p>"In part," replied Butler. "I left it in March, the bearer of despatches
+to Congress."</p>
+
+<p>"And you were in arms on the night of the thirteenth, at Grindall's
+Ford?" continued the same questioner.</p>
+
+<p>"I confess it, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough," interrupted Innis. "In the ninth article of the
+capitulation of Charleston we read: 'all civil officers, and the
+citizens who have borne arms <i>during the siege</i>, must be prisoners on
+parole.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say," interposed St. Jermyn, who now, for the first time,
+opened his lips, "that the prisoner scarcely falls within that
+description. The words 'during the siege' would seem to point to a
+service which lasted to the end. They are, at least, equivocal; and I
+doubt Lord Cornwallis would be loath to sanction a judgment on such a
+ground."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this ensued a consultation amongst the officers at the table,
+during which Butler was withdrawn to a short distance in the rear of the
+assemblage. Several of the unoccupied soldiers of the camp, at this
+stage of the trial, had crowded into the neighborhood of the court; and
+the sentinels, yielding to the eagerness of the common curiosity, had
+relaxed their guard so far as to allow the spectators to encroach beyond
+the lines. Among those who had thrust themselves almost up to the
+trial-table were a few children, male and female, bearing on their arms
+baskets of fruit and vegetables, which had been brought within the camp
+for sale. A smart-looking girl, somewhat older than the rest, seemed to
+have gained more favor from the crowd than her competitors, by the
+temptation which she presented of a rich collection of mellow apples;
+and perhaps her popularity was in some degree increased by the soft and
+pleasant-toned voice in which she recommended her wares, no less than by
+the ruddy, wholesome hue of her cheek, and an agreeable, laughing, blue
+eye, that shone forth from the shade of a deep and narrow sun-bonnet,
+the curtain of which fell upon her shoulders and down her back.</p>
+
+<p>"Buy my apples, gentlemen," said the pretty fruit-merchant, coming up
+fearlessly to Colonel Innis, in the midst of the consultation.</p>
+
+<p>"Three for a penny; they are very ripe and mellow, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel cast his eye upon the treasures of the basket, and began to
+select a few of the choicest fruit. Thus encouraged, the girl set her
+load upon the table, in the midst of the hats and swords with which it
+was encumbered, and very soon every other member of the court followed
+the example of the presiding officer, and became purchasers of the
+greater part of the store before them. When this traffic was concluded,
+the little huckster took up her burden and retired towards the group of
+spectators. Seeing the prisoner in this quarter, she walked up to him,
+curtsied, and presented him an apple, which was gratefully accepted, and
+the proffered return, from him, in money, refused.</p>
+
+<p>When about a quarter of an hour had elapsed, Butler was resummoned to
+his seat, and the court again proceeded to business. The inquiry now
+related to the second charge&mdash;that, namely, which imputed to the
+prisoner the character of a spy in his visit at Adair's. To this
+accusation, Captain Hugh Habershaw and several of his troop were called
+as witnesses. The amount of testimony given by them was, that, on the
+eleventh of the month, they had received information that a Continental
+officer, whose real name and title was Major Butler, but who was
+travelling in disguise and under an assumed name, from the Catawba
+towards the Broad River, in company with a well known, stark Whig&mdash;a
+certain Horse Shoe Robinson&mdash;was expected in a few days to arrive at Wat
+Adair's. That Habershaw, hoping to intercept them, had scoured the
+country between the two rivers; but that the travellers had eluded the
+search, by taking a very circuitous and unfrequented route towards the
+upper part of Blair's Range and Fishing Creek. That, on the night of the
+twelfth, the two men arrived at Adair's, unmolested; and, on the morning
+of the thirteenth, some of the woodman's family had met Habershaw and
+apprised him of this fact; adding, further, that the prisoner had
+offered a bribe to Adair, to induce him to give information in regard to
+the loyalist troops in the neighborhood, with a view to communicate it
+to a certain Colonel Clarke, who had appointed to meet Butler and his
+companion somewhere on the upper border of the province. That, in
+consequence of this attempt, Adair had directed the prisoner towards
+Grindall's Ford; and, this intelligence being communicated to the
+witness, he had conducted his troop to that place, where he succeeded in
+arresting the prisoner and his comrade, with the loss of two men in the
+struggle. The narrative then went on to give the particulars of Horse
+Shoe's escape, and the other facts with which the reader is acquainted.
+This account was corroborated by several witnesses, and, amongst the
+rest, by Curry.</p>
+
+<p>Butler heard the testimony with the most painful sensations. There was
+just enough of truth in it to make the tale plausible; and the falsehood
+related to points which, as they were affirmed upon hearsay, he could
+not repel by proof. There was a common expression of opinion amongst the
+bystanders&mdash;who in general were inclined to take the side of the
+prisoner in reference to the charge which was supposed to affect his
+life&mdash;that this accusation of Butler's acting the part of a spy was
+sustained by the proof. In vain did he protest against the injustice of
+being condemned on what was alleged to have been said by some of Adair's
+family; in vain did he deny that he had offered a bribe to Adair for
+information respecting the Tories; and equally in vain did he affirm
+that he had asked of Adair nothing more than the common hospitality due
+to a traveller, and for which he had made him a moderate requital&mdash;the
+only money the woodman had received from him. The current was now
+setting violently against him, and it seemed impossible to stem it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is but due," said Captain St. Jermyn, a second time interposing in
+behalf of the prisoner, "to the rank and character of Major Butler,
+since a portion of this testimony is second-hand, to take his own
+examination on these alleged facts. With permission, therefore, I would
+ask him a few questions."</p>
+
+<p>"The court will not object," said Innis, who throughout affected the air
+of an impartial judge.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, Major Butler, that you were at Adair's on the night of the
+twelfth?" said the volunteer advocate of the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"I was, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And you made no concealment of your name or rank?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not say that," replied Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"You were under a feigned name then, sir?" inquired Innis, as St. Jermyn
+seemed a little confounded by the answer he had received.</p>
+
+<p>"I was called Mr. Butler, sir; my rank or station was not communicated."</p>
+
+<p>"Your dress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Was an assumed one, to avoid inquiry."</p>
+
+<p>"This man, Horse Shoe Robinson," said St. Jermyn, "was known to Adair as
+a whig soldier?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well known," replied Butler; "and I was also represented as belonging
+to that party. Adair himself led us to believe that he was friendly to
+our cause."</p>
+
+<p>Here several members of the court smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Had you met any parties of loyalists," inquired Innis, "in your journey
+between Catawba and Broad?"</p>
+
+<p>"We had&mdash;more than one."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you escape them?"</p>
+
+<p>"By assuming feigned characters and names."</p>
+
+<p>"Your purpose was to join Clarke?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not at liberty to answer that question," replied the prisoner.
+"Suffice it, sir, I was travelling through this region on a mission of
+duty. My purpose was to act against the enemy. So far the charge is
+true, and only to this extent. I came with no design to pry into the
+condition of the royal troops; I sought only a successful passage
+through a contested, though sadly overpowered country."</p>
+
+<p>"You offered no money to Adair," said St. Jermyn again, as if insisting
+on this point of exculpation, "but what you have already called a
+moderate requital for his entertainment?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," replied the prisoner&mdash;"except," he added, "a guinea, to induce
+him to release, from some wicked torture, a wolf he had entrapped."</p>
+
+<p>"It will not do," said Colonel Innis, shaking his head at St. Jermyn;
+and the same opinion was indicated in the looks of several of the court.</p>
+
+<p>"I was at Walter Adair's that night, and saw the gentleman there, and
+heard all that was said by him; and I am sure that he offered Watty no
+money," said our little apple-girl, who had been listening with
+breathless anxiety to the whole of this examination, and who had now
+advanced to the table as she spoke the words. "And I can tell more about
+it, if I am asked."</p>
+
+<p>"And who are you, my pretty maid?" inquired Colonel Innis, as he lifted
+the bonnet from her head and let loose a volume of flaxen curls down
+upon her neck.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Mary Musgrove, the miller's daughter," said the damsel, with great
+earnestness of manner, "and Watty Adair is my uncle, by my mother's
+side&mdash;he married my aunt Peggy; and I was at his house when Major Butler
+and Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson came there."</p>
+
+<p>"And what in the devil brought you here?" said Habershaw gruffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Silence!" cried Innis, impatient at the obtrusive interruption of the
+gross captain. "What authority have you to ask questions? Begone, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The heavy bulk of Hugh Habershaw, at this order, sneaked back into the
+crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"I came only to sell a few apples," said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven has sent that girl to the rescue of my life," said Butler, under
+the impulse of a feeling which he could not refrain from giving vent to
+in words. "Pray allow me, sir, to ask her some questions."</p>
+
+<p>"It is your privilege," was the answer from two or three of the court;
+and the spectators pressed forward to hear the examination.</p>
+
+<p>Butler carefully interrogated the maiden as to all the particulars of
+his visit, and she, with the most scrupulous fidelity, recounted the
+scenes to which she had been a witness. When she came to detail the
+conversation which she had overheard between Adair and Lynch, and the
+events that followed it, the interest of the bystanders was wound up to
+the highest pitch. There was a simplicity in her recital of this strange
+and eventful story, that gave it a force to which the most skilful
+eloquence might in vain aspire; and when she concluded, the court
+itself, prejudiced as the members were against the prisoner, could not
+help manifesting an emotion of satisfaction at the clear and unequivocal
+refutation which this plain tale inferred against the testimony of
+Habershaw and his confederates. Innis alone affected to treat it
+lightly, and endeavored in some degree to abate its edge, by suggesting
+doubts as to the capacity of a young girl, in circumstance so likely to
+confuse her, to give an exact narrative of such a complicated train of
+events. Every cross-examination, however, which was directed to the
+accuracy of the maiden's story, only resulted in producing a stronger
+conviction of its entire truth. This concluded the examination on the
+second charge.</p>
+
+<p>The court now proceeded to the third and last accusation against the
+prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>To this there was but one witness called&mdash;James Curry. In the course of
+the examination this man showed great address and knowledge of the
+world. He gave some short account of himself. He had been a man born to
+a better condition of life than he now enjoyed. His education had been
+liberal, and his associations in life extremely various. It was to be
+inferred from his own relation, that he had fallen into some early
+indiscretion which had thrown him into the lowest stations of society,
+and that his original delinquency had prevented him from ever rising
+above them. He had served for many years in the army, and was present at
+the surrender of Charleston, being at that period a confidential
+servant, or man of business, to the young Earl of Caithness, the
+aide-de-camp of Sir Henry Clinton. Upon the departure of that young
+nobleman with the rest of Sir Henry's military family, for New York, he
+had remained behind, and had taken a similar service to that which he
+had left, with another officer of some repute. "There were state
+reasons," he said, "why this gentleman's name could not now be
+communicated to the court." That, in the month of July, he had attended
+his master on a visit to Mr. Philip Lindsay, in Virginia; and whilst in
+the immediate vicinity of that gentleman's residence, at a small country
+tavern, he had accidentally become privy to the design of the prisoner,
+and the same Horse Shoe Robinson who had been mentioned before, to seize
+upon the person and papers of Mr. Lindsay: that these two persons had
+actually arrived at the tavern he spoke of to commence operations. That
+he had overheard them discussing the whole plan; and he had no doubt
+they had allies at hand to assist in the scheme, and would have
+proceeded that same night to put it in execution, if he had not
+frustrated their design at the risk of his life. That, with the view of
+interrupting this enterprise, he had lured Robinson, the companion of
+the prisoner, to walk with him at night to the margin of a small river
+near the tavern, where he accused him of the treacherous design which he
+and his comrade had in view: that, in consequence of this, Robinson had
+endeavored to take his life which was only saved by a severe struggle;
+and that, being thus discovered in their purpose, this man, Robinson,
+and the prisoner had made a hasty retreat towards Gates's head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Such was in effect the narrative of James Curry, which was solemnly
+given upon oath. Butler was for some moments confounded with
+astonishment at the audacity of this falsehood. He urged to the court
+the improbability of the whole story. "It would have been easy," he
+said, "if I had been hostile to Mr. Philip Lindsay&mdash;which, God knows,
+there are most cogent reasons to disprove&mdash;it would have been easy to
+procure his arrest without an attempt at a violent seizure by me. I had
+only to speak, and the whole country around him would have united in
+treating him as an object of suspicion, on account of his politics." He
+admitted that he was at Mrs. Dimock's at the time spoken of&mdash;that
+Robinson attended him there; but all else that had been said relating to
+the visit, he affirmed to be utterly false. He gave the particulars of
+the meeting between Horse Shoe and the witness, as he had it from
+Robinson; and spoke also of his knowledge of the visit of Tyrrel at the
+Dove Cote&mdash;"which person," he said, "he had reason to believe, came
+under a name not his own."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you happen to be so familiar," inquired Innis, "with the affairs
+of Mr. Lindsay?"</p>
+
+<p>"That question," replied Butler, "as it refers to matters entirely
+private and personal, I must decline to answer."</p>
+
+<p>Curry, upon a second examination, re-affirmed all he had said before,
+and commented with a great deal of dexterity upon Butler's statement,
+particularly in reference to such parts of it as the prisoner's repeated
+refusal to answer had left in doubt. After a protracted examination upon
+this point, the trial was at length closed, and Butler was ordered back
+to his apartment in the farm-house.</p>
+
+<p>Here he remained for the space of half an hour, an interval that was
+passed by him in the most distressing doubt and anxiety. The whole
+proceeding of the court boded ill to him. The haste of his trial, the
+extraordinary nature of the charges, and the general unsympathizing
+demeanor of the court itself, only spoke to his mind as evidences of a
+concealed hostility, which sought to find a plausible pretext for making
+him a sacrifice to some private malevolence. He was therefore prepared
+to expect the worst when, at the close of the half hour, St. Jermyn
+entered his chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"I come, sir," said the officer, "to perform a melancholy duty. The
+court have just concluded their deliberations."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am to be a sacrifice to their vengeance. Well, so be it! There
+was little need of deliberation in my case, and they have soon
+despatched it," said Butler, with a bitter spirit, as he paced up and
+down his narrow chamber. "What favor have these, my impartial judges,
+vouchsafed to me in my last moment? Shall I die as a common felon, on a
+gibbet, or am I to meet a soldier's doom?"</p>
+
+<p>"That has been thought of," said St. Jermyn. "The commanding officer has
+no disposition to add unnecessary severity to your unhappy fate."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for that! and that the files detailed for this service are to
+be drawn from the ranks of my enemies! I will face them as proudly as I
+have ever done on the field of battle. Leave me, sir; I have matters in
+my thought that require I should be alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Your time, I fear, is brief," said St. Jermyn. "The guard is already at
+hand to conduct you to the court, who only stay to pass sentence. I came
+before to break the unhappy news to you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is no news to me," interrupted Butler. "I could expect no other
+issue to the wicked designs by which I have been seized. This solemn
+show of a trial was only got up to give color to a murderous act which
+has been long predetermined."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, the heavy and regular tap of the drum, struck at equal
+intervals, and a mournful note from a fife, reached the prisoner's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"I come!" exclaimed Butler. "These fellows are practising their manual
+for an occasion in which they appear impatient to act. One would think,
+Captain St. Jermyn," he added, with a smile of scorn, "that they needed
+but little practice to accomplish them for a ceremony which has of late,
+since his majesty has extended his merciful arm over this province,
+grown to be a familiar piece of military punctilio."</p>
+
+<p>St. Jermyn hastily fled from the room, and rushing out upon the
+grass-plot where the guard was collected, cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, you base and worthless knaves! Is it thus you would insult the
+sufferings of an unfortunate enemy, by drumming, under his very ear,
+your cursed death-notes? Strike but one note upon that drum again, and I
+will have you up to the halberds."</p>
+
+<p>"The music did but try a flourish of the dead march," replied the
+sergeant of the guard; "they are a little rusty, and seeing that the
+Whig officer"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Another word, sir, and you shall be sent to the provost-marshal. Attend
+the prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"I am here," said Butler, who had overheard this conversation, and had
+already descended to the door.</p>
+
+<p>With a mournful and heavy heart, though with a countenance that
+concealed his emotions under an air of proud defiance, he took his place
+in the ranks, and marched to the spot where the court were yet
+assembled.</p>
+
+<p>"A chair for the prisoner," said some of the individuals present, with
+an officious alacrity to serve him.</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather stand," replied Butler. "It is my pleasure to hear the
+behests of my enemies in the attitude a soldier would choose to meet his
+foe in the field."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine is a painful duty, Major Butler," said Innis, rising, as he
+addressed the prisoner. "It is to announce to you that, after a full and
+most impartial trial, in which you have had the advantage of the freest
+examination of witnesses, and every favor accorded to you which the
+usages and customs of war allow, you have been found guilty of two of
+the charges imputed to you in the list with which you were furnished
+this morning. Notwithstanding the satisfactory testimony which was given
+in your behalf by the girl Mary Musgrove, in relation to your conduct at
+the house of Adair, and however disposed the court were to abandon an
+accusation which thus seemed to be refuted, it has occurred to them,
+upon subsequent reflection, that, by your own confession&mdash;given, sir,
+permit me to say, with the frankness of a soldier&mdash;you came into this
+district in disguise and under false names, and thus enabled yourself to
+collect information relative to the condition of the royal forces, which
+it was doubtless your purpose to use to our detriment. The court, for a
+moment, might have led you to entertain hope that they were satisfied
+that in this charge you had been wronged. The simple, affecting, and,
+no doubt, true narrative made by the miller's daughter produced a
+momentary sensation that was too powerful to be combated. That
+narrative, however, does not relieve you from the effect of your own
+confessions, since both may be true, and the charge still remain
+unimpaired against you.</p>
+
+<p>"The offence of breaking your parole and infringing the terms of the
+capitulation of Charleston, is open to a legal doubt, and, therefore, in
+tenderness to you, has not been pressed; although the court think, that
+the very circumstance of its doubtful character should have inculcated
+upon you the necessity of the most scrupulous avoidance of service in
+the conquered province.</p>
+
+<p>"The last charge against you is fully proved. Not a word of counter
+evidence has been offered. Strictly speaking, by the usages of war, this
+would not be an offence for the notice of a military tribunal. The
+perpetrators of it would be liable to such vindictive measures as the
+policy of the conqueror might choose to adopt. That we have given you,
+therefore, the benefit of an inquiry, you must regard as an act of
+grace, springing out of our sincere desire to do you ample justice. The
+nature of the offence imputed and proved is such as, at this moment,
+every consideration of expediency demands should be visited with
+exemplary punishment. The friends of the royal cause, wherever they may
+reside, shall be protected from the wrath of the rebel government; and
+we have, therefore, no scruple in saying, that the attempt upon the
+person of Mr. Philip Lindsay requires a signal retribution. But for this
+last act, the court might have been induced to overlook all your other
+trespasses. Upon this, however, there is no hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Such being the state of the facts ascertained by this tribunal, its
+function ceases with its certificate of the truth of what has been
+proved before it. The rest remains to me. Without the form of an
+investigation, I might, as the commanding officer of a corps on detached
+service, and by virtue of special power conferred upon me, have made up
+a private judgment in the case. I have forborne to do that, until, by
+the sanction of a verdict of my comrades, I might assure myself that I
+acted on the clearest proofs. These have been rendered.</p>
+
+<p>"My order, therefore, is, in accordance with the clear decision of the
+court,&mdash;and, speaking to a soldier, I use no unnecessary phrase of
+condolence,&mdash;that you be shot to death. Time presses on us and forbids
+delay. You will be conducted to immediate execution. Major Frazer," he
+said, turning to one of his officers, "to your discretion I commit this
+unpleasant duty." Then, in a tone of private direction, he added, "Let
+it be done without delay; pomp and ceremony are out of place in such a
+matter. I wish to have it despatched at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I would speak," said Butler, repressing the agitation of his feelings,
+and addressing Innis with a stern solemnity, "not to implore your mercy,
+nor to deprecate your sentence: even if I could stoop to such an act of
+submission, I know my appeal would reach your ears like the idle wind:
+but I have private affairs to speak of."</p>
+
+<p>"They were better untold, sir," interrupted Innis with an affected air
+of indifference. "I can listen to nothing now. We have other business to
+think of. These last requests and settlements of private affairs are
+always troublesome," he muttered in a tone just audible to the officers
+standing near him; "they conjure up useless sympathies."</p>
+
+<p>"I pray you, sir," interposed St. Jermyn.</p>
+
+<p>"It is in vain, I cannot hear it," exclaimed the commander, evidently
+struggling to shake from his mind an uncomfortable weight. "These are
+woman's requests! God's mercy! How does this differ from death upon the
+field of battle? a soldier is always ready. Ha! What have we here?" he
+exclaimed, as a trooper rode up to the group. "Where are you from? What
+news?"</p>
+
+<p>"A vidette from Rocky Mount," answered the horseman. "I am sent to
+inform you that, yesterday, Sumpter defeated three hundred of our people
+on the Catawba, and has made all that were alive, prisoners, besides
+capturing fifty or sixty wagons of stores which the detachment had under
+convoy for Camden."</p>
+
+<p>The first inquiries that followed this communication related to
+Sumpter's position, and especially whether he was advancing towards this
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>"He is still upon Catawba, tending northwards," replied the vidette.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we are free from danger," interrupted Innis. "I am stripping the
+feathers from a bird to-day that is worth half of Sumpter's prize," he
+added, with a revengeful smile, to an officer who stood by him.</p>
+
+<p>During this interval, in which the commander of the post was engaged
+with the vidette, the guard had conducted the prisoner back to the
+house, and Innis, freed from the restraint of Butler's presence, now
+gave way to the expression of a savage exultation at the power which the
+events of the morning had given him, to inflict punishment upon one that
+he termed an audacious rebel. "The chances jump well with us," he said,
+"when they enable us to season the joy of these ragged traitors, by so
+notable a deed as the execution of one of their shrewdest emissaries.
+This fellow Butler has consideration amongst them, and fortune too: at
+least he had it, but that has gone into better hands; and, to say truth,
+he has a bold and mischievous spirit. The devil has instigated him to
+cross our path; he shall have the devil's comfort for it. The whole
+party taken did you say?"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Every man, sir," replied the vidette.</p>
+
+<p>"How many men had this skulking fellow, Sumpter, at his back?"</p>
+
+<p>"They say about seven hundred."</p>
+
+<p>"And did the cowards strike to seven hundred rebels?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were tangled with the wagons," said the soldier, "and were set on
+unawares, on the bank of the river, at the lower ferry."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, that's the way! An ambuscade, no doubt,&mdash;a piece of cowardly
+bush-fighting. Fresh men against poor devils worn down by long marching!
+Well, well, I have a good requital for the rascally trick. Major
+Butler's blood will weigh heavy in the scale, or I am mistaken! Come,
+gentlemen, let us to quarters&mdash;we must hold a council."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a letter," said one of the officers of the court, "which I have
+this moment found on the table, under my sword belt; it seems, from its
+address, to contain matter of moment. How it came here does not appear."</p>
+
+<p>"'To Colonel Innis, or any other officer commanding a corps in his
+majesty's service,'" said Innis, reading the superscription, "besides,
+here is something significant, '<i>for life or death, with speed</i>.' What
+can this mean?" he added, as he broke open the paper and ran his eyes
+hastily over the contents. St. George! here is something strange,
+gentlemen. Listen!&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"'By ill luck I have fallen into the possession of the Whigs.
+They have received intelligence of the capture of Major Butler,
+and, apprehending that some mischief might befal him, have
+constrained me to inform you that my life will be made
+answerable for any harsh treatment that he may receive at the
+hands of our friends. They are resolute men, and will certainly
+make me the victim of their retaliation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Edgar St. Jermyn</span>,</p>
+
+<p>Ensign of the 71st Reg't.</p>
+
+<p>P. S. For God's sake respect this paper, and be lenient to the
+prisoner.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Treason and forgery, paltry forgery!" exclaimed Innis, with a smile of
+derision, as he finished reading the letter. "What ho! tell Frazer to
+lead out the prisoner, and despatch him without a moment's delay. So
+much for this shallow artifice!"</p>
+
+<p>"A base forgery," said one of the officers in attendance, "and doubtless
+the work of the rebel major himself. He will die with this silly lie
+upon his conscience. St. Jermyn, here!" cried out the same officer to
+the captain, who was now at some distance, "here is an attempt to put a
+trick upon us by a counterfeit of your brother's hand, telling a most
+doleful and improbable falsehood. Look at it."</p>
+
+<p>St. Jermyn read the letter, and suddenly turning pale, exclaimed: "Sir,
+this is no trick. It is my brother's own writing. He is in the custody
+of the Whigs! How came this here? Who brought it? When was it written?
+Can nobody tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, St. Jermyn!" interrupted the officer, smiling, "you surely cannot
+be imposed upon by such a device. Look at the scrawl again. In truth,
+are you sure of it, man?" he inquired with great surprise, as he
+perceived the increasing paleness of St. Jermyn's brow.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother's life is in imminent danger," replied St. Jermyn, with
+intense earnestness. "Colonel Innis, as you value my happiness, I
+entreat you, countermand the order for the prisoner's execution. I
+implore you, respect this letter; it is genuine, and I dread the
+consequences. My poor brother, the youngest of my family and the
+special darling of his parents! For heaven's sake, good colonel, pause
+until we learn something more of this mysterious business."</p>
+
+<p>"For your sake, my friend, and until we can investigate this matter,"
+said Innis, "let the execution be suspended."</p>
+
+<p>St. Jermyn instantly hurried to the guard, to communicate the new order.</p>
+
+<p>"Whence comes this missive?" demanded Innis. "It has neither date nor
+place described. Who brought it? Did any one see the bearer?" he asked
+aloud of the bystanders.</p>
+
+<p>No one answered except the officer who had first discovered the paper.
+"I know nothing more than what you see. It was here upon the table. How
+long it had been there I cannot tell."</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," continued Innis. "Can this young St. Jermyn have fallen
+in with Sumpter? Or, after all, is it not an ingenious forgery which has
+deceived our friend the captain? Still, who could have brought it here?"</p>
+
+<p>The letter was again examined by every individual present.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be genuine," said one of the officers, shaking his head.
+"Captain St. Jermyn was very much in earnest, and it is not likely he
+could be deceived. It has been mysteriously deposited here by some agent
+of the Whigs. The person should be found, and compelled to give us more
+specific information. This matter must be looked to; the ensign, I doubt
+not, is in perilous circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"Let the prisoner be strictly guarded, and held to wait our future
+pleasure," said Innis. "I would not put in jeopardy the young ensign's
+life. A reward of twenty guineas shall be given to any one who brings me
+the bearer of this letter. And you, Lieutenant Connelly, take thirty
+troopers, and scour the country round to gain intelligence of this
+capture of Edgar St. Jermyn. Be careful to examine every man you meet,
+as to the presence of Whig parties in this district. Away instantly, and
+do not return without tidings of this singular event."</p>
+
+<p>The camp, by these occurrences, was thrown into great bustle. The
+prisoner was securely lodged in his former quarters, and placed under a
+double guard; consultations were held amongst the officers; and Butler
+himself was strictly interrogated in regard to the appearance of this
+mysterious letter, of the contents of which he was yet ignorant. The
+examination threw no light on the affair; and, very soon afterwards, a
+troop of horse were seen sallying beyond the limits of the camp, under
+Lieutenant Connelly, to seek information of the fate of Ensign St.
+Jermyn.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SERGEANT AND HIS COMRADE PROJECT AN EXPEDITION WHICH FURNISHES THE
+ENSIGN AN OPPORTUNITY OF ENJOYING THE PICTURESQUE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>As soon as David Ramsay had departed with the maiden for Musgrove's
+mill, Robinson ordered his own and Christopher Shaw's horse to be
+saddled, and another to be made ready for St. Jermyn. His next care was
+to determine upon a secure place of retreat&mdash;reflecting that the news of
+the capture of the ensign must soon reach the British posts, and that
+the country would be industriously explored with a view to his rescue. A
+spot known to the woodsmen of this region by the name of the Devil's
+Ladder, which was situated in the defile of a mountain brook that
+emptied into the Ennoree, occurred to Christopher Shaw as the most
+secret fastness within their reach. This spot lay some twenty miles
+westward of Ramsay's, accessible by roads but little known, and
+surrounded by a district which grew more wild and rugged the nearer it
+approached the defile.</p>
+
+<p>Here it was supposed the party might arrive by daylight the next
+morning, and remain for a few days at small risk of discovery; and
+thither, accordingly, it was resolved they should repair.</p>
+
+<p>This being settled, Horse Shoe now procured a supply of provisions from
+Mistress Ramsay, and then proceeded to arm himself with the sword and
+pistols of the ensign, whilst Christopher suspended across his body the
+sword of Goliath, as the sergeant called the brand he had snatched up at
+Blackstock's, and also took possession of one of the captured muskets.</p>
+
+<p>"If it don't go against your conscience, Mistress Ramsay," said Horse
+Shoe, when the preparations for the journey were completed, "I would
+take it as a favor, in case any interlopers mought happen to pop in upon
+you, if you would just drop a hint that you have hearn that Sumpter's
+people had been seen about these parts. It would have an amazing good
+bearing on the Tories. Besides making them wary how they strayed about
+the woods it would be sure to put the bloodhounds on a wrong scent, if
+they should chance to be sarching for the young ensign. I know you women
+are a little ticklish about a fib, but then it's an honest trick of the
+war sometimes. And, to make you easy about it, it will be no more than
+the truth to say you did hear it&mdash;for, you obsarve, I tell you so now."</p>
+
+<p>"But," replied the scrupulous matron, "if they should ask me who told
+me, what should I answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said the sergeant, hesitating, "just out with it&mdash;tell 'em you
+heard it from one Horse Shoe Robinson; that'll not make the news the
+worse in point of credit. And be sure, good woman, above all things, to
+remind David, when he gets back to night, that the rank and file, in our
+prison yonder, are not to be turned loose before three o'clock in the
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>This last caution was repeated to Andy, who still performed the duty of
+a sentinel at the door of the out-house. All things being now arranged
+for their departure, Ensign St. Jermyn was brought from the chamber
+where he had been confined, and was invited to join the sergeant and
+Christopher at supper before they set out. This meal was ably and
+rapidly discussed by the stout yeomen, and scarcely less honored by the
+prisoner, whom the toils and privations of the day had brought to
+enjoyment of a good appetite.</p>
+
+<p>With many cheering and kind expressions of encouragement from the
+sergeant, the young officer prepared to comply with the demands of his
+captors, and was soon in readiness to attend them. Robinson lifted him
+into his saddle with a grasp as light as if he was dealing with a boy,
+and then bound him by a surcingle to the horse's back, whilst he offered
+a good-humored apology for the rigor of this treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not the most comfortable way of riding, Mr. Ensign," he said,
+with a chuckle; "but fast bind, fast find, is a'most an excellent good
+rule for a traveller in the dark. I hope you don't think I take any
+pleasure in oncommoding you, but it is my intention to lead your horse
+by the rein to-night, and this friend of mine will keep in the rear. So,
+by way of a caution, I would just signify to you that if you should
+think of playing a prank you will certainly bring some trouble upon your
+head&mdash;as one or another of us would in that case be obliged to fire. It
+is nothing more than military punctilium to give you a friendly warning
+of this."</p>
+
+<p>"You might dispense with this severity, I should think," replied the
+prisoner, "upon my pledge of honor that I will make no effort to
+escape."</p>
+
+<p>"I can take no pledge in the dark," returned Horse Shoe; "daylight
+mought make a difference. If we should happen to fall in with any of
+your gangs I'm thinking a pledge wouldn't come to much more than a
+cobweb when I should ax you to gallop out of the way of your own people.
+Flesh is weak, as the preacher says, and, to my mind, it's a little the
+weaker when the arm is strong or the foot swift. Temptation is at the
+bottom of all backsliding. No, no, Mr. Ensign, you may get away, if you
+can; we'll take care of you whilst we're able&mdash;that's a simple
+understanding."</p>
+
+<p>Without further speech the party proceeded on their journey. They
+travelled as rapidly as was consistent with the ease of the prisoner and
+the nature of the ground over which they had to move. For the first
+eight or ten miles, their route lay across a country with but few
+impediments, except such as arose from the unseasonable hour of the
+ride. After this they found the toil and hazard of travel continually
+increasing. They had been retreating from the settled country towards a
+rough wilderness, which was penetrated only by an obscure road, so
+little beaten as to be scarcely discernible in the faint starlight, and
+which it required all Christopher's skill in woodcraft to follow. Our
+travellers, consequently, often lost their way, and were obliged to get
+down from their horses and grope about to ascertain the path. The stars
+had shone all night through a cloudless firmament, but the deep shade of
+the forest thickened around the wanderers, and it was frequently with
+difficulty, even, that they could discern each other's figures.</p>
+
+<p>They reached at length the small stream upon whose banks, some miles
+above, was situated the place to which their steps were directed; and
+they were thus rendered more sure of their road, as they had only to
+follow the ascending course of the brook. The delays and impediments of
+the journey had nearly outrun the night, and whilst our travellers were
+yet some two or three miles from their destination, the first traces of
+morning began to appear in the east. The increasing light disclosed to
+them the nature of the scenery around. A limpid rivulet tumbled over a
+rocky channel, girt with a profusion of brush and briar, amongst which
+were scattered a thousand wild-flowers, that, renovated by the dew,
+threw forth a delicious perfume. A succession of abrupt hills, covered
+with the varied foliage of a rich forest growth, bounded the brook on
+either side. Occasional rocks jutted above the heads of the travellers
+as they wound along the paths, worn by the wild cattle in the bottom of
+the dell.</p>
+
+<p>Both Robinson and Shaw had dismounted when they entered this defile, and
+whilst the former led the horse of the prisoner his companion preceded
+him to explore the doubtful traces of the road, which frequently became
+so obscure as to render it necessary to seek a passage in the bed of the
+stream. During all this progress Horse Shoe's good nature and
+light-heartedness were unabated. He conversed with the prisoner in the
+same terms of friendly familiarity that he did with Shaw, and neglected
+no attention that might in any degree relieve the irksomeness of St.
+Jermyn's necessary thraldom.</p>
+
+<p>That peculiar conformation of country which had given rise to the name
+of the place to which they were conducting the prisoner, was now to be
+discerned at some little distance ahead. It presented a series of bold
+crags of granite intermixed with slate, in which rock piled upon rock
+presented a succession of shelves, each beetling over its base, and thus
+furnishing a shelter against the weather. Some of these were situated
+near the bank of the stream, projecting over the water, whilst others
+towered at different heights, in such a manner as to bear a resemblance
+to a flight of huge steps cut in the slope of the mountain, and by this
+likeness, doubtless, suggesting the imaginative name by which the spot
+was known to the few hunters to whom it was familiar. The cavern-like
+structure of these ledges abundantly supplied the means of concealment
+to both men and horses, from the casual notice of such persons as
+accident might have brought into this sequestered defile.</p>
+
+<p>When the party arrived at the foot of the Devil's Ladder, it was with
+great satisfaction to all that they now made a halt. A short time was
+spent in selecting a spot, amongst the impending cliffs, of such a
+character as might afford the advantage of shelter, as well as the means
+of ready look-out and escape in case of discovery or pursuit. The place
+chosen was about half way up the hill, where the ridge of a promontory
+enabled the occupants to see some distance up and down the valley;
+whilst the crag itself contained within its recesses a chamber
+sufficiently large for the purpose to which it was to be applied. A
+natural platform, near this point, allowed sufficient space for the
+horses, which might be conducted there by a sideling path up the slope;
+at the same time, the means of retreat were furnished by the nature of
+the ground towards the top of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>To this place of security the ensign was ordered by his guard, and,
+being released from his bonds, he dismounted and threw himself at length
+upon the mossy surface of the rock, where he lay wearied in body and
+dejected in mind. The horses were taken in charge by Shaw; provisions
+were produced, and all arrangements of caution and comfort were made for
+passing the next two or three days in this wild sojourn.</p>
+
+<p>Here, for the present, we must leave our adventurers, to tell of other
+matters that are proper to be made known to the reader of this history.</p>
+
+<p>In due time David Ramsay returned from Musgrove's. Precisely at three
+o'clock in the morning, the soldiers were released according to the
+terms of the parole; and my reader will, no doubt, be pleased to hear
+that Andy, being discharged from duty, went to bed as drowsy as e'er a
+man of mould after a feat of glory, and slept with a sleep altogether
+worthy of his heroic achievement.</p>
+
+<p>The next day passed by, at Ramsay's dwelling, with a varied and fearful
+interest to his family. They had received intelligence, before night, of
+the event of Butler's trial, and had reason to rejoice that Mary
+Musgrove had so played her part in the delivery of the letter. They were
+apprised also of the reward that had been offered for the discovery of
+the bearer of this letter, and were informed that detachments of horse
+were out to scour the country in quest of the ensign. These tidings
+filled them with apprehension. It occurred to Ramsay that if, perchance,
+the released prisoners should fall in with any of the parties of the
+loyalists, they would of course relate their story, and thus bring down
+the full rancor of the Tory wrath upon his household: this would also
+lead with more certainty to the pursuit of Horse Shoe. There was still
+good reason to hope that the liberated men might not so soon be able to
+give the alarm; inasmuch as they were more likely to shape their course
+towards Fort Ninety-Six than to repair to Innis's camp, where they might
+be forced to do duty, as much against their inclinations as against
+their parole. They might even, from a natural aversion to labor, prefer
+loitering about the country rather than put themselves voluntarily in
+the way of military operations.</p>
+
+<p>"Come what will of it," said Ramsay, summing up the chances for and
+against him; "I will be ready for the worst. Many better men have given
+all they had to the cause of independence, and I will not flinch from
+giving my share. They may burn and break down; but, thank God, I have a
+country&mdash;aye, and a heart and an arm to stand by it!"</p>
+
+<p>On the same evening, towards sundown, a horseman drew up his rein at
+Ramsay's door. He was young&mdash;in the prime of early manhood, his dress
+was that of a rustic, his equipment showed him to be a traveller&mdash;a
+weary one, from the plight of his horse, and, like most travellers of
+the time, well armed. He did not stand to summon any one to the door,
+but put his hand upon the latch with eager haste, and entered with the
+familiarity of one acquainted with the place. Mistress Ramsay was seated
+at her spinning-wheel, anxiously brooding over the tales of the day. Her
+husband reclined in his chair, silently and thoughtfully smoking his
+pipe. They both sprang up at once, as the visitor crossed the threshold,
+and with fervent joy greeted their son John Ramsay. The household was
+clamorous with the affectionate salutations of the parents, of the
+brothers and sisters, and of the domestics. John was the eldest of
+Ramsay's children, and had just reached his paternal roof after an
+absence of some months, during which he had been in service with
+Sumpter. The gathering in of the members of a family around the domestic
+board, in times of peril and distress, is one of the luxuries of the
+heart that in peace we cannot know. The arrival of John Ramsay at the
+present moment was a source of the liveliest happiness to his parents.
+They needed a cheerful as well as a resolute comforter. John had, only
+twenty-four hours previous, left Sumpter near Rocky Mount&mdash;immediately
+after the battle with the British convoy was won. He was sent with
+despatches to Colonel Williams, a Whig partisan of note, who was now
+supposed to be in the neighborhood of the Saluda. These had some
+reference to the military movements of the parties; and John Ramsay was
+permitted by Sumpter to make a short halt at his father's house.</p>
+
+<p>In the first hour after his arrival, he had given to the family the
+history of his homeward ride. He had discovered that hostile forces&mdash;of
+which, until his journey was nearly finished, he heard nothing&mdash;were
+encamped in the neighborhood; that a court-martial had been sitting for
+the trial of an American officer, as a spy, and had condemned him to be
+shot. He had been apprised, moreover, that small parties were out,
+riding into every corner of the country. He himself had nearly been
+surprised by one of these, as he endeavored to make his way to the house
+of Allen Musgrove, where he had proposed to himself a visit, even before
+he came to his father's, but, fearing something wrong, he had fled from
+them, and baffled their pursuit, although they had chased him more than
+a mile; he had, in consequence, been deprived of the opportunity of
+visiting the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Although it is four months since we have seen you, John," said the
+dame, with a tone of affectionate chiding, "yet, you would turn aside to
+get under Allen Musgrove's roof, before you thought of the arms of your
+mother."</p>
+
+<p>John's sun-burnt cheek blushed crimson red as he replied, "It was but a
+step out of the way, mother, and I should not have stayed long. Mr.
+Musgrove and his folks are safe and well, I hope, and Christopher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, boy! speak it out, and don't blush about it," interrupted the
+father briskly: "she is a good girl, and you needn't be ashamed to name
+her, as you ought to have done, first and before all the rest. Mary is
+well, John, and has just proved herself to be the best girl in the
+country."</p>
+
+<p>This little passage of mirth between the parents and their son, led to a
+full narrative by David Ramsay of the events which had occurred in the
+last two or three days, concluding with the capture of the ensign, and
+the retreat of Horse Shoe and Christopher Shaw to the Devil's Ladder.
+The communication wrought a grave and thoughtful mood on the young
+soldier. It presented a crisis to him for immediate action. He was
+wearied with a long ride, but it seemed to him to be no time for rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," he said, after turning over in his thoughts the intelligence
+he had just received, "it was a brave and beautiful thing for so young a
+lad as Andy to do; and the taking of the ensign has served a useful
+purpose, but it brings this house and family into danger. And I fear for
+poor Mary. Christopher Shaw must get back to the mill, and quickly too.
+His absence will bring his uncle's family into trouble. I will take
+Christopher's place, and go to Horse Shoe's assistance this night. We
+may take the prisoner with us to Williams."</p>
+
+<p>"To-night!" said the mother anxiously, "you would not leave us to-night,
+John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, to-night, wife," answered David Ramsay, "the boy is right, there
+is no time to spare."</p>
+
+<p>"Have mercy upon us," exclaimed the dame; "to ride so far to-night,
+after so heavy a journey, John!&mdash;you have not strength."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear mother," said John, "think that you are all in danger and that
+Mary, who has behaved so well, might be suspected, and brought to harm.
+I must hurry forward to Colonel Williams, and this road by the Devil's
+Ladder is far out of my way. No, I am not so much fatigued, mother, as
+you suppose. I will rest for a few hours, and then try the woods.
+Daybreak, I warrant, shall not find me far from Horse Shoe."</p>
+
+<p>John Ramsay was not above six-and-twenty. He was endued with a stout and
+manly frame, well adapted to hard service; and this was associated with
+a bold and intelligent countenance, which, notwithstanding the dint of
+wind and weather, was handsome. He had for a year or two past been
+actively engaged in the war, and his manners had, in consequence,
+acquired that maturity and decision which are generally found in those
+whose habits of life render them familiar with perils. On the present
+occasion he regarded the necessity of co-operation with Robinson as so
+urgent, that no other thought crossed his mind but that which belonged
+to the care of putting himself in condition to make his services
+effectual.</p>
+
+<p>With this view he now directed his horse to be carefully tended; then,
+having taken a hearty meal, he retired to rest, desiring that he might
+be waked up at midnight, when he proposed to follow the path of Horse
+Shoe and his comrade.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A RETREAT AFTER THE MANNER OF XENOPHON.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The next morning, a little after sunrise, as Robinson was holding the
+watch on the outer ledge of the rock, in a position that enabled him to
+survey the approaches to the spot through the valley, as well as to keep
+his eye upon the ensign and Christopher Shaw, who were both asleep under
+cover of the crag, he was startled by a distant noise of something
+breaking through the bushes on the margin of the brook. At first it
+struck him that this was caused by deer stalking up the stream; but he
+soon afterwards descried the head and shoulders of a man, whose motions
+showed him to be struggling through the thicket towards the base of the
+hill. This person at length reached a space of open ground, where he
+halted and looked anxiously around him, thus revealing his figure, as he
+sat on horseback, to the observation of the sergeant, who, in the
+meantime, had taken advantage of a low pine tree and a jutting angle of
+a rock to screen himself from the eager eye of the traveller&mdash;at least
+until he should be satisfied as to the other's character and purpose.</p>
+
+<p>A loud and cheerful halloo, several times repeated by the stranger,
+seemed to indicate his quest of a lost companion; and this gradually
+drew the sergeant, with a weary motion, from his hiding-place, until
+assuring himself that the comer was alone, he stept out to the edge of
+the shelf of rock, and presenting his musket, peremptorily gave the
+common challenge of "Who goes there?"</p>
+
+<p>"A friend to Horse Robinson," was the reply of the visitor, in whom my
+reader recognises John Ramsay.</p>
+
+<p>Before further question might be asked and answered, John had dismounted
+from his horse and clambered to the platform, where he greeted the
+sergeant and the hastily-awakened Christopher Shaw, with a hearty shake
+of the hand; and then proceeded to communicate the pressing objects of
+his visit, and to relate all that he had learned of the recent events
+during his short stay at his father's house.</p>
+
+<p>In the consultation that followed these disclosures, Ramsay earnestly
+urged his comrades to make instant preparation to quit their present
+retirement, and to attempt the enterprise of conducting the prisoner to
+Williams, who was supposed to be advancing into the neighborhood of a
+well known block-house, or frontier fortification, on the Saluda, about
+forty miles from their present position.</p>
+
+<p>The message with which Ramsay was charged from Sumpter to Williams, made
+it necessary that he should endeavor to reach that officer as soon as
+possible; and the sergeant, rejoicing in the thought of being so near a
+strong body of allies who might render the most essential aid to the
+great object of his expedition, readily concurred in the propriety of
+the young trooper's proposal. This enterprise was also recommended by
+the necessity of taking some immediate steps to preserve the custody of
+the ensign, whose capture had already been so serviceable to the cause
+of Arthur Butler. In accordance, moreover, with John Ramsay's anxious
+entreaty, Christopher Shaw, it was determined, should hasten back to the
+mill at the earliest moment.</p>
+
+<p>A speedy departure was, therefore, resolved on, and accordingly all
+things were made ready, in the course of an hour, to commence the march.
+At the appointed time the ensign was directed to descend into the
+valley, where he was once more bound to his horse. The conferences
+between the sergeant and his two comrades had been held out of the
+hearing of the prisoner; but it was now thought advisable to make him
+acquainted with the late proceedings that had transpired with regard to
+Butler, and especially with the respite that had been given to that
+officer by Innis. This communication was accompanied by an intimation
+that he would best consult his own comfort and safety by a patient
+submission to the restrictions that were put upon him: inasmuch as his
+captors had no disposition to vex him with any other precautions than
+were necessary for his safe detention during the present season of peril
+to Butler.</p>
+
+<p>With this admonition the party began their journey. The first two or
+three hours were occupied in returning, by the route of the valley, to
+the Ennoree. When they reached the river they found themselves relieved
+from the toils of the narrow and rugged path by which they had threaded
+the wild mountain dell, and introduced into an undulating country
+covered with forest, and intersected by an occasional but unfrequented
+road leading from one settlement to another. Here Christopher Shaw was
+to take leave of his companions, his path lying along the bank of the
+Ennoree, whilst the route to be pursued by the others crossed the river
+and extended thence southwards to the Saluda. The young miller turned
+his horse's head homewards, with some reluctance at parting with his
+friends in a moment of such interest, and bore with him many messages of
+comfort and courage to those whom he was about to rejoin&mdash;and more
+particularly from the sergeant to Butler, in case Christopher should
+have the good fortune to be able to deliver them. At the same time,
+Horse Shoe and John Ramsay, with the prisoner, forded the Ennoree, and
+plunged into the deep forest that lay upon its further bank.</p>
+
+<p>For several hours they travelled with the greatest circumspection,
+avoiding the frequented roads and the chance of meeting such wayfarers
+as might be abroad on their route. It was a time of great anxiety and
+suspense, but the habitual indifference of military life gave an air of
+unconcern to the conduct of the soldiers, and scarcely affected, in any
+visible degree, the cheerfulness of their demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>They reached, at length, the confines of a cultivated country&mdash;a region
+which was known to be inhabited by several Tory families. To avoid the
+risk of exposure to persons who might be unfriendly to their purpose,
+they thought it prudent to delay entering upon this open district until
+after sunset, that they might continue their journey through the night.
+The difficulty of ascertaining their road in the dark, and the danger of
+seeking information from the few families whose habitations occurred to
+their view, necessarily rendered their progress slow. The time was,
+therefore, passed in weary silence and persevering labor, in the anxious
+contemplation of the probability of encountering some of the enemy's
+scouts.</p>
+
+<p>At the break of day they stopped to refresh themselves; and the contents
+of Horse Shoe's wallet, unhappily reduced to a slender supply of
+provisions, were distributed amongst the party. During this halt, John
+Ramsay commanded the ensign to exchange his dress with him; and our
+faithful ally was converted, by this traffic, for the nonce, into a
+spruce, well-looking, and gay young officer of the enemy's line.</p>
+
+<p>The most hazardous portion of their journey now lay before them. They
+were within a few miles of the Saluda, from whence, at its nearest
+point, it was some six or seven more down the stream to the
+Block-house&mdash;the appointed rendezvous, where it was yet a matter of
+uncertainty whether Williams had arrived. The space between the
+travellers and the river was a fertile and comparatively thickly-peopled
+region, of which the inhabitants were almost entirely in the Tory
+interest. The broad daylight having overtaken them on the confines of
+this tract, exposed them to the greatest risk of being questioned. They
+had nothing left but to make a bold effort to attain the river by the
+shortest path; and thence to pursue the bank towards the rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>"Courage, John," said Horse Shoe, smiling at the new garb of his
+comrade; "you may show your pretty feathers to-day to them that are fond
+of looking at them. And you, my young clodpole, ride like an honest
+Whig, or I mought find occasion to do a discomfortable thing, by putting
+a bullet through and through you. Excuse the liberty, sir, for these are
+ticklish times; but I shall ondoubtedly be as good as my word."</p>
+
+<p>Our adventurers soon resumed their journey. They had come within a mile
+of the Saluda without interruption, and began to exchange
+congratulations that the worst was passed, when they found themselves
+descending a sharp hill which jutted down upon an extensive piece of
+pasture ground. One boundary of this was watered by a brook, along whose
+margin a fringe of willows, intermixed with wild shrubbery of various
+kinds, formed a screen some ten or fifteen feet in height. As soon as
+this range of meadow was observed, our cautious soldiers halted upon the
+brow of the hill to reconnoitre; and perceiving nothing to excite their
+apprehension, they ventured down, upon the track of an ill-defined road,
+which took a direction immediately over the broadest portion of the
+field.</p>
+
+<p>They had scarcely crossed the brook at the bottom of the hill, before
+they heard the remote voices of men in conversation, and the tones of a
+careless laugh. On looking towards the upper section of the stream, they
+were aware of a squad of loyalist cavalry, who came riding, in the shade
+of the willows, directly towards the spot where the travellers had
+entered upon the meadow. The party consisted of seven or eight men, who
+were, at this instant, not more than one hundred paces distant.</p>
+
+<p>"They are upon us, sergeant!" exclaimed John Ramsay. "Make sure of the
+prisoner: retreat as rapidly as you can. Leave me to myself. Make for
+the Block-house&mdash;I will meet you there."</p>
+
+<p>With these hasty intimations, he pricked his courser up to full speed,
+and shaped his flight directly across the open field, in full view of
+the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe, at the same moment, drew a pistol, cocked it, and throwing
+the rein of St. Jermyn's horse into the hands of the rider, he cried
+out:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Back across the branch and into the woods! Push for it, or you are a
+dead man! On, on!" he added, as he rode at high speed immediately beside
+the ensign; "a stumble, or a whisper above your breath, and you get the
+bullet. Fly&mdash;your life is in your horse's heels!"</p>
+
+<p>The resolute tone of the sergeant had its effect upon his prisoner, who
+yielded a ready obedience to the pressing orders, and bounded into the
+thicket with as much alacrity as if flying from an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the troopers, struck with the earnest haste of one whose
+dress bespoke a British officer, speeding across the field, did not
+doubt that they had afforded this timely opportunity for the escape of a
+prisoner from the hands of the Whigs.</p>
+
+<p>"Wheel up, lads," shouted the leader of the squad, "it is the ensign!
+Wheel up and form a platoon to cut off the pursuit. We have him safe out
+of their clutches!"</p>
+
+<p>Impressed with the conviction that a considerable force of Whig cavalry
+were at hand, the troopers directed all their efforts to cover what they
+believed Ensign St. Jermyn's retreat, and were now seen formed into a
+platoon, and moving towards the middle of the plain, in such a manner as
+to place themselves between the fugitive and his supposed pursuers. Here
+they delayed a few minutes, as if expecting an attack; until finding
+that the object of their solicitude had safely crossed the field and
+plunged into the distant woods, they rode away at a rapid pace in the
+same direction. When they reached the further extremity of the open
+ground, they halted for an instant, turned their eyes back towards the
+spot of their first discovery, and, finding that no attempt was made to
+follow, gave a hearty huzza, and rode onward in search of their prize.</p>
+
+<p>The stratagem had completely succeeded: Ramsay had escaped, and Horse
+Shoe had withdrawn his prisoner into the neighboring wood upon the hill,
+where he was able to observe the whole scene. After a brief interval,
+the sergeant resumed his journey, and, with all necessary
+circumspection, bent his steps towards the river, where he arrived
+without molestation, and thence he continued his march in the direction
+of the rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>John Ramsay did not stop until he had crossed the Saluda and advanced a
+considerable distance on the opposite bank, where, to his great joy, he
+was encountered by a look-out party of Williams's regiment. Our fugitive
+had some difficulty in making himself known to his friends, and escaping
+the salutation which an enemy was likely to obtain at their hands; but
+when he surrendered to them, and made them acquainted with the cause of
+his disguise, the party instantly turned about with him, and proceeded
+in quest of the sergeant and his prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before they fell in with the small detachment of
+Connelly's troopers,&mdash;as the late masters of the meadow turned out to
+be&mdash;who were leisurely returning from their recent exploit. These,
+finding themselves in the presence of superior numbers, turned to
+flight. Not far behind them Ramsay and his new companions encountered
+Horse Shoe; and the whole party proceeded without delay to Williams's
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Williams had reached the Block-house on the preceding evening
+with a force of two hundred cavalry. Clarke and Shelby happened, at this
+juncture, to be with him; and these three gallant partisans were now
+anxiously employed in arranging measures for that organized resistance
+to the Tory Dominion which fills so striking a chapter in the history of
+the Southern war, and which it had been the special object of Butler's
+mission to promote. Horse Shoe was enabled to communicate to Williams
+and his confederates the general purpose of this mission, and the
+disasters which had befallen Butler in his attempt to reach those with
+whom he was to co-operate. This intelligence created a lively interest
+in behalf of the captive, and it was instantly determined to make some
+strenuous effort for his deliverance. Whilst these matters were brought
+into consultation by the leaders, Horse Shoe and John Ramsay mingled
+amongst the soldiers, in the enjoyment of that fellowship which forms
+the most agreeable feature in the associations of the camp.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>BUTLER'S DIFFICULTIES INCREASE.&mdash;INNIS FINDS OCCASION TO THINK OF THE
+ADAGE&mdash;"THERE'S MANY A SLIP BETWIXT THE CUP AND THE LIP."</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>When Arthur Butler was conducted back to his place of confinement, after
+his trial, orders were given that no one should be allowed to approach
+him, except the officer to whom was intrusted his safe custody. The
+intercourse of this person with him was short; and concerned only with
+the scant accommodation which his condition required. He was, therefore,
+deprived of all chance of becoming acquainted with the extraordinary
+events that had led to his present respite from death. In the
+interrogations that had, during the first moments of excitement, been
+put to him, in regard to the letter, he was not told its import; from
+what quarter it had come; nor how it affected his fate. He only knew, by
+the result, that it had suspended the purpose of his immediate
+execution; and he saw that it had produced great agitation at
+head-quarters. He found, moreover, that this, or some other cause, had
+engendered a degree of exasperation against him, that showed itself in
+the retrenchment of his comforts, and in the augmented rigor of his
+confinement.</p>
+
+<p>Agitated with a thousand doubts, his mind was too busy to permit him to
+close his eyes during the night that followed; and in this wakeful
+suspense he could sometimes hear, amongst the occasional ramblers who
+passed under his window, an allusion, in their conversation, to a
+victory gained over the royal troops. Coupling this with the name of
+Sumpter, which was now and then uttered with some adjective of
+disparagement, he conjectured that Horse Shoe had probably fallen in
+with that partisan, and was, peradventure, leading him to this vicinity.
+But this conclusion was combated by the fact that there seemed to be no
+alarm in the camp, nor any preparations on foot either for instant
+battle or retreat. Then the letter&mdash;that was a mystery altogether
+impenetrable. There was only one point upon which his mind could rest
+with satisfaction: of that he was sure&mdash;Horse Shoe was certainly at the
+bottom of the scheme, and was active in his behalf.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the next day passed over in the same state of uncertainty.
+It was observed by Butler, with some stress upon the circumstance, that
+Captain St. Jermyn, who had heretofore evinced a disposition to make
+himself busy in his behalf, had absented himself ever since the trial;
+and he thus felt himself cut off from the slightest exhibition of
+sympathy on the part of a single individual in the multitude of fellow
+beings near him. Indeed, there were various indications of a general
+personal ill-will against him. The house, in which he was confined, was
+so constructed that he could frequently hear such expressions, in the
+conferences of those who inhabited the rooms below stairs, as were
+uttered above the lower key of conversation, and these boded him no
+good. Once, during the day, Colonel Innis visited him. This officer's
+countenance was severe, and indicated anger. His purpose was to extort
+something from the prisoner in reference to his supposed knowledge of
+the course of operations of Sumpter, from whose camp Innis did not doubt
+this letter regarding St. Jermyn had come. He spoke in a short, quick,
+and peremptory tone:</p>
+
+<p>"It may be well for you," he said, "that your friends do not too rashly
+brave my authority. Let me advise you to warn them that others may fall
+into our hands; and that if the ensign be not delivered up, there may be
+a dreadful retaliation."</p>
+
+<p>"I know not, sir, of what or whom you speak," replied Butler; "and it is
+due to my honor to say, that I will not be induced, for the sake of
+saving my life, to interfere with any operations which the soldiers of
+Congress may have undertaken in the cause of the country. In this
+sentiment I admonish Colonel Innis that I desire to be put in possession
+of no facts from him that may be communicated under such an expectation.
+And having made this determination known to you, I will add to it that,
+from the same motives, I will answer no questions you can propose to me.
+You may spare yourself, therefore, the useless labor of this visit. My
+life is in your hands, and I have already experienced with what justice
+and clemency you will use your power when you dare."</p>
+
+<p>"A more humble tone," said Innis, with a bitter smile, "I think would
+better suit your circumstances." And with this remark the commandant
+haughtily walked out of the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, whilst Butler was taking his breakfast, which had been
+brought to him by one of the soldiers of the guard, he heard a loud
+cheering from the troops that at that hour were on parade in the plain.
+This was followed by the discharge of a <i>feu de joie</i> from the whole
+line, and a flourish of drums and trumpets.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" he inquired eagerly of the soldier, who, forgetful, in
+the excitement of the moment, of the order to restrain his intercourse
+with the prisoner, answered&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They have just got the news from Camden: two days ago Cornwallis
+defeated Gates, and cut his army to pieces. The troops are rejoicing for
+the victory, and have just had the despatches read."</p>
+
+<p>Butler heaved a deep sigh, as he said, "Then all is lost, and liberty is
+but a name! I feared it; God knows, I feared it."</p>
+
+<p>The soldier was recalled to his duty by the sentinel at the door, and
+Butler was again left alone.</p>
+
+<p>This was a day of crowding events. The tidings of the battle of Camden,
+gained on the sixteenth, and which had early this morning reached Innis,
+threw a spirit of the highest exultation into the camp. The event was
+considered decisive of the fate of the rebel power; and the most
+extravagant anticipations were indulged by the loyalists, in regard to
+the complete subjugation of the Whigs of the southern provinces. The
+work of confiscation was to be carried out to the most bitter extreme,
+and the adherents of the royal government were to grow rich upon the
+spoils of victory. The soldiers of Innis were permitted to give way to
+uncontrolled revelry; and, from the first promulgation of the news, this
+became a day devoted to rejoicings. Innis himself looked upon the
+victory at Camden with more satisfaction, as it gave him reason to
+believe that the sentence pronounced against Butler might be executed,
+without fear of vengeance threatened against the Ensign St. Jermyn. He
+was, however, exceedingly anxious to see this young officer released
+from the hands of the enemy; and had determined to respect the threat
+as long as there was any doubt that it might be performed. The personal
+consideration of Captain St. Jermyn, his station as an officer of
+importance, and, above all, the great influence of his family, in the
+esteem of the royal leaders, made it an object of deep concern to Innis
+to save the ensign, by the most scrupulous regard to his present
+difficulties. His power to do so seemed to be much increased by the late
+victory.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon of the same day, further rumors were brought to Innis's
+camp, importing that Sumpter had been attacked on that morning upon the
+Catawba, by Tarleton, and completely routed. The prisoners and baggage,
+taken on the fifteenth, had been regained, and Sumpter was flying with
+the scattered remnant of his troops towards North Carolina. At the same
+time an order was brought to Innis to break up his camp and move
+northwards. This only added to the shouts and rejoicings of the troops,
+and drove them into deeper excesses. The war, they thought, was coming
+rapidly to an end, and they already anticipated this conclusion, by
+throwing off the irksomeness of military restraint. The officers were
+gathered into gossiping and convivial circles; and laughed, in
+unrestrained feelings of triumph, at the posture of affairs. The private
+soldiers, on their part, imitated their leaders, and formed themselves
+into knots and groups, where they caroused over their cups, danced, and
+sang. All was frolic and merriment.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of this festivity, a portion of Connelly's troopers, who
+had now been absent forty-eight hours, arrived, and made an immediate
+report to Innis. The purport of this was, that they had found Ensign St.
+Jermyn in the possession of a detachment of Whig cavalry near the
+Saluda: as soon as they descried him, which they did, some three hundred
+paces distant, knowing him by his scarlet uniform, they prepared to
+attack this party of Whigs; but the ensign perceiving his friends at
+hand, had already, by a brave effort, disentangled himself from his
+keepers, and taken off into the open field. The scouts, therefore,
+instead of attacking the Whigs, directed all their attention to secure
+the ensign's retreat, by holding themselves ready to check the pursuit:
+their man&oelig;uvre had been successful, and the prisoner was free.</p>
+
+<p>"And is now with you in the camp, my brave fellows?" said Innis, with
+great exultation.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," replied the sergeant of the squad. "He is upon the road, and
+will, no doubt, soon be here. We have not seen him since his escape.
+Whilst we hung back, with a view to favor his retreat, we fell in with a
+party that we took to be the escort that had made him prisoner; and as
+they outnumbered us, we thought it prudent to decline a skirmish with
+them. So we filed off and made our way back to head quarters. The ensign
+must have been a good mile ahead of us, and as the road is hard to find,
+he may have lost his way. But this is certain, we saw him clear of the
+Whigs, with his horse's head turned towards this camp."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, good friends," said Innis; "you have performed your duty
+handsomely. Go to your comrades; they have news for you, and an extra
+allowance to-day. Faith, Ker, this is a day for settling old accounts,"
+he continued, as he turned and addressed an officer by his side. "Gates
+beaten, Sumpter beaten, and Ensign St. Jermyn delivered from captivity!
+That looks well! And now I have another account, which shall be settled
+on the nail. Stirring times, Captain St. Jermyn. I congratulate you, my
+friend, on your brother's safety, and mean to signalize the event as it
+deserves. Major Frazer, bring out your prisoner, and let him die the
+death punctually at sundown&mdash;at sundown, to the minute, major. We must
+get that job off our hands. To-morrow, my friends, we shall move towards
+Catawba, and thence to Hanging Rock. Meantime, we must sweep up our
+rubbish. So, major, look to your duty! It might as well have been done
+at first," he added, speaking to himself, as he walked away from the
+group of officers to look after other affairs.</p>
+
+<p>The execution of Butler was now regarded as a mere matter of business,
+and to be despatched as one item of duty amongst the thousand others
+that were to be looked after in the hurry of breaking up the post. The
+interest of the trial had faded away by the lapse of time, and in the
+more predominating excitements which the absorbing character of the late
+events had afforded. The preparations for this ceremony were, therefore,
+attended with no display, and scarcely seemed to arouse inquiry amongst
+the soldiers of the camp. It was treated in all respects as a
+subordinate point of police. Ten files were detailed; one drum and fife
+put in requisition; and this party, attended by Frazer, and two or three
+officers who happened to be near at the moment, marched with a careless
+step to head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>The first announcement of this sudden resolve was made to the prisoner
+by a subaltern; who, without prelude or apology, or the least effort to
+mitigate the harshness of the order he bore, walked abruptly into the
+chamber and delivered the message of his superior.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a sudden proceeding," said Butler, calmly; "but your pleasure
+must be obeyed."</p>
+
+<p>"You have had two days to think of it," replied the officer; "it is not
+often so much time is allowed. Ensign St. Jermyn, sir, is safe, and that
+is all we waited for. We march to-morrow, and therefore have no time to
+lose. You are waited for below."</p>
+
+<p>Butler stood a moment with his hand pressed upon his brow, and then
+muttered,</p>
+
+<p>"It is even so; our unhappy country is lost, and the reign of blood is
+but begun. I would ask the poor favor of a moment's delay, and the
+privilege of pen, ink, and paper, whilst I write but a line to a
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible, sir," said the man. "Time is precious, and our orders are
+positive."</p>
+
+<p>"This is like the rest," answered Butler; "I submit." Then buttoning his
+coat across his breast, he left the room with a firm and composed step.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the door the first person who met his eye was Captain
+St. Jermyn. There was an expression of formal gravity in the manner of
+this officer, as he accosted the prisoner, and lamented the rigor of the
+fate that awaited him. And it was somewhat with a cold and polite
+civility that he communicated his readiness to attend to any request
+which Butler, in his last moments, might wish to have performed.</p>
+
+<p>Butler thanked him for his solicitude, and then said, "I asked
+permission to write to a friend; that has been denied. I feel reluctant
+to expose myself to another refusal. You have taken a slight interest in
+my sufferings, and I will, therefore, confide to you a simple wish,
+which it will not cost my persecutors much to gratify. It is that I may
+be taken to my grave, dressed as you see me now. I would not have my
+person stripped or plundered."</p>
+
+<p>"If you have valuables about you, sir, trust them to my keeping; I
+promise you they shall be faithfully delivered according to your wish."</p>
+
+<p>"What money there is about my person," replied Butler, "may be given to
+the soldiers who are compelled to execute this harsh and unjust sentence
+on my person; but I have a trinket," he said, drawing from his bosom a
+miniature, which was suspended by a ribbon, "it is the gift of
+one,"&mdash;here, for the first time, a tear started into Butler's eye, and
+his power of utterance failed him.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand, sir," said St. Jermyn, eagerly reaching out his hand to
+take the picture, "I will seek the lady, at whatever hazard"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the unfortunate officer, "it must be buried with me. It
+has dwelt here," he added with emotion, as he placed his hand upon his
+heart, "and here it must sleep in death."</p>
+
+<p>"On the honor of a soldier," said St. Jermyn, "I promise you its rest
+shall not be violated."</p>
+
+<p>"You will attend me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will."</p>
+
+<p>"Lead on," said the prisoner, stepping to the place assigned him in the
+ranks. "I seek no further delay."</p>
+
+<p>"March down the river, half a mile below the camp," said Innis, who now
+came up, as the escort had begun its progress towards the place of
+execution. And the soldiers moved slowly, with the customary funeral
+observances, in a direction that led across the whole extent of the
+plain.</p>
+
+<p>When this little detachment had disappeared on the further side of the
+field, a sudden commotion arose at head-quarters by the hasty arrival of
+a mounted patrol&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We are followed!" cried the leading horseman, in great perturbation.
+"They will be here in an instant! We have been pressed by them for the
+last two miles."</p>
+
+<p>"Of whom do you speak?" inquired Innis, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"The enemy! the enemy!" vociferated several voices.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment a cloud of dust was seen rising above the trees, in
+the direction of the road leading up the Ennoree.</p>
+
+<p>"To arms&mdash;to arms!" ejaculated the commander. "Gentlemen, spring to your
+horses, and sound the alarm through the camp&mdash;we are set upon by
+Sumpter&mdash;it can be no other. Curry, take a few dragoons&mdash;follow the
+prisoner&mdash;mount him behind one of your men, and retreat with him
+instantly to Blackstock's!"</p>
+
+<p>Having given these hasty orders, Innis, with the several officers who
+happened to be at hand, ran to their horses, mounted, and pushed forward
+to the camp. They had scarcely left their quarters before two dragoons,
+in advance of a party of twenty or thirty men, rushed up to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Sarch the house!" shouted the leading soldier. "Three or four of you
+dismount and sarch the house! Make sure of Major Butler, if he is there!
+The rest of you forward with me!"</p>
+
+<p>The delay before head-quarters scarcely occupied a moment, and in the
+meantime the number of the assailants was increased by the squadrons
+that poured in from the rear. These were led by a young officer of great
+activity and courage, who, seeing the disordered condition of the
+royalists, waved his sword in the air as he beckoned his men to follow
+him in a charge upon the camp.</p>
+
+<p>The advanced party, with the two dragoons, were already on the field
+charging the first body that they found assembled; and, close behind
+them, followed Colonel Williams&mdash;the officer of whom I have spoken&mdash;with
+a large division of cavalry. At the same moment that Williams entered
+upon the plain from this quarter, a second and third corps, led
+respectively by Shelby and Clarke, were seen galloping upon the two
+flanks of the encampment.</p>
+
+<p>The plain was now occupied by about two hundred Whig cavalry. The
+royalists, taken by surprise, over their cups it may be said, and in the
+midst of a riotous festival, were everywhere thrown into the wildest
+confusion. Such of them as succeeded in gaining their arms, took post
+behind the trees, and kept up an irregular fire upon the assailants.
+Colonel Innis had succeeded in getting together about a hundred men at a
+remote corner of his camp, and had now formed them into a solid column
+to resist the attack of the cavalry, whilst from this body he poured
+forth a few desultory volleys of musketry, hoping to gain time to
+collect the scattered forces that were in various points endeavoring to
+find their proper station. Horse Shoe Robinson and John Ramsay&mdash;the two
+foremost in the advance&mdash;were to be discovered pushing through the
+sundered groups of the enemy with a restless and desperate valor that
+nothing could withstand.</p>
+
+<p>"Cut them down," cried Horse Shoe, "without marcy! remember the
+Waxhaws!" And he accompanied his exhortation with the most vehement and
+decisive action, striking down, with a huge sabre, all who opposed his
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Colonel Williams and his comrades charged the column formed by
+Innis, and, in a few moments, succeeded in riding through the array and
+compelling them to a total rout. Robinson and Ramsay, side by side,
+mingled in this charge, and were seen in the thickest of the fight.
+Innis, finding all efforts to maintain his ground ineffectual, turned
+his horse towards Musgrove's mill, and fled as fast as spur and sword
+could urge the animal forward. The sergeant, however, had marked him for
+his prize, and following as fleetly as the trusty Captain Peter was able
+to carry him, soon came up with the fugitive officer, and, with one
+broad sweep of his sword, dislodged him from his saddle and left him
+bleeding on the ground. Turning again towards the field, his quick eye
+discerned the unwieldy bulk of Hugh Habershaw. The gross captain had, in
+the hurry of the assault, been unable to reach his horse; and, in the
+first moments of danger, had taken refuge in one of the little sheds
+which had been constructed for the accommodation of the soldiers. As the
+battle waxed hot in the neighborhood of his retreat, he had crept forth
+from his den and was making the best of his way to an adjoining
+cornfield. He was bare-headed, and his bald crown, as the slanting rays
+of the evening sun fell upon it, glistened like a gilded globe. The well
+known figure no sooner occurred to the sergeant's view than he rode off
+in pursuit. The cornfield was bounded by a fence, and the burly braggart
+had just succeeded in reaching it when his enemy overtook him.</p>
+
+<p>"Have mercy, good Mr. Horse Shoe, have mercy on a defenceless man!"
+screamed the runaway, in a voice discordant with terror, as he stopped
+at the fence, which he was unable to mount, and looked back upon his
+pursuer. "Remember the good-will I showed you when you was a prisoner!
+Quarter, quarter&mdash;for God's sake, quarter!"</p>
+
+<p>"You get no quarter from me, you cursed blood-lapper!" exclaimed Horse
+Shoe, excited to a rage that seldom visited his breast; "think of
+Grindall's Ford!" and at the same instant he struck a heavy downward
+blow, with such sheer descent, that it clove the skull of the perfidious
+freebooter clean through to the spine. "I have sworn your death," said
+the sergeant, "even if I catch you asleep in your bed, and right fairly
+have you earned it."</p>
+
+<p>The body fell into a bed of mire, which had been the resort of the
+neighboring swine; and, leaving it in this foul plight, Horse Shoe
+hastened back to rejoin his comrades.</p>
+
+<p>The battle now ended in the complete route of the enemy. Williams's
+first care, after the day was won, was to collect his men and to secure
+his prisoners. Many of the Tories had escaped; many were killed and
+wounded; but of Butler no tidings could be gained; he had disappeared
+from the field before the fight began, and all the information that the
+prisoners could give was that orders had been sent to remove him from
+the neighborhood. Colonel Innis was badly wounded, and in no condition
+to speak with his conquerors; he was sent, with several other disabled
+officers, to head-quarters. Captain St. Jermyn had fled, with most of
+those who had mounted their horses before the arrival of Williams.</p>
+
+<p>The day was already at its close, and order was taken to spend the night
+upon the field. Guards were posted, and every precaution adopted to
+avoid a surprise in turn from the enemy, who, it was feared, might soon
+rally a strong party and assail the conquerors.</p>
+
+<p>The disturbed condition of the country, and the almost unanimous
+sentiment of the people against the Whigs, now strengthened by the late
+victories, prevented Williams from improving his present advantage, or
+even from bearing off his prisoners. Robinson and Ramsay volunteered to
+head a party to scour the country in quest of Butler, but the commanding
+officer could give no encouragement to the enterprise; it was, in his
+judgment, a hopeless endeavor, when the forces of the enemy were
+everywhere so strong. His determination, therefore, was to retreat, as
+soon as his men were in condition, back to his fastnesses. His few
+killed were buried; the wounded, of which there were not more than
+fifteen or twenty were taken care of, and the jaded troops were
+dismissed to seek refreshment amongst the abundant stores captured from
+the enemy. Ensign St. Jermyn was still a prisoner; and, for the sake of
+adding to Butler's security, Williams selected two or three other
+officers that had fallen into his hands to accompany him in his retreat.
+These arrangements all being made, the colonel and his officers retired
+to repose. The next morning at daylight there were no traces of the
+Whigs to be seen upon the plain. It was abandoned to the loyalist
+prisoners and their wounded comrades.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>WILLIAMS TAKES A FANCY TO FOREST LIFE.&mdash;HORSE SHOE AND JOHN RAMSAY
+CONTINUE ACTIVE IN THE SERVICE OF BUTLER.&mdash;MARY MUSGROVE BECOMES A
+VALUABLE AUXILIARY.</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>Williams had commenced his retreat before the dawn, as much with a view
+to accomplish a large portion of his journey before the heat of the day,
+as to protect himself against the probable pursuit of the rallied forces
+of the enemy. His destination was towards the mountains on the
+north-western frontier. The overthrow of Gates had left a large force of
+Tory militia at the disposal of Cornwallis, who, it was conjectured,
+would use them to break up every remnant of opposition in this region.
+It was therefore a matter of great importance to Williams, to conduct
+his little force into some place of security against the attacks of the
+royalists.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Elijah Clarke had, ever since the fall of Charleston, been
+employed in keeping together the few scattered Whig families in that
+part of Carolina lying contiguous to the Savannah, with a view to an
+organized plan of resistance against the British authorities; and he had
+so far accomplished his purpose as to have procured some three or four
+hundred men, who had agreed to hold themselves in readiness to strike a
+blow whenever the occasion offered. These men were to be mustered at any
+moment by a preconcerted signal; and, in the meantime, they were
+instructed, by confining themselves to their dwellings, or pursuing
+their ordinary occupations, to keep as much as possible out of the way
+of the dominant authorities.</p>
+
+<p>Clarke resided in Georgia, whence he had fled as soon as the royalist
+leader, Brown, had taken possession of Augusta; and we have already seen
+that a letter from Colonel Pinckney, at Charleston, which Horse Shoe
+Robinson had been intrusted to deliver, had summoned Arthur Butler to
+this frontier to aid in Clarke's enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Isaac Shelby, a resident of Washington county in Virginia, until
+the settlement of the southern line of the State had left him in the
+district at present known as Sullivan county in Tennessee, had been an
+efficient auxiliary in Clarke's scheme, and was now ready to summon a
+respectable number of followers for the support of the war on the
+mountain border. He and Clarke had accidentally arrived at Williams's
+camp a day or two before the attack upon Innis, with a view to a
+consultation as to the general interests of the meditated campaign; and
+they had only tarried to take a part in the engagement from a natural
+concern for the fate of their intended comrade, Butler. Having no
+further motive for remaining with Williams, they were both intent upon
+returning to their respective duties, and, accordingly, during the
+retreat of the following day, they took their leave.</p>
+
+<p>The vigilance with which these partisans were watched by their enemies,
+almost forbade the present hope of successful combination. From a
+consciousness of the hazard of attempting to concentrate their forces at
+this juncture, they had determined still to pursue their separate
+schemes of annoyance, until a more favorable moment for joint action
+should arise; and, in the interval, to hide themselves as much as
+possible in the forest. It was consequently in the hope of preserving
+his independence at least, if not of aiding Clarke, that Williams now
+moved with so much despatch to the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>His course lay towards the head waters of the Fair Forest river, in the
+present region of Spartanburg. This district was inhabited only by a few
+hunters, and some scattered Indians of an inoffensive character; it
+abounded in game, and promised to afford an easy subsistence to men
+whose habits were simple, and who were accustomed to rely upon the chase
+for support. The second day brought our hardy soldiers into the sojourn
+they sought. It was a wilderness broken by mountains, and intersected by
+streams of surpassing transparency; whilst its elevated position and
+southern latitude conferred upon it a climate that was then, as well as
+now, remarked for its delicious temperature in summer, and its exemption
+from the rigors of winter.</p>
+
+<p>The spot at which Williams rested was a sequestered valley deep hidden
+in the original woods, and watered by the Fair Forest, whose stream, so
+near its fountain, scarcely exceeded the dimensions of a little brook.
+Here he determined to form a camp, to which in times of emergency he
+might safely retreat. With a view to render it easy of access as a
+rendezvous, he caused landmarks to be made, by cutting notches on the
+trees&mdash;or <i>blazing</i> them, in the woodman's phrase&mdash;in several
+directions, leading towards the principal highways that penetrated the
+country. The retreat thus established is familiar to the history of the
+war, under the name of the Fair Forest camp.</p>
+
+<p>These arrangements being completed in the course of the first day after
+his arrival, Williams now applied himself to the adoption of measures
+for the safety of Arthur Butler. Amongst the spoils that had fallen into
+his hands, after the victory over Innis, was the document containing the
+proceedings of the court-martial. The perusal of this paper, together
+with the comments afforded by Robinson, convinced him of the malignity
+of the persecution which had aimed at the life of the prisoner. It
+occurred to him, therefore, to submit the whole proceeding to Lord
+Cornwallis, to whom, he was persuaded, it either had been
+misrepresented, or, most probably, was entirely unknown. He did not
+doubt that an appeal to the honorable feelings of that officer, with a
+full disclosure of the facts, would instantly be followed by an order
+that should put Butler under the protection of the rules of war, and
+insure him all the rights that belong to a mere prisoner taken in arms
+in a lawful quarrel. A spirited remonstrance was accordingly prepared to
+this effect. It detailed the circumstances of Butler's case, which was
+accompanied with a copy of the proceedings of the court, and it
+concluded with a demand that such measures should be adopted by the head
+of the army, as comported with the rights of humanity and the laws of
+war; "a course," the writer suggested, "that he did not hesitate to
+believe his lordship would feel belonged both to the honor and duty of
+his station." This paper was consigned to the care of an officer, who
+was directed to proceed with it, under a flag of truce, to the
+head-quarters of the British commander.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this, Robinson apprised Williams that Ramsay and himself had
+determined to venture back towards the Ennoree, to learn something of
+the state of affairs in that quarter, and to apply themselves more
+immediately to the service of Butler. In aid of this design, the
+sergeant obtained a letter from Williams, the purport of which was to
+inform the commandant of any post of the loyalists whom it might
+concern, that an application had been made on Butler's behalf to
+Cornwallis, and that the severest retaliation would be exercised upon
+the prisoners in Williams's custody, for any violence that might be
+offered the American officer. Putting this letter in his pocket, our man
+of "mickle might," attended by his good and faithful ally, John Ramsay,
+took his leave of "The Fair Forest" towards noon of the fourth day after
+the battle near Musgrove's mill.</p>
+
+<p>The second morning after their departure, the two companions had reached
+the Ennoree, not far from the habitation of David Ramsay. It was fair
+summer weather, and nature was as gay as in that piping time before the
+blast of war had blown across her fields. All things, in the course of a
+few days, seemed to have undergone a sudden change. The country
+presented no signs of strife: no bands of armed men molested the
+highways. An occasional husbandman was seen at his plough: the deer
+sprang up from the brushwood and fled into the forest, as if inviting
+again the pastime of the chase; and even when the two soldiers
+encountered a chance wayfarer upon the road, each party passed the other
+unquestioned&mdash;there was all the seeming quiet of a pacified country. The
+truth was, the war had rolled northwards&mdash;and all behind it had
+submitted since the disastrous fight at Camden. The lusty and
+hot-brained portions of the population were away with the army; and the
+non-combatants only, or those wearied with arms, were all that were to
+be seen in this region.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe, after riding a long time in silence, as these images of
+tranquillity occupied his thoughts, made a simple remark that spoke a
+volume of truth in a few homely words.</p>
+
+<p>"This is an onnatural sort of stillness, John. Men may call this peace,
+but I call it fear. If there is a poor wretch of a Whig in this
+district, it's as good as his life is worth to own himself. How far off
+mought we be from your father's?"</p>
+
+<p>The young trooper heaved a deep sigh "I knew you were thinking of my
+poor father when you spoke your thoughts, Horse Shoe. This is a heavy
+day for him. But he could bear it: he's a man who thinks little of
+hardships. There are the helpless women, Galbraith Robinson," he
+continued, as he shook his head with an expression of sorrow that almost
+broke into tears. "Getting near home one thinks of them first. My good
+and kind mother&mdash;God knows how she would bear any heavy accident. I am
+always afraid to ask questions in these times about the family, for fear
+of hearing something bad. And there's little Mary Musgrove over at the
+mill"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have good reason to be proud of that girl, John Ramsay,"
+interrupted Robinson. "So speak out, man, and none of your stammering.
+Hoot!&mdash;she told me she was your sweetheart! You hav'n't half the tongue
+of that wench. Why, sir, if I was a lovable man, haw, haw!&mdash;which I'm
+not&mdash;I'll be cursed if I wouldn't spark that little fusee myself."</p>
+
+<p>"This fence," said Ramsay, unheeding the sergeant's banter, "belongs to
+our farm, and perhaps we had better let down the rails and approach the
+house across the field: if the Tories should be there we might find the
+road dangerous. This gives us a chance of retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"That's both scrupulous and wise, John," replied the sergeant. "So down
+with the pannel: we will steal upon the good folks, if they are at home,
+and take them by surprise. But mind you, my lad, see that your pistols
+are primed; we mought onawares get into a wasp's nest."</p>
+
+<p>The fence was lowered, and the horsemen cautiously entered the field.
+After passing a narrow dell and rising to the crest of the opposite
+hill, they obtained a position but a short distance in the rear of the
+homestead. From this point a melancholy prospect broke upon their sight.
+The dwelling-house had disappeared, and in its place was a heap only of
+smouldering ashes. A few of the upright frame-posts, scorched black, and
+a stone chimney with its ample fire-place, were all that remained of
+what, but a few days before, was the happy abode of the family of a
+brave and worthy man.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! my thoughts were running upon this! I feared their spite would
+break at last upon my father's head," cried John Ramsay, as he put spurs
+to his horse and galloped up to the ruins. "The savages have done their
+worst. But my father and mother where are they?" he exclaimed, as the
+tears rolled down his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Take heart, my brave boy!" said Robinson, in the kindliest tones.
+"There's a reckoning to come for all these villanies&mdash;and it will go
+hard with many a Tory yet before this account is settled."</p>
+
+<p>"I will carry a hot hand into the first house that covers a Tory head,"
+replied the young trooper, passionately; "this burning shall be paid
+with ten like it."</p>
+
+<p>"All in good time, John," said Robinson coolly. "As for the burning, it
+is no great matter; a few good neighbors would soon set that to rights,
+by building your father a better house than the one he has lost.
+Besides, Congress will not forget a true friend when the war is well
+fought out. But it does go against my grain, John Ramsay, to see a
+parcel of cowardly runaways spitting their malice against women and
+children. The barn, likewise, I see is gone," continued the sergeant,
+looking towards another pile of the ruins a short distance off. "The
+villains! when there's foul work to be done, they don't go at it like
+apprentices. No matter&mdash;I have made one observation: the darkest hour is
+just before the day, and that's a comfortable old saying."</p>
+
+<p>By degrees John Ramsay fell into a calmer temper, and now began to cast
+about as to the course fit to be pursued in their present emergency.
+About a quarter of a mile distant, two or three negro cabins were
+visible, and he could descry a few children near the doors. With an
+eager haste, therefore, he and the sergeant shaped their course across
+the field to this spot. When they arrived within fifty paces of the
+nearest hovel, the door was set ajar, and a rifle, thrust through the
+aperture, was aimed at the visitors.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand for your lives!" shouted the well known voice of David Ramsay. In
+the next instant the door was thrown wide open, the weapon cast aside,
+and the father rushed forward as he exclaimed, "Gracious God, my boy and
+Horse Shoe Robinson! Welcome, lads; a hundred times more welcome than
+when I had better shelter to give you! But the good friends of King
+George, you see, have been so kind as to give me a call. It is easy to
+tell when they take it in their head to visit a Whig."</p>
+
+<p>"My mother!" exclaimed John Ramsay.</p>
+
+<p>"In and see her, boy&mdash;she wants comfort from you. But, thank God! she
+bears this blow better than I thought she could."</p>
+
+<p>Before this speech was uttered John had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"And how came this mishap to fall upon you, David?" inquired Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose some of your prisoners," replied Ramsay, "must have informed
+upon Andy and me: for in the retreat of Innis's runaways, a party came
+through my farm. They stayed only long enough to ransack the house, and
+to steal whatever was worth taking; and then to set fire to the dwelling
+and all the out-buildings. Both Andy and myself, by good luck, perhaps,
+were absent, or they would have made us prisoners: so they turned my
+wife and children out of doors to shift for themselves, and scampered
+off as fast as if Williams was still at their heels. All that was left
+for us was to crowd into this cabin, where, considering all things, we
+are not so badly off. But things are taking an ill turn for the country,
+Horse Shoe. We are beaten on all sides."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad, David, as to be past righting yet," replied the sergeant.
+"What have they done with Major Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was carried, as I learned, up to Blackstock's, the evening of the
+fight; and yesterday it was reported that a party has taken him back to
+Musgrove's. I believe he is now kept close prisoner in Allen's house.
+Christopher Shaw was here two days since, and told us that orders had
+come to occupy the millers dwelling-house for that purpose."</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe had now entered the cabin with David Ramsay, and in the
+course of the hour that followed, during which the family had prepared
+refreshment for the travellers, the sergeant had fully canvassed all the
+particulars necessary to be known for his future guidance. It was
+determined that he and John should remain in their present concealment
+until night, and then endeavor to reach the mill under cover of the
+darkness, and open some means of communication with the family of the
+miller.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day was spent in anxious thought. The situation of the
+adventurers was one of great personal peril, as they were now
+immediately within the circle of operations of the enemy and likely to
+be observed and challenged the first moment they ventured upon the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>The hour of dusk had scarcely arrived before they were again mounted on
+horseback. They proceeded cautiously upon the road that led through the
+wood, until it intersected the highway; and, having attained this point,
+John Ramsay, who was well acquainted with every avenue through the
+country, now led the way, by a private and scarcely discernible path,
+into the adjacent forest, and thence, by a tedious and prolonged route,
+directed his companion to the banks of the Ennoree. This course of
+travel took them immediately to the plain on which Innis had been
+encamped&mdash;the late field of battle. All here was still and desolate. The
+sheds and other vestiges of the recent bivouac were yet visible, but not
+even the farm-house that had constituted Innis's head-quarters was
+reoccupied by its original inhabitants. The bat whirred over the plain,
+and the owl hooted from the neighboring trees. The air still bore the
+scent of dead bodies which had either been left exposed, or so meagrely
+covered with earth as to taint the breeze with noisome exhalations.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a great difference, John," said Horse Shoe, who seldom let an
+occasion to moralize after his own fashion slip by, "there's a great
+difference between a hot field and a stale one. Your hot field makes a
+soldier, for there's a sort of a stir in it that sets the blood to
+running merrily through a man, and that's what I call pleasure. But when
+everything is festering like the inside of a hospital&mdash;or what's next
+door to it, a grave-yard&mdash;it is mighty apt to turn a dragoon's stomach
+and make a preacher of him. This here dew falls to-night like frost, and
+chills me to the heart, which it wouldn't do if it didn't freshen up the
+smell of dead men. And there's the hogs, busy as so many sextons among
+Innis's Tories: you may hear them grunt over their suppers. Well, there
+is one man among them that I'll make bold to say these swine hav'n't got
+the stomach to touch&mdash;that's Hugh Habershaw: he sleeps in the mud in
+yonder fence-corner."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had done nothing else in the fight, Horse Shoe, but cleave that
+fellow's skull," said Ramsay, "the ride we took would have been well
+paid for&mdash;it was worth the trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"And the rapscallionly fellow to think," added Horse Shoe, "that I was a
+going to save him from the devil's clutches, when I had a broadsword in
+my hand, and his bald, greasy pate in reach. His brain had nothing in it
+but deceit and lies, and all sorts of cruel thoughts, enough to poison
+the air when I let them out. I have made an observation, John, all my
+life on them foul-mouthed, swilling braggers&mdash;that when there's so much
+cunning and blood-thirstiness, there's no room for a thimbleful of
+courage: their heart's in their belly, which is as much as to signify
+that the man's a most beastly coward. But now, it is my opinion that we
+had best choose a spot along upon the river here, and leave our horses.
+I think we can man&oelig;uvre better on foot: the miller's house is short
+of two miles, and we mought be noticed if we were to go nearer on
+horseback."</p>
+
+<p>This proposal was adopted, and the two friends, when they had ridden a
+short distance below the battle ground, halted in a thicket, where they
+fastened their horses, and proceeded towards the mill on foot. After
+following the course of the stream for near half an hour, they
+perceived, at a distance, a light glimmering through the window of Allen
+Musgrove's dwelling. This induced a second pause in their march, when
+Ramsay suggested the propriety of his advancing alone to reconnoitre the
+house, and attempting to gain some speech with the inmates. He
+accordingly left the sergeant to amuse himself with his own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe took his seat beneath a sycamore, where he waited a long time
+in anxious expectation of the return of his comrade. Growing uneasy, at
+last, at John's delay, he arose, and stole cautiously forward until he
+reached the mill, where he posted himself in a position from which he
+was able to see and hear what was going on at the miller's house. The
+porch was occupied by three or four persons, whose conversation, as it
+came to the sergeant's ear, proved them to be strangers to the family;
+and a ray of light from a taper within, after a while, made this more
+manifest, by revealing the scarlet uniform of the enemy. Horse Shoe was
+thus confirmed in the truth of the report that Butler had been brought
+to this place under a military escort. With this conviction he returned
+to the sycamore, where he again sat down to wait for the coming of his
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>It was after ten o'clock, and the sergeant was casting over in his
+thoughts the long absence of John, when his attention was aroused by the
+sound of footsteps, and the next instant John Ramsay and Mary Musgrove
+stood beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"What kept you till this time of night?" was the sergeant's accost.</p>
+
+<p>"Softly, man, I have news for you," replied Ramsay. "Here is Mary
+herself."</p>
+
+<p>"And so she is, indeed!" exclaimed the sergeant, at the same time
+shaking her hand, "this is my petticoat-sodger; how goes it with you,
+girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have only a moment to spare," replied the maiden cheerfully, "and it
+is the greatest of good luck that I thought of coming out; for John gave
+me a signal, which I was stupid enough not to understand at first. But,
+after a while, I thought it could be no one but John Ramsay; and that,
+partly, because I expected he would be coming into the neighborhood ever
+since I heard of his being at his father's, after the ensign was made a
+prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"I went," said John Ramsay, "to the further side of the house, where I
+set to whistling an old-fashioned tune that Mary was acquainted
+with&mdash;walking away all the time in an opposite direction&mdash;as if there
+was nothing meant&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And I knew the tune, Mr. Horse Shoe," interrupted Mary, eagerly, "it
+was Maggie Lauder. John practised that trick once before to show me how
+to find my way to him. Upon that, I made an excuse to leave the room,
+and slipped out through the garden&mdash;and then I followed the whistling,
+as folks say they follow a jack-o'-lantern."</p>
+
+<p>"And so, by a countermarch," continued the young dragoon, "we came round
+the meadow and through the woods, here."</p>
+
+<p>"Now that you've got here at last," said Horse Shoe, "tell me the news."</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler is in the house," said Mary and John, both speaking at
+once. "He was brought there yesterday from Blackstock's," continued the
+maiden. "Orders came from somebody that he was to be kept at our house,
+until they had fixed upon what was to be done with him. Colonel Innis
+was too ill to think of such matters, and has been carried out of the
+neighborhood&mdash;and it is thought he will die."</p>
+
+<p>"How many men are there to guard the prisoner?" asked the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"There are more than twenty, with a lieutenant from Ninety-Six, who has
+the charge of them."</p>
+
+<p>"And how does the major bear his troubles?"</p>
+
+<p>"He seems to be heavy at heart," replied the maiden. "But that may be
+because he is away from his friends. Though my father, who is a good
+judge of such things, says he suffers tribulation like a Christian. He
+asked me privately, if I had heard anything of you, Mr. Robinson: and
+when I told him what folks said about your being with the people that
+beat Colonel Innis, he smiled, and said if any man could get him free,
+it was Horse Shoe Robinson."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they allow you to see him often?" inquired the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen him only two or three times since he came to the house,"
+answered the maiden. "But the officer that has charge of him is not
+contrary or ill-natured, and makes no objection to my carrying him his
+meals&mdash;though I am obliged to pretend to know less about Major Butler
+than I do, for fear they might be jealous of my talking to him."</p>
+
+<p>"You can give him a letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can contrive it," replied the maiden.</p>
+
+<p>"Then give him this, my good girl," said Robinson, taking Williams's
+letter from his pocket and putting it in Mary's hand. "It is a piece of
+writing he can use whenever he is much pressed. It may save him from
+harm. Now, I want you to do something more. You must find a chance just
+to whisper in his ear that Horse Shoe Robinson and John Ramsay are in
+the neighborhood. Tell him, likewise, that Colonel Williams has sent a
+messenger to Lord Cornwallis to lay his case before that officer, and to
+get some order for his better treatment. That the doings of that
+rascally court-martial have been sent by the messenger, hoping that Lord
+Cornwallis, if he is a brave and a Christian man&mdash;as they say he
+is&mdash;will stop this onmerciful persecution of the major&mdash;which has no
+cause for it under heaven. Will you remember all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try, sir," responded Mary; "and besides I will tell it to my
+father, who has more chance of speaking to Major Butler than I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Horse Shoe, "we will be here again to-morrow night, a
+little earlier than this; you must meet us here. And say to the major,
+if he has any message for us, he may send it by you. But be cautious,
+Mary, how you are seen talking with the prisoner. If they suspect you it
+will spoil all."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust to me," said the girl; "I warrant I have learned by this time how
+to behave myself amongst these red-coats."</p>
+
+<p>"There, John," continued Horse Shoe, "I have said all I want to say, and
+as you, I have no doubt, have got a good deal to tell the girl, it is
+but fair that you should have your chance. So, do you walk back with her
+as far as the mill, and I'll wait here for you. But don't forget
+yourself by overstaying your furlough."</p>
+
+<p>"I must get home as fast as possible," said Mary; "they will be looking
+for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Away, John Ramsay&mdash;away," added Horse Shoe; "and have your eyes about
+you, man."</p>
+
+<p>With this command John Ramsay and the miller's daughter hastily
+withdrew, and were soon out of the sergeant's hearing.</p>
+
+<p>After an interval, which doubtless seemed short to the gallant dragoon,
+he returned to his comrade, and the two set out rapidly in quest of
+their horses; and once more having got into their saddles, they retraced
+their steps at a brisk speed to Ramsay's cabin.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All distant and faint were the sounds of the battle;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With the breezes they rise, with the breezes they fail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till the shout and the groan and the conflict's dread rattle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the chase's wild clamor come loading the gale.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The Maid of Toro.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>In the confusion that ensued upon the defeat of Innis, James Curry
+succeeded in conducting Butler from the field. His orders were to
+retreat with the prisoner to Blackstock's; and he had accordingly set
+out with about a dozen troopers, by a private path that led towards a
+quarter secure from the molestation of the enemy, when the attack
+commenced. Butler was mounted behind one of the men, and in this uneasy
+condition was borne along the circuitous by-way that had been chosen,
+without a moment's respite from the severe motion of the horse, nearly
+at high speed, until, having accomplished three miles of the retreat,
+the party arrived at the main road that extended between Innis's camp
+and Blackstock's. Here Curry, conceiving himself to be out of danger of
+pursuit, halted his men, with a purpose to remain until he could learn
+something of the combat. Butler was in a state of the most exciting
+bewilderment as to the cause of this sudden change in his affairs. No
+explanation was given to him by his conductors; and although, from the
+first, he was aware that an extraordinary emergency had arisen from some
+assault upon Innis's position, no one dropped a word in his hearing to
+give him the slightest clue to the nature of the attack. The troopers
+about him preserved a morose and ill-natured silence, and even
+manifested towards him a harsh and resentful demeanor. He heard the
+firing, but what troops were engaged, by whom led, or with what chances
+of success, were subjects of the most painfully interesting doubt. He
+could only conjecture that this was a surprise accomplished by the
+Whigs, and that the assailants must have come in sufficient force to
+justify the boldness of the enterprise. That Horse Shoe was connected
+with this irruption he felt fully assured; and from this circumstance he
+gathered the consolatory and cheerful prognostic of a better issue out
+of his afflictions than, in his late condition, seemed even remotely
+possible. This hope grew brighter as the din of battle brought the
+tidings of the day to his ear. The first few scattered shots that
+told of the confusion in which the combat was begun, were, after an
+interval, succeeded by regular volleys of musketry that indicated an
+orderly and marshalled resistance. Platoon after platoon fired in
+succession&mdash;signifying, to the practised hearing of the soldier, that
+infantry was receiving the attacks of cavalry, and that as yet the first
+had not faltered. Then the firing grew more slack, and random shots were
+discharged from various quarters&mdash;but amidst these were heard no
+embodied volleys. It was the casual and nearly overpowered resistance of
+flying men.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture there was a dark frown on the brow of Curry, as he
+looked at his comrades, and said, in a low and muttered tone, "That
+helter-skelter shot grates cursedly on the ear. There's ill-luck in the
+sound of it."</p>
+
+<p>Presently a few stragglers appeared at a turn of the road, some quarter
+of a mile in the direction of the battle, urging their horses forward at
+the top of their speed. These were followed by groups both of infantry
+and cavalry, pressing onwards in the utmost disorder&mdash;those on horseback
+thrusting their way through the throng of foot-soldiers, seemingly
+regardless of life or limb; the wounded with their wounds bleeding
+afresh, or hastily bandaged with such appliances as were at hand. All
+hurried along amidst the oaths, remonstrances, and unheeded orders of
+the officers, who were endeavoring to resume their commands. It was the
+flight of men beset by a panic, and fearful of pursuit; and the clouds
+of dust raised by the press and hurry of this career almost obscured the
+setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>During the first moments of uncertainty, Curry, no less anxiously than
+Butler, remained stationary by the road-side, reading the distant signs
+of the progress of the fight; but now, when the disastrous issue was no
+longer doubtful, he commanded his cavalcade to move forward, and from
+that moment prosecuted his journey with unabated speed until he arrived
+at Blackstock's.</p>
+
+<p>Butler was unceremoniously marched to his former place of confinement
+in the barn, where a rigorous guard was set over his person. In the
+confusion and insubordination that prevailed amongst the crowd, that,
+during the night, was continually increasing in the little hamlet, the
+common rites of humanity towards the prisoner were forgotten, and he was
+left to pass the weary hours till morning, on a shock of hay, without
+food or other refreshment than a simple draught of water. From the
+unreserved murmurs of those who frequented the place, and the querulous
+upbraidings of the soldiery against each other, Butler was enabled to
+glean the principal incidents of the day. The supposed death of Innis
+reached him through this channel, and, what was scarcely a subject of
+less personal interest to him, the certain end of Hugh Habershaw. It was
+with a silent satisfaction at the moral or <i>poetical</i> justice&mdash;as it has
+been called&mdash;of the event, that he heard the comrades of the late
+self-conceited captain describe his death in terms of coarse and
+unpitying ribaldry&mdash;a retribution due to the memory of a cruel and
+cowardly braggart.</p>
+
+<p>When the morning was fully abroad, the disarranged and broken remnants
+of the Tory camp began gradually to be reduced to a state of discipline.
+The day was spent in this occupation. Orders were every moment arriving
+from the higher officers of the late camp, or from the nearest British
+posts. Videttes bore the tidings of the different military operations
+from the neighborhood of the enemy. The fragments of companies were
+marshalled into squads and subdivisions; and, successively, one party
+after another was seen to leave the hamlet, and take a direction of
+march that led towards the main British army, or to the garrisons of the
+lower districts.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the day one detachment only was left; and Butler
+was given to understand that this was intrusted with his especial
+keeping. It was composed of a few regular soldiers of the garrison of
+Ninety-Six, and a small number of the country militia,&mdash;making, in all,
+about twenty men, commanded by Lieutenant Macdonald, of the regular
+army.</p>
+
+<p>Butler remained in his present state of seclusion four or five days,
+during which he experienced much mitigation of the rigors of his
+captivity. Macdonald was a careful and considerate soldier, and demeaned
+himself towards his prisoner with such kindness as the nature of his
+trust allowed. He removed him into a comfortable apartment in the
+dwelling-house, and supplied him with the conveniences his situation
+required; he even made him occasional visits, which were attended with
+more than the mere observances of courtesy and respect, and expressed a
+sympathy in his sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>These unexpected tones of comfort, from a quarter in which Butler had
+hitherto heard nothing but fierce hatred and harsh rebuke, fell
+gratefully upon his ear, and gave a brighter color to his hopes for the
+future. But he could not help observing, that no hint was dropped by
+Macdonald which might furnish him the slightest ground of surmise as to
+the vicissitudes that yet awaited him. The reported fall of Innis seemed
+to afford a natural foundation for the belief, that the malice of his
+enemies might hereafter be less active,&mdash;as he attributed much of the
+persecution he had suffered to the secret machinations of that
+individual. He no longer saw around his person those agents who first
+pursued him with such bitter hostility. He seemed to have fallen into
+entirely new combinations, and had reason to augur, from all he saw,
+that their purposes against him were less wicked. And first, above all
+other topics of consolation and comfort, was the conviction that a brave
+and efficient party of friends were in the field, intent upon his
+liberation. Still, his situation was one in which it required all his
+manhood to sustain himself. A young soldier of an ardent temper, and
+zealously bent upon active and perilous service, can ill brook the
+tedious, dull delays of captivity, even in its mildest form: but if this
+thraldom befal in a period of universal agitation, when "great events
+are on the gale," of which the captive is only a witness to the
+pervading interest they excite, without being permitted to know their
+import; if moreover, as in the case of Butler, an impenetrable veil of
+mystery hang over the purpose of his captivity, behind which the few
+short glimpses afforded him, open upon his view nothing but death in its
+most frightful forms; and if to these are added, by far the bitterest of
+its qualities, the anxieties, cares, and pains of a devoted, plighted
+lover, separated from the heart that loves him, we may well conjecture
+that the most gallant spirit may find in it, even amidst occasional
+gleams of sunshine, that sinking of hope which the philosophic king of
+Israel has described as making "the heart sick,"&mdash;that chafing of the
+soul that, like the encaged eaglet, wearies and tears its wing against
+the bars of its prison. Even so fared it with Arthur Butler, who now
+found himself growing more and more into the shadow of a melancholy
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon ascertained that Williams had abandoned the field he had
+won, and had retreated beyond the reach of immediate pursuit. And as the
+post at Musgrove's mill afforded many advantages, in reference to the
+means of communicating with the garrisons of the middle section of the
+province, and was more secure against the hazard of molestation from
+such parties of Whigs as might still be out-lying, an order was sent to
+Macdonald to remove with his prisoner to the habitation of the miller,
+and there to detain him until some final step should be taken in his
+case.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuance of this requisition, Butler was conducted, after the
+interval of the few days we have mentioned, to Allen Musgrove's. The old
+man received his guest with that submission to the domination of the
+military masters of the province, which he had prescribed to himself
+throughout the contest,&mdash;secretly rejoicing that the selection made of
+his house for this purpose, might put it in his power to alleviate the
+sufferings of a soldier, towards whose cause he felt a decided though
+unavowed attachment. This selection furnished evidence to the miller,
+that nothing had transpired to arouse the distrust of the British
+authorities in the loyalty of any part of his family,&mdash;and to Butler, it
+inferred the consolatory fact, that the zealous devotion of Mary
+Musgrove to his service had as yet passed without notice; whilst to the
+maiden herself, it was proof that her agency in the delivery of the
+letter, which she had so adroitly put within the reach of the officers
+of the court, had not even excited a suspicion against her.</p>
+
+<p>The best room in the house was allotted to the prisoner; and the most
+sedulous attention on the part of the family, so far as it could be
+administered without inducing mistrust, was employed in supplying him
+with whatever was needful to his condition. On the part of the
+commanding officer, the usual precautions known to military experience
+for the safe keeping of a prisoner were adopted. The privates of the
+guard occupied the barn, whilst Macdonald and one or two subordinate
+officers took up their quarters in the dwelling-house: sentinels were
+posted at the several avenues leading to the habitation, and a sergeant
+had the especial care of the prisoner, who, under this supervision, was
+occasionally allowed the range of the garden. The usual forms of a camp
+police were observed with scrupulous exactness;&mdash;and the morning and the
+nightly drum, the parade, the changing of sentries, the ringing of
+ramrods in the empty barrels of the muskets, and the glitter of weapons,
+were strangely and curiously associated with the rural and unwarlike
+features of the scenery around.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>BUTLER FINDS A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE IN HIS DISTRESS.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Allen Musgrove had heard enough of Butler's history from his daughter
+and from Galbraith Robinson, to feel a warm interest in that officer's
+safety; and now his personal acquaintance with the prisoner still
+further corroborated his first prepossessions. The old man took the
+earliest opportunity to indicate to Butler the concern he felt in his
+welfare. From the moderate and kindly tone of his own character, he was
+enabled to do this without drawing upon himself the distrust of the
+officer of the guard. His expressions of sympathy were regarded, by
+Macdonald, as the natural sentiments of a religious mind imbued with an
+habitual compassion for the sufferings of a fellow creature, and of one
+who strove to discharge the duties of a peace-maker. His visits were
+looked upon as those of a spiritual counsellor, whose peculiar right it
+was to administer consolation to the afflicted, in whatever condition;
+he was therefore permitted freely to commune with the prisoner, and, as
+it sometimes happened, alone with him in his chamber.</p>
+
+<p>This privilege was now particularly useful; for Mary having, on the
+morning after her midnight interview with John Ramsay and Robinson,
+communicated to her father the incidents of that meeting, and put in his
+possession the letter which the sergeant had given her, and having also
+repeated her message to him accurately as she had received it, Musgrove
+took occasion, during the following day, to deliver the letter to
+Butler, and to make known to him all that he had heard from his
+daughter. This disclosure produced the most cheering effect upon
+Butler's spirits. It, for the first time since the commencement of his
+sufferings, opened to his mind a distinct view of his chance of eventual
+liberation. The expectation of having his case represented to Cornwallis
+inspired him with a strong confidence that justice would be done to
+him, and the covert malice of his enemies be disarmed. In this hope, it
+occurred to him to take some instant measures to satisfy the British
+commander-in-chief of the groundless character of the principal
+accusation brought against him by the court-martial,&mdash;that which related
+to the pretended design to deliver up Philip Lindsay to the wrath of the
+Republican government. For this purpose he resolved to make an appeal to
+Lindsay himself, by letter, and frankly to call upon him to put at rest
+this most unjust and wicked accusation. He knew that however strong
+Lindsay's antipathy to him might be, the high sense of honor which
+distinguished the father of Mildred might be confidently and
+successfully invoked to furnish such a statement as should entirely
+satisfy his accusers of the gross injustice of the charge. "I will write
+to him," he said, "and throw myself upon his protection. I will require
+of him to detail the whole history of my intercourse with his family,
+and to say how improbable even he must deem it, that I could be so base
+as to plot against his peace. And I will appeal to Mildred to fortify
+her father's statement, to show that this wicked accusation rests upon a
+story which it is impossible could be true."</p>
+
+<p>Whilst Butler's thoughts were still occupied with this resolve, Mary
+Musgrove entered his apartment, bearing in her hands a napkin and plate
+which she had come to spread for his dinner, and as the maiden employed
+herself in arranging a small table in the middle of the room, she cast a
+few distrustful glances towards the sentinel who paced to and fro
+opposite the door, and then, seizing on a moment when the soldier had
+disappeared from view, she whispered to Butler&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have seen my father, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>Butler nodded his head.</p>
+
+<p>"He has told you all?"</p>
+
+<p>Butler again signified a silent assent.</p>
+
+<p>The tramp of the sentinel showed that he was again approaching the door;
+and when Mary turned her eyes in that direction, she beheld the watchful
+soldier halting in such a position as to enable him both to see and hear
+what was passing in the room. Without showing the least perturbation, or
+even appearing to notice the guard, she said in a gay and careless
+voice,&mdash;"My father and Lieutenant Macdonald,&mdash;who is a good
+gentleman&mdash;think it belongs to Christian people to do all the good we
+can for them that providence has put under us; and so, sir, I have been
+to gather you some blackberries, which I thought, may be, you would
+like, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The sentinel walked away, and Mary smiled as she saw her little
+stratagem succeed.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring me some paper," said Butler cautiously. "You are a considerate
+girl," he continued, in a louder voice, "and I thank you for this good
+will." Then finding that the sentinel did not immediately return, he
+whispered&mdash;"I wish to write to Robinson&mdash;you shall take the letter and
+read it to him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do my best," replied the maiden; and again the sentinel
+interrupted the conference.</p>
+
+<p>Mary, having arranged the table, left the room. In a few moments she
+returned, bringing with her the family Bible.</p>
+
+<p>"If you would like to read, sir," she said, "here is a book that a body
+may look at a long time without getting tired of it. We have only got
+this, and the Pilgrim's Progress, and the hymn-book, in the house; but
+my father says this is worth all the others that ever were printed, put
+together; and especially, sir, when one's in distress, and away from
+their friends."</p>
+
+<p>An expression of pleasure played across Butler's features as he took the
+heavy volume from the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand thanks to you, my pretty maiden," he replied. "I doubt not I
+shall grow both wiser and better under your tutoring. This kindness
+almost reconciles me to my fate."</p>
+
+<p>"John is doing all he can for you, and he is a good helper to Mr.
+Robinson," said Mary, in the same cautious whisper that she had first
+spoken in, as she retreated from the room. Butler opened the book, and
+found a sheet of paper folded away amongst the leaves; then closing it,
+he threw it upon his bed.</p>
+
+<p>In due course of time, Mary Musgrove returned with a few dishes of food
+which she set out upon the table, and, in one of the successive visits
+which were employed in furnishing the repast, she took from beneath her
+apron a small ink-horn and pen, which she placed, unobserved by the
+sentinel, in Butler's hand. Having done this, she retired, leaving the
+prisoner to despatch his meal alone.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, Butler threw himself upon his bed, where he lay with the
+Bible opened out before him, with his back turned towards the door; and,
+whilst Mary Musgrove was engaged in removing the furniture of the table,
+he found means to write a few lines to Philip Lindsay. He took the same
+opportunity to pen a short letter to Mildred; and then to set down some
+directions for Horse Shoe Robinson, the purport of which was that the
+sergeant should take the two letters and depart, with all despatch, for
+the Dove Cote, and to put both into the hands of Mildred, with a request
+that she would procure him the necessary reply from her father. Horse
+Shoe was also directed to explain to Mildred such particulars of
+Butler's history as were necessary to be made known for the
+accomplishment of the object of the mission.</p>
+
+<p>When these papers were finished they were folded up into a small
+compass, and in the course of the evening put into Mary's hands, with a
+request that she would herself read the instructions intended for the
+sergeant, and apprise him of their contents when she delivered the
+papers to him.</p>
+
+<p>So far all had succeeded well, and Butler found additional reason to
+dispel the gloom that hung upon his spirits, in the prospect that was
+now opened to him of enlisting strong and authoritative friends in the
+scheme of his liberation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MARY MUSGROVE'S PERPLEXITIES.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>As a mariner who watches the heavens from the deck, and notes the first
+uprising of the small cloud, "no bigger than a man's hand," that to his
+practised eye shows the sign of tempest; and anon, as the speck quickly
+changes into a lurid mass, whence volume after volume of dun vapor is
+driven in curled billows forward, covering the broad welkin with a
+gloomy pall, he looks more frequently and more intently upwards, anxious
+to lay his vessel safe, and assure himself of his proper course to
+steer: so&mdash;not with the same doubt of safety, but with the same restless
+inspection of the heavens&mdash;did Mary watch the slow approach of night.
+First, she looked wistfully at the declining sun, and observed with
+pleasure the night-hawk begin to soar: then, through the long twilight,
+she noted the thickening darkness, and saw the bat take wing, and heard
+the frog croaking from his pool. And as the stars, one by one, broke
+forth upon the night, it gladdened her to think the hour of her mission
+was approaching, for she was troubled in her spirit and anxious to
+acquit herself of her charitable office; and perhaps, too, it may be
+told of her, without prejudice to her modest, maidenly emotions, a spur
+was given to her wishes by the hope of meeting John Ramsay.</p>
+
+<p>For an hour after supper she paced the porch, and still looked out upon
+the stars, to mark the slow waxing of the night; and, now and then she
+walked forth as far as the mill, and lingered by the bank of the river,
+and again returned to ask the sentinel the hour.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem disturbed, Mary," said Macdonald, playfully. "Now, I'll
+venture to say I can guess your thoughts: this star-gazing is a great
+tell-tale. You were just now thinking that, as the tug of the war is
+over, some lad who has borne a musket lately, will be very naturally
+tripping this way to-night, instead of going home to see his mother.
+Come&mdash;isn't that a good guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know him, sir?" asked Mary, with composure.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, to be sure I do: a good, brave fellow, who eats well, drinks well,
+and fights well."</p>
+
+<p>"All men do that now," replied the maiden, "but I am sure you are wrong,
+sir, if you think any such considers it worth his while to come here."</p>
+
+<p>"He must come quickly, or we cannot let him in without a countersign,"
+said the officer: "sergeant, order the tattoo to beat, it is nine
+o'clock. Mary, stay, I must cross-question you a little about this same
+gallant."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, sir, I did but jest, and so I thought you did. My father says
+it is not proper I should loiter to talk with the men; good night, sir:
+it is our time for prayers." And with these words the young girl
+withdrew into the house.</p>
+
+<p>In some half hour afterwards Mary escaped by another door and, taking a
+circuitous path through the garden, she passed behind the sentinel and
+sped towards the mill, intent upon keeping her appointment with the
+friends of Butler. As soon as she reached the river bank, she quickened
+her pace, and hurried with a nimble step towards the distant thicket.</p>
+
+<p>"What ho! who goes there?" shouted the voice of a man from the
+neighborhood of the mill: "who flies so fast?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, Tom, it must be a ghost," said a second voice, loud enough to be
+heard by the damsel, who now increased the speed with which she fled
+towards the cover.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant two of the soldiers of the guard rushed upon the track of
+the frightened girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Spare me, good sir&mdash;for pity's sake, spare me!" exclaimed the maiden,
+suddenly turning round upon her pursuers.</p>
+
+<p>"Where away so fast?" said one of the men. "This is a strange time of
+night for girls to be flying into the woods. What matter have you in
+hand that brings you here&mdash;and what is your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the daughter of Allen Musgrove," replied Mary indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so?" said the first speaker; "then it is the Miller's own
+daughter, and we ask your pardon. We only saw you flying along the bank
+of the river, and not knowing what it was, why we thought it right to
+follow. But as it is all explained now, we will see you back to the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"I can find my way without help," replied the maiden.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's not good-natured for so kind a girl as the miller's
+daughter ought to be," said the second soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"I will see if my father can protect me," said Mary, hastening back
+towards the house so rapidly as almost to run. "I will know if
+Lieutenant Macdonald will allow me to be insulted."</p>
+
+<p>With a hurried step she entered upon the porch, and, without stopping to
+parley with those who occupied this part of the dwelling, retired to her
+chamber and threw herself into a chair, where she sat for some time
+panting with affright. As she gradually recovered her strength, she
+began to turn her thoughts upon her recent discomfiture; and it was with
+a deep sense of chagrin and disappointment, that she reflected upon her
+not being able successfully to renew her enterprise on the same night.
+The hour of meeting had arrived; the officers of the guard were still
+frequenting the porch; her conduct had already excited notice, and if
+she wished to be in a condition to render future service, her most
+obvious duty was to postpone any further attempt to deliver the papers
+until another time. On the other hand, she had reason to fear that John
+Ramsay would be hovering near to ascertain the cause of her failure to
+meet him, and might rashly resort to the same mode of conveying a signal
+which he had successfully practised heretofore. This would infallibly,
+she believed, provoke an investigation that might entirely frustrate all
+their views. "But then John is a good soldier," she said, in the way of
+self-consolation, "and will know that the enemy is awake; because if it
+was not so, he would be sure I would keep my word. And if he only takes
+that notion into his head, he is too careful to run the chance of
+spoiling all by coming here."</p>
+
+<p>Still, with some little mistrust as to John's soldiership when it
+crossed the path of his love, which naturally, she reflected, makes a
+man rash, she thought it best to provide against accident, by throwing
+herself into the company of the officers who loitered about the door in
+idle discourse with her father. She accordingly left her room, and, with
+an anxious and troubled heart, went out and seated herself quietly on
+the steps of the porch, where she remained for some time a silent but
+inattentive listener to the conversation of those around her.</p>
+
+<p>As a part of that system of things by which it is contrived that the
+current of true love shall never run smooth, I have ever found that when
+it was peculiarly fitting that some grandam, uncle, cousin, father, or
+guest, should retire early to bed, in order that some scheme of interest
+to young lovers might be successfully achieved; precisely on such nights
+is the perversity of fate most conspicuous, in inclining the minds of
+such grandam, uncle, cousin, and so forth, to sit up much longer than
+they are wont; thus showing that the grooves and dovetails of things in
+this world are not nicely fitted to the occasions of those who deal in
+the tender passion. And so it befel for poor Mary Musgrove this night.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was now fast verging upon eleven, and she anxiously noted every
+sentence that was spoken, hoping it was to be the last; and then she
+trembled to think that John, regardless of the danger, might be lurking
+near, and indiscreetly expose himself. And still the talkers discoursed
+as if they meant to sit up all night. It was a delicious, cool hour,
+after a sultry day, and there was luxury in the breeze; but as the
+minutes were counted over by the maiden, in their slow passage, her
+fears increased. At length, far off, as if it were a mile away, the
+clear notes of one whistling an old tune were heard. Mary involuntarily
+started from her seat, and moved along the little pathway towards the
+gate, her heart beating against her bosom as if it would have
+"overbourne its continents." The signal notes freshened upon the air,
+and the tune came forth blithely and boldly, showing that the wayfarer
+was trudging, with a light heart, down the main road towards the mill.
+The party in the porch, however, were too much engrossed in their
+colloquy to notice the incident. The whistling came still nearer, until,
+at last, it seemed to be scarce a gunshot from the house. Beyond this
+point it did not advance; but here indicated that the person from whom
+it proceeded had halted. If Mary's cheek could have been brought to the
+light, it would have shown how the blood had deserted it from very fear:
+her whole frame shook with this emotion. To exhibit her unconcern,
+which, in truth, was most sadly affected, she mingled amongst the
+company in the porch, and leant against the door-post. Still the
+whistling continued, with no symptom of retreat, and Mary impatiently
+walked towards the further end of the house. "John Ramsay makes a fool
+of himself," she muttered peevishly. "Hasn't he the sense to see I
+cannot get out? What keeps the simple man dallying shilly-shally at the
+fence, as if he actually wanted them to take him? I don't believe in the
+mighty sense and wisdom of these men! If John had half an eye he would
+see that I couldn't get away to-night."</p>
+
+<p>As the maiden grew fretful, her fears had less mastery over her; and
+now, taking heart of grace, she returned to the porch.</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant," said Macdonald, calling to one of his men, "take two files
+and patrole the road until you ascertain who that fellow is who makes
+himself so merry to-night. I thought it some fool," he continued,
+addressing himself to Allen Musgrove, "who, as the poet says, 'whistled
+as he went for want of thought,' but he seems to have a hankering after
+these premises that is not exactly to my mind. Perhaps, after all,
+Mary," he added privately in the maiden's ear; "it is the lad I was
+telling you of; and as he is a bashful youth, we will bring him in by
+force. You know, he can't help that; and old dad here can never blame
+you if I should make the fellow come to see you against your will.
+Sergeant, treat the man civilly, you understand."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not worth your while to be sending after Adam Gordon," said Mary,
+with some slight confusion in her accent; "he is only half-witted; and
+almost the only thing he does for a living, is to come down of nights
+here to the mill-dam, to bob for eels. If it wasn't for that, his mother
+would go many a day without a meal."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter, we will bring Adam in," replied the lieutenant, "and if he
+is good at his sport, why we will go and join him."</p>
+
+<p>"He is shy of company," said Mary, still faltering in her speech, "and
+will not come amongst strangers."</p>
+
+<p>Partly from a spirit of resignation, partly to avoid further exposure of
+her feelings, and in part too, perhaps, from some slight feeling of
+remorse, such as is natural to a virtuous and youthful mind at being
+obliged to practise a deceit however lawful (as I contend it was in
+this case), the maiden withdrew into the parlor, where, unseen by any,
+she offered up a short and earnest prayer for direction and forgiveness.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the patrole had set out, and, after the lapse of a short time,
+returned, when the officer reported that before his arrival, the person
+they had gone in quest of had left the place, and, in the darkness of
+the night, they had no clue to follow him. This was scarcely announced
+before the same whistle was heard, at the same remote point where it had
+first attracted Mary's notice.</p>
+
+<p>"It is as our young mistress has said," muttered Macdonald, "some
+bumpkin, too shy to be caught, and not worth the catching. We have sat
+it out to-night long enough, friend Musgrove, so let's to bed."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the party betook themselves to their several places of
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>As Mary prepared herself for her couch, the anxious events of the night
+busied her thoughts, and the image of John Ramsay was summoned up
+alternately to be reproved and applauded. "If he is foolhardy," she
+said, as she laid her head on the pillow, "no one will say he isn't wise
+besides. And if he will be thrusting his head into danger, he knows
+right well how to get it out again. So God bless him, for a proper man
+as he is!" And thus, in a better temper with her lover, the maiden fell
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p>In order to avert all suspicion of disloyalty from the miller's family,
+Christopher Shaw had offered his services to Macdonald, to do duty as
+one of the detachment, during the period of Butler's detention in the
+house. The offer had been accepted, and Christopher was appointed to
+serve in the character of a quarter-master, or purveyor for the little
+garrison,&mdash;a post, whose duties did not materially interfere with his
+daily occupation at the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was in the habit of communicating to Christopher all her secrets,
+and of enlisting his aid in her plans whenever it was necessary. And
+now, soon after the morning broke, the maiden arose and went to the
+mill, where she communicated to Christopher all the perplexities of the
+preceding night.</p>
+
+<p>"The thing must be managed to-day," said the young man, after he had
+heard the whole story. "I have provisions to collect from the
+neighborhood; and what is to hinder you, Mary, from riding out with
+me,&mdash;if it should only be to buy some eggs?&mdash;and then, what is to hinder
+us from popping in upon David Ramsay, and there fixing the whole
+matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will not the lieutenant be sending some of his own men with you?"
+inquired the maid.</p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't suspect us," answered Christopher, as cautiously as if the
+walls of his mill had ears. "At any rate we can try it, you know, and if
+the thing should take a wrong turn, you can only stay at home; and we
+may, at the worst, make another venture at night."</p>
+
+<p>"I have the letter in my bosom," said Mary, "and will be ready
+immediately after breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>When the appointed time arrived, things went as favorably as Mary could
+have wished. Her good spirits had returned; and she plied her household
+duties with a happy cheerfulness in her looks that completely disarmed
+all suspicion. She received the banter of Macdonald, as to the cause of
+her restlessness on the preceding night, with perfect good nature; and
+when Christopher announced to the commanding officer his purpose of
+going out upon a purveying ride, and invited his cousin to accompany
+him, she accepted the proposal with such a tone of laughing pleasure, as
+put it on the footing of a pastime.</p>
+
+<p>The horses were brought to the door, and the maiden and her escort rode
+cheerily forth. They were not long in accomplishing the five or six
+miles that brought them to David Ramsay's cabin. I need not tell the
+affectionate concern with which Mary Musgrove met her lover, John
+Ramsay; nor how she upbraided him as a silly fellow, for tramping and
+trudging about the mill, and whistling his signals, when he ought to
+have known, by her not coming to meet him, that there was good reason
+for it. Nor is it important to detail the circumstances of Horse Shoe's
+and John's fruitless expedition, and their disappointment at not seeing
+Mary; and how shrewdly, last night, Robinson guessed the true cause of
+it; and how entirely he agreed with the maiden, beforehand, in thinking
+John a venturesome, harebrained fool, to put himself in danger, when he
+might have been certain it would have ended as it did, in a run from
+"the rascally red coats," as John had to run to get out of the clutches
+of the patrole. My story requires that I should pass these things by,
+and go to the business in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe and Ramsay had grown exceedingly impatient, both because they
+were in hourly danger of being surprised by casual parties of the enemy,
+and because the time for useful action was fast gliding away. They had
+used every precaution to keep their visit to David Ramsay's a profound
+secret to the neighborhood; and had, with that object, lain perdue in
+one of the small cabins, from which they might watch the approach of
+visitors, and, if need required, secure an immediate retreat. During the
+day, they seldom left their concealment, confining all their out-door
+operations to the night.</p>
+
+<p>A consultation was held in David Ramsay's cabin,&mdash;the letters were
+produced and delivered to Horse Shoe, and the instructions intended for
+him by Butler were carefully read. It was resolved that Horse Shoe
+should set out for the Dove Cote without delay, taking the route through
+the mountain country of North Carolina, as that least likely to be
+interrupted by the British troops. John Ramsay, for the present, was to
+return to the Fair Forest camp, to inform Williams of the state of
+affairs; and he was hereafter to act as occasion might suggest.
+Christopher Shaw and Mary were to attend upon Butler, and communicate
+whatever might transpire of interest to David Ramsay, who promised to
+find means of intercourse with Williams or Sumpter, as circumstances
+should allow.</p>
+
+<p>These matters being arranged, Mary and Christopher Shaw took their
+leaves of Ramsay's family, and went about the ostensible object of their
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe's plan of travel during the first and most perilous stages of
+his journey towards Virginia, was to avail himself of the darkness of
+the night; and he accordingly resolved to set out as soon as this day
+should draw to a close. His immediate cares were, therefore, directed to
+making all the necessary preparations for his departure. Captain Peter
+was carefully tended, and supplied with a double allowance of provender;
+provisions were stowed away, both for himself and his trusty beast: his
+pistols were put in order: his rifle cleaned out, and a supply of
+ammunition provided; and, finally, the letters were sewed up in a
+leather pouch, and buckled around his body by a strap, inside of his
+clothes. It was no inconsiderable item in the sergeant's preparation for
+his expedition, to sit down and eat a meal, which, from the quantity
+bestowed, and the vigor with which the assault upon it was made, might
+have betokened a full week's starvation.</p>
+
+<p>The day waned, and the night came a welcome visitor to the sergeant;
+and, at that hour which old chroniclers designate as "inter canem et
+lupum," Captain Peter was brought to the door, ready dight for travel.
+Ramsay's family stood around,&mdash;and whilst Andy, with boyish affection,
+held Horse Shoe's rifle in his hand, the sergeant feelingly spoke the
+words of parting to his friends;&mdash;then, with a jaunty air of careless
+mirth, springing into his saddle, and receiving his trusty weapon from
+the young comrade of his late gallant adventure, he rode forth with as
+stout a heart as ever went with knight of chivalry to the field of
+romantic renown.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A GLANCE AT THE DOVE COTE.&mdash;THE COMPANIONSHIP OF BROTHER AND SISTER.</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>Our story once more brings us back to the Dove Cote. During the first
+week that followed her interview with Arthur Butler under the Fawn's
+Tower, Mildred was calm and thoughtful, and even melancholy: her usual
+custom of exercise was foregone, and her time was passed chiefly in her
+chamber. By degrees, however, her firm and resolute temper predominated
+over the sadness of her fortunes, and she began to resume that
+cheerfulness which circumstances can never long subdue in a strong and
+disciplined mind. She had grown more than ever watchful of the public
+events, and sought, with an intense avidity, to obtain information in
+regard to the state of things in the south. She now felt herself closely
+allied to the cause in which Arthur Butler had embarked, and therefore,
+caught up the floating rumors of the day, in what regarded the progress
+of the American arms in the southern expedition, with the interest of
+one who had a large stake depending on the issue.</p>
+
+<p>She had received several letters from Butler, which detailed the
+progress of his journey from the Dove Cote to Gates's camp, and from
+thence to Horse Shoe's cottage. They were all written in the confident
+and even jocular tone of a light-hearted soldier who sought to amuse his
+mistress; and they narrated such matters of personal history as were of
+a character to still her fears for his safety. Their effect upon Mildred
+was to warm up her enthusiasm, as well as to brighten her anticipations
+of the future, and thus to increase the returning elasticity of her
+spirits. Up to this period, therefore, she grew every day more buoyant
+and playful in her temper, and brought herself to entertain a more
+sanguine reckoning of the eventual determination of affairs. She was now
+frequently on horseback, attended by her brother, with whom she scarcely
+ever failed to make a visit to the good Mistress Dimock, where she
+either found a letter from Butler, or heard some of the thousand tidings
+which report was for ever busy in propagating or exaggerating in regard
+to the movements of the army.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll warrant you, Arthur is a man for the pen as well as for the spur
+and broadsword, my pretty lady," was one of the landlady's comments, as
+she handed to Mildred the eighth or ninth epistle that had fallen into
+her hands since Butler's departure; "there scarcely comes trotting by a
+soiled traveller with his head set northwards, but it is&mdash;'Good woman,
+is this Mistress Dimock's?' and when I say, 'aye,' then 'here's a
+letter, madam, for you, that comes from the army:' and so, there's
+Arthur's own hand-writing to a great pacquet, 'for Mistress Dimock of
+the Rockfish inn, of Amherst,' and not even, after all, one poor line
+for me, but just a cover, and the inside for Miss Mildred Lindsay of the
+Dove Cote. Ha, ha! we old bodies are only stalking-horses in this world.
+But God bless him!&mdash;he is a fine and noble gentleman." And Mildred would
+take the pacquet and impatiently break the seal; and as she perused the
+close-written contents the color waxed and waned upon her cheek, and her
+eye would one instant sparkle with mirth, and in the next grow dim with
+a tear. And when she had finished reading, she would secretly press the
+paper to her lips, and then bestow it away in her bosom, evincing the
+earnest fondness of a devoted and enthusiastic nature.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred and Henry were inseparable; and, in proportion as his sister's
+zeal and attachment to the cause of independence became more active, did
+Henry's inclination to become a partisan grow apace. Hers was a
+character to kindle the spirit of brave adventure. There was in it a
+quiet and unostentatious but unvarying current of resolution, that
+shrank before no perils. Her feelings, acute and earnest, had given all
+their warmth to her principles; and what she once believed her duty
+commanded, was pursued with the devout self-dedication of a religious
+obligation. To this temper, which, by some secret of its constitution,
+has a spell to sway the minds of mankind, there was added the grace of
+an exquisitely feminine address. The union of these two attributes
+rendered Mildred Lindsay an object of conspicuous interest in such a
+time as that of the revolutionary struggle. Her youth, her ready
+genius, her knowledge and her habits of reflection, much in advance of
+her years, enhanced the impression her character was adapted to produce,
+and brought upon her, even in her secluded position, a considerable
+share of public observation. It was not wonderful that a mind so
+organized and accomplished should have acquired an unlimited dominion
+over the frank, open-hearted, and brave temper of her brother, now just
+stepping beyond the confines of mere boyhood. Her influence over Henry
+was paramount and unbounded: her affections were his, her faith was his,
+her enthusiasm stole into and spread over his whole temper.</p>
+
+<p>With these means of influence she had sedulously applied herself to
+infuse into Henry's mind her own sentiment in regard to the war; and
+this purpose had led her to interest herself in subjects and pursuits,
+which, in general, are very foreign from her sex. Her desire to enlist
+his feelings in aid of Butler, and her conviction that a time was at
+hand when Henry might be useful, gave rise to an eager solicitude to see
+him well prepared for the emergencies of the day, by that necessary mode
+of education which, during the period of the revolution, was common
+amongst the young gentlemen of the country. He was a most willing and
+ready pupil; and she delighted to encourage him in his inclination for
+military studies, however fanciful some of his conceptions in regard to
+them might be. She, therefore, saw, with great satisfaction, the
+assiduous though boyish devotion with which he set himself to gain a
+knowledge of matters relating to the duties of a soldier. However little
+this may fall within the scope of female perception in ordinary times,
+it will not appear so much removed from the capabilities or even the
+habits of the sex, when we reflect that in the convulsions of this great
+national struggle, when every resource of the country was drained for
+service, the events of the day were contemplated with no less interest
+by the women than by the men. The fervor with which the American women
+participated in the cares and sacrifices of the revolutionary war, has
+challenged the frequent notice and warmest praises of its chroniclers.
+Mildred but reflected, in this instance, the hues of the society around
+the Dove Cote, which consisted of many families, scattered along the
+country side, composed of persons of elevated character, easy
+circumstances, and of the staunchest Whig politics, with whom she held
+an uninterrupted and familiar intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>Another consideration may serve to explain the somewhat masculine
+character of Mildred's pursuits. Her most intimate companion, at all
+times, and frequently for weeks together her only one, was her brother.
+These two had grown up together in all the confidence of childhood; and
+this confidence continued still unabated. Their pursuits, sports,
+exercises, thoughts, and habits were alike, with less of the
+discrimination usual between the sexes, than is to be found between
+individuals in larger associations. They approximated each other in
+temper and disposition; and Henry might, in this regard, be said to be,
+without disparagement to his manly qualities, a girlish boy; and
+Mildred, on the other hand, with as little derogation, to be a boyish
+girl. This home-bred freedom of nurture produced, in its development,
+some grotesque results, which my reader has, doubtless, heretofore
+observed with a smile; and it will, likewise, serve to explain some of
+the peculiar forms of intercourse which may hereafter be noticed between
+the brother and sister.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the battle of Camden had not yet reached the neighborhood of
+the Dove Cote; but the time drew nigh when all the country stood on
+tiptoe, anxious to receive tidings of that interesting event. A week had
+elapsed without bringing letters from Butler; and Mildred was growing
+uneasy at this interval of silence. There was a struggle in her mind; an
+unpleasant foreboding that she was almost ashamed to acknowledge, and
+yet which she could not subdue. The country was full of reports of the
+hostile operations, and a thousand surmises were entertained, which
+varied according to the more sanguine or desponding tempers of the
+persons who made them. Mildred was taught by Butler to expect defeat,
+yet still she hoped for victory; but the personal fate of her lover
+stole upon her conjectures, and she could not keep down the misgiving
+which affection generally exaggerates, and always renders painful. In
+this state of doubt, it was observable that her manners occasionally
+rose to a higher tone of playfulness than was natural to her; and by
+turns they sank to a moody silence, showing that the equipoise of the
+mind was disturbed, and that the scales did not hang true: it was the
+struggle of mental resolution with a coward heart&mdash;a heart intimidated
+by its affections.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things when, in the latter fortnight of August,
+the morning ushered in a day of unsurpassed beauty. The air was elastic;
+the cool breeze played upon the shrubbery, and stole the perfume of a
+thousand flowers. The birds sang with unwonted vivacity from the
+neighboring trees; and the sun lighted up the mountains with a golden
+splendor, the fast drifting clouds flinging their shadows upon the
+forest that clothed the hills around, and the eagle and the buzzard
+sailing in the highest heavens, or eddying around the beetling cliffs
+with a glad flight, as if rejoicing in the luxuries of the cool summer
+morning. Breakfast was scarcely over before Henry was seen upon the
+terrace, arrayed in his hunting dress. His bugle was daintily suspended
+by a green cord across his shoulders; it was a neat and glittering
+instrument, whose garniture was bedizened with the coxcombry of silken
+tassels, and was displayed as ostentatiously as if worn by the hero of a
+melodrame.</p>
+
+<p>Like St. Swithin in the ballad, he had "footed thrice the wold," when he
+put the bugle to his mouth and "blew a recheate both loud and long."</p>
+
+<p>"How now, good master Puff," said Mildred, coming up playfully to her
+brother, "what means this uproar? Pray you, have mercy on one's ears."</p>
+
+<p>Henry turned towards his sister, without taking the bugle from his lips,
+and continued the blast for a full minute; then, ceasing only from want
+of breath, he said, with a comic earnestness&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'm practising my signals, sister; I can give you 'to Horse,' and
+'Reveillee,' and 'Roast Beef,' like a trained trumpeter."</p>
+
+<p>"Truly you are a proper man, master," replied Mildred. "But it is hardly
+a time," she continued, half muttering to herself, "for you and me,
+Henry, to wear light hearts in our bosoms."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sister," said Henry, with some astonishment in his looks, "this
+seems to me to be the very time to practise my signals. We are at the
+very tug of the war, and every man that has a sword, or bugle either,
+should be up and doing."</p>
+
+<p>"How come on your studies, brother?" interrupted Mildred, without
+heeding Henry's interpretation of his duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, rarely! I know most of the speeches of Coriolanus all by heart:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Like an eagle in a dove cote, I<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fluttered your voices in Corioli:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone I did it.&mdash;Boy!'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>he spouted, quoting from the play, and accompanying his recitation with
+some extravagant gestures.</p>
+
+<p>"This is easy work, Henry," said Mildred laughing, "there is too much of
+the holiday play in that. I thought you were studying some graver
+things, instead of these bragging heroics. You pretended to be very
+earnest, but a short time ago, to make a soldier of yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and don't you call this soldiership? Suppose I were to pounce
+down upon Cornwallis&mdash;his lordship, as that fellow Tyrrel calls
+him&mdash;just in that same fashion. I warrant they would say there was some
+soldiership in it! But, sister, haven't I been studying the attack and
+defence of fortified places, I wonder? And what call you that? Look now,
+here is a regular hexagon," continued Henry, making lines upon the
+gravel walk with a stick, "here is the bastion,&mdash;these lines are the
+flank,&mdash;the face,&mdash;the gorge: here is the curtain. Now, my first
+parallel is around here, six hundred paces from the counterscarp. But I
+could have taken Charleston myself in half the time that poking fellow,
+Clinton, did it, if I had been there, and one of his side, which&mdash;thank
+my stars&mdash;I am not."</p>
+
+<p>"You are entirely out of my depth, brother," interrupted Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"I know I am. How should women be expected to understand these matters?
+Go to your knitting, sister: you can't teach me."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you studied the Military Catechism, Henry? that, you know, Baron
+Steuben requires of all the young officers."</p>
+
+<p>"Most," replied Henry. "Not quite through it. I hate this getting prose
+by heart. Shakspeare is more to my mind than Baron Steuben. But I will
+tell you what I like, sister: I like the management of the horse. I can
+passage, and lunge, and change feet, and throw upon the haunches, with
+e'er a man in Amherst or Albemarle either, may be."</p>
+
+<p>"You told me you had practised firing from your saddle."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure I did: and look here," replied the cadet, taking off his cap
+and showing a hole in the cloth. "Do you see that, Mildred? I flung the
+cap into the air, and put a ball through it before it fell&mdash;at a
+gallop."</p>
+
+<p>"Well done, master; you come on bravely!"</p>
+
+<p>"And another thing I have to tell you, which, perhaps, Mildred, you will
+laugh to hear:&mdash;I have taken to a rough way of sleeping. I want to
+harden myself; so, I fling a blanket on the floor and stretch out on
+it&mdash;and sleep like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like what, good brother; you are posed for a comparison."</p>
+
+<p>"Like the sleeping beauty, sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! that's a most incongruous and impertinent simile!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, like a Trojan, or a woodman, or a dragoon, or like Stephen
+Foster, and that is as far as sleeping can go. I have a notion of trying
+it in the woods one of these nights&mdash;if I can get Stephen to go along."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not try it alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why it's a sort of an awkward thing to be entirely by one's self in the
+woods, the livelong night&mdash;it is lonesome, you know, sister; and, to
+tell the truth, I almost suspect I am a little afraid of ghosts."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! and you a man! That's a strange fear for a young Coriolanus.
+Suppose you should get into the wars, and should happen to be posted as
+a sentinel at some remote spot&mdash;far from your comrades; on picket, I
+think you call it? (Henry nodded) on a dark night, would you desert your
+duty for fear of a goblin!"</p>
+
+<p>"I would die first, Mildred. I would stick it out, if I made an
+earthquake by trembling in my shoes."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"And then if a ghost should rise up out of the ground," she continued,
+with a mock solemnity of manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I would whistle some tune," interrupted Henry. "That's an excellent way
+to keep down fear."</p>
+
+<p>"Shame on you, to talk of fear, brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Only of ghosts, sister, not of men."</p>
+
+<p>"You must cure yourself of this childish apprehension, master."</p>
+
+<p>"And how shall I do so, Mildred? I have heard people say that the
+bravest men have been alarmed by spirits."</p>
+
+<p>"You must accustom yourself to midnight hours and dark places, all
+alone. Our poor mother taught you this fear."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think of <i>her</i>, Mildred, until my heart would burst, and my
+cheek grew pale as ashes," said Henry, with an earnest and solemn
+emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>"Her spirit, could it rise, would love you, brother; it would never seek
+to do you harm," replied Mildred thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Sister," said Henry, "you came here in sport, but you have made me very
+sad."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred walked off a few paces and remained gazing steadfastly over the
+parapet. When she looked back she saw Henry approaching her.</p>
+
+<p>"You stoop, brother, in your gait," she said, "that's a slovenly habit."</p>
+
+<p>"It comes, sister, of my climbing these mountains so much. We
+mountaineers naturally get a stoop on the hill-sides. But if you think,"
+continued Henry, reverting to the subject which had just been broken
+off, "it would make me bolder to watch of nights, I should not care to
+try it."</p>
+
+<p>"I would have you," said Mildred, "walk your rounds, like a patrole,
+through the woods from twelve until two, every night for a week."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed, sister&mdash;rain or shine."</p>
+
+<p>"And then I shall think you completely cured of this unsoldier-like
+infirmity, when you are able to march as far as the church, and serve
+one tour of duty in the grave-yard."</p>
+
+<p>"By myself?" inquired Henry, with concern.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't have me go with you, brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should feel very brave if you did, Mildred; for you are as brave as a
+general. But if Stephen Foster will keep in the neighborhood&mdash;near
+enough to hear my 'All's well'&mdash;I think I could stand it out."</p>
+
+<p>"You must go alone," said Mildred, cheerfully, "before I shall think you
+fit to be promoted."</p>
+
+<p>"If you say I must, sister Mildred, why, then I must: and there's an end
+of it. But your discipline is forty times more severe than the German
+Baron's at Richmond. Father looks pale this morning," continued Henry,
+as he turned his eyes towards the porch, where Mr. Lindsay was now seen
+walking forward and back, with his arms folded across his breast.
+"Something perpetually troubles him, Mildred. I wish that devil, Tyrrel,
+had been buried before he ever found his way to the Dove Cote! See he
+comes this way."</p>
+
+<p>Both Mildred and Henry ran to meet Lindsay, and encountered him before
+he had advanced a dozen paces over the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a day, father!" said Mildred, as she affectionately took his hand.
+"It is a luxury to breathe this air."</p>
+
+<p>"God has given us a beautiful heaven, my children, and a rich and
+bountiful earth. He has filled them both with blessings. Man only mars
+them with his cursed passions," said Lindsay, with a sober accent.</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard bad news, father?" said Henry, inquiringly; "what has
+happened?"</p>
+
+<p>Mildred grew suddenly pale.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall hear glorious news, boy, before many days," replied Lindsay;
+"as yet, all is uncertain. Henry, away to your sports, or to your
+studies. Mildred, I have something for your ear, and so, my child, walk
+with me a while."</p>
+
+<p>Henry took his leave, looking back anxiously at his sister, whose
+countenance expressed painful alarm. Mildred accompanied her father
+slowly and silently to the small veranda that shaded the door of the
+gable next the terrace.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MILDRED PUT TO A SEVERE TRIAL:&mdash;HER FIRMNESS.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>"My mind troubles me," said Lindsay: "Mildred, hear me&mdash;and mark what I
+say. Our fortunes are coming to a period of deep interest: it is
+therefore no time to deal in evasive speeches, or to dally with coy and
+girlish feelings. I wish, my daughter, to be understood."</p>
+
+<p>"Father, have I offended you?" inquired Mildred, struck with the painful
+and almost repulsive earnestness of Lindsay's manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur Butler has been at the Dove Cote," he said, sternly, "and you
+have concealed it from me. That was not like my child."</p>
+
+<p>"Father!" exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay&mdash;these tears shall not move me from my resolution. As a parent I
+had a right, Mildred, to expect obedience from you; but you saw him in
+the very despite of my commands: here, on the confines of the Dove Cote,
+you saw him."</p>
+
+<p>"I did&mdash;I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And you were silent, and kept your secret from your father's bosom."</p>
+
+<p>"You forbade me to speak of him," replied Mildred, in a low and sobbing
+voice, "and banished me from your presence when I but brought his name
+upon my lips."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a villain, daughter; a base wretch that would murder my peace,
+and steal my treasure from my heart."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred covered her eyes with her hands, and trembled in silent agony.</p>
+
+<p>"I have received letters," continued Lindsay, "that disclose to me a
+vile plot against my life. This same Butler&mdash;this furious and fanatic
+rebel&mdash;has been lurking in the neighborhood of my house, to watch my
+family motions, to pry into the character of my guests, to possess
+himself of my sacred confidences, to note the incoming and the out-going
+of my most attached friends, and thereupon to build an accusation of
+treason before this unholy and most accursed power that has usurped
+dominion in the land. I am to be denounced to these malignant masters,
+and to suffer such penalties as their passions may adjudge. And all this
+through the agency of a man who is cherished and applauded by my own
+daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father, who has thus abused your mind, and led your thoughts
+into a current so foreign from that calm judgment with which you have
+been accustomed to look upon the things of life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you deny, Mildred, that this Butler followed Tyrrel to the Dove
+Cote; lay concealed here, close at hand; sought by discourse through
+some of his coadjutors with Tyrrel's servant, to learn the object of
+Tyrrel's visit; and offered gross outrage to the man when he failed to
+persuade him to betray his master? Can you deny this? Can you deny that
+he fled precipitately from his hiding-place when he could no longer
+conceal his purpose?&mdash;and, knowing these things, can you doubt he is a
+villain?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is no villain, father," said Mildred, indignantly. "These are the
+wretched forgeries of that unworthy man who has won your confidence&mdash;a
+man who is no less an enemy to your happiness than he is a selfish
+contriver against mine. The story is not true: it is one of Tyrrel's
+basest falsehoods."</p>
+
+<p>"And Butler was not here; you would persuade me so, Mildred?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was in the neighborhood for a single night; he journeyed southwards
+in the course of his duty," answered Mildred, mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"And had no confederates with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was attended by a guide&mdash;only one&mdash;and hurried onwards without
+delay."</p>
+
+<p>"And you met him on that single night&mdash;by accident, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you doubt my truth, father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred, Mildred! you will break my heart. Why was he here at all&mdash;why
+did you meet him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He came, father&mdash;" said Mildred, struggling to speak through a sudden
+burst of tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Silence! I will hear no apology!" exclaimed Lindsay. Then relenting in
+an instant, he took his daughter's hand, as he said: "My child, thou art
+innocent in thy nature, and knowest not the evil imaginings of this
+world. He wickedly lied, if he told you that he came casually hither, or
+that his stay was circumscribed to one short night. I have proofs, full
+and satisfactory, that, for several days, he lay concealed in this
+vicinity; and, moreover, that his scheme was frustrated only by an
+unexpected discovery, made through the indiscretion of a drunken bully,
+who came linked with him in his foul embassy. It was a shameless lie,
+invented to impose upon your credulity, if he gave you room to believe
+otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur Butler scorns a falsehood, father, with the deepest scorn that
+belongs to a noble mind, and would resent the charge with the spirit of
+a valiant and virtuous man. If Mr. Tyrrel has such accusations to make,
+it would be fitter they should be made face to face with the man he
+would slander, than in my father's ear. But it is the nature of the
+serpent to sting in the grass, not openly to encounter his victim."</p>
+
+<p>"The first duty of a trusty friend is to give warning of the approach of
+an enemy&mdash;and that has Tyrrel done. For this act of service does he
+deserve your rebuke? Could you expect aught else of an honorable
+gentleman? Shame on you, daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father, I know the tale to be wickedly, atrociously false. Arthur
+Butler is not your enemy. Sooner would he lay down his life than even
+indulge a thought of harm to you. His coming hither was not unknown to
+me&mdash;his delay, but one brief night; business of great moment called him
+hastily towards the army of the south."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak like a girl, Mildred. I have, against this tale, the avowal
+of a loyal and brave soldier. Aye, and let me tell you&mdash;favorably as you
+may deem of this false and traitorous rebel&mdash;his wily arts have been
+foiled, and quick vengeance is now upon his path&mdash;his doom is fixed."</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake, father, dear father, tell me what this means. Have
+you heard of Arthur?" cried Mildred, in the most impassioned accents of
+distress, at the same time throwing her head upon Lindsay's breast. "Oh,
+God! have you heard aught of harm to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Girl! foolish, mad, self-willed girl!" exclaimed Lindsay, disengaging
+himself from his daughter, and rising from his seat and angrily striding
+a few paces upon the terrace. "Dare you show this contumacy to me! No, I
+did not mean that&mdash;have you the heart, Mildred, to indulge these
+passionate fervors for the man I hate more than I can hate any other
+living thing! He, a wretch, upon whose head I invoke nightly curses! A
+loathsome, abhorred image to my mind! Hear me, Mildred, and hear me,
+though your heart break while I utter it&mdash;May the felon's death whelm
+him and his name in eternal disgrace!&mdash;may his present captivity be
+beset with all the horrors of friendlessness, unpitied&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"His captivity, father! And has he then fallen into the hands of the
+enemy? Quick! tell me all!&mdash;I shall die&mdash;my life is wrapped up in his!"
+ejaculated Mildred, in agony, as she sprang towards her father and
+seized his arm, and then sank at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, my child!" said Lindsay, becoming alarmed at the
+violence of the paroxysm he had excited, and now lifting his daughter
+from the ground. "Mildred!&mdash;speak, girl! This emotion will drive me mad.
+Oh, fate, fate!&mdash;how unerringly dost thou fulfil the sad predictions of
+my spirit! How darkly does the curse hang upon my household! Mildred,
+dear daughter, pardon my rash speech. I would not harm thee, child&mdash;no,
+not for worlds!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father, you have cruelly tortured my soul," said Mildred, reviving from
+the half lifeless state into which she had fallen, and which for some
+moments had denied her speech. "Tell me all; on my knees, father, I
+implore you."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a hasty word, daughter," replied Lindsay, ill concealing the
+perturbation of his feelings; "I meant not what I said."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, dear father," said Mildred, "I am prepared to hear the worst; you
+spoke of Arthur's captivity."</p>
+
+<p>"It was only a rumor," replied Lindsay, struck with apprehension at his
+daughter's earnestness, and now seeking to allay the feeling his hint
+had aroused in her mind; "it may be exaggerated by Tyrrel, whose letter,
+hastily written, mentions the fact, that Butler had been made a prisoner
+by some bands of Tories, amongst whom he had rashly ventured. The
+clemency of his king may yet win him back to his allegiance. A salutary
+confinement, at least, will deprive him of the power of mischief. His
+lands will be confiscated&mdash;and the close of the war, now fast
+approaching, will find him a houseless adventurer, baffled in his
+treason, and unpitied by all good men. This should persuade you,
+Mildred, to renounce your unnatural attachment, and to think no more of
+one whose cause heaven has never sanctioned, and whose condition in life
+should forbid all pretension to your regard&mdash;one, above all, repulsive
+even to loathing to the thoughts of your father."</p>
+
+<p>"I loved him, father, in his happiest and brightest day," said Mildred,
+firmly; "I cannot desert him in his adversity. Oh, speak to me no more!
+Let me go to my chamber; I am ill and cannot bear this torrent of your
+displeasure."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not detain you, Mildred. In sorrow and suffering, but still with
+a father's affection as warmly shining on you as when, in earliest
+infancy, I fondled thee upon my knee, I part with thee now. One kiss,
+girl. There, let that make peace between us. For your sake and my own, I
+pledge my word never to distress you with this subject again. Destiny
+must have its way, and I must bide the inevitable doom."</p>
+
+<p>With a heavy heart and an exhausted frame, Mildred slowly and tearfully
+withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay remained some time fixed upon the spot where his daughter had
+left him. He was like a man stupefied and astounded by a blow. His
+conference had ended in a manner that he had not prepared himself to
+expect. The imputed treachery of Butler, derived from Tyrrel's letters,
+had not struck alarm into the heart of Mildred, as he had supposed it
+could not fail to do. The wicked fabrication had only recoiled upon the
+inventor; and Mildred, with the resolute, confident, and unfaltering
+attachment of her nature, clung with a nobler devotion to her lover. To
+Lindsay, in whose mind no distrust of the honesty of Tyrrel could find
+shelter; whose prejudices and peculiar temperament came in aid of the
+gross and disgraceful imputation which the letters inferred, the
+constancy and generous fervor of his daughter towards the cause of
+Butler seemed to be a mad and fatal infatuation.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since his first interview with Mildred on the subject of her
+attachment, his mind had been morbidly engrossed with the reflections to
+which it had given rise. There was such a steadiness of purpose apparent
+in her behavior, such an unchangeable resolve avowed, as seemed to him,
+in the circumstances of her condition, to defy and stand apart from the
+ordinary and natural impulses by which human conduct is regulated. He
+grew daily more abstracted and moody in his contemplations; and as study
+and thought gave a still graver complexion to his feelings, his mind
+fled back upon his presentiments; and that intense, scholar-like
+superstition, which I have heretofore described as one of the tendencies
+of his nature, began more actively to conjure up its phantasmagoria
+before his mental vision. A predominating trait of this superstition was
+an increasing conviction that, in Mildred's connexion with Arthur
+Butler, there was associated some signal doom to himself, that was to
+affect the fortunes of his race. It was a vague, misty, obscure
+consciousness of impending fate, the loss of reason or the loss of life
+that was to ensue upon that alliance if it should ever take place.</p>
+
+<p>It was such a presentiment that now, in the solitary path of Lindsay's
+life, began to be magnified into a ripening certainty of ill. The needle
+of his mind trembled upon its pivot, and began to decline towards a
+fearful point; that point was&mdash;frenzy. His studies favored this
+apprehension&mdash;they led him into the world of visions. The circumstances
+of his position favored it. He was perplexed by the intrigues of
+politicians, against whom he had no defence in temper nor worldly skill:
+he was deluded by false views of events: he was embarrassed and
+dissatisfied with himself: above all, he was wrought upon, bewildered,
+and glamoured (to use a most expressive Scotch phrase) by the
+remembrance of a sickly dream.</p>
+
+<p>Thus hunted and badgered by circumstances, he fled with avidity to the
+disclosures made in Tyrrel's letters, to try, as a last effort, their
+effect upon Mildred, hoping that the tale there told might divert her
+from a purpose which now fed all his melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>The reader has just seen how the experiment had failed.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay retired to his study, and, through the remainder of the day,
+sought refuge from his meditations in the converse of his books. These
+mute companions, for once, failed to bring him their customary balm. His
+feelings had been turned, by the events of the morning, into a current
+that bore them impetuously along towards a dark and troubled ocean of
+thought; and when the shades of evening had fallen around him, he was
+seen pacing the terrace with a slow and measured step.</p>
+
+<p>"It is plain, she passionately loves Butler," he said, "in despite of
+all the visible influences around her. Her education, habits,
+affections, duty&mdash;all set in an opposing tide against this passion, and
+yet does it master them all. That I should be bound to mine enemy by a
+chain, whose strongest link is forged by my own daughter.
+She&mdash;Mildred!&mdash;No, no&mdash;that link was not forged by her: it hath not its
+shape from human workmanship. Oh, that like those inspired enthusiasts
+who, in times of old,&mdash;yea, and in a later day&mdash;have been able to open
+the Book of Destiny, and to read the passages of man's future life, I
+might get one glimpse of that forbidden page!&mdash;To what a charitable use
+might I apply the knowledge. Wise men have studied the journeyings of
+the stars, and have&mdash;as they deemed&mdash;discovered the secret spell by
+which yon shining orbs sway and compel the animal existences of this
+earth; even as the moon governs the flow of the ocean, or the fever of
+the human brain. Who shall say what is the invisible tissue&mdash;what the
+innumerable cords&mdash;that tie this planet and all its material natures to
+the millions of worlds with which it is affined? What is that mysterious
+thing which men call attraction, that steadies these spheres in their
+tangled pathways through the great void?&mdash;that urges their swift and
+fearful career into the track of their voyage, without the deviation of
+the breadth of a single hair&mdash;rolling on the same from eternity to
+eternity? How awfully does the thought annihilate our feeble and
+presumptuous philosophy! Is it, then, to excite the scorn of the wise,
+if we assert that some kindred power may shape out and direct the
+wanderings of man?&mdash;that an unseen hand may lay the threads by which
+this tottering creature is to travel through the labyrinth of this
+world; aye, and after it is done, to point out to him his course along
+the dark and chill valley, which the dead walk through companionless and
+silent? Have not men heard strange whispers in the breeze&mdash;the voice of
+warning? Have they not felt the fanning of the wing that bore the secret
+messenger through the air? Have they not seen some floating fold of the
+robe as it passed by? O God!&mdash;have they not seen the dead arise? What
+are these but the communings, the points of contact, between the earthy
+and spiritual worlds&mdash;the essences or intelligences that sometimes flit
+across the confine of our gross sphere, and speak to the children of
+clay? And wherefore do they speak, but that the initiated may regard the
+sign, and walk in safety? Or, perchance, some mischief-hatching
+fiend,&mdash;for such, too, are permitted to be busy to mar the good that God
+has made&mdash;may speak in malice to allure us from our better purpose. Aye,
+as aptly this, as the other. Miserable child of doubt, how art thou
+beset! Let the vain pedant prate of his philosophy, let the soldier
+boast his valor, the learned scholar his scepticism, and the worldling
+laugh his scorn, yet do they each and all yield homage to this belief.
+There comes a time of honest self-confession, of secret meditation to
+all, and then the boding spirit rises to his proper mastery: then does
+instinct smother argument: then do the darkness of the midnight hour,
+the howling wind, the rush of the torrent, the lonesomeness of the
+forest and the field, shake the strong nerves; and the feeble, pigmy
+man, trembles at his own imaginings."</p>
+
+<p>In such a strain did Lindsay nurse his doubting superstition; and by
+these degrees was it that his mind soothed itself down into a calmer
+tone of resignation. In proportion as this fanciful and distempered
+philosophy inclined his reflection towards the belief of preternatural
+influences, it suggested excuses for Mildred's seeming contumacy, and
+inculcated a more indulgent sentiment of forbearance in his future
+intercourse with her.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the confirmation of this temper an ordinary incident, which, at
+any other time, would have passed without comment, now contributed. A
+storm had arisen: the day, towards its close, had grown sultry, and had
+engendered one of those sudden gusts which belong to the summer in this
+region. It came, without premonition, in a violent tornado, that rushed
+through the air with the roar of a great cataract. Lindsay had scarcely
+time to retreat to the cover of the porch, before the heavy-charged
+cloud poured forth its fury in floods of rain. The incessant lightnings
+glittered on the descending drops, and illuminated the distant landscape
+with more than the brilliancy of day. The most remote peaks of the
+mountain were sheeted with the glare; and the torrents that leaped down
+the nearer hill-sides sparkled with a dazzling radiance. Peal after
+peal of abrupt and crashing thunder roared through the heavens, and
+echoed with terrific reverberations along the valleys. Lindsay gazed
+upon this scene, from his secure cover, with mute interest, inwardly
+aroused and delighted with the grand and sublime conflict of the
+elements, in a spot of such wild and compatible magnificence: the solemn
+and awful emotions excited by these phenomena were exaggerated by the
+peculiar mood of his mind, and now absorbed all his attention. After a
+brief interval, the rain ceased to fall as suddenly as it had begun; the
+thunder was silent, and only a few distant flashes of wide-spread light
+broke fitfully above the horizon. The stars soon again shone forth
+through a transparent and placid heaven, and the moon sailed in beauty
+along a cloudless sea. The frog chirped again from the trees, and the
+far-off owl hooted in the wood, resuming his melancholy song, that had
+been so briefly intermitted. The foaming river below, swollen by the
+recent rain, flung upwards a more lively gush from its rocky bed: the
+cock was heard to crow, as if a new day had burst upon his harem; and
+the house-dogs barked in sport as they gambolled over the wet grass.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay looked forth and spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful is the change! But a moment since, and the angry elements
+were convulsed with the shock of war; and now, how calm! My ancient oaks
+have weathered the gale, and not a branch has been torn from their hoary
+limbs: not the most delicate of Mildred's flowers; not the tenderest
+shrub has been scathed by the threatening fires of heaven! The Dove Cote
+and its inmates have seen the storm sweep by without a vestige of harm.
+Kind heaven, grant that this may be a portent of our fortune; and that,
+when this tempest of human passion has been spent, the Dove Cote and its
+inhabitants may come forth as tranquil, as safe, as happy, as
+now&mdash;more&mdash;yes, more happy than now! Our ways are in thy hands; and I
+would teach myself to submit to thy providence with patient hope. So,
+let it be! I am resigned."</p>
+
+<p>As Lindsay still occupied his position in the porch, Stephen Foster
+appeared before him dripping with the rain of the late storm.</p>
+
+<p>"A letter, sir," said Stephen. "I have just rode from the post-office,
+and was almost oversot in the gust: it catched me upon the road; and it
+was as much as I could do to cross the river. It is a mighty fretful
+piece of water after one of these here dashes."</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay took the packet.</p>
+
+<p>"Get your supper, good Stephen," he said. "Order lights for me in the
+library! Thank you&mdash;thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>When Lindsay opened the letter, he found it to contain tidings of the
+victory at Camden, written by Tyrrel. After he had perused the contents,
+it was with a triumphant smile that he exclaimed, "And it is come so
+soon! Thank God, the omen has proved true! a calmer and a brighter hour
+at last opens upon us."</p>
+
+<p>He left the study to communicate the news to his children, and spent the
+next hour with Mildred and Henry in the parlor. His feelings had risen
+to a happier key; and it was with some approach to cheerfulness, but
+little answered in the looks or feelings of his children, that he
+retired to his chamber at a late hour, where sleep soon came, with its
+sweet oblivion, to repair his exhausted spirits, and to restore him to
+the quiet of an easy mind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MILDRED IN GRIEF.&mdash;SHE IS NEAR MAKING A DISCLOSURE.&mdash;A VISITOR ARRIVES
+AT THE DOVE COTE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Then in that hour remorse he felt,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his heart told him he had dealt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unkindly with his child."&mdash;<i>Rogers.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>On the following day Mildred confined herself to her chamber. She had
+passed a sleepless night, and the morning found her a pale, anxious, and
+distressed watcher of the slow approach of light. Her thoughts were busy
+with the fate of Butler. This topic overwhelmed all other cares, and
+struck deep and unmitigated anguish into her mind. The hints that had
+been so indiscreetly dropped by her father, more than if the whole tale
+had been told, had worked upon her imagination, and conjured up to her
+apprehension the certain destruction of her lover. In her interview with
+Lindsay, her emotions had been controlled by the extreme difficulty of
+her situation. The fear of rousing in her father that deep and solemn
+tone of passion, which had now become the infirmity of his mind, and
+almost threatened to "deprive his sovereignty of reason," and of which
+she was painfully aware, had subdued the strength of her own
+feelings&mdash;so far, at least, as to inculcate a more seeming moderation
+than, in other circumstances, she could have exhibited. It was the
+struggle between filial affection and duty on the one side, and an
+ardent, though tremblingly acknowledged, attachment on the other. The
+course that she had previously determined to pursue, in reference to the
+many earnest and assiduous efforts of Lindsay to persuade her from her
+love, was steadily to persevere in the open acknowledgment of her
+plighted vow, and endeavor to win her father's favor by a calm and
+gentle expostulation; or to seek, in a respectful silence, the means of
+averting the occasion of that gusty and moody outbreak of temper, which
+the peculiar exacerbation of his mind was apt to make frequent. She
+would have resorted to this silence in the late communion with Lindsay,
+if he had not, with an unusual bitterness, denounced Arthur Butler as
+the author of a hateful crime; a crime which she knew had been foully
+insinuated against him by a man of whose subtle wickedness she was
+persuaded, and whom, of all others, she most heartily execrated. She
+was, therefore, led indignantly, though temperately, to repel the
+slander by which her father's hatred had been artfully envenomed. But
+when, in the fierce fervor of his displeasure, Lindsay had announced to
+her the danger that had befallen Butler, the disclosure opened to her
+mind a world of misery. The late silence of her lover had already
+alarmed her fears, and this announcement suggested the worst of the many
+anxious conjectures which her brooding spirit had imagined as the cause
+of that absence of tidings. Her emotions upon this disclosure were those
+of a bursting heart that dared not trust itself with words; and when her
+father, seeing the unlooked-for mischief he had done, sought to temper
+his speech, and retract some of the harshness of his communication, by
+an explanation, the only effect was, for the moment, to take off the
+edge of her keenest grief. But when she left his presence, and recovered
+herself sufficiently to recall all that had passed, the dreadful thought
+of disaster to Butler, came back upon her imagination with all the
+horrors which a fond heart could summon around it. A weary hour was
+spent in sobs and tears; and it was only by the blandishments of her
+brother Henry's kind and earnest sympathy, when the youth found her in
+the parlor thus whelmed in sorrow, and by his manly and cheering
+reckoning of the many chances of safety that attend the footsteps of a
+prudent and a brave man, that she began to regain that resolute
+equanimity that was a natural and even predominating attribute of her
+character.</p>
+
+<p>When Lindsay came into the parlor with the tidings of the victory at
+Camden, such was the state in which he found her; and whilst he
+announced to her that event which had given him so much joy, he was not
+unheedful of the pang he had previously inflicted, and now endeavored to
+make amends by throwing in some apparently casual, though intentional,
+reference to the condition of Butler, who, he doubted not, would now be
+disposed of on easy terms. "Perhaps," he continued, "as the war was
+drawing to a close, and the royal clemency had been singularly
+considerate of the mistaken men who had taken arms against their king,
+he would in a little while be discharged on his parole." This reluctant
+and forced crumb of comfort fell before one who had but little appetite
+to take it, and Mildred received it only in cold silence. Henry,
+however, made better use of the event, and by that assiduity which, in
+true and gentle friendships, never wearies, and never misses its aim,
+when that aim is to revive a sinking hope, succeeded in lifting both his
+father and sister into a kindlier climate of feeling. But solitude and
+her pillow ravelled all this work of charity. Fancy, that stirring
+tormentor of acute minds, summoned up all its phantoms to Mildred's
+waking fears, and the night was passed by her as by one who could not be
+comforted. In the morning she was ill, and therefore, as I have said,
+remained in her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay, ever solicitous for the happiness of his children, and keenly
+sensitive to whatever gave them pain, now that the turbid violence of
+his passion had subsided into a clearer and calmer medium, applied
+himself by every art which parental fondness could supply, to mitigate
+the suffering of his daughter. Like a man who, in a reckless and
+ungoverned moment, having done an injury which his heart revolts at, and
+having leisure to contemplate the wrong he has inflicted, hastens to
+administer comfort with an alacrity which even outruns the suggestions
+of ordinary affection, so did he now betake himself to Mildred's
+chamber, and, with sentiments of mixed alarm and contrition, seek her
+forgiveness for what he acknowledged a rash and unbecoming assault upon
+her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>His soothing did not reach the disease. They could give her no assurance
+of Butler's safety; and on that point alone all her anguish turned. "My
+dear, dear father," she said, with a feeble and dejected voice, "how do
+you wrong me, by supposing I could harbor a sentiment that might cause
+me to doubt the love I bear you! I know and revere the purity of your
+nature, and need no assurance from you that your affection itself has
+kindled up this warmth of temper. But you have opened a fountain of
+bitterness upon my feelings," she added, sobbing vehemently, "in what
+you have divulged relating to a man you loathe, and one, dear
+father&mdash;take it from me now, as the expression of a sacred duty&mdash;one
+that I must ever love. Call it fate&mdash;call it infatuation; say that it
+does not befit my womanly reserve to avow it&mdash;but if misfortune and
+death have fallen upon the head of Arthur Butler, there is that bond
+between us, that I must die. Oh, father&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As Mildred pronounced these words she had gradually raised herself into
+a sitting posture in her bed, and, at the conclusion, fell back
+exhausted upon her pillow. The enthusiasm, the violence and the
+intensity of her emotions had overborne her strength, and for some
+moments she lay incapable of speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred, Mildred! daughter!" exclaimed Lindsay, in alarm, "I forgive
+you, my child. Great heaven, if this should be too much for her
+sensitive nature, and she should die before my eyes! Dear Mildred," he
+said in a softer accent, as he kissed her pale forehead, "but look up,
+and never, never more will I oppose your wish."</p>
+
+<p>"Father," she uttered, in a scarce audible whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, she revives! Forbear to speak, my love; that is enough. Do
+not exhaust your strength by another effort."</p>
+
+<p>"Father!" she repeated in a firmer accent.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, my child," continued Lindsay, fanning the air before her
+face with his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," again uttered Mildred, "tell me of Arthur."</p>
+
+<p>"He is safe, my love&mdash;and thou shalt yet be happy. Daughter&mdash;no more;
+compose yourself&mdash;nor attempt again to speak." And saying these words,
+Lindsay stole out of the chamber and summoned one of the domestics to
+administer a cordial to the exhausted patient; and then gave orders that
+she should be left to recruit her strength by sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred by degrees revived. Jaded by mental affliction, she had sunk
+into repose; and when another morning arrived, the lustre had returned
+to her eye, and her recovery was already well advanced. She did not yet
+venture from her chamber, but she was able to leave her bed and take the
+fresh air at her window.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst she sat in the loose robe of an invalid, towards noon, looking
+out upon the green forest and smiling fields around her, with Henry
+close by her side, seeking to soothe and amuse her mind, they were
+enabled to descry a horseman, attended by a single servant, making his
+way up the hill from the ford, by the road that led directly to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"As I live, sister," ejaculated Henry, "there is Tyrrel, covered with
+dust, and his horse all but worn down by travel."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forbid that it should be Tyrrel indeed!" said Mildred, growing
+paler, and trembling as she spoke. "Oh, what ill fortune brings him
+hither?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be bound," replied Henry, "that he comes with a whole budget of
+lies and foul thoughts. He has a knavish look, sister, and has been
+hatching mischief with every step of his horse. I, for one, will not see
+him; unless I can't help it. And you, sister, have an excuse to keep
+your room: so, he is like to have cold comfort here, with his rascally
+news of victory. We shall hear enough of Camden now. By-the-by, sister,
+I should like much to see our account of that business. I would bet it
+gives another face to the matter. These Tories do so bespatter his
+lordship with praises, and tell such improbable things about their
+victories! I will not see Tyrrel, that's flat."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, brother, not so fast. You must see him, for my sake. He has
+something to tell of Arthur. Persuade my father to ask him: tell him, if
+need be, that I requested this. And, Henry, if he says that Arthur is
+safe and well, if he has heard anything of him, knows anything of him,
+fly to and tell me it all. And, remember, brother," she said earnestly,
+"tell me all&mdash;whether it be good or bad."</p>
+
+<p>"This is a new view of the case," said Henry. "Mildred, you are a wise
+woman, and think more ahead than I do. I did not reflect that this
+fellow might know something of Major Butler, though I am pretty sure he
+kept as clear of the major as a clean pair of heels would allow him.
+And, moreover, I take upon me to say, that he will bring as little good
+news of our Arthur in this direction, as he ever did of a good act in
+his life. But I will spy him out, sister, and report like a&mdash;like
+a&mdash;forty-two pounder, or the dispatch of a general who has won a fight.
+So, adieu, sister."</p>
+
+<p>By the time that Henry had reached the porch, Tyrrel was already there.
+He had dismounted, and his weary steed stood panting on the grave walk,
+while the servant stripped him of his baggage.</p>
+
+<p>"Well met, good master Henry!" said Tyrrel approaching, and offering the
+youth his hand, "I am somewhat of a soiled traveller, you see. Is your
+father at home? And your sister, how is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father is at home," replied Henry, dropping the proffered hand of
+the visitor, almost as soon as it had touched his own. "I will send him
+to you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have not asked me the news, Henry," said Tyrrel, "and, seeing
+that I have come from the very theatre of war, I could tell you
+something good."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard my father speak of your good news," answered Henry,
+carelessly, "I do not serve under the same colors with you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>And the youth left the porch to announce the arrival of the traveller to
+Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>"There spoke the rebel Mildred," muttered Tyrrel, as Henry left his
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant, Lindsay hastened from the library and received his guest
+with a warm welcome.</p>
+
+<p>The first cares of his reception, and some necessary order relating to
+his comfort, being despatched, Tyrrel began to disburden himself of his
+stock of particulars relating to the great and important movements of
+the opposing armies in the south. He had left Cornwallis a few days
+after the battle, and had travelled with post haste to Virginia, on a
+leave of absence. He described minutely the state of things consequent
+upon the recent victory; and it was with a tone of triumphant exultation
+that he frequently appealed to his predictions as to the course of
+events, when last at the Dove Cote. The conversation soon became too
+confidential for the presence even of Henry, who sat greedily devouring
+every word that fell from the lips of the narrator, and the further
+interview was transferred to the library.</p>
+
+<p>Henry hastened back to Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"The fellow is so full of politics, sister," said the eager scout, "that
+he has not dropped one solitary word about Butler. He talks of the
+province being brought back to a sense of its duty, and public sentiment
+putting an end to this unnatural war forsooth! And his majesty reaping
+fresh laurels on the fields of Virginia! Let his majesty put in his
+sickle here&mdash;he shall reap as fine a crop of briers to bind round his
+brow, as ever grew in a fence-corner! But Butler! Oh, no, he has nothing
+to say of Butler. He is a cunning man, sister, and keeps out of the
+major's way, take my word for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Brother, get you again to my father, and say to him that I desire to
+know what tidings Mr. Tyrrel brings us. Say it in his ear privately,
+Henry."</p>
+
+<p>The young emissary again took his leave, and, without apology, entered
+the library.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, in the meantime, restless and impatient, applied herself to the
+duties of the toilet, and, with the assistance of her maid, was soon in
+a condition to leave her chamber. She had, almost unwittingly, and in
+obedience to her engrossing wish to know something of Butler, made these
+preparations to appear in the parlor, without thinking of her repugnance
+to meet Tyrrel. And now, when she was on the point of going forth, her
+resolve changed, and she moved through the chamber like a perturbed
+spirit, anxiously waiting the return of Henry. She walked to the window,
+whence, looking out towards the terrace she perceived that her father
+and his guest had strolled out upon the lawn, where they were moving
+forward at a slow pace, whilst their gesticulations showed that they
+were engaged in an earnest conference.</p>
+
+<p>Henry's footsteps at the same moment were heard traversing the long
+passage, and Mildred, no longer able to restrain her eagerness, hastily
+left her room and met her brother, with whom she returned to the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>"My news, upon the whole, is good," said Henry, as he put his arm round
+Mildred's waist. "When I entered the library, and took a seat by my
+father, he suddenly broke up some long talk that was going on, in which
+he looked very grave, and, as if he knew what I came for&mdash;he is an
+excellent, kind father, sister, for all his moping and sad humors, and
+loves both you and me."</p>
+
+<p>"He does, Henry, and we must never forget it."</p>
+
+<p>"I would fight for him to the very death, Mildred. So, seeing that I
+looked as if you had sent me to him, he turned, in a kind of careless
+way, and asked Tyrrel if he had heard anything lately of Butler."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;brother."</p>
+
+<p>"'I scarce thought to mention it, answered Tyrrel, 'but the man'&mdash;think
+of that way of speaking of Major Butler&mdash;'the man had the temerity to
+push himself amongst the loyal troops, and was made a prisoner; he was
+suspected to be a spy, and there was, as I have understood, an idea of
+trying him by court-martial for it, and for other misdemeanors, of which
+I wrote you some particulars. I believe indeed, he was tried, and would,
+perhaps, have been shot.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, heaven! brother, can this be true?" exclaimed Mildred, as the color
+deserted her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"I give you exactly Tyrrel's words," replied Henry, "but the court were
+attacked, said he, by some bands of Whigs who stole a march upon them."</p>
+
+<p>"And Arthur escaped? Kind heaven, I thank thee!" almost screamed
+Mildred, as she clasped her hands together.</p>
+
+<p>"So Tyrrel thinks," continued Henry. "At all events they did not shoot
+him, like a pack of cowardly knaves as they were. And as some Tory
+prisoners were taken and dragged away by our good friend General
+Sumpter, who was the man, Tyrrel says, that set upon them, it is
+considered good policy&mdash;these were his words, sister&mdash;to spare the
+unnecessary effusion of blood on both sides. And then my father asked
+Tyrrel if Cornwallis knew of these doings, and he answered, not&mdash;that it
+was the indiscreet act of some mountain boys, who were in the habit of
+burning and slaying, against the wish of his Lordship: that the regular
+officers disapprove of harsh measures, and that peace now reigns all
+through the province."</p>
+
+<p>"When they make a desert of the land, they call it peace," said Mildred
+thoughtfully, quoting a translation of the beautiful passage of Tacitus.
+"This war is a dreadful trade."</p>
+
+<p>"For us, sister, who stay at home," replied Henry. "But God is good to
+us, and will favor the right, and will protect the brave men who draw
+their swords to maintain it."</p>
+
+<p>"From treachery, ambuscade, and privy murder&mdash;I thank you, brother, for
+that word. Heaven shield us, and those we love! But these are fearful
+times."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOR TYRREL's INFLUENCE OVER LINDSAY.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The discourse between Lindsay and Tyrrel was one of deep moment. Tyrrel
+had taken advantage of the pervading fervor which the late successes of
+the British arms had diffused amongst the adherents of the royal cause,
+in behalf of what was deemed their certain triumph, to urge forward his
+own views. This was the occasion of his present unexpected visit at the
+Dove Cote. His immediate aim was to plunge Lindsay into the contest, by
+forcing him to take some step that should so commit him, in the opinion
+of the republican government, as to leave him no chance of retreat, nor
+the means longer to enjoy the privileges of his late neutrality. He,
+unhappily, found Lindsay in a mood to favor this intrigue. The
+increasing anxieties of that gentleman's mind, his domestic griefs, his
+peculiar temperament, and the warmth of his political animosities, all
+stimulated him to the thought of some active participation in the
+struggle. Tyrrel had sufficient penetration to perceive that such was
+likely to be the current of Lindsay's feelings, and he had by frequent
+letters administered to this result.</p>
+
+<p>There were several opulent families in the lower sections of the state,
+who still clung to the cause of the King, and who had been patiently
+awaiting the course of events, for the time when they might more boldly
+avow themselves. With the heads of these families Tyrrel had been in
+active correspondence, and it was now his design which under the
+sanction of the British leaders, he had already nearly matured, to bring
+these individuals together into a secret council, that they might act in
+concert, and strengthen themselves by mutual alliance. Immediately after
+the battle of Camden, it is known that Cornwallis had laid his plans for
+the invasion of North Carolina, by intrigues of the same kind: it was
+only extending the system a little in advance to apply it to Virginia.
+Arrangements had been made for this meeting of malcontents to be held
+at the house of a Mr. Stanhope, on one of the lower sections of the
+James river&mdash;a gentleman of good repute, with whom Lindsay had long been
+in the relations of close friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"The moments are precious, and you are waited for," said Tyrrel, in the
+course of his conference with Lindsay; "we must strike whilst the iron
+is hot. Separated as our good friends are from each other, you are now
+in the power, and at the mercy&mdash;which is a significant phrase&mdash;of the
+unruly government of Congress. Your motions, therefore, should be
+prompt. There are seasons, in the history of every trouble, when the
+virtue of deliberation mainly lies in its rapidity and the boldness of
+its resolve. I beseech you, sir, to regard this as such a season, and to
+take the course which the honor of our sovereign demands, without
+further pause to think of consequences."</p>
+
+<p>"When you were here a month ago," replied Lindsay, "I had my scruples.
+But things have strangely altered in that short interval. Your standard
+floats more bravely over the path of invasion than I had deemed it
+possible. You charged me then with being a laggard, and, you may
+remember, even impeached my loyalty."</p>
+
+<p>"I did you a grievous wrong, my dear friend; and did I not know your
+generous nature pardoned, as soon as it was uttered, my rash and
+intemperate speech, it would have cost me many a pang of remorse. Even
+in this, good sir," said Tyrrel, smiling and laying his hand upon
+Lindsay's shoulder; "even in this, you see how necessary is it that we
+should have a wise and considerate councillor to moderate the ungoverned
+zeal of us younger men."</p>
+
+<p>"My mind is made up," replied Lindsay. "I will attend the meeting."</p>
+
+<p>"And Mildred will be removed forthwith to Charleston?" eagerly
+interrupted Tyrrel.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, sir, not one word of that. If I attend this meeting, it must be in
+secret. Nor do I yet commit myself to its resolves. I shall be a
+listener only. I would learn what my compatriots think, reserving to
+myself the right to act. Even yet, I would purchase peace with many a
+sacrifice. I abjure all violent measures of offence."</p>
+
+<p>"I am content," answered Tyrrel, "that you should hold yourself
+unpledged to any measures which your gravest and severest judgment does
+not approve. Though I little doubt that, from all quarters, you will
+hear such tidings as shall convince you that the road, both of safety
+and honor, leads onward in this glorious enterprise. 'Tis from this
+nettle danger, that we pluck the flower 'safety.' Conscious of this, I
+would have Mildred and her brother cared for."</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred can never be yours," said Lindsay musing. "There is the thought
+that makes me pause. I believed, and so do you, that the favor this
+Butler had found with her was the capricious and changeful fancy of a
+girl. It is the devoted passion of a woman: it has grown to be her
+faith, her honor, her religion."</p>
+
+<p>"Butler is a fool&mdash;a doomed madman," replied Tyrrel with earnestness.
+"He came here with the hellish purpose to betray you; and he was silly
+enough to think he could do so, and still win your daughter. She should
+be told of this."</p>
+
+<p>"She has been told of it, and she believes it not."</p>
+
+<p>"Was my avouch given to her for the truth of the fact."</p>
+
+<p>"It was. And, to speak plainly to you, it has only made your name
+hateful to her ear."</p>
+
+<p>"Then shall she have proof of it, which she cannot doubt. She shall have
+it in the recorded judgment of a court-martial, which has condemned him
+as a traitor and a spy; she shall have it in the doom of his death, and
+the sequestration of his estate," exclaimed Tyrrel with a bitter
+malignity, "proud girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Remember yourself, sir!" interrupted Lindsay, sternly. "This is not the
+language nor the tone fit for a father's ear, when the subject of it is
+his own daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Tyrrel was instantly recalled to his self-possession; and with that
+humility which he could always assume when his own interest required it,
+spoke in a voice of sudden contrition.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what a fool am I to let my temper thus sway me! Humbly, most
+humbly, dear sir, do I entreat your forgiveness. I love your daughter,
+and revere the earnest enthusiasm of her nature; and, therefore, have
+been galled beyond my proper show of duty, to learn that she could
+discredit my word."</p>
+
+<p>"I enjoin it upon you," said Lindsay, "that in your intercourse with my
+family here, you drop no word calculated to alarm my daughter for the
+safety of this Butler. It is a topic which distracts her, and must be
+avoided."</p>
+
+<p>"For the present," replied Tyrrel, "as I have before told you, I think
+he is safe. The forfeiture of his estate is not a secret. But to
+business, my friend. When shall we set out?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow," answered Lindsay. "We must travel cautiously, and amongst
+our friends."</p>
+
+<p>"This disguise has served me so far," said Tyrrel. "I may the better
+trust to it when in your company."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred and Henry remained in the parlor, and were there when Lindsay
+and his guest, having terminated their secret conference, returned to
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Your cheek denies your customary boast of good health, Miss Lindsay,"
+said Tyrrel, respectfully approaching the lady, and with an air that
+seemed to indicate his expectation of a cold reception. "It grieves me
+to learn that, at a time when all good men are rejoicing in the prospect
+of peace, you should not be in a condition to share the common
+pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"I think there is small occasion for rejoicing in any quarter," replied
+Mildred, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Lindsay would, perhaps, be interested to hear," said Tyrrel, not
+discomfited by the evident aversion of the lady, "that I have, within a
+few days past, left the head-quarters of the British army, where I was
+enabled to glean some particulars of a friend of hers, Major Butler, of
+the Continental service."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred colored, as she said in a faint voice, "He is my friend."</p>
+
+<p>"He has been unfortunate," continued Tyrrel, "having fallen into the
+hands of some of our skirmishers. But I believe I may assure Miss
+Lindsay that he is both safe and well. He enjoys the reputation of being
+a brave gentleman. I may be permitted to say, that had his destiny
+brought him under other colors, I should have been proud to be better
+known to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler chooses his own colors," said Henry, interposing. "I don't
+think destiny had much to do with it. He took his side because they
+wanted men to help out a brave war."</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay frowned, and strode once or twice across the apartment, during
+which an embarrassing silence prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the same cockerel you always were, Henry," said Tyrrel, with
+undaunted playfulness; "always warm for the fight. But it is a Christian
+duty, you know, to be peace-makers in such times as these. We may trust,
+Miss Lindsay, that some conciliatory spirit shall arise to quell the
+quarrelsome humors of the people, and bring all things back to
+tranquillity. For myself, I devoutly wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"The day for such a spirit does not seem to be at hand," said Mildred,
+quietly rising to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not well, my daughter," interposed Lindsay. "Mildred is but
+recently from a sick bed," he continued, addressing Tyrrel, in the way
+of apology for her marked coldness of demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not well, father," replied Mildred, "I must be permitted to leave
+you;" and she now retired.</p>
+
+<p>When Henry soon afterwards joined her, he found her agitated and
+excited.</p>
+
+<p>"Better known to Arthur Butler!" she exclaimed, dwelling on the speech
+of Tyrrel. "He is better known already than he dreams of. Think,
+brother, of the cool hypocrisy of this bold schemer&mdash;this secret
+disturber of the quiet of our house&mdash;that he should dare boast to me of
+Arthur's bravery."</p>
+
+<p>"And to talk about his colors too!" said Henry. "Did you mark, sister,
+how I set him down&mdash;in spite of my father's presence? And did you see
+how his brow blanched when I spoke my mind to him? He will find me too
+hot a cockerel, as he calls me, to venture upon our colors again. I hold
+no terms with him, sister, more than yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"You will excuse me to my father, Henry, I will not go in to dinner
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I wondered," replied Henry, "that you met him at all, sister; but he
+took us unawares. And, truly, I don't think it would be safe to bring
+you near him again. So I advise you, keep your room. As for me&mdash;tut! I
+am not afraid to meet him. I warrant he gets his own upon occasion!"</p>
+
+<p>"I entreat you, Henry," said Mildred, "to guard your temper. It would
+give our father pain to hear a rash speech from you. It would answer no
+good end."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be as circumspect, Mildred, as the state of the war requires,"
+answered Henry. "Fight when it is necessary, and be silent when we can't
+strike."</p>
+
+<p>Henry now left his sister and went to his usual occupations.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, in accordance with the purpose expressed to her brother did not
+appear at the dinner table; and the day was passed, by Lindsay and
+Tyrrel, in close communion over the topics connected with the object of
+the enterprise in which they were about to embark. Tyrrel had seen
+enough to convince him that he might, at least for the present, abandon
+all effort to win Mildred's good opinion; and his whole thoughts were
+now bent to bring Lindsay into such an attitude of hostility to the
+republican authorities as would inevitably lead to his removal from the
+state, and perhaps compel him to retire to England. Either of these
+events would operate to the advantage of the aspiring and selfish policy
+by which Tyrrel hoped to accomplish his object.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the evening Lindsay held a short interview with his
+children, in which he made known to them that affairs of importance were
+about to call him away, for a fortnight perhaps, from the Dove Cote. It
+was in vain that Mildred endeavored to turn him from his purpose, which,
+though undivulged to her, she conjectured to be, from its association
+with Tyrrel, some sinister political move, of which her father was to be
+the dupe.</p>
+
+<p>In accordance with Lindsay's intimation, he and Tyrrel set out, at an
+early hour of the following day, on their journey towards the low
+country.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A DOMESTIC SCENE AT THE DOVE COTE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>On the third morning following Lindsay's and Tyrrel's departure, the
+season being now about the commencement of September, Henry was seen,
+after an unusually early breakfast, to come forth upon the grass-plot,
+in front of the house, bearing in his hand a short rifle,&mdash;his customary
+accompaniment of the bugle being slung across his shoulders. For some
+moments he was occupied in examining his weapon; then leaning it against
+a tree that stood upon the lawn, he put the bugle to his mouth and
+sounded a long and clear signal-note. The first effects of this spell
+were to bring up Bell, Blanche, and Hylas, the three flap-eared hounds,
+who came frisking over the grass with many antics that might be said to
+resemble the bows and curtsies of the human species, and which were
+accompanied by the houndish salutation of deep-mouthed howls that the
+horn never fails to wake up in these animals.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after these, came striding up the hill the long gaunt form of
+Stephen Foster, who, mounting the stone wall on the lower side, with one
+bound sprang over the thickset-hedge that begirt the terrace. He was now
+arrayed in a yellow hunting shirt that reached to the middle of his
+thigh, and which was decorated with an abundance of red fringe that
+bound the cape, elbows, wrists, and extremity of the skirt, and a wool
+hat encircled with a broad red band, in one side of which was set the
+national ornament of the buck-tail. Around his waist was buckled a broad
+buckskin belt; he was armed besides with a rifle a little short of six
+feet in length.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Foster was one of that idle craft, who, having no particular
+occupation, was from this circumstance, by a contradiction in terms,
+usually called a man of all work. He belonged to that class of beings
+who are only to be found in a society where the ordinary menial
+employments are discharged by slaves; and was the tenant of a few acres
+of land, appertaining to the domain of the Dove Cote, where he professed
+to make his living by husbandry. But by far the greater proportion of
+his revenues was derived from divers miscellaneous services,&mdash;such as
+driving a team of four lean horses, of which he was proprietor; hauling
+wood for fuel; assisting in the harvest fields; somtimes working in the
+garden; and, when required, riding errands&mdash;which he preferred to all
+other business. But labor was not Stephen's forte: it was
+constitutionally a part of his system to postpone matters of work for
+pleasure; and, if there was anything for which he was particularly
+famous, it was in avoiding all appearances of punctuality to irksome
+engagements. If he can be said to have had a calling at all, it was that
+of a hunter, a species of employment that possessed a wonderful charm
+for his fancy, and which was excellently adapted both to his physical
+and moral qualities. He, therefore, gave much of his time to the
+concerns of vert and venison; and his skill with the rifle was such that
+he could make sure of putting a ball through the brain of a wild pigeon
+as far as he was able to draw a sight. He was skilled in the habits of
+all the forest animals common to this part of Virginia, and accurately
+drew the line of distinction between vermin and game. He hunted wolves,
+bears, panthers (painters, in his own pronunciation), racoons, foxes,
+opossums, and squirrels; and trapped otter, beaver, and muskrats;
+moreover, he was an expert jigger and bobber of eels, and well knew the
+trouting streams. For these pursuits he was endowed with a patient
+nature that could endure a whole day and night in the woods without
+eating or sleeping; my authority says nothing of his forbearance in the
+third primary want of humanity. He was a man of fine thews and sinews,
+stout and brave; and withal of a generous, frank, and invariable good
+nature. The war had furnished occasion for such talents as be possessed;
+and Stephen was now meditating a bold severance from his wife and
+children, who had heretofore exerted such a dominion over his
+affections, that he had not the heart to leave them. But the present
+difficulties of the nation had made such a cogent appeal to his
+patriotism, that he had resolved to take one campaign in the field, and
+thus give scope to his natural love of adventure. It was now his
+peculiar glory, and one that wrought with a potent influence upon his
+self-love, that he held the post of lieutenant to the company of Amherst
+Rangers, a volunteer corps that had lately been organized with a view to
+the state of affairs in the south.</p>
+
+<p>This worthy, when he had no expedition in hand, was generally to be
+found lounging about the mansion of the Dove Cote, in expectation of
+some call from Henry, between whom and himself there existed a mutual
+and somewhat exorbitant affection.</p>
+
+<p>On his present appearance there was a broad, complacent grin on
+Stephen's features as he accosted the young bugleman with the
+interrogatory&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What's in the wind now, Mister Henry? Arter another buck, I reckon? And
+an elegant morning it is for a drive! May be, the wind's just a little
+too fresh, 'cepting you was able to steal on the lower side of the game,
+and then the scent would come down like a rose. Thar's a great advantage
+in being down the wind, because the animal can't hear you breaking
+through the bushes, for the wind makes naturally such a twittering of
+the leaves that it deceives him, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy I know a good hunting day, Lieutenant Foster," said Henry,
+putting his arms akimbo, "as well as you. Who told you I was going after
+a buck? Why, man, if that had been my drift I should have started you
+two hours ago. But we have other business in hand, Stephen. There is
+such dreadful news in the country! We shall march soon, take my word for
+it. I am resolved to go, Stephen, as soon as ever the Rangers set out,
+let my father say what he will. It is time men should take their
+sides&mdash;that's my opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"Mister Henry, I wouldn't advise you," said Stephen, with a wise shake
+of the head. "Your father would grieve himself to death if you were to
+leave him."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't believe the half of that, lieutenant. There would be a flurry for
+a little while, and, after that, father would see that the thing
+couldn't be helped, and so he would have to be satisfied. I'll steal
+away&mdash;that's flat."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, take notice, Mister Henry," said Stephen, chuckling, "I give you
+my warning against it. But if you do go along with me I'll take as much
+care of you as if you were my own son."</p>
+
+<p>"I know sister Mildred thinks," replied Henry, "it wouldn't be very
+wrong in me to go; and so I'll leave her to make my peace at home.
+Besides, I am going on her account, just to try and hear something of
+Major Butler."</p>
+
+<p>"If that's her opinion," returned Stephen, "thar isn't much wrong about
+it. She is the head contriver and main privy-councillor," added Stephen,
+laughing, as he used these slang words, with which he was in the habit
+of garnishing his conversation, "of all matters that are done here in
+this house."</p>
+
+<p>"These are your new regimentals, Stephen," said Henry, looking at
+Foster's dress; "you shine like a flecker on a sunny day. It will please
+sister to the life to see you so spruce; she's a prodigious
+disciplinarian, and doesn't like to see us rebels (here he put his hand
+to his mouth and pronounced this word with a mock circumspection), worse
+dressed than the rascally red-coats. When do the Rangers march,
+Stephen?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are waiting for orders every day. We parade, you know, Mister Henry,
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"You must plead off to-day," said Henry; "I called you up to tell you
+that sister and I were going to ride, and I wanted you to go with us. At
+any rate, if you must go to the troop, you can leave us on the road. You
+don't meet till twelve, and both sister and I want to talk to you. She
+commanded me to tell you this. I believe she wishes you to take a letter
+for her. Poor Mildred doesn't know that I am going with you; so, as to
+that, you needn't let on. Go, Stephen, have our horses ready as soon as
+you can get them. Quick, good Stephen; sister and I will wait for you on
+the lawn."</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant of the Rangers, having received his orders, hurried away
+to attend to their execution.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred was already apparelled for her ride, and came at this moment
+from the house along the gravel walk. Her cheek, lately pale, had now
+begun to show the ruddy hue of health. Her full, dark-blue eye, although
+habitually expressive of a thoughtful temperament, frequently sparkled
+with the sudden flashes of a playful spirit, and oftener with the fire
+of an ardent resolution. Her features, marked by a well-defined outline,
+bore a strong resemblance to her brother's, and, when animated by the
+quick-speeding emotions of her mind, presented a countenance unusually
+gifted with the graces of external beauty. The impression which her
+physiognomy conveyed, was that of an impassioned and enthusiastic
+nature, and of a feminine courage that was sufficient for any emergency.
+A clear skin gave brilliancy to her complexion; and, although habits of
+exposure to the air had slightly impaired its lustre, the few traces
+which this exposure left, rather communicated the agreeable idea of a
+wholesome and vigorous constitution. The tones of her voice were soft
+and gentle, and full of harmony; and, when stimulated by her feelings,
+rich, deep, and commanding. Her figure, of what might be deemed a medium
+height in females, was neat and agile, well proportioned, and combining
+the flexible ease proper to her sex, with a degree of steadiness and
+strength that might be denominated masculine. Her movement was graceful,
+distinguished by a ready hand and free step; and it was impossible to
+look upon her most familiar bearing, without being struck by the
+indication which it gave of a self-possessed, fearless, and careering
+temper, allied to a mind raised above the multitude by a consciousness
+of intellectual force.</p>
+
+<p>As Mildred advanced along the shaded walk, she was followed by a
+fantastical little attendant, whom, in the toyish freak of a solitary
+and luxurious life, she had trained to fill the station of a lady's
+page. This was a diminutive negro boy, not above ten years of age, of a
+delicate figure, and now gaudily bedecked in a vest of scarlet cloth, a
+pair of loose white linen trowsers drawn at the ancle, and red slippers.
+A ruffle fell over his neck, and full white sleeves were fastened with
+silken cords at his wrists. A scarlet velvet cap gave a finish to the
+apparel of this gorgeous little elf; and the dress, grotesque as it was,
+was not badly set off by the saucy, familiar port of the conceited
+menial. Whether he had been destined from his birth to this pampered
+station,&mdash;or, accidentally, like many of the eastern monarchs, raised to
+the purple,&mdash;he bore the romantic name of Endymion, and was fully as
+much at the call of his patroness, and as fond of sleep, as him of Mount
+Latmos. His business seemed to be at the present moment to acquit
+himself of the responsible duty of holding an ivory-mounted riding-whip
+in readiness for the service of his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>When Mildred had crossed the lawn and arrived at the spot where Henry
+now stood, she was saluted by her brother, with&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stand, my gentle sister, you and your monkey! Ah, Mildred, you are not
+what you used to be; you have grown much too grave of late. Bear up,
+dear sister: for, after all, what is it! Why we have been beaten, and we
+must fight it over again, that's all. And as to the major, your
+partiality magnifies his dangers. Hasn't he an arm?&mdash;yes; and hasn't he
+a leg?&mdash;which, in war, I hold to be just as useful sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a dreadful uncertainty, brother," replied Mildred. "I dream of
+the worst."</p>
+
+<p>"A fig for your dreams, sister Mildred! They have been all sorts of
+ways, and that you know. Now, I have a waking dream, and that is, that
+before you are twenty-four hours older you will hear of Major Butler."</p>
+
+<p>"Would to heaven your dream may prove true!" replied Mildred. "But,
+Henry, you love me, and affection is an arrant cheat in its prophecies."</p>
+
+<p>"Tush then, sister! don't talk of it. For when we know nothing, it does
+no good to get to fancying. These are the times to act; and perhaps I'll
+surprise you yet."</p>
+
+<p>"With what, good brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Order arms," replied Henry, evading his sister's inquiry, and at the
+same time assuming a military erectness, and bringing his rifle briskly
+to the ground&mdash;"with the beauty of my drill, sister. It even surprises
+myself. You shall see me march." And here he sportively shouldered his
+rifle and stepped with a measured pace across the green, and then back
+again; whilst the saucy Endymion, presuming on his privilege, with mimic
+gestures, followed immediately in Henry's rear, taking large strides to
+keep his ground. When Henry perceived the apish minion thus upon his
+track he burst out into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"You huge giant-killer, do you mock me?" he exclaimed. "Sister, I will
+smother your body-guard in the crown of my cap, if he isn't taught
+better manners."</p>
+
+<p>"Henry, I cannot share your light heart with you," said Mildred
+sorrowfully, "mine is heavy."</p>
+
+<p>"And mine is yours, sister, light or heavy; in sunshine or in storm,
+summer and winter, dear Mildred, it is always yours. It was a trick of
+mine to amuse you. And if I do not seem to feel, sister, as you do, it
+is because I mean to act. We men have no time for low spirits."</p>
+
+<p>"Stephen Foster is here at the door with our horses, brother. Boy, give
+me the whip&mdash;now, away. The gay feathers of this bird," said Mildred, as
+the little black retired, "do not become a follower of mine."</p>
+
+<p>The new aspect of affairs, since the defeat of Camden, had pressed
+grievously upon Mildred's spirits. The country was full of disheartening
+rumors, and every day added particulars that were of a nature to
+increase the distress. The bloody fate of the brave De Kalb, and the
+soldiers that fell by his side; the triumph with which Cornwallis had
+begun his preparations for further conquests; the destitution and
+disarray of the American army, now flying before its enemy; the tales of
+unsparing sequestration with which, in Carolina, the lands of those who
+still bore arms in the cause of independence, were visited; the military
+executions of prisoners charged with the violation of a constructive
+allegiance, in the conquered districts; the harsh measures which were
+adopted to break the heart of the rebellion, that still lingered behind
+the march of the victorious army; and, above all, the boastful
+confidence with which Cornwallis, by his proclamations, sought to open
+the way for his invasion of North Carolina and Virginia, by attempting
+to rally the liege subjects of the king under his standard: all these
+events came on the wings of rumor, and had lighted up a flame through
+the whole country. To Mildred, they all imported an ill omen as regarded
+the fate of Arthur Butler. Now and then, a straggling soldier of Gates's
+broken force arrived at the Dove Cote, where he was received with an
+eager hospitality, and closely questioned as to the events in which he
+had participated. But of Butler, not even the remotest tidings were
+obtained. For the present, the uncertainty of his fortune filled
+Mildred's thoughts with the most anxious and unhappy misgivings; and
+this frame of mind over-mastered all other feelings. The late visit of
+Tyrrel to the Dove Cote, and the abrupt departure of her father with
+this individual, on an unavowed expedition, were not calculated to allay
+her fears; and she felt herself pressed on all sides with the presages
+of coming misfortune. In these difficulties she did not lose her
+fortitude; but, like a mariner benighted in a dangerous strait, she
+counted over the anxious moments of her voyage, expecting, at each
+succeeding instant, to hear the dreadful stranding of her bark upon the
+unseen rock, though bravely prepared for the worst.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ARRIVAL AT THE DOVE COTE. MILDRED RESOLVES ON A PERILOUS ADVENTURE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>It was in the state of painful expectation described in the last
+chapter, that Mildred now rode out, daily, upon the highways, in the
+feeble hope of hearing something of importance from the casual wayfarers
+who, in the present excited condition of the country, were thronging the
+roads. On the morning to which our narrative refers, she had charged
+Henry to procure the attendance of Stephen Foster, to whom, as it was
+known that he was about to accompany his troop towards the scene of
+hostilities, she was anxious to intrust a letter for Butler, as well as
+to communicate to him some instructions relating to it.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen was, accordingly, now in attendance. A sleek, full-blooded roan,
+of an active, deer-like figure, and showing by his mettlesome antics the
+high training of a pampered favorite, stood in the care of the groom at
+the door; and Mildred, aided by her brother, sprang into her saddle with
+the ease and confidence of one familiarized to the exploit. When
+mounted, she appeared to great advantage. She was an expert rider, and
+managed her horse with a dexterous grace. The very position of command
+and authority which her saddle gave her, seemed to raise her spirits
+into a happier elevation.</p>
+
+<p>"Follow me, Mister Stephen," she said, "I have service for you. And it
+will not be out of the fashion of the time that a lady should be
+'squired by an armed soldier. We take the road down the river. Have a
+care, brother, how you bound off at the start&mdash;the hill is steep, and a
+horse's foot is not over sure when pressed too rapidly on the descent."</p>
+
+<p>The cavalcade descended the hill, crossed the ford, and then took a
+direction down the stream, by the road that led beneath the Fawn's
+Tower. Mildred sighed as she gazed around her, and saw the spot of her
+last meeting with Butler. The little skiff by which her lover had glided
+across the water, now lay upon a dry bed of rock, in the same position,
+perhaps, where a month ago he had left it. The summer drought had
+reduced the stream, and deprived the light boat (whose tackle kept it
+prisoner to the root of the sycamore) of the element on which it had
+floated. This spectacle suggested to Mildred's thoughts a melancholy
+image. "Even thus," she muttered to herself, "have I been left by him.
+He has gone to obey the calls of honor and duty, and I, fettered to my
+native woods, have seen the stream of happiness roll by, one while
+swollen to a torrent, and again dried up by the fervid heat of war,
+until, like this sun-withered bark, I have been left upon the shore,
+without one drop of that clear current on which alone I hoped to live.
+Come hither, Stephen," she said, as she slackened the rein of her horse:
+and the obedient attendant was immediately at her side.</p>
+
+<p>"You set out southwards, with your comrades of the troop, in a few
+days?"</p>
+
+<p>"Orders may come to-morrow," replied Foster.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no holiday game that you are going to play," continued the lady.</p>
+
+<p>"When Congress cut out this here war for us, Miss Mildred," answered the
+hunter, "they didn't count upon settling of it without making some tall
+fellows the shorter. And it is my opinion that it is a p'int of
+conscience that every man should take his spell of the work."</p>
+
+<p>"You go to it with a good heart," said Mildred. "We women can only pray
+for you, lieutenant."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall pull trigger with a steadier hand, ma'am, when I think that
+your father's daughter is praying for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Stephen," continued Mildred, "you may chance to see some one whose duty
+may lead him further south than, perhaps, you may be required to travel:
+I will give you a letter to a friend of mine, who, I fear, is in
+distress. If such traveller be trusty and willing to do me a service, as
+perhaps he may for your sake, I must beg you to put the letter in his
+charge, and tell him to seek out Major Butler, and contrive to have it
+delivered to him."</p>
+
+<p>"If it concerns you, Miss Mildred, I will take upon myself to hunt Major
+Butler, or I will make as sure of the letter reaching him as I may have
+a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Many thanks, Stephen. There is a purse containing some few pieces of
+gold for you. Do not spare the use of it to perform my wish."</p>
+
+<p>Stephen looked bashfully at the lady as she held the proffered purse in
+her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Take it, Mr. Foster. It is money to be employed in my service, and it
+may stand you in good stead when better friends are absent."</p>
+
+<p>The hunter uttered an awkward laugh. "If you would allow me to take the
+smallest piece of money, it would more than hire a man express."</p>
+
+<p>"Take it all, Stephen, it is but a trifle. They call this the sinew of
+war," said Mildred, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an utter, moral, and resolute impossibility," answered Foster,
+"for me to take all that money. Bless your soul, Miss Mildred, my pocket
+arn't used to such company."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw, Steve," ejaculated Henry, "you are the greenest soldier in these
+hills, to be playing boy about this money. Take it, man, and none of
+your nonsense; precious little gold you'll see before you get back!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll not be ticklish about it," said Foster. "Empty the bag, Miss
+Mildred, into my hand."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that you shall have the purse with it," added Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; that's too valuable a piece of fine silk net-work for me."</p>
+
+<p>"There again, Lieutenant Foster," said Henry; "if you were not my own
+superior officer, I would say you were a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"Give it to me," replied Stephen, laughing, "I have heard of cheating
+money out of a man's pocket, but I never saw it cheated into it before."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have the letter to-morrow, Stephen," said Mildred, "and as
+you value your poor friend, who worked that purse with her own hands, do
+not fail to make an effort to learn something of Major Butler, and to
+have my letter delivered to him. He was made a prisoner somewhere on his
+way to Georgia, and I have heard escaped; but, perhaps, that's not true.
+You may find some one who can tell you more about him. Inquire of all
+you meet: and, Stephen, in my name, beg your comrades to aid you.
+Remember," added Mildred, with a smile, "this is a lady's secret. I am
+sure you will keep it."</p>
+
+<p>"Most sacrilegiously and with all possible punctuation!" replied the
+woodsman. "And you shall hear of the Major, Miss Mildred, dead or
+alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh heaven!" exclaimed Mildred aloud; and then recollecting herself, she
+breathed in a whisper, "that word vibrated a note of fear. Your zeal
+shall have my warmest gratitude, Stephen."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the party had reached the second ford, where the road
+recrossed the river, in the neighborhood of Mrs. Dimock's, and in a few
+moments they were at the door of the little inn.</p>
+
+<p>A brief halt, and a few words with the good hostess, furnished Mildred
+neither with a letter nor with any information of moment from the
+quarter, where at this time the thoughts of nearly the whole of the
+American people were turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Woful days, Miss Mildred," said the landlady, shaking her head, and
+wearing a face of lugubrious length, "woful indeed! nothing but
+hurry-skurry, and bragging and swearing. What with Gates's runaways,
+that&mdash;shame upon them!&mdash;come whipping post haste along the road; and
+messengers, dragoons, and drill sergeants, all out of breath, out of
+money, and out of everything but appetites; which, mercy on me! never
+fail in the worst of times: and what with musterings of volunteers, and
+drumming and fifing of it, up hill and down dale, it is as much as one
+can do to keep one's wits. Heaven help us, my dear! I don't know what we
+shall come to. But poor Arthur," she continued, in a mournful and lower
+key, "not a word from him. It looks awfully: I could almost sit down and
+weep. Nevertheless, Miss Mildred, my child, be of good cheer, God will
+keep his foot from the path that leads to the snares; we must all trust
+in His goodness."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, alas!" breathed Mildred, in an accent of sorrow. "Brother, ride
+forward. If a good word reaches you, Mistress Dimock, send it to me,
+even if it be at midnight."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred pursued her ride, and Henry, seeing how much she was dejected,
+applied himself, with the kindest assiduity, to bring back comfort and
+cheerfulness to her mind. He sought to amuse her with such fragments of
+the gossip of the country-side as were likely to interest her
+patriotism; and he contrived to recall to her recollection passages in
+the life of Butler, which related to the perils he had heretofore
+encountered, and from which he had extricated himself by his address and
+soldiership; and Henry told these in such a way as to infer from them
+arguments of comfort that suited the present state of his sister's
+feelings. As was usual in most of the young cadet's discourses, he
+glided into that half-boastful and half-waggish vein in which he
+delighted to refer to his own pursuits and aspirations after military
+glory.</p>
+
+<p>"A man naturally, sister," he said, erecting himself in his stirrups,
+and assuming the stiff carriage of a conceited young adjutant on parade,
+"a man naturally feels proud on horseback. It is what I call
+glorification, to have a noble beast under you, that you can turn and
+wind and check and set forward as you please, as if his limbs were your
+own. You feel stronger; and, in this world, I do believe a strong man is
+always proud. Now, I should think that a woman would feel even more so
+than a man; because, being weak by nature, she must grow happier to
+think how much muscle she can put in motion by only pulling a rein."</p>
+
+<p>"There is some philosophy in that, Henry," replied Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"So there is, sister; and I tell you more, that when a person has this
+sort of glorification, as they call it, they always get more contented
+with themselves. And that's the reason, as far as I am a judge, that you
+always feel in better spirits when you are on horseback; and,
+especially, if it should be in front of a troop. Hallo, Stephen!"
+ejaculated Henry, taken by surprise, in the midst of his discourse, by
+the sight of a flock of wild turkeys that ran across the road, some
+hundred paces ahead. "Did you see that? Halt, man&mdash;here's game for us."
+And, in an instant, he sprang from his horse, which he fastened to one
+of the neighboring trees, and ran off with his rifle in his hand, in
+pursuit of the flock.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen, whose instincts were those of a keen sportsman, when game was
+before him, did the same thing; and in a few moments Mildred found
+herself left entirely alone in the road, half disposed to chide and
+half to smile at the eager and ungallant desertion of her attendants,
+who were now in quick but cautious pursuit of the brood of turkeys. The
+speed with which these birds are accustomed to run through the woods,
+allured their pursuers to some distance into the depths of the forest;
+and Mildred patiently awaited the return of her companions on the ground
+where they had left her.</p>
+
+<p>After five or ten minutes had elapsed, it was with a sensation of some
+little concern that she descried, upon the road, a stranger mounted on
+horseback, and coming at a brisk trot to the spot where she had halted.
+The appearance of the individual was that of one of the irregular
+soldiers who had accompanied Gates's array; his dress was rustic, and
+his weapon, according to the almost universal fashion of the country
+troops, the long rifle. The condition of his sturdy steed showed long
+and fatiguing service; whilst the bold and manly person of the rider
+left little room to suppose that he was to be classed amongst the many
+who had fled in panic from the field of action. As soon as the stranger
+became aware of the presence of the lady, he slackened his speed and
+approached with a respectful salutation.</p>
+
+<p>"If I mought be so bold, ma'am, how far mought it be to a river they
+call the Rockfish?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is scarce two miles away, sir," replied Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"And there, if I don't disremember," said the traveller, "is a house
+kept by the widow Dimock; the Blue Ball, I think?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And no forks in the road betwixt this and the widow's?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a plain road," replied Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"And about two miles beyont&mdash;is squire Lindsay's, at a place they call
+the Dove Cote?"</p>
+
+<p>"Does your business take you there?" asked Mildred, with interest; "are
+you from the army?&mdash;whence come you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon, ma'am," replied the stranger, smiling, "but I am an old
+sodger, and rather warry about answering questions that consarn myself.
+I suppose it is likely I mought see Mr. Lindsay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, sir, tell me what brings you here, and who you are? I have
+special reasons for presuming so far upon your kindness. I myself live
+at the Dove Cote, and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Then, mayhap, you mought have hearn of one Major Arthur Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, sir,&mdash;if you have any news of him, speak it to me quickly,"
+exclaimed Mildred, with much agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"By that sparkling of your eye, ma'am, it is no fool's guess that you
+are the identical particular lady that I have rode nigh on to five
+hundred miles to see. You have hearn the Major tell of Horse Shoe
+Robinson?"</p>
+
+<p>"And Arthur Butler."</p>
+
+<p>"He is well, madam, and in good heart, excepting some trifling drawbacks
+that don't come to much account."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, thank God, for this news!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have brought two letters, Miss Lindsay, from the Major, for you; they
+will tell you, I believe, mainly, that the Major is in the hands of the
+Philistians," said Horse Shoe, rummaging through the plaits of his
+dress, and getting loose the belt and leathern pouch from which, by the
+help of his jack-knife, he extricated the missives; "but they leave the
+story to be told pretty much by me. The long and the short of it is,
+that the Major is a prisoner, and wants some assistance from you: but
+there is no danger of any harm being done him."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred eagerly tore open the letters and read them; then heaving a
+sigh, she said, "He is closely watched, and galled with misfortune. He
+refers to you, Mr. Robinson, and I must beg you to tell me all."</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe, with a cheerful and occasionally even with a laughing
+manner, adopted to reassure the lady and quell her fears, recounted all
+such particulars of Butler's adventures as were necessary to enable her
+to comprehend the nature of his present mission to the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>Before this narrative was brought to a close, Henry and Foster had
+returned, bringing with them a large turkey which Henry had shot, and
+which the young sportsman was exhibiting with ostentatious triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Huzza, here's a new turn of good luck! Horse Shoe Robinson, the brave
+sergeant," shouted Henry, as soon as he observed the stout figure of our
+old friend. "Is Major Butler here too?" he demanded, as he shook the
+sergeant's hand, "or have you come alone? Now, sister, you ought to be a
+happy woman. You bring us good news, Mr. Horse Shoe, I know you do."</p>
+
+<p>"The news is better than it mought have been if the Tories had had their
+way," replied Horse Shoe. "But a sodger's life has both shade and
+sunshine in it; and the Major is now a little in the shade."</p>
+
+<p>"Brother, mount quickly," said Mildred, "we have business before us. Mr.
+Robinson, ride beside me; I have much to say to you."</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Foster, after saluting the sergeant, and reminding Mildred of
+his engagement to meet his troop, took his leave of the party.</p>
+
+<p>The rest repaired, with as much expedition as they were able to employ,
+to the Dove Cote, Horse Shoe detailing to the brother and sister, as
+they went along, a great many particulars of the late history of Butler.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the house, orders were given for the accommodation of
+the sergeant; and the most sedulous attention was shown to everything
+that regarded his comfort. Frequent conferences were held between
+Mildred and Henry, and the trusty emissary. The letters were reperused,
+and all the circumstances that belonged to Butler's means of liberation
+were anxiously discussed.</p>
+
+<p>"How unlucky is it," said Mildred, "that my father should be absent at
+such a moment as this! Arthur's appeal to him would convince him how
+wicked was Tyrrel's charge against his honor. And yet, in my father's
+late mood, the appeal might have been ineffectual: he might have
+refused. Sergeant, we are in great difficulties, and I know not what to
+do. A letter, you say, has been written to Lord Cornwallis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am, and by a man who sharpened his pen with his sword."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard nothing of the answer of his Lordship?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was not time to hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Cornwallis will be prejudiced by those around him, and he will refuse,"
+said Mildred, with an air of deep solicitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Not if he be the man I take him to be, young lady," replied Horse
+Shoe. "The world says he is above doing a cowardly thing; and it isn't
+natural for one brave man to wish harm against another, except in open
+war."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear of one Tyrrel, in the British camp? But how could
+you?&mdash;that was an assumed name."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the gentleman who was here when the major stopped at Mrs.
+Dimock's?" said Robinson: "that was the name the landlady spoke
+about&mdash;if I remember myself. I did not hear of him, ma'am, in my
+travels; but his servant, James Curry, I met oftener, I undertake to
+say, than the fellow wished. He was consarned in ambushing Major Butler
+and me at Grindall's Ford. It was our opinion he was hired."</p>
+
+<p>"There," exclaimed Mildred, "that confirms what I guessed of Tyrrel's
+villany. I will go to Cornwallis myself: I will expose the whole matter
+to his lordship. Henry, my dear brother, it is a rash venture, but I
+will essay it. You must accompany and protect me."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a sudden thought, sister, and you may count on my hearty good
+will to help it along. It is a brave thought of yours, besides," said
+Henry, pondering over it&mdash;"and everybody will praise you for it."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson listened to this resolve with an incredulous ear.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't venture, young madam, to trust yourself amongst such rough
+and unchristian people, as you would have to go among before you could
+see Cornwallis? in danger of being taken up by outposts and pickets, or
+arrested by patroles, or dragged about by dragoons and fellows that have
+more savagery in them than wolves. Oh no, ma'am, you don't know what you
+would have to put up with; that's onpossible. Mr. Henry, here, and me,
+can take a letter."</p>
+
+<p>"I may not trust to letters, I must go myself. You will protect me, Mr.
+Robinson? my brother and I will form some good excuse that shall take us
+through safely."</p>
+
+<p>"Sartainly, ma'am, I will stand by you through all chances, if you go,"
+replied the sergeant. "But there's not many women, with their eyes open,
+would set out on such a march."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be easily achieved," said Mildred: "it is an honest and
+virtuous cause that takes me away, and I will attempt it with a valiant
+spirit. It cannot but come to good. My father's name will give me free
+passage through the enemy's lines. And you shall pass as my attendant."</p>
+
+<p>"If you have a heart stout enough, ma'am, for such hard fare, I believe
+I mought undertake for your safe passage," answered Horse Shoe, "and it
+sartainly would do the major great good to hear that you was stirring in
+this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant, recruit yourself as long as you think necessary," said
+Mildred; "but if you can be ready to set out to-morrow, I should like to
+go then, and at an early hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't stand upon my fatigue, young lady: I never saw the time when I
+wan't ready to march at the shortest warning. With your leave, I will go
+look after my horse, Captain Peter, I call him, ma'am. A little chance
+of a roll, and the privilege of a good green pasture, soon puts him in
+marching trim."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant now left the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Sister," said Henry, "you never thought a better thought, and you never
+contrived a better act, than just taking this matter in hand yourself,
+under mine and Horse Shoe's protection. Because Horse Shoe is as brave a
+man as you ever fell in with, and as for me, I'll back the sergeant. We
+can finish the thing in two or three weeks, and then, when I see you
+safe home, I'll go and join the Rangers."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a perilous and uncertain journey, brother, but it is my duty. I
+would rather fall beneath the calamities of war than longer endure my
+present feelings. Provide yourself, brother, with all things requisite
+for our journey, and give old Isaac, the gardener, notice that he must
+go with us. We shall set out to-morrow. I will write a letter to my
+father to-night explaining my purpose. And one thing, Henry; you will be
+careful to say nothing to any one of the route we shall travel."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take my carbine, sister," said Henry, "I can sling it with a
+strap. And I was thinking I had better have a broadsword."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that behind," replied Mildred, as a smile rose on her features.</p>
+
+<p>"The bugle I will certainly take," added Henry; "because it might be
+useful in case we got separated; and I will teach you to understand my
+signals. Isaac shall carry horse-pistols on his saddle, and the
+sergeant shall have a great wallet of provisions. You see I understand
+campaigning, Mildred. And now," added the eager young soldier, as he
+left the apartment, "hurra for the volunteers of the Dove Cote!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MILDRED BEGINS HER JOURNEY.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The man who writes the history of woman's love will find himself
+employed in drawing out a tangled skein. It is a history of secret
+emotions and vivid contrasts, which may well go nigh to baffle his
+penetration and to puzzle his philosophy. There is in it a surface of
+timid and gentle bashfulness concealing an underflow of strong and heady
+passion: a seeming caprice that a breath may shake or a word alarm; yet,
+all the while, an earnest devotion of soul which, in its excited action,
+holds all danger cheap that crosses the path of its career. The
+sportive, changeful, and coward nature that dallies with affection as a
+jest, and wins admiration by its affrighted coyness; that flies and
+would be followed; that revolts and would be soothed, entreated, and on
+bended knee implored, before it is won; that same nature will undergo
+the ordeal of the burning ploughshare, take all the extremes of misery
+and distress, brave the fury of the elements and the wrath of man, and
+in every peril be a patient comforter, when the cause that moves her is
+the vindication of her love. Affection is to her what glory is to man,
+an impulse that inspires the most adventurous heroism.</p>
+
+<p>There had been for some days past in Mildred's mind an anxious misgiving
+of misfortune to Butler, which was but ill concealed in a quiet and
+reserved demeanor. The argument of his safety seemed to have little to
+rest upon, and she could perceive that it was not believed by those who
+uttered it. There rose upon her thoughts imaginings or presentiments of
+ill, which she did not like to dwell upon, but which she could not
+banish. And now when Horse Shoe had told his tale, the incidents did not
+seem to warrant the levity with which he passed them by. She was afraid
+to express her doubts: and they brooded upon her mind, hatching pain and
+secret grief. It was almost an instinct, therefore, that directed her
+resolve, when she announced her determination to go in person in quest
+of Cornwallis, and to plead Butler's cause herself to the British
+general. Her soul rebelled at the gross calumny which had been invented
+to bring down vengeance upon Arthur's head; and she had no thought of
+thwarting the accuser's wickedness, but by an appeal to the highest
+power for that redress which an honorable soldier, in her opinion, could
+not refuse, even to an enemy. As to the personal hazard, inconvenience,
+or difficulty of her projected enterprise, no thought of either for a
+moment occupied her. She saw but her purpose before her, and did not
+pause to reckon on the means by which she was to promote it. She
+reflected not on the censure of the world; nor on its ridicule; nor on
+its want of sympathy for her feelings: she reflected only on her power
+to serve one dearer to her than a friend, upon her duty, and upon the
+agony of her doubts. If her father had been at hand she might have
+appealed to him, and, perhaps, have submitted to his counsel; but he was
+absent, she knew not where, and she was convinced that no time was to be
+lost. "Even now, whilst we debate," she said, "his life may be forfeited
+to the malice of the wicked men who have ensnared him."</p>
+
+<p>Her conduct in this crisis is not to be weighed in the scale wherein the
+seemly and decorous observances of female propriety are ordinarily
+balanced. The times, the occasion, and the peculiar position of Mildred,
+take her case out of the pale of common events, and are entitled to
+another standard. She will be judged by the purity of her heart, the
+fervor of her attachment, and her sense of the importance of the service
+she was about to confer. And with the knowledge of these, I must leave
+her vindication to the generosity of my reader.</p>
+
+<p>When the morning came and breakfast was over, the horses were brought to
+the door. Henry was active in all the preliminary arrangements for the
+journey, and now bestirred himself with an increased air of personal
+importance. Isaac, a grey-haired negro of a sedate, and, like all his
+tribe, of an abundantly thoughtful length of visage, appeared in a suit
+of livery, ready booted and spurred for his journey. A large
+portmanteau, containing a supply of baggage for his mistress, was duly
+strapped behind his saddle, whilst a pair of pistols were buckled upon
+the pummel. Henry's horse also had all the furniture necessary to a
+campaign and the young martialist himself, notwithstanding his sister's
+disapproval, was begirt with a sword-belt, from which depended a light
+sabre, with which he was in the habit of exhibiting himself in the corps
+of the Rangers. His bugle hung gracefully by his side, and his carbine
+was already provided with a strap to sling it across his back. Stephen
+Foster was lost in wonder at these sudden preparations, of the import of
+which he could gain no more intelligence from Henry than that a movement
+towards the army was intended, of a portentous character.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe sat quietly in the porch looking on with a professional
+unconcern, whilst his trusty Captain Peter, bearing a pair of
+saddle-bags, now stuffed with a plethora of provisions, slouched his
+head, in patient fixedness, waiting the order to move. A bevy of
+domestics hung around the scene of preparation, lost in conjectures as
+to the meaning of this strange array, and prosecuting an inquiry to
+satisfy themselves, with fruitless perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>When Mildred appeared at the door she was habited for her journey. The
+housekeeper, an aged dame, stood near her.</p>
+
+<p>"My travel, Mistress Morrison," she said, addressing the matron, and at
+the same time putting a letter into her hand, "I trust will not keep me
+long from home. If my father should return before I do, be careful to
+give him that. Mr. Foster, you will not forget your promise," she added,
+as she delivered the second letter, which, notwithstanding her own
+expedition, she had prepared for Butler, in the hope that opportunity
+might favor its transmission by Stephen.</p>
+
+<p>"The gold," said Stephen, putting his hand in his pocket; "you will want
+it yourself, Miss Mildred, and I can do without it."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that," interrupted Mildred. "Keep your promise, and I hope
+to be able to reward you more according to your deserts."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven and the saints protect you, Miss Mildred!" said the housekeeper,
+as the lady bade her farewell. "You leave us on some heavy errand. God
+grant that you come back with a gayer face than you take away!" Then
+turning up her eyes, and raising her hands, she ejaculated, "This is an
+awful thing, and past my understanding!"</p>
+
+<p>Mildred took leave of the rest of the group around the door, and was
+soon in her saddle. This was a signal for the rest to mount, and as
+Stephen Foster delivered Henry his rifle, the latter took occasion to
+whisper in the hunter's ear&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is not unlikely, Steve, that we may meet each other again over here
+in Carolina; so remember to make inquiries for us as you go along, and
+tell the men I hope to join them before they fire one shot in spite. But
+mum, Steve, not a word about our route."</p>
+
+<p>Stephen shook hands with his young comrade; and Henry, seeing that the
+rest of the party had already left the door and were some distance down
+the hill, called out with an elated tone of good humor&mdash;"Farewell, Mrs.
+Morrison, and all the rest of you!" and putting spurs to his horse
+galloped off to join his sister.</p>
+
+<p>The route pursued by the travellers lay due south, and during the first
+three or four days of their journey they were still within the confines
+of Virginia. To travel on horseback was a customary feat, even for
+ladies, in those days of rough roads and scant means of locomotion: and
+such a cavalcade as we have described was calculated to excite no
+particular inquiry from the passer-by, beyond that which would now be
+made on the appearance of any party of pleasure upon the high-roads, in
+the course of a summer excursion. Mildred experienced severe fatigue in
+the first stages of her journey; but by degrees this wore off, and she
+was soon enabled to endure the long day's ride with scarcely less
+inconvenience than her fellow-travellers.</p>
+
+<p>At that period there were but few inns in these thinly-peopled
+districts, and such as were already established were small and but
+meagrely provided. This deficiency was, in some degree, compensated by
+the good will with which the owners of private establishments in the
+country received the better class of travellers, and the ready
+hospitality with which they entertained them. Henry took upon himself to
+obtain information of the gentlemen's seats that lay near the route of
+his journey, and to conduct the party to them whenever his sister's
+comfort required better accommodation than the common inns afforded.</p>
+
+<p>As our travellers had thus far kept along that range of country which
+lay immediately under the mountains, they were not annoyed by the
+intense heats which, at this season, prevailed in the lowlands. The
+weather, ever since their departure, had been uncommonly fine, and as is
+usual in this district, the month of September had brought its cool,
+dewy nights, whilst the early hours of the morning were even marked by a
+little sharpness, almost approaching to frost. The effect of this on
+Mildred was to recruit the weariness of travel, and better enable her to
+encounter the noon-tide fervors of the sun; and she had so far endured
+the toils of her journey with an admirable spirit. Actual trial
+generally results in demonstrating how much we are prone to exaggerate
+in advance the difficulties of any undertaking. Accordingly, Mildred's
+present experience strengthened her resolution to proceed, and even
+communicated an unexpected increase of contentment to her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>On the fifth day the party crossed the river Dan, and entered the
+province of North Carolina. A small remnant of Gates's shattered army
+lay at Hillsborough, at no great distance from the frontier; and as
+Mildred was anxious to avoid the inquiry or molestation to be expected
+in passing through a military post, she resolved to travel by a lower
+route, and Horse Shoe, therefore, at her suggestion, directed his
+journey towards the little village of Tarborough.</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis, it was understood, since the battle of Camden, had removed
+his head-quarters into the neighborhood of the Waxhaws, some distance up
+the Catawba, where he was supposed to be yet stationary. The whole
+country in the neighborhood of either army was in a state of earnest
+preparation; the British commander recruiting his forces for further and
+immediate operations&mdash;the American endeavoring to reassemble his feeble
+and scattered auxiliaries for defence. At the present moment, actual
+hostilities between these two parties were entirely suspended, in
+anxious anticipation of the rapidly approaching renewal of the struggle.
+It was a breathing time, when the panting combatants, exhausted by
+battle, stood sullenly eyeing each other and making ready&mdash;the one to
+strike, the other to ward off another staggering blow.</p>
+
+<p>The country over which Mildred was now to travel was calculated to tax
+her powers of endurance to the utmost. It was a dreary waste of barren
+wilderness, covered with an endless forest of gloomy pine, through which
+a heavy, sandy road crept in lurid and melancholy shade. Here and there
+a miserable hut occurred to view, with a few ragged inmates, surrounded
+by all the signs of squalid poverty. The principal population were only
+to be seen along the banks of the rivers which penetrated into this
+region, some twenty or thirty miles distant from each other. The
+alluvial bottoms through which these streams found a channel to the
+ocean, were the only tracts of land of sufficient fertility to afford
+support to man&mdash;all between them was a sterile and gloomy forest.</p>
+
+<p>Still, these regions were not deserted. Bodies of irregular troops, ill
+clothed and worse armed, and generally bearing the haggard features of
+disease, such as mark the population of a sickly climate, were often
+encountered upon the road, directing their wearied march towards the
+head-quarters of the republican army. The rigors of the Southern summer
+had not yet abated; and it was with painful steps in the deep sand, amid
+clouds of suffocating dust, that these little detachments prosecuted
+their journey.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, so far from sinking under the weariness and increasing
+hardships of her present toils, seemed to be endued with a capacity for
+sustaining them much beyond anything that could have been believed of
+her sex. Her courage grew with the difficulties that beset her. She
+looked composedly upon the obstacles before her, and encountered them,
+not only without a murmur, but even with a cheerfulness to which she had
+hitherto been a stranger. The steadiness of her onward march, her
+unrepining patience, and the gentle solicitude with which she turned the
+thoughts of her companions from herself, and forbade the supposition
+that her powers were over-taxed, showed how deeply her feelings were
+engaged in her enterprise, and how maturely her mind had taken its
+resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"One never would have guessed," said Horse Shoe, towards the close of
+the second day after they had entered North Carolina, "that a lady so
+daintily nursed as you was at home, Mistress Mildred, could have ever
+borne this here roughing of it through these piney woods. But I have
+made one observation, Miss Lindsay, that no one can tell what they are
+fit for till they are tried; and on the back of that I have another,
+that when there's a great stir that rouses up a whole country, it don't
+much signify whether they are man or woman, they all get roused alike.
+'Pon my word, ma'am, I have seen men&mdash;who think themselves sodgers
+too&mdash;that would be onwilling to trust themselves at this time o' year
+through such a dried up piece of pine barren as we have been travelling
+over for two days past."</p>
+
+<p>"You remember the fable of the willow and the oak, Mr. Robinson,"
+replied Mildred, smiling; "the storm may bring down the sturdy tree, but
+the supple shrub will bend before it without breaking."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not much given to religious takings-on," said the sergeant, "but
+sometimes a notion comes into my head that looks a little that way, and
+that is, when God appoints a thing to be done, he gives them that's to
+do it all the wherewithals. Now, as Major Butler is a good man and a
+brave sodger&mdash;God bless him!&mdash;it does seem right that you, Mistress
+Lindsay,&mdash;who, I take on me to understand enough of your consarns and
+his'n, without offence, to say has a leaning towards the major,&mdash;I say
+it does seem right and natural that you should lend a hand to help him
+out of tribulation; and so you see the cause being a good cause, the
+Lord has given you both wisdom and strength to do what is right."</p>
+
+<p>"We owe, sergeant, a duty to our country; and we serve God and our
+country both, when we strengthen the hands of its defenders."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a valiant speech, young lady, and it's a noble speech," said
+Horse Shoe, with an earnest emphasis. "I have often told the major that
+the women of this country had as honest thoughts about this here war,
+and was as warm for our cause as the men; and some of them, perhaps, a
+little warmer. They could be pitted against the women of any quarter of
+the aqueous globe, in bearing and forbearing both, when it is for the
+good of the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Henry is asleep on his horse," said Mildred, looking at her brother,
+who now, jaded and worn with the effort of travel, was nodding and
+dropping his head forward, and almost losing his seat. "What, Henry,
+brother!" she added, loud enough to rouse up the young horseman. "My
+trusty cavalier, are you going to fall from your horse? Where is all
+that boasted glorification upon which you were disposed to be so
+eloquent only a week ago? I thought a man on horseback was naturally
+proud: I fear it was only on holiday occasions you meant, Henry. Hav'n't
+you a word for a sunny day and a dry journey? You lag more like a
+miller's boy with his bag of meal, than a young soldier setting out on
+his adventures."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, sister," said Henry, waking up, "this is nothing but
+pine&mdash;pine&mdash;and sand, without end. There is no game in the woods to keep
+a man on the look-out, except here and there a herd of wild hogs, that
+snort and run from us, like a squadron of cavalry, with their bristles
+set up on their backs as fierce as the back fin of a sunfish. There is
+not even grass to look at: you might see a black snake running half a
+mile amongst the trees. And then there are such great patches of burnt
+timber, every trunk staring right at you, as black as thunder. I'm tired
+of it all&mdash;I want to see the green fields again."</p>
+
+<p>"And, in truth, brother, so do I: but not until we can bring merry faces
+to look upon them. How far are we from Tarborough?"</p>
+
+<p>"We should be drawing nigh to the town," replied Horse Shoe, "for you
+may see that we shall soon be out of these woods, by the signs of open
+country ahead. The last squad of sodgers that passed us, said that when
+we came to the farms, we shouldn't be more than five miles from the
+town, and the sun isn't above an hour high."</p>
+
+<p>"In the hope of being soon housed, then, Mr. Robinson, I may confess to
+you I am somewhat weary; but a good night's rest will put me in fair
+condition for to-morrow's ride again."</p>
+
+<p>After the lapse of an hour, the party were safely sheltered in a
+tolerably comfortable inn at the village: and Mildred, aided by the
+sedulous care of Henry, found herself well bestowed in the best chamber
+of the house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>From Tarborough our travellers continued their route towards the Pedee,
+by the main road which led through Cross creek, a small hamlet on Cape
+Fear river, near the site of the present town of Fayetteville. The
+general features of the country were even more forbidding than those I
+have already described as characteristic of this portion of North
+Carolina. Even to the present day, cultivation has done but little to
+cheer up the natural desolation of those tracts of wilderness which lie
+between the rivers. But at the early period to which the events I have
+been detailing have reference, the journey undertaken by our little
+caravan might be compared to that which is now frequently made through
+the more southern extremity of the Union, from the Atlantic to the Gulf
+of Mexico, an attempt seldom essayed by a female, and sufficiently
+trying to the hardihood of the stoutest travellers. The forethought and
+attention of Horse Shoe Robinson, however, contributed to alleviate the
+pains of the enterprise, and to enable Mildred to overcome its
+difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>In the present alarmed and excited state of this province, the party
+were less liable to interruption in this secluded and destitute section
+of the country, than they might have been, had they chosen a lower and
+more populous district; and the consciousness that every day's
+perseverance brought them nearer to the ultimate term of their journey,
+gave new vigor, at least, to Mildred's capacity to endure the privations
+to which she was exposed. But few vestiges of the war yet occurred to
+their view. The great wilderness, like the great ocean, retains no
+traces of the passage of hostile bodies. Sometimes, indeed, the signs of
+a woodland encampment were visible in the midst of the forest, on the
+margin of some sluggish brook or around a sylvan fountain, where the
+impression of recent hoof-prints, the scattered fragments of brushwood
+cut for temporary shelter, and the still smouldering ashes of camp
+fires, showed that masses of men had been in motion. The deer fled,
+too, with a more frightened bound towards their coverts, as if lately
+alarmed by the pursuit of the huntsman; but the images of devastation,
+which are associated with the horrid front of war in the mind of all
+familiar with its ravage, were absent. The eternal, leafy shade high
+arching over the heads of the wayfarers, furnished no object for human
+vengeance; and it still sighed in the fanning of the breeze, as of old
+it sighed before man claimed dominion in the soil it sheltered. A far
+different scene was shortly to be looked upon by our venturesome
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Several days had again passed by, for the journey through the wilderness
+had been slowly prosecuted, when Robinson, towards the approach of
+evening, announced to Mildred his conjecture that they were not far off
+the Pedee. The banks of this river had been the scene of frequent
+hostilities, and the war that had been carried on here was of the most
+ruthless kind. The river is characterized by a broad, deep, and quiet
+stream, begirt with a vegetation of exceeding luxuriance. Its periodical
+overflow seems to have poured out upon its margin a soil of
+inexhaustible richness, that, for a mile or two on either side, forms a
+striking contrast with the low, barren sand-hills that hem in the river
+plain. Along this tract of level border, all the way to the Atlantic,
+are found, as is usually the case throughout the Carolinas, the large
+plantations of opulent gentlemen, who, by the cultivation of rice and
+cotton, turn the fertility of the soil to the best account. These
+possessions, presenting the most assailable points to an enemy, and,
+indeed, almost the only ones in which the great interests of the
+province might be wounded, were, during the whole of that bloody
+struggle which distinguished the days of the "Tory Ascendency," the
+constant objects of attack; and here the war was waged with a vindictive
+malignity, on the part of the British and Tory partisans, that is
+scarcely surpassed in the history of civil broils. The finest estates
+were sacked, the dwellings burnt, and the property destroyed with
+unsparing rage. The men were dragged from their houses and hung, the
+women and children turned without food or raiment into the wilderness,
+and political vengeance seemed to gorge itself to gluttony upon its own
+rapine.</p>
+
+<p>The thoughts of Robinson had been, for some days past, running upon the
+probable difficulties that might attend the guise in which he was now
+about to return to his native province. This was a subject of some
+concern, since he ran a risk of being compelled either to desert his
+charge, or to bring his companions into jeopardy, amongst the many
+persons of both armies who were, at least by report, acquainted with his
+name and his military connexions. He had explained to Mildred the
+necessity of his appearing in some definite character, associated with
+the object of her journey, and of which, upon emergency, he might claim
+the benefit to retain his post near her. This matter was summarily
+settled by Henry.</p>
+
+<p>"In general, Mr. Horse Shoe, you can call yourself Stephen Foster: you
+know Steve; and you can say that you are Mr. Philip Lindsay's gardener.
+Isaac, here, can let you enough into the craft to pass muster, if any of
+them should take it into their heads to examine you. Mind that, Isaac:
+and recollect, old fellow, you are only sister Mildred's waiting man."</p>
+
+<p>"Sartainly, master," replied Isaac.</p>
+
+<p>"And sergeant, I'll tell you all about Steve; so that you can get your
+lesson by heart. You have a wife and five children&mdash;remember that. I'll
+give you all their names by-and-by."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks to the marcies of God, that ar'n't my misfortune yet," said
+Horse Shoe, laughing; "but, Mr. Henry, I have got conscience enough now
+for any lie that can be invented. The major and me talked that thing
+over, and he's of opinion that lying, in an enemy's country, is not
+forbidden in the scriptures. And I have hearn the preacher say that
+Rahab, who was not a woman of good fame no how, yet she was excused by
+the Lord for telling the king of Jericho a most thumping lie, consarning
+her not knowing what had become of the two men that Joshua, the judge of
+Israel, who was a general besides, had sent into the town to
+reconnoitre; which was a strong case, Mister Henry, seeing that Rahab,
+the harlot, was a taking of sides against her own people. So, I like
+your plan and I'll stick by it."</p>
+
+<p>This being agreed upon, it became one of the amusements of the road-side
+to put the sergeant through his catechism, which was designed to make
+him familiar with the traits of private history relating to the Dove
+Cote and its appurtenances, that he might thereby maintain his
+identity, in the event of a close investigation. Horse Shoe was but an
+awkward scholar in this school of disguise, and gave Henry sufficient
+employment to keep him in the path of probability; and, indeed, the
+young teacher himself found it difficult to maintain an exact
+verisimilitude in the part which it was his own province to play in this
+deception.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening to which we have alluded, the sergeant, finding himself
+within a short distance of the district of country in which he was
+almost certain to encounter parties of both friends and foes, adopted a
+greater degree of circumspection than he had hitherto deemed it
+necessary to observe. His purpose was to halt upon the borders of the
+forest, and endeavor to obtain accurate information of the state of
+affairs along the river, before he entered upon this dangerous ground.
+Like a soldier who had a rich treasure to guard, he was determined to
+run no hazard that might be avoided, in the safe conduct of the lady in
+whose service he was enlisted. In accordance with this caution, he
+directed the cavalcade to move onward at a moderate walk, in order that
+they might not reach the limit of the woodland before the dusk of the
+evening; and also in the hope of finding there some habitation where
+they might pass the night. They had not advanced far in this manner
+before the sergeant descried, at some distance ahead, a small log hut
+standing by the road side, which, by the smoke that issued from the
+chimney, he perceived to be inhabited. Upon this discovery, he ordered
+the party to stop and await his return. Then giving spurs to his horse
+he galloped forward, and, after a short interval of absence, returned,
+made a favorable report of his reconnoissance, and conducted his
+companions to the house.</p>
+
+<p>The little cabin to which Mildred was thus introduced was the homestead
+of an honest Whig soldier, by the name of Wingate, who was now in
+service, under the command of one of the most gallant partisans that any
+country ever produced, Francis Marion, then recently promoted to the
+rank of a brigadier. The inmates were the soldier's family, consisting
+of a young woman and a number of small children, all demonstrating by
+their appearance a condition of exceedingly limited comfort. The hut
+contained no more than two rooms, which exhibited but a scanty supply of
+the meanest furniture. The forest had been cleared for the space of a
+few acres around the dwelling, and these were occupied by a small
+garden or vegetable patch, meagrely stocked with scattered and half
+parched plants; and by a cornfield, along the skirts of which some lean
+hogs were seen groping with a felonious stealthiness. A shed, in the
+same inclosure, formed a rendezvous for a few half-starved cattle, that
+probably obtained their principal but slender support from the
+neighboring wood. Add to these a troop of fowls, that were now at roost
+upon one of the trees hard by, and we have, probably, a tolerably
+correct inventory of the worldly goods of this little family.</p>
+
+<p>The woman of the house was kind and hospitable, and her attentions were
+in no small degree quickened by the application of a few pieces of money
+which Mildred insisted upon her receiving&mdash;much to the discomfiture of
+the dame's self-possession&mdash;the boon consisting of hard coin, to an
+amount of which, perhaps, she had never before been mistress.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred was exceedingly fatigued, and it was an object of early
+consideration to furnish her the means of rest. Our hostess assisted by
+old Isaac, and officiously but awkwardly superintended by Horse Shoe,
+began her preparations for supper, to the abundance of which the
+provident sergeant was enabled to contribute some useful elements from
+his wallet. In one of the apartments of the hut, a shock-bed was spread
+for the lady, and by the assistance of her cloak and some other
+commodities which had been provided as part of her travelling gear, she
+was supplied with a couch that formed no ill exchange for the weariness
+of her long-inhabited saddle. Use and necessity are kind nursing-mothers
+to our nature, and do not often fail to endow us with the qualities
+proper to the fortune they shape out for us. This was not Mildred's
+first experience of a homely lodging since she left the Dove Cote; and,
+as privation and toil have a faculty to convert the rough pallet of the
+peasant into a bed of down, she hailed the present prospect of rest with
+a contented and grateful spirit.</p>
+
+<p>The supper being dispatched, our lady was left alone with her hostess,
+to seek the repose of which she stood so much in need.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant now set about making provision for the rest of his party.
+This was done by erecting a shelter beneath one of the trees of the
+forest, opposite to the door of the cabin. It was composed of a few
+boughs stacked against the trunk of the tree, sufficiently covered with
+leaves to turn aside any rain that might happen to fall. Under this
+cover Horse Shoe appointed that he and his comrades should pass the
+night, enjoining them to keep a regular watch for the security of the
+lady, whose welfare was now the object of his most sedulous attention.
+All these preparations were made with the exactness of military rule,
+and with a skill that greatly delighted Henry.</p>
+
+<p>The long summer twilight had faded away. Mildred had been, from an early
+period, in the enjoyment of a profound slumber, and Henry and his negro
+ally were seated at the front of their sylvan tent. The sergeant had
+lighted his pipe, and now, taking his seat upon a log that lay near his
+post, he began to smoke in good earnest, with a mind as free from
+anxiety as if universal peace prevailed. In the sedate enjoyment of this
+luxury, he fell into a descant on matters and things, interlarded with
+long and strange stories of his own singular adventures, which he told
+to the no small edification and amusement of Henry and the negro.</p>
+
+<p>The habits of the experienced soldier were curiously illustrated in the
+thoughtful and sober foresight with which Robinson adapted his plans to
+the exigencies of his condition, and then in the imperturbable
+light-heartedness with which, after his measures of safety were taken,
+he waited the progress of events. His watchfulness seemed to be an
+instinct, engendered by a familiarity with danger, whilst the steady and
+mirthful tone of his mind was an attribute that never gave way to the
+inroads of care. He was the same composed and self-possessed being in a
+besieged garrison, in the moment of a threatened escalade, as amongst
+his cronies by a winter fire-side.</p>
+
+<p>"In this here starlight, Mister Henry," he said, after he had puffed out
+two or three charges of his pipe, "I can't see your eyes, but by your
+yawning, I judge you are a little sleepy. Take my advice and turn in. A
+sodger ought to snatch his rest when he can get it. I'll keep guard over
+our young lady; the Lord protect her, for a most an elegant and oncommon
+precious young creature! Fling your great coat upon the leaves, and go
+at it, my lad, like a good fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"If I was at home Mr. Horse Shoe, at the Dove Cote, I could sit up all
+night listening to your stories; but I believe I am bewitched to-night,
+for my eyelids, this hour past, have been snapping like rat traps. So,
+I'll just stretch out for an hour or so, and then get up and take my
+turn at the guard."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't trouble your head about watching," replied Horse Shoe, "you are
+not old enough for that yet. At your time of life, Mr. Lindsay, a good
+night's rest is the best part of a ration. And to-morrow, if I'm not
+mistaken, you will have need of all the strength you can muster
+to-night. As for me, it isn't much account whether I'm asleep or awake."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so fast, sergeant," rejoined the youth, "I'm an older soldier than
+you take me for; Stephen and I have watched many a night for racoons.
+No, no, I'll have my turn towards morning. So, you and Isaac take the
+first part of the night between you, and if anything should happen, call
+me; I'm one of your minute men. So good night. My horse trots harder
+than I thought he did."</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before our boasted minute man was locked up in a spell
+apparently as profound as that which the legend affirms assailed the
+seven sleepers: and Isaac, not even waiting for the good example of his
+master, had already sunk upon the ground, with that facility which
+distinguishes his race, the most uncaring and happiest of mortals.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Our fortress is the good green wood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Our tent the cypress tree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We know the forest round us<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As seamen know the sea.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We know its walls of thorny vines,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Its glades of reedy grass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Its safe and silent islands<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Within the dark morass.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Bryant.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>The faithful Horse Shoe being thus left to himself, replenished his
+pipe, and, taking his rifle in his hand, paced to and fro upon the
+border of the road, holding communion with his own thoughts, carefully
+weighing the probabilities connected with his present singular
+expedition, and revolving, after his own fashion, the fortunes of Arthur
+Butler and Mildred Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>It was within an hour of midnight, when the sergeant's meditations were
+interrupted by the tramp of a horse approaching the hut at a gallop. But
+a few moments elapsed before a traveller, who, in the starlight, Horse
+Shoe could discern to be armed, drew up his rein immediately at the door
+of the dwelling, against which he struck several blows with his weapon,
+calling out loudly at the same time&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mistress Wingate&mdash;for God's sake, open your door quickly! I have news
+to tell you, good woman."</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of mercy! who are you?" exclaimed the voice of the dame
+within, whilst a note of alarm was also heard from her fellow-lodger.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by this racket and clatter?" demanded Horse Shoe, in
+the midst of the uproar, at the same time laying his hand upon the
+stranger's bridle rein. "What brings you here, sir?&mdash;stand back; the
+women in that house are under my charge, and I won't have them
+disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"If you are a friend to Mistress Wingate," said the horseman, sternly,
+"speak the word; if an enemy, I will shiver your skull with the butt of
+my musket."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be rash, good fellow," replied Horse Shoe; "I take it you and me
+are on the same side. What's afoot that you stir in such a hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Tories are afoot&mdash;the devil's afoot! Open, Mistress Wingate&mdash;open
+to Dick Peyton!"</p>
+
+<p>"The Lord preserve us!" ejaculated the mistress of the hovel, as she
+opened the door; "Bloody Spur, is it you? What ill luck brings you here
+to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"A gang of Tories, Mistress Wingate, from the Black River, under that
+cut-throat Fanning, crossed Pedee this morning at Lowder's Lake. They
+have been thieving and burning as far as Waggamaw, and are now on the
+road home by the upper ferry. They will be along here in less than half
+an hour. Your husband, Bob Wingate, and myself, were sent out by General
+Marion this morning, to reconnoitre the roads. We fell in with the
+ruffians, after sunset, below Lumberton, and have tracked them up here.
+Bob has got a pistol-shot through his arm. He was lucky enough, however,
+to escape their clutches; but believing they had a spite against him,
+and would ride past his house to-night, he told me to call and give you
+warning, and to help you to drive the cattle back into the swamp."</p>
+
+<p>"How many mought there be, friend?" asked Horse Shoe, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Between two and three hundred, at least," said the trooper; "we counted
+fifty in the vanguard&mdash;those that followed made a long column of march.
+They have stolen a good many horses and cattle, all of which are with
+them, and several prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>"What, ho!&mdash;Isaac, Henry Lindsay; fall to, and saddle, boys," shouted
+Horse Shoe. "Miss Mildred, it will not do to stand. I am sorry to break
+in upon your rest, but you must be ready to move in a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Everything about the hut was now in confusion. Henry and the sergeant
+were equipping the horses, whilst Isaac was gathering up the baggage.
+Bloody Spur&mdash;to adopt the rider's <i>nom de guerre</i>&mdash;had dismounted, and
+was busy in removing the few articles of value from the hut; the mother
+and children, meanwhile, were pouring forth loud lamentations.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, in the midst of this scene of uproar, hurriedly made her
+preparations for departure; and whilst she was yet engaged in this care,
+a confused murmur was heard, at some distance up the road&mdash;and the
+rattle of sabres, as well as the hoarse voice and abrupt laughter of
+men, announced that the freebooters were at no great distance from the
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"Merciful heaven!" exclaimed Mildred, giving way for the first time to
+her fears; "they are fast approaching, and we shall be captured."</p>
+
+<p>"Sister," said Henry, with scarcely less alarm, "I will die by your
+side, before they shall hurt a hair of your head."</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe, who at this moment was tightening the girths of Mildred's
+saddle, paused for an instant to listen, and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"The wind is north-east, young lady, and the voice sounds far to-night.
+One could hardly expect you to be cool when one of these night-frays is
+coming on, but there's no occasion to be frightened. Now, ma'am, if you
+please, I'll heave you into your seat. There," continued the sergeant,
+setting Mildred upon her horse, "you have got four good legs under you,
+and by a fair use of them will be as safe as a crowned king. Mister
+Henry, mount, and ride with your sister slowly down the road, till I
+overtake you."</p>
+
+<p>Henry obeyed the order.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the portmanteau and the rest of the baggage all safe, Isaac? Don't
+be flurried, you old sinner, but look about you, before you start off."</p>
+
+<p>"All safe," replied the negro.</p>
+
+<p>"Up and follow your master, then. Hark you, Mr. Bloody Spur," said Horse
+Shoe, as Isaac rode off, to the trooper, who was still actively employed
+in turning the cattle loose from the inclosure, "what is the best road
+hereabouts for my squad to keep out of the way of these bullies?"</p>
+
+<p>"About a mile from here, take a road that strikes into the woods, upon
+your right hand," answered the trooper hastily, "it will lead you up the
+river to the falls of Pedee. If you should meet any of Marion's men,
+tell them what you have seen; and say Dick Peyton will be along close
+after you."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Marion?" asked the sergeant, mounting his horse.</p>
+
+<p>"What man that knows Frank Marion could ever answer that question?" said
+the trooper. "He is everywhere, friend. But you have no time to lose: be
+off."</p>
+
+<p>As Bloody Spur said this, he disappeared, driving the cattle before him;
+whilst the mother, laden with an infant and as many pieces of furniture
+as she could carry, and followed by her terrified children, fled towards
+the neighboring thicket.</p>
+
+<p>Horse Shoe in a few moments overtook his companions, and, urging them
+forward at a rapid flight, soon reached the diverging road, along which
+they journeyed with unabated speed for upwards of a mile.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you bear it, sister?" asked Henry, with concern.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, brother, with a sore heart to be made so painfully acquainted with
+these frightful scenes. I lose all thought of my own annoyance, in
+seeing the calamities that are heaped upon the unoffending family of a
+man who dares to draw his sword for his country."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Horse Shoe, gravely, "these incarnivorous devils have
+broken the rest of many a good woman in the Carolinas, before they
+routed you out to-night, ma'am. But it is one of God's marcies to see
+how you keep up under it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine's a trifling grievance, good sergeant: I lose but a little repose:
+that poor mother flies to save her children, uncertain, perhaps, of
+to-morrow's subsistence; and her husband's life is in daily peril. It is
+a sad lot. Yet truly," added Mildred with a sigh, "mine is scarcely
+better. Gracious heaven!" she exclaimed, looking behind her, "they have
+set fire to the dwelling!"</p>
+
+<p>In the quarter to which she directed her eyes, the horizon was already
+illuminated with the blaze of Wingate's hut. The light grew brighter for
+a short interval, and brought into bold relief upon the sky, the tall,
+dark forms of the stately pines of which the forest was composed.</p>
+
+<p>"They are fools as well as villains," said Horse Shoe, with an angry
+vehemence; "they have had liquor to-night, or they would hardly kindle
+up a blaze which should rouse every Whig on Pedee to track them like
+hounds. It would be sport worth riding to look at, if Marion should get
+a glimpse of that fire. But these wolves have grown obstropolous ever
+since Horatio Gates made his fox paw at Camden."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is a most savage war," said Mildred, "that roots up the humble
+hearth, and fires the lowly roof, where none but defenceless women and
+children abide. I shudder to think of such wanton barbarity."</p>
+
+<p>"There's the thing, Miss Lindsay, that turns all our blood bitter. Man
+to man is fair game, all the world over: but this ere stealing of
+cattle, and burning of houses, and even cutting up by the roots the
+plants of the 'arth, and turning of women and children naked into the
+swamps, in the dead of night! it's a sorry business to tell of a
+Christian people, and a cowardly business for a nation that's a boasting
+of its bravery."</p>
+
+<p>The light of the conflagration had soon died away, and our wanderers
+pursued their solitary road in darkness, ignorant of the country through
+which they passed, and uncertain of the point to which they tended. A
+full hour had gone by in this state of suspense, and Robinson had once
+more resolved to make a halt, and encamp his party in the woods. Before,
+however, he could put this design into execution, he was unexpectedly
+challenged, from the road-side, with the military demand of&mdash;"Who goes
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Travellers," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you come from, and where are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"The first question I can answer," said Horse Shoe, "and that is, from
+Old Virginny, a fortnight ago, but, to-night, from a tolerable snug
+lodging, where some onmannerly fellows troubled our sleep. But as to
+where we're going, it's more likely you can tell that for us."</p>
+
+<p>"You are saucy, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"It's more than I meant to be," replied the sergeant. "Mayhap you mought
+have hearn of a man they call Bloody Spur?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has pricked your pillows for you&mdash;has he? Dick Peyton is good at
+that," said a second questioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha, comrades, I understand you now," said Horse Shoe, with alacrity.
+"Dick Peyton and Bob Wingate both belong to your party. Am I right? We
+are friends to Marion."</p>
+
+<p>"And therefore friends to us," said the patrole. "Your name, sir, and
+the number you have in company?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take us to the general, and we will answer that," replied Horse Shoe.
+"The Tories have set upon Wingate's house and burnt it to the ground.
+It's like we may be able to tell something worth hearing at
+head-quarters. Your man Bloody Spur gave us in charge to report him, and
+to say that he would soon follow upon our track. I wonder that he isn't
+here before now."</p>
+
+<p>"I will remain," said one of the soldiers to his companion; "you shall
+take charge of the travellers."</p>
+
+<p>The trooper accordingly turned his horse's head and commanded Horse Shoe
+and his party to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The scout conducted our adventurers along a by-road that led round the
+head of a marsh, and through several thickets which, in the darkness of
+the night, were penetrated with great difficulty; during this ride he
+interrogated Horse Shoe as to the events of the late inroad of the
+Tories. He and his comrade had been stationed upon the path where the
+sergeant encountered them, to direct the out-riding parties of his corps
+to the spot of Marion's encampment, the policy of this wary officer
+being to shift his station so frequently as almost equally to defy the
+search of friend and foe. Peyton and Wingate were both expected; and the
+trooper who remained behind only waited to conduct them to the
+commanding officer, who had, since the disappearance of daylight, formed
+a bivouac in this neighborhood. Marion's custom was to order his
+reconnoitring parties to return to him by designated roads, where
+videttes were directed to repair in order to inform them of his
+position,&mdash;a fact which, as his movements were accomplished with
+wonderful celerity and secresy, they were generally unable to ascertain
+in any other way.</p>
+
+<p>At length, emerging from the thicket, and crossing what seemed, by the
+plash of the horse's feet, a morass, the party, under the guidance of
+the scout, came upon a piece of thinly-timbered woodland, which, rising
+by a gentle slope, furnished what might be called an island of dry
+ground, that seemed to be only accessible by crossing the circumjacent
+swamp. Upon this spot were encamped, in the rudest form of the bivouac,
+a party of cavalry, which might have amounted to two hundred men.
+Several fires, whose ruddy glare had been discerned for the last half
+mile of the journey, were blazing forth from different quarters of the
+wood, and threw a bold and sharp light upon the figures of men and
+horses, imparting a feature of lively, picturesque beauty to the scene.
+The greater portion of the soldiers were stretched beneath the trees,
+with no other covering than the leafy bowers above them. The horses were
+picketed in the neighborhood of their riders; and the confused array of
+saddles, sabres, muskets, rifles, and other warlike instruments, that
+were hung upon projecting boughs, or leant against the trunks, as they
+caught the flashes of the frequent fires, seemed to be magnified in
+number equal to the furniture of thrice the force. Sentinels were seen
+pacing their limits on the outskirts of this company, and small bodies
+of patroles on horseback moved across the encampment with the regularity
+of military discipline. Here and there, as if regardless of rest, or
+awaiting some soon-expected tour of duty, small knots of men sat
+together amusing themselves, by torch-light, at cards; and, more
+appropriately, others had extended their torpid frames in sleep upon
+their grassy pallets and knapsack pillows.</p>
+
+<p>"We have seen war in its horrors," exclaimed Mildred, with an
+involuntary vivacity; "and here it is in all its romance!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sister, I wish you were at home," said Henry, eagerly, "and Steve and I
+had the Rangers on this field to-night. I would undertake to command a
+picket with any man here!"</p>
+
+<p>To Horse Shoe these were familiar scenes, and he could not comprehend
+the source of that sudden interest which had so vividly aroused the
+admiration of his companions; but asking the guide to conduct them
+immediately to General Marion, he followed the soldier across the whole
+extent of the bivouac, until they halted beneath a large tree, near
+which a few officers were assembled. One of this group was seated on the
+ground; and close by him, planted in the soil, a blazing pine-faggot
+flung a broad light upon a saddle, the flap of which the officer had
+converted, for the occasion, into a writing-desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Make way for a squad of travellers picked up on the road to-night,"
+said the scout in a loud voice. "They wish to see General Marion."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment our party was surrounded by the officers; and Horse Shoe,
+unceremoniously dismounting, addressed the person nearest to him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A lady, sir, from Virginia, that I started with from her father's
+house, to fetch to Carolina; but who has been most audaciously unhoused
+and unbedded in the very middle of the night by a hellish pack of
+Tories."</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Lindsay, sir," said Henry, riding to the front; "my sister
+and myself were travelling south, and have been obliged to fly,
+to-night, before a detachment of horse-stealers."</p>
+
+<p>"From Bob Wingate's," said Horse Shoe, "as I should judge, some six
+miles back. I want to report to General Marion: the lady, likewise, is
+tired, as she has good right to be."</p>
+
+<p>The officer to whom this was addressed, directed a soldier to seek
+General Marion, and then approaching Mildred, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Madam, we can promise but little accommodation suitable to a lady: the
+greenwood tree is but an uncouth resting-place: but what we can supply
+shall be heartily at your service."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel sufficiently thankful," replied Mildred, "to know that I am in
+the hands of friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Sister, alight," said Henry, who now stood beside her stirrup, and
+offered his hand: and in a moment Mildred was on her feet.</p>
+
+<p>The officer then conducted her to a bank, upon which a few blankets were
+thrown by some of the soldiers in attendance. "If this strange place
+does not alarm you," he said, "you may perhaps find needful repose upon
+a couch even as rough as this."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind," replied Mildred, seating herself. "Brother, do not
+quit my side," she added, in a low voice: "I feel foolishly afraid."</p>
+
+<p>But a few moments elapsed before the light of the torches, gleaming upon
+his figure, disclosed to Mildred the approach of a person of short
+stature and delicate frame, in whose step there was a singular alertness
+and rapidity. He wore the blue and buff uniform of the staff, with a
+pair of epaulets, a buckskin belt, and broadsword. A three-cornered
+cocked-hat, ornamented with a buck-tail, gave a peculiar sharpness to
+his naturally sharp and decided features; and a pair of small, dark eyes
+twinkled in the firelight, from a countenance originally sallow, but now
+swarthy from sun and wind. There was a conspicuous alacrity and courtesy
+in the gay and chivalrous tone in which he accosted Mildred:</p>
+
+<p>"General Marion, madam, is too happy to have his poor camp honored by
+the visit of a lady. They tell me that the Tories were so uncivil as to
+break in upon your slumbers to-night. It adds greatly to my grudge
+against them."</p>
+
+<p>"I have ventured," said Mildred, "into the field of war, and it does not
+become me to complain that I have met its vicissitudes."</p>
+
+<p>"Gallantly spoken, madam! May I be allowed to know to whom I am indebted
+for the honor of this visit?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Lindsay, my father resides at the Dove Cote in Virginia:
+under the protection of my brother and a friend, I left home to travel
+into Carolina."</p>
+
+<p>"A long journey, madam," interrupted Marion; "and you have been sadly
+vexed to-night, I learn. We have a rude and unquiet country."</p>
+
+<p>"My sister and myself," said Henry, "counted the chances before we set
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"I would call you but an inexperienced guide, sir," said the General,
+addressing Henry, and smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, as to that," replied the youth, "we have an old soldier with
+us&mdash;Horse Shoe Robinson&mdash;hem&mdash;Stephen Foster, I meant to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Marion, "where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Henry Lindsay, General, and me," said the sergeant, bluntly, "have
+been practising a lie to tell the Tories, in case they should take us
+unawares; but it sticks, you see, in both of our throats. It's the true
+fact that I'm Horse Shoe himself. This calling me Stephen Foster is only
+a hanging out of false colors for the benefit of the red-coats and
+Tories, upon occasion."</p>
+
+<p>"Horse Shoe, good fellow, your hand," said Marion, with vivacity, "I
+have heard of you before. Miss Lindsay, excuse me, if you please; I have
+business to-night which is apt impertinently to thrust itself between us
+and our duty to the ladies. Richards," he continued, addressing a young
+officer who stood near him, "see if you can find some refreshment that
+would be acceptable to the lady and her brother. Horse Shoe, this way: I
+would speak with you."</p>
+
+<p>Marion now retired towards the place where the writing materials were
+first noticed, and entered into an examination of the sergeant, as to
+the particulars of the recent attack upon Wingate's cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Before Robinson had finished his narrative of the events of the night, a
+horseman dashed up almost at full speed to the spot where Marion stood,
+and, flinging himself from his saddle, whilst his horse stood panting
+beside him, asked for the General.</p>
+
+<p>"How now, Bloody Spur! What's the news?" demanded Marion.</p>
+
+<p>"The Black River hawks are flying," said the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that already," interrupted the chieftain. "Tell me what
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"I stayed long enough to secure Wingate's cattle, and then set out for
+the river to cut loose the boats at the Ferry. I did it in good time.
+Four files followed close upon my heels, who had been sent ahead to make
+sure of the means of crossing. The fellows found me after my work was
+done, and chased me good three miles. They will hardly venture, General,
+to swim the river to-night, with all the thievery they have in their
+hands; and I rather take it they will halt at the ferry till daylight."</p>
+
+<p>"Then that's a lucky cast, Dick Peyton," exclaimed Marion. "Ho, there!
+Peters, wake up that snoring trumpeter. Tell him to sound 'to saddle.'
+Come lads, up, up. Gentlemen, to your duties!"</p>
+
+<p>Forthwith the trumpet sounded, and with its notes everything asleep
+started erect. Troopers were seen hurrying across the ground in rapid
+motion: some hastily buckling on broadswords and slinging their muskets;
+others equipping the horses; and everywhere torches were seen passing to
+and fro in all the agitation of a sudden muster. As soon as Marion had
+set this mass in action, he repaired to Mildred, and in a manner that
+betokened no excitement from the general stir around him, he said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I owe you an apology, Miss Lindsay, for this desertion, which I am sure
+you will excuse when you know that it is caused by my desire to punish
+the varlets who were so ill-mannered as to intrude upon your slumbers. I
+hope, however, you will not be a loser by the withdrawal of our people,
+as I will take measures to put you under the protection of a good friend
+of mine, the widow of a worthy soldier, Mistress Rachel Markham, who
+lives but two miles from this, and whose hospitable mansion will afford
+you a shelter more congenial to your wishes than this broad canopy of
+ours. A guide shall be ready to conduct you."</p>
+
+<p>"Your kindness, general," said Mildred, "puts me under many
+obligations."</p>
+
+<p>"Horse Shoe shall take a line of explanation to my friend," added
+Marion. "And now, madam, farewell," he said, offering his hand. "And
+you, Master or Mister Henry, I don't know which&mdash;you seem entitled to
+both&mdash;good night, my brave lad: I hope, before long, to hear of your
+figuring as a gallant soldier of independence."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope as much myself," replied Henry.</p>
+
+<p>Marion withdrew, and by the time that he had prepared the letter and put
+it into Horse Shoe's hands, his troops were in line, waiting their order
+to march. The general mounted a spirited charger, and galloping to the
+front of his men, wheeled them into column, and, by a rapid movement,
+soon left Horse Shoe and his little party, attended by one trooper who
+had been left as a guide, the only tenants of this lately so busy scene.
+The change seemed almost like enchantment. The fires and many torches
+were yet burning, but all was still, except the distant murmur of the
+receding troops, which grew less and less, until, at last, there reigned
+the silence of the native forest.</p>
+
+<p>Our travellers waited, almost without exchanging a word, absorbed in the
+contemplation of an incident so novel to Mildred and her brother, until
+the distant tramp of the cavalry could be no longer heard: then, under
+the direction of the guide, they set out for the residence of Mrs.
+Markham.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>The day had just begun to dawn as our party, under the guidance of
+Marion's soldier, were ferried across the Pedee, on the opposite bank of
+which river lay the estate and mansion of Mrs. Markham. The alarms and
+excitements of the past night had ceased to stimulate the frame of
+Mildred, and she now found herself sinking under the most painful
+weariness. Henry had actually fallen asleep as he sat upon the gunwale
+of the ferry-boat, and rested his head against the sergeant's shoulder:
+the whole party were overcome with the lassitude that is so distressing,
+at this hour of dawning, to all persons who have spent the night in
+watching; and even the sergeant himself, to the influences of fatigue
+and privation the most inaccessible of mortals, and, by fate or fortune,
+the most unmalleable&mdash;occasionally nodded his head, as if answering the
+calls of man's most welcome visitor. It was, therefore, with more than
+ordinary contentment that our travellers, when again mounted, were
+enabled to descry, in the first light of the morning, a group of
+buildings seated upon an eminence about a mile distant, on the further
+side of the cultivated lowland that stretched along the southern margin
+of the river. The guide announced that this was the point of their
+destination, and the intelligence encouraged the party to accelerate the
+speed with which they journeyed over the plain. When they arrived at the
+foot of the hill, the character of the spot they were approaching was
+more distinctly developed to their view. The mansion, encompassed by a
+tuft of trees that flung their broad and ancient limbs above its roof,
+was of the best class of private dwellings, old and stately in its
+aspect, and exhibiting all the appendages that characterized the seat of
+a wealthy proprietor. It was constructed entirely of wood, in accordance
+with a notion that prevailed at that period, no less than at the
+present, that a frame structure was best adapted to the character of the
+climate. It occupied the crest of a hill which commanded a view of the
+river with its extensive plains; whilst, in turn, it was overlooked by
+the adjacent tract of country bearing the name of the Cheraw Highlands.</p>
+
+<p>As the party ascended this eminence, Henry, in the eager and thoughtless
+satisfaction of the moment, put his bugle to his mouth and continued to
+blow with all his might, deaf to the remonstrances of his sister, who
+was endeavoring to explain that there was some want of courtesy in so
+abrupt a challenge of the hospitality of the family. The blast was
+interrupted by Horse Shoe's laying his hand upon the instrument, as he
+gave the indiscreet bugler a short military lecture:</p>
+
+<p>"You might fetch trouble upon us, Mister Henry: this here screeching of
+horns or trumpets is sometimes a sort of bullying of a garrison; and if
+an enemy should happen to be on post here&mdash;as, God knows, is likely
+enough in such scampering wars as these, why you have set the thing past
+cure: for it is cutting off all chance of escape, just as much as if the
+people had been ordered 'to horse.' It leaves nothing for us but to
+brazen it out."</p>
+
+<p>An old negro was first startled by the summons, and appeared for a
+moment at the door of one of the out-buildings, evincing, as he looked
+down the road upon the approaching cavalcade, manifest signs of
+consternation. After a brief glance, he was seen to retreat across the
+yard to the door of the mansion-house, where he fell to beating at it
+with as much earnestness as if giving an alarm of fire, shouting at the
+same time, "Lord bless us, mistress! here is a whole rigiment of sodgers
+coming to turn everything topsy-turvy. Get up, get up&mdash;open the door!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop your bawling, you stunted black-jack!" said Robinson, who had
+galloped up to the spot, "and none of your lies. Is the lady of the
+house at home?"</p>
+
+<p>A window was thrown up, at the same moment, in an upper story, and a
+female head, decorated with a nightcap, was thrust out, whilst a voice,
+tremulous with affright, inquired what was the cause of this
+disturbance; but before an answer could be given the head was withdrawn,
+and the door opening discovered a youth scarcely in appearance over
+sixteen, with a loose robe thrown around his person and a pistol in his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Who comes here, and with what purpose?" was the question firmly put by
+the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends," said Horse Shoe&mdash;"sent to the good lady by General Marion.
+Sorry, sir, to be the occasion of such a rumpus. But this here young
+lady has travelled all night and is 'most dead with hardships."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, who with the rest of the company had now arrived near the door,
+was about to speak, when the questioner retired, calling the negro after
+him into the house. In a moment the servant returned with Mrs. Markham's
+compliments to the party, and a request that they would alight.</p>
+
+<p>"Then all's well," said Horse Shoe, dismounting, and immediately
+afterwards lifting Mildred from her saddle, "a friend in need, madam, is
+the greatest of God's blessings. I make no doubt you will find this as
+snug a nest as you ever flew into in your life."</p>
+
+<p>"And, good sergeant, most specially welcome," replied Mildred, smiling
+in the midst of all her pain, "for in truth I never was so weary."</p>
+
+<p>The guide, having now performed his duty, announced that he must return
+to his corps; and, after a few cheering words of kind remembrance from
+Mildred, coupled with a message of thanks to Marion, he wheeled about
+and galloped back towards the river. Mildred and Henry entered the
+house: and the sergeant, taking command of Isaac, followed the horses
+towards the stable.</p>
+
+<p>The brother and sister were ushered into an ample parlor, comfortably
+furnished according to the fashion of the wealthier classes of that day;
+and, Mildred as she threw herself upon a capacious sofa, could not fail
+to recognise in the formal portraits that were suspended to the
+pannelled walls, that she was in the dwelling of a family of some pride
+of name and lineage.</p>
+
+<p>After a short interval, the proprietress of the mansion entered the
+parlor. She was a lady of a kind and gentle aspect, apparently advanced
+beyond the middle period of life; and her features, somewhat emaciated,
+gave a sign of feeble health. She was attired in dishabille, hastily
+thrown on; and there was some expression of alarm in the unreserved and
+familiar manner with which she approached Mildred, and inquired into the
+nature of this early journey.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope no unhappy accident, my dear, has driven you at this unusual
+hour to my poor house? You are heartily welcome. I fear to ask what has
+brought you."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother and myself, madam," said Mildred, "have had a most
+adventurous night. This letter will explain. General Marion was so kind
+as to commit us to your hospitality."</p>
+
+<p>The lady took the letter and read it.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Lindsay, my child, I am truly happy to serve you. You have had an
+awful night, but these times make us acquainted with strange
+afflictions. This young gentleman, your brother, is he your only
+attendant?"</p>
+
+<p>Mildred began to communicate the details of her journey, when she was
+interrupted by her hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not trouble you with questions, now, my dear. You must have
+sleep; I dread lest your health may suffer by this harsh exposure. After
+you have had rest, we will talk more, and become better acquainted.
+Judith," continued the matron, addressing a servant maid, who had just
+entered the room, "attend this lady to a chamber. Mr. Henry Lindsay, I
+believe&mdash;so General Marion calls you&mdash;my son Alfred shall take you in
+charge."</p>
+
+<p>With these words the good lady left the room, and in an instant after
+returned with the youth who had first appeared at the door. Upon being
+introduced by his mother to the guests, he lost no time in obeying her
+orders in regard to Henry, whom he had conducted out of the room at the
+same moment that Mildred followed the servant towards a chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The entire day was spent by our party in recruiting their strength,
+towards which needful care the hospitable hostess contributed by the
+tenderest attentions. On the following morning Mildred, although
+refreshed by the slumbers of the long interval, still exhibited the
+traces of her recent fatigue; and upon the earnest recommendation of
+Mrs. Markham, seconded by the almost oracular authority of Horse
+Shoe,&mdash;for the sergeant had greatly won upon the respect of his
+companions by his prudence and discretion&mdash;she determined to remain
+another day in her present resting-place.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Markham was the widow of a Carolina gentleman, who had borne the
+rank of a colonel in the Whig militia, and had been actively employed,
+in the earlier stages of the war, in the southern provinces. He had
+fallen in an unfortunate skirmish with some of Prevost's light troops,
+on the Savannah river, some sixteen months before; and his widow, with
+three daughters and no other male protector than an only son, was now,
+in this season of extreme peril, residing upon a large estate, which the
+evil fortune of the times had made the theatre of an eventful and active
+desultory war. She had been exposed to the most cruel exactions from the
+Tories, to whom her possessions were generally yielded up with a passive
+and helpless submission; and the firmness with which, in all her
+difficulties, she had adhered to the cause for which her husband fell,
+had gained for her the generous sympathy of the whig leaders, and more
+than once stimulated them to enterprises, in her behalf, that were
+followed by severe chastisement upon her enemies. These circumstances
+had given extensive notoriety to her name, and drawn largely upon her
+the observation of both friend and foe. To Marion, who hovered upon this
+border more like a goblin than a champion whose footsteps might be
+tracked, her protection had become a subject of peculiar interest; and
+the indefatigable soldier frequently started up in her neighborhood when
+danger was at hand, with a mysterious form of opposition that equally
+defied the calculations of Whigs and Tories.</p>
+
+<p>The lady was still in her weeds, and grief and care had thrown a pallor
+upon her cheek; but the watchfulness imposed upon her by the emergencies
+of the day, her familiarity with alarms, and the necessity for constant
+foresight and decisive action, had infused a certain hardihood into her
+character, that is seldom believed to be,&mdash;but yet in the hour of trial
+unerringly exhibits itself&mdash;an attribute of the female bosom. Her
+manners were considerate, kind, and fraught with dignity. She was the
+personation of a class of matrons that&mdash;for the honor of our country and
+of the human race&mdash;was not small in its numbers, nor upon trial unworthy
+of its fame, in the sad history of the sufferings of Carolina.</p>
+
+<p>The evening of the day on which Mildred arrived at the mansion brought
+rumors of a brilliant exploit achieved by Marion; and more
+circumstantial accounts on the following morning confirmed the good
+tidings. The alert partisan had fallen upon the track of the freebooters
+who had been marauding on the confines of North Carolina, and whose
+incursion had expelled our travellers from Wingate's cabin. Marion had
+overtaken them before sunrise, on the bank of the Pedee, where they had
+been detained by reason of Peyton's successful removal of the boats. A
+short but most decisive combat was the consequence, and victory, as she
+was wont, had seated herself upon Marion's banner. The chieftain and his
+followers had, as usual, disappeared, and the whole country was in a
+state of agitation and dread; the one side fearing a repetition of the
+blow in some unlooked-for quarter, the other alarmed by the expectation
+of quick and bloody reprisal.</p>
+
+<p>These events still more contributed to fortify Mildred's resolution to
+remain another day under the shelter of Mrs. Markham's friendly roof,
+before she would venture forth in the further prosecution of her
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>Here, for the present, we must leave her.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>OCCURRENCES AT MUSGROVE'S MILL.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">She passed by stealth the narrow door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The postern way also,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And thought each bush her robe that tore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The grasp of a warding foe.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Joanna Baillie.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The month of September was more than half gone. The night had just set
+in, and the waxing moon shone forth from a clear heaven, flinging her
+rays upon the rippling surface of the Ennoree and upon the glossy leaves
+that flickered in the wind by the banks of the stream, when Mary
+Musgrove, with wary and stealthy pace, glided along the path, intricate
+with shrubbery, that led upwards immediately upon the margin of the
+river. For a full half hour had she toiled along this narrow way since
+she had stolen past the sentinel near her father's gate. The distance
+was not a mile; but the anxious maiden, pursued by her own fears, had
+more than once, in the fancy that she was followed, stopped in her
+career and concealed herself in the thick copse-wood, and listened with
+painful intensity for the footsteps of those whom her imagination had
+set upon her track. There was, however, no pursuit: it was the prowling
+fox or the raccoon whose leap had disturbed the dry and rotten branches
+that lay upon the ground; and Mary smiled with faint-heartedness at the
+illusions of her own mind. She arrived at last beneath the brow of a
+crag that jutted over the stream, and in the shade of one of the angles
+of the rock, she discerned the figure of a man seated upon the grass.
+She paused with a distrustful caution, as she challenged the silent and
+half-concealed person.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist, John! is it you? For mercy, speak! Why would you frighten
+me?&mdash;Me, Mary. Don't you know me?" said the maiden, as she took heart of
+grace and advanced near enough to put her hand upon John Ramsay's
+shoulder. "Powers above! the man's asleep," she added with a laugh.
+"Who would have thought I should have caught you napping, John, at such
+a time as this!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, in truth, Mary," said John Ramsay, waking up under the touch of
+his mistress, and rising to his feet, "I deserve to be shot for sleeping
+on my watch; but I have been so driven from post to pillar for this last
+fortnight, that it is as much as I can do to keep my eyes open when
+night comes on. So Mary, you will forgive me, and more particularly when
+I tell you I was dreaming of you; and thought this war was at an end,
+and that you and I were happy in a house of our own. I have been waiting
+for you for upwards of an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, John, I don't think I could sleep if it had been my turn to watch
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"There's the difference," replied John, "betwixt you women and us men;
+you are so full of frights and fidgetings and fancyings, that I do
+verily believe all the sleeping doses in the world could never make you
+shut your eyes when anything is going on that requires watching, whether
+it be for a sick friend or for a piece of scheming. Now, with us, we
+take a nap on a hard-trotting horse, and fall to snoring up to the very
+minute that the trumpet wakes us to make a charge. What news from
+Butler?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is all fixed," answered Mary, "to our hearts' content. Lieutenant
+Macdonald, ever since Cornwallis's letter, allows Major Butler greater
+privileges; and the sentinels are not half so strict as they used to be;
+so that I think we may give them the slip. By the gable window that
+looks out from the garret room, the Major will be able to get upon the
+roof, and that, he thinks, is near enough to the tree for him to risk a
+leap into its branches; though I am almost afraid he is mistaken, for it
+looks awfully wide for a spring. He says if you will be ready with the
+horses an hour before daylight to-morrow, he will try the leap, and join
+you at the willows above the mill. Christopher will saddle one of the
+wagon-horses and lead him to the place."</p>
+
+<p>"And the sentinel who keeps guard on that side?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, John, that puzzles us," said Mary; "I'm so much afraid that you
+will be rash. It is in your nature to forget yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, girl; don't talk of that. I'll find a way to manage the sentinel.
+I will steal up to him and take him unawares; and then seizing him by
+the throat, give him his choice of a knife in between his ribs, or a
+handful of guineas in his pocket."</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't we better tell him what a good man the Major is?" said Mary,
+alarmed at the idea of a struggle in which her lover's life might be
+endangered, "and try to coax him to take our side?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha!" ejaculated the trooper involuntarily, "that's a very good
+woman's thought, but it won't hold out in a campaign. The fellow might
+happen to have some honesty, and then away goes our whole scheme. No,
+no; blows are the coin that these rascals buy their bread with, and,
+faith, we'll trade with them in the same article."</p>
+
+<p>"But then, John, you will be in danger."</p>
+
+<p>"What of that, girl? When have I been out of danger? And don't you see,
+Mary, what good luck I have with it? Never fear me; I will stifle the
+fellow in the genteelest fashion known in the wars."</p>
+
+<p>"And if it must be so, John, I will say my prayers for you with more
+earnestness than I ever said them in my life. As my father says, the God
+of Israel will stand by our cause: and when He is for us, what care we
+who is against us?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good girl, Mary," replied John Ramsay, smiling. "Get back to
+the house; let Major Butler know that you have seen me, and that I will
+be ready."</p>
+
+<p>"He is to be at the window," said Mary, "and I am to signify to him that
+you are prepared, by setting up a plank against the garden fence in a
+place where he can see it. He is to keep a look-out from the window all
+night, and when the time comes you are to flash a little powder on the
+edge of the woods upon the hill: if he is ready then he will show his
+candle near the window-sill; that, he says, must be a sign for you to
+come on; and when he sees you he will take the leap."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand it," said Ramsay. "Tell Christopher to be sure of the
+horse."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a great deal of courage, John, when danger is far off&mdash;but when
+it comes near, I tremble like a poor coward," said Mary. "Does not my
+hand feel cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your lips are warm, Mary," replied John, kissing her, "and your heart
+is warm. Now, never flag when it comes to the trial. Everything depends
+upon you. We shall be very happy, by-and-by, to talk this thing all
+over. How many soldiers are on Macdonald's guard? Have none left you
+since I saw you yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," said Mary: "one man left the mill two days since. I think I
+heard them say he was going to Ninety-six, on business for the
+lieutenant."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, it makes but little odds how many are there, so they but
+sleep soundly. Our business is more to run than to fight. Mary, my girl,
+step across to my father's to-morrow, and he will tell you what has
+become of me. We must get the Major out of this country of wolf-traps as
+fast as we can."</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot to ask you," said the maiden, "if you had some coarse clothes
+ready for the Major. He must not seem to be what he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me for that," replied the trooper. "Christopher has given me a
+bundle with as fine a dusty suit in it as any miller's boy ever wore;
+and besides that, I have a meal bag to throw across the Major's saddle:
+and as for myself, Mary, there's ploughman in my very looks. We shall
+cheat all the Tories betwixt this and Catawba."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, John, before I leave you, I have one favor to ask."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is that?" inquired the generous-hearted soldier, "you know, if
+I can, I will grant it before it is named."</p>
+
+<p>"I would ask as a favor to me," said Mary, with earnestness, "that you
+will not be too venturesome: the Major is a wiser man than you, so be
+governed by him. Remember, John, if any ill were to happen to you, it
+would break my heart."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so foolhardy, my girl," replied Ramsay, "but, that when
+there's occasion for it, I can show as clean a pair of heels as any man:
+and so, for your sake, you kitten," he said, as he put his hands upon
+her cheeks, and again snatched a kiss, "I will run to-morrow like a
+whole troop of devils. And now, Mary, good night, and God bless you
+girl! it is time you were at home. Yet upon second thoughts, I will walk
+part of the way with you. So, take my arm and let us begin the retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"John, I do so fear you may be hurt," said the maiden, as they pursued
+their way along the path, her whole thoughts being absorbed with the
+danger of the enterprise. "Be careful when you come near the sentinel to
+wait until his back is turned. This moon shines bright, and you may
+easily be seen."</p>
+
+<p>"But look, girl, the moon has scarcely two hours yet to travel, and,
+from that circle round it, I shouldn't wonder if we had rain before
+daylight; so by the hour we have fixed for the Major's escape, it will
+be dark enough: therefore you may be easy on that score."</p>
+
+<p>The humble and ardent lovers pursued their way towards the miller's
+dwelling with slow steps, intently engaged in conversing over the
+chances of their perilous project, until they arrived at a point beyond
+which it was not safe for John Ramsay to venture. Here, after many
+affectionate caresses and fond adieus, they separated&mdash;the maiden to
+steal to her place of rest, the soldier to hasten back to his horse,
+that awaited him near the scene of the late meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Mary soon arrived at the mill; then sauntering carelessly towards the
+dwelling-house, began, the better to conceal her purpose, to sing a
+simple air, during which she had wandered up to the garden fence, where
+she delayed long enough to set up the plank. The small window in the
+angle of the roof of the cottage looked down upon the spot where she
+stood; and as she cast her eyes towards this part of the building, she
+received a recognition from the prisoner, in a slight waving of the
+hand, which was sufficiently observable by the light of the taper
+within.</p>
+
+<p>Matters having gone so far to the maiden's satisfaction, she now
+retreated into the house.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will perceive from this narrative that Butler's fortunes had
+greatly improved since we last took leave of him. The messenger
+despatched to Cornwallis by Williams had brought back to the Fair
+Forest, where it will be remembered the vanquishers of Innis had
+retreated, a more favorable answer than even the republican leader had
+hoped. The British commander was not ignorant of the capture of Butler,
+but the circumstances of the trial had not before been communicated to
+him. Upon the representation of Williams, he had no hesitation to order
+a respite to be given to the prisoner for such reasonable time as might
+be necessary for further investigation. This obvious act of justice was
+more than, in the circumstances of the times, might have been expected
+from Cornwallis. The cruel and bloody policy which he adopted towards
+the inhabitants of the Carolinas, immediately after the battle of
+Camden, showed a tone of personal exacerbation that was scarcely
+consistent with the lenity displayed towards Butler. It is not unlikely,
+therefore, that the fear of retaliation upon the young St. Jermyn, of
+whose fate he might have been informed from officers of his own camp,
+might have induced him to temporize in the present case, and to grant a
+suspension of proceedings against the rebel prisoner. The reply to
+Williams's letter accordingly intimated that, for the present, Major
+Butler should be held in close custody as a prisoner of war, leaving the
+determination of the manner in which he was finally to be disposed of, a
+subject for future consideration.</p>
+
+<p>John Ramsay, after the departure of Horse Shoe Robinson for Virginia,
+instead of rejoining his regiment, returned to the Fair Forest camp,
+where he remained with Williams, until the answer from Cornwallis was
+received. The tidings of this answer he undertook to convey to Butler,
+and he again set out for his father's house. John felt himself now
+regularly enlisted in the service of the prisoner, and having found
+means to communicate his present employment to General Sumpter, he
+obtained permission to remain in it as long as his assistance was of
+value. The service itself was a grateful one to the young trooper: it
+accorded with the generosity of his character, and gratified his
+personal pride by the trust-worthiness which it implied: but more than
+this, it brought him into opportunities of frequent meeting with Mary
+Musgrove, who, passionately beloved by the soldier, was not less ardent
+than he in her efforts to promote the interest of Butler.</p>
+
+<p>The state of the country did not allow John to be seen in day-time, and
+he and Mary had consequently appointed a place of meeting, where in the
+shades of night they might commune together on the important subjects of
+their secret conspiracy. Night after night they accordingly met at this
+spot, and here all their schemes were contrived. Mary sometimes came to
+David Ramsay's dwelling, and the old man's counsel was added to that of
+the lovers. Christopher Shaw and Allen Musgrove were not ignorant of
+what was in contemplation, but it was a piece of necessary policy that
+they should appear to be as little connected with the prisoner as
+possible. Christopher, therefore, pursued his duties as
+assistant-quarter-master or purveyor to the little garrison under
+Macdonald's command, with unabated assiduity.</p>
+
+<p>The plan of Butler's escape was John Ramsay's. He had been anxiously
+awaiting an opportunity to attempt this enterprise for the last
+fortnight, but the difficulty of concerting operations with the prisoner
+had retarded his movement. This difficulty was at last overcome, and,
+for a few days past, the plan had been arranged. All that was left to be
+done was to appoint the hour. Christopher Shaw and Mary, alone of the
+miller's family, were made acquainted with the details. Christopher was
+to provide a horse and a suitable disguise for Butler, and these were to
+be ready at a tuft of willows that grew upon the edge of the river some
+quarter of a mile above the mill, whenever Mary should announce that
+John was ready to act. Ramsay's horse was to be brought to the same
+spot. The preparatory signals, already mentioned, were all agreed upon
+and understood by the parties. Butler was to escape to the roof, and
+thence by the boughs of a large oak that grew hard by the miller's
+dwelling. A sentinel was usually posted some fifty paces from this tree,
+and it was a matter of great perplexity to determine how his vigilance
+was to be defeated. This difficulty, John resolved, should be overcome
+by a stern measure: the man was to be silenced, if necessary, by a blow.
+John Ramsay was to steal upon him in the dark, and if signs of alarm
+were given, he was to master the sentinel in such a manner as the
+occasion might require, being furnished by Butler with a purse of gold,
+if such a form of influence might be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the outline of the plan by which Butler's disenthralment was to
+be attempted.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Musgrove, before she retired to her chamber, sought Christopher
+Shaw and made him acquainted with the appointment of the hour, and then
+left him to manage his own share of the enterprise. It was now near ten
+at night, and Christopher, who had charge of Allen Musgrove's stable, in
+order to avoid the suspicion of being seen stirring at a later hour,
+immediately set off to saddle the horse. One of the wagon team, well
+known in the family by the name of Wall Eye, was selected for this
+service, and being speedily accoutred, was conducted to the willows,
+where he was tied fast to a tree, to remain until the hour of need. The
+young miller soon returned, and it was not long afterwards that the
+household and its military companions were wrapt in the silence of
+unsuspecting repose.</p>
+
+<p>Butler, at the hour of the customary visit of the watch, had gone to
+bed; and, feigning sickness, had been allowed to burn a light in his
+room during the night. His chamber door, also, by special favor, was
+closed; and the night advanced without suspicion or distrust from any
+quarter. At two o'clock the last sentinels were relieved, and the form
+had been gone through of inspecting the prisoner's chamber. To all
+outward show, Butler was asleep: the door was again shut, and all was
+still. The time for action now arrived. Butler rose silently from his
+bed, dressed himself, and, putting his shoes into his pockets, stole in
+his stockinged feet to the little gable window at the further end of his
+apartment. Here he remained, gazing out upon the night with fixed
+attention. The moon had set, and the sky was overcast with clouds,
+adding a fortunate obscurity to the natural darkness of the hour. By
+still greater good luck, after a few moments the wind began to rise and
+rain to descend. Everything seemed to favor the enterprise. The shadowy
+form of the sentinel, who was stationed on this side of the house, was
+dimly discerned by Butler through the gloom; and it was with joyful
+satisfaction that he could perceive the soldier, as the rain fell in
+larger drops, retreat some distance from his post and take shelter
+beneath the shrubbery that grew in the garden. At the same moment a
+flash upon the hill, which might have been mistaken for summer
+lightning, announced to him that his faithful comrade was at hand.
+Desirous to take advantage of the present neglect of the sentinel, and
+to avoid the possibility of bringing him into conflict with Ramsay,
+Butler hastily showed his candle at the window, then extinguished it,
+and throwing himself out upon the roof, scrambled towards the nearest
+point of the impending branches of the oak. Here, without a moment's
+pause, he made a fearless leap that flung him amongst the boughs. The
+darkness prevented him from choosing the most favorable lodgment in the
+tree, and he fell across a heavy limb with such force as to take away
+his breath&mdash;receiving at the same time, a severe contusion in the head.
+For a brief space he hung almost senseless, and there was reason to
+apprehend that he would fall in a swoon to the ground; but the occasion
+braced his sinking strength, and before many minutes he revived
+sufficiently to make his way to the trunk, by which he descended safely
+to the earth. He now threw himself on his hands and feet, and crept to
+the garden fence. The rain still increased, and fell in a heavy shower.
+In another instant he surmounted the barrier, and betook himself with
+his utmost speed towards the mill, behind which he sought concealment
+and temporary rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand," said John Ramsay, who had just reached this point on his way to
+the house, and now, taken by surprise, presented a pistol to Butler's
+breast. "One word above your breath and you die. Be silent, and here is
+gold for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ramsay," said Butler, in a low tone, "is it you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your name?" demanded the trooper, still presenting the pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"Butler," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks&mdash;thanks, good Major, for that word! You have been before me. I
+thought you would not miss this rain. Is all well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better, much better, than we could have hoped," answered Butler.
+"Seeing the sentinel was off his guard, I took time by the forelock, and
+have saved you trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, Major, let us not delay here. Our horses are waiting
+for us above."</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready," said Butler, having now put on his shoes. "My brave
+fellow, I owe you more than I can find words to utter: lead the way."</p>
+
+<p>The liberated captive and his gallant comrade instantly hastened towards
+the horses, and mounting with a joyful alacrity, soon set forward at a
+gallop in the direction leading to David Ramsay's cottage. Here they
+arrived just as the day began to dawn.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A MELANCHOLY INCIDENT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The hand of the reaper<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Takes the ears that are hoary,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But the voice of the weeper<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wails manhood in glory.&mdash;<i>Scott.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Brief time was taken by the fugitives for refreshment at David Ramsay's
+dwelling. Here Butler put on the disguise which Christopher Shaw had
+provided for him. Then arming himself with a pair of pistols which John
+had appropriated to his use, the trooper himself using a similar
+precaution, our two adventurers resumed their journey. Their first
+object was to gain a point, some seven or eight miles distant, in the
+direction of the Fair Forest, where John Ramsay had concealed a few
+troopers that had been furnished him by Williams, to give their aid, if
+necessary, in securing Butler's escape.</p>
+
+<p>From this point they were to proceed, with all possible despatch, to
+Williams's camp. However hazardous the experiment of attempting to
+traverse the country in open daylight, it was deemed still more
+dangerous to tarry any length of time so near the scene of their late
+adventure. Butler and his comrade, therefore, pushed forward with as
+much expedition as possible, resolved to outrun the fresh pursuit which
+they had reason to apprehend upon the discovery which the morning must
+produce at the miller's habitation.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after sunrise the rain ceased to fall, the clouds dispersed, and a
+fresh and brilliant morning broke forth upon the heavens. The success of
+their late exploit had raised the spirits of the wanderers. A sense of
+intense delight animated Butler's feelings: a consciousness of liberty
+once more enjoyed, after hopes deferred and almost despairing captivity,
+seemed to regenerate him and make him acquainted with emotions he had
+never felt before. His heart was full of gratitude to his new friend
+Ramsay, and the expression of it was warm and sincere. Nature had never
+appeared so lovely to him as now: the whispers of the forest and the
+murmur of the clear brook fell on his enfranchised ear like the sweetest
+music: there was melody for him even in the screams of the jay and the
+harsh notes of the crow: and once when his companion had halted in sight
+of a buck that bounded through the wood before him, Butler, apprehensive
+that John was about to discharge a bullet after the forest-rover, found
+himself involuntarily pleading the cause of the noble animal: "Do not
+draw your pistol on him, Ramsay, I pray you. Let him run; it is
+liberty&mdash;liberty, good comrade&mdash;and that is sacred."</p>
+
+<p>Before eight o'clock they had reached the rendezvous. Here they found
+three troopers who, although armed, were habited in the plain dress of
+the country, which enabled them to claim the denomination either of Whig
+or Tory militia, as their occasions might demand. These men had lain
+perdue, for some days, in the depth of the forest, impatiently awaiting
+for intelligence from Ramsay.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harry Winter," said John, laughing, "what say you now? I have
+brought you the miller's boy at last. Have I not made my word good?"</p>
+
+<p>"Truth, John," replied the trooper, "there is more stuff in you than we
+counted on. Macdonald must be a silly crow to let the fox steal his
+cheese from him so easily."</p>
+
+<p>"You would have come nearer the mark, Harry, if you had called him a
+sleepy lout, for whilst he was nodding I took his cake off the griddle.
+It was fair filching by night, as the Major will tell you. But come,
+lads, here is no time for dallying, we mustn't have the grass growing to
+our horses' heels, when we have a whole pack of King George's hounds on
+our trail. So move, boys!" and saying these words, John led the party
+forward at a rapid gallop.</p>
+
+<p>They had not gone far before they found themselves upon a road which led
+through a piece of thin wood that covered a small tract of marshy
+ground, the nature of which brought the party into a more compact body
+as they approached the narrowest point of the defile. At a short
+distance beyond this impediment the track became broader, where it
+ascended a hill thickly covered with an undergrowth of bushes.</p>
+
+<p>Our friends had scarcely arrived in the narrow pass before they
+perceived on the hill in front of them, a company of some ten or fifteen
+horse, rapidly advancing towards them. In a moment all conversation was
+checked, and Harry Winter turning to his companions, had barely time to
+remark,</p>
+
+<p>"I answer all questions: be silent, and if asked, swear to the truth of
+every word I say&mdash;steady: these fellows are Tories."</p>
+
+<p>As he ceased speaking, the foremost of the strangers had already come up
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Where from, and whither do you go?" asked Harry Winter, with a stern
+accent.</p>
+
+<p>"From below Ninety-Six, and on our road to Fort Granby," replied a
+clownish voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, you knave!" interrupted one who appeared to be the leader of the
+party, and whose carriage and demeanor announced him to be an officer;
+"by what authority do you undertake to answer a challenge on the
+highway? Back, to your place, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The rebuked rustic hung his head, as he reined his horse back into the
+crowd that now thronged the road.</p>
+
+<p>"As we are of the larger party," said the same person, addressing
+himself to Winter, "we have the right to the word. Who are you and
+whence come you?"</p>
+
+<p>"We belong to Floyd's new draft," replied Winter with great coolness,
+"and left Winnsborough yesterday morning."</p>
+
+<p>"And where bound?"</p>
+
+<p>"To Augusta, on business with Brown."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah ha!" exclaimed the officer, "Brown is pinched by the rebels. It is
+well you have thought of him. What have you to say to him? Do you bear
+despatches?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your pardon, sir&mdash;that's a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be afraid, good fellow, we are friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I can hardly tell you the exact business," replied Winter. "You will
+meet Floyd himself with a hundred men, before you ride five miles. I
+believe we are going to reinforce the garrison."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be very welcome," said the Tory officer, "Brown will give you
+a hearty reception, but devilish slim fare; he is surrounded with
+hornets."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better," replied Winter, "we have a knack at taking the
+sting out of the hornets, now-a-days. Good morning, sir. Report us, if
+you please, to Colonel Floyd, when you come across him, and tell him the
+hour of the day when you met us."</p>
+
+<p>During this short parley the two parties had become united into a common
+throng, completely filling up the road; and the proximity into which
+they were severally brought, gave rise to various inquiries after news
+amongst the subordinates on either side. In this press, Butler was
+startled to observe the eyes of an individual scanning him with a
+somewhat pointed scrutiny, and it was with an emotion that had well nigh
+betrayed him, that he recognised in this person one of Macdonald's
+soldiers. It was the man whom the lieutenant had despatched, a few days
+previous, with an errand to the post at Ninety-Six, and who was now
+returning with this detachment of militia. The soldier was evidently at
+fault, for in a moment afterwards Butler could perceive, from his
+expression of face, that whatever might have been his first suspicion,
+it was quieted by another glance. The disguise was so far effectual. But
+another cause of alarm arose, that for an instant brought Butler into
+greater jeopardy. The horse on which the messenger was mounted, was the
+yoke-fellow of the lean Wall-Eye, and the two beasts had been long
+accustomed to work side by side in the same wagon. Their mutual
+recognition, at this critical moment, became distressingly conspicuous.
+Their noses were brought in contact, and they began to whinny and paw
+the ground in that intelligible manner which constitutes one of the
+forms of expression by which this portion of the brute creation
+acknowledge their attachments. The presence of mind of John Ramsay saved
+the explosion which must soon have followed. He spurred his horse
+between the two noisy and restless animals, and immediately addressed a
+conversation to the soldier, which for the moment turned his thoughts
+into another channel.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the conference had terminated, and the two leaders
+respectively directing their men to move forward, the defile was passed
+and each party extricated from the other. But no sooner was the
+separation completed than Butler's brutish steed, Wall-Eye, began to
+neigh with the most clamorous vociferation, whilst a response was heard
+in the same tones as pertinaciously reiterated from the retreating
+companion on the other side of the defile.</p>
+
+<p>"We were in great danger from yonder Tories," said Ramsay, addressing
+Butler, "did you see that one of these fellows rode the mate of the
+beast you are on? Who could he be?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was one of Macdonald's men," replied Butler, "I knew the fellow the
+moment we met; but, thank Heaven, this humble dress concealed me."</p>
+
+<p>"Faster, Major!" cried John, "these cursed horses are calling after each
+other now. Pray, push forward until we get out of hearing. How unlucky
+that Christopher Shaw should have given you one of the wagon cattle!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look back, lads!" exclaimed Winter with great earnestness, "there is
+something wrong, these fellows are returning. Whip and spur, or we are
+overtaken!"</p>
+
+<p>Macdonald's soldier, it seems, having his attention drawn to the
+singular motions of his horse, had become suddenly confirmed in the
+suspicion which at the late meeting for a moment rested upon his mind,
+as to the identity of Butler; and having communicated his thought to the
+commanding officer, the whole party of the Tory militia had wheeled
+about to demand a further investigation: they were now some hundred
+paces in the rear of the fugitives, and were pressing forward at high
+speed, the officer in the front calling out at the same time,</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!&mdash;Rein up and return! We have questions to ask. Halt, or we shall
+fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"To it, boys!" cried Harry Winter. "Your safety is in your legs!"</p>
+
+<p>And the party pricked onward as fast as they could urge their cavalry
+along the road. The chase continued for some half hour or more; the
+little escort of Butler leaving the road and plunging into the recesses
+of the forest. An occasional pistol-shot was fired during this retreat,
+but without effect on either side. The tangled character of the ground
+over which they passed, greatly retarded the pursuit, and before the
+half hour was spent none but a few of the boldest horsemen of the
+assailants were found persevering in the chase. Seeing their number
+diminished, and finding also that the horses of his own comrades were
+beginning to flag, John Ramsay assumed the command, and directed his
+party to turn about and offer battle to the pursuers. The immediate
+effect of this movement was to bring the assailants to a halt, which
+was no sooner witnessed by John, than he shouted, "Charge, lads, charge
+and the day is ours! Hack and hew, good fellows: down with the
+bloodhounds!"</p>
+
+<p>This animated exhortation was followed up by a prompt onset, in which
+the brave trooper led the way; and such was the impetuosity of the
+assault that the enemy, although consisting of twice the number of those
+who attacked them, were forced to give ground. A sharp skirmish ensued,
+during which several pistol-shots were discharged on both sides, and
+some encounters, hand to hand, were sustained with a sturdy resolution;
+but, at last, our friends succeeded in turning their opponents to
+flight. The combat had been maintained in that pell-mell form of attack
+and defence, which defied compact or organized resistance; and the
+individuals of each party had been scattered over the wood for a
+considerable distance, so that when the late pursuers were compelled to
+retreat, each man urged his horse in such a direction as was most
+favorable to his escape. By degrees, Butler's few companions began to
+reassemble at that part of the wood where they had made their first
+stand.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing like striking the first blow at the right time," said
+Harry Winter, as, with his hat in his hand to allow the air to cool his
+brow, he rode up to Butler, and halted to gain breath. "Give me a hot
+charge on a slow enemy, and I don't care much about two to one of odds.
+Thank God that business is cleanly done, and here we are all safe I
+hope. Where is John Ramsay?" he inquired, looking around him, and
+observing that their comrade was not amongst the number assembled.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him close at the heels of the runaways," said one of the men.
+"John has a trick of seeing a scrimmage to the end; and it is an even
+bet that he is now upon the trail like a fresh hound. The last I noticed
+of him was at the crupper of a couple of the rascals that, I'll engage,
+before now he has set his mark upon."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we must to his assistance!" exclaimed Butler, eagerly; and without
+waiting for further consultation he set off at full speed, in the
+supposed direction of John Ramsay's pursuit. The rest followed. They had
+ridden some distance without being able to perceive any traces of their
+missing companion. Butler called aloud upon Ramsay, but there was no
+answer; and, for some moments, there was an anxious suspense as the
+party halted to listen for the sound of the footsteps of the trooper's
+approach. At length, a horse was seen far off in the wood, bounding over
+the turf at a wild and frightened pace; the saddle was empty, and the
+bridle-rein hung about his feet. On seeing his companions, the excited
+steed set up a frequent neigh, and, with head and tail erect, coursed
+immediately up to the group of horsemen. Here he came to a sudden halt,
+snorting with the terror of his late alarm. There were drops of blood
+upon the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious Heaven!" cried Butler, "some evil has befallen Ramsay. Scatter
+and search the wood."</p>
+
+<p>It was with confused and melancholy earnestness that they all now
+continued the quest. After a painful suspense, one of the men was heard
+to shout to the rest that their lost comrade was found. The summons soon
+brought the party together. Ramsay, pale and faint, was stretched upon
+the grass of the forest, his bosom streaming forth a current of blood.
+In an instant Butler was seen stooping over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this is a heavy ransom, for my deliverance!" he said with the
+deepest anguish, as he raised the trooper's head and laid it on his lap,
+whilst the blood flowed from the wound. "Speak, dear friend, speak!
+Great God, I fear this blow is mortal! Some water, if it can be
+found&mdash;look for it, Winter; he has fainted from loss of blood."</p>
+
+<p>Whilst Harry Winter went in search of the necessary refreshment, Butler
+tore his cravat from his neck and applied it to staunch the wound. The
+administration of a slight draught of water, after a short interval,
+sufficiently revived the disabled soldier to enable him to speak. He
+turned his sickly and almost quenched eye to Butler, as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I was foolish to follow so far. I have it here&mdash;here," he added in a
+feeble voice, as he put his hand upon his breast, "and it has done my
+work. I fought for you, major, because I was proud to fight for a
+friend; and because"&mdash;here his voice failed him, as for a moment he
+closed his eyes and faintly uttered&mdash;"it is all over&mdash;I am dying."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, good John," said Butler, whilst the tears ran down his cheeks; "it
+is not so bad as that&mdash;you are weak from bleeding&mdash;you will be better
+presently. Oh God! oh God!" he muttered to himself, "I would not have
+had this to save my own life, much less as the price of my liberty!"</p>
+
+<p>"I fought for you," said the wounded man, again reviving, "because Mary
+wished it. This will kill Mary," he added after a pause. "She warned me
+not to be rash, but I could not help it. Be kind to her, Major Butler,
+and take care of her. Tell her I did not fear to die; but for her sake,
+and for the sake of my poor mother. Go to my parents; let them know I
+thought of them in my last thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>"John! John!" exclaimed Butler, unable to give further utterance to his
+feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The dying trooper lay for some moments silent, and his comrades stood
+around him in mute grief, and hung their heads to conceal their emotions
+from each other.</p>
+
+<p>"In my pocket," said Ramsay, "is a Testament. Mary gave it to me for a
+keepsake. Take it out."</p>
+
+<p>Butler drew forth the small volume.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do with it?" he asked, in a mournful whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Give it to Mary, back from me. And this plait of her hair upon my
+wrist, major, take it and wear it on your own; it will remind you of my
+Mary&mdash;you will guard her from harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Before God, John Ramsay," said Butler with solemn fervor, "I promise
+you, that, while I live, she shall not want. Your parents, too, shall be
+my special care."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall die with easier heart. Thanks, thanks&mdash;friends, farewell!"
+feebly ejaculated the stricken soldier, whose eye, already glazed with
+the pangs of death, now glanced upon the attending group, and after a
+brief but painful interval closed in darkness.</p>
+
+<p>John Ramsay spake no more, and his short breathing showed that life was
+fast ebbing in its channel. The audible sobs of Butler, for some
+moments, were alone heard in the circle, as he sat supporting the head
+and grasping the hand of his brave comrade. The struggle was at last
+over, and the gallant spirit of the generous soldier had fled. Butler
+took from the wrist the bracelet of Mary's hair, which was now stained
+with the blood of its late owner, and with an earnest vow to redeem his
+promise, drew it over his own hand.</p>
+
+<p>The scene that followed this melancholy adventure was one of solemn
+interest. The proximity of the enemy, although defeated, rendered a
+delay at this spot, in the present circumstances of Butler, exceedingly
+hazardous; yet he could not entertain the thought of continuing his
+journey until he had communicated to David Ramsay the distressing
+tidings of his son's death. The last request of John seemed also to
+impose this task upon him as a sacred obligation, due to the friendship
+which had terminated in so disastrous an end. Butler's resolution,
+therefore, was soon taken. He determined immediately, at all hazards, to
+make his way back to Ramsay's cottage, and to endeavor to console the
+afflicted parents under their severe bereavement. Disdaining, in his
+present state of feeling, the disguise that seemed to make him almost a
+stranger to himself, he threw aside the miller's dress and again
+appeared in his true character, resolved manfully to meet what he now
+believed to be the almost certain result&mdash;a recapture with all its
+probable consequences. Some of his party, who were acquainted with the
+localities of their present position, suggested to him that a Whig
+family of the name of Drummond resided at no great distance from the
+scene of the late encounter, and that, by bearing the body to this
+place, they might secure for it a decent burial. The remains of the
+trooper were accordingly laid upon a rude litter, and his mourning
+comrades slowly and sorrowfully wended their way through the forest to
+the designated habitation. Here they arrived about noon, having
+traversed a space of more than two miles to gain this asylum.</p>
+
+<p>Drummond was a woodman, and occupied a rude cabin, with a small clearing
+around it, in the depths of the wilderness, so remote from the highway
+as to promise as much security from the quest of the enemy, as might be
+expected from any portion of the region in which he lived. He received
+his guests with kindness; and as he was himself acquainted with the
+family of the deceased, he exhibited a lively sympathy with the mourners
+around the body.</p>
+
+<p>When Butler now made known his purpose to set out immediately for the
+habitation of David Ramsay, Winter asked permission to accompany him,
+but the woodman interposed, and recommended that he alone should be
+permitted to perform that errand, leaving the others to remain with the
+corpse until his return.</p>
+
+<p>"It is, before all others, my duty," said Butler; "and come what may, I
+will perform it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will go together," added the proprietor of the cabin. "It will
+be wise to wait until the day is a little more spent, and return in the
+darkness of the night. David Ramsay will come back with us. He would
+like to see his son before we put him in the ground."</p>
+
+<p>"That shall be as you please, friend," said Butler. "I will be under
+your guidance."</p>
+
+<p>An hour or two before sundown, Butler and his new companion left the
+cabin, and took their route across the woods towards Ramsay's dwelling,
+leaving the dead body in charge of the woodman's family and the three
+soldiers. The distance they had to travel did not exceed eight miles.
+The repulse of the Tory party in the skirmish of the morning seemed to
+have induced a belief, on the part of the enemy, that the fugitives had
+made a successful retreat which was now beyond pursuit, and there were,
+in consequence, no parties on the road to molest the travellers. Under
+these circumstances, it was still daylight when they came in view of
+David Ramsay's homestead.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>Great agitation prevailed at Macdonald's post, when the morning
+disclosed the escape of Butler. The lieutenant was conscious that this
+mischance had exposed him to the risk of heavy censure, and as was
+natural to a man who could not entirely acquit himself of some neglect
+in the performance of his duty, his first measures were taken in a
+spirit of peevish and angry severity. Small parties were sent out to
+explore the neighborhood, with a view to gain intelligence of the
+direction taken by the fugitive, with orders to bring him in dead or
+alive. The sentinels who were on duty during the night were arrested,
+and subjected to a rigid examination on the events of their watch; the
+several members of Musgrove's family were also interrogated as to
+matters touching their own connexion with the prisoner. Nothing,
+however, was gathered from these investigations that was calculated to
+cast a suspicion of connivance in Butler's liberation, upon any
+individual either of the garrison or of the family. It was only apparent
+that the prisoner had availed himself of the remissness of the guard and
+the darkness of the night, to make a bold descent from the window; and
+had succeeded by one of those lucky accidents which sometimes baffle the
+most cautious foresight. The nature of the attempt did not necessarily
+suppose the aid of an accomplice, and a faint hope was, therefore,
+entertained that Butler would be found still lurking in the vicinity of
+the post.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a few hours, the first parties that had been dispatched
+in the morning, returned. They could give no account of the prisoner;
+nor was there any light thrown upon the escape until about the dinner
+hour, when a portion of the detachment which had intercepted Butler and
+his comrades in the morning, arrived at the mill, under the conduct of
+the soldier whose suspicions had led to the pursuit and skirmish which
+we have already described. The report of these men left Macdonald no
+room to doubt the identity of Butler with the person described. A
+further examination, at the suggestion of the soldier, showed that
+Wall-Eye, the wagon-horse, was missing; and it now became certain that
+Butler had been aided by a party of the enemy with whom he must have
+been in correspondence. The conclusion was, that with his means of
+flight there could be little doubt of his being, long before the present
+period of the day, out of the reach of successful pursuit. The scheme
+was laid to the account of Horse Shoe Robinson, whose name and
+adventures were already famous in this district; and it was conjectured
+that Sumpter was secretly posted in some neighboring fastness to give
+his assistance to the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>With these reflections, Macdonald felt himself obliged to submit to the
+exigencies of the case; a point of philosophy which he did not practise
+without a very visible chagrin and mortification. His men were called
+together, and after a short, fretful lecture on their neglect, and an
+injunction to a more soldier-like vigilance in future, which savored of
+the caution of locking the stable after the steed was stolen, they were
+dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>About an hour before sundown, Allen Musgrove and Mary, availing
+themselves of the confusion and relaxed discipline of the post,
+occasioned by the events of the morning, set out on horseback for David
+Ramsay's dwelling, whither they were led by a natural anxiety to learn
+something of the movements of the fugitives.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pleasure and a happiness, Allen Musgrove," said Mistress Ramsay,
+as the miller and his daughter sat down in the cabin, "to see you and
+Mary over here with us at any time, but it is specially so now when we
+have good news to tell. John and his friend are safe out of reach of
+Macdonald's men, and&mdash;God be praised!&mdash;I hope out of the way of all
+other harms. We have had soldiers dodging in and out through the day,
+but not one of them has made any guess what's gone with the major; and
+as for John, they don't seem to suspect him to be on the country-side.
+It's all Horse Shoe Robinson with them. They say that none but he could
+have helped to get the major away, and that General Sumpter was the
+instigator. Well, I'm sure they were welcome to that opinion, for it set
+them all to looking over towards Broad river, which is as good a
+direction as we could wish them to travel."</p>
+
+<p>"The less you seem to know about it, with any of these inquiring
+parties, the better, Mistress Ramsay," said Allen Musgrove, "and I would
+advise you, even here amongst ourselves, to speak lower, David, what do
+you hear this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing concerning our runaways since they left us at daylight this
+morning," replied Ramsay. "I should guess them to be somewhere near upon
+Fair Forest by this time. You know Williams is out-lying upon the upper
+branches of the river? It is more like hunted deer, Allen, than
+Christian men, that our poor fellows take to the woods now. God knows
+what will come of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"He knows and has appointed it," said Musgrove, gravely, "and will in
+His own good time and with such instruments as shall faithfully work His
+purpose, give the victory to them that have the right. Man, woman, and
+child may perish, and house and home may be burnt over our heads, and
+the blood of brave men may make the dust of the road red; yes, and the
+pastures rich as if new laid with manure; but the will of God shall be
+done and His providence be accomplished. The cause of the just shall
+prevail against the unjust."</p>
+
+<p>"There were no soldiers," inquired Mary, addressing David Ramsay, "that
+you have heard of, who followed towards Fair Forest? I should be sorry
+if John was to be troubled with persons going after him; because,"&mdash;the
+maiden hesitated an instant,&mdash;"because it's unpleasant and disagreeable
+to be obliged to be riding off the road, through bushes and briers, to
+keep out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>"If they were not greatly an overmatch, girl," interrupted Ramsay, "John
+wouldn't give himself much trouble upon that account."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Ramsay," said Mary earnestly, "I was thinking of that. It's
+hard to say what John would call an overmatch: men are so headstrong and
+venturesome."</p>
+
+<p>"That's God's own truth, Mary," interposed Mrs. Ramsay; "and what I have
+always been telling David and John both. But they never heed me, no more
+than if I was talking to the child in that cradle."</p>
+
+<p>"I've told John as much myself," said Mary, blushing.</p>
+
+<p>"And he would not heed you either," interrupted her father, "A soldier
+would have a holiday life of it, if he followed the advice of his
+mother or his sweetheart. Daughter, amongst friends here, you needn't
+blush; we know more of the secrets betwixt you and the trooper lad than
+you count upon. John's a clever boy, Mistress Ramsay, and I think you
+have reason to brag of him somewhat; and as there's particular good-will
+between him and my Mary, I'll not stand in the way when the war is over,
+if God spares us all, and Mary and the lad keep in the same mind; I'll
+not stand in the way of a new settlement in the neighborhood. Mary is a
+good daughter, well nurtured, and&mdash;I don't care to say it to her
+face&mdash;will make a thriving wife."</p>
+
+<p>The mother smiled as she replied, "I don't pretend to know the young
+people's secrets, but I know this, you don't think better of Mary than
+John does&mdash;nor than me neither, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was interrupted by a knocking at the door, and, in a
+moment afterwards, Arthur Butler and the woodman entered the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Butler, as I am a living woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Ramsay.</p>
+
+<p>"Our good friend himself!" ejaculated Musgrove, with surprise. "What has
+turned you back? And Gabriel Drummond here too! What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my son John?" demanded Ramsay. "Are you followed?"</p>
+
+<p>Butler walked up to Mrs. Ramsay, and, as a tear started to his eye, took
+her by the hand, and stood for a moment unable to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, heaven have mercy on me!" screamed Mary Musgrove, as she threw
+herself upon a bed, "something dreadful has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, speak what you have to tell!" said David Ramsay,
+instantly turning pale.</p>
+
+<p>"John Ramsay is hurt," faintly articulated the mother, and Mary, rising
+from the bed, stood beside Butler with a countenance on which was seated
+the most agonizing attention. Andy, the hero of the exploit we have
+heretofore related, also pressed into the presence of the same group,
+and a death-like silence pervaded the whole party.</p>
+
+<p>Butler, with an ineffectual effort to recover himself, turned to
+Drummond, making a sign to him to tell the object of their melancholy
+errand, and then flung himself into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>"John Ramsay is dead," said the woodman, in a mournful tone. "Your son,
+mistress Ramsay, was shot in a fray with the bloody, villanous Tories.
+The heartiest curses upon them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Killed, dear madam," said Butler, scarce able to articulate, "killed in
+my defence. Would to God the blow had fallen upon my own head!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no, no!" exclaimed the matron, as a flood of tears rolled down
+her cheeks, and she endeavored to wipe them away with her apron. "It
+isn't true. It can't be true. My poor, dear, brave boy!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant Mary Musgrove fell insensible into the arms of her
+father, where it was some moments before she gave signs of animation. At
+length, being laid upon the bed, a deep groan escaped her, which was
+followed by the most piteous wailing.</p>
+
+<p>The scene wrought upon the younger members of the family, who, as well
+as the domestics, were heard pouring forth deep and loud lamentations,
+accompanied with reiterated announcements of the death of the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>When this first burst of the general grief was over, David Ramsay arose
+from his seat and walked across the room to a window, where he stood
+endeavoring to compose and master his feelings. At length, facing
+Butler, he said in a low and tranquil tone,</p>
+
+<p>"John Ramsay, my son, killed, killed in a skirmish? God is my witness, I
+expected it! It was his failing to follow his enemy with too hot a hand;
+and I am to blame, perhaps, that I never checked him in that temper. But
+he died like a man and a soldier, Major Butler," he added, firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"He died in my arms," replied Butler, "as bravely as ever soldier closed
+his life, his last thoughts were fixed upon his parents, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" interrupted Ramsay, as if communing with himself, and regardless
+of Butler's words&mdash;"Dead! He fell doing his duty to his country, that's
+a consolation. A man cannot die better. If it please God, I hope my end
+may be like his. Andrew, my boy, come here. You are now my oldest living
+son," he said, taking the lad's hand and looking him full in the face,
+as he spoke with a bitter compression of his lips; "I am willing, much
+as I love you, that the country should have you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, David, David," interrupted the mother, rousing herself from her
+silent grief, "we have given enough; no other child of mine shall
+venture in the war. John! John! John! my dear boy, my brave son! How
+good and kind he was to us all! And how glad he was to get home to see
+us; and how much we made of him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, wife," said David Ramsay, "this is no time to hold back from
+our duty. Andrew, listen to me: remember your brother has met his death
+fighting against these monsters, who hate the very earth that nurses
+liberty. You are young, boy, but you can handle a musket; we will not
+forget your brother's death."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor the burning of a good house over your head, and a full barn,
+father; nor the frights they have given my poor mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor the thousands of brave men," added the father, "who have poured out
+their blood to give us a land and laws of our own. My boy, we will
+remember these, for vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>"Not for vengeance," said Allen Musgrove, "for justice, David. Your
+enemy should be remembered only to prevent him from doing mischief. The
+Lord will give him sword and buckler, spear and shield, who stands up
+for the true cause: and when it pleases Him to require the sacrifice of
+life from the faithful servant who fights the battle, he grants patience
+and courage to meet the trial. Your son was not the man, David, to turn
+his face away from the work that was before him; may God receive him and
+comfort his distressed family! He was an honest and brave son, David
+Ramsay."</p>
+
+<p>"A braver soldier never buckled on broadsword, Allen Musgrove," replied
+the father. "Yes, I looked for this; ever since my dwelling was levelled
+to the ground by these firebrands, I looked for it. John's passion was
+up then, and I knew the thoughts that ran through his mind. Ever since
+that day his feelings have been most bitter; and he has flung himself
+amongst the Tories, making as little account of them as the mower when
+he puts his scythe into the grass of the meadows."</p>
+
+<p>"God forgive him, David!" said Musgrove, "and strengthen you and the
+boy's good mother in this sharp hour of trial. They who draw the sword
+in passion may stand in fear of the judgment of the sword: it is a
+fearful thing for sinful man to shed blood for any end but that of
+lawful war, and at the bidding of his country. God alone is the
+avenger."</p>
+
+<p>Mary had again raised herself from the bed, and at this moment gave vent
+to her feelings in a loud and bitter lamentation "John Ramsay is dead,
+is dead!" she exclaimed. "I cannot believe it. He that was so true and
+so warm-hearted, and that everybody loved! They could not kill him! Oh,
+I begged him to keep his foot from danger, and he promised me, for my
+sake, to be careful. I loved him, father; I never told you so much
+before, but I am not ashamed to tell it now before everybody; I loved
+him better than all the world. And we had promised each other. It is so
+hard to lose them that we love!" she continued, sobbing violently. "He
+was so brave and so good, and he was so handsome, Mrs. Ramsay, and so
+dutiful to you and his father, coming home to see you whenever the war
+would let him. And he walked, and rode, and ran, and fought for his
+friends, and them that he cared for. He was so thoughtful for your
+comfort too," she added, as she threw herself on her knees and rested
+her head in the lap of the mother, and there paused through a long
+interval, during which nothing was heard but her own moans mingled with
+the sighs of the party, "we were to be married after this war was at an
+end, and thought we should live so happily: but they have murdered him!
+Oh they have murdered him," and with her hair thrown in disorder over
+her face, she again gave vent to a flood of tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary, daughter! Shame on you, girl!" said her father. "Do you forget,
+in the hour of your affliction, that you have a friend who is able to
+comfort? There is one who can heal up your sorrows and speak peace to
+your troubled spirit, if you be not too proud to ask it. I have taught
+you, daughter, in all time of tribulation to look to Him for patience
+and for strength to bear adversity. Why do you neglect this refuge now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our Father," said the maiden, fervently clasping her hands and lifting
+up her eyes, now dim with weeping, as she appealed to God in prayer,
+"who art in heaven&mdash;teach us all to say thy will be done. Take&mdash;take&mdash;my
+dear John&mdash;Oh my heart will burst and I shall die!" she uttered, almost
+overwhelmed with her emotions, as she again buried her face in Mistress
+Ramsay's lap&mdash;"I cannot speak!"</p>
+
+<p>A silence of inexpressible agony prevailed for some moments. This was at
+length interrupted by the uprising of the full, clear, and firm voice of
+Allen Musgrove, who now broke forth from the opposite side of a room
+where he had kneeled before a chair, in an earnest and impressive
+supplication to the Deity, urged with all that eloquence which naturally
+flows from deeply-excited feeling. From the solemnity of the occasion,
+as well as from the habitually religious temper of the family assembled
+in the little cabin, the words of the prayer fell upon the hearts of
+those present with a singularly welcome effect, and, for the moment,
+brought tranquillity to their feelings.</p>
+
+<p>When the prayer was ended, the grief of the mourners rolled back in its
+former flood, and burst from Mary Musgrove in the most heart-rending
+bitterness. Paroxysm followed paroxysm with fearful violence, and these
+outbreaks were responded to by the mother with scarcely less intensity.
+All attempts at consolation, on the part of the men, were unavailing;
+and it was apparent that nothing remained but to let the tide of anguish
+take its own course.</p>
+
+<p>It was now some time after night-fall, when Butler and Drummond beckoned
+Allen Musgrove to leave the room. They retired into the open air in
+front of the house, where they were immediately joined by David Ramsay.
+Here Butler communicated to them the necessity of making immediate
+arrangements for their return to the woodman's cottage, and for the
+burial of the deceased trooper. His advice was adopted, and it was
+resolved that Musgrove and Ramsay should accompany the other two to the
+spot. Before the consultation was closed, Andy had come into the group,
+and he was now directed, with all haste, to throw a saddle upon his
+father's horse.</p>
+
+<p>"You, Andrew, my son," said David Ramsay, "will stay at home and comfort
+your poor mother, and Mary. Speak to them, boy, and persuade them to
+give up their useless lamentations. It is the will of God, and we ought
+not to murmur at it."</p>
+
+<p>"The burning, father," replied the boy, with a sorrowful earnestness,
+"and the fighting, and the frights we have had, was all nothing to this.
+I never felt before how terrible the war was."</p>
+
+<p>Andy had now gone to equip the horse, and the men returned to the inside
+of the cabin, where they sat in profound silence. Butler, at length,
+rose from the door-sill where he had taken his seat, and crossing the
+room, took a position by the bed on which Mary Musgrove had thrown
+herself, and where she now lay uttering faint and half-smothered moans.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a remembrance for you," he said, stooping down and speaking
+scarce above a whisper in the maiden's ear; "I promised to deliver it
+into your hand. God knows with what pain I perform my office! John
+enjoined upon me to give you this," he continued, as he presented to her
+the little copy of the Testament, "and to say to you that his last
+thoughts were given to you and his mother. He loved you, Mary, better
+than he loved any living creature in this world."</p>
+
+<p>"He did, he did," sobbed forth the girl; "and I loved him far above
+family, friends, kinsfolk and all&mdash;I wish I were dead by his side."</p>
+
+<p>"Take the book," said Butler, hardly able to articulate. "God for ever
+bless you," he added, after a pause of weeping, "and bring you comfort!
+I have promised John Ramsay, that neither you, nor any of his family,
+shall ever want the service of a friend, while I have life or means to
+render it. Before Heaven, that pledge shall be redeemed! Farewell,
+farewell! God bless you!"</p>
+
+<p>As Butler uttered these words he grasped the maiden's hand and pressed
+it fervently to his lips; then turning to the mother, he addressed some
+phrase of comfort to her, and hastily left the room. Scarcely a sound
+was heard from any one, except the low sobbing of the exhausted weepers,
+and the almost convulsive kisses which Mary imprinted upon the little
+book that Butler had put into her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Musgrove, Ramsay, and the woodman, retired from the apartment at the
+same moment; and the horses being ready at the door, the retreating beat
+of the hoofs upon the turf gave notice to the in-dwellers that the four
+men had set forward on their journey.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A RUSTIC FUNERAL.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How glumly sounds yon dirgy song;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Night ravens flap the wing.&mdash;<i>Burger's Leonora.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>By eleven o'clock at night, Butler and the party from Ramsay's arrived
+at the woodman's cabin. Winter and his comrades had been busy in making
+preparations for the funeral. The body had been laid out upon a table, a
+sheet thrown over it, and a pine torch blazed from the chimney wall
+close by, and flung its broad, red glare over the apartment. An elderly
+female, the wife of the woodman, and two or three children, sat quietly
+in the room. The small detachment of troopers loitered around the
+corpse, walking with stealthy pace across the floor, and now and then
+adjusting such matters of detail in the arrangements for the interment
+as required their attention. A rude coffin, hastily constructed of such
+materials as were at hand, was deposited near the table. A solemn
+silence prevailed, which no less consisted with the gloom of the
+occasion than with the late hour of the night.</p>
+
+<p>When the newly arrived party had dismounted and entered the apartment, a
+short salutation, in suppressed tones, was exchanged, and without
+further delay, the whole company set themselves to the melancholy duty
+that was before them. David Ramsay approached the body, and, turning the
+sheet down from the face, stood gazing on the features of his son. There
+was a settled frown upon his brow that contrasted signally with the
+composed and tranquil lineaments of the deceased. The father and son
+presented a strange and remarkable type of life and death&mdash;the
+countenance of the mourner stamped by the agitation of keen, living
+emotion, and the object mourned bearing the impress of a serene, placid,
+and passionless repose:&mdash;the one a vivid picture of misery, the other a
+quiet image of happy sleep. David Ramsay bent his looks upon the body
+for some minutes, without an endeavor to speak, and at last retreated
+towards the door, striking his hand upon his forehead as he breathed out
+the ejaculation, "My son, my son, how willingly would I change places
+with you this night!"</p>
+
+<p>Allen Musgrove was less agitated by the spectacle, and whilst he
+surveyed the features of the deceased, his lips were moved with the
+utterance of a short and almost inaudible prayer. Then turning to
+Drummond, he inquired: "Has the grave been thought of? Who has attended
+to the preparations?"</p>
+
+<p>"It has been thought of," replied the woodman; "I sent two of my people
+off to dig it before I went with Major Butler to see David. We have a
+grave-yard across in the woods, nigh a mile from this, and I thought it
+best that John Ramsay should be buried there."</p>
+
+<p>"It was kindly thought on by you, Gabriel," replied Musgrove. "You have
+your father and others of your family in that spot. David Ramsay will
+thank you for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do, heartily," said Ramsay, "and will remember it, Gabriel, at
+another time."</p>
+
+<p>"Let the body be lifted into the coffin," said Musgrove.</p>
+
+<p>The order was promptly executed by Harry Winter and the other troopers.
+In a few minutes afterwards, the rough boards which had been provided to
+close up the box or coffin, were laid in their appropriate places, and
+Winter had just begun to hammer the nails into them, when from the
+outside of the cabin was heard a wild and piercing scream, that fell so
+suddenly upon the ears of those within as to cause the trooper to drop
+the hammer from his hand. In one moment more, Mary Musgrove rushed into
+the room and fell prostrate upon the floor. She was instantly followed
+by Andrew.</p>
+
+<p>"God of heaven!" exclaimed Butler, "here is misery upon misery. This
+poor girl's brain is crazed by her misfortune. This is worst of all!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mary, Mary, my child!" ejaculated Musgrove, as he raised his daughter
+into his arms. "What madness has come upon you, that you should have
+wandered here to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"How has this happened, Andrew?" said David Ramsay, all speaking in the
+same breath.</p>
+
+<p>"When Mary heard," replied Andrew, in answer to his father's question,
+"that you had all come to Gabriel Drummond's to bury my brother, she
+couldn't rest content; and she prayed so pitifully to come after you,
+and see him before they put him in the ground, that I thought it right
+to tell her that I would come with her. And if I hadn't, she would have
+come by herself; for she had got upon her horse before any of us were
+aware."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't stay at home, father," said Mary, reviving and speaking in a
+firm voice. "I should have died with a broken heart. I couldn't let you
+come to put him in the earth without following after you. Where is he? I
+heard them nailing the coffin; it must be broken open for me to see
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>These words, uttered with a bitter vehemence, were followed by a quick
+movement towards the coffin, which was yet unclosed; and the maiden,
+with more composure than her previous gestures seemed to render it
+possible for her to acquire, paused before the body with a look of
+intense sorrow, as the tears fell fast from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true&mdash;it is too true&mdash;he is dead! Oh, John, John!" she exclaimed,
+as she stooped down and kissed the cold lips, "I did not dream of this
+when we parted last night near the willows. You did not look as you do
+now, when I found you asleep under the rock, and when you promised me,
+John, that you would be careful and keep yourself from danger, if it was
+only to please me. We were doing our best for you then, Major
+Butler&mdash;and here is what it has come to. No longer than last night he
+made me the promise. Oh me, oh me! how wretched&mdash;how miserable I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Daughter, dear," said Allen Musgrove, "rise up and behave like a brave
+girl as, you know, I have often told you you were. We are born to
+afflictions, and young as you are, you cannot hope to be free from the
+common lot. You do yourself harm by this ungoverned grief. There's a
+good and a kind girl&mdash;sit yourself down and calm your feelings."</p>
+
+<p>Musgrove took his daughter by the hand, and gently conducted her to a
+seat, where he continued to address her in soothing language, secretly
+afraid that the agony of her feelings might work some serious misfortune
+upon her senses.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not angry with me, father, for following you to-night?" said
+Mary, for a moment moderating the wildness of her sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"No, child, no. I cannot be angry with you; but I fear this long
+night-ride may do you harm."</p>
+
+<p>"I can but die, father; and I would not step aside from that."</p>
+
+<p>"Recollect yourself, Mary; your Bible does not teach you to wish for
+death. It is sinful to rebel under the chastisements of God. Daughter, I
+have taught you in your day of prosperity, the lessons that were to be
+practised in your time of suffering and trial. Do not now turn me and my
+precepts to shame."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father, forgive me. It is so hard to lose the best, the dearest!"
+Here Mary again gave way to emotions which could only relieve themselves
+in profuse tears.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the body was removed to the outside of the cabin, and
+the coffin was speedily shut up and deposited upon a light wagon-frame,
+to which two lean horses were already harnessed, and which waited to
+convey its burden to the grave-yard.</p>
+
+<p>"All is ready," said Winter, stepping quietly into the house, and
+speaking in a low tone to Musgrove. "We are waiting only for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Father," said Mary, who, on hearing this communication, had sprung to
+her feet, "I must go with you."</p>
+
+<p>"My child!"</p>
+
+<p>"I came all this way through the dark woods on purpose, father&mdash;and it
+is my right to go with him to his grave. Pray, dear father, do not
+forbid me. We belonged to each other, and he would be glad to think I
+was the last that left him&mdash;the very last."</p>
+
+<p>"The poor child takes on so," said the wife of Drummond, now for the
+first time interposing in the scene; "and it seems natural, Mr.
+Musgrove, that you shouldn't hinder her. I will go along, and maybe it
+will be a comfort to her, to have some woman-kind beside her. I will
+take her hand."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall go, Mary," said her father; "but on the condition that you
+govern your feelings, and behave with the moderation of a Christian
+woman. Take courage, my child, and show your nurture."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, father&mdash;I will; the worst is past, and I can walk quietly to
+John's grave," replied Mary, as the tears again flowed fast, and her
+voice was stifled with her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a heavy trouble for such a young creature to bear," said Mistress
+Drummond, as she stood beside the maiden, waiting for this burst of
+grief to subside; "but this world is full of such sorrows."</p>
+
+<p>Musgrove now quitted the apartment. He was followed by his daughter and
+the rest of the inmates, all of whom repaired to the front of the cabin,
+where they awaited the removal of the body.</p>
+
+<p>A bundle of pine faggots had been provided, and each one of the party
+was supplied from them with a lighted torch. Some little delay occurred
+whilst Harry Winter was concluding his arrangements for the funeral.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your weapons along, boys," said the trooper to his comrades, in a
+whisper. "John Ramsay shall have the honors of war&mdash;and mark, you are to
+bring up the rear&mdash;let the women walk next the wagon. Gabriel Drummond,
+bring your rifle along&mdash;we shall give a volley over the grave."</p>
+
+<p>The woodman stepped into the cabin and returned with his fire lock. All
+things being ready, the wagon, under the guidance of a negro who walked
+at the horses' heads, now moved forward. The whole party formed a
+procession in couples&mdash;the woodman's wife and Mary being first in the
+train, the children succeeding them, and the rest following in regular
+order.</p>
+
+<p>It was an hour after midnight. The road, scarcely discernible, wound
+through a thick forest, and the procession moved with a slow and heavy
+step towards its destination. The torches lit up the darkness of the
+wood with a strong flame, that penetrated the mass of sombre foliage to
+the extent of some fifty paces around, and glared with a wild and
+romantic effect upon the rude coffin, the homely vehicle on which it was
+borne, and upon the sorrowing faces of the train that followed it. The
+seclusion of the region, the unwonted hour, and the strange mixture of
+domestic and military mourning, half rustic and half warlike, that
+entered into the composition of the group; and, above all, the
+manifestations of sincere and intense grief that were seen in every
+member of the train, communicated to the incident a singularly
+imaginative and unusual character. No words were spoken, except the few
+orders of the march announced by Harry Winter in a whisper; and the ear
+recognised, with a painful precision, the unceasing sobs of Mary
+Musgrove, and the deep groan that seemed, unawares, to escape now and
+then from some of the males of the party. The dull tramp of feet, and
+the rusty creak of the wagon-wheels, or the crackling of brushwood
+beneath them, and the monotonous clank of the chains employed in the
+gearing of the horses, all broke upon the stillness of the night with a
+more abrupt and observed distinctness, from the peculiar tone of feeling
+which pervaded those who were engaged in the sad offices of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>In the space of half an hour, the train had emerged from the wood upon a
+small tract of open ground, that seemed to have been formerly cleared
+from the forest for the purpose of cultivation. Whatever tillage might
+have once existed there was now abandoned, and the space was overgrown
+with brambles, through which the blind road still struggled by a track
+that even in daylight it would have been difficult to pursue. Towards
+the centre of this opening grew a cluster of low cherry and peach trees,
+around whose roots a plentiful stock of wild scions had shot up in the
+absence of culture. Close in the shade of this cluster, a ragged and
+half-decayed paling formed a square inclosure of some ten or twelve
+paces broad, and a few rude posts set up within, indicated the spot to
+be the rustic grave-yard. Here two negroes were seen resting over a
+newly-dug grave.</p>
+
+<p>The wagon halted within some short distance of the paling, and the
+coffin was now committed to the shoulders of the troopers. Following
+these, the whole train of mourners entered the burial-place.</p>
+
+<p>My reader will readily imagine with what fresh fervor the grief of poor
+Mary broke forth, whilst standing on the verge of the pit in which were
+to be entombed the remains of one so dear to her. The solemn interval or
+pause which intervened between the arrival of the corpse at this spot,
+and its being lowered into the ground, was one that was not signalized
+only by the loud sorrow of her who here bore the part of chief mourner;
+but all, even to the negroes who stood musing over their spades, gave
+vent to feelings which, at such a moment, it neither belongs to
+humanity, nor becomes it, to resist.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral service was performed by Allen Musgrove. The character of
+the miller, both physical and moral, impressed his present employment
+with singular efficacy. Though his frame bore the traces of age, it was
+still robust and muscular; and his bearing, erect and steadfast, denoted
+firmness of mind. His head, partially bald, was now uncovered; and his
+loose, whitened locks played in the breeze. The torches were raised
+above the group; and as they flared in the wind and flung their heavy
+volumes of smoke into the air, they threw also a blaze of light upon the
+venerable figure of the miller, as he poured forth an impassioned
+supplication to the Deity; which, according to the habit of thinking of
+that period, and conformably also to the tenets of the religious sect to
+which the speaker belonged, might be said to have expressed, in an equal
+degree, resignation to the will of Heaven and defiance of the power of
+man. Though the office at the grave was thus prolonged, it did not seem
+to be unexpected or wearisome to the auditory, who remained with
+unabated interest until they had chanted a hymn, which was given out by
+the miller, and sung in successive couplets. The religious observances
+of the place seemed to have taken a profitable hold upon the hearts of
+the mourners; and before the hymn was concluded, even the voice of Mary
+Musgrove rose with a clear cadence upon the air, and showed that the
+inspirations of piety had already supplanted some of the more violent
+paroxysms of grief.</p>
+
+<p>This exercise of devotion being finished, the greater part of the
+company began their retreat to the woodman's cabin. Winter and his
+comrades remained to perform the useless and idle ceremony of
+discharging their pistols over the grave, and when this was accomplished
+they hurried forward to overtake the party in advance.</p>
+
+<p>They had scarcely rejoined their companions, before the horses of the
+wagon were seized by an unknown hand; and the glare of the torches
+presented to the view of the company some fifteen or twenty files of
+British troopers.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand, I charge you all, in the name of the king!" called out an
+authoritative voice from the contiguous thicket; and before another
+word could be uttered, the funeral train found themselves surrounded by
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"Hands off!" exclaimed Butler, as a soldier had seized him by the coat.
+A pistol shot was heard, and Butler was seen plunging into the wood,
+followed by Winter and one or two others.</p>
+
+<p>The fugitives were pursued by numbers of the hostile party, and in a few
+moments were dragged back to the lights.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, sir?" demanded an officer, who now rode up to Butler,
+"that you dare to disobey a command in the name of the king? Friend or
+foe, you must submit to be questioned."</p>
+
+<p>"We have been engaged," said Allen Musgrove, "in the peaceful and
+Christian duty of burying the dead. What right have you to interrupt
+us?"</p>
+
+<p>"You take a strange hour for such a work," replied the officer, "and, by
+the volley fired over the grave, I doubt whether your service be so
+peaceful as you pretend, old man. What is he that you have laid beneath
+the turf to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"A soldier," replied Butler, "worthy of all the rites that belong to the
+sepulture of a brave man."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are a comrade, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not deny it."</p>
+
+<p>"What colors do you serve?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he that asks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain McAlpine of the new levies," replied the officer. "Now, sir,
+your name and character? you must be convinced of my right to know it."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no motive for concealment," said Butler, "since I am already in
+your power. Myself and four comrades are strictly your prisoners; the
+rest of this party are inhabitants of the neighboring country, having no
+connexion with the war, but led hither by a simple wish to perform an
+office of humanity to a deceased friend. In surrendering myself and
+those under my command, I bespeak for the others an immunity from all
+vexatious detention. I am an officer of the Continental service: Butler
+is my name, my rank, a major of infantry."</p>
+
+<p>After a few words more of explanation, the party were directed by the
+British officer to continue their march to Drummond's cabin, whither,
+in a brief space, they arrived under the escort of their captors.</p>
+
+<p>A wakeful night was passed under the woodman's roof; and when morning
+came the circumstances of the recapture of Butler were more fully
+disclosed. The detachment under Captain McAlpine were on their way to
+join Ferguson, who was now posted in the upper district; and being
+attracted by the sound of voices engaged in chanting the psalm at the
+funeral of John Ramsay, and still more by the discharge of the volley
+over the grave, they had directed their march to the spot, which they
+had no difficulty in reaching by the help of the torches borne by the
+mourners.</p>
+
+<p>The detachment consisted of a company of horse numbering some fifty men,
+who had no scruple in seizing upon Butler and his companions as
+prisoners of war. It was some relief to Butler when he ascertained that
+his present captors were ignorant of his previous history, and were
+unconnected with those who had formerly held him in custody. He was also
+gratified with the assurance that no design was entertained to molest
+any others of the party, except those whom Butler himself indicated as
+belligerents.</p>
+
+<p>Captain McAlpine halted with his men at the woodman's cabin, until after
+sunrise. During this interval, Butler was enabled to prepare himself for
+the journey he was about to commence, and to take an affectionate leave
+of Musgrove and his daughter, David Ramsay, and the woodman's family.</p>
+
+<p>Allen Musgrove and Mary, and their friend Ramsay, deemed it prudent to
+retreat with the first permission given them by the British officer;
+and, not long afterwards, Butler and his comrades found themselves in
+the escort of the Tory cavalry, bound for Ferguson's camp.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, once more, was Butler doomed to feel the vexations of captivity.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A COUNCIL OF WAR AT MRS. MARKHAM'S. THE SERGEANT SETS FORTH ON AN
+ADVENTURE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>We return to Mildred Lindsay, who, comfortably sheltered under the roof
+of Mrs. Markham, had found herself, after the repose of forty-eight
+hours, almost entirely reinstated in her former strength; her thoughts
+were now consequently directed to the resumption of her journey. The
+gentle and assiduous attentions of the family whose hospitality she
+enjoyed, were, however, not confined to the mere restoration of her
+health. The peculiarity of her condition, thus thrown as she was amongst
+strangers, in the prosecution of an enterprise, which, though its
+purpose was not disclosed to her entertainer, was one manifestly of
+great peril, and such only as could have been induced by some urgent and
+imperious necessity, awakened in Mrs. Markham a lively interest towards
+Mildred's future progress. This interest was increased by the deportment
+of our heroine herself, whose mild and graceful courtesy, feminine
+delicacy, and gentleness of nurture, were so signally contrasted with
+the romantic hardihood of her present expedition. General Marion's
+letter, also, in the estimation of the hostess, put her under a special
+obligation to look after the welfare of her guest. Accordingly, now when
+the third morning of our travellers' sojourn had arrived, and Mildred
+thought of taking leave of the friendly family, the first announcement
+of this purpose was met by an almost positive prohibition.</p>
+
+<p>"You are young, my dear," said the matron, "in your experience of the
+horrors of this civil war, and make a sad mistake if you think that your
+sex, or any sufficient reason you may have to justify you in going on,
+will protect you against insult, in case you should be so unfortunate as
+to meet parties of the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>"My object, madam," replied Mildred, "is to go into the very heart of
+the enemy's ranks. My business is to see Lord Cornwallis himself. I
+shall, therefore, proceed directly to his head-quarters. That being my
+purpose, I shall not regret the opportunity to throw myself upon the
+protection of the first band of loyal troops I may meet."</p>
+
+<p>"Into Lord Cornwallis's presence!" said Mrs. Markham, with an expression
+of wonder. "You have some very near friend who has suffered in the late
+battle&mdash;a prisoner, perhaps?" As this question escaped the lips of the
+lady, who had hitherto purposely forborne to inquire into the private
+history of Mildred's journey, she shook her head distrustfully, and,
+after some deliberation, added, "You will pardon me, my child, for what
+may seem to be an idle curiosity&mdash;I seek to know nothing that you may
+desire to keep secret&mdash;but your journey is so full of hazard to one so
+young and helpless as yourself, that I fear you have not wisely
+considered the evil chances to which you may be exposed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have spent no thought upon the hazard, madam," replied Mildred.
+"There is no degree of danger that should outweigh my resolution. You
+guess truly&mdash;I have a friend who is a prisoner, and in sad jeopardy&mdash;and
+more than that, dear madam, I have persuaded myself that I have power to
+save him." A tear started in her eye as she added, "That is all I have
+thought of."</p>
+
+<p>"Then may a kind and merciful Heaven shield you! They little know the
+heart-rending trials of war, who have not felt them as I have. These
+rude soldiers, Miss Lindsay&mdash;I shudder at the thought of your trusting
+your safety to them."</p>
+
+<p>"My name, madam," replied Mildred, "I am ashamed to tell you, has all
+its associations on their side&mdash;I must trust to its power to bear me
+through."</p>
+
+<p>"Not all, sister," interrupted Henry. "From the beginning up to this
+day, I can answer for myself, I have never had a thought that didn't
+take sides against the red-coats."</p>
+
+<p>A faint smile played upon Mrs. Markham's features, as she turned to
+Henry and said, "You are a young rebel, and a warm one, I perceive. Such
+troubles as ours require grave advisers."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother and myself must not be misapprehended," continued Mildred;
+"I alluded only to my father's influence. I have heard that he enjoys
+some consideration in the esteem of Lord Cornwallis, and it is upon the
+strength of that I have ventured. Besides, I am well attended by a
+careful and wise soldier, who rides as my companion and guide&mdash;one who
+would not quietly see me harmed."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him be brought into our consultation," said Mrs. Markham. "I would
+not act without his advice. With your leave, I will send for him."</p>
+
+<p>Henry and Alfred Markham, immediately upon this hint, went in pursuit of
+Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>When that important and trusty personage arrived in the parlor, a
+regular conference was opened, which, after a few discourses on the
+general aspect of affairs&mdash;wherein the sergeant showed an abundance of
+soldierly sagacity and knowledge, and a still greater share of warm and
+faithful concern for the welfare of the sister and brother whom he had
+in ward&mdash;resulted in the conclusion that measures should be taken to
+ascertain the state of the country around, in reference to the
+impression made by the late movements of Marion and his adversary; and,
+especially, what character of troops occupied the region over which the
+sergeant would be required to conduct his charge. This duty the sergeant
+very appropriately considered as belonging to himself, and he therefore
+determined forthwith to set out on a reconnoitring expedition. As we
+propose to bear him company, we will, for the present, leave the family
+in the parlor to the enjoyment of the kind communion that had already
+nursed up a mutual affection between the hostess and her guests.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant took his departure alone, notwithstanding the urgent
+importunities of Henry and his new companion, Alfred Markham, for
+permission to accompany him&mdash;a request that was utterly denied by the
+sturdy and cautious soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"You are apt to talk too much, Mister Lindsay," he said, in answer to
+the petition of the young men, "for such a piece of business as I have
+in hand: for although, consarning your good sense, and valor both,
+considering your years, I would not be thought to speak rashly of
+them&mdash;but, on the contrary, to give you full praise and
+recommendation&mdash;yet you know you want experience and use to these
+duble-dealings and dodgings that the war puts us to; whereupon, you
+mought fall to talking when it was best to be silent, and, in case of
+our meeting a body, to be letting out somewhat too much, which is a
+thing that discommodes in war more than you would believe. And besides
+this, Master Henry, there might be, mayhap, a scrimmage, a chase, and
+what not&mdash;in which consideration you would be only in my way, seeing
+that I should be obliged to be thinking of you when all my wits would be
+wanting for myself. No, no; upon no account is it reasonable that you
+should be along. It is your business to sarve as a body-guard to our
+young lady, who, I say, may God bless and take care of in this world and
+the next! And so, Mister Henry, you have my orders to stick to your
+post."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sergeant," replied Henry, "I must obey orders, and if you command
+me to stay behind, why I cannot choose about it. But, sergeant, let me
+give you a word of advice. Ride cautiously&mdash;keep your eyes to the right
+and left, as well as straight before you&mdash;and don't let them catch you
+napping."</p>
+
+<p>"You studied that speech, Mr. Henry!" said Horse Shoe, laughing. "To
+hear you, one mought almost think you had shaved a beard from your chin
+before this. Look out, or your hair will turn grey from too hard
+thinking! and now, my long-headed fellow-soldier, good bye t'ye!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going without your rifle, Mr. Horse Shoe?" said Henry,
+calling out to the sergeant, who had already trotted off some twenty
+paces.</p>
+
+<p>"That's another consarn for you to ruminate over," replied Horse Shoe,
+in the same jocular mood. "Mine is a business of legs, not arms,
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant was immediately after this upon the highway, moving forward
+with nothing, seemingly, to employ him but cheerful thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>After riding for an hour upon the road that led towards Camden, he was
+enabled to collect from the country people a rumor that some detachments
+of horse were, at this time, traversing the country towards Pedee, but
+whether friends or enemies was not known to his informants. In following
+up this trail of common report, his vigilance quickened by the
+uncertainty of the tidings, he arrived about mid-day at a brook which,
+running between low but sharp hills, was crossed by the road at a point
+where a bold mass of rock, some twenty feet in height, jutted down with
+a perpendicular abruptness into the water. Here, as he stopped to survey
+the narrow and winding course of the stream, his eye was attracted by
+the projecting crag that thrust its bulk almost into the middle of the
+channel; and, for a moment, he indulged the speculation of a soldier, as
+he pondered upon the military advantages of such a post, either as a
+point from which to reconnoitre an enemy, or as a vantage-ground on
+which to dispute his passage of the ford. It not long afterwards fell to
+his lot to turn this observation to some account.</p>
+
+<p>A mile beyond this spot, and where the road, as it yet crept through the
+bosom of the hills, was so obscured by forest as to afford not more than
+fifty paces of uninterrupted view, his quick ear was struck with sounds
+resembling the tramp of horses. Upon this conviction, it was but the
+action of an instant for him to turn aside into the woods and to take a
+station which might enable him to investigate the cause of his surmise,
+without exposing himself to the risk of detection. The noise grew
+louder, and what was vague conjecture soon became the certain report of
+his senses. At the nearest turn in the road, whilst protected by a
+screen of thicket, he could descry the leading platoons of a column of
+horse advancing at a slow gait; and upon examining his own position he
+became aware that, although the thicket might guard him from present
+observation, it would cease to do so as soon as the squadron should
+approach nearer to his ground. His thoughts recurred to the rock at the
+ford, and, with a view to avail himself of it, he forthwith commenced
+his retreat through the underwood that guarded the road side, as fast as
+Captain Peter could get over the ground. It was not long before he was
+removed beyond all risk of being seen by the advancing party, and he
+thus found himself at liberty to take the road again and retire without
+apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>In Horse Shoe's reckoning, it was a matter of great importance that he
+should obtain the most accurate information regarding the troop that he
+had just encountered; and his present purpose was, accordingly, to post
+himself in a secure position upon the rock and there maintain a close
+watch upon the party as they rode beneath it. The brook was gained, the
+ford passed, and the sergeant, after riding a short circuit towards the
+rear of the little promontory, dismounted from his horse, which he
+secured in the depths of the wood, and then clambered to the top of the
+precipice, where he had barely time to conceal himself amongst the crags
+and the thick shrubbery that shot up above them, before the headmost
+files of the cavalry appeared descending the opposite hill.</p>
+
+<p>As the column came gradually into his view upon the road which wound
+down into the valley, it disclosed a troop of some twenty men, whose
+green uniform sufficiently indicated the presence of a part of
+Tarleton's command. He heard them call a halt upon the bank, and after a
+few moments' rest, he saw them ride into the stream, and pass in files
+around the base of the rock.</p>
+
+<p>The passage of the brook occupied some time; for the thirsty horses were
+successively given a slack rein as they entered the ford, and were
+allowed to drink. This delay separated the platoons, and those who first
+passed over had advanced a considerable distance before the stragglers
+of the rear had quitted the stream. For some minutes that stir and noise
+prevailed which, in a military party, generally attends the attempt to
+restore order amongst confused or broken ranks. The frequent commands of
+officers summoning the loiterers and chiding their delay, were given
+from front to rear in loud tones, and the swift gallop of those who had
+lingered in the stream, as they obeyed the order and hastened forward to
+their places, sent forth a quick and spirited evidence of bustle, that
+broke sharply upon the silence of the surrounding forest. These
+indications of activity unfortunately pricked with a sudden astonishment
+the ear of one who has heretofore figured, not without renown, in this
+history&mdash;the lusty and faithful Captain Peter; who, not sufficiently
+alive to the distinction between friend and foe, now began to snuff, and
+paw the ground, and then with a long and clear note of recognition, to
+express his feelings of good fellowship towards the unseen strangers.
+Another moment, and the gay and thoughtless steed reared, plunged broke
+his bridle, and bounded through the woods, with a frolicsome speed that
+brought him into the midst of the troop, where he wheeled up and took
+his place, like a disciplined charger, on the flank of one of the
+platoons.</p>
+
+<p>This incident caused the officer in command of the party to come again
+to a halt, and to despatch a portion of his men to seek the owner of the
+horse. An eager search commenced, which was almost immediately
+terminated by the wary sergeant presenting himself to the view of the
+troop, on a prominent and exposed point of the rock, where he seemed to
+be busily and unconcernedly engaged with his jack-knife, in stripping
+the bark from the roots of a sassafras tree that grew out of one of the
+fissures of the cliff. Apparently, he gave no attention to the clamor
+around him, nor seemed to show a wish to conceal himself from notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Who in the devil are you&mdash;and what are you about?" exclaimed the
+leading soldier, as he mounted the rock and came up immediately behind
+Robinson, who was still fixed with one knee upon the ground, plying his
+labor at the root of the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, friend," said Robinson, looking up over his shoulder, "Good
+day! From your looks you belong to the army, and, if that's true,
+perhaps you mought be able to tell me how far it is from here to the
+river?"</p>
+
+<p>"Get up on your feet," said the other, "and follow me quickly! I will
+take you to one who will oil the joints of your tongue for you, and put
+you to studying your catechism. Quick, fellow, move your heavy carcass,
+or, I promise you, I will prick your fat sides with my sword point."</p>
+
+<p>"Anywhere you wish, sir, if you will only give me time to gather up this
+here bark," said the sergeant, who, hereupon, heedless of the
+objurgation of the trooper, deliberately untied the handkerchief from
+his neck, and spreading it out upon the ground, threw into it the pieces
+of bark he had been cutting, and then, taking it in his hand, rose and
+walked after the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>He was conducted to the troop, who were waiting in the road the return
+of the men that had been despatched on this piece of service.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, quick, move yourselves! we have no time to lose," cried out the
+officer in command of the detachment, as Horse Shoe and his guide came
+in view: and then, after an interval of silence, during which the
+sergeant walked heavily to the spot where the troop waited for him, he
+added with an impatient abruptness, "Make few words of it, sir. Your
+name, where from, and where are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name, captain&mdash;if your honor is a captain, and if I miscall you, I
+ax your honor's pardon: my name is&mdash;is&mdash;Stephen Foster, Steve most
+commonly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, whence do you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Virginny."</p>
+
+<p>"Fool! why do you stop?"</p>
+
+<p>"You axed, I think, where I was going? I was going to get on my horse
+that's broke his bridle, which I see you have cotched for me: and then
+back to my young mistress, sir, that was taken sick over here at a
+gentlewoman's house on Pedee. She thought a little sassafras tea might
+help her along, and I was sent out to try and get a few scrapings of the
+bark to take to her. I suppose I must have rode out of my way a matter
+of some eight or ten miles to find it, though I told her that I thought
+a little balm out of the garden would have done just as well. But women
+are women, sir, and a sick woman in particular."</p>
+
+<p>"This fellow is more knave than fool, I take it, cornet," said the
+officer to a companion near him.</p>
+
+<p>"His horse seems to have been trained to other duties than gathering
+herbs for ladies of delicate stomachs," replied the other.</p>
+
+<p>"My horse," interrupted the sergeant, "would have broken clean off if it
+hadn't a been for your honor: they say he belonged to a muster in
+Verginny, and I was warned that he was apt to get rampagious when there
+was anything like a set of sodgers nigh him, and that is about the
+reason, I expect, why he took it into his head to fall into your
+company."</p>
+
+<p>"Get on your beast," said the officer impatiently, "you must go with us.
+If upon further acquaintance I form a better opinion of you, you may go
+about your business."</p>
+
+<p>"I am somewhat in a hurry to get back to the lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence! Mount your horse, fall to the rear. Gilbert, attend to this
+fellow, he musn't leave us," said the officer, as he delivered Horse
+Shoe into the charge of one of the leaders of a platoon, and then put
+spurs to his steed and moved to the head of the column.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the afternoon when this incident occurred; and Robinson found
+himself, during the remainder of the day, compelled to follow the troop
+through a series of by-ways across the country, in a direction of which
+he was wholly ignorant,&mdash;being also in the same degree unacquainted with
+the object of the march. When the day closed they arrived at a
+farm-house, where it seemed to be their purpose to pass the night; and
+here the sergeant, towards whom no unnecessary rigor had been exercised,
+was freely allowed to participate in the cheer provided for the party.
+This rest was of short duration; for, before the coming of the allotted
+bed-hour, a courier arrived, bringing a despatch to the leader of the
+detachment, which produced an instant order to saddle and resume the
+march.</p>
+
+<p>Once more upon the road, the sergeant became aware, as well as he was
+able to determine in the dark, that the party during the night were
+retracing their steps, and returning upon the same route which they had
+before travelled.</p>
+
+<p>A half hour before the dawn found the troop ascending a long hill, the
+summit of which, as Robinson perceived from the rustling of the blades
+in the morning wind, was covered by a field of standing corn; and he was
+enabled to descry, moving athwart the starlit sky, the figures of men on
+horseback approaching the column. The customary challenge was given; a
+momentary halt ensued, and he could hear the patrole&mdash;for such they
+described themselves,&mdash;informing the officer of the detachment that
+Colonel Tarleton was close at hand expecting their arrival. This
+intelligence induced an increase of speed which, after a short interval,
+brought the night-worn squadron into the presence of nearly a whole
+regiment of cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>The troops, thus encountered, were stationed upon the high-road where it
+crossed an open and uncultivated plain, the nearer extremity of which
+was bordered by the cornfield of which I have spoken. It was apparent
+that the regiment had passed the night at this place, as a number of
+horses were yet attached to the fence that guarded the field, and were
+feeding on the blades of corn that had been gathered and thrown before
+them. The greater part, however, were now drawn up in column of march,
+as if but recently arrayed to prepare for the toil of the coming day.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson was conducted along the flank of the column, and thence to a
+spot in the neighborhood, where a party of officers assembled by a
+sylvan tent, constructed of the boughs of trees, showed him that he was
+at the head-quarters of the commander of the corps. This tent was
+pitched upon a piece of high ground that afforded a view of the distant
+horizon in the east, where a faint streak of daylight lay like the
+traces of a far-off town in flames, against which the forms of men and
+horses were relieved, in bold profile, as they now moved about in the
+early preparations for their march.</p>
+
+<p>A single faggot gleamed within the tent, and, by its ray, Horse Shoe was
+enabled to discern the well known figure of Tarleton, as he conferred
+with a company of officers around him. After the sergeant had waited a
+few moments, he was ordered into the presence of the group within:</p>
+
+<p>"You were found yesterday," said Tarleton, "in suspicious
+circumstances&mdash;what is your name, fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am called Stephen Foster by name," replied the sergeant, "being a
+stranger in these parts. At home I'm a kind of a gardener to a gentleman
+in Virginia; and it isn't long since I set out with his daughter to come
+here into Carolina. She fell sick by the way, and yesterday, whilst I
+was hunting up a little physic for her in the woods, a gang of your
+people came across me and fotch me here&mdash;and that's about all that I
+have got to say."</p>
+
+<p>A series of questions followed, by which the sergeant was compelled to
+give some further account of himself, which he contrived to do with an
+address that left his questioners but little the wiser as to his real
+character; and which strongly impressed them with the conviction that
+the man they had to deal with was but a simple and rude clown.</p>
+
+<p>"You say you don't know the name of the person at whose house you
+stopped?" inquired the commander.</p>
+
+<p>"I disremember," replied Horse Shoe; "being, as I said, a stranger in
+the parts, and not liking to make too free with axing after people's
+names."</p>
+
+<p>"A precious lout, this, you have brought me, Lieutenant Munroe," said
+Tarleton, addressing the officer who had hitherto had the custody of the
+sergeant. "You don't <i>disremember</i> the part of Virginia you lived in?"
+he added, pursuing his examination.</p>
+
+<p>"They have given it the name of Amherst," replied Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"And the father of Miss Lindsay, you say, resided there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sartainly, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a gentleman of that name somewhere in Virginia," said
+Tarleton, apart to one of his attendants, "and known as a friend to our
+cause, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of the family," replied the person addressed.</p>
+
+<p>"What has brought the lady to Carolina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Consarning some business of a friend, as I have been told," answered
+Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a strange errand for such a time, and a marvellous shrewd
+conductor she has chosen! I can make nothing out of this fellow. You
+might have saved yourself the trouble of taking charge of such a clod,
+lieutenant."</p>
+
+<p>"My orders," replied the lieutenant, "were to arrest all suspicious
+persons; and I had two reasons to suspect this man. First, he was found
+upon a spot that couldn't have been better chosen for a look-out if he
+had been sent to reconnoitre us; and second, his horse showed some
+military training."</p>
+
+<p>"But the booby himself was stupid enough," rejoined the commander, "to
+carry his passport in his face."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a paper, sir, to that purpose," said Horse Shoe, putting his
+hands into his pockets, "it signifies, I was told,&mdash;for I can't read of
+my own accord&mdash;that I mought pass free without molestification from the
+sodgers of the king&mdash;this is it, I believe, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>To three suppers at the Rising Sun, four and six pence</i>," said
+Tarleton, reading. "Tush, this is a tavern bill!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, so it is," exclaimed Robinson. "Well, I have been keeping that
+there paper for a week past, thinking it was my certificate&mdash;and, like a
+fool, I have gone and tore up the t'other."</p>
+
+<p>"We are wasting time, gentlemen," said the commander. "Turn this fellow
+loose, and let him go his ways. But hark you, did you hear of a fight
+lately on Pedee, between some of our people and Marion&mdash;three days ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"They talked of such a thing on the river," replied Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what was said?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing in particular that I can bear in mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Like all the rest we have tried to get out of him! You don't even know
+which party got the better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I have hearn that, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you hear? speak out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I give you the circumlocutory account of the matter?" asked Horse
+Shoe, "or did you wish me to go into the particulars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any account, so that it be short."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I have hearn that Marion gave the t'other side a bit of a
+beating."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, aye, so I suppose! Another tale of this Jack the Giant Killer! And
+what has become of Marion?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's onbeknownst to me," replied Horse Shoe.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember the fool we met at the Waxhaws last May?" asked one of
+the officers present, of another. "This fellow might pass for a full
+brother in blood&mdash;only I think this clown has the less wit of the two."</p>
+
+<p>"As heavy a lump, certainly," replied the officer. "This, you say, is
+the first time you have been in Carolina?"</p>
+
+<p>"To my knowledge," replied the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"It is broad day, gentlemen," said Tarleton; "we have been squandering
+precious time upon an empty simpleton. Give him his beast and let him be
+gone. Sirrah, you are free to depart. But, look you, if I hear any
+reports along the road of your having seen me, or a word about my
+coming, I'll ferret you out and have you trussed upon a stake twenty
+feet long."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank your honor," said Horse Shoe, as he left the tent. "I never
+troubles my head with things out of my line."</p>
+
+<p>Then seeking his horse he leisurely rode back by the way he had come;
+and as soon as he found himself beyond the outposts of the corps, he
+urged Captain Peter to as much speed as the late arduous duties of the
+good beast left him power to exert.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR NOT UNFAMILIAR TO THE TIME.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Breakfast was just over when Robinson was seen, from the windows of Mrs.
+Markham's parlor, pricking along the avenue that conducted to the front
+of the mansion; and when he drew up his horse at the door, the family
+were already assembled there to greet him. The plight, both of himself
+and of his steed, was such as to tell the best part of his story&mdash;they
+had travelled far and seen rough service. The rest was supplied by the
+sergeant himself, who, before he moved from the spot where he had
+dismounted, gave a narrative of his adventures, which was listened to
+with great anxiety by the household.</p>
+
+<p>By the sergeant's reckoning, Mrs. Markham's residence could not be more
+than twenty miles from the place where, at daybreak, he had encountered
+the British partisan, whom he had left with a full conviction that the
+expedition then on foot was to be directed against the country lying
+upon the river. These tidings spread consternation throughout the
+mansion, and the morning was passed in all the confusion which such an
+alarm might be supposed to produce. The fright of the females rendered
+them irresolute, and incapable of attending to the most obvious
+precautions necessary to meet the emergency.</p>
+
+<p>In this conjuncture, Robinson felt himself bound to assume the direction
+of affairs. At his suggestion, the plate and such other valuables as
+were likely to attract the cupidity of a licentious soldiery, were
+secreted in hiding-places sufficiently secure to defy a hasty search.
+The family was advised to assume the appearance of as much composure as
+they could command; and the last and most emphatic injunction of the
+sergeant was, to provide an ample and various repast, in the hope that
+the ill-will of the visitants might be conciliated by the display of
+good cheer. All this was accordingly put into a train of
+accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these precautions, the fears of the inhabitants of the
+mansion were but too truly realized. It was scarcely noon when the long
+column of Tarleton's cavalry was descried descending the high hills that
+lay in the distance, and, soon afterwards, taking the road that led into
+the plantation.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst the panic produced by this sight was still fresh the sound of
+bugles and trumpets showed that the invaders had already turned their
+steps towards the dwelling, and the next view disclosed them deploying
+from a wood and advancing at a full trot. The quick beat of hoofs upon
+the soil, and the jangling sounds of sabres shaken against the flanks of
+the horses, struck upon the terrified ear of the proprietress of the
+estate like the harsh portents of impending ruin; and in the despair and
+agony of her distress, she retreated hastily to her chamber, whither she
+summoned her female domestics, and gave way to a flood of tears. She was
+followed by Mildred, who, touched by the pervading disquiet of the
+family, participated in the alarm, and found herself overcome by a
+terror which she had never before experienced in all the scenes which
+she had lately gone through. Obeying the instinct of her present fears,
+our heroine cowered beside her weeping friend, in the midst of the group
+of clamorous servants, and awaited in mute solicitude the coming events.</p>
+
+<p>The cavalry had turned aside and halted in front of a barn some distance
+from the dwelling-house, and a small party, consisting principally of
+officers attended by a sergeant's guard, were immediately afterwards
+seen galloping up to the door. The air of exultation exhibited in their
+movement, their loud jocularity and frequent laughter, resembled the
+burst of gladsome riot with which a party of fox-hunters are wont to
+announce the first springing of their game, and gave evidence of the
+feelings of men who set little account upon the annoyance they
+threatened to a peaceful and unoffending household.</p>
+
+<p>When the officers of the party had dismounted and entered the hall, the
+first person they encountered was Sergeant Robinson, who had
+thoughtfully posted himself in view of the door; and now, with some
+awkward and ungainly bows and scraping of his feet across the floor,
+bade them welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"What," said Tarleton, who was at the head of the intruders, "have we
+stumbled so soon again upon our shrewd and sensible ox! Wise Master
+Stephen Foster, well met! So you are the gentleman-usher to your good
+friend, Mrs. Markham! By my faith, the old lady is likely to have the
+honors of her house well administered!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your sarvant, sir," said Horse Shoe, again bowing and scraping his foot
+with a look of imperturbable gravity. "Mought I ax your honor to stomp
+as lightly upon the floor as you can? My young lady is sick up
+stairs&mdash;and much noise is apt to flurry her narves."</p>
+
+<p>"Tread daintily, gentlemen," said Tarleton, laughing, "for your
+gallantry's sake! A lady's nerves are as delicate as the strings of a
+harp, and must not be rudely struck. The damsel's page here (pointing to
+Horse Shoe), puts down his foot like a most considerate elephant&mdash;soft
+as a feather, you perceive; and I would by no means have you give so
+worshipful a master of courtesy cause to complain of you. As your
+wisdom," he added, again addressing the sergeant, "has found out, by
+this time, that you are in the house of Mrs. Markham, although you
+<i>disremembered</i> that this morning, I suppose you can tell whether she is
+at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can answer you that she is at home, sir&mdash;that is, onless she has went
+out sence I saw her, which is not likely, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, present her Colonel Tarleton's respects, and say that he has come
+to offer his duty to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose by that, you are wishing to see the lady," replied the
+sergeant; "I'll let her know, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson retired for a few moments, and when he returned he announced to
+the commander that Mrs Markham was not willing to come from her chamber.
+"But whatsomever your honor pleases to ax after, the lady promises you
+shall have," continued the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's a condescension!&mdash;a good, comfortable lady! So, gentlemen,
+you see we are in luck; a broad roof over head&mdash;a larder well stored, I
+hope&mdash;and a cellar not altogether empty, I think I may undertake to
+promise. Where are your waiting-men, my nimble Ganymede? You are a
+sluggish oaf, fellow, not to see that soldiers must have drink!"</p>
+
+<p>Alfred and Henry now entered the hall, and the former approaching
+Tarleton, said, with a firm but respectful tone:</p>
+
+<p>"My mother has before been visited by British troops, and she had so
+little then to thank them for, except their departure, that the fear of
+meeting them again has greatly alarmed her. Our family, sir, has no
+older man in it than myself&mdash;and out of regard to helpless women&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough, my pert lad," interrupted Tarleton; "I have heard of
+your good mother before; she is somewhat over ready in her zeal in
+behalf of Marion's ragamuffins: and truly I think she is more squeamish
+than she should be at the sight of a soldier, when she could look upon
+such hang-gallows knaves without shuddering. You have another man in
+your house, I see (directing his eye towards Henry Lindsay, who had
+seated himself in the hall)&mdash;and full as old, I take it, as yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I were a man of full age," said Henry, looking fearlessly at the
+British officer, and remaining fixed in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Why so, my gay sparrow-hawk?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would have disputed with you your right to enter this door."</p>
+
+<p>"These young cocks are all trained to show their game," said the Colonel
+to one of his companions. "Well, you are a fine fellow, and I should be
+happy to be better acquainted with you. A little too stiff, perhaps: but
+you will learn better as you grow older. You should thank me for making
+holiday in your school to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Here Robinson interposed before Henry could make the saucy reply he
+meditated, by announcing that the company would find some cool water and
+a supply of spirits in the adjoining room. "Besides," he added, "I have
+told the house-folks to make ready somewhat in the way of victuals, as I
+judged you mought be a little hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"Not badly thought of, Mr. Ajax!" said one of the officers, as the party
+now crowded into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget Stephen Foster," whispered Robinson, by way of admonition
+in regard to his assumed character, as he passed by the chair where
+Henry was sitting. "And keep a civil tongue in your head."</p>
+
+<p>Henry nodded compliance, and then, with Alfred, left the hall, whilst
+the sergeant repaired to the refreshment room to offer his officious
+attentions to the quests.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the ladies still kept to their chamber, ever and anon gazing
+out at the window with a solicitous and unhappy interest, and
+occasionally receiving the highly-colored reports of the servants, who,
+as often as any new subject of wonder or fear occurred to them, were
+plying backwards and forwards between the apartment and the head of the
+stair-case.</p>
+
+<p>After an interval of half an hour, during which the uncouth din of
+laughter, of loud oaths, and of the careless swaggering of the party
+below, rose with a harsh note to the ear of the hostess and her
+companion, these sounds abruptly ceased, and it was evident that the
+visitors had quitted the house. It was with an emotion of delight that
+Mrs. Markham, from the window, beheld Colonel Tarleton and his comrades
+galloping towards the main body of his troops that awaited him near the
+barn; but, on repairing to the hall, this sudden gleam of satisfaction
+was as suddenly clouded, when the matron perceived a sentinel posted at
+the front door. As soon as she came within speech of this functionary,
+he threw up his hand to his brow, as he said: "The colonel commanded me
+to make his compliments to the ladies, and asks the honor of their
+company at dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Tarleton forgets himself," said Mrs. Markham, with a stately
+reserve that showed she had now dismissed her fears; "a brave soldier
+would hardly think it a triumph to insult unprotected females."</p>
+
+<p>"He is here to speak for himself, madam," replied the sentinel, as
+Tarleton at this moment returned to the door.</p>
+
+<p>The lady of the house, thus taken by surprise, firmly stood her ground,
+and awaited in silence the accost of the officer. Tarleton was somewhat
+disconcerted by this unexpected encounter. He had entered with a hurried
+step, but the moment he was aware of the presence of the dame, he halted
+and removed his cap from his head, as he made a low obeisance.</p>
+
+<p>"I am too happy, madam," he said, "in the persuasion that you have
+overcome your unnecessary alarm at this visit; and feel pleased to be
+afforded an opportunity of making my respects in person."</p>
+
+<p>"I can conceive no sufficient reason, Colonel Tarleton, why a
+defenceless house like mine should provoke the visit of such a host of
+armed men."</p>
+
+<p>"Your house, madam, has some fame upon this border for good
+entertainment. It fell in my way, and you will excuse me for the freedom
+of saying, that I boast myself too much of a cavalier to pass it by
+unmarked by some token of my regard. Besides, I may add without meaning
+to be rude, our necessities in the article of forage, madam, are quite
+as great as General Marion's, who, I understand, does not scruple
+sometimes to take his contribution from you."</p>
+
+<p>"I should more readily excuse your visit," replied the lady, "if you
+would time it when General Marion was levying his contribution. You
+might then adjust your right to the share you claim. This house is
+yours, sir; and it is not fit that I should remain to debate with you
+your claim to dispose of whatever you may find in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what a musty and wrinkled piece of insolence is here!" muttered
+the angry soldier, clenching his teeth under this rebuke as the matron
+withdrew. "Well, let the crones rail and the maidens weep their fill!
+the border is mine, and merrily will I hold it, and blithely will I
+light up the river, too, before I leave it! Curse on these free-spoken
+women! Who says they are defenceless with that supple weapon that God
+has given them? What ho, you bag of chaff&mdash;booby&mdash;Foster&mdash;I say! Look
+you; have you all the provisions in the house set out upon the
+tables&mdash;and don't spare your peach brandy, which we have already
+tasted&mdash;you have more of it. So let us have the best; I shall feast with
+a good will to-day, and I will do it plentifully, or your ears shall be
+cropped."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything in the kitchen, sir, is going on at a gallop," said Horse
+Shoe; "and as for the drinkables, your honor shall command the house to
+the last jug."</p>
+
+<p>"Then bestir yourself, for I am in no mood to tarry."</p>
+
+<p>In a brief lapse of time an abundant board was spread, and the leaders
+of the corps, consisting of some twenty or thirty officers of all ranks,
+were gathered around it. A scene of uproar succeeded that resounded to
+the roof with the unfeeling and licentious mirth of those engaged in the
+carouse.</p>
+
+<p>When they had eaten and drunk their fill, the greater portion of the
+guests were assembled at the front door. From this position there was
+to be seen, at no great distance, a small inclosure of not above ten
+feet square, constructed with a dark paling, above which a venerable
+willow drooped its branches. Towards this inclosure some five or six of
+the revellers repaired, to gratify an idle and, at present, a maudlin
+curiosity. When they arrived here, they leaned across the paling to read
+the inscription upon a stone that seemed but recently to have been
+placed there. It was a simple memorial of the death of Colonel Markham,
+of the Carolina militia, which was recorded to have taken place but
+eighteen months before on the Savannah river in an engagement with the
+troops under General Prevost. To this was added, in the spirit of the
+times and in accordance with the sentiments of the Whig leaders in the
+war of independence, a bitter expression of censure upon the barbarous
+disposition of the enemy, couched in homely but earnest phrase, and
+speaking the hate of the survivors in the same sentence that commended
+the virtues of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>It was an unpropitious moment for such a tablet to meet the eye of those
+who gazed upon it; and when it was read aloud by the captain of a troop,
+whose natural temper, rendered savage by the rudeness of the war, was
+also at this moment exasperated almost to intoxication by the freedom of
+the table, he vented his curses in loud and coarse rage against the
+memory of him to whom the stone was dedicated. This fire of passion
+spread through the group around the tomb, and each man responded to the
+first execration by others still deeper and more fierce. Proclaiming the
+inscription to be an insult, they made an attack upon the paling, which
+was instantly demolished, and, seizing upon the largest stones at hand,
+they assailed the tablet with such effect as soon to break it in pieces;
+and then, with a useless malice, applied themselves to obliterating the
+inscription upon the fragments. Whilst engrossed with the perpetration
+of this sacrilege, their attention was suddenly aroused by the near
+report of a pistol, the ball of which, it was discovered, had struck
+into the trunk of the willow.</p>
+
+<p>"I will kill some of the scoundrels, if I die for it!" was the
+exclamation heard immediately after the shot, and Alfred Markham was
+seen struggling with an officer who had seized him. The young man had
+been observed and followed, as he madly rushed from a wing of the
+mansion towards the burial-place, and arrested at the moment that he
+was levelling a second pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"Henry, shoot him down!" he screamed to his companion, who was now
+approaching armed with his carbine.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go, sir! I will not see my father's tomb disturbed by ruffians."</p>
+
+<p>"Loose your hands!" cried Henry, directing his passionate defiance to
+the individual who wrestled with Alfred, "loose your hands, I say, or I
+will fire upon you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fire at the drunken villains around my father's grave!" shouted Alfred.</p>
+
+<p>"They shall have it," returned Henry, eagerly, "if it is the last shot I
+ever make." And with these words the youth levelled his piece at the
+same group which had before escaped Alfred's aim, but, luckily, the
+carbine snapped and missed fire. In the next instant Horse Shoe's broad
+hand was laid upon Henry's shoulder, as he exclaimed, "Why, Master
+Henry, have you lost your wits? Do you want to bring perdition and
+combustion both, down upon the heads of the whole house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Galbraith Robinson, stand back!" ejaculated Henry. "I am not in the
+humor to be baulked."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush&mdash;for God's sake, hush!&mdash;foolish boy," returned Robinson with real
+anger. "You are as fierce as a young panther&mdash;I am ashamed of you!"</p>
+
+<p>By this time the whole company were assembled around the two young men,
+and the violent outbreak of wrath from those at whom the shot was aimed,
+as well as from others present, rose to a pitch which the authority of
+Tarleton in vain sought to control. Already, in this paroxysm of rage,
+one of the party, whose motions had escaped notice in the confusion of
+the scene, had hurried to the kitchen fire, where he had snatched up a
+burning brand, and hurled it into the midst of some combustibles in a
+narrow apartment on the ground floor.</p>
+
+<p>The clamor had drawn Mrs. Markham and Mildred to the chamber window, and
+whilst they looked down with a frightened gaze upon the confused scene
+below, it was some moments before they became aware of the participation
+of Henry and Alfred in this sudden and angry broil. Mildred was the
+first to discern the two young men as they were dragged violently
+across the open space in front of the mansion by the crowd, and to hear
+the threats with which this movement was accompanied.</p>
+
+<p>"Merciful Heaven!" she exclaimed, "they have laid hands upon Henry and
+Alfred&mdash;they will kill my brother, my dear brother!" Almost frantic at
+the danger that threatened Henry and his companion, she fled
+precipitately down the stair-case, and in a moment stood confronted with
+Colonel Tarleton and his soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear, sister," cried out Henry, who was already brought into the
+hall, as he saw Mildred descending the stairs. "Don't be alarmed for
+either Alfred or me. We are ready to confess what we did and why we did
+it&mdash;and Colonel Tarleton, if he is a true man, will not dare to say we
+did wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"I charge you, Colonel Tarleton," said Mildred with a firm but excited
+voice, "as the soldier of a Christian nation, to save the people of this
+house from an inhuman and most wicked outrage. I implore you as an
+officer who would be esteemed valiant&mdash;and as a gentleman who would fly
+from dishonor&mdash;to rescue your name from the disgrace of this barbarous
+violence. For the sake of mercy&mdash;spare us&mdash;spare us!"</p>
+
+<p>As she uttered this last ejaculation her spirit yielded to the vehemence
+of her feelings, and she flung herself upon her knee at the feet of the
+commander. "Oh, sir, do not let harm fall upon my brother. I know not
+what he has done, but he is thoughtless and rash."</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred," said Henry, immediately rushing to his sister, and lifting
+her from the floor, "why should you kneel before him, or any man here?
+This is no place for you&mdash;get back to your room." Then turning to
+Tarleton, he continued, "Alfred Markham and I tried to shoot down your
+men, because we saw them breaking the tomb. If it was to do over again
+our hands are ready."</p>
+
+<p>"They have insulted the memory of my father," exclaimed Alfred,
+"trampled upon his grave, and broken the stone that covers him&mdash;I aimed
+to kill the drunken coward who did it. That I say, sir, to your face."</p>
+
+<p>Tarleton, for a space, seemed to be bewildered by the scene. He looked
+around him, as if hesitating what course to pursue, and once or twice
+made an effort to obtain silence in the hall; but the tumult of many
+voices in angry contention still continued. At last he presented his
+hand to Mildred, and with a courteous action conducted her to a chair,
+then begged her to calm her fears, as he promised her that no evil
+should befal either of the young men whose indiscreet tempers had
+occasioned the present uproar.</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name! have they fired the dwelling?" he exclaimed, as at this
+moment a volume of smoke rolled into the hall. "What ho, there! O'Neal,
+McPherson. Look where this smoke comes from, and instantly extinguish
+the fire! Stir yourselves, gentlemen. By my hilt, if any follower of
+mine has been so wild as to put a torch to this house, I will hang him
+up to the ridge-pole of the roof! Look to it&mdash;every man! Quick,
+quick&mdash;there is danger that the flames may get ahead."</p>
+
+<p>In an instant nearly every soldier in the hall departed in obedience to
+this order.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg, madam," Tarleton continued, "that you will dismiss your alarm,
+and rest upon my pledge that no inmate of this house shall be harmed. I
+conjecture that I have the honor to speak to Miss Lindsay&mdash;I have been
+informed that that lady has lately found shelter under this roof."</p>
+
+<p>"It is my name, sir&mdash;and as the daughter of a friend to your quarrel,
+let me conjure you to see that this house is safe; I cannot speak with
+you until I am assured of that."</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture, Mrs. Markham was observed at the head of the first
+flight of stairs, pale with affright, wringing her hands, and uttering
+loud ejaculations of terror and grief as she made her way down to the
+hall:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," she said, as she approached the commander, "we are harmless
+women, and have done nothing to call down this vengeance upon us. Take
+what you will&mdash;but spare my roof and save my family! God will reward you
+even for that act of humanity to a desolate widow."</p>
+
+<p>Before Tarleton could reply to the matron, a party of officers came
+hastily into his presence, at the head of whom was Captain O'Neal, who
+reported that the fire was extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the mess, to-day," he said, "heated with drink and roused by the
+foolish temper of these hot-headed boys, threw a blazing billet into a
+closet. Luckily, we reached the spot before any great harm was done. The
+chaps should be switched, and taught better manners. It was a silly
+affair and might have made mischief."</p>
+
+<p>"See that the offender be arrested," replied Tarleton, "I will take
+measures to curb this license. These meddling youngsters, too&mdash;however,
+I can't blame them, they had provocation, I confess&mdash;and this war gives
+an edge to all the metal of the country. Instead of pop-guns now every
+baby has his powder and ball&mdash;dismiss the boys. To your post, captain,
+and order every man to join his company. Now, madam," he added in a tone
+of conciliation to Mrs. Markham, as soon as the hall was cleared, "I am
+sure you will not accuse me of incivility. My people have withdrawn&mdash;the
+fire is extinguished&mdash;these inconsiderate lads at liberty: have I
+answered your wish?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have won the gratitude of a mother," replied the dame, "and the
+respect of an enemy. I am bound to say to you, in return, that I
+cheerfully surrender to you whatever you may choose to take from my
+estate for the supply of your soldiers. Alfred, my son, give me your
+arm, and help me to my chamber&mdash;I am feeble and faint. I must ask your
+permission to withdraw," she continued, as she courtesied to Tarleton,
+and ascended the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"And I, too, must take my leave," said Tarleton. "But before I go I may
+claim the privilege of a word with Miss Lindsay. You spoke of your
+father, madam? and, especially, as a friend of our arms. I have been
+told he lives in Virginia, Philip Lindsay, the proprietor of a seat
+called 'The Dove Cote,' a royalist too&mdash;am I right?"</p>
+
+<p>"So, my father is known, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That name has stood you in stead to-day, madam. And this is your
+brother? I should think he is hardly of your father's mind in regard to
+our quarrel. This way, my thoughtless young gallant! It was a wild,
+bold, and very conceited thing of you to be challenging my unruly
+dragoons&mdash;and would have been no less so, if you had had twenty score of
+tall fellows at your back. But it is past now, and you need not
+apologize for it&mdash;it showed mettle at least, and we never quarrel with a
+man for that. May I inquire, Miss Lindsay, in what direction you
+travel? for I learn you are but a sojourner here. It may be in my power
+to insure your safe-conduct."</p>
+
+<p>"I seek your general, Lord Cornwallis, on matters of private concern,"
+replied Mildred, "and if I might venture to ask it of Colonel Tarleton,
+his service in affording me an unquestioned passage, would be a favor
+that I should gratefully acknowledge."</p>
+
+<p>"The obligation will be on my side, madam. It will be a pleasure to me
+to believe that I can serve a lady, much more the daughter of an
+honorable subject of the king. Permit me, without further parley, for
+time presses at this moment, to say that I will leave an escort behind
+me under the command of a trusty officer, who will wait your pleasure to
+conduct you, by the safest and easiest journey to head-quarters. Your
+commands, madam, shall in all respects regulate his motions. My
+communications with his lordship shall announce your coming. Now, Miss
+Lindsay, with my best wishes for your safety and success, I take my
+leave; and, as a parting request, I venture to hope you will do me the
+justice to say, that Tarleton is not such a graceless sinner as his
+enemies have sometimes been pleased to represent him."</p>
+
+<p>These last words were accompanied by a laugh, and a somewhat bluff
+courtesy, as the speaker swayed his rigid and ungainly figure into a
+succession of awkward bows by which he retreated to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be happy on all occasions," replied Mildred, whilst the soldier
+was thus strenuously playing off the graces of a gallant, "to do justice
+to the kindness which I have experienced at Colonel Tarleton's hands."</p>
+
+<p>"There, Mildred," said Henry, when Tarleton had disappeared, "you see
+things have gone very pat for us. That comes of letting these fellows
+see who they have to deal with. A little powder and ball is a good
+letter of recommendation to the best of their gang. If my carbine hadn't
+missed fire to-day, Tarleton would have been short by one bottle-holder,
+at least, when he set out to steal liquor from the country cupboards."</p>
+
+<p>"It has ended well, brother," replied Mildred, "but it does not become
+you to boast of what you have done. It was a rash and dangerous deed,
+and had nearly brought ruin upon this friendly family."</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, sister! you are only a woman. You wouldn't have found the colonel
+so civil if we hadn't taught him to look after his men."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MILDRED ARRIVES AT THE TERM OF HER JOURNEY.&mdash;&mdash;THE READER IS FAVORED
+WITH A GLIMPSE OF A DISTINGUISHED PERSONAGE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Cornwallis, after the battle of Camden, turned his thoughts to the
+diligent prosecution of his conquests. The invasion of North Carolina
+and Virginia was a purpose to which he had looked, from the commencement
+of this campaign, and he now, accordingly, made every preparation for
+the speedy advance of his army. The sickness of a portion of his troops
+and the want of supplies rendered some delay inevitable, and this
+interval was employed in more fully organizing the civil government of
+the conquered province, and in strengthening his frontier defences; by
+detaching considerable parties of men towards the mountains. The largest
+of these detachments was sent to reinforce Ferguson, to whom had been
+confided the operations upon the north-western border.</p>
+
+<p>The chronicles of the time inform us that the British general lay at
+Camden until the 8th of September, at which date he set forward towards
+North Carolina. His movement was slow and cautious, and for some time,
+his head-quarters were established at the Waxhaws, a position directly
+upon the border of the province about to be invaded. At this post our
+story now finds him, the period being somewhere about the commencement
+of the last quarter of the month.</p>
+
+<p>A melancholy train of circumstances had followed the fight at Camden,
+and had embittered the feelings of the contending parties against each
+other to an unusual degree of exasperation. The most prominent of these
+topics of anger was the unjust and severe construction which the British
+authorities had given to the obligations which were supposed to affect
+such of the inhabitants of South Carolina, as had, after the
+capitulation of Charleston, surrendered themselves as prisoners on
+parole, or received protections from the new government. A
+proclamation, issued by Sir Henry Clinton in June, annulled the paroles,
+and ordered all who had obtained them to render military service, as
+subjects of the king. This order, which the prisoners, as well as those
+who had obtained protections, held to be a dissolution of their contract
+with the new government, was disobeyed by a large number of the
+inhabitants, many of whom had, immediately after the proclamation,
+joined the American army.</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis permitted himself, on this occasion, to be swayed by
+sentiments unworthy of the character generally imputed to him. Many of
+the liberated inhabitants were found in the ranks of Gates at Camden,
+and several were made prisoners on the field. These latter, by the
+orders of the British general, were hung almost without the form of an
+inquiry: and it may well be supposed that in the heat of war and ferment
+of passion, such acts of rigor, defended on such light grounds, were met
+on the opposite side by a severe retribution.</p>
+
+<p>Almost every day, during the British commander's advance, some of the
+luckless citizens of the province whom this harsh construction of duty
+affected, were brought into the camp of the invaders, and the soldiery
+had grown horribly familiar with the frequent military executions that
+ensued.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the engrossment of the occupations and cares presented in this
+brief reference to the history of the time, that I have now to introduce
+my reader to Cornwallis.</p>
+
+<p>He had resolved to move forward on his campaign. Orders were issued to
+prepare for the march, and the general had announced his determination
+to review the troops before they broke ground. A beautiful, bright, and
+cool autumnal morning shone upon the wide plain, where an army of
+between two and three thousand men was drawn out in line. The tents of
+the recent encampment had already been struck, and a long array of
+baggage-wagons were now upon the high-road, slowly moving to a point
+assigned them in the route of the march. Cornwallis, attended by a score
+of officers, still occupied a small farm-house which had lately been his
+quarters. A number of saddle-horses in the charge of their grooms, and
+fully equipped for service, were to be seen in the neighborhood of the
+door; and the principal apartment of the house showed that some of the
+loiterers of the company were yet engaged in despatching the morning
+meal. The aides-de-camp were seen speeding between the army and the
+general, with that important and neck-endangering haste which
+characterizes the tribe of these functionaries; and almost momentarily a
+courier arrived, bearing some message of interest to the
+commander-in-chief.</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis himself sat in an inner room, busily engaged with one of his
+principal officers in inspecting some documents regarding the detail of
+his force. Apart from them, stood, with hat in hand and in humble
+silence, a young ensign of infantry.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name, sir?" said Cornwallis, as he threw aside the papers which he
+had been perusing, and now addressed himself to the young officer.</p>
+
+<p>"Ensign Talbot, of the thirty-third Foot," replied the young man: "I
+have come by the order of the adjutant-general to inform your lordship
+that I have just returned to my regiment, having lately been captured by
+the enemy while marching with the third convoy of the Camden prisoners
+to Charleston."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! you were of that party! What was the number of prisoners you had in
+charge?"</p>
+
+<p>"One hundred and fifty, so please your lordship."</p>
+
+<p>"They were captured"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"On Santee, by the rebels Marion and Horry," interrupted the ensign. "I
+have been in the custody of the rebels for a week, but contrived, a few
+days since, to make my escape."</p>
+
+<p>"Where found the rebels men to master you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even from the country through which we journeyed," replied the ensign.</p>
+
+<p>"The beggarly runagates! Who can blame us, Major M'Arthur," said the
+general, appealing to the officer by his side, with an interest that
+obviously spoke the contest in his own mind in regard to the justice of
+the daily executions which he had sanctioned: "who can blame us for
+hanging up these recreants for their violated faith, with such thick
+perfidy before our eyes? This Santee district, to a man, had given their
+paroles and taken my protection: and, now, the first chance they have to
+play me a trick, they are up and at work, attacking our feeble escorts
+that should, in their sickly state, have rather looked to them for aid.
+I will carry out the work; by my sword, it shall go on sternly. Enough,
+Ensign, back to your company," he said, bowing to the young officer, who
+at once left the room.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your lordship's pleasure regarding this Adam Cusack?" inquired
+M'Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, aye! I had well nigh forgotten that man. He was taken, I think, in
+the act of firing on a ferry-boat at Cheraw?"</p>
+
+<p>"The ball passed through the hat of my Lord Dunglas," said M'Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"The lurking hound! A liege subject turning truant to his duty; e'en let
+him bide the fate of his brethren."</p>
+
+<p>M'Arthur merely nodded his head, and Cornwallis, rising from his chair,
+strode a few paces backwards and forwards through the room. "I would
+tune my bosom to mercy," he said, at length, "and win these dog-headed
+rebels back to their duty to their king by kindness; but good-will and
+charity towards them fall upon their breasts like water on a heated
+stone, which is thrown back in hisses. No, no, that day is past, and
+they shall feel the rod. We walk in danger whilst we leave these
+serpents in the grass. Order the gentlemen to horse, Major M'Arthur; we
+must be stirring. Let this fellow, Cusack, be dealt with like the rest.
+Gentlemen," added the chief, as he appeared at the door amidst the group
+who awaited his coming, "to your several commands!"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Brodrick, the principal aide, at this moment arrested the
+preparations to depart, by placing in Cornwallis's hand a letter which
+had just been brought by a dragoon to head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>The general broke the seal, and, running his eye over the contents,
+said, as he handed the letter to the aide, "This is something out of the
+course of the campaign; a letter from a lady, now at the picquet-guard,
+and it seems she desires to speak with me. Who brought the billet,
+captain?"</p>
+
+<p>"This dragoon, one of a special escort from the legion. They have in
+charge a party of travellers, who have journeyed hither under Tarleton's
+own pledge of passport."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," replied Cornwallis, "mount and seek the party. Conduct them
+to me without delay. What toy is this that brings a lady to my camp?"</p>
+
+<p>The aide-de-camp mounted his horse, and galloped off with the dragoon.
+He was conducted far beyond the utmost limit of the line of soldiers,
+and at length arrived at a small outpost, where some fifty men were
+drawn up, under the command of an officer of the picquet-guard, which
+was about returning to join the main body of the army. Here he found
+Mildred and Henry Lindsay, and their two companions, Horse Shoe and old
+Isaac, attended by the small escort furnished by Tarleton. This party
+had been two days on the road from Mrs. Markham's, and had arrived the
+preceding night at a cottage in the neighborhood, where they had found
+tolerable quarters. They had advanced this morning, at an early hour, to
+the <i>corps de garde</i> of the picquet, where Mildred preferred remaining
+until Henry could despatch a note to Lord Cornwallis apprising him of
+their visit.</p>
+
+<p>When Captain Brodrick rode up, the travellers were already on horseback
+and prepared to move. The aide-de-camp respectfully saluted Miss Lindsay
+and her brother, and after a short parley with the officer of the
+escort, tendered his services to the strangers to conduct them to
+head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>"The general, madam," he said, "would have done himself the honor to
+wait on you, but presuming that you were already on your route to his
+quarters, where you might be better received than in the bivouac of an
+outpost, he is led to hope that he consults your wish and your comfort
+both, by inviting you to partake of such accommodation as he is able to
+afford you."</p>
+
+<p>"My mission would idly stand on ceremony, sir," replied Mildred. "I
+thank Lord Cornwallis for the promptness with which he has answered my
+brother's message."</p>
+
+<p>"We will follow you, sir," said Henry.</p>
+
+<p>The party now rode on.</p>
+
+<p>Their path lay along the skirts of the late encampment upon the border
+of an extensive plain, on the opposite side of which the army was drawn
+out; and it was with the exultation of a boy, that Henry, as they moved
+forward, looked upon the long line of troops glittering in the bright
+sunshine, and heard the drums rolling their spirited notes upon the air.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at a point where the road emerged from a narrow strip
+of forest, they could discern, at the distance of a few hundred paces,
+the quarters of the commander-in-chief. Immediately on the edge of this
+wood, a small party of soldiers attracted the attention of the visitors
+by the earnest interest with which they stood around a withered tree,
+and gazed aloft at its sapless and huge boughs. Before anything was
+said, Mildred had already ridden within a few feet of the circle, where
+turning her eyes upwards she saw the body of a man swung in the air by a
+cord attached to one of the widest-spreading branches. The unfortunate
+being was just struggling in the paroxysms of death, as his person was
+swayed backwards and forwards, with a slow motion, by the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, God! what a sight is here!" exclaimed the lady. "I cannot, will not
+go by this spot. Henry&mdash;brother&mdash;I cannot pass."</p>
+
+<p>The aide-de-camp checked his horse, and grasped her arm, before her
+brother could reach her, and Horse Shoe, at the same moment, sprang to
+the ground and seized her bridle.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think it but a decent point of war to keep such sights from
+women's eyes," said Robinson, somewhat angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, sirrah," returned the aide, "you are saucy. I trust, madam, you
+are not seriously ill? I knew not of this execution, or I should have
+spared you this unwelcome spectacle. Pray, compose yourself, and
+believe, madam, it was my ignorance that brought you into this
+difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not pass it," cried Mildred wildly, as she sprang from her horse
+and ran some paces back towards the wood, with her hands covering her
+face. In a moment Henry was by her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, sister&mdash;dear sister," he said, "do not take it so grievously. The
+officer did not know of this. There now, you are better; we will mount
+again, and ride around this frightful place."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred gradually regained her self-possession, and after a few minutes
+was again mounted and making a circuit through the wood to avoid this
+appalling spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this man?" asked Henry of the aide-de-camp, in a half whisper;
+"and what has he done, that they have hung him?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is an every-day tale," replied the officer; "a rebel traitor, who
+has broken his allegiance, by taking arms against the king in his own
+conquered province. I keep no count of these fellows; but I believe
+this is a bold rebel by the name of Adam Cusack, that was caught lately
+at the Cheraw ferry; and our boobies must be packing him off to
+head-quarters for us to do their hangman's work."</p>
+
+<p>"If we were to hang all of your men that we catch," replied Henry, "hemp
+is an article that would rise in price."</p>
+
+<p>"What, sir," returned the officer, with a look of surprise, "do you
+class yourself with the rebels? What makes you here under Tarleton's
+safeguard? I thought you must needs be friends, at least, from the
+manner of your coming."</p>
+
+<p>"We ride, sir, where we have occasion," said Henry, "and if we ride
+wrong now, let his lordship decide that for us, and we will return."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the company had reached head-quarters, where Mildred found
+herself in the presence of Lord Cornwallis.</p>
+
+<p>"Though on the wing, Miss Lindsay," said his lordship, as he
+respectfully met the lady and her brother upon the porch of the
+dwelling-house, "I have made it a point of duty to postpone weighty
+matters of business to receive your commands."</p>
+
+<p>Mildred bowed her head, and after a few words of courtesy on either
+side, and a formal introduction of herself and her brother to the
+general as the children of Philip Lindsay, "a gentleman presumed to be
+well known to his lordship," and some expressions of surprise and
+concern on the part of the chief at this unexpected announcement, she
+begged to be permitted to converse with him in private. When, in
+accordance with this wish, she found herself and her brother alone with
+the general, in the small parlor of the house, she began, with a
+trembling accent and blanched cheek&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I said, my lord, that we were the children of Philip Lindsey, of the
+Dove Cote, in Amherst, in the province of Virginia; and being taught to
+believe that my father has some interest with your lordship&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He is a worthy, thoughtful, and wise gentleman, of the best
+consideration amongst the friends of the royal cause," interrupted the
+earl, "so speak on, madam, and speak calmly. Take your time, your
+father's daughter shall not find me an unwilling listener."</p>
+
+<p>"My father was away from home," interposed Henry, "and tidings came to
+us that a friend of ours was most wickedly defamed and belied, by a
+charge carried to the ears of your lordship; as we were told, that Major
+Arthur Butler of the Continental army who had been made a prisoner by
+your red-coats somehow or other&mdash;for I forget how&mdash;but the charge was
+that he had contrived a plan to carry off my father from the Dove
+Cote&mdash;if not to kill him, which was said, besides&mdash;and upon that charge,
+it was reported that your people were going to hang or shoot him&mdash;hang,
+I suppose, from what we just now saw over here in the woods&mdash;and that
+your lordship had given orders to have the thing put off until the major
+could prove the real facts of the case."</p>
+
+<p>"The tale is partly true, young sir," said Cornwallis. "We have a
+prisoner of that name and rank."</p>
+
+<p>"My sister Mildred and myself, thinking no time was to be lost, have
+come to say to your lordship that the whole story is a most sinful lie,
+hatched on purpose to make mischief, and most probably by a fellow by
+the name of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My brother speaks too fast," interrupted Mildred. "It deeply concerned
+us to do justice to a friend in this matter. If my father had been at
+home a letter to your lordship would have removed all doubts; but, alas!
+he was absent, and I knew not what to do, but to come personally before
+your lordship, to assure you that to the perfect knowledge of our whole
+family, the tale from beginning to end is a malicious fabrication. Major
+Butler loves my father, and would be accounted one of his nearest and
+dearest friends."</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis listened to this disclosure with a perplexed and bewildered
+conjecture, to unravel the strange riddle which it presented to his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>"How may I understand you, Miss Lindsay?" he said; "this Major Butler is
+in the service of Congress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so. Your lordship speaks truly."</p>
+
+<p>"Your father&mdash;my friend, Philip Lindsay, is a faithful and persevering
+loyalist."</p>
+
+<p>"To the peril of his life and fortune," replied Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet Butler is his friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"He would be esteemed so, if it please your lordship&mdash;and, in heart and
+feeling, is so."</p>
+
+<p>"He is related to your family, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>"Related in affection, my lord, and plighted love," said Mildred,
+blushing and casting her eyes upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"So!&mdash;Now I apprehend. And there are bonds between you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I may not answer your lordship," returned the lady. "It only imports
+our present business to tell your lordship, that Arthur Butler never
+came to the Dove Cote but with the purest purpose of good to all who
+lodged beneath its roof. He has never come there but that I was apprised
+of his intent; and never thought rose in his heart that did not breathe
+blessings upon all that inhabit near my father. Oh, my lord, it is a
+base trick of an enemy to do him harm; and they have contrived this plot
+to impose upon your lordship's generous zeal in my father's behalf."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a strange story," said Cornwallis. "And does your father know
+nothing of this visit? Have you, Miss Lindsay, committed yourself to all
+the chances of this rude war, and undertaken this long and toilsome
+journey, to vindicate a rebel charged with a most heinous device of
+perfidy? It is a deep and painful interest that could move you to this
+enterprise."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord, my mission requires a frank confidence. I have heard my father
+say you had a generous and feeling heart&mdash;that you were a man to whom
+the king had most wisely committed his cause in this most trying war:
+that your soul was gifted with moderation, wisdom, forecast,
+firmness&mdash;and that such a spirit as yours was fit to master and command
+the rude natures of soldiers, and to compel them to walk in the paths of
+justice and mercy. All this and more have I heard my father say, and
+this encouraged me to seek you in your camp, and to tell you the plain
+and undisguised truth touching those charges against Major Butler. As
+Heaven above hears me, I have said nothing but the simple truth. Arthur
+Butler never dreamt of harm to my dear father."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a brave soldier," said Henry, "and if your lordship would give
+him a chance, and put him before the man who invented the lie, he would
+make the scoundrel eat his words, and they should be handed to him on
+the major's sword-point."</p>
+
+<p>"The gentleman is happy" said the chief, "in two such zealous friends.
+You have not answered me&mdash;is your father aware of this visit, Miss
+Lindsay?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is ignorant even of the nature of the charge against Arthur Butler,"
+replied the lady. "He was absent from the Dove Cote when the news
+arrived; and, fearing that delay might be disastrous, we took the matter
+in hand ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"You might have written."</p>
+
+<p>"The subject, so please your lordship, was too near to our hearts to put
+it to the hazard of a letter."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a warm zeal, and deserves to be requited with a life's devotion,"
+said Cornwallis. "You insinuated, young sir, just now, that you
+suspected the author of this imputed slander."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother is rash, and speaks hastily," interrupted Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom were you about to name?" asked the general, of Henry.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a man named Tyrrel," replied the youth, "that has been
+whispering in my father's ear somewhat concerning a proposal for my
+sister" (here Mildred cast a keen glance at her brother and bit her lip)
+"and they say, love sometimes makes men desperate, and I took a passing
+notion that, may be, he might have been at the bottom of it; I know
+nothing positively to make me think so, but only speak from what I have
+read in books."</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis smiled as he replied playfully: "Tush, my young philosopher,
+you must not take your wisdom from romances. I have heard of Tyrrel, and
+will stand his surety that love has raised no devil to conjure such
+mischief in his breast. What will satisfy your errand hither, Miss
+Lindsay?"</p>
+
+<p>"A word from your lordship, that no harm shall befall Arthur Butler
+beyond the necessary durance of a prisoner of war."</p>
+
+<p>"That is granted you at once," replied the general, "granted for your
+sake, madam, in the spirit of a cavalier who would deny no lady's
+request. And I rather grant it to you, because certain threats have been
+sent me from some of the major's partisans, holding out a determination
+to retaliate blood for blood. These had almost persuaded me to run,
+against my own will, to an extreme. I would have you let it be known,
+that as a free grace to a lady, I have done that which I would refuse to
+the broad sword bullies of the mountains. What next would you have?"</p>
+
+<p>"Simply, an unmolested passage hence, beyond your lordship's posts."</p>
+
+<p>"That too shall be cared for. And thus the business being done, with
+your leave, I will go to more unmannerly employments."</p>
+
+<p>"A letter for your lordship," said an officer, who at this moment
+entered the door, and putting a packet into the general's hand, retired.</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis opened the letter and read it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! by my faith, but this is a rare coincidence! This brings matter of
+interest to you, Miss Lindsay. My officer, Macdonald, who had Butler in
+custody, writes me that, two days since, his prisoner had escaped."</p>
+
+<p>"Escaped!" exclaimed Mildred, forgetting in whose presence she spoke,
+"unhurt&mdash;uninjured. Thank Heaven for that!"</p>
+
+<p>Cornwallis sat for a moment silent, as a frown grew upon his brow, and
+he played his foot against the floor, abstracted in thought. "These
+devils have allies," he muttered, "in every cabin in the country. We
+have treachery and deceit lurking behind every bush. We shall be
+poisoned in our pottage by these false and hollow knaves. If it gives
+you content, madam," he said, raising his voice, "that this Major Butler
+should abuse the kindness or clemency of his guard and fly from us at
+the moment we were extending a boon of mercy to him through your
+supplications, you may hereafter hold your honorable soldier in higher
+esteem for his dexterity and cunning."</p>
+
+<p>"I pray your lordship to believe," said Mildred, with a deep emotion,
+which showed itself in the rich, full tones of her voice, "that Major
+Butler knows nothing of my coming hither. I speak not in his name, nor
+make any pledge for him. If he has escaped, it has only been from the
+common instinct which teaches a bird to fly abroad when it finds the
+door of his cage left open by the negligence of his keepers. I knew it
+not&mdash;nor, alas! have I heard aught of his captivity, but as I have
+already told your lordship. He is an honorable soldier, rich in all the
+virtues that may commend a man: I would your lordship knew him better
+and in more peaceful times."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is but a peevish and silly boy," said Cornwallis, "who whines
+when his pie is stolen. The war has many reckonings to settle, and we
+contrive to make one day's profit pay another's loss. The account for
+the present is balanced; and so, Miss Lindsay, without discourtesy, I
+may leave you, with a fair wish for a happy and prosperous journey back
+to your father's roof. To the good gentleman himself, I desire to be
+well remembered. And to show you that this briery path of war has not
+quite torn away all the habiliments of gentleness from us, I think it
+dutiful to tell you that, as I have become the confidant of a precious
+love-tale, wherein I can guess some secret passage of mystery is laid
+which should not be divulged, I promise you to keep it faithfully
+between ourselves. And when I reach the Dove Cote, which, God willing,
+under the banners of St. George, I do propose within three months to do,
+we may renew our confidence, and you shall have my advice touching the
+management of this dainty and delicate affair. And now, God speed you
+with a fair ride, and good spirits to back it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am much beholden to your lordship's generosity," said Mildred, as
+Cornwallis rose with a sportive gallantry and betook himself to his
+horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Come hither, Mr. Henry," he said after he had mounted, "farewell, my
+young cavalier. You will find a few files of men to conduct you and your
+party beyond our posts: and here, take this," he added, as now on
+horseback, he scrawled off a few lines with a pencil, upon a leaf of his
+pocket-book, which he delivered to the youth, "there is a passport which
+shall carry you safe against all intrusion from my people. Adieu!"</p>
+
+<p>With this last speech the commander-in-chief put spurs to his horse, and
+galloped to the plain, to review his troops and commence the march by
+which he hoped to make good his boast of reaching the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>How fortune seconded his hopes may be read in the story of the war.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>CHAPTER L.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BRITISH PARTISAN.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>As the events of this history are confined to the duration of the Tory
+Ascendency in South Carolina, it becomes me to prepare my reader for the
+conclusion to which, doubtless much to his content, he will hear that we
+are now hastening. We have reached a period which brings us to take
+notice of certain important operations that were in progress upon the
+frontier, and touching the details of which, to avoid prolixity, I must
+refer to the graver chronicles of the times. It answers my present
+purpose merely to apprise my reader that Colonel Clarke had lately
+assembled his followers and marched to Augusta, where he had made an
+attack upon Brown, but that almost at the moment when his dexterous and
+valiant adversary had fallen within his grasp, a timely succor from Fort
+Ninety-Six, under the command of Cruger, had forced him to abandon his
+ground, and retreat towards the mountain districts of North Carolina. To
+this, it is important to add that Ferguson had now recruited a
+considerable army amongst the native Tories, and had moved to the small
+frontier village of Gilbert-town, with a purpose to intercept Clarke,
+and thus place him under the disadvantage of having a foe both in front
+and rear.</p>
+
+<p>The midnight seizure of Arthur Butler and his friends, whilst returning
+from Ramsay's funeral, was effected by McAlpine, who happened at that
+moment to be hastening, by a forced march, with a detachment of
+newly-recruited cavalry from Ninety-Six, to strengthen Ferguson, and to
+aid in what was expected to be the certain capture of the troublesome
+Whig partisan.</p>
+
+<p>As M'Alpine's purpose required despatch, he made but a short delay after
+sunrise at Drummond's cabin, and then pushed forward with his prisoners
+with all possible expedition. The route of his journey diverged, almost
+at the spot of the capture, from the roads leading towards Musgrove's
+Mill, and he consequently had but little chance to fall in with parties
+who might communicate to him the nature of the accident which threw the
+prisoners into his possession; whilst the prisoners themselves were
+sufficiently discreet to conceal from him everything that might afford a
+hint of Butler's previous condition.</p>
+
+<p>The road lay through a rugged wilderness, and the distance to be
+travelled, before the party could reach Gilbert-town, was something more
+than sixty miles. It was, accordingly, about the middle of the second
+day after leaving Drummond's habitation, before the troop arrived at the
+term of their journey, a period that coincided with that of Cornwallis's
+breaking ground from his late encampment at the Waxhaws, which we have
+seen in the last chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Ferguson was a stout, fearless, and bluff soldier, and instigated
+by the most unsparing hatred against all who took up the Whig cause.
+He had been promoted by Earl Cornwallis to the brevet rank of
+lieutenant-colonel, a short time before the battle of Camden, and
+despatched towards this wild and mountainous border to collect together
+and organize the Tory inhabitants of the district. His zeal and
+activity, no less than his peremptory bearing, had particularly
+recommended him to the duty to be performed; and he is, at least,
+entitled to the commendation of having acquitted himself with great
+promptitude and efficiency in the principal objects of his appointment.
+He was now at the head of between eleven and twelve hundred men, of
+which about one hundred and fifty were regulars of the British line, the
+remainder consisting of the disorderly and untamed population of the
+frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Gilbert-town was a small village, composed of a number of rather
+well-built and comfortable log-houses. It was situated in a mountainous
+but fertile district of North Carolina, about the centre of Rutherford
+country. And I may venture to add (which I do upon report only), that
+although its former name has faded from the maps of the present day,
+under that reprehensible indifference to ancient associations, and that
+pernicious love of change which have obliterated so many of the
+landmarks of our revolutionary history, yet this village is still a
+prosperous and pleasant community, known as the seat of justice to the
+county to which it belongs.</p>
+
+<p>When the troop having charge of Butler and his companions arrived, they
+halted immediately in front of one of the largest buildings of the
+village, and in a short time the prisoners were marched into the
+presence of Ferguson. They were received in a common room of ample
+dimensions, furnished with a table upon which was seen a confused array
+of drinking vessels, and a number of half-emptied bottles of spirit
+surrounding a wooden bucket filled with water. Immediately against one
+of the posts of the door of the apartment, the carcass of a buck,
+recently shot and now stripped of its skin, hung by the tendons of the
+hinder feet; and a soldier was at this moment employed with his knife in
+the butcher-craft necessary to its preparation for the spit. Ferguson
+himself, conspicuous for his robust, athletic, and weather-beaten
+exterior, stood by apparently directing the operation. Around the room
+were hung the hide and antlers of former victims of the chase,
+intermingled with various weapons of war, military cloaks,
+cartridge-boxes, bridles, saddles, and other furniture denoting the
+habitation of a party of soldiers. There was a general air of disorder
+and untidiness throughout the apartment, which seemed to bespeak early
+and late revels, and no great observance of the thrift of even military
+housekeeping. This impression was heightened to the eye of the beholder,
+by the unchecked liberty with which men of all ranks, privates as well
+as officers, flung themselves, as their occasions served, into the room
+and made free with the contents of the flasks that were scattered over
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>The irregular and ill-disciplined host under Ferguson's command lay in
+and around the village, and presented a scene of which the predominating
+features bore a sufficient resemblance to the economy of their leader's
+own quarters, to raise but an unfavorable opinion of their subordination
+and soldier-like demeanor: it was wild, noisy, and confused.</p>
+
+<p>When M'Alpine entered the apartment, the words that fell from Ferguson
+showed that his mind, at the moment, was disturbed by a double
+solicitude&mdash;alternating between the operations performed upon the
+carcass of venison, and certain symptoms of uproar and disorder that
+manifested themselves amongst the militia without.</p>
+
+<p>"Curse on these swaggering, upland bullies!" he said, whilst M'Alpine
+and the prisoners stood inside the room, as yet unnoticed. "I would as
+soon undertake to train as many wolves from the mountain, as bring these
+fellows into habits of discipline. Thady, you cut that haunch too
+low&mdash;go deep, man&mdash;a long sweep from the pommel to the cantle&mdash;it is a
+saddle worth riding on! By the infernal gods! if these yelping savages
+do not learn to keep quiet in camp, I'll make a school for them with my
+regulars, where they shall have good taste of the cat! nine hours' drill
+and all the camp duty besides! Ha, M'Alpine, is it you who have been
+standing here all this while? I didn't observe it, man&mdash;my quarters are
+like a bar-room, and have been full of comers and goers all day. I
+thought you were but some of my usual free-and-easy customers. Damn
+them, I am sick of these gawky, long-legged, half-civilized recruits!
+but I shall take a course with them yet. What news, old boy? What have
+you to tell of the rebels? Where is my pretty fellow, Clarke?"</p>
+
+<p>"Clarke is still in the woods," replied M'Alpine. "It would take good
+hounds to track him."</p>
+
+<p>"And Cruger, I hope, has nose enough to follow. So, the cunning Indian
+hunter will be caught at last! We have him safe now, M'Alpine. There is
+but one path for the fox to come out of the bush, and upon that path
+Patrick Ferguson has about as pretty a handful of mischievous imps as
+ever lapped blood. The slinking runaway never reaches the other side of
+the mountains while I am awake. With Cruger behind him&mdash;our line of
+posts upon his right&mdash;the wild mountains, as full of Cherokees as
+squirrels, upon his left&mdash;and these devils of mine right before him&mdash;we
+have him in a pretty net. Who have you here, captain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some stray rebel game, that I picked up on my road, as I came from
+Ninety-Six. This gentleman, I learn, is Major Butler of the Continental
+army, and these others, some of his party."</p>
+
+<p>"So, ho, more rebels! damn it, man," exclaimed the commandant, "why do
+you bring them to me? What can I do with them"&mdash;then dropping his voice
+into a tone of confidential conference, he added, "but follow the
+fashion and hang them? I have got some score of prisoners already&mdash;and
+have been wishing that they would cut some devilish caper, that I might
+have an excuse for stringing them up, to get clear of them. A major in
+the regular Continental line, sir?" he asked, addressing himself to
+Butler.</p>
+
+<p>Butler bowed his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought the cuffs your people got at Camden had driven everything
+like a daylight soldier out of the province. We have some skulking
+bush-fighters left&mdash;some jack-o'-lantern devils, that live in the swamps
+and feed on frogs and water-snakes&mdash;Marion and Sumpter, and a few of
+their kidney: but you, sir, are the first regular Continental officer I
+have met with. What brought you so far out of your latitude?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was on my way to join one," replied Butler, "that but now you seemed
+to think in severe straits."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! to visit Clarke, eh? Well, sir, may I be bold to ask, do you know
+where that worshipful gentleman is to be found?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am free to answer you," said Butler, "that his position, at this
+moment, is entirely unknown to me. On my journey I heard the report that
+he had been constrained to abandon Augusta."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and in haste, let me tell you. And marches in this direction,
+Major Butler, as he needs must. I shall make his acquaintance: and
+inasmuch as you went to seek him, you may count it a lucky accident that
+brought you here&mdash;you will find him all the sooner by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Doubtless, sir, Colonel Clarke will feel proud to see you," returned
+Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, M'Alpine," said Ferguson, "I have my hands full of business; for
+I certainly have the wildest crew of devil's babies that ever stole
+cattle, or fired a haystack. I am obliged to coax them into discipline
+by a somewhat free use of this mother's milk"&mdash;(pointing to the
+bottles)&mdash;"to which I now and then add a gentle castigation at the
+drum-head, and, when that doesn't serve, a dose of powder and lead,
+administered at ten paces from a few files of grenadiers. I have shot a
+brace of them, since you left me, only for impertinence to their
+officers! This waiting for Clarke plays the devil with us. I must be
+moving, and have some thought of crossing the mountains westward, and
+burning out the settlements. Faith! I would do it, just to keep my lads
+in spirits, if I thought Clarke would give me another week. How, now,
+Thady?&mdash;that buck should have been half roasted by this time. We shall
+never have dinner with your slow work. Look at that, M'Alpine, there is
+something to make your mouth water&mdash;an inch and a half of fat on the
+very ridge of the back. Give over your prisoners to the camp major&mdash;he
+will take care of them: and, hark you, captain," he added, beckoning his
+comrade aside, "if you choose, as you seem to think well of this Major
+Butler, you may bring him in to dinner presently, with my compliments.
+Now, away&mdash;I must to business."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners were conducted to a separate building, where they were put
+in charge of an officer, who performed the duties of provost-marshal
+over some twenty or more Whigs that had been captured in the late
+excursions of the Tories, and brought into camp for safe keeping. The
+place of their confinement was narrow and uncomfortable, and Butler was
+soon made aware that in the exchange of his prison at Musgrove's mill
+for his present one, he had made an unprofitable venture. His condition
+with Ferguson, however, was alleviated by the constantly-exciting hope
+that the events which were immediately in prospect might, by the chances
+of war, redound to his advantage.</p>
+
+<p>In this situation Butler remained for several days. For although
+Ferguson found it necessary to keep in almost constant motion, with a
+view to hover about the supposed direction of Clarke's retreat, and,
+conformably to this purpose, to advance into South Carolina, and again
+to fall back towards his present position, yet he had established a
+guard at Gilbert-town which, during all these operations, remained
+stationary with the prisoners, apparently waiting some fit opportunity
+to march them off to Cornwallis's army, that was now making its way
+northwards. That opportunity did not present itself. The communications
+between this post and the commander-in-chief were, by a fatal error,
+neglected; and in a short time from the date of the present events, as
+will be seen in the sequel, a web was woven which was strong enough to
+ensnare and bind up the limbs of the giant who had, during the last five
+months, erected and maintained the Tory Ascendency in Carolina.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>CHAPTER LI.</h2>
+
+<h3>MILDRED TURNS HER STEPS HOMEWARDS.</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>I have seen a generous and brave boy defied to some enterprise of
+terror,&mdash;such as, peradventure, to clamber in the dark night, alone, up
+many a winding bout of stair-case to the garret,&mdash;and he has undertaken
+the achievement, although sore afraid of goblins, and gone forth upon
+his adventure with a lusty step and with a bold tardiness, whistling or
+singing on his way&mdash;his eyes and ears all the time fearfully open to all
+household sights and sounds, now magnified out of their natural
+proportions; and when he had reached the furthest term of his travel, I
+have known him to turn quickly about and come down three steps at a
+leap, feeling all the way as if some spectre tracked his flight and hung
+upon his rear. Calling up such a venture to my mind, I am enabled, by
+comparison with the speed and anxiety of the boy, to show my reader with
+what emotions Mildred, her mission being done, now turned herself upon
+her homeward route. The excitement occasioned by her knowledge of the
+critical circumstances of Butler, and the pain she had suffered in the
+belief that upon the courageous performance of her duty depended even
+his life, had nerved her resolution to the perilous and hardy exploit in
+which we have seen her. But now, when matters had taken such a suddenly
+auspicious turn, and she was assured of her lover's safety, not even the
+abrupt joy which poured in upon her heart was sufficient to stifle her
+sense of uneasiness at her present exposed condition, and she eagerly
+prepared to betake herself back to the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>The scenes around her had wrought upon her nerves; and, although she was
+singularly fortunate in the courtesy which she had experienced from all
+into whose hands she had fallen, yet the rude licentiousness of the
+camp, and the revolting acts of barbarity which were ever present to her
+observation, appalled and distressed her. Besides, she now saw the
+fixed purpose with which Cornwallis was preparing to march forward in
+his course of invasion, and thought with alarm upon the probable event
+of soon having the theatre of war transferred to the neighborhood of her
+native woods.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson's advice seconded her own alacrity. It was to hasten, with all
+despatch, in advance of the invading army; and as this body was now
+about taking up its line of march, no time was to be lost. Accordingly,
+but a brief delay took place after Cornwallis and his suite had departed
+from head-quarters, before our party set forward, accompanied by the
+small guard of cavalry that had been ordered to attend them. The troops
+were just wheeling into column on the ground where they had been lately
+reviewed, when Mildred and her attendants galloped past, and took the
+high road leading to the town of Charlotte, in North Carolina, towards
+which it was understood the invaders were about to direct their journey.
+In less than an hour afterwards they had left behind them the line of
+baggage wagons and the small military parties of the vanguard, and found
+themselves rapidly hastening towards a district occupied by the friends
+of independence.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant had now occasion for his utmost circumspection. In pursuing
+the destined route of the invasion, he had reason to expect an early
+encounter with some of the many corps of observation, which the opposite
+party were certain to put upon the duty of reporting the approach of
+their enemy. And so it fell out; for, towards the middle of the day,
+whilst the travellers were quietly plying their journey through the
+forest, the discharge of a pistol announced the presence of a hostile
+body of men; and almost instantly afterwards a small handful of Whig
+cavalry were seen hovering upon the road, at the distance of some three
+or four hundred paces in front. Robinson no sooner recognised this squad
+than he took the lady's handkerchief and hoisted it on a rod, as a flag
+of truce, and, at the same moment, directed the escort to retreat,
+apprising them that their presence was no longer necessary, as he had
+now an opportunity to deliver his charge into the hands of friends. The
+British horsemen, accordingly, took their leave; and, in the next
+moment, Horse Shoe surrendered to a patrole, who announced themselves to
+be a part of the command of Colonel Davie, of the North Carolina
+militia&mdash;a gallant partisan, then well known to fame, and whose after
+exploits fill up no inconsiderable page of American history.</p>
+
+<p>It does not enter into the purpose of my story to detain my reader with
+a minute account of Mildred's homeward journey; but having now
+transferred her to the protection of a friendly banner, it will suffice
+to say that she arrived the same evening at Charlotte, where she spent
+the night in the midst of the active, warlike preparations which were in
+progress to receive Cornwallis.</p>
+
+<p>It was towards sunset on the following day, when, wearied with the toil
+of a long and rapid journey, our travellers arrived in front of a
+retired farm-house, on the road leading through the upper districts of
+North Carolina. The cultivation around this dwelling showed both good
+husbandry and a good soil, and there was an appearance of comfort and
+repose which was an unusual sight in a country so much alarmed and
+ravaged by war, as that over which the wayfarers had lately journeyed.
+The house stood some short distance apart from the road, and in the
+porch was seated an elderly man of a respectable appearance, to whom a
+young girl was, at this moment, administering a draught of water from a
+small, hooped, wooden vessel which she held in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I am parched with thirst," said Mildred, "pray get me some of that
+water."</p>
+
+<p>"The place looks so well, ma'am," replied the sergeant, "that I think we
+could not do better than make a stop here for the night. Good day,
+neighbor! What is the name of the river I see across yon field, and
+where mought we be, just at this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the Yadkin," answered the man, "and this county, I believe, is
+Iredell&mdash;though I speak only by guess, for I am but a stranger in these
+parts."</p>
+
+<p>"The lady would be obligated," said Horse Shoe, "for a drop of that
+water; and, if it was agreeable, she mought likewise be pleased to put
+up here for the night."</p>
+
+<p>"The people of the house are kind and worthy," replied the old man, "and
+not likely to refuse a favor. Mary, take a cup to the lady."</p>
+
+<p>The girl obeyed; and, coming up to the party with the vessel in her
+hand, she suddenly started as her eye fell upon Horse Shoe, and her pale
+and wan countenance was seen bathed in tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Robinson!" she exclaimed, with a faltering voice; "you don't know
+me?&mdash;me, Mary Musgrove. Father, it is our friend, Horse Shoe Robinson!"
+Then placing the vessel upon the ground, she ran to the sergeant's side,
+as he sat upon his horse, and leaning her head against his saddle, she
+wept bitterly, sobbing out: "It is me, Mary Musgrove. John&mdash;our
+John&mdash;that you loved&mdash;he is dead&mdash;he is dead!"</p>
+
+<p>In an instant Allen Musgrove was at the gate, where he greeted the
+sergeant with the affection of an old friend.</p>
+
+<p>This recognition of the miller and his daughter at once confirmed the
+sergeant in his determination to end his day's journey at this spot. In
+a few moments Mildred and her companions were introduced into the
+farm-house, where they were heartily welcomed by the in-dwellers,
+consisting of a sturdy, cheerful tiller of the soil, and a motherly
+dame, whose brood of children around her showed her to be the mistress
+of the family.</p>
+
+<p>The scene that ensued after the party were seated in the house was, for
+some time, painfully affecting. Poor Mary, overcome by the associations
+called up to her mind at the sight of the sergeant, took a seat near
+him, and silently gazed in his face, visibly laboring under a strong
+desire to express her feelings in words, but at the same time stricken
+mute by the intensity of her emotions.</p>
+
+<p>After a long suspense, which was broken only by her sobs, she was
+enabled to utter a few disjointed sentences, in which she recalled to
+the sergeant the friendship that had existed between him and John
+Ramsay; and there was something peculiarly touching in the melancholy
+tone with which, in accordance with the habits inculcated by her
+religious education, and most probably in the words of her father's
+frequent admonitions, she attributed the calamity that had befallen her
+to the kindly chastisement of heaven, to endure which she devoutly, and
+with a sigh that showed the bitterness of her suffering, prayed for
+patience and submission. Allen Musgrove, at this juncture, interposed
+with some topics of consolation suitable to the complexion of the
+maiden's mind, and soon succeeded in drying up her tears, and restoring
+her, at least, to the possession of a tranquil and apparently a resigned
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>When this was done, he gave a narrative of the events relating to the
+escape of Butler and his subsequent recapture at the funeral of John
+Ramsay, to which, it may be imagined, Mildred and Henry listened with
+the most absorbed attention.</p>
+
+<p>This tale of the recapture of Butler, so unexpected, and communicated at
+a moment when Mildred's heart beat high with the joyful hopes of
+speedily seeing her lover again in safety, now struck upon her ear with
+the alarm that seizes upon a voyager who, fearing no hidden reef or
+unknown shoal, hears the keel of his ship in mid ocean crash against a
+solid rock. It seemed at once to break down the illusion which she had
+cherished with such fond affection. For the remainder of the evening the
+intercourse of the party was anxious and thoughtful, and betrayed the
+unhappy impression which the intelligence just communicated had made
+upon the feelings of Mildred and her brother. Musgrove, after the
+travellers had been refreshed by food, and invigorated by the kind and
+hearty hospitality of the good man under whose roof they were sheltered,
+proceeded to give the sergeant a history of what had lately befallen in
+the neighborhood of the Ennoree. Some days after the escape of Butler,
+the miller's own family had drawn upon themselves the odium of the
+ruling authority. His mill and his habitation had been reduced to ashes
+by a party of Tories who had made an incursion into this district, with
+no other view than to wreak their vengeance against suspected persons.
+In the same inroad, the family of David Ramsay had once more been
+assailed, and all that was spared from the first conflagration was
+destroyed in the second. Many other houses through this region had met
+the same fate. The expedition had been conducted by Wemyss, who, it is
+said, carried in his pocket a list of dwellings to which the torch was
+to be applied, and who, on accomplishing each item of his diabolical
+mission&mdash;so still runs the tradition&mdash;would note the consummated work by
+striking out the memorandum from his tablets.</p>
+
+<p>In this general ravage, the desolated families fled like hunted game
+through the woods, and betook themselves with a disordered haste to the
+more friendly provinces northward. Musgrove had sent his wife and
+younger children, almost immediately after the assault upon him, to the
+care of a relative in Virginia, whither they had been conducted some
+days previous to the date of his present meeting with Horse Shoe by
+Christopher Shaw; whilst he and Mary had remained behind, for a short
+space, to render assistance to the family of Ramsay, to whom they felt
+themselves affined almost as closely as if the expected alliance by
+marriage had taken place. When this duty was discharged, and Ramsay's
+family were provided with a place of refuge, Musgrove had set forward
+with his daughter to rejoin his wife and children in their new asylum.
+It was upon this journey that they had now been accidentally overtaken
+by our travellers.</p>
+
+<p>The disclosure of the motives of Mildred's expedition to Mary and her
+father, as may be supposed, warmed up their feelings to a most
+affectionate sympathy in her troubles. They had often heard of Butler's
+attachment to a lady in Virginia, and were aware of her name, from the
+incidents that had occurred at the trial of Butler, and from the nature
+of Horse Shoe's mission to Virginia. Mary had nursed in her mind a
+fanciful and zealous interest in behalf of the lady who was supposed to
+have engrossed Butler's affections, from the earnest devotion which she
+had witnessed in his demeanor, first at Adair's, and often afterwards
+during his captivity. The effect of this preconceived favor now showed
+itself in her behavior to Mildred; and, in the gentle play which it gave
+to her kindly sentiments, a most happy change was wrought in her present
+feelings. She at once warmly and fervently attached herself to Mildred,
+and won her way into our lady's esteem by the most amiable assiduities.
+In these offices of love, the poignancy of her own grief began to give
+way to the natural sweetness of her temper, and they were observed, in
+the same degree, to enliven Mildred's feelings. Mary hung fondly about
+her new acquaintance, proffered her most minute attentions of comfort,
+spoke often of the generous qualities of Butler, and breathed many a
+sincere prayer for future happiness to him and those he loved.</p>
+
+<p>As Mildred pondered over the new aspect which the tidings of this
+evening had given to her condition, her inclination and duty both
+prompted her to the resolve to make an effort to join Butler, instead of
+returning to the Dove Cote. She was apprised by Musgrove that the
+prisoner had been conducted to Ferguson, who, she was told, was at this
+time stationed in the neighborhood of Gilbert-town, not a hundred miles
+from her present position. She had ventured far in his services, and she
+could not, now that she had so nearly approached him, consent to
+abandon the effort of reaching the spot of his captivity. She thought
+with alarm over the dangers that might await him in consequence of his
+previous escape, and this alarm was increased by her remembrance of the
+tone of bitter resentment with which Cornwallis, in a moment of
+unguarded feeling, had referred to the event in her late conference with
+that officer. Above all, it was her duty&mdash;such was her view of the
+matter&mdash;and whatever might befal, he was the lord of her heart, and all
+dangers and difficulties, now as heretofore, should be cast aside in her
+determination to administer to his safety or comfort. Her decision was
+made, and she so announced it to her companions.</p>
+
+<p>Neither the sergeant nor Henry made the opposition to this resolve that
+might have been expected. To Horse Shoe it was a matter of indifference
+upon what service he might be ordered; his thoughts ran in no other
+current than to obey the order, and make the most thrifty and careful
+provision for its safe execution. To Henry that was always a pleasant
+suggestion which was calculated to bring him more into the field of
+adventure. Allen Musgrove, on this occasion, added an opinion which
+rather favored the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not much out of the way," he said, "to go as far as Burk Court
+House, where, at least, the lady was likely to learn something of the
+plans of Ferguson, and she might either wait there, or take such
+direction afterwards as her friends should advise."</p>
+
+<p>Mary begged that whatever route Mildred thought proper to pursue, she
+might be allowed to accompany her; and this request was so much to the
+liking of Mildred, that she earnestly implored the miller's consent to
+the plan. With some reluctance Musgrove acquiesced; and, feeling thus
+doubly interested in the fortunes of the party, he finally determined
+himself to attend them in their present enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>These matters being settled, the wearied travellers parted for the
+night, happy, at least, in having found the weight of their personal
+afflictions relieved by the cheerfulness with which the burden was
+divided.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LII" id="CHAPTER_LII"></a>CHAPTER LII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SIGNS OF A GATHERING STORM.&mdash;MUSTER OF THE BACKWOODSMEN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In arms the huts and hamlets rise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From winding glen, from upland brown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They poured each hardy tenant down.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Lady of the Lake.</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>In gathering up the ends of our story, as we draw towards a conclusion,
+we are forced, after the fashion of a stirring drama, to a frequent
+change of scene. Accordingly, leaving Mildred and her friends to pursue
+their own way until we shall find leisure to look after their footsteps,
+we must introduce our reader to some new acquaintances, whose motions,
+it will be seen, are destined greatly to influence the interests of this
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The time was about the second of October, when a considerable body of
+troops were seen marching through that district which is situated
+between the Allegany mountain and the head waters of Catawba, in North
+Carolina. This force might have numbered perhaps something over one
+thousand men. Its organization and general aspect were sufficiently
+striking to entitle it to a particular description. It consisted almost
+entirely of cavalry; and a spectator might have seen in the rude,
+weather-beaten faces, and muscular forms of the soldiers, as well as in
+the simplicity of their equipments, a hastily-levied band of
+mountaineers, whose ordinary pursuits had been familiar with the arduous
+toils of Indian warfare and the active labors of the chase. They were,
+almost without exception, arrayed in the hunting shirt&mdash;a dress so dear
+to the recollections of the revolution, and which, it is much to be
+regretted, the foppery of modern times has been allowed to displace.
+Their weapons in but few instances were other than the long rifle and
+its accompanying hunting-knife.</p>
+
+<p>It was to be observed that this little army consisted of various corps,
+which were in general designated either by the color of the
+hunting-shirt, or by that of the fringe with which this cheap and
+simple uniform was somewhat ostentatiously garnished. Some few were clad
+in the plain, homespun working-dress of the time; and here and there, an
+officer might be recognised in the blue and buff cloth of the regular
+Continental army. The buck-tail, also, was an almost indispensable
+ornament of the cap, or usual round hat of the soldiers; and where this
+was wanting, its place was not unfrequently supplied by sprigs of green
+pine or holly, or other specimens of the common foliage of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The men were mounted on lean, shaggy, and travel-worn horses of every
+variety of size, shape, and color; and their baggage consisted of
+nothing more cumbersome than a light wallet attached to the rear of
+their saddles, or of a meagrely supplied pair of saddle-bags. The small
+party on foot were in no wise to be distinguished from the mounted men,
+except in the absence of horses, and in the mode of carrying their
+baggage, which was contained in knapsacks of deer-skin strapped to their
+shoulders. These moved over the ground with, perhaps, even more facility
+than the cavalry, and appeared in no degree to regret the toil of the
+march, which was so far the lighter to them, as they were exempt from
+the solicitude which their companions suffered of providing forage for
+their beasts.</p>
+
+<p>The officers in command of this party were young men, in whose general
+demeanor and bearing was to be seen that bold, enterprising, and hardy
+character, which at that period, even more than at present,
+distinguished the frontier population. The frequent expeditions against
+the savages, which the times had rendered familiar to them, as well as
+the service of the common war, in which they had all partaken, had
+impressed upon their exteriors the rugged lines of thoughtful
+soldiership.</p>
+
+<p>The troops now associated, consisted of distinct bodies of volunteers,
+who had each assembled under their own leaders, without the requisition
+of the government, entirely independent of each other, and more
+resembling the promiscuous meeting of hunters than a regularly-organized
+military corps.</p>
+
+<p>They had convened, about a week before the period at which I have
+presented them to my reader, at Wattauga, on the border of Tennessee, in
+pursuance of an invitation from Shelby, who was now one of the principal
+officers in command. He had himself embodied a force of between two and
+three hundred men, in his own district of the mountains; and Colonel
+Campbell, now also present, had repaired to the rendezvous with four
+hundred soldiers from the adjoining county in Virginia. These two had
+soon afterwards formed a junction with Colonels M'Dowell and Sevier, of
+North Carolina, who had thus augmented the joint force to the number
+which I have already mentioned as constituting the whole array. They had
+marched slowly and wearily from the mountains into the district of
+country which lay between the forks of Catawba, somewhere near to the
+present village of Morgantown&mdash;and might now be said to be rather
+hovering in the neighborhood of Ferguson, then advancing directly
+towards him. The force of the British partisan was, as yet, too
+formidable for the attack of these allies, and he was still in a
+position to make his way in safety to the main army under Cornwallis&mdash;at
+this time stationed at Charlotte, some seventy or eighty miles distant.
+It was both to gain increase of force, from certain auxiliaries who were
+yet expected to join them, as also, without exciting suspicion of their
+purpose, to attain a position from which Ferguson might more certainly
+be cut off from Cornwallis, that the mountain leaders lingered with such
+wily delay upon their march.</p>
+
+<p>Ferguson was all intent upon Clarke&mdash;little suspecting the power which
+could summon up, with such incredible alacrity, an army from the woods
+fit to dispute his passage through any path of the country; and,
+profiting by this confidence of the enemy, Shelby and his associates
+were preparing, by secret movements, to put themselves in readiness to
+spring upon their quarry at the most auspicious moment. In accordance
+with this plan, Colonel Williams, who yet preserved his encampment on
+the Fair Forest, was on the alert to act against the British leader, who
+still marched further south&mdash;at every step lengthening the distance
+between himself and his commander-in-chief, and so far favoring the
+views of his enemy. Shelby and his comrades only tarried until their
+numbers should be complete, designing as speedily as possible after that
+to form a junction with Williams, and at once enter upon an open and hot
+pursuit of their adversary.</p>
+
+<p>Their uncertainty in regard to the present condition of Clarke added
+greatly to their desire to strike, as early as possible, their
+meditated blow. This officer had, a few weeks before, commenced his
+retreat from Augusta through Ninety-Six, with some five hundred men,
+closely followed by Brown and Cruger, and threatened by the Indian
+tribes who inhabited the wilderness through which he journeyed. The
+perils and hardships of this retreat arose not only from the necessity
+Clarke was under to plunge into the inhospitable and almost unexplored
+wilderness of the Allegany, by a path which would effectually baffle his
+pursuers as well as escape the toils of Ferguson; but they were
+painfully enhanced by the incumbrance of a troop of women and children,
+who, having already felt the vengeance of the savages, and fearing its
+further cruelties, and the scarcely less ruthless hatred of the Tories,
+preferred to tempt the rigors of the mountain rather than remain in
+their own dwellings. It is said that these terrified and helpless
+fugitives amounted to somewhat above three hundred individuals.</p>
+
+<p>There were no incidents of the war of independence that more strikingly
+illustrated the heroism which grappled with the difficulties of that
+struggle at its gloomiest moment, than the patient and persevering
+gallantry of these brave wanderers and their confederates, whom we have
+seen lately assembled in arms. History has not yet conferred upon Clarke
+and his companions their merited tribute of renown. Some future
+chronicler will find in their exploits a captivating theme for his pen,
+when he tells the tale of their constancy, even in the midst of the
+nation's despair; until fortune, at length successfully wooed, rewarded
+their vigilance, bravery, and skill, by enabling them to subdue and
+destroy the Tory Ascendency in the south.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy, swarming in all the strong places, elate with recent victory,
+well provided with the muniments of war, high in hope and proud of
+heart, hunted these scattered, destitute, and slender bands, with a
+keenness of scent, swiftness of foot, and exasperation of temper, that
+can only be compared to the avidity of the bloodhound. This eagerness of
+pursuit was, for the present, directed against Clarke; and it is one of
+the most fortunate circumstances that belong to the events I have been
+relating, that this purpose of waylaying our gallant partisan so
+completely absorbed the attention of Ferguson, as to cause him to
+neglect the most ordinary precautions for securing himself against the
+reverses of the war.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of things, Shelby and his compatriots waited for the
+moment when they might direct their march immediately to the attack of
+the British soldier&mdash;their anxiety stimulated to a painful acuteness by
+the apprehension that Clarke might be overpowered by his enemies, or
+that Cornwallis might receive information of the gathering bands, and
+make a timely movement to reinforce or protect his outpost. It was in
+this moment of doubt and concern that we have chosen to present them in
+the course of our narrative.</p>
+
+<p>The troops had halted about the middle of the day, to take some
+refreshment. The ground they had chosen for this purpose was a narrow
+valley or glen, encompassed by steep hills, between which a transparent
+rivulet wound its way over a rough, stony bed. The margin of the stream
+was clothed with grass of the liveliest verdure, and a natural grove of
+huge forest trees covered the whole level space of the valley. The
+season was the most pleasant of the year, being at that period when, in
+the southern highlands, the hoar frost is first seen to sparkle on the
+spray at early dawn. The noon-tide sun, though not oppressively warm,
+was still sufficiently fervid to render the shade of the grove, and the
+cool mountain brook in the deep ravine, no unpleasant objects to wearied
+travellers. Here the whole of our little army were scattered through the
+wood; some intent upon refreshing their steeds in the running water,
+many seated beneath the trees discussing their own slender means, and
+not a few carelessly and idly loitering about the grounds in the
+enjoyment of the mere exemption from the constraint of discipline. The
+march of the troops on this day had not exceeded ten or twelve
+miles:&mdash;they might have been said to creep through the woods. Still,
+however, they had been in motion ever since the dawn of day; and as they
+measured the ground with their slow but ceaseless footfall, there was a
+silent disquiet and an eagerness of expectation, that were scarcely less
+fatiguing than more rapid and laborious operations.</p>
+
+<p>"Cleveland will certainly join us?" said Shelby, as, in the vacancy of
+the hour, he had fallen into company with his brother officers, who were
+now assembled on the margin of the brook. "It is time he were here. I am
+sick of this slow work. If we do not make our leap within the next two
+or three days, the game is lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your temper, Isaac," replied Campbell, who, being somewhat older
+than his comrade, assumed the freedom indicated in this reply, and now
+laughed as he admonished the fretful soldier. "Keep your temper!
+Williams is below, and on the look-out; and most usefully employed in
+enticing Ferguson as far out of reach of my lord Buzzard, there at
+Charlotte, as we could wish him. Ben Cleveland will be with us all in
+good time: take my word for that. You forget that he had to muster his
+lads from Wilkes and Surry both."</p>
+
+<p>"And Brandon and Lacy are yet to join us," said M'Dowell.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn it, they should be here, man!" interrupted Shelby again; "I hate
+this creaking of my boots upon the soft grass, as if we had come to fish
+for gudgeons. I am for greasing our horses' heels and putting them to
+service."</p>
+
+<p>"You were always a hot-headed devil," interrupted Campbell again, "and
+have wasted more shoe-leather than discretion in this world, by at least
+ten to one. You are huntsman enough to know, Isaac, that it is sometimes
+well to steal round the game to get the wind of them. Your headlong
+haste would only do us harm."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" rejoined Shelby, with a laugh, excited by Campbell's face of good
+humor. "Verily, you are a pattern of sobriety and moderation yourself,
+to be preaching caution to us youngsters! All wisdom, forecast, and
+discretion, I suppose, have taken up their quarters in your wiry-haired
+noddle! How in the devil it came to pass, William, that yonder green and
+grey shirts should have trusted themselves with such a piece of prudence
+at their head, is more than I can guess."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a soldier pressed forward into the circle of officers:</p>
+
+<p>"A letter for Colonel Shelby," he said, "brought by a trooper from
+Cleveland."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha! This looks well," exclaimed Shelby, as he ran his eyes over the
+lines. "Cleveland is but ten miles behind, and desires us to wait his
+coming."</p>
+
+<p>"With how many men?" asked one of the party.</p>
+
+<p>"The rogue has forgotten to tell. I'll warrant, with all he could
+find."</p>
+
+<p>"With a good party, no doubt," interrupted Sevier. "I know the Whigs of
+Wilkes and Surry will not be backward."</p>
+
+<p>"From this despatch, gentlemen, I suppose we shall rest here for the
+night&mdash;what say you?" was the interrogatory proposed to the group by
+Shelby.</p>
+
+<p>The proposition was agreed to, and the several officers repaired to
+their commands. As soon as this order was communicated to the troops,
+everything assumed the bustle incident to the preparation of a temporary
+camp. Fires were kindled, the horses tethered, guards detailed, and
+shelters erected of green wood cut from the surrounding forest. In
+addition to this, a few cattle had been slaughtered from a small herd
+that had been driven in the rear of the march; and long before night
+came on, the scene presented a tolerably comfortable bivouac of
+light-hearted, laughing woodsmen, whose familiar habits at home had
+seasoned them to this forest-life, and gave to their present enterprise
+something of the zest of a pastime.</p>
+
+<p>In the first intervals of leisure, parties were seen setting out into
+the neighboring hills in pursuit of game; and when the hour of the
+evening meal arrived, good store of fat bucks and wild turkeys were not
+wanting to flavor a repast, to which a sauce better than the wit of man
+ever invented, was brought by every lusty feeder of the camp.</p>
+
+<p>At sundown, a long line of woodland cavalry, in all respects armed and
+equipped in the same fashion with those who already occupied the valley,
+were seen winding down the rugged road which led from the high grounds
+to the camp. At the first intimation of the approach of this body, the
+troops below were ordered out on parade, and the new-comers were
+received with all the military demonstrations of respect and joy usual
+at the meeting of friendly bodies of soldiers. Some dozen horns of the
+harshest tones, and with the most ear-piercing discord, kept up an
+incessant braying, until the alarmed echoes were startled from a
+thousand points amongst the hills. In spite of the commands of officers,
+straggling shots of salutation were fired, and loud greetings of
+individual acquaintances were exchanged from either ranks, as the
+approaching body filed across the whole front of the drawn-up line. When
+this ceremony was over, Colonel Cleveland rode up to the little group
+of officers who awaited his report, and, after a long and hearty
+welcome, announced his command to consist of three hundred and fifty
+stout hearts, ready and tried friends to the issues of the war.</p>
+
+<p>The force of the confederates, by this accession, now amounted to about
+fourteen hundred men. It became necessary, at this juncture, to give to
+these separate bands a more compact character, and with that view it was
+indispensable that the command of the whole should be committed to one
+of the present leaders. In the difficulty and delicacy of selecting an
+individual for this duty, the common opinion inclined to the propriety
+of submitting the appointment to General Gates. A messenger was
+accordingly despatched on that night, to repair to the American
+head-quarters at Hillsborough, to present this subject to the attention
+of the General. In the meantime, Shelby, whose claim, perhaps, to the
+honor of leading the expedition was most worthy of consideration, with
+that patriotic and noble postponement of self which occurs so frequently
+in the history of the men of the Revolution, himself suggested the
+expediency of conferring the command upon his friend Campbell, until the
+pleasure of Gates should be known. The suggestion was heartily adopted,
+and Colonel William Campbell was accordingly, from this moment, the
+chosen leader of our gallant and efficient little army.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day the troops were in motion at an early
+hour&mdash;designing to advance, with a steady pace, towards Gilbert-town,
+and thence on the track of the enemy across the border into South
+Carolina. In the course of the forenoon, the vanguard were met by a
+small body of horsemen, whose travel-worn plight and haggard aspects
+showed that they had lately been engaged in severe service. They were
+now in quest of the very party whom they had thus fortunately
+encountered upon the march; and it was with a lively demonstration of
+joy that they now rode with the officer of the guard into the presence
+of Campbell and his staff. Their report announced them to be Major
+Chandler and Captain Johnson, of Clarke's party, who, with thirty
+followers, had been despatched from the western side of the Allegany, to
+announce to the confederated troops the complete success of that
+officer's endeavor to reach the settlements on the Nolachuckie and
+Wattauga rivers. Their tidings were immediately communicated to the
+army; and the deep and earnest interest which officers and men took in
+this agreeable intelligence, was evinced in a spontaneous acclamation
+and cheering from one extremity of the column to the other. The
+messengers proceeded to narrate the particulars of their late hazardous
+expedition, and fully confirmed the most painful anticipations which the
+listeners had previously entertained of the difficulties, toils, and
+sufferings incident to the enterprise. Clarke's soldiers, they further
+reported, were too much disabled to be in condition immediately to
+recross the mountain and unite in the present movement against Ferguson;
+but that, as soon as they should find themselves recruited by needful
+rest, they would lose no time in repairing to the scene of action.</p>
+
+<p>Towards sunset of the succeeding day, our sturdy adventurers entered
+Gilbert-town. This post had been abandoned by Ferguson, and was now in
+the occupation of the two staunch Whig leaders, Brandon and Lacy, at the
+head of about three hundred men, who had repaired thither from the
+adjacent mountains of Rutherford, to await the arrival of Campbell and
+his friends. It was manifest that affairs were rapidly tending towards a
+crisis. Ferguson had hitherto appeared indifferent to the dangers that
+threatened him and his movements indicated either a fatal contempt for
+his adversary, or an ignorance of the extent of his embarrassments&mdash;each
+equally discreditable to the high renown which has been attributed to
+him for careful and bold soldiership.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIII" id="CHAPTER_LIII"></a>CHAPTER LIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MILDRED MEETS AN AGREEABLE ADVENTURE.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>We left Mildred securely lodged with her new and kind-hearted friends,
+under the hospitable roof of the farmer, hard by the Yadkin. The reader
+has, doubtless, found reason in the course of this narrative to marvel
+much that a lady so delicately nurtured should, with so stout a spirit
+and with such singular devotion, have tempted so many dangers, and
+exposed herself to such unwonted hardships, for the sake of the man she
+loved. Perhaps, I might be able to clear up this matter, by referring to
+the extraordinary conjuncture of circumstances that surrounded her. It
+was no secret that she fervently, and with her whole heart,&mdash;yea even
+with a fanatical worship,&mdash;loved the man she sought. Her affection had
+been nursed in solitude, and, like a central fire, glowed with a fervid
+heat, unobserved at first, silent and steady: and by degrees her
+enthusiasm spread its coloring over the passion, and raised it into a
+fanciful but solemn self-dedication. This warmth of feeling might still
+have been witnessed only within her family precinct, had it not been
+that, at a most critical moment, when her father's absence from the Dove
+Cote left her without other resource than her own unaided counsel, she
+was made acquainted that her lover's life was in imminent peril, and
+that a word from her might perhaps avert his doom. We have seen with
+what anxious alacrity she set forth in that emergency upon her
+pilgrimage of duty; and how, as she became familiar with hardship and
+danger, her constancy and resolution still took a higher tone, growing
+more vigorous even with the impediments that lay across her path. This
+may seem strange to our peace-bred dames,&mdash;and little congruous with
+that feminine reserve and shrinkingness which we are wont to praise: but
+war, distress, and disaster work miracles in the female bosom, and
+render that virtuous and seemly, which ease and safety might repel.
+Nature is a wise and cunning charmer, and, in affliction, makes that
+forwardness not unlovely, which in tranquil and happy times she would
+visit with her censure. If these considerations do not suffice to
+explain the present movements of my heroine, I must beg my reader to
+have patience to the end, when, peradventure, he will find a still
+better reason.</p>
+
+<p>When morning came, Mildred was up with the first blush of light. Her
+thoughts had dwelt with a busy restlessness upon the late intelligence,
+and she had slept only in short and disturbed intervals. She was
+impatient to be again upon the road.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, as soon as the preparations for their journey could be
+made, our party, now increased by the addition of Musgrove and his
+daughter, set forward on their travel towards Burk Court House.</p>
+
+<p>This journey was protracted through several days. The disturbed state of
+the country, produced by the active hostilities which were now renewed,
+made it prudent for our wayfarers frequently to halt amongst the
+friendly inhabitants of the region through which they travelled, in
+order to obtain information, or wait for the passage of troops whose
+presence might have caused embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>The considerate kindness of Allen Musgrove, and the unwearied attentions
+of Mary, who, softened by her own griefs, evinced a more touching
+sympathy for the sufferings of Mildred, every day increased the
+friendship which their present companionship had engendered, and greatly
+beguiled the road of its tediousness and discomfort.</p>
+
+<p>The journey, however, was not without its difficulties, nor altogether
+destitute of occurrences of interest to this history. The upper
+districts of North Carolina present to the eye a very beautiful country,
+diversified by mountain and valley, and gifted in general with a rich
+soil. Considerable portions of this region were consequently occupied
+and put into cultivation at an early period of the history of the
+province; and, at the era of the revolution, were noted as the most
+desirable positions for the support of the southern armies. This
+circumstance had drawn the war to that quarter, and had induced a
+frequent struggle to retain a footing there, by each party who came into
+possession of it. Such a state of things had now, as we have before
+remarked, embarrassed the progress of our friends, and had even
+compelled them to diverge largely from the direct route of their
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, a few days after leaving the Yadkin, that the hour of
+sunset found our little troop pursuing a road through the deep and
+gloomy forest, which, for several miles past, had been unrelieved by any
+appearance of human habitation. Neither Horse Shoe nor Allen Musgrove
+possessed any acquaintance with the region, beyond the knowledge that
+they were upon what was called the upper or mountain road that extended
+from Virginia entirely through this section of North Carolina; and that
+they could not be much more than fifteen or twenty miles north of Burk
+Court House. Where they should rest during the night that was now at
+hand, was a matter that depended entirely upon chance; and stimulated by
+the hope of encountering some woodland cabin, they persevered in riding
+forward, even when the fading twilight had so obscured their path as to
+make it a matter of some circumspection to pick their way. Thus the
+night stole upon them almost unawares.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing so melancholy as the deep and lonely forest at night;
+and why it should be so I will not stop to inquire, but that melancholy,
+it seems to me, is enhanced by the chilliness of the autumnal evening.
+The imagination peoples the impenetrable depths of the wood with
+spectres, which the gibbering and shrill reptiles that inhabit these
+recesses seem to invest with a voice; the earth beneath the feet,
+carpeted with "the raven down of darkness," has an indefinite surface
+that causes the traveller to think of pitfalls and sudden banks, and
+fearful quagmires; and the grey light of the glow-worm, or the cold
+gleam of the rotten timber, shine up through the gloom, like some
+witch-taper from a haunted ground. Then, high above the head, the sombre
+forms of the trees nod in the night-wind, and the stars,&mdash;ineffectual to
+guide us on our way&mdash;are seen only in short and rapid glimpses through
+the foliage; all these things affect the mind with sadness, but the
+chattering of the teeth and the cold creep of the blood, rendered
+sluggish by a frosty atmosphere, make it still more sad.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred and Mary Musgrove experienced a full share of these imaginings,
+as they now rode in the dark, side by side; and, peradventure, an
+occasional expression of impatience might have been heard, in whispers,
+between them. By degrees this feeling extended to Henry, and, in due
+course of time, seemed also to have reached the sergeant and the miller;
+for these two, as if suddenly struck with the necessity of making some
+provision for the night, now came to a halt, with a view to inquire into
+the comfort of the weaker members of the troop, and to deliberate on
+what was best to be done. To make a fire, erect a tent, and resort to
+the contents of their havresacks for supper, were the only expedients
+which their situation afforded; and as these arrangements were but the
+customary incidents of travel, in the times to which we refer, they were
+now resolved upon with but little sense of inconvenience or hardship. It
+was proper, however, that the party should encamp in some position where
+they might have water, and, with that object, they continued to move
+forward until they should find themselves in the neighborhood of a
+running stream&mdash;an event that, from the nature of the country, was soon
+likely to occur.</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no moon to-night," said the sergeant, as they rode along
+in quest of their lodging-place, "yet yonder light would look as if she
+was rising. No, it can't be, for it is westward, as I judge, Allen."</p>
+
+<p>"It is westward," replied Musgrove, looking towards a faint light which
+brought the profile of the tree-tops into relief against the horizon.
+"There must be fire in the woods."</p>
+
+<p>The party rode on, all eyes being directed to the phenomenon pointed out
+by Horse Shoe. The light grew broader, and flung a lurid beam towards
+the zenith; and, as the travellers still came nearer, the radiance
+increased, and illuminated the summit of a hill, which, it was now
+apparent, lay between them and the light.</p>
+
+<p>"We must rest here for a while," said the sergeant, reining up his horse
+in a dark and narrow ravine; "the fire is just across this hill in
+front. It would be wise to reconnoitre a little; there may be travellers
+camping on the t'other side, or troops for aught we know; or it may be
+an old fire left by the last persons who passed. You, Allen Musgrove,
+stay here with the women, and I will ride forward to look into the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>Henry accompanied the sergeant, and they both galloped up the hill. When
+they came to the top, a rich and strange prospect broke upon their
+sight. Some three or four hundred yards in advance, at the foot of the
+long slope of the hill, a huge volume of flame was discovered enveloping
+the entire trunk of a tall pine, and blazing forth with sudden flashes
+amongst the withered foliage. The radiance cast around from this
+gigantic torch penetrated the neighboring forest, and lit up the trees
+with a lustre more dazzling than that of day; whilst the strong shades
+brought into such immediate proximity with the sharp, red light, as it
+glanced upon every upright stem or trunk, gave a new and grotesque
+outline to the familiar objects of the wood. The glare fell upon the
+sward of the forest, and towards the rear upon a sheet of water, which
+showed the conflagration to have been kindled on the bank of some river.
+Not less conspicuous than the local features of the scene were the
+figures of a considerable party of soldiers passing to and fro in idle
+disarray through the region of the light, and a short distance from them
+a number of horses attached to the branches of the neighboring trees.
+Horse Shoe and his young companion stood gazing for some moments upon
+the spectacle, the sergeant in silent conjecture and perplexed
+thoughtfulness as to the character of the persons below, Henry intent
+only upon the novel and picturesque beauty of the view.</p>
+
+<p>The light shone directly up the road, and fell upon the persons of our
+two friends, a circumstance to which the sergeant seemed to give no
+heed, until Henry pointed out to him a horseman, from the direction of
+the fire, who was now advancing towards them.</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant, turn back into the shade," cried Henry; "that man is coming
+after us."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your ground," replied Horse Shoe; "he has no ill-will to us. He
+wears the dress of an honest man and a good soldier."</p>
+
+<p>"Who goes there?" called out the horseman, as he now came within
+speaking distance. "Stand and tell me who you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Friends to the hunting-shirt and buck-tail," replied Robinson.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," rejoined the scout, as he advanced still
+nearer. "Where from, and in what direction do you travel?"</p>
+
+<p>"That should be William Scoresby's voice of the Amherst Rangers,"
+shouted Henry, with animation; "as I live, it is the very man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who have we here!" returned the horseman. "Henry Lindsay! our deputy
+corporal! Why, man, where did you spring from?" he added, in a tone of
+joyful surprise, as he offered Henry his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, sister Mildred&mdash;Mr. Musgrove!" exclaimed Henry, calling out at the
+top of his voice to his friends, who were waiting behind for
+intelligence. "Come up&mdash;come up! Here's good luck!"</p>
+
+<p>And with a continued vociferation, he galloped back until he met his
+sister, and conducted her to the top of the hill, whence, following the
+guidance of William Scoresby, the party descended to the bivouac of the
+Amherst Rangers.</p>
+
+<p>Henry eagerly sought out Stephen Foster, and, having brought him into
+the presence of Mildred, received from him a narrative of the course of
+events which had led to this fortunate meeting.</p>
+
+<p>The Rangers had marched from Virginia a few days after Mildred had left
+the Dove Cote. They had fallen in with Gates's shattered army at
+Hillsborough, where, after tarrying almost a fortnight, they were
+furnished an opportunity to take some active share in the operations of
+the day by the enterprise of Shelby against Ferguson, the knowledge of
+which had reached them at Gates's head-quarters, whither a messenger
+from Shelby had come to ask for aid. The Rangers had accordingly
+volunteered for this service, and, with the permission of the general,
+were now on their way towards Burk Court House, there hoping to receive
+intelligence that would enable them to join the allies.</p>
+
+<p>They had for some miles been marching along the same road taken by our
+travellers, not more than two hours ahead of them; and having reached
+the Catawba near sundown, had determined to encamp there for the night.
+The soldiers, unaccustomed to exact discipline, had, in sport, set fire
+to a tall pine which some accident of the storm had killed, and produced
+the conflagration that had lighted Horse Shoe and his charge to the
+scene of the present meeting.</p>
+
+<p>It may be imagined that this incident afforded great satisfaction to
+Mildred and her party, who were thus brought into connexion with a
+numerous body of friends, with whom they determined henceforth to pursue
+their journey. The first good result of this encounter was immediately
+experienced in the comfortable though rude accommodation which the
+prompt and united efforts of the Rangers supplied to Mildred and her
+friend, Mary Musgrove, in enabling them to pass a night of sound and
+healthful sleep.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, the Rangers and their new companions arrived at
+Burk Court House. They were here made acquainted with the fact that the
+mountain troops were at this time moving towards Gilbert-town. They
+accordingly, after a night's rest, resumed their march, and by a
+toilsome journey through a rugged mountain district, succeeded on the
+third evening in reaching the little village which had but a short time
+since been the head-quarters of Ferguson and the spot of Arthur Butler's
+captivity.</p>
+
+<p>They were now in advance of Campbell and his mountaineers; and, in
+waiting for these troops, they were afforded leisure to recruit
+themselves from the effects of their late fatigues. Good quarters were
+obtained for Mildred and her companions. She required repose, and
+profited by the present opportunity to enjoy it.</p>
+
+<p>The village at this moment was full of troops. Brandon and Lacy, with
+their followers, whom we have referred to in the last chapter, were
+already there, in daily expectation of the arrival of the confederates;
+and amongst these men, Sergeant Robinson and his companion, the miller,
+found the means of relieving the tediousness of delay, to say nothing of
+Henry, who had now become so decidedly martial in his inclinations, that
+the camp was to him a scene of never-fading interest.</p>
+
+<p>In two days Campbell's army entered the village, after a march of which
+we have already given a sketch to our reader. It was a duty of early
+concern, on the part of Allen Musgrove and the sergeant, to apprise him
+of the presence of Mildred and her brother, and to communicate to him
+the singular purpose of her mission. The effect of this was a visit by
+Campbell, Shelby, and Williams, to the lady on the evening of their
+arrival. The two latter of these officers had already been personally
+active in the behalf of Arthur Butler, and all felt the liveliest
+interest in his fortunes. The singular relation in which Mildred seemed
+to stand to the captive officer and the extraordinary zeal which her
+present mission betrayed in his cause, drew forth a warm sympathy from
+the generous soldiers around her, and there was even a tincture of the
+romance of chivalry in the fervor with which, on the present visit, they
+pledged themselves to her service. With the delicacy that always belongs
+to honorable and brave hearts, they refrained from inquiry into the
+special inducements which could so earnestly enlist the lady in the
+service of their fellow-soldier, and sedulously strove to raise her
+spirits into a cheerful and happy tone by the hopes they were able to
+inspire.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIV" id="CHAPTER_LIV"></a>CHAPTER LIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>FERGUSON ADVANCES SOUTH.&mdash;HE HAS REASON TO BECOME CIRCUMSPECT.&mdash;ARTHUR
+BUTLER FINDS HIMSELF RETREATING FROM HIS FRIENDS.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>We return for a moment to look after Butler. As near as my information
+enables me to speak&mdash;for I wish to be accurate in dates&mdash;it was about
+the 23d of September when our hero arrived at Gilbert-town, and found
+himself committed to the custody of Ferguson. His situation, in many
+respects uncomfortable, was not altogether without circumstances to
+alleviate the rigor of captivity. Ferguson, though a rough soldier, and
+animated by a zealous partisanship in the royal cause which imbued his
+feelings with a deep hatred of the Whigs, was also a man of education,
+and of a disposition to respect the claims of a gentleman fully equal to
+himself in rank and consideration&mdash;even when these qualities were found
+in an enemy. His intercourse, of late, had been almost entirely confined
+to the wild spirits who inhabited the frontier, and who, impelled by
+untamed passions, were accustomed to plunge into every excess which the
+license of war enabled them to practise. He had, accordingly, adapted
+his behavior to the complexion of this population, and maintained his
+authority, both over his own recruits and such of the opposite party as
+had fallen into his hands, by a severe, and not unfrequently by even a
+cruel bearing. Following the example set him by Cornwallis himself, he
+had more than once executed summary vengeance upon the Whigs whom the
+chances of war had brought into his power; or, what was equally
+reprehensible, had allowed the Tory bands who had enlisted under his
+banner, to gratify their own thirst of blood in the most revolting
+barbarities. Towards Butler, however, he demeaned himself with more
+consideration&mdash;and sometimes even extended to him such little courtesies
+as might be indulged without risk to the principal purpose of his safe
+custody. A separate room was provided for the prisoner, and he was
+allowed the occasional services of Harry Winter and the other companions
+of his late misfortune. Still, the familiar scenes of suffering and
+death which Butler was constrained to witness amongst his compatriots,
+and the consciousness of his own inability to avert these calamities,
+greatly weighed upon his spirits. His persuasion, too, that Ferguson was
+now aiding, by what seemed to be a most effectual participation, in the
+plan for the capture of Clarke, and his belief that this blow would
+sadly afflict, if not altogether dishearten the friends of independence
+in the South, added to his private grief. He knew nothing of the
+mustering of the mountaineers, and saw no hope of extrication from the
+difficulties that threatened to overwhelm his cause.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the condition of Butler during the first four or five days of
+his captivity at Gilbert-town. At the end of this period, circumstances
+occurred to raise in his bosom the most lively excitement. Suddenly, an
+order was issued for the immediate movement of the army southwards&mdash;and
+the prisoners were directed to accompany the march. It was apparent that
+information of importance had been received, and that some decisive
+event was at hand. When, in pursuance of this command, the troops were
+marshalled for their journey, and Butler was stationed in the column,
+along with all the other prisoners of the post, he was startled to
+observe the dragoon, James Curry, appear in the ranks, as one regularly
+attached to the corps. Butler had seen nor heard nothing of this man
+since he had parted from him at Blackstock's after the battle of
+Musgrove's mill; and his conviction, that, acting under the control of
+some higher authority, this individual had been the principal agent in
+his present misfortunes, gave him a painful anxiety in regard to the
+future. This anxiety was far from being diminished, when he now
+discovered that the same person, with a party of dragoons, was specially
+intrusted with his guardianship. Winter and the other troopers who had,
+until this moment, been allowed to keep him company, were now directed
+to take a station amongst the common prisoners, and Butler was furnished
+with his horse, and commanded to submit to the particular supervision
+of the dragoon. These arrangements being made, the march of Ferguson
+commenced.</p>
+
+<p>The army moved cautiously towards the upper sections of the district of
+Ninety-Six. It was evident to Butler, from the frequent hints dropped in
+conversation by the royalist officers, that Ferguson supposed himself to
+be getting every moment nearer to Clarke. In this state of suspense and
+weariness the first day's march was concluded.</p>
+
+<p>The second was like the first. Ferguson still moved south, slowly, but
+steadily. Every man that was met upon the road was questioned by the
+commanding officer, to ascertain whether there was any report of troops
+westward. "Had any crossed Saluda&mdash;or been heard of towards the
+mountains!"&mdash;was an invariable interrogatory.</p>
+
+<p>None, that the person questioned knew of&mdash;was the common reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Tush! the devil's in it, that we can hear nothing of the fellow!"
+exclaimed Ferguson, after the fifth or sixth wayfarer had been examined.
+"Clarke and his beggars are flesh and blood&mdash;they travel by land, and
+not through the air! Faith, I begin to think Cruger has saved us
+trouble, and has got his hand on the runaway's croup! James Curry."</p>
+
+<p>The dragoon rode to the front and bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"You left Fort Ninety-Six only on Wednesday?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Where was Cruger then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Marching towards Saluda, with Brown&mdash;following Clarke, as it was
+supposed&mdash;but on rather a cold scent as one of the couriers reported."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! I must get still nearer to the mountains," said Ferguson, as he
+clenched his teeth and seemed absorbed in thought.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time after this, the column diverged from their former course
+by a road that led westward.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the second day.</p>
+
+<p>During the next two days, Ferguson had become manifestly more
+circumspect in his movement, and spent the greater portion of this
+interval upon a road which was said to extend from Ninety-Six, to the
+Allegany mountain. Here he remained, with the wariness of the tiger
+that prepares to spring upon his prey; and it was with a petulant temper
+that, after this anxious watch for forty-eight hours, he turned upon his
+heel and summoned his officers around him, and announced his
+determination to penetrate still further into the forest. Like a man
+perplexed and peevish with crosses, he soon changed his mind, and
+ordered a lieutenant of cavalry into his presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Take six of your best appointed men," he said, "and send one half of
+them up this road towards the mountains&mdash;the other half southwards&mdash;and
+command them not to stop until they bring me some news of this
+night-hawk, Clarke. Let them be trusty men that you can depend upon. I
+will wait but twenty-four hours for them. Meantime," he added, turning
+to another officer present, "I will send a courier after Cruger, who
+shall find him if he is above ground."</p>
+
+<p>The following day&mdash;which brings us to the third of October&mdash;a decisive
+change took place in the aspect of affairs. Before either of the scouts
+that had been lately despatched had returned, a countryman was brought
+into Ferguson's camp, who, being submitted to the usual minute
+examination, informed the questioners, that some thirty miles, in the
+direction of Fort Ninety-Six, he had met upon the road a large party of
+cavalry under the command of Colonel Williams&mdash;and that that officer had
+shown great anxiety to learn whether certain Whig troops had been seen
+near Gilbert-town. The informant added, that "Williams appeared to him
+to be strangely particular in his inquiries about Ferguson."</p>
+
+<p>This intelligence seemed suddenly to awaken the British partisan from a
+dream. He was now one hundred miles south of Cornwallis; and, both east
+and west of the line of communication between them, it was apparent that
+hostile parties were assembling, with a view to some united action
+against him. It struck him now, for the first time, that an enemy might
+be thrown between the main army at Charlotte and his detachment, and
+thus cause him some embarrassment in his retreat&mdash;but it was still with
+the scorn of a presumptuous soldier that he recurred to the possibility
+of his being forced to fight his way.</p>
+
+<p>"They are for turning the tables on me," he said, in a tone of
+derision, "and hope to pounce upon my back while I am taken up with this
+half-starved and long-legged fellow of the mountains, But I will show
+them who is master yet!"</p>
+
+<p>In this temper he commenced his retreat, which was conducted slowly and
+obstinately; and it may be supposed that Butler, as he involuntarily
+followed the fortunes of his enemy, contemplated these movements with an
+anxious interest. The common report of the camp made him acquainted with
+the circumstances which had recommended the retreat, and he, therefore,
+watched the course of events in momentary expectation of some incident
+of great importance to himself.</p>
+
+<p>At night Ferguson arrived at the Cowpens, just twenty-four hours in
+advance of his enemies. Whilst resting here he received intelligence of
+the stout array that had lately assembled at Gilbert-town, and which, he
+was now told, were in full pursuit of him. It was, at first, with an
+incredulous ear that he heard the report of the numbers of this
+suddenly-levied mountain-army. It seemed incredible that such a host
+could have been convened in such brief space and with such secret
+expedition; and even more unworthy of belief, that they could have been
+found in the wild and thinly-peopled regions of the Allegany. His doubt,
+however, yielded to his fear, and induced him to accelerate his pace.</p>
+
+<p>His first care was to despatch, on that night, a courier to Cornwallis,
+to inform the general of his situation and ask for reinforcements. The
+letter which bore this request is still extant, and will show that even
+in the difficult juncture in which we have presented the writer of it,
+his boastful confidence had not abandoned him.</p>
+
+<p>Before the succeeding dawn he was again in motion, directing his hasty
+march towards the Cherokee Ford of Broad river. This point he reached at
+sundown. His journey had been pursued, thus far, with unremitting
+industry. If his motions had corresponded to his affected disesteem of
+his enemy, he would here have halted for rest; but, like one who flies
+with the superstitious dread of a goblin follower, the retreating
+partisan looked over his shoulder with an unquiet spirit, and made a
+sign to his companions still to press forward. They crossed the river at
+night, and did not halt again until they had traversed some six or eight
+miles beyond the further bank.</p>
+
+<p>The anxiety, suspense, and eager expectation of Butler increased with
+these thickening demonstrations of the approach of a period which he
+foresaw must be decisive, not only of his own hopes, but, in a great
+degree, of the hopes of his country. The retreat of Ferguson towards
+King's Mountain, which now lay but a few miles in advance, was a visible
+and most striking type of the vanishing power which for a brief
+half-year had maintained its domination over the free spirits of the
+south, and which had aimed, by a cruel and bloody rule, to extinguish
+all that was generous and manly in these afflicted provinces.</p>
+
+<p>Contenting myself with this rapid survey of events which, of themselves,
+possess an interest that would, if time and space permitted me, have
+justified the detail of a volume, I go back to the regular current of my
+story.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LV" id="CHAPTER_LV"></a>CHAPTER LV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WHIGS CONTINUE THEIR MARCH.&mdash;MILDRED IS LEFT BEHIND.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The army of mountaineers halted at Gilbert-town only until a vidette
+from Williams brought tidings of Ferguson's late movements. These
+reached Campbell early in the day succeeding his arrival at the village,
+and apprised him that Williams followed on the footsteps of the British
+partisan, and would expect to unite his force with that of the allied
+volunteers at the Cowpens&mdash;(a field not yet distinguished in
+story)&mdash;whither he expected to arrive on the following day. Campbell
+determined, in consequence, to hasten to this quarter.</p>
+
+<p>The present position of Mildred, notwithstanding the kind sympathy with
+which every one regarded her, was one that wrought severely upon her
+feelings. She had heretofore encountered the hardships of her journey,
+and borne herself through the trials, so unaccustomed to her sex, with a
+spirit that had quailed before no obstacle. But now, finding herself in
+the train of an army just moving forth to meet its enemy, with all the
+vicissitudes and peril of battle in prospect, it was with a sinking of
+the heart she had not hitherto known, that she felt herself called upon
+to choose between the alternative of accompanying them in their march,
+or being left behind. To adopt the first resolve, she was painfully
+conscious would bring her to witness scenes, and perhaps endure
+privations, the very thought of which made her shudder; whilst, to
+remain at a distance from the theatre of events in which she was so
+deeply concerned, was a thought that suggested many anxious fears, not
+less intolerable than the untried sufferings of the campaign. She had,
+thus far, braved all dangers for the sake of being near to Butler; and
+now to hesitate or stay her step, when she had almost reached the very
+spot of his captivity, and when the fortunes of war might soon throw her
+into his actual presence, seemed to her like abandoning her duty at the
+most critical moment of trial. She was aware that he was in the camp of
+the enemy; that this enemy was likely to be overtaken and brought to
+combat; and it was with a magnified terror that she summoned up to her
+imagination the possible mischances which might befal Arthur Butler in
+the infliction of some summary act of vengeance provoked by the
+exasperation of conflict. "I have tempted the dangers of flood and storm
+for him&mdash;of forest and field&mdash;noon-day battle and midnight assault," she
+said, with an earnestness that showed she had shaken all doubts from her
+mind; "I have taken my vow of devotion to his safety&mdash;to be performed
+with such fidelity as befits the sacred bond between us. I will not
+blench now, in the last struggle, though perils thicken around me. I'm
+prepared for the worst."</p>
+
+<p>Allen Musgrove, Robinson, and Henry combated this resolve with joint
+expostulation, urging upon Mildred the propriety of her tarrying in the
+village, at least until the active operations of the army were
+terminated&mdash;an event that might be expected in a few days. But it was
+not until Campbell himself remonstrated with her against the
+indiscretion of her purpose, and promised to afford her the means of
+repairing to the scene of action at any moment she might think her
+presence there useful, that she relinquished her determination to
+accompany the army on its present expedition. It was, in consequence,
+ultimately arranged that she should remain in the quarters provided for
+her in Gilbert-town, attended by the miller and his daughter, whilst a
+few soldiers were to be detailed as a guard for her person. With this
+train of attendants, she was to be left at liberty to draw as near to
+the centre of events as her considerate and faithful counsellor, Allen
+Musgrove, might deem safe.</p>
+
+<p>Another source of uneasiness to her arose out of the separation which
+she was about to endure from the sergeant and her brother Henry. Horse
+Shoe, swayed by an irresistible and affectionate longing to be present
+at the expected passage of arms, which might so materially affect the
+fortunes of his captive fellow-soldier, Butler, had represented to
+Mildred the value of the services he might be able to render; and as
+the friendly solicitude of the miller and his daughter left nothing
+within their power to be supplied, towards the comfort and protection
+of the lady, she did not refuse her consent to this temporary
+desertion&mdash;although it naturally awakened some painful sense of
+bereavement, at a moment when her excited feelings most required the
+consolation of friends.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, captivated with the prospect of military adventure, and magnified
+in his own esteem by the importance which Stephen Foster and the Rangers
+playfully assigned to his position in the ranks, had so far lost sight
+of the special duty he had assumed, as his sister's companion, that he
+now resolutely rebelled against all attempts to persuade him to remain
+in the village; and Mildred, at last, upon the pledge of the sergeant to
+keep the cadet under his own eye, reluctantly yielded to a demand which
+she found it almost impossible to resist.</p>
+
+<p>These matters being settled, it was not long before Mildred and Mary
+Musgrove, seated at the window of the house which had been selected as
+their present abode, saw the long array of the army glide by at a brisk
+pace, and watched the careless and laughing faces of the soldiers, as
+they filed off through the only street in the village, and took the high
+road leading south.</p>
+
+<p>The troops had been gone for several hours, and Allen Musgrove and the
+few soldiers who had been left behind, had scattered themselves over the
+village, to get rid of the tedium of idleness in the gossip of the scant
+population which the place afforded. Mildred had retired to a chamber,
+and Mary loitered from place to place like one disturbed with care. All
+the party felt that deep sense of loneliness which is so acutely
+perceptible to those who suddenly change a life of toil and incident for
+one of rest, while events of busy interest are in expectation.</p>
+
+<p>"They are gone, ma'am," said Mary, as she now crept into Mildred's
+presence, after having travelled over nearly the whole village, in the
+state of disquietude I have described; "they are gone at least twenty
+miles, I should think, by this time; and I never would have believed
+that I could have cared so much about people I never saw before. But we
+are so lonesome, ma'am. And young Mister Henry Lindsay, I should say,
+must be getting tired by this time of day. As for the matter of that,
+people may get tireder by standing still than by going on."</p>
+
+<p>"How far do they march to-day?" inquired Mildred; "have you heard your
+father say, Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard him and the troopers who are here allow," replied the maiden,
+"that Colonel Campbell wouldn't reach Colonel Williams before to-morrow
+afternoon. They said it was good fifty miles' travel. They look like
+brave men&mdash;them that marched this morning, ma'am; for they went out with
+good heart. The Lord send that through Him they may be the means of
+deliverance to Major Butler!"</p>
+
+<p>At the mention of this name, Mildred covered her face with her hands,
+and the tears trickled through her fingers. "The Lord send it!" she
+repeated, after a moment's pause. "May He, in his mercy, come to our
+aid!" Then uncovering her face, and dropping on her knees beside her
+chair, she whispered a prayer for the success of those who had lately
+marched forth against the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>When she arose from this posture, she went to the window, and there
+stood gazing out upon the quiet and unfrequented street, running over in
+her mind the perils to which her brother as well as Butler might be
+exposed, and summoning to her imagination the thousand subjects of
+solicitude, which her present state of painful expectation might be
+supposed to create or recall.</p>
+
+<p>"We will set forth early to-morrow," she said, addressing herself to her
+companion, "so tell your father, Mary. We will follow the brave friends
+who have left us: I cannot be content to linger behind them. I will
+sleep in the lowliest hovel, or in the common shelter of the woods, and
+share all the dangers of the march, rather than linger here in this
+dreadful state of doubt and silence. Tell your father to make his
+preparations for our departure to-morrow: tell him I cannot abide
+another day in this place."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think we might creep near them, ma'am," replied Mary, "near
+enough to see and hear what was going on&mdash;which is always a great
+satisfaction, and not get ourselves into trouble neither. I am sure my
+father would be very careful of us, and keep us out of harm's way, come
+what would. And it is distressing to be so far off, when you don't know
+what's going to turn up. I will seek my father&mdash;who I believe is over
+yonder with the troopers at the shop, talking to the blacksmith&mdash;I will
+go there and try to coax him to do your bidding. I know the troopers
+want it more than we do, and they'll say a word to help it along."</p>
+
+<p>"Say I desire to have it so, Mary. I can take no refusal. Here I will
+not stay longer."</p>
+
+<p>Mary left the apartment, and as she descended the steps, she fell into a
+rumination which arrested her progress full five minutes, during which
+she remained mute upon the stair-case. "No wonder the poor dear lady
+wishes to go!" was the ejaculation which came at last sorrowfully from
+her heart, with a long sigh, and at the same time tears began to flow:
+"no wonder she wants to be near Major Butler, who loves her past the
+telling of it. If John Ramsay was there," she added, sobbing, "I would
+have followed him&mdash;followed him&mdash;yes, if I died for it."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVI" id="CHAPTER_LVI"></a>CHAPTER LVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>AFFAIRS BEGIN TO DRAW TO A HEAD. PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE. A PICTURE OF
+THE TWO ARMIES.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>After leaving Gilbert-town, Campbell moved steadily toward the point at
+which he proposed to meet Williams, and by night-fall had accomplished
+about one half of the journey. The march furnished Henry Lindsay
+unalloyed pleasure. Every incident belonging to it awakened the fancies
+which he had indulged in reference to military life, and he was
+delighted in the contemplation of this actual accomplishment of some of
+the many dreams of glory which his boyish romance had engendered at
+home. Besides, being a favorite of those in command, he was allowed to
+ride in the ranks whenever it suited his pleasure, and to amuse himself
+with what subject of interest the journey afforded; whilst, at the same
+time, he found his personal ease so much attended to as to leave him but
+little room to complain of the discomfort or toil of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>The night was spent in the woods, and it was scarcely daybreak, when the
+exhilarating though harsh clamor of the horns summoned the troops to the
+renewal of their journey, which was pursued until the afternoon, when,
+about four o'clock, they reached the border of the tract of country
+known as the Cowpens. Afar off, occupying a piece of elevated ground,
+Campbell was enabled to descry a considerable body of cavalry, whose
+standard, dress, and equipment, even at this distance, sufficiently made
+known to him their friendly character,&mdash;a fact that was immediately
+afterwards confirmed by the report of some videttes, who had been
+stationed upon the road by which Campbell advanced. A brief interval
+brought the two parties together, and the force of the allied bands was
+thus augmented by the addition of our gallant friend Williams, at the
+head of four hundred sturdy companions.</p>
+
+<p>"Make a short speech of it," said Shelby, addressing Williams, after
+that officer had ridden into the circle of his comrades, and had
+exchanged with them a friendly greeting, "you have been busy,
+fellow-soldier, whilst we were waiting to see the grass grow. What has
+become of the runaway?"</p>
+
+<p>"He left this spot but yesterday," replied Williams; "Ferguson has
+something of the bull-dog in him: his retreat, now that he is forced to
+it, is surly and slow; he stops to snarl and growl as if he defied us to
+follow him. If he had but stood his ground here, we should have had him
+in as pretty a field as one might desire. Devil thank him for his
+prudence! But he is now at the Cherokee Ford of Broad river&mdash;so I
+conjecture, by the report of my scouts&mdash;hard upon thirty miles from
+here, on his way towards Charlotte."</p>
+
+<p>"Say you so?" exclaimed Campbell; "then, by my faith, we have no time to
+lose! Gentlemen, we will rest but an hour, and then to it, for a night
+march. Pick me out your best men and stoutest horses; leave the footmen
+behind, and the weakest of the cavalry. This fellow may take it into his
+head to show his heels. If I can but tread upon the tail of the
+copperhead with one foot, he will throw himself into his coil for
+fight,&mdash;that's the nature of the beast,&mdash;and after that, if need be, we
+can threaten him until all our force arrives. Shelby, look to the
+immediate execution of this order."</p>
+
+<p>"That's glorious, sergeant," said Henry, who, with his companion,
+Robinson, had stolen up to the skirts of the circle of officers during
+this conference, and had heard Campbell's order. "I am of this party,
+whoever goes. Colonel Campbell," he added, with the familiarity of his
+privilege, "the Rangers are ready for you, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a mettlesome colt," said Campbell, laughing and speaking to the
+officers around him, "that bird shows fight before his spurs are grown.
+Pray, sir," he continued, addressing Henry, "what command have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I consider myself answerable for the second platoon of the Amherst
+Rangers," replied Henry, with a waggish sauciness, "and they march this
+night, whatever happens."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall serve with me in the staff, master," said Campbell,
+playfully, "such fiery young blades must be looked after. Get your men
+ready; you shall go, I promise you."</p>
+
+<p>Henry, delighted at the notice he had received, rode off with alacrity
+to spread the news.</p>
+
+<p>The council broke up, and the earliest arrangements were set on foot to
+make the draught required by the general orders.</p>
+
+<p>Before the day had departed, nine hundred picked men, well mounted and
+equipped, were seen spurring forward from the line, and taking a
+position in the column of march, which was now prepared to move. All the
+principal officers of the army accompanied this detachment, in which
+were to be seen the Amherst Rangers with their redoubtable recruits,
+Henry Lindsay and the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>It rained during the night, a circumstance that, however it increased
+the toils of the soldiers, but little abated their speed&mdash;and, an hour
+before daybreak, they had reached the destined point on Broad river: but
+the game had disappeared. Ferguson, as we have seen, had pushed his
+march on the preceding evening beyond this spot, and had taken the road,
+as it was reported, towards King's mountain, which was not above twelve
+miles distant.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours were given by Campbell to the refreshment of his troops, who
+halted upon the bank of the river, where, having kindled their fires and
+opened their wallets, they soon found themselves in a condition that
+pleasantly contrasted with the discomforts of their ride during the
+night. The enemy consisted principally of infantry&mdash;and Campbell, having
+gained so closely upon their footsteps, felt no doubt of overtaking them
+in the course of the day. He, therefore, determined to allow his men
+full time to recruit their strength for the approaching conflict.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had ceased before the dawn. The clouds had fled from the
+firmament before a brisk and enlivening autumnal breeze, and the sun
+rose with unusual splendor. It was one of those days which belong to
+October, clear, cool, and exhilarating&mdash;when all animal nature seems to
+be invigorated by breathing an atmosphere of buoyant health. For more
+than an hour after the sun had cast his broad beams over the landscape,
+the wearied encampment was seen stretched in slumber&mdash;the camp-guards
+only, and some occasional parties on fatigue service, were to be
+observed in motion. By degrees, the drowsy soldiers woke up, refreshed
+by the change of weather, no less than by the repose which they had
+snatched in the short moments of the halt. A general summons, at last,
+brought every one into motion. By nine o'clock of the morning, the army
+were in condition to prosecute their march, as little wanting in
+alacrity or vigor as when they first commenced their labors; and, at the
+hour designated, they were seen to prick forth upon their way with an
+elastic movement that had in it the vivacity of a holiday sport. Even
+our young martialist, Henry, had become so inured to the toils of the
+road, that now, with the aid of a sleep which Horse Shoe had
+affectionately guarded until the last moment&mdash;to say nothing of a good
+luncheon of broiled venison, which the boy discussed after he had
+mounted into his saddle&mdash;he might be considered the most light-hearted
+of the host.</p>
+
+<p>Towards noon, the army reached the neighborhood of King's mountain. The
+scouts and parties of the advance had brought information that Ferguson
+had turned aside from his direct road, and taken post upon this
+eminence, where, it was evident, he meant to await the attack of his
+enemy. Campbell, therefore, lost no time in pushing forward, and was
+soon rewarded with a view of the object of his pursuit. Some two or
+three miles distant, where an opening through the forest first gave him
+a sight of the mass of highland, he could indistinctly discern the array
+of the adverse army perched on the very summit of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>The mountain consists of an elongated ridge, rising out of the bosom of
+an uneven country, to the height of perhaps five hundred feet, and
+presenting a level line of summit or crest, from which the earth slopes
+down, at its southward termination and on each side, by an easy descent;
+whilst northward, it is detached from highlands of inferior elevation by
+a rugged valley&mdash;thus giving it the character of an insulated
+promontory, not exceeding half a mile in length. At the period to which
+our story refers, it was covered, except in a few patches of barren
+field or broken ground, with a growth of heavy timber, which was so far
+free from underwood as in no great degree to embarrass the passage of
+horsemen; and through this growth the eye might distinguish, at a
+considerable distance, the occasional masses of grey rock that were
+scattered in huge boulders over its summit and sides.</p>
+
+<p>The adjacent region, lying south from the mountain, was partially
+cleared and in cultivation, presenting a limited range of open ground,
+over which the march of Campbell might have been revealed in frequent
+glimpses to the British partisan, for some three or four miles. We may
+suppose, therefore, that the two antagonists watched each other, during
+the advance of the approaching army across this district, with emotions
+of various and deep interest. Campbell drew at length into a ravine
+which, bounded by low and short hills, and shaded by detached portions
+of the forest, partly concealed his troops from the view of the enemy,
+who was now not more than half a mile distant. The gorge of this dell or
+narrow valley opened immediately towards the southern termination of the
+mountain; and the column halted a short distance within, where a bare
+knoll, or round, low hill, crowned with rock, jutted abruptly over the
+road, and constituted the only impediment that prevented each party from
+inspecting the array of his opponent.</p>
+
+<p>It was an hour after noon, and the present halt was improved by the men
+in making ready for battle. Meanwhile, the chief officers met together
+in front, and employed their time in surveying the localities of the
+ground upon which they were soon to be brought to action. The knoll, I
+have described, furnished a favorable position for this observation, and
+thither they had already repaired.</p>
+
+<p>I turn from the graver and more important matters which may be supposed
+to have occupied the thoughts of the leaders, as they were grouped
+together on the broad rock, to a subject which was, at this moment,
+brought to their notice by the unexpected appearance of two females on
+horseback, on the road, a full half mile in the rear of the army, and
+who were now approaching at a steady pace. They were attended by a man
+who, even thus far off, showed the sedateness of age; and, a short space
+behind them, rode a few files of troopers in military array.</p>
+
+<p>It was with mingled feelings of surprise and admiration at the courage
+which could have prompted her, at such a time, to visit the army, that
+the party recognised Mildred Lindsay and her attendants, in the
+approaching cavalcade. These emotions were expressed by them in the
+rough and hearty phrase of their habitual and familiar intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me beg, gentlemen," said Campbell, interrupting them, "that you
+speak kindly and considerately of yonder lady. By my honor, I have never
+seen man or woman with a more devoted or braver heart. Poor girl!&mdash;she
+has nobly followed Butler through his afflictions, and taken her share
+of suffering with a spirit that should bring us all to shame. Horse Shoe
+Robinson, who has squired her to our camp, even from her father's house,
+speaks of a secret between her and our captive friend, that tells
+plainly enough to my mind of sworn faith and long-tried love. As men and
+soldiers, we should reverence it. Williams, look carefully to her
+comfort and safety. Go, man, at once, and meet her on the road. God
+grant that this day may bring an end to her grief!"</p>
+
+<p>Williams departed on his mission, and when he met the lady her brother
+and the sergeant were already in her train.</p>
+
+<p>Allen Musgrove explained the cause of this unlooked-for apparition. The
+party, in obedience to Mildred's urgent wish, and scarcely less to the
+content of all the others, had quitted their secluded position at
+Gilbert-town on the preceding morning; and learning in the course of the
+day from persons on the road, that Ferguson had moved northwards, the
+miller had taken a direction across the country which enabled him to
+intercept the army at its present post, with little more than half the
+travel which the circuitous route of the march had required. They had
+passed the night under a friendly roof some ten or twelve miles distant,
+and had overtaken their companions at the critical moment at which they
+have been introduced to view.</p>
+
+<p>At Mildred's request she was conducted into the presence of Campbell,
+who still retained his station on the knoll. A thoughtful and amiable
+deference was manifested towards her by the assembled soldiers, who
+received her with many kind and encouraging greetings. That air of
+perturbation and timidity which, in spite of all efforts at
+self-control, the novelty of her position and the consciousness of the
+dreadful scene at hand had thrown over her demeanor, gradually began to
+give way before the assurances and sympathy of her friends; and, at
+length, she became sufficiently self-possessed to look around her and
+mark the events that were in progress.</p>
+
+<p>The important moment of battle drew nigh, and the several leaders
+respectively took their leave of her, with an exhortation to be of good
+cheer, and to remain at her present post under the charge of her trusty
+companion, the miller, who was fully instructed by Campbell as to the
+course he should take for the lady's safety, in whatever emergency might
+arise.</p>
+
+<p>Here we leave her for a moment, whilst we cast a glance at the
+preparations for battle.</p>
+
+<p>It was three o'clock before these arrangements were completed. I have
+informed my reader that the mountain terminated immediately in front of
+the outlet from the narrow dell in which Campbell's army had halted, its
+breast protruding into the plain only some few hundred paces from the
+head of the column, whilst the valley, that forked both right and left,
+afforded an easy passage along the base on either side. Ferguson
+occupied the very summit, and now frowned upon his foe from the midst of
+a host confident in the strength of their position, and exasperated by
+the pursuit which had driven them into this fastness.</p>
+
+<p>Campbell resolved to assail this post by a spirited attack, at the same
+moment, in front and on the two flanks. With this intent his army was
+divided into three equal parts. The centre was reserved to himself and
+Shelby; the right was assigned to Sevier and M'Dowell; the left to
+Cleveland and Williams. These two latter parties were to repair to their
+respective sides of the mountain, and the whole were to make the onset
+by scaling the heights as nearly as possible at the same instant.</p>
+
+<p>The men, before they marched out of the ravine, had dismounted and
+picqueted their horses under the winding shelter of the hills; and,
+being now separated into detached columns formed in solid order, they
+were put in motion to reach their allotted posts. The Amherst Rangers
+were retained on horseback for such duty as might require speed, and
+were stationed close in the rear of Campbell's own division, which now
+merely marched from behind the shelter of the knoll and halted in the
+view of the enemy, until sufficient delay should be afforded to the
+flanking divisions to attain their ground.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred, attended by Allen Musgrove and his daughter, still maintained
+her position on the knoll, and from this height surveyed the
+preparations for combat with a beating heart. The scene within her view
+was one of intense occupation. The air of stern resolve that sat upon
+every brow; the silent but onward movement of the masses of men
+advancing to conflict; the few brief and quick words of command that
+fell from the distance upon her ear; the sullen beat of the hoof upon
+the sod, as an occasional horseman sped to and fro between the more
+remote bodies and the centre division, which yet stood in compact
+phalanx immediately below her at the foot of the hill; then the
+breathless anxiety of her companions near at hand, and the short note of
+dread, and almost terror, that now and then escaped from the lips of
+Mary Musgrove, as the maiden looked eagerly and fearfully abroad over
+the plain; all these incidents wrought upon her feelings and caused her
+to tremble. Yet, amidst these novel emotions, she was not insensible to
+a certain lively and even pleasant interest, arising out of the
+picturesque character of the spectacle. The gay sunshine striking aslant
+these moving battalions, lighting up their fringed and many-colored
+hunting-shirts, and casting a golden hue upon their brown and
+weather-beaten faces, brought out into warm relief the chief
+characteristics of this peculiar woodland army. And Mildred sometimes
+forgot her fears in the fleeting inspiration of the sight, as she
+watched the progress of an advancing column&mdash;at one time moving in close
+ranks, with the serried thicket of rifles above their heads, and at
+another deploying into files to pass some narrow path, along which, with
+trailed arms and bodies bent, they sped with the pace of hunters beating
+the hill-side for game. The tattered and service-stricken banner that
+shook its folds in the wind above these detached bodies, likewise lent
+its charm of association to the field the silence and steadfastness of
+the array in which it was borne, and its constant onward motion; showing
+it to be encircled by strong arms and stout hearts.</p>
+
+<p>Turning from these, the lady's eye was raised, with a less joyous
+glance, towards the position of the enemy. On the most prominent point
+of the mountain's crest she could descry the standard of England
+fluttering above a concentrated body, whose scarlet uniforms, as the sun
+glanced upon them through the forest, showed that here Ferguson had
+posted his corps of regulars, and held them ready to meet the attack of
+the centre division of the assailants; whilst the glittering of bayonets
+amidst the dark foliage, at intervals, rearward along the line of the
+summit, indicated that heavy detachments were stationed in this quarter
+to guard the flanks. The marching and countermarching of the frequent
+corps, from various positions on the summit; the speeding of officers on
+horseback, and the occasional movement of small squadrons of dragoons,
+who were at one moment seen struggling along the sides of the mountain,
+and, at another, descending towards the base or returning to the summit,
+disclosed the earnestness and activity of the preparation with which a
+courageous soldier may be supposed to make ready for his foe.</p>
+
+<p>It was with a look of sorrowful concern which brought tears into her
+eyes, that Mildred gazed upon this host, and strained her vision in the
+vain endeavor to catch some evidences of the presence of Arthur Butler.</p>
+
+<p>"We both look, perchance," she said to herself, "at this very instant,
+upon yon hateful banner&mdash;and with the same aversion: but oh, with what
+more painful apprehension it is my fortune to behold it! Little does he
+think that Mildred's eyes are turned upon it. 'Tis well he does not&mdash;his
+noble heart would chafe itself with ten-fold anguish at the cruel
+thraldom that separates us. Yes, 'tis well he does not dream that his
+Mildred is here to witness this dreadful struggle," she continued,
+musing over the subject of her grief, "it might tempt him to some rash
+endeavor to break his bondage. It is better as it is; the misery of the
+thought of our afflictions should be mine only; the brave patience of a
+manly soldier is his, and should not be embittered with sorrows that
+belong not to the perils of war."</p>
+
+<p>"Sister," said Henry, who had stolen up the hill unobserved, and now
+stood beside Mildred, "take courage and keep a good heart! The very day
+I often prayed to see has come&mdash;and it has come sooner than you promised
+it should. Here I am in the field, amongst men, and no play-game is it,
+either, to keep us busy, but downright earnest battle. And then, dear
+sister, you are here to look on&mdash;isn't that a piece of good luck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, brother, I could talk to you with a boastful tongue when all
+around us was peace and security. I cannot exhort you now. If I dare, I
+would beg you to stay by my side. I have need of your comfort, and
+shudder with a chilly fear. Henry, that small hand of yours can do no
+service to-day&mdash;and in truth, I cannot bear to see you exposed to
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>"In tears, sister! Come now, this is not like you. Hasn't Arthur fought
+many a day and often? And didn't you set him on, with good brave words
+for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was not there to see him," interrupted Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sister, I must get to my post," said Henry. "I serve as
+aide-de-camp, and Horse Shoe is to help me. By-the-by, Mildred, the
+sergeant is uncommonly silent and busy to-day. He smells this battle
+like an old soldier, and I heard him give a few hints to Campbell,
+concerning the marching up yonder hill:&mdash;he told him the column should
+not display until they got near the top, as Ferguson has no cannon; and
+the Colonel took it very gladly. Horse Shoe, moreover, thinks we will
+beat them&mdash;and the men have great dependence on what he says. I shall
+not lose sight of him to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"For Heaven's sake, Henry," exclaimed Mildred, "my dear brother, do not
+think of following the sergeant! I cannot part with you," she added,
+with great earnestness; "it is an awful time for brother and sister to
+separate&mdash;stay with me."</p>
+
+<p>The cadet turned a look upon his sister of surprise, at the new light in
+which her present fears represented her.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought, Mildred," he said, "you were brave. Hav'n't we come all this
+way from home to assist Butler? And are you now, for the first
+time&mdash;just when we are going to pluck him from the midst of the wolves
+upon that mountain&mdash;are you now to weep and play the coward, sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go, go!" said Mildred, as she covered her eyes with her hand, "but,
+dear Henry, remember you have a weak arm and a slender frame, and are
+not expected to take upon you the duties of a man."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," said Mary Musgrove, who had been a silent and perplexed
+witness of this scene, and who now put in her word of counsel, out of
+the fulness of her heart, "besides, Mister Henry Lindsay, what trouble
+would it give to Sergeant Robinson, and all the rest of them, if you
+should get lost scampering about the hills, and they shouldn't know
+where to find you? It would take up so much of their precious time in
+looking for you: and, I am sure, they hav'n't much to spare!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are as valiant as a mouse," replied Henry, laughing, "and monstrous
+wise, Mary Musgrove. Do you take care of my sister, and speak a word now
+and then to keep up her spirits&mdash;that is, if your tongue doesn't grow
+too thick with fright. Your teeth chatter now. A kiss, Mildred. There:
+God bless you! I must get to my post."</p>
+
+<p>With these words, Henry bounded off towards the valley to rejoin his
+comrades. Half way, he met Allen Musgrove, who was now on his return to
+the top of the hill, whence he had withdrawn for a brief space to hold
+some converse with Robinson.</p>
+
+<p>"A word," said Allen to Henry, as they met; "you are but a stripling.
+Remember that this day's work is to be wrought by men of might&mdash;those
+who are keen of eye and steady of foot. In the tempest of battle your
+weight, Mister Henry, would be but as a feather in the gale. Yet in this
+fight none might be crushed whose fall would bring more anguish than
+yours. Let me beg you, as a rash and thoughtless youth, to think of
+that. The good lady, your sister&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot stay to hear you," interrupted Henry; "the column is beginning
+to move."</p>
+
+<p>And in a moment he was at the foot of the hill.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVII" id="CHAPTER_LVII"></a>CHAPTER LVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They closed full fast on every side,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No slackness there was found<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And many a gallant gentleman<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lay gasping on the ground.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O dread! it was a grief to see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And likewise for to hear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The cries of men lying in their gore<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And scattered here and there.&mdash;<i>Chevy Chase.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Every corps was now in motion, and the two flanking divisions were soon
+lost to view in the intervening forest. An incident of some interest to
+our story makes it necessary that we should, for a moment, follow the
+track of Cleveland in his march upon the left side of the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>The principal road of travel northwards extended along the valley on
+this side; and upon this road Cleveland and Williams conducted their
+men, until they arrived at a point sufficiently remote to enable them,
+by ascending the height, to place themselves in Ferguson's rear. They
+had just reached this point when they encountered a picquet of the
+enemy, which, after a few shots, retired hastily up the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>The little outpost had scarcely begun to give ground, before the leading
+companies of the Whigs had their attention drawn to the movements of a
+small party of horsemen who at that moment appeared in sight upon the
+road, some distance in advance. They were approaching the American
+column; and, as if taken by surprise at the appearance of this force,
+set spurs to their horses and made an effort to ride beyond the reach of
+Cleveland's fire, whilst they took a direction up the mountain towards
+Ferguson's stronghold. From the equipment of these individuals, it might
+have been inferred that they were two gentlemen of some distinction
+connected with the royal army, attended by their servants, and now about
+arriving, after a long journey, at the British camp. The first was
+habited in the uniform of an officer, was well mounted, and displayed a
+light and active figure, which appeared to advantage in the dexterous
+management of his horse. The second was a gentleman in a plain riding
+costume, of slender and well-knit proportions, and manifestly older than
+his companion. He rode a powerful and spirited horse, with a confidence
+and command not inferior to those of his associates. The others in
+attendance, from their position in the rear, and from the heavy
+portmanteaus that encumbered their saddles, we might have no difficulty
+in conjecturing to be menials in the service of the two first.</p>
+
+<p>The course taken by this party brought them obliquely across the range
+of the fire of the Whigs.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a general officer and his aide," exclaimed one of the subalterns
+in the advance. "Ho there! Stand. You are my prisoners!"</p>
+
+<p>"Spur, spur, and away! For God's sake, fly!" shouted the younger of the
+two horsemen to his companion, as he dashed the rowels into his steed
+and fled up the mountain. "Push for the top&mdash;one moment more and we are
+out of reach!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop them, at all hazards!" vociferated Cleveland, the instant his eye
+fell upon them. "Quick, lads&mdash;level your pieces&mdash;they are messengers
+from Cornwallis. Rein up, or I fire!" he called aloud after the flying
+cavalcade.</p>
+
+<p>The appeal and the threat were unheeded. A score of men left the ranks
+and ran some distance up the mountain side, and their shots whistled
+through the forest after the fugitives. One of the attendants was seen
+to fall, and his horse to wheel round and run back, with a frightened
+pace, to the valley. The scarlet uniform of the younger horseman,
+conspicuous through the foliage some distance up the mountain, showed
+that he had escaped. His elder comrade, when the smoke cleared away, was
+seen also beyond the reach of Cleveland's fire; but his altered pace and
+his relaxed seat in his saddle, made it apparent that he had received
+some hurt. This was confirmed when, still nearer to the summit, the
+stranger was seen to fall upon his horse's neck, and thence to be lifted
+to the ground by three or four soldiers who had hastened to his relief.</p>
+
+<p>These incidents scarcely occupied more time in their performance than I
+have taken in the narrative; and all reflection upon them, for the
+present, was lost in the uproar and commotion of the bloody scene that
+succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Campbell and Shelby, each at the head of his men in the
+centre division of the army, steadily commenced the ascent of the
+mountain. A long interval ensued, in which nothing was heard but the
+tramp of the soldiers and a few words of almost whispered command, as
+they scaled the height; and it was not until they had nearly reached the
+summit that the first peal of battle broke upon the sleeping echoes of
+the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Campbell here deployed into line, and his men strode briskly upwards
+until they had come within musket-shot of the British regulars, whose
+sharp and prolonged volleys, at this instant, suddenly burst forth from
+the crest of the hill. Peal after peal rattled along the mountain side,
+and volumes of smoke, silvered by the light of the sun, rolled over and
+enveloped the combatants.</p>
+
+<p>When the breeze had partially swept away this cloud, and opened glimpses
+of the battle behind it, the troops of Campbell were seen recoiling
+before an impetuous charge of the bayonet, in which Ferguson himself led
+the way. A sudden halt by the retreating Whigs, and a stern front
+steadfastly opposed to the foe, checked the ardor of his pursuit at an
+early moment, and, in turn, he was discovered retiring towards his
+original ground, hotly followed by the mountaineers. Again, the same
+vigorous onset from the royalists was repeated, and again the shaken
+bands of Campbell rallied and turned back the rush of battle towards the
+summit. At last, panting and spent with the severe encounter, both
+parties stood for a space eyeing each other with deadly rage, and
+waiting only to gather breath for the renewal of the strife.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture, the distant firing heard from either flank furnished
+evidence that Sevier and Cleveland had both come in contact with the
+enemy. The uprising of smoke above the trees showed the seat of the
+combat to be below the summit on the mountain sides, and that the enemy
+had there half-way met his foe; whilst the shouts of the soldiers,
+alternating between the parties of either army, no less distinctly
+proclaimed the fact that, at these remote points, the field was
+disputed with bloody resolution and various success.</p>
+
+<p>It would overtask my poor faculty of description, to give my reader even
+a faint picture of this rugged battle-field. During the pause of the
+combatants of the centre, Campbell and Shelby were seen riding along the
+line, and by speech and gesture encouraging their soldiers to still more
+determined efforts. Little need was there for exhortation; rage seemed
+to have refreshed the strength of the men, who, with loud and fierce
+huzzas, rushed again to the encounter. They were met with a defiance not
+less eager than their own; and, for a time, the battle was again
+obscured under the thick haze engendered by the incessant discharges of
+fire-arms. From this gloom, a yell of triumph was sometimes heard, as
+momentary success inspired those who struggled within; and the frequent
+twinkle of polished steel glimmering through the murky atmosphere, and
+the occasional apparition of a speeding horseman, seen for an instant as
+he came into the clear light, told of the dreadful earnestness and zeal
+with which the unseen hosts had now joined in conflict. The impression
+of this contact was various. Parts of each force broke before their
+antagonists; and in those spots where the array of the fight might be
+discerned through the shade of the forest or the smoke of battle, both
+royalists and Whigs were found, at the same instant, to have driven back
+detached fragments of their opponents. Foemen were mingled hand to hand,
+through and among their adverse ranks; and for a time no conjecture
+might be indulged as to the side to which victory would turn.</p>
+
+<p>The flanking detachments seemed to have fallen into the same confusion,
+and might have been seen retreating and advancing upon the rough slopes
+of the mountain, in partisan bodies, separated from their lines; thus
+giving to the scene an air of bloody riot, more resembling the sudden
+insurrection of mutineers from the same ranks, than the orderly war of
+trained soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Through the din and disorder of this fight, it is fit that I should take
+time to mark the wanderings of Galbraith Robinson, whose exploits this
+day would not ill deserve the pen of Froissart. The doughty sergeant
+had, for a time, retained his post in the ranks of the Amherst Rangers,
+and with them had travelled towards the mountain top, close in the rear
+of Campbell's line. But when the troops had recoiled before the frequent
+charges of the royalists, finding his station, at best, but that of an
+inactive spectator, he made no scruple of deserting his companions and
+trying his fortune on the field in such form of adventure as best suited
+his temper. With no other weapon than his customary rifle, he stood his
+ground when others retreated; and saw the ebb and flow of "flight and
+chase" swell round him, according to the varying destiny of the day. In
+these difficulties, it was his good fortune to escape unhurt; a piece of
+luck that may, perhaps, be attributed to the coolness with which he
+either galloped over an adversary or around him, as the emergency
+rendered most advisable.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of this busy occupation, at a moment when one of the
+refluxes of battle brought him almost to the summit, he descried a small
+party of British dragoons, stationed some distance in the rear of
+Ferguson's line, whose detached position seemed to infer some duty
+unconnected with the general fight. In the midst of these, he thought he
+recognised the figure and dress of one familiar to his eye. The person
+thus singled out by the sergeant's glance stood bare-headed upon a
+projecting mass of rock, apparently looking with an eager gaze towards
+the distant combat. No sooner did the conjecture that this might be
+Arthur Butler flash across his thought, than he turned his steed back
+upon the path by which he had ascended, and rode with haste towards the
+Rangers.</p>
+
+<p>"Stephen Foster," he said, as he galloped up to the lieutenant, and drew
+his attention by a tap of the hand upon his shoulder, "I have business
+for you, man&mdash;you are but wasting your time here&mdash;pick me out a
+half-dozen of your best fellows and bring them with you after me.
+Quick&mdash;Stephen&mdash;quick!"</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant of the Rangers collected the desired party and rode after
+the sergeant, who now conducted this handful of men with as much
+rapidity as the broken character of the ground allowed, by a circuit for
+a considerable distance along the right side of the mountain, until they
+reached the top. The point at which they gained the summit brought them
+between Ferguson's line and the dragoons, who, it was soon perceived,
+were the party charged with the custody of Butler, and who had been thus
+detached in the rear for the more safe guardianship of the prisoner.
+Horse Shoe's man&oelig;uvre had completely cut them off from their friends
+in front, and they had no resource but to defend themselves against the
+threatened assault, or fly towards the parties who were at this moment
+engaged with the flanking divisions of the Whigs. They were taken by
+surprise&mdash;and Horse Shoe, perceiving the importance of an immediate
+attack, dashed onwards along the ridge of the mountain with precipitate
+speed, calling out to his companions to follow. In a moment the dragoons
+were engaged in a desperate pell-mell with the Rangers.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon them, Stephen! Upon them bravely, my lads! Huzza for Major Butler!
+Fling the major across your saddle&mdash;the first that reaches him," shouted
+the sergeant with a voice that was heard above all the uproar of battle.
+"What ho&mdash;James Curry!" he cried out, as soon as he detected the
+presence of his old acquaintance in this throng; "stand your ground, if
+you are a man!"</p>
+
+<p>The person to whom this challenge was directed had made an effort to
+escape towards a party of his friends, whom he was about summoning to
+his aid; and in the attempt had already ridden some distance into the
+wood, whither the sergeant had eagerly followed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah ha, old Truepenny, are you there?" exclaimed Curry, turning short
+upon his pursuer, and affecting to laugh as if in scorn. "Horse Shoe
+Robinson, well met!" he added sternly, "I have not seen a better sight
+to-day than that fool's head of yours upon this hill. No, not even when
+just now Patrick Ferguson sent your yelping curs back to hide themselves
+behind the trees."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, James!" cried Horse Shoe, "I have no time to talk. We have an
+old reckoning to settle, which, perhaps, you mought remember. I am a man
+of my word; and, besides, I have set my eye upon Major Butler," he
+added, with a tone and look that were both impressed with the fierce
+passion of the scene around him.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil blast you, and Major Butler to boot!" exclaimed Curry, roused
+by Horse Shoe's air of defiance. "To it, bully! It shall be short work
+between us, and bloody," he shouted, as he discharged a pistol-shot at
+the sergeant's breast; which failing to take effect, he flung the weapon
+upon the ground, brandished his sword, and spurred immediately against
+his challenger. The sweep of the broadsword fell upon the barrel of
+Horse Shoe's uplifted rifle, and in the next instant the broad hand of
+our lusty yeoman had seized the trooper by the collar and dragged him
+from his horse. The two soldiers came to the ground, locked in a mutual
+embrace; and, for a brief moment, a desperate trial of strength was
+exhibited in the effort to gain their feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I have you there," said Robinson, as at length, with a flushed cheek,
+quick breath, and blood-shot eye, he rose from the earth and shook the
+dragoon from him, who fell backwards on his knee. "Curse you, James
+Curry, for a fool and villain! You almost drive me, against my will, to
+the taking of your life. I don't want your blood. You are beaten, man,
+and must say so. I grant you quarter upon condition&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Look to yourself! I ask no terms from you," interrupted Curry, as
+suddenly springing to his feet, he now made a second pass, which was
+swung with such unexpected vigor at the head of his adversary, that
+Horse Shoe had barely time to catch the blow, as before, upon his rifle.
+The broadsword was broken by the stroke, and one of the fragments of the
+blade struck the sergeant upon the forehead, inflicting a wound that
+covered his face with blood. Horse Shoe reeled a step or two from his
+ground, and clubbing the rifle, as it is called, by grasping the barrel
+towards the muzzle, he paused but an instant to dash the blood from his
+brow with his hand, and then, with one lusty sweep, to which his sudden
+anger gave both precision and energy, he brought the piece full upon the
+head of his foe, with such fatal effect as to bury the lock in the
+trooper's brain, whilst the stock was shattered into splinters. Curry,
+almost without a groan, fell dead across a ledge of rock at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"The grudge is done, and the fool has met his desarvings," was Horse
+Shoe's brief comment upon the event, as he gazed sullenly, for an
+instant, upon the dead corpse. He had no time to tarry. The rest of his
+party were still engaged with the troopers of the guard, who now
+struggled to preserve the custody of their prisoner. The bridle-rein of
+Captain Peter had been caught by one of the Rangers, and the good steed
+was now quickly delivered up to his master, who, flinging himself again
+into his saddle, rushed into the throng of combatants. The few
+dragoons, dispirited by the loss of their leader, and stricken with
+panic at this strenuous onset, turned to flight, leaving Butler in the
+midst of his friends.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, major!" shouted Robinson, as he rode up to his old
+comrade, who, unarmed, had looked upon the struggle with an interest
+corresponding to the stake he had in the event. "Up, man&mdash;here, spring
+across the pommel. Now, boys, down the mountain, for your lives! Huzza,
+huzza! we have won him back!" he exclaimed, as seizing Butler's arm, he
+lifted him upon the neck of Captain Peter, and bounded away at full
+speed towards the base of the mountain, followed by Foster and his
+party.</p>
+
+<p>The reader may imagine the poignancy of Mildred's emotions as she sat
+beside Allen Musgrove and his daughter on the knoll, and watched the
+busy and stirring scene before her. The centre division of the assailing
+army was immediately in her view, on the opposite face of the mountain,
+and no incident of the battle in this quarter escaped her notice. She
+could distinctly perceive the motions of the Amherst Rangers, to whom
+she turned her eyes with a frequent and eager glance, as the corps with
+which her brother Henry was associated; and when the various fortune of
+the fight disclosed to her the occasional retreat of her friends before
+the vigorous sallies of the enemy, or brought to her ear the renewed and
+angry volleys of musketry, she clenched Mary Musgrove's arm with a
+nervous grasp, and uttered short and anxious ejaculations that showed
+the terror of her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I see Mister Henry, yet," said Mary, as Campbell's troops rallied from
+the last shock, and again moved towards the summit. "I see him plainly,
+ma'am&mdash;for I know his green dress, and caught the glitter of his brass
+bugle in the sun. And there now&mdash;all is smoke again. Mercy, how stubborn
+are these men! And there is Mister Henry once more&mdash;near the top. He is
+safe, ma'am."</p>
+
+<p>"How earnestly," said Mildred, unconsciously speaking aloud as she
+surveyed the scene, "Oh, how earnestly do I wish this battle was done! I
+would rather, Mr. Musgrove, be in the midst of yonder crowd of angry
+men, could I but have their recklessness, than here in safety, to be
+tortured with my present feelings."</p>
+
+<p>"In God is our trust, madam," replied the miller. "His arm is abroad
+over the dangerous paths, for a shield and buckler to them that put
+their trust in him. Ha! there is Ferguson's white horse, rushing, with a
+dangling rein and empty saddle, down the mountain, through Campbell's
+ranks: the rider has fallen; and there, madam&mdash;there, look on it!&mdash;is a
+white flag waving in the hands of a British officer. The fight is done.
+Hark, our friends are cheering with a loud voice!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank Heaven&mdash;thank Heaven!" exclaimed Mildred as she sprang upon her
+feet; "It is even so!"</p>
+
+<p>The loud huzzas of the troops rose upon the air; the firing ceased; the
+flag of truce fluttered in the breeze, and the confederated bands of the
+mountaineers, from every quarter of the late battle, were seen hurrying
+towards the crest of the mountain, and mingling amongst the ranks of the
+conquered foe. Again and again, the clamorous cheering of the victors
+broke forth from the mountain-top, and echoed along the neighboring
+valleys.</p>
+
+<p>During this wild clamor and busy movement, a party of horsemen were
+seen, through the occasional intervals of the low wood that skirted the
+valley on the right, hastening from the field with an eager swiftness
+towards the spot where Mildred and her companions were stationed.</p>
+
+<p>As they swept along the base of the mountain, and approached the knoll,
+they were lost to view behind the projecting angles of the low hills
+that formed the ravine, through which, my reader is aware, the road held
+its course. When they re-appeared it was in ascending the abrupt
+acclivity of the knoll, and within fifty paces of the party on the top
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>It was now apparent that the approaching party consisted of Stephen
+Foster and three or four of the Rangers led by Horse Shoe Robinson, with
+Butler still seated before him, as when the sergeant first caught him up
+in the fight. These were at the same moment overtaken by Henry Lindsay,
+who had turned back from the mountain at the first announcement of
+victory, to bring the tidings to his sister.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred's cheek grew deadly pale, and her frame shook, as the cavalcade
+rushed into her presence.</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;take him!" cried Horse Shoe, with an effort to laugh, but which
+seemed to be half converted into a quaver by the agitation of his
+feelings, as, springing to the ground, he swung Butler from the horse,
+with scarce more effort than he would have used in handling a child;
+"take him, ma'am. I promised myself to-day, that I'd give him to you.
+And, now, you've got him. That's a good reward for all your troubles.
+God bless us&mdash;but I'm happy to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My husband!&mdash;my dear husband!</span>" were the only articulate words that
+escaped Mildred's lips, as she fell senseless into the arms of Arthur
+Butler.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVIII" id="CHAPTER_LVIII"></a>CHAPTER LVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CONCLUSION.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>The victory was won. In the last assault, Campbell had reached the crest
+of the mountain, and the loyalists had given ground with decisive
+indications of defeat. Ferguson, in the hopeless effort to rally his
+soldiers, had flung himself into their van, but a bullet at this instant
+reached his heart; he fell from his seat, and his white horse, which had
+been conspicuous in the crowd of battle, bounded wildly through the
+ranks of the Whigs, and made his way down the mountain side.</p>
+
+<p>Campbell passed onward, driving the royalists before him. For a moment
+the discomfited bands hoped to join their comrades in the rear, and, by
+a united effort, to effect a retreat: but the parties led by Sevier and
+Cleveland, cheered by the shouts of their victorious companions, urged
+their attacks with new vigor, and won the hill in time to intercept the
+fugitives. All hopes of escape being thus at an end, a white flag was
+displayed in token of submission; and the remnant of Ferguson's late
+proud and boastful army, now amounting to between eight and nine hundred
+men, surrendered to the assailants.</p>
+
+<p>It has scarcely ever happened that a battle has been fought, in which
+the combatants met with keener individual exasperation than in this. The
+mortal hatred which embittered the feelings of Whig and Tory along this
+border, here vented itself in the eagerness of conflict, and gave the
+impulse to every blow that was struck&mdash;rendering the fight, from
+beginning to end, relentless, vindictive, and bloody. The remembrance of
+the thousand cruelties practised by the royalists during the brief Tory
+dominion to which my narrative has been confined, was fresh in the minds
+of the stern and hardy men of the mountains, who had pursued their foe
+with such fierce animosity to this his last stage. Every one had some
+wrong to tell, and burned with an unquenchable rage of revenge. It was,
+therefore, with a yell of triumph that they saw the symbol of submission
+raised aloft by the enemy; and for a space, the forest rang with their
+loud and reiterated huzzas.</p>
+
+<p>Many brave men fell on either side. Upon the slopes of the mountain and
+on its summit, the bodies of the dead and dying lay scattered amongst
+the rocks, and the feeble groans of the wounded mingled with the fierce
+tones of exultation from the living. The Whigs sustained a grievous loss
+in Colonel Williams, who had been struck down in the moment of victory.
+He was young, ardent, and brave; and his many soldier-like virtues,
+combined with a generous and amiable temper, had rendered him a
+cherished favorite with the army. His death served still more to
+increase the exacerbation of the conquerors against the conquered.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was yet an hour high when the battle was done. The Whigs were
+formed in two lines on the ridge of the mountain; and the prisoners,
+more numerous than their captors, having laid down their arms, were
+drawn up in detached columns on the intervening ground. There were many
+sullen and angry glances exchanged, during this period of suspense,
+between victors and vanquished; and it was with a fearful rankling of
+inward wrath, that many of the Whigs detected, in the columns of the
+prisoners, some of their bitterest persecutors.</p>
+
+<p>This spirit was partially suppressed in the busy occupation that
+followed. Preparations were directed to be made for the night-quarters
+of the army; and the whole host was, accordingly, ordered to march to
+the valley. The surgeons of each party were already fully employed in
+their vocation. The bodies of the wounded were strewed around; and, for
+the protection of such as were not in a condition to be moved, shelters
+were made of the boughs of trees, and fires kindled to guard them from
+the early frost of the season. All the rest retired slowly to the
+appointed encampment.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst Campbell was intent upon these cares, a messenger came to summon
+him to a scene of unexpected interest. He was informed that a gentleman,
+not attached to the army, had been dangerously wounded in the fight, and
+now lay at the further extremity of the mountain ridge. It was added
+that he earnestly desired an interview with the commanding officer.
+Campbell lost no time in attending to the request.</p>
+
+<p>Upon repairing to the spot, his attention was drawn to a stranger who
+lay upon the ground. His wan and haggard cheek, and restless eye, showed
+that he suffered acute pain; and the blood upon his cloak, which had
+been spread beneath him, indicated the wound to have been received in
+the side. A private soldier of the British army was his only attendant.
+To Campbell's solicitous and kind inquiry, he announced himself, in a
+voice that was almost over-mastered by his bodily anguish, to be Philip
+Lindsay, of Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"You behold," he said, "an unhappy father in pursuit of his children."
+Then, after a pause, he continued, "My daughter Mildred, I have been
+told, is near me: I would see her, and quickly."</p>
+
+<p>"God have mercy on us!" exclaimed Campbell, "is this the father of the
+lady who has sought my protection? Wounded too, and badly, I fear! Where
+is Major Butler, who was lately prisoner with Ferguson?" he said,
+addressing the attendant&mdash;"Go, go, sir," he added, speaking to the same
+person, "bring me the first surgeon you can find, and direct some three
+or four men from the ranks to come to your aid. Lose no time."</p>
+
+<p>The soldier went instantly upon the errand, and soon returned with the
+desired assistance. Lindsay's wound had been already staunched, and all
+that remained to be done was to put him in some place of shelter and
+comfort. A cottage at the foot of the mountain was pointed out by
+Campbell; a litter was constructed, and the sick man was borne upon the
+shoulders of four attendants to the designated spot. Meantime, Campbell
+rode off to communicate the discovery he had made to Mildred and her
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay's story, since we last parted from him, may be briefly told. He
+and Tyrrel had journeyed into the low country of Virginia, to meet the
+friends of the royal government. These had wavered, and were not to be
+brought together. A delay ensued, during which Tyrrel had prevailed upon
+Lindsay to extend his journey into North Carolina; whence, after an
+ineffectual effort to bring the Tory party to some decisive step, they
+both returned to the Dove Cote, having been nearly three weeks absent.</p>
+
+<p>Upon their arrival, the afflicting intelligence met Lindsay of the
+departure of Mildred and her brother for the seat of war, Mildred's
+letter was delivered to him; and its contents almost struck him dumb. It
+related the story of Arthur Butler's misfortunes, and announced, that,
+for nearly a year past, Mildred had been the wedded wife of the captive
+officer. The marriage had been solemnized in the preceding autumn, in a
+hasty moment, as Butler travelled south to join the army. The only
+witnesses were Mistress Dimock, under whose roof it had occurred, Henry
+Lindsay, and the clergyman. The motives that induced this marriage were
+explained: both Mildred and Arthur hoped, by this irremediable step, to
+reconcile Lindsay to the event, and to turn his mind from its unhappy
+broodings: the increased exasperation of his feelings, during the
+succeeding period, prevented the disclosure which Mildred had again and
+again essayed to make. The recent dangers which had beset Arthur Butler,
+had determined her to fly to his rescue. <span class="smcap">As his wife</span> she felt it to be
+her duty, and she had, accordingly, resolved to encounter the peril of
+the journey.</p>
+
+<p>For a day or two after the perusal of this letter, Lindsay fell into a
+deep melancholy. His presentiments seemed to have been fatally realized,
+and his hopes suddenly destroyed. From this despondency, Tyrrel's
+assiduous artifice aroused him. He proposed to Lindsay the pursuit of
+his children, in the hope of thus luring him into Cornwallis's camp, and
+connecting him with the fortunes of the war. The chances of life, he
+reasoned, were against Butler, if indeed, as Tyrrel had ground to hope,
+that officer were not already the victim of the snares that had been
+laid for him.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this advice, Lindsay had set out for Cornwallis's head-quarters,
+where he arrived within a week after the interview of Mildred and Henry
+with the British chief.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst he delayed here, he received the tidings that his daughter had
+abandoned her homeward journey, and turned aside in quest of Butler.
+This determined him to continue his pursuit. Tyrrel still accompanied
+him; and the two travellers having arrived at the moment of the attack
+upon King's mountain, Lindsay was persuaded by his companion to make the
+rash adventure which, we have already seen, had been the cause of his
+present misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>It is not my purpose to attempt a description of the scene in the
+cottage, where Arthur Butler and his wife, and Henry, first saw Lindsay
+stretched upon a rude pallet, and suffering the anguish of a dangerous
+wound. It is sufficient to say that, in the midst of the deep grief of
+the bystanders, Lindsay was composed and tranquil, like one who thought
+it vain to struggle with fate. "I have foreseen this day, and felt its
+coming," he muttered, in a low and broken voice; "it has happened as it
+was ordained. I have unwisely struggled against my doom. There, take
+it," he added, as he stretched forth his hand to Butler, and in tones
+scarcely audible breathed out, "God bless you, my children! I forgive
+you."</p>
+
+<p>During the night fever ensued, and with it came delirium. The patient
+acquired strength from his disease, and raved wildly, in a strain
+familiar to his waking superstition. The same vision of fate and destiny
+haunted his imagination; and he almost frightened his daughter from
+beside his couch, with the fervid eloquence of his madness.</p>
+
+<p>The cottage was situated near half a mile from the encampment of the
+army. Towards daylight, Lindsay had sunk into a slumber, and the
+attendant surgeon began to entertain hopes that the patient might
+successfully struggle with his malady. Mildred and Mary Musgrove kept
+watch in the apartment, whilst Butler, with Horse Shoe Robinson and
+Allen Musgrove, remained anxiously awake in the adjoining room. Henry
+Lindsay, wearied with the toils of the preceding day, and old Isaac the
+negro, not so much from the provocation of previous labor as from
+constitutional torpor, lay stretched in deep sleep upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things when, near sunrise, a distant murmur
+reached the ears of those who were awake in the cottage. These sounds
+attracted the notice of Horse Shoe, who immediately afterwards stole out
+of the apartment and repaired to the camp. During his walk thither the
+uproar became more distinct, and shouts were heard from a crowd of
+soldiers who were discovered in a confused and agitated mass in the
+valley, at some distance from the encampment. The sergeant hastened to
+this spot, and, upon his arrival, was struck with the shocking sight of
+the bodies of some eight or ten of the Tory prisoners suspended to the
+limbs of a large tree.</p>
+
+<p>The repose of the night had not allayed the thirst of revenge amongst
+the Whigs. On the contrary, the opportunity of conference and
+deliberation had only given a more fatal certainty to their purpose. The
+recent executions which had been permitted in Cornwallis's camp, after
+the battle of Camden, no less than the atrocities lately practised by
+some of the Tories who were now amongst the captured, suggested the idea
+of a signal retribution. The obnoxious individuals were dragged forth
+from their ranks at early dawn, and summary punishment was inflicted by
+the excited soldiery in the manner which we have described, in spite of
+all remonstrance or command.</p>
+
+<p>This dreadful work was still in progress when Horse Shoe arrived. The
+crowd were, at that moment, forcing along to the spot of execution a
+trembling wretch, whose gaunt form, crouching beneath the hands that
+held him, and pitiful supplications for mercy, announced him to the
+sergeant as an old acquaintance. The unfortunate man had caught a glance
+of Robinson, and, almost frantic with despair, sprang with a tiger's
+leap from the grasp of those who held him, and, in an instant, threw his
+arms around the sergeant's neck, where he clung with the hold of a
+drowning man.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh save me, save me, Horse Shoe Robinson!" he exclaimed wildly. "Friend
+Horse Shoe, save me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am no friend of yours, Wat Adair," said Robinson, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak for me&mdash;Galbraith&mdash;speak, for old acquaintance sake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!" said Robinson to the crowd who had gathered round to pluck the
+fugitive from his present refuge. "One word, friends! stand back, I have
+somewhat to say in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"He gave Butler into Hugh Habershaw's hands," cried out some of the
+crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"He took the price of blood, and sold Butler's life for money&mdash;he shall
+die!" shouted others.</p>
+
+<p>"No words!" exclaimed many, "but up with him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Robinson," screamed Adair, with tears starting from his eyes, "only
+hear me! I was forced to take sides against Major Butler. The Tories
+would have burnt down my house; they suspected me,&mdash;I was obliged,&mdash;Mike
+Lynch was witness,&mdash;mercy, mercy!" and here the frightened culprit cried
+loud and bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends," said Horse Shoe calmly to the multitude, "there is better
+game to hunt than this mountain-cat. Let me have my way."</p>
+
+<p>"None has a better right than Horse Shoe Robinson," said a speaker from
+the group, "to say what ought to be done to Wat Adair. Speak out, Horse
+Shoe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Speak! We leave it to you," shouted some of the leaders: and instantly
+the crowd fell back and formed a circle round Horse Shoe and Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"I give you your choice," said the sergeant, addressing the captive,
+"for though your iniquities, Wat Adair, desarve that you should have
+been the first that was strung up to yonder tree, yet you shall have
+your choice, to tell us fully and truly, without holding back name of
+high or low, who put you on to ambush Major Arthur Butler's life at
+Grindall's Ford. Tell us that, to our satisfaction, and answer all other
+questions besides that we may ax you, and you shall have your life,
+taking, howsever, one hundred lashes to the back of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I will confess all, before God, truly," cried Adair with eagerness.
+"James Curry told me of your coming, and gave me and Mike Lynch money to
+help Hugh Habershaw."</p>
+
+<p>"James Curry had a master in the business," said Robinson: "His name?"</p>
+
+<p>Adair hesitated for an instant and stammered out "Captain St. Jermyn."</p>
+
+<p>"He was at your house? Speak it, man, or think of the rope!"</p>
+
+<p>"He was there," said Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"By my soul! Wat Adair, if you do not come out with the whole truth,"
+said Robinson, with angry earnestness, "I take back my promise. Tell me
+all you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Curry acted by the captain's directions," continued the woodsman, "he
+was well paid for it, as he told me, and would have got more, if a
+quarrel amongst Habershaw's people hadn't stopped them from taking Major
+Butler's life. So I have heard from the men myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all," replied Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know nothing about the court-martial?" asked Robinson.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, except that as the Major wasn't killed at the Ford, it was
+thought best to have a trial, wherein James Curry and Hugh Habershaw, as
+I was told, had agreed to swear against the Major's life."</p>
+
+<p>"And were paid for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was upon a consideration, in course," replied Adair.</p>
+
+<p>"And Captain St. Jermyn contrived this?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was said," answered Adair, "that the captain left it all to Curry,
+and rather seemed to take Major Butler's side himself at the trial. He
+didn't want to be known in the business!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is this Captain St. Jermyn?" demanded many voices.</p>
+
+<p>This interrogatory was followed by the rush of the party towards the
+quarter in which the prisoners were assembled, and, after a lapse of
+time which seemed incredibly short for the performance of the deed, the
+unhappy victim of this tumultuary wrath was seen struggling in the
+agonies of death, as he hung from one of the boughs of the same tree
+which had supplied the means of the other executions.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Butler and Henry Lindsay, attracted by the shouts that
+reached them at the cottage, had arrived at the scene of these dreadful
+events. Wat Adair was, at this moment, undergoing the punishment for
+which his first sentence was commuted. The lashes were inflicted by a
+sturdy arm upon his uncovered back; and it was remarkable that the
+wretch who but lately had sunk, with the most slavish fear, under the
+threat of death, now bore his stripes with a fortitude that seemed to
+disdain complaint or even the confession of pain. Butler and Henry
+hurried with a natural disgust from this spectacle, and soon found
+themselves near the spot where the lifeless forms of the victims of
+military vengeance were suspended from the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed Butler, "is not that St. Jermyn? What has
+he done to provoke this doom?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is Tyrrel!" ejaculated Henry. "Major Butler, it is Tyrrel! That
+face, black and horrible as it is to look at, I would know it among a
+thousand!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" said Butler, gazing with a melancholy earnestness upon the
+scene, and speaking scarce above his breath, "is it so? Tyrrel and St.
+Jermyn the same person! This is a strange mystery."</p>
+
+<p>Robinson, at this moment, approached, and, in answer to Butler's
+questions, told the whole story of the commotions that had just agitated
+the camp.</p>
+
+<p>"St. Jermyn was not with Ferguson," said Butler, when the sergeant had
+finished his narrative. "How came he here to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"First or last," replied Robinson, "it is my observation, Major, that
+these schemers and contrivers against others' lives are sure to come to
+account. The devil put it into this St. Jermyn's head to make Ferguson a
+visit. He came yesterday with Mr. Lindsay, and got the poor gentleman
+his hurt. James Curry has done working for him now, Major. Master and
+man have travelled one road."</p>
+
+<p>The scene was now closed. The business of the day called the troops to
+other labors. Campbell felt the necessity of an immediate retreat with
+his prisoners to the mountains, and his earliest orders directed the
+army to prepare for the march.</p>
+
+<p>When Butler returned to the cottage, he found himself surrounded by a
+mournful group. The malady of Lindsay had unexpectedly taken a fatal
+turn. Mildred and Henry were seated by the couch of their father,
+watching in mute anguish the last ebbings of life. The dying man was
+composed and apparently free from pain, and the few words he spoke were
+of forgiveness and resignation.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of their sorrow and silence, the inmates of the dwelling
+had their attention awakened by the military music of the retiring army.
+These cheerful sounds vividly contrasted with the grief of the mourners,
+and told of the professional indifference of soldiers to the calamities
+of war. By degrees, the martial tones became more faint, as the troops
+receded up the valley; and before they were quite lost to the ear,
+Campbell and Shelby appeared at the door of the cottage to explain the
+urgency of their present departure, and to take a sad farewell of their
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Foster, with Harry Winter and a party of the Rangers, remained
+behind to await the movements of Butler. Horse Shoe Robinson, Allen
+Musgrove, and his daughter, were in constant attendance.</p>
+
+<p>Here ends my story.</p>
+
+<p>In a lonely thicket, close upon the margin of the little brook which
+waters the valley on the eastern side of King's mountain, the traveller
+of the present day may be shown an almost obliterated mound, and hard by
+he will see the fragment of a rude tombstone, on which is carved the
+letters P. L. This vestige marks the spot where the remains of Philip
+Lindsay were laid, until the restoration of peace allowed them to be
+transported to the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>There, also, in a happier day, Arthur Butler and Mildred took up their
+abode; and notwithstanding the fatal presentiment in regard to the
+fortunes of his house which had thrown so dark a color upon the life of
+Philip Lindsay, lived long enough after the revolution to see grow up
+around them a prosperous and estimable family.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Musgrove, too, attended Mildred, and attained an advanced, and I
+hope a happy old age, at the Dove Cote.</p>
+
+<p>Wat Adair, I have heard it said in Carolina, died a year after the
+battle of King's mountain, of a horrible distemper, supposed to have
+been produced by the bite of a rabid wolf. I would fain believe, for the
+sake of poetical justice, that this was true.</p>
+
+<p>Another item of intelligence, to be found in the history of the war, may
+have some reference to our tale. I find that, in the summer of 1781,
+Colonel Butler was engaged in the pursuit of Cornwallis in his retreat
+from Albemarle towards Williamsburgh: my inquiries do not enable me to
+say, with precision, whether it was our friend Arthur Butler who had met
+this promotion. His sufferings in the cause certainly deserved such a
+reward.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This stricture, true in 1835, the date of the first edition
+of these volumes has, I am happy to notice, lost much of its point in
+the lapse of sixteen years.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Horse-Shoe Robinson
+       A Tale of the Tory Ascendency
+
+
+Author: John Pendleton Kennedy
+
+
+
+Release Date: August 21, 2010  [eBook #33478]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mary Meehan and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/horseshoerobinso00kennrich
+
+
+
+
+
+HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON.
+
+A Tale of the Tory Ascendency.
+
+by
+
+JOHN P. KENNEDY
+
+Author of "Swallow Barn," "Rob of the Bowl," Etc.
+
+
+"I say the tale as 't was said to me."--Lay of the Last Minstrel
+
+
+Revised Edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+182 Fifth Avenue
+1876
+
+Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1852, by
+George P. Putnam,
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
+of New York.
+
+
+
+
+To WASHINGTON IRVING, Esq.
+
+DEAR IRVING:--
+
+With some little misgiving upon the score of having wasted time and
+paper both, which might have been better employed, I feel a real
+consolation in turning to you, as having, by your success, furnished our
+idle craft an argument to justify our vocation.
+
+You have convinced our wise ones at home that a man may sometimes write
+a volume without losing his character--and have shown to the incredulous
+abroad, that an American book may be richly worth the reading.
+
+In grateful acknowledgment of these services, as well as to indulge the
+expression of a sincere private regard, I have ventured to inscribe your
+name upon the front of the imperfect work which is now submitted to the
+public.
+
+Very truly, yours, &c.,
+JOHN P. KENNEDY.
+BALTIMORE, _May 1, 1885_.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In the winter of eighteen hundred and eighteen-nineteen, I had occasion
+to visit the western section of South Carolina. The public conveyances
+had taken me to Augusta, in Georgia. There I purchased a horse, a most
+trusty companion, with whom I had many pleasant experiences: a sorrel,
+yet retained by me in admiring memory. A valise strapped behind my
+saddle, with a great coat spread upon that, furnished all that I
+required of personal accommodation. My blood beat temperately with the
+pulse of youth and health. I breathed the most delicious air in the
+world. My travel tended to the region of the most beautiful scenery. The
+weather of early January was as balmy as October; a light warm haze
+mellowed the atmosphere, and cast the softest and richest hues over the
+landscape. I retraced my steps from Augusta to Edgefield, which I had
+passed in the stage coach. From Edgefield I went to Abbeville, and
+thence to Pendleton. I was now in the old district of Ninety Six, just
+at the foot of the mountains. My course was still westward. I journeyed
+alone, or rather, I ought to say, in good company, for my horse and I
+had established a confidential friendship, and we amused ourselves with
+a great deal of pleasant conversation--in our way. Besides, my fancy was
+busy, and made the wayside quite populous--with people of its own: there
+were but few of any other kind.
+
+In the course of my journey I met an incident, which I have preserved in
+my journal. The reader of the tale which occupies this volume has some
+interest in it.
+
+"Upon a day," as the old ballads have it, one of the best days of this
+exquisite climate, my road threaded the defiles of some of the grandest
+mountains of the country. Huge ramparts of rock toppled over my path,
+and little streams leaped, in beautiful cascades, from ledge to ledge,
+and brawled along the channels, which often supplied the only footway
+for my horse, and, gliding through tangled screens of rhododendron,
+laurel, arbor vitae, and other evergreens, plunged into rivers, whose
+waters exceed anything I had ever conceived of limpid purity. It may be
+poetical to talk of liquid crystal, but no crystal has the absolute
+perfection of the transparency of these streams. The more distant
+mountain sides, where the opening valley offered them to my view, were
+fortified with stupendous walls, or banks of solid and unbroken rock,
+rising in successive benches one above another, with masses of dark pine
+between; the highest forming a crest to the mountain, cutting the sky in
+sharp profile, with images of castellated towers, battlements, and
+buttresses, around whose summits the inhabiting buzzard, with broad
+extended wings, floated and rocked in air and swept in majestic circles.
+
+The few inhabitants of this region were principally the tenants of the
+bounty lands, which the State of South Carolina had conferred upon the
+soldiers of the Revolution; and their settlements, made upon the rich
+bottoms of the river valleys, were separated from each other by large
+tracts of forest.
+
+I had much perplexity in some portions of this day's journey in finding
+my way through the almost pathless forest which lay between two of these
+settlements. That of which I was in quest was situated upon the Seneca,
+a tributary of the Savanna river, here called Tooloolee. It was near
+sundown, when I emerged from the wilderness upon a wagon road, very
+uncertain of my whereabout, and entertaining some rather anxious
+misgivings as to my portion for the night.
+
+I had seen no one for the last five or six hours, and upon falling into
+the road I did not know whether I was to take the right or the left
+hand--a very material problem for my solution just then.
+
+During this suspense, a lad, apparently not above ten years of age,
+mounted bare back on a fine horse, suddenly emerged from the wood about
+fifty paces ahead of me, and galloped along the road in the same
+direction that I had myself resolved to take. I quickened my speed to
+overtake him, but from the rapidity of his movement, I found myself, at
+the end of a mile, not as near him as I was at the beginning. Some open
+country in front, however, showed me that I was approaching a
+settlement. Almost at the moment of making this discovery, I observed
+that the lad was lying on the ground by the road-side. I hastened to
+him, dismounted, and found him sadly in want of assistance. His horse
+had run off with him, thrown him, and dislocated, as it afterwards
+appeared, his shoulder-joint.
+
+Whilst I was busy in rendering such aid as I could afford, I was joined
+by a gentleman of venerable aspect, the father of the youth, who came
+from a dwelling-house near at hand, which, in the engrossment of my
+occupation, I had not observed. We lifted the boy in our arms and bore
+him into the house.
+
+I was now in comfortable quarters for the night. The gentleman was
+Colonel T----, as I was made aware by his introduction, and the kindly
+welcome he offered me, and I very soon found myself established upon the
+footing of a favored guest. The boy was laid upon a bed in the room
+where we sat, suffering great pain, and in want of immediate attention.
+I entered into the family consultation on the case. Never have I
+regretted the want of an acquisition, as I then regretted that I had no
+skill in surgery. I was utterly incompetent to make a suggestion worth
+considering. The mother of the family happened to be absent that night;
+and, next to the physician, the mother is the best adviser. There was an
+elder son, about my own age, who was playing a fiddle when we came in;
+and there was a sister younger than he, and brothers and sisters still
+younger. But we were all alike incapable. The poor boy's case might be
+critical, and the nearest physician, Dr. Anderson, resided at Pendleton,
+thirty miles off. This is one of the conditions of frontier settlement
+which is not always thought of.
+
+In the difficulty of the juncture, a thought occurred to Colonel T.,
+which was immediately made available. "I think I will send for
+Horse-Shoe Robinson," he said, with a manifest lighting up of the
+countenance, as if he had hit upon a happy expedient. "Get a horse, my
+son," he continued, addressing one of the boys, "and ride over to the
+old man, and tell him what has happened to your brother; and say, he
+will oblige me if he will come here directly." At the same time, a
+servant was ordered to ride to Pendleton, and to bring over Dr.
+Anderson.
+
+In the absence of the first messenger the lad grew easier, and it became
+apparent that his hurt was not likely to turn out seriously. Colonel T.,
+assured by this, drew his chair up to the fire beside me, and with many
+expressions of friendly interest inquired into the course of my journey,
+and into the numberless matters that may be supposed to interest a
+frontier settler in his intercourse with one just from the world of busy
+life. It happened that I knew an old friend of his, General -----, a
+gentleman highly distinguished in professional and political service, to
+whose youth Colonel T. had been a most timely patron. This circumstance
+created a new pledge in my favor, and, I believe, influenced the old
+gentleman in a final resolve to send that night for his wife, who was
+some seven or eight miles off, and whom he had been disinclined to put
+to the discomfort of such a journey in the dark, ever since it was
+ascertained that the boy's case was not dangerous. I am pretty sure this
+influenced him, as I heard him privately instructing a servant to go for
+the lady, and to tell her that the boy's injury was not very severe,
+and "that there was a gentleman there who was well acquainted with
+General ----." I observed, hanging in a little black frame over the
+fire-place, a miniature engraved portrait of the general, which was the
+only specimen of the fine arts in the house--perhaps in the settlement.
+It was my recognition of this likeness that led, I fear, to the weary
+night ride of the good lady.
+
+In less than an hour the broad light of the hearth--for the apartment
+was only lit up by blazing pine faggots, which, from time to time, were
+thrown upon the fire--fell upon a goodly figure. There was first a sound
+of hoofs coming through the dark--a halt at the door--a full, round,
+clear voice heard on the porch--and then the entrance into the apartment
+of a woodland hero. That fine rich voice again, in salutation, so gentle
+and so manly! This was our expected counsellor, Horse-Shoe Robinson.
+What a man I saw! With near seventy years upon his poll, time seemed to
+have broken its billows over his front only as the ocean breaks over a
+rock. There he stood--tall, broad, brawny, and erect. The sharp light
+gilded his massive frame and weather-beaten face with a pictorial effect
+that would have rejoiced an artist. His homely dress, his free stride,
+as he advanced to the fire; his face radiant with kindness; the natural
+gracefulness of his motion; all afforded a ready index to his character.
+Horse Shoe, it was evident, was a man to confide in.
+
+"I hear your boy's got flung from his horse, Colonel," he said, as he
+advanced to the bed-side. "Do you think he is much hurt?" "Not so badly
+as we thought at first, Mr. Robinson," was the reply. "I am much obliged
+to you for coming over to-night. It is a great comfort to have your
+advice in such times."
+
+"These little shavers are so venturesome--with horses in particular,"
+said the visitor; "it's Providence, Colonel, takes care of 'em. Let me
+look at you, my son," he continued, as he removed the bed-clothes, and
+began to handle the shoulder of the boy. "He's got it out of joint," he
+added, after a moment. "Get me a basin of hot water and a cloth,
+Colonel. I think I can soon set matters right."
+
+It was not long before the water was placed beside him, and Robinson
+went to work with the earnestness of a practised surgeon. After applying
+wet cloths for some time to the injured part, he took the shoulder in
+his broad hand, and with a sudden movement, which was followed by a
+shriek from the boy, he brought the dislocated bone into its proper
+position. "It doesn't hurt," he said, laughingly; "you are only
+pretending. How do you feel now?"
+
+The patient smiled, as he replied, "Well enough now; but I reckon you
+was joking if you said that it didn't hurt."
+
+Horse Shoe came to the fire-side, and took a chair, saying, "I larnt
+that, Colonel, in the campaigns. A man picks up some good everywhere, if
+he's a mind to; that's my observation."
+
+This case being disposed of, Horse Shoe determined to remain all night
+with the family. We had supper, and, after that, formed a little party
+around the hearth. Colonel T. took occasion to tell me something about
+Horse Shoe; and the Colonel's eldest son gave me my cue, by which he
+intimated I might draw out the old soldier to relate some stories of the
+war.
+
+"Ask him," said the young man, "how he got away from Charleston after
+the surrender; and then get him to tell you how he took the five
+Scotchmen prisoners."
+
+We were all in good humor. The boy was quite easy, and everything was
+going on well, and we had determined to sit up until Mrs. T. should
+arrive, which could not be before midnight. Horse Shoe was very
+obliging, and as I expressed a great interest in his adventures, he
+yielded himself to my leading, and I got out of him a rich stock of
+adventure, of which his life was full. The two famous passages to which
+I had been asked to question him--the escape from Charleston, and the
+capture of the Scotch soldiers--the reader will find preserved in the
+narrative upon which he is about to enter, almost in the very words of
+my anthology. I have--perhaps with too much scruple--retained Horse
+Shoe's peculiar vocabulary and rustic, doric form of speech--holding
+these as somewhat necessary exponents of his character. A more truthful
+man than he, I am convinced, did not survive the war to tell its story.
+Truth was the predominant expression of his face and gesture--the truth
+that belongs to natural and unconscious bravery, united with a frank and
+modest spirit. He seemed to set no especial value upon his own exploits,
+but to relate them as items of personal history, with as little comment
+or emphasis as if they concerned any one more than himself.
+
+It was long after midnight before our party broke up; and when I got to
+my bed it was to dream of Horse Shoe and his adventures. I made a record
+of what he told me, whilst the memory of it was still fresh, and often
+afterwards reverted to it, when accident or intentional research brought
+into my view events connected with the times and scenes to which his
+story had reference.
+
+The reader will thus see how I came into possession of the leading
+incidents upon which this "Tale of the Tory Ascendency" in South
+Carolina is founded.
+
+It was first published in 1835. Horse-Shoe Robinson was then a very old
+man. He had removed into Alabama, and lived, I am told, upon the banks
+of the Tuskaloosa. I commissioned a friend to send him a copy of the
+book. The report brought me was, that the old man had listened very
+attentively to the reading of it, and took great interest in it.
+
+"What do you say to all this?" was the question addressed to him, after
+the reading was finished. His reply is a voucher which I desire to
+preserve: "It is all true and right--in its right place--excepting about
+them women, which I disremember. That mought be true, too; but my memory
+is treacherous--I disremember."
+
+_April 12, 1852._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
+
+
+The events narrated in the following pages, came to my knowledge in the
+progress of my researches into the personal history of some of the
+characters who figure in the story. I thought them worth being embodied
+into a regular narrative, for two reasons:--
+
+First, because they intrinsically possess an interest that may amuse the
+lovers of adventure, and,
+
+Second, because they serve to illustrate the temper and character of the
+War of our Revolution.
+
+As yet, only the political and documentary history of that war has been
+written. Its romantic or picturesque features have been left for that
+industrious tribe of chroniclers, of which I hold myself to be an
+unworthy member, and who have of late, as the public is aware, set about
+the business in good earnest. It shall go hard with us if we do not soon
+bring to light every remnant of tradition that the war has left!
+
+An opinion has heretofore prevailed that the Revolution was too recent
+an affair for our story-telling craft to lay hands upon it. But this
+objection, ever since the fiftieth anniversary, has been nullified by
+common consent,--that being deemed the fair poetical limit which
+converts tradition into truth, and takes away all right of
+contradiction from a surviving actor in the scene. The pension roll is
+manifestly growing thinner, and the widows--married young after the
+peace--make a decided majority on the list. These are the second-hand
+retailers of the marvels of the war; and it is observed that, like wine
+which has descended to the heir, the events have lost none of their
+flavor or value by the transmission. This is all so much clear gain to
+our fraternity; and it is obvious, therefore, that we must thrive.
+
+My reader will perceive that I have been scrupulous to preserve the
+utmost historical accuracy in my narrative: and I hope, when he has
+finished the perusal, that he may find reason to award me the
+commendation of having afforded him some pleasure, by the sketch I have
+attempted of the condition of things in the south during the very
+interesting period of the "Tory Ascendency."
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+_May 1, 1835._
+
+
+
+
+
+HORSE SHOE ROBINSON.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A TOPOGRAPHICAL DISCOURSE.
+
+
+The belt of mountains which traverses the state of Virginia diagonally,
+from north-east to south-west, it will be seen by an inspection of the
+map, is composed of a series of parallel ranges, presenting a
+conformation somewhat similar to that which may be observed in miniature
+on the sea-beach, amongst the minute lines of sand hillocks left by the
+retreating tide. This belt may be said to commence with the Blue Ridge,
+or more accurately speaking, with that inferior chain of highlands that
+runs parallel to this mountain almost immediately along its eastern
+base. From this region westward the highlands increase in elevation, the
+valleys become narrower, steeper and cooler, and the landscape
+progressively assumes the wilder features which belong to what is
+distinctly meant by "the mountain country."
+
+The loftiest heights in this series are found in the Alleghany, nearly
+one hundred and fifty miles westward from the first thread of the belt;
+and as the principal rivers which flow towards the Chesapeake find their
+sources in this overtopping line of mountain, it may be imagined that
+many scenes of surpassing beauty exist in those abrupt solitudes where
+the rivers have had to contend with the sturdy hills that nature had
+thrown across their passage to the sea.
+
+The multiplication of the facilities of travel which the spirit of
+improvement has, of late years, afforded to this region; the
+healthfulness, or,--to use a term more germain to its excellence,--the
+voluptuousness of the climate, and the extraordinary abundance of waters
+of the rarest virtue, both for bathing and drinking, have all
+contributed, very recently, to render the mountains of Virginia
+notorious and popular amongst that daintily observant crowd of
+well-conditioned people who yearly migrate in quest of health, or of a
+refuge from the heats of summer, or who, perchance, wander in pursuit of
+those associations of hill and dale which are supposed to repair a jaded
+imagination, and to render it romantic and fruitful.
+
+The traveller of either of these descriptions, who holds his journey
+westward, will find himself impelled to halt at Charlottesville, as a
+pleasant resting-place in the lap of the first mountains, where he may
+stop to reinforce his strength for the prosecution of the rugged task
+that awaits him. His delay here will not be unprofitable. This neat
+little village is not less recommended to notice by its position in the
+midst of a cultivated and plentiful country, than by its contiguity to
+the seats of three Presidents of the Union; and, especially, by its
+immediate proximity to Monticello, whose burnished dome twinkles through
+the crown of forest that adorns the very apex of its mountain pyramid,
+and which, as it has now grown to be the Mecca of many a pilgrim, will
+of itself furnish a sufficient inducement for our traveller's tarrying.
+An equal attraction will be found in the University of Virginia, which,
+at the distance of one mile, in the opposite direction from that leading
+to Monticello, rears its gorgeous and fantastic piles of massive and
+motley architecture--a lively and faithful symbol (I speak it
+reverently) of the ambitious, parti-colored and gallican taste of its
+illustrious founder.
+
+From Charlottesville, proceeding southwardly, in the direction of Nelson
+and Amherst, the road lies generally over an undulating country, formed
+by the succession of hills constituting the subordinate chain of
+mountains which I have described as first in the belt. These hills
+derive a beautiful feature from the manner in which they are
+commanded,--to use a military phrase,--by the Blue Ridge, which, for the
+whole distance, rests against the western horizon, and heaves up its
+frequent pinnacles amongst the clouds, clothed in all the variegated
+tints that belong to the scale of vision, from the sombre green and
+purple of the nearer masses, to the light and almost indistinguishable
+azure of its remotest summits.
+
+The constant interruption of some gushing rivulet, which hurries from
+the neighboring mountain into the close vales that intercept the road,
+communicates a trait of peculiar interest to this journey, affording
+that pleasant surprise of new and unexpected scenery, which, more than
+any other concomitant of travel, wards off the sense of fatigue. These
+streams have worn deep channels through the hills, and constantly seem
+to solicit the road into narrow passes and romantic dells, where fearful
+crags are seen toppling over the head of the traveller, and sparkling
+waters tinkle at his feet; and where the richest and rarest trees of the
+forest seem to have chosen their several stations, on mossy bank or
+cloven rock, in obedience to some master mind intent upon the most
+tasteful and striking combination of these natural elements.
+
+A part of the country embraced in this description, has obtained the
+local designation of the South Garden, perhaps from its succession of
+fertile fields and fragrant meadows, which are shut in by the walls of
+mountain on either hand; whilst a still more remote but adjacent
+district of more rugged features, bears the appellation of the Cove, the
+name being suggested by the narrow and encompassing character of the
+sharp and precipitous hills that hem in and over-shadow a rough and
+brattling mountain torrent, which is marked on the map as the Cove
+creek.
+
+At the period to which my story refers, the population of this central
+district of Virginia, exhibited but few of the characteristics which are
+found to distinguish the present race of inhabitants. A rich soil, a
+pure atmosphere, and great abundance of wood and water, to say nothing
+of the sylvan beauties of the mountain, possessed a great attraction for
+the wealthy proprietors of the low country; and the land was, therefore,
+generally parcelled out in large estates held by opulent owners, whose
+husbandry did not fail, at least, to accumulate in profusion the
+comforts of life, and afford full scope to that prodigal hospitality,
+which, at that period even more than at present, was the boast of the
+state. The laws of primogeniture exercised their due influence on the
+national habits; and the odious division of property amongst undeserving
+younger brothers, whom our modern philosophy would fain persuade us have
+as much merit, and as little capacity to thrive in the world as their
+elders, had not yet formed part of the household thoughts of these
+many-acred squires. From Charlottesville, therefore, both north and
+south, from the Potomac to the James river, there extended a chain of
+posts, occupied by lordly and open-hearted gentlemen,--a kind of civil
+cordon of bluff free-livers who were but little versed in the mystery of
+"bringing the two ends of the year together."
+
+Since that period, well-a-day! the hand of the reaper has put in his
+sickle upon divided fields; crowded progenies have grown up under these
+paternal roof-trees; daughters have married and brought in strange
+names; the subsistence of one has been spread into the garner of ten;
+the villages have grown populous; the University has lifted up its
+didactic head; and everywhere over this abode of ancient wealth, the hum
+of industry is heard in the carol of the ploughman, the echo of the
+wagoner's whip, the rude song of the boatman, and in the clatter of the
+mill. Such are the mischievous interpolations of the republican system!
+
+My reader, after this topographical sketch and the political reflections
+with which I have accompanied it, is doubtless well-prepared for the
+introduction of the worthy personages with whom I am about to make him
+acquainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO TWO WORTHIES WITH WHOM HE IS LIKELY
+TO FORM AN INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+It was about two o'clock in the afternoon of a day towards the end of
+July, 1780, when Captain Arthur Butler, now holding a brevet, some ten
+days old, of major in the continental army, and Galbraith Robinson were
+seen descending the long hill which separates the South Garden from the
+Cove. They had just left the rich and mellow scenery of the former
+district, and were now passing into the picturesque valley of the
+latter. It was evident from the travel-worn appearance of their horses,
+as well as from their equipments, that they had journeyed many a mile
+before they had reached this spot; and it might also have been perceived
+that the shifting beauties of the landscape were not totally disregarded
+by Butler, at least,--as he was seen to halt on the summit of the hill,
+turn and gaze back upon the wood-embowered fields that lay beneath his
+eye, and by lively gestures to direct the notice of his companion to the
+same quarter. Often, too, as they moved slowly downward, he reined up
+his steed to contemplate more at leisure the close, forest-shaded ravine
+before them, through which the Cove creek held its noisy way. It was not
+so obvious that his companion responded to the earnest emotions which
+this wild and beautiful scenery excited in his mind.
+
+Arthur Butler was now in the possession of the vigor of early manhood,
+with apparently some eight and twenty years upon his head. His frame was
+well proportioned, light and active. His face, though distinguished by a
+smooth and almost beardless cheek, still presented an outline of decided
+manly beauty. The sun and wind had tanned his complexion, except where a
+rich volume of black hair upon his brow had preserved the original
+fairness of a high, broad forehead. A hazel eye sparkled under the
+shade of a dark lash, and indicated, by its alternate playfulness and
+decision, an adventurous as well as a cheerful spirit. His whole
+bearing, visage and figure, seemed to speak of one familiar with
+enterprise and fond of danger:--they denoted gentle breeding
+predominating over a life of toil and privation.
+
+Notwithstanding his profession, which was seen in his erect and
+peremptory carriage, his dress, at this time, was, with some slight
+exceptions, merely civil. And here, touching this matter of dress, I
+have a prefatory word to say to my reader. Although custom, or the
+fashion of the story-telling craft, may require that I should satisfy
+the antiquarian in this important circumstance of apparel of the days
+gone by, yet, on the present occasion, I shall be somewhat chary of my
+lore in that behalf;--seeing that any man who is curious on the score of
+the costume of the revolution time, may be fully satisfied by studying
+those most graphic "counterfeit presentments" of sundry historical
+passages of that day, wherewith Colonel Trumbull has furnished this age,
+for the edification of posterity, in the great rotunda of the Capitol of
+the United States. And I confess, too, I have another reason for my
+present reluctance,--as I feel some faint misgiving lest my principal
+actor might run the risk of making a sorry figure with the living
+generation, were I to introduce him upon the stage in a coat, whose
+technical description, after the manner of a botanical formula, might
+be comprised in the following summary:--long-waisted--wide-skirted--
+narrow-collared--broad-backed--big-buttoned--and large-lapelled;--and
+then to add to this, what would be equally outlandish, yellow
+small-clothes, and dark-topped boots, attached by a leather strap to the
+buttons at the knee,--without which said boots, no gentleman in 1780
+ventured to mount on horseback.
+
+But when I say that Captain Butler travelled on his present journey,
+habited in the civil costume of a gentleman of the time, I do not mean
+to exclude a round hat pretty much of the fashion of the present
+day--though then but little used except amongst military men--with a
+white cockade to show his party; nor do I wish to be considered as
+derogating from that peaceful character when I add that his saddle-bow
+was fortified by a brace of horseman's pistols, stowed away in large
+holsters, covered with bear skin;--for, in those days, when hostile
+banners were unfurled, and men challenged each other upon the highways,
+these pistols were a part of the countenance (to use an excellent old
+phrase) of a gentleman.
+
+Galbraith Robinson was a man of altogether rougher mould. Nature had
+carved out, in his person, an athlete whom the sculptors might have
+studied to improve the Hercules. Every lineament of his body indicated
+strength. His stature was rather above six feet; his chest broad; his
+limbs sinewy, and remarkable for their symmetry. There seemed to be no
+useless flesh upon his frame to soften the prominent surface of his
+muscles; and his ample thigh, as he sat upon horseback, showed the
+working of its texture at each step, as if part of the animal on which
+he rode. His was one of those iron forms that might be imagined almost
+bullet proof. With all these advantages of person, there was a radiant,
+broad, good nature upon his face; and the glance of a large, clear, blue
+eye told of arch thoughts, and of shrewd, homely wisdom. A ruddy
+complexion accorded well with his sprightly, but massive features, of
+which the prevailing expression was such as silently invited friendship
+and trust. If to these traits be added an abundant shock of yellow,
+curly hair, terminating in a luxuriant queue, confined by a narrow
+strand of leather cord, my reader will have a tolerably correct idea of
+the person I wish to describe.
+
+Robinson had been a blacksmith at the breaking out of the revolution,
+and, in truth, could hardly be said to have yet abandoned the craft;
+although of late, he had been engaged in a course of life which had but
+little to do with the anvil, except in that metaphorical sense of
+hammering out and shaping the rough, iron independence of his country.
+He was the owner of a little farm in the Waxhaw settlement, on the
+Catawba, and having pitched his habitation upon a promontory, around
+whose base the Waxhaw creek swept with a regular but narrow circuit,
+this locality, taken in connexion with his calling, gave rise to a
+common prefix to his name throughout the neighborhood, and he was
+therefore almost exclusively distinguished by the sobriquet of Horse
+Shoe Robinson. This familiar appellative had followed him into the army.
+
+The age of Horse Shoe was some seven or eight years in advance of that
+of Butler--a circumstance which the worthy senior did not fail to use
+with some authority in their personal intercourse, holding himself, on
+that account, to be like Cassius, an elder, if not a better soldier. On
+the present occasion, his dress was of the plainest and most rustic
+description: a spherical crowned hat with a broad brim, a coarse grey
+coatee of mixed cotton and wool, dark linsey-woolsey trowsers adhering
+closely to his leg, hob-nailed shoes, and a red cotton handkerchief tied
+carelessly round his neck with a knot upon his bosom. This costume, and
+a long rifle thrown into the angle of the right arm, with the breech
+resting on his pommel, and a pouch of deer-skin, with a powder horn
+attached to it, suspended on his right side, might have warranted a
+spectator in taking Robinson for a woodsman, or hunter from the
+neighboring mountains.
+
+Such were the two personages who now came "pricking o'er the hill." The
+period at which I have presented them to my reader was, perhaps, the
+most anxious one of the whole struggle for independence. Without falling
+into a long narrative of events which are familiar, at least to every
+American, I may recall the fact that Gates had just passed southward, to
+take command of the army destined to act against Cornwallis. It was now
+within a few weeks of that decisive battle which sent the hero of
+Saratoga "bootless home and weather-beaten back," to ponder over the
+mutations of fortune, and, in the quiet shades of Virginia, to strike
+the balance of fame between northern glory and southern discomfiture. It
+may be imagined then, that our travellers were not without some share of
+that intense interest for the events "upon the gale," which every where
+pervaded the nation. Still, as I have before hinted, Arthur Butler did
+not journey through this beautiful region without a lively perception of
+the charms which nature had spread around him. The soil of this district
+is remarkable for its blood-red hue. The side of every bank glowed in
+the sun with this bright vermillion tint, and the new-made furrow,
+wherever the early ploughman had scarred the soil, turned up to view the
+predominating color. The contrast of this with the luxuriant grass and
+the yellow stubble, with the grey and mossy rock, and with the deep
+green shade of the surrounding forest, perpetually solicited the notice
+of the lover of landscape; and from every height, the eye rested with
+pleasure upon the rich meadows of the bottom land--upon the varied
+cornfields spread over the hills; upon the adjacent mountains, with
+their bald crags peeping through the screen of forest, and especially
+upon the broad lines of naked earth that, here and there, lighted up and
+relieved, as a painter would say, with its warm coloring, the heavy
+masses of shade.
+
+The day was hot, and it was with a grateful sense of refreshment that
+our wayfarers, no less than their horses, found themselves, as they
+approached the lowland, gradually penetrating the deep and tangled
+thicket and the high wood that hung over and darkened the channel of the
+small stream which rippled through the valley. Their road lay along this
+stream and frequently crossed it at narrow fords, where the water fell
+from rock to rock in small cascades, presenting natural basins of the
+limpid flood, embosomed in laurel and alder, and gurgling that busy
+music which is one of the most welcome sounds to the ear of a wearied
+and overheated traveller.
+
+Butler said but little to his companion, except now and then to express
+a passing emotion of admiration for the natural embellishments of the
+region; until, at length, the road brought them to a huge mass of rock,
+from whose base a fountain issued forth over a bed of gravel, and soon
+lost itself in the brook hard by. A small strip of bark, that some
+friend of the traveller had placed there, caught the pure water as it
+was distilled from the rock, and threw it off in a spout, some few
+inches above the surface of the ground. The earth trodden around this
+spot showed it to be a customary halting place for those who journeyed
+on the road.
+
+Here Butler checked his horse, and announced to his comrade his
+intention to suspend, for a while, the toil of travel.
+
+"There is one thing, Galbraith," said he, as he discounted, "wherein all
+philosophers agree--man must eat when he is hungry, and rest when he is
+weary. We have now been some six hours on horseback, and as this
+fountain seems to have been put here for our use, it would be sinfully
+slighting the bounties of providence not to do it the honor of a halt.
+Get down, man; rummage your havresac, and let us see what you have
+there."
+
+Robinson was soon upon his feet, and taking the horses a little distance
+off, he fastened their bridles to the impending branches of a tree; then
+opening his saddle-bags, he produced a wallet with which he approached
+the fountain, where Butler had thrown himself at full length upon the
+grass. Here, as he successively disclosed his stores, he announced his
+bill of fare, with suitable deliberation between each item, in the
+following terms:
+
+"I don't march without provisions, you see, captain--or major, I suppose
+I must call you now. Here's the rear division of a roast pig, and along
+with it, by way of flankers, two spread eagles (holding up two broiled
+fowls), and here are four slices from the best end of a ham. Besides
+these, I can throw in two apple-jacks, a half dozen of rolls, and--"
+
+"Your wallet is as bountiful as a conjurer's bag, sergeant; it is a
+perfect cornucopia. How did you come by all this provender?"
+
+"It isn't so overmuch, major, when you come to consider," said Robinson.
+"The old landlady at Charlottesville is none of your heap-up,
+shake-down, and running-over landladies, and when I signified to her
+that we mought want a snack upon the road, she as much as gave me to
+understand that there wa'n't nothing to be had. But I took care to make
+fair weather with her daughter, as I always do amongst the creatures,
+and she let me into the pantry, where I made bold to stow away these few
+trifling articles, under the denomination of pillage. If you are fond of
+Indian corn bread, I can give you a pretty good slice of that."
+
+"Pillage, Galbraith! You forget you are not in an enemy's country. I
+directed you scrupulously to pay for everything you got upon the road. I
+hope you have not omitted it to-day?"
+
+"Lord, sir! what do these women do for the cause of liberty but cook,
+and wash, and mend!" exclaimed the sergeant. "I told the old Jezebel to
+charge it all to the continental congress."
+
+"Out upon it, man! Would you bring us into discredit with our best
+friends, by your villanous habits of free quarters?"
+
+"I am not the only man, major, that has been spoiled in his religion by
+these wars. I had both politeness and decency till we got to squabbling
+over our chimney corners in Carolina. But when a man's conscience begins
+to get hard, it does it faster than anything in nature: it is, I may
+say, like the boiling of an egg--it is very clear at first, but as soon
+as it gets cloudy, one minute more and you may cut it with a knife."
+
+"Well, well! Let us fall to, sergeant; this is no time to argue points
+of conscience."
+
+"You seem to take no notice of this here bottle of peach brandy major,"
+said Robinson. "It's a bird that came out of the same nest. To my
+thinking it's a sort of a file leader to an eatable, if it ar'n't an
+eatable itself."
+
+"Peace, Galbraith! it is the vice of the army to set too much store by
+this devil brandy."
+
+The sergeant was outwardly moved by an inward laugh that shook his head
+and shoulders.
+
+"Do you suppose, major, that Troy town was taken without brandy? It's
+drilling and countermarching and charging with the bagnet, all three,
+sir. But before we begin, I will just strip our horses. A flurry of cool
+air on the saddle spot is the best thing in nature for a tired horse."
+
+Robinson now performed this office for their jaded cattle; and having
+given them a mouthful of water at the brook, returned to his post, and
+soon began to despatch, with a laudable alacrity, the heaps of provision
+before him. Butler partook with a keen appetite of this sylvan repast,
+and was greatly amused to see with what relish his companion caused
+slice after slice to vanish, until nothing was left of this large supply
+but a few fragments.
+
+"You have lost neither stomach nor strength by the troubles, sergeant;
+the short commons of Charleston would have gone something against the
+grain with you, if you had stayed for that course of diet."
+
+"It is a little over two months," said Robinson, "since I got away from
+them devils; and if it hadn't been for these here wings of mine
+(pointing to his legs), I might have been a caged bird to-day."
+
+"You have never told me the story of your escape," said Butler.
+
+"You were always too busy, or too full of your own thoughts, major, for
+me to take up your time with such talk," replied the other. "But, if you
+would like me to tell you all about it, while you are resting yourself
+here on the ground, and have got nothing better to think about, why,
+I'll start like old Jack Carter of our mess, by beginning, as he used to
+say when he had a tough story ahead, right at the beginning."
+
+"Do so, sergeant, and do it discreetly; but first, swallow that
+mouthful, for you don't speak very clear."
+
+"I'll wash down the gutter, major, according to camp fashion and then
+my throat will be as clear as the morning gun after sun rise."
+
+And saying this, the tall soldier helped himself to a hearty draught of
+cool water mingled in fair proportion with a part of the contents of his
+flask, and setting the cup down by his side, he commenced as follows:--
+
+"You was with us, major, when Prevost served us that trick in Georgia,
+last year--kept us, you remember, on the look out for him t'other side
+of the Savannah, whilst all the time he was whisking of it down to
+Charleston."
+
+"You call this beginning at the beginning? Faith, you have started a
+full year before your time. Do you think yourself a Polybius or a
+Xenophon--who were two famous old fellows, just in your line,
+sergeant--that you set out with a history of a whole war."
+
+"I never knew any persons in our line--officers or men--of either of
+them names,"--replied Robinson,--"they were nicknames, perhaps;--but I
+do know, as well as another, when a thing turns up that is worth notice,
+major; and this is one of 'em:--and that's the reason why I make mention
+of it. What I was going to say was this--that it was a sign fit for
+General Lincoln's consarnment, that these here British should make a
+push at Charleston on the tenth of May, 1779, and get beaten, and that
+exactly in one year and two days afterwards, they should make another
+push and win the town. Now, what was it a sign of, but that they and the
+tories was more industrious that year than we were?"
+
+"Granted," said Butler, "now to your story, Mister Philosopher!"
+
+"In what month was it you left us?" inquired the sergeant gravely.
+
+"In March," answered Butler.
+
+"General Lincoln sent you off, as we were told, on some business with
+the continental congress: to get us more troops, if I am right. It was a
+pity to throw away a good army on such a place--for it wa'nt worth
+defending at last. From the time that you set out they began to
+shut us in, every day a little closer. First, they closed a door on
+one side, and then on t'other: till, at last they sent a sort of
+flash-o'-lightning fellow--this here Colonel Tarleton--up to Monk's
+corner, which, you know, was our back door, and he shut that up and
+double bolted it, by giving Huger a most tremenjious lathering. Now,
+when we were shut in, we had nothing to do but look out. I'll tell you
+an observation I made, at that time."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Why, when a man has got to fight, it's a natural sort of thing
+enough;--but when he has got nothing to eat, it's an onnatural state. I
+have hearn of men who should have said they would rather fight than
+eat:--if they told truth they would have made honest fellows for our
+garrison at Charlestown. First, our vegetables--after that devil took up
+his quarters at Monk's corner--began to give out then, our meat; and,
+finally, we had nothing left but rice, which I consider neither fish,
+flesh, nor good salt herring"----
+
+"You had good spirits, though, sergeant."
+
+"If you mean rum or brandy, major, we hadn't much of that;--but if you
+mean jokes and laughs, it must be hard times that will stop them in
+camp.--I'll tell you one of them, that made a great hurra on both sides,
+where we got the better of a Scotch regiment that was plaguing us from
+outside the town. They thought they would make themselves merry with our
+starvation--so, they throwed a bomb shell into our lines, that, as it
+came along through the air, we saw had some devilment in it, from the
+streak it made in daylight; and, sure enough, when we come to look at it
+on the ground, we found it filled with rice and molasses--just to show
+that these Scotchmen were laughing at us for having nothing to eat.
+Well, what do we do but fill another shell with brimstone and hogslard,
+and just drop it handsomely amongst the lads from the land o'cakes? Gad,
+sir, it soon got to the hearing of the English regiment, and such a
+shouting as they sot up from their lines against the Scotchmen! That's
+what I call giving as good as they saunt, major--ha ha ha!"
+
+"It wasn't a bad repartee, Galbraith," said Butler, joining in the
+laugh. "But go on with your siege."
+
+"We got taken, at last," proceeded Horse Shoe, "and surrendered on the
+12th of May. Do you know that they condescended to let us go through the
+motions of marching outside the lines? Still it was a sorry day to see
+our colors tied as fast to their sticks as if a stocking had been drawn
+over them. After that, we were marched to the barracks and put into
+close confinement."
+
+"Yes, I have heard that; and with heavy hearts--and a dreary prospect
+before you, sergeant."
+
+"I shouldn't have minded it much, Major Butler, it was the fortune of
+war. But they insulted us as soon as they got our arms from us. It was a
+blasted cowardly trick in them to endeavor to wean us from our cause,
+which they tried every day; it was seduction, I may say. First, they
+told us that Colonel Pinckney and some other officers had gone over; but
+that was too onprobable a piece of rascality,--we didn't believe one
+word on't. So, one morning Colonel Pinckney axed that we mought be
+drawed up in a line in front of the barracks; and there he made us a
+speech. We were as silent as so many men on a surprise party. The
+colonel said--yes, sir, and right in their very teeth--that it was an
+infamious, audacious calamy: that whenever he desarted the cause of
+liberty, he hoped they would take him, as they had done some Roman
+officer or other--I think one Officious, as I understood the
+colonel--you've hearn of him, may be--and tie his limbs to wild horses,
+and set them adrift, at full speed, taking all his joints apart, so that
+not one traitorious limb should be left to keep company with another. It
+was a mighty severe punishment, whoever he mought'a been. The British
+officers began to frown--and I saw one chap put his hand upon his sword.
+It would have done you good to witness the look the colonel gave him, as
+he put his own hand to his thigh to feel if his sword was there--he so
+naturally forgot he was a prisoner. They made him stop speaking
+howsever, because they gave out that it was perditious language; and so,
+they dismissed us--but we let them have three cheers to show that we
+were in heart."
+
+"It was like Pinckney," said Butler; "I'll warrant him a true man,
+Galbraith."
+
+"I'll thribble that warrant," replied Galbraith, "and afterwards make it
+nine. I wish you could have hearn him. I always thought a bugle horn the
+best music in the world, till that day. But that day Colonel Charles
+Cotesworth Pinckney's voice was sweeter than shawns and trumpets, as the
+preacher says, and bugles to boot. I have hearn people tell of speeches
+working like a fiddle on a man's nerves, major: but, for my part, I
+think they sometimes work like a battery of field-pieces, or a whole
+regimental band on a parade day. Howsever, I was going on to tell you,
+Colonel Pinckney put a stop to all this parleying with our poor fellows;
+and knowing, major, that you was likely to be coming this way, he axed
+me if I thought I could give the guard the slip, and make off with a
+letter to meet you. Well, I studied over the thing for a while, and then
+told him a neck was but a neck any how, and that I could try; and so,
+when his letter was ready, he gave it to me, telling me to hide it so
+that, if I was sarched, it couldn't be found on my person. Do you see
+that foot?" added Horse Shoe, smiling, "it isn't so small but that I
+could put a letter between the inside sole and the out, longways, or
+even crossways, for the matter of that, and that, without so much as
+turning down a corner. Correspondent and accordingly I stitched it in.
+The colonel then told me to watch my chance and make off to you in the
+Jarseys, as fast as I could. He told me, besides, that I was to stay
+with you, because you was likely to have business for me to do."
+
+"That's true, good sergeant."
+
+"There came on a darkish, drizzly evening; and a little before roll
+call, at sun set, I borrowed an old forage cloak from Corporal
+Green--you mought have remembered him--and out I went towards the lines,
+and sauntered along the edge of the town, till I came to one of your
+pipe-smoking, gin-drinking Hessians, keeping sentry near the road that
+leads out towards Ashley ferry:--a fellow that had no more watch in
+him--bless your soul!--as these Dutchmen hav'n't--than a duck on a rainy
+day. So, said I, coming up boldly to him, 'Hans, wie gehet es'--'Geh zum
+Teufel,' says he, laughing--for he knowed me. That was all the Dutch I
+could speak, except I was able to say it was going to rain, so I told
+him--'Es will regnen'--which he knowed as well as I did, for it was
+raining all the time. I had a little more palaver with Hans, and, at
+last, he got up on his feet and set to walking up and down. By this time
+the drums beat for evening quarters, and I bid Hans good night; but,
+instead of going away, I squatted behind the Dutchman's sentry
+box;--and, presently, the rain came down by the bucket full; it got very
+dark and Hans was snug under cover. The grand rounds was coming; I could
+hear the tramp of feet, and as no time was to be lost, I made a long
+step and a short story of it, by just slipping over the lines and
+setting out to seek my fortune."
+
+"Well done, sergeant! You were ever good at these pranks."
+
+"But that wasn't all," continued Robinson. "As the prime file leader of
+mischief would have it, outside of the lines I meets a cart with a man
+to drive it, and two soldiers on foot, by way of guard.
+
+"The first I was aware of it, was a hallo, and then a bagnet to my
+breast. I didn't ask for countersigns, for I didn't mean to trade in
+words that night; but, just seizing hold of the muzzle of the piece, I
+twisted it out of the fellow's hand, and made him a present of the
+butt-end across his pate. I didn't want to hurt him, you see, for it
+wa'n't his fault that he stopped me. A back-hander brought down the
+other, and the third man drove off his cart, as if he had some suspicion
+that his comrades were on their backs in the mud. I didn't mean to
+trouble a peaceable man with my compliments, but on the contrary, as the
+preacher says, I went on my way rejoicing."
+
+"You were very considerate, sergeant; I entirely approve of your
+moderation. As you are a brave man, and have a natural liking for
+danger, this was a night that, doubtless, afforded you great
+satisfaction."
+
+"When danger stares you in the face," replied Horse Shoe, "the best way
+is not to see it. It is only in not seeing of it, that a brave man
+differs from a coward: that's my opinion. Well, after that I had a hard
+time of it. I was afraid to keep up the Neck road, upon account of the
+sodgers that was upon it; so I determined to cross the Ashley, and make
+for the Orangeburg district. When I came to the ferry, I was a little
+dubious about taking one of the skiffs that was hauled up, for fear of
+making a noise; so I slipped off my shoe that had your letter, and put
+it betwixt my teeth and swum the river. I must have made some splashing
+in the water--although I tried to muffle my oars, too, for first, I
+heard a challenge from the ferry-house, and then the crack of a musket:
+but it was so dark you couldn't see an egg on your own nose. There was a
+little flustering of lights on the shore, and a turnout of the guard,
+may be; but, I suppose, they thought it was a sturgeon, or some such
+beast, and so made no more of it; and I got safe to the other bank."
+
+"Faithfully and bravely, sergeant!"
+
+"For the first three or four days the chances were all against me. The
+whole country was full of tories, and it wasn't safe to meet a man on
+the road: you couldn't tell whether he was friend or enemy. I durstn't
+show my face in day-time at all, but lay close in the swamps; and when
+it began to grow dark, I stole out, like a wolf, and travelled across
+the fields, and along the by-ways."
+
+"You had a good stomach to bear it, sergeant."
+
+"A good stomach enough, but not much in it. I'll tell you another
+observation I made; when a man travels all night long on an empty
+stomach, he ought either to fill it next morning or make it smaller."
+
+"And how is that to be managed, friend Horse Shoe?"
+
+"Indian fashion," replied the sergeant. "Buckle your belt a little
+tighter every two or three hours. A man may shrivel his guts up to the
+size of a pipe stem. But I found a better way to get along than by
+taking in my belt"----
+
+"Now, for another stratagem!"
+
+"I commonly, about dark, crept as near to a farm house as I mought
+venture to go; and, putting on a poor mouth, told the folks I had a
+touch of the small-pox, and was dying for a little food. They were
+Christians enough to give me a dish of bread and milk, or something of
+that sort, and cowards enough to keep so much out of the way, as not to
+get a chance to look me in the face. They laid provisions on the ground,
+and then walked away while I came up to get them. Though I didn't think
+much of the fashion I was waited on, and had sometimes to quarrel with a
+bull-dog for my supper, I don't believe I ever ate with a better
+appetite in my life. The first bread of freedom, no matter how coarse, a
+man eats after his escape from prison, is the sweetest morsel in nature.
+And I do think it is a little pleasanter when he eats it at the risk of
+his life."
+
+Butler nodded his head.
+
+"Well, after this," continued Horse Shoe, "I had like to have lost all
+by another mishap. My course was for the upper country, because the
+nearer I got to my own home the better I was acquainted with the people.
+That scrummaging character, Tarleton, you may have hearn, scampered off,
+as soon as ever Charlestown was taken, after Colonel Abraham Buford, who
+was on his way down to the city when the news was fotch him of our
+surrender. Buford accordingly came to the right about, to get out of
+harm's way as fast as he could, and Tarleton followed close on his
+heels. Think of that devil, major, trying to catch a man a hundred
+miles away! It was a brazen hearted thing! considering, besides, that
+Buford had a good regiment with him. When nobody thought it anything
+more than a brag, sure enough, he overhauls Buford yonder at the
+Waxhaws--onawares, you may say--and there he tore him all to pieces.
+They say it was a bloody cruel sight, to see how these English troopers
+did mangle the poor fellows. I doubt there wasn't fair play. But, major,
+that Tarleton rides well and is a proper soldier, take him man to man.
+It so happened that as I was making along towards Catawba, who should I
+come plump upon, but Tarleton and his lads, with their prisoners, all
+halting beside a little run to get water!"
+
+"Again in trouble, sergeant! Truly you have had full measure of
+adventures!"
+
+"I was pretty near nonplushed, major," said Horse Shoe, with a broad
+laugh, "but I thought of a stratagem. I let fall my under jaw, and sot
+my eyes as wild as a madman, and twisted my whole face out of joint--and
+began to clap my hands, and hurra for the red coats, like a natural
+fool. So, when Tarleton and two or three of his people came to take
+notice of me, they put me down for a poor idiot that had been turned
+adrift."
+
+"Did they hold any discourse with you?"
+
+"A good deal; and, just to try me, they flogged me with the flats of
+their swords; but I laughed and made merry when they hurt me worst, and
+told them I thanked them for their politeness. There were some of our
+people amongst the prisoners, that I knew, and I was mortally afeard
+they would let on, but they didn't. Especially, there was Seth Cuthbert,
+from Tryon, who had both of his hands chopped off in the fray at the
+Waxhaws; he was riding double behind a trooper, and he held up the
+stumps just to let me see how barbarously he was mangled. I was dubious
+they would see that he knowed me, but he took care of that. Bless your
+soul, major! he saw my drift in the first shot of his eye. Thinking that
+they mought take it into their noddles to carry me along with them back,
+I played the quarest trick that I suppose ever a man thought of; it
+makes me laugh now to tell it. I made a spring that fetched me right
+upon the crupper of Colonel Tarleton's horse, which sot him to kicking
+and flirting at a merry rate; and, whilst the creature was floundering
+as if a hornet had stung him, I took the colonel's cap and put it upon
+my own head, and gave him mine. And after I had vagaried in this sort of
+way for a little while, I let the horse fling me on the ground. You
+would have thought the devils would have died a laughing. And the
+colonel himself, although at first he was very angry, couldn't help
+laughing likewise. He said that I was as strange a fool as he ever saw,
+and that it would be a pity to hurt me. So he threw me a shilling, and,
+whilst they were all in good humor, I trudged away."
+
+"It was a bold experiment, and might be practised a thousand times
+without success. If I did not know you, Robinson, to be a man of truth,
+as well as courage, I should scarce believe this tale. If any one,
+hereafter, should tell your story, he will be accounted a
+fiction-monger."
+
+"I do not boast, Major Butler; and, as to my story, I care very little
+who tells it. Every trick is good in war. I can change my face and voice
+both, so that my best friends shouldn't know me: and, in these times, I
+am willing to change every thing but my coat, and even that, if I have a
+witness to my heart, and it will serve a turn to help the country. Am I
+not right?"
+
+"No man ever blames another for that, sergeant, and if ever you should
+be put to the trial, you will find friends enough to vouch for your
+honesty."
+
+"When I got away from Tarleton it wasn't long before I reached my own
+cabin. There I mustered my horse and gun, and some decent clothes; and
+after a good sleep, and a belly full of food, I started for the north,
+as fast as I could, with my letter. I put it into your own hands, and
+you know the rest."
+
+"This will be a good tale for a winter night," said Butler, "to be told
+hereafter, in a snug chimney corner, to your wife and children, when
+peace, as I trust it may, will make you happy in the possession of both.
+Your embassy has had marvellous good luck so far. I hope it may prove a
+happy omen for our future enterprise. Now it is my turn, Galbraith, to
+tell you something of our plans. Colonel Pinckney has apprised me of the
+state of things in the upper country. Our good friend Clarke there
+meditates an attempt to regain Augusta and Ninety-six; and we have
+reason to believe that some levies will be made by our confederates in
+Virginia and elsewhere. My business is to co-operate in this
+undertaking; and as it was essential I should have the guidance of some
+man acquainted with that country--some good soldier, true and
+trusty--the colonel has selected you to accompany me. These red coats
+have already got possession of all the strongholds; and the tories, you
+know, swarm in the country, like the locusts of Egypt. I stand in need,
+sergeant, of a friend with a discreet head and a strong arm. I could not
+have picked out of the army a better man than Sergeant Galbraith
+Robinson. Besides, Horse Shoe," he added, putting his hand gently upon
+the sergeant's shoulder, "old acquaintance has bred an affection between
+us."
+
+"I am a man that can eat my allowance, major," said Robinson, with an
+awkward diffidence at hearing the encomium just passed upon him, "and
+that's a matter that doesn't turn to much profit in an empty country.
+But I think I may make bold to promise, that you are not like to suffer,
+if a word or a blow from me would do you any good."
+
+"Your belt may be serviceable in two ways in this expedition, Horse
+Shoe: it may be buckled closer in scant times, and will carry a sword in
+dangerous ones."
+
+"May I ask, major," inquired Horse Shoe, "since you have got to talking
+of our business, what has brought us so high up the country, along here?
+It seems to me that the lower road would have been nearer."
+
+"Suppose I say, Galbraith," replied Butler, with animation, "that there
+is a bird nestles in these woods, I was fond of hearing sing, would it
+be unsoldier-like, think you, to make a harder ride and a larger circuit
+for that gratification?"
+
+"Oh! I understand, major," said Horse Shoe, laughing, "whether it be
+peace or whether it be war, these women keep the upper hand of us men.
+For my part, I think it's more natural to think of them in war than in
+peace. For, you see, the creatures are so helpless, that if a man don't
+take care of them, who would? And then, when a woman's frightened, as
+she must be in these times, she clings so naturally to a man! It stands
+to reason!"
+
+"You will keep my counsel, Galbraith," interrupted Butler, "I have a
+reason which, perhaps, you may know by and by, why you should not speak
+of any thing you may see or hear. And now, as we have spent a good hour
+in refreshment, sergeant, make our horses ready. We'll take the road
+again."
+
+Robinson promised caution in all matters that might be committed to his
+charge, and now set himself about saddling the horses for the journey.
+Whilst he was engaged in this occupation, Butler was startled to hear
+the sergeant abruptly cry out--"You devil, Captain Peter Clinch! what
+are you about?" and, looking hastily around, saw no one but the trusty
+squire himself, who was now sedately intent upon thrusting the bit into
+his horse's mouth,--a liberty which the animal seemed to resent by
+sundry manifestations of waywardness.
+
+"To whom are you talking, Galbraith?"
+
+"Only to this here contrary, obstropolous beast, major."
+
+"What name did you call him by?" inquired Butler.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! was it that you was listening too?" said Horse Shoe. "I
+have christened him Captain Peter--sometimes Captain Peter Clinch. I'll
+tell you why. I am a little malicious touching the name of my horse.
+After the surrender of Charlestown, our regiment was put in the charge
+of a provost marshal, by the name of Captain Clinch, and his first name
+was Peter. He was a rough, ugly, wiry-haired fellow, with no better
+bowels than a barrel of vinegar. He gave us all sorts of ill usage,
+knowing that we wa'n't allowed to give him the kind of payment that such
+an oncomfortable fellow desarved to get. If ever I had met him again,
+major, _setters parbus_--as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say--which is
+lingo, I take it, for a fair field, I would'a cudgelled his pate for
+him, to the satisfaction of all good fellows. Well, when I got home, I
+gave his name to my beast, just for the pleasure of thinking of that
+hang-gallows thief, every time I had occasion to give the creetur a dig
+in the ribs, or lay a blow across his withers! And yet he is a most an
+excellent horse, major, and a hundred times more of a gentleman than his
+namesake,--though he is a little hard-headed too--but that he larnt from
+me. It really seems to me that the dumb beast thinks his name a
+disgrace, as he has good right, but has got used to it. And, besides, I
+hear that the cross-grained, growling dog of a captain has been killed
+in a scuffle since I left Charlestown, so now I consider my horse a sort
+of tombstone with the ugly sinner's name on it; and as I straddle it
+every day you see, that's another satisfaction."
+
+"Well, sergeant, there are few men enjoy their revenge more
+good-humoredly than you. So, come, straddle your tombstone again, and
+make the bones beneath it jog."
+
+In good glee, our travellers now betook themselves once more to the
+road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AN INCIDENT THAT SAVORS OF ROMANCE.
+
+
+By the time the sun had fallen to the level of the summits of the Blue
+Ridge, Butler and Robinson had progressed so far in their journey, as to
+find themselves in the vicinity of the Rockfish river--a rapid mountain
+stream, that traverses the southern confine of Albemarle, and which, at
+that period, separated this county from Amherst. Their path had led
+them, by a short circuit, out of the ravine of Cove creek, along upon
+the ridges of the neighboring hills; and they were now descending from
+this elevation, into the valley of the Rockfish, near to the point where
+the Cove creek forms its junction with this river. The hill was covered
+with a stately forest, and a broad, winding road had been cut down the
+steep side, in such a manner as to present a high bank on one hand, and
+an abrupt sheer descent on the other. From this road might be seen, at
+intervals, glimmering through the screen of underwood, the waters of the
+small river below; whilst, at the same time, the circuitous course of
+the descending track left but few paces of its length visible from any
+one point, except where, now and then, it came boldly forth to the verge
+of some wild crag, from which glimpses were to be obtained of its
+frequent traverses towards the deep and romantic dell that received the
+mingled tribute of the two streams.
+
+Here, as our travellers journeyed downward, their attention was awakened
+by the cry of hounds in pursuit of game. These sounds came from the wood
+on the crest of the hill above them; and the clamorous earnestness with
+which they assailed the ear, and roused the far echo of the highlands,
+showed the object of chase to have been suddenly surprised and hotly
+followed. The outcry was heard, for some moments, pursuing a direction
+towards the river, when, suddenly from the midst of the forest, the
+sharp twang of a rifle-shot showed that some hunter was on the watch to
+profit by the discovery of the dogs.
+
+Robinson, as soon as he heard the report, urged his horse forward with
+speed, to the first turn of the road below; dismounted, and, throwing
+his rifle into the palm of his left hand, stood ready to give his fire
+wherever he might find occasion. Butler followed, and reined up close
+beside his companion.
+
+"There is game afoot," said Galbraith, "and if that shot has not done
+its business, it may be my turn to try a hand."
+
+These words were hardly spoken, when a wounded buck rushed to the brink
+of the bank, some twelve or fifteen feet above the heads of the
+travellers, and regardless of the presence of enemies, made one frantic
+bound forward into the air, and fell dead almost at Robinson's feet. So
+effectually had the work of death been done upon the poor animal, that
+he seemed to have expired, in the convulsion of this last leap, before
+he reached the ground; his antlers were driven into the clay; his eyes
+were fixed, and not a struggle followed.
+
+"It was a home-shot that brought this poor fugitive to the earth," said
+Butler, as he stood gazing at the piteous spectacle before him, "and
+sped by a practised hand."
+
+"I don't count him a good man, major," said Galbraith, with professional
+indifference, "who would mangle his meat by random firing. Now, this
+buck was taken sideways, as he leaped above the tops of the bushes,
+which is the ticklishest of all the ways of shooting a deer. The man
+that plucked this fellow, I'll warrant, can plant his ball just where he
+likes: right under the arm is the place for certainty; and the thing
+couldn't have been prettier done if the man had had a rest and a
+standing shot."
+
+During this short interval, the hounds had arrived on the spot where the
+buck lay bleeding, and these, after a few minutes, were followed by two
+hunters of very dissimilar appearance, who came on foot, slowly leading
+their horses up the hill.
+
+The first was a tall, gaunt woodman, of a sallow complexion, jet black
+eyes, and round head of smooth black hair. His dress was simply a coarse
+linen shirt and trowsers, the heat of the day being such as to allow him
+to dispense with coat and waistcoat. He carried, in one hand, a battered
+straw hat, and in the other, trailed a long rifle. His feet were
+covered with a pair of moccasins of brown leather, and the ordinary
+hunting equipments were suspended about his person.
+
+The second was a youth apparently about sixteen, dressed in a suit of
+green summer-cloth, neatly and fancifully adapted to his figure, which
+was graceful and boyish. The jacket was short, and gathered into a small
+skirt behind; and both this and the pantaloons were garnished with a
+profusion of black cord and small black buttons. A highly polished
+leather belt was buckled around his waist; a cap of green cloth rested,
+somewhat conceitedly, amongst the rich locks of a head of light, curly
+hair that fell, with girlish beauty, over a fair brow, and gave softness
+to a countenance of pure white and red; and a neat foot showed to
+advantage in a laced boot. The whole appearance of the youth was of one
+of an amiable and docile bearing, and the small rifle or carbine which
+he bore in his hand, as well as the dainty accoutrements that belonged
+to it, amongst which was a diminutive bugle, looked more like the toys
+of a pampered boy, than any apparatus of service.
+
+No sooner had these two approached near enough to Butler and his
+attendant for recognition, than the youth, quitting the hold of his
+horse, sprang forward with a joyous alacrity and seized Butler by the
+hand.
+
+"Captain Butler," he cried with great animation, "how glad I am you have
+come! And how fortunate it is that I should meet you! Get down from your
+horse, I have something to tell you. Here, Stephen Foster, take this
+gentleman's horse."
+
+"You are a fine fellow, Harry," said Butler, dismounting. "That smiling
+face of yours is full of pleasant news; it assures me that all are well
+at the Dove Cote." Then having given his horse in charge to Robinson,
+and walked a few paces apart with his young friend, he enquired, in a
+low and anxious tone, "Mildred, my dear Henry, what of your sister
+Mildred? Has she received my letter? Does she expect me? Is your
+father--"
+
+"Now, captain," interrupted the other--"but heigh! don't the newspapers
+say you are brevetted? I am a pretty fellow to forget that! Well then,
+Major Butler, let me answer one question at a time. In the first place,
+sister Mildred is as well as any girl can be, that has a whole bushel of
+crosses to keep her out of spirits. Poor thing, she frets so, about you
+and my father. In the second place, she received your letter a week ago,
+and has had me patrolling this ridge every day since, just to keep a
+look-out for you; and, for the sake of company, I have had Stephen
+Foster hunting here all the time--more for an excuse than anything else,
+because on this side of the river the drives are not the best for
+deer--a man might be here a fortnight and not get a shot. Sister Mildred
+wanted me, if I should see you first, just to whisper to you that it is
+impossible to do anything with my father, especially at this time, for
+he has one of these English officers staying at the Dove Cote now, who,
+I am afraid, and so is sister Mildred, has come to do some mischief.
+Mildred says I must make some appointment with you to see her privately.
+I thought of Mrs. Dimock's, but this Englishman has a servant staying
+over there, and may be it wouldn't do. So, major, you will have to ride
+down to the big chestnut, on the bank of the river, just under the rock
+that we call the Fawn's Tower--you know where that is? it isn't more
+than two miles from here."
+
+"I know it well, Henry, I will wait there patiently," replied Butler, as
+he now returned to his horse.
+
+"Haven't we been in luck," said Henry, "to get so fine a buck at last?
+This fellow has eight branches. It is Stephen's rifle that has done it."
+
+The woodman, during this conversation, had taken possession of his
+spoil, and was now busily engaged with his knife in cutting open and
+preparing the animal for transportation, according to the usages of
+woodcraft, whilst Robinson stood by, admiring the dexterity with which
+this office was performed. When the buck was, at last, thrown by Stephen
+across his horse, Henry gave him orders to ride forward.
+
+"You will carry our game to your own house, Stephen; and don't forget,
+to-morrow, to let us have the saddle at the Dove Cote. And Stephen, you
+need not say that we have found any acquaintances upon the road, you
+understand!"
+
+The man bowed his head, in token of obedience, and getting upon his
+long-backed steed, behind the buck, was soon lost to view in the
+windings of the hill.
+
+"Sister Mildred is sometimes downright melancholy," said the young
+hunter, after he had remounted, and now rode beside Butler. "She is
+troubled about you, and is always telling me of some unpleasant dream. I
+almost think she is over-fanciful; and then she reads everything about
+the army, and talks almost like a man about soldiering. Do you know she
+is making a soldier of me? I am constantly reading military books, and
+practising drill, and laying out fortifications, just as if I was going
+into camp. My father doesn't know a word of it; his time is taken up
+with these English officers, writing to them, and every now and then
+there are some of them at our house. Mildred knows them--a famous spy
+she would make! Isn't she an excellent girl, Major Butler?"
+
+"You and I should guard her, Henry, with more care than we guard our
+lives," replied Butler, with a serious emphasis.
+
+"I hope," returned Henry, "she will be in better spirits after she sees
+you."
+
+"I would to heaven," said Butler, "that we all had more reason to be of
+good cheer, than we are likely to have. It is as cloudy a day, Henry, as
+you may ever behold again, should you live, as I pray you may, to the
+ripest old age."
+
+Henry looked up towards the west.
+
+"There are clouds upon the sky," he said, "and the sun has dropped below
+them; but there is a streak of yellow light, near to the line of the
+mountain, that our wise people say is a sign that the sun will rise in
+beauty to-morrow."
+
+"There is a light beyond the mountain," replied Butler, half speaking to
+himself, "and it is the best, the only sign I see of a clear to-morrow.
+I wish, Henry, it were a brighter beam."
+
+"Don't you know Gates has passed South?" said Henry, "and has some
+pretty fellows with him, they say. And ar'n't we all mustering
+here--every man most? Ask Stephen Foster what I am?"
+
+"And what will he tell me?"
+
+"Why, that I am his deputy-corporal in the mounted riflemen; Stephen is
+the lieutenant."
+
+"Oh, I crave your favor, brother officer, good master deputy-corporal,
+Henry Lindsay! and does your father allow you to ride in the ranks of
+the friends of liberty?"
+
+"Sister Mildred persuaded him that as I am a mere lad, as she
+says,--look at me, major,--a pretty well grown lad, I take it, there is
+no harm in my playing soldier. So I ride always with Stephen Foster, and
+Mildred got me this light rifle-carbine. Now, major, I fancy I am pretty
+nearly as good a marksman as rides in the corps. Who is this with you?"
+asked Henry, looking back at Robinson, who loitered some distance in the
+rear purposely to avoid what might be deemed an intrusion upon the
+private conference of the two friends.
+
+"That is a famous soldier, Henry; he was at the siege of Charleston, and
+last year at Savannah. He has had some hard blows, and can tell you more
+of war than you have ever read in all your studies."
+
+"He wears a curious uniform," said Henry, "for a regular soldier. What
+is his name?"
+
+"Galbraith Robinson--or Horse Shoe Robinson--to give him his most
+popular distinction. But it would be well to keep his name secret."
+
+"I have heard of Horse Shoe," said Henry, with an expression of great
+interest. "So, this is the man himself? From all reports he is as brave
+as"--
+
+"As who?" asked Butler, smiling at the tone of wonder with which Henry
+spoke.
+
+"As Caius Marcius Coriolanus, who, I make no doubt, major, was about the
+bravest man in the books."
+
+Butler laughed, and applauded the young martialist for his
+discrimination.
+
+The road from the foot of the hill pursued the left, or northern, bank
+of the Rockfish, which shot along, with a rapid flood, over the rocks
+that lay scattered in its bed; and the gush of whose flight fell upon
+the ear like the loud tones of the wind. From either margin it was
+shaded by huge sycamores, whose tops, at this twilight hour, were marked
+in broad lines upon the fading sky, and whose wide spreading boughs met,
+from side to side, over the middle of the stream, throwing a deeper
+night upon the clear and transparent waters. The valley was closely
+bound by high precipitous hills, whose steep crags and narrow passes
+seemed to echo and prolong the gush of the stream, that was now mingled
+with the occasional lowing of cattle, the shriek of the owl, and the
+frequent hoarse scream of the whip-poor-will.
+
+When our party had advanced about a mile along this road, Henry Lindsay
+took his bugle and blew a blast which seemed to dance in its
+reverberations from one side of the river to the other.
+
+"Mildred knows my signal," said he; "that is the scout's warning:
+cavalry approaches: dress your line: prepare to receive a general
+officer."
+
+"Henry, pray drop your military phrase, and tell me what this means?"
+said Butler.
+
+"Ride on till you arrive beneath the Fawn's Tower. Wait for me there. I
+will give you a signal when I approach: and trust me for a faithful
+messenger. The river is deep at the rock, but you will find a boat
+fastened to this bank. When you hear my signal come across. Mr. Dimock's
+is only another mile; and, I'll warrant, the old lady will make you
+comfortable. Love, they say, major," added Henry, sportively, "is meat
+and drink, and a blanket to boot; but for all that, Mrs. Dimock's will
+not be amiss--especially for Horse Shoe, who, I take it, will have the
+roughest time of the party. If love is a blanket, Mr. Robinson," Henry
+continued, addressing himself to that worthy, "it doesn't cover two, you
+know."
+
+"To my thinking, young sir," replied Horse Shoe, with a laugh, "it
+wouldn't fold so cleverly in a knapsack."
+
+"Now that I have given my orders," said Henry, "and done my duty, I must
+leave you, for my road lies across the ford here. Where are my hounds?
+Hylas, Bell, Blanche, you puppies, where are you?"
+
+Here Henry blew another note, which was immediately responded to by the
+hounds; and, plunging into the rapid and narrow stream, followed by the
+dogs, who swam close behind him, he was seen, the next moment, through
+the twilight, galloping up the opposite hill, as he called out his "good
+night" to his friends.
+
+As soon as Henry had disappeared, the other two pricked their steeds
+forward at a faster pace. The rapid flow of the river, as they advanced
+along its bank, began to change into a more quiet current, as if some
+obstruction below had dammed up the water, rendering it deep and still.
+Upon this tranquil mirror the pale crescent of the moon and the faintly
+peeping stars were reflected; and the flight of the fire-fly was traced,
+by his own light and its redoubled image, upon the same surface.
+
+The high toppling cliff of the Fawn's Tower, that jutted forth like a
+parapet above the road, soon arrested the attention of Butler; and at
+its base the great chestnut flung abroad his "vast magnificence of
+leaves," almost in emulation of the aspiring crag.
+
+"We have reached our appointed ground," said Butler. "I shall want my
+cloak, Galbraith; the dews begin to chill my limbs."
+
+They dismounted, and Butler threw his cloak around his shoulders. Then,
+in a thoughtful, musing state of mind, he strolled slowly along the bank
+of the river, till he was temporarily lost to view in the thick shades
+and sombre scenery around him. Robinson, having secured the horses, sat
+himself down at the foot of the chestnut, unwilling to interrupt, by
+conversation, the anxious state of feeling which he had the shrewdness
+to perceive predominated in Butler's mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A MEETING OF LOVERS----SOME INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE.
+
+
+The twilight had subsided and given place to a beautiful night. The moon
+had risen above the tree tops, and now threw her level rays upon the
+broad face of the massive pile of rocks forming the Fawn's Tower, and
+lit up with a silvery splendor, the foliage that clothed the steep cliff
+and the almost perpendicular hill in its neighborhood. On the opposite
+side of the river, a line of beech and sycamore trees, that grew almost
+at the water's edge, threw a dark shadow upon the bank. Through these,
+at intervals, the bright moonlight fell upon the earth, and upon the
+quiet and deep stream. The woods were vocal with the whispering noises
+that give discord to the nights of summer; yet, was there a stillness in
+the scene which invited grave thoughts, and recalled to Butler's mind
+some painful emotions that belonged to his present condition.
+
+"How complicated and severe are those trials"--such was the current of
+his meditations--"which mingle private grief with public misfortune:
+that double current of ill which runs, on one side, to the overthrow of
+a nation's happiness, and, on the other, to the prostration of the
+individual who labors in the cause! What a struggle have I to encounter
+between my duty to my country and my regard for those tender relations
+that still more engross my affections, nor less earnestly appeal to my
+manhood for defence! Upon the common quarrel I have already staked my
+life and fortune, and find myself wrapt up in its most perilous
+obligations. That cause has enough in it to employ and perplex the
+strongest mind, and to invoke the full devotion of a head and heart that
+are exempt from all other solicitude: yet am I embarrassed with personal
+cares that are woven into the very web of my existence; that have
+planted themselves beside the fountain of my affections, and which, if
+they be rudely torn from me, would leave behind--but a miserable and
+hopeless wreck. My own Mildred! to what sad trials have I brought your
+affection; and how nobly hast thou met them!
+
+"Man lives in the contentious crowd; he struggles for the palm that
+thousands may award, and far-speeding renown may rend the air with the
+loud huzza of praise. His is the strife of the theatre where the world
+are spectators; and multitudes shall glorify his success, or lament his
+fall, or cheer him in the pangs of death. But woman, gentle, silent,
+sequestered--thy triumphs are only for the heart that loves thee--thy
+deepest griefs have no comforter but the secret communion of thine own
+pillow!"
+
+Whilst Butler, who had now returned beneath the cliff of the Fawn's
+Tower, was absorbed in this silent musing, his comrade was no less
+occupied with his own cares. The sergeant had acquired much of that
+forecast, in regard to small comforts, which becomes, in some degree, an
+instinct in those whose profession exposes them to the assaults of wind
+and weather. Tobacco, in his reckoning, was one of the most
+indispensable muniments of war; and he was, accordingly, seldom without
+a good stock of this commodity. A corn cob, at any time, furnished him
+the means of carving the bowl of a pipe; whilst, in his pocket, he
+carried a slender tube of reed which, being united to the bowl, formed a
+smoking apparatus, still familiar to the people of this country, and
+which, to use the sergeant's own phrase, "couldn't be touched for
+sweetness by the best pipe the very Queen of the Dutch herself ever
+smoked; and that"--he was in the habit of adding--"must be, as I take
+it, about the tenderest thing for a whiff that the Dutchman knowed how
+to make."
+
+A flint and steel--part also of his gear--now served to ignite his
+tobacco, and he had been, for some time past, sedately scanning the
+length and breadth of his own fancies, which were, doubtless rendered
+the more sublime by the mistiness which a rich volume of smoke had shed
+across his vision and infused into the atmosphere around his brain.
+
+"Twelve shillings and nine pence," were the first words which became
+audible to Butler in the depth of his revery. "That, major," said the
+sergeant, who had been rummaging his pocket, and counting over a handful
+of coin, "is exactly the amount I have spent since this time last night.
+I paid it to the old lady of the Swan at Charlottesville, taking a
+sixpence for mending your bridle rein. Since you must make me paymaster
+for our march, I am obliged to square accounts every night. My noddle
+wont hold two days reckoning. It gets scrimped and flustered with so
+many numberings, that I lose the count clean out."
+
+"It is of little consequence, Galbraith," replied Butler, seeking to
+avoid his companion's interruption.
+
+"Squaring up, and smoothing off, and bringing out this and that shilling
+straight to a penny, don't come natural to me," continued Robinson, too
+intent upon his reckoning to observe the disinclination of Butler to a
+parley, "money matters are not in my line. I take to them as
+disunderstandingly as Gill Bentley did to the company's books, when they
+made him Orderly on the Waccamaw picquet. For Gill, in the first place,
+couldn't write, and, in the next place, if he could'a done that, he
+never larnt to read, so you may suppose what a beautiful puzzleification
+he had of it to keep the guard roster straight."
+
+"Sergeant, look if yonder boat is loose; I shall want it presently,"
+said Butler, still giving no ear to his comrade's gossip.
+
+"It is tied by an easy knot to the root of the tree," said Robinson, as
+he returned from the examination.
+
+"Thank you," added Butler with more than usual abstractedness.
+
+"Something, major, seems to press upon your spirits to-night," said the
+sergeant, in the kindest tones of inquiry. "If I could lend a hand to
+put any thing, that mought happen to have got crooked, into its right
+place again, you know, Major Butler, I wouldn't be slow to do it, when
+you say the word."
+
+"I would trust my life to you, Galbraith, sooner than to any man
+living," replied the other, with an affectionate emphasis:--"But you
+mistake me, I am not heavy at heart, though a little anxious, sergeant,
+at what has brought me here, comrade," he added as he approached the
+sergeant, upon whose broad shoulder he familiarly laid his hand, with a
+smile; "you will keep a fellow soldier's counsel?"
+
+"As I keep my heart in my body," interrupted Galbraith.
+
+"I am sure of it; even as you keep your faith to your country my true
+and worthy brother," added Butler with animation, "and that is with no
+less honesty than a good man serves his God. Then, Galbraith, bear it
+in mind, I have come here for the sake of a short meeting with one that
+I love, as you would have a good soldier love the lady of his soul. You
+will hereafter speak of nothing that may fall within your notice. It
+concerns me deeply that this meeting should be secret."
+
+"Major, I will have neither eyes nor ears, if it consarns you to keep
+any thing that mought chance to come to my knowledge, private."
+
+"It is not for myself, sergeant, I bespeak this caution; I have nothing
+to conceal from you; but there is a lady who is much interested in our
+circumspection. I have given you a long and solitary ride on her
+account, and may hereafter ask other service from you. You shall not
+find it more irksome, Galbraith, to stand by a comrade in love, than you
+have ever found it in war, and that, I know, you think not much."
+
+"The war comes naturally enough to my hand," replied Galbraith, "but as
+for the love part, major, excepting so far as carrying a message, or, in
+case of a runaway, keeping off a gang of pestifarious intermeddlers, or
+watching, for a night or so, under a tree, or any thing, indeed, in the
+riding and running, or watching, or scrimmaging line--I say, excepting
+these, my sarvice moughtn't turn to much account. I can't even play a
+fiddle at a wedding, and I've not the best tongue for making headway
+amongst the women. Howsomdever, major, you may set me down for a
+volunteer on the first forlorn hope you may have occasion for."
+
+"Mr. Lindsay lives on the hill across the river. There are reasons why I
+cannot go to his house; and his daughter, Galbraith, is an especial
+friend to us and to our cause."
+
+"I begin to see into it," interrupted the sergeant, laughing, "you have
+a notion of showing the old gentleman the same trick you played off upon
+Lord Howe's provost marshal, when you was lieutenant at Valley Forge,
+touching your stealing away his prisoner, Captain Roberts. That was a
+night affair, too. Well, the best wife a man can have, major, is the
+woman that takes to him through fire and water. There was Colonel
+Gardiner, that stole his wife just in that way, against all opposition
+of both father and mother, and a better woman never stitched up a seam,
+to my knowledge and belief."
+
+"I have no thought of such an enterprise, sergeant," said Butler; "our
+purpose, for the present, must be confined to a short visit. We are
+houseless adventurers, Galbraith, and have little to offer to sweetheart
+or wife that might please a woman's fancy."
+
+"When a woman loves a man, especially a sodger," replied the sergeant,
+"she sets as little store by house and home as the best of us. Still, it
+is a wise thing to give the creatures the chance of peace, before you
+get to tangling them with families. Hark, I hear something like
+footsteps on t'other side of the river! Mister Henry must be on his
+march."
+
+After an interval, a low whistle issued from the opposite bank, and, in
+a moment, Butler was in the skiff, pushing his way through the sparkling
+waters.
+
+As the small boat, in which he stood upright, shot from the bright
+moonlight into the shade of the opposite side, he could obscurely
+discern Mildred Lindsay leaning on her brother's arm, as they both stood
+under the thick foliage of a large beech. And scarcely had the bow
+struck upon the pebbly margin, before he bounded from it up the bank,
+and was, in the next instant, locked in the embrace of one whose
+affection he valued above all earthly possessions.
+
+When that short interval had passed away, in which neither Mildred nor
+Arthur could utter speech; during which the lady leant her head upon her
+lover's bosom, in that fond familiarity which plighted faith is allowed
+to justify in the most modest maiden, sobbing the while in the intensity
+of her emotions, she then at last, as she slowly regained her
+self-possession, said, in a soft and melancholy voice, in which there
+was nevertheless a tone of playfulness:
+
+"I am a foolish girl, Arthur. I can boast like a blustering coward, when
+there is nothing to fear; and yet I weep, like a true woman, at the
+first trial of my courage."
+
+"Ah, my dear Mildred, you are a brave girl," replied Butler, as he held
+both of her hands and looked fondly into her face, "and a true and a
+tried girl. You have come kindly to me, and ever, like a blessed and
+gentle spirit of good, are prompt to attend me through every mischance.
+It is a long and weary time, love, since last we met."
+
+"It is very, very long, Arthur."
+
+"And we are still as far off, Mildred, from our wishes as at first we
+were."
+
+"Even so," said Mildred sorrowfully. "A year of pain drags heavily by,
+and brings no hope. Oh, Arthur, what have I suffered in the thought that
+your life is so beset with dangers! I muse upon them with a childish
+fear, that was not so before our last meeting. They rise to disturb my
+daily fancies, and night finds them inhabiting my pillow. I was so
+thankful, that you escaped that dreary siege of Charleston!"
+
+"Many a poor and gallant fellow soldier there bit his lip with a chafed
+and peevish temper," said Butler; "but the day will come, Mildred, when
+we may yet carry a prouder head to the field of our country's honor."
+
+"And your share," interrupted Mildred, "will ever be to march in the
+front rank. In spite of all your perils past, your hard service, which
+has known no holiday, your fatigues, that I have sometimes feared would
+break down your health, and in spite too, of the claims, Arthur, that
+your poor Mildred has upon you, you are even now again bound upon some
+bold adventure, that must separate us, ah, perhaps, for ever! Our fate
+has malice in it. Ever beginning some fresh exploit!"
+
+"You would not have your soldier bear himself otherwise than as a true
+knight, who would win and wear his lady-love by good set blows when
+there was need for them?"
+
+"If I were the genius that conjured up this war, I would give my own
+true knight a breathing space. He should pipe and dance between whiles,"
+replied Mildred sportively.
+
+"He that puts his sickle into this field amongst the reapers," said
+Butler, with a thoughtful earnestness, "should not look back from his
+work."
+
+"No, no, though my heart break while I say it--for, in truth, I am very
+melancholy, notwithstanding I force a beggar's smile upon my cheek; no,
+I would not have you stay or stand, Arthur, until you have seen this
+wretched quarrel at an end. I praised your first resolve--loved you for
+it--applauded and cheered you; I will not selfishly now, for the sake of
+my weak, womanish apprehension, say one word to withhold your arm."
+
+"And you are still," said Butler, "that same resolute enthusiast that I
+found in the young and eloquent beauty who captivated my worthless
+heart, when the war first drew the wild spirits of the country together
+under our free banner?"
+
+"The same foolish, conceited, heady, prattling truant, Arthur, that
+first took a silly liking to your pompous strut, and made a hero to her
+imagination out of a boasting ensign--the same in all my follies, and in
+all my faults--only altered in one quality."
+
+"And pray, what is that one quality?"
+
+"I will not tell you," said Mildred carelessly. "'Twould make you vainer
+than you are."
+
+"It is not well to hide a kind thought from me, Mildred."
+
+"Indeed it is not, Arthur. And so, I will muster courage to speak it,"
+said the confiding girl with vivacity, after a short pause during which
+she hung fondly upon her lover's arm; and then suddenly changing her
+mood, she proceeded in a tone of deep and serious enthusiasm, "it is,
+that since that short, eventful and most solemn meeting, I have loved
+you, Arthur, with feelings that I did not know until then were mine. My
+busy fancy has followed you in all your wanderings--painted with
+stronger hues than nature gives to any real scene the difficulties and
+disasters that might cross your path--noted the seasons with a nervous
+acuteness of remark, from very faint-heartedness at the thought that
+they might blight your health or bring you some discomfort. I have pored
+over the accounts of battles, the march of armies, the tales of
+prisoners relating the secrets of their prisons; studied the plans of
+generals and statesmen, as the newspapers or common rumor brought them
+to my knowledge, with an interest that has made those around me say I
+was sadly changed. It was all because I had grown cowardly and feared
+even my own shadow. Oh, Arthur, I am not indeed what I was."
+
+The solemnity, force and feeling with which Mildred gave utterance to
+these words, strangely contrasted with the light and gay tone in which
+she had commenced; but her thoughts had now fallen into a current that
+bore her forward into one of those bursts of excited emotion, which were
+characteristic of her temper, and which threw a peculiar energy and
+eloquence into her manner. Butler, struck by the rising warmth of her
+enunciation, and swayed in part by the painful reflections to which her
+topic gave rise, replied, in a state of feeling scarcely less solemn
+than her own--
+
+"Ah, Mildred," and as he spoke, he parted her hair upon her pale
+forehead and kissed it, "dearest girl, the unknown time to come has no
+cup of suffering for me that I would not hold a cheap purchase for one
+moment like this. Even a year of painful absence past, and a still more
+solicitous one to come, may be gallantly and cheerfully borne when
+blessed with the fleeting interval of this night. To hear your faith,
+which though I never dwelt upon it but with a confidence that I have
+held it most profane to doubt, still, to hear it avowed from your own
+lips, now again and again, repeating what you have often breathed
+before, and in letter after letter, written down, it falls upon my
+heart, Mildred, like some good gift from heaven, specially sent to
+revive and quicken my resolution in all the toils and labors that yet
+await me. There must be good in store for such a heart as thine; and,
+trusting to this faith, I will look to the future with a buoyant
+temper."
+
+"The future," said Mildred, as she lifted her eyes to the pale moon that
+now sheeted with its light her whole figure, as she and her lover
+strayed beyond the shade of the beech, "I almost shudder when I hear
+that word. We live but in the present; that, Arthur, is, at least, our
+own, poor as we are in almost all beside. That future is a perplexed and
+tangled riddle--a dreadful uncertainty, in the contemplation of which I
+grow superstitious. Such ill omens are about us! My father's inexorable
+will, so headstrong, so unconscious of the pain it gives me; his rooted,
+yes, his fatal aversion to you; my thraldom here, where, like a poor
+bird checked by a cord, I chafe myself by fluttering on the verge of my
+prison bounds; and then, the awful perils that continually impend over
+your head--all these are more than weak imaginings; they are the
+realities of my daily life, and give me, what I am almost ashamed to
+confess, a sad and boding spirit."
+
+"Nay, nay, dearest Mildred! Away with all these unreasonable
+reckonings!" replied Butler, with a manner that too plainly betrayed the
+counterfeit of mirth. "Seclusion has dealt unworthily with you. It has
+almost turned thee into a downright sentimental woman. I will have none
+of this stepping to the verge of melancholy. You were accustomed to
+cheer me with sunny and warm counsel; and you must not forget it was
+yourself who taught me to strike aside the waves of fortune with a glad
+temper. The fates can have no spite against one so good as thou art!
+Time may bear us along like a rough trotting horse; and our journey may
+have its dark night, its quagmires, and its jack-o'lanterns, but there
+will come a ruddy morning at last--a smoother road, and an easier gait;
+and thou, my girl, shalt again instruct me how to win a triumph over the
+ills of life."
+
+"And we will be happy, Arthur, because all around us will be so," added
+Mildred, catching the current of Butler's thoughts, with that ready
+versatility which eminently showed the earnestness and devotion of her
+feelings--"Ah, may heaven grant this boon, and bring these dreams to
+life! I think, Arthur, I should be happier now, if I could but be near
+you in your wanderings. Gladly would I follow you through all the
+dangers of the war."
+
+"That were indeed, love, a trial past your faculty to endure. No, no,
+Mildred, she who would be a soldier's wife, should learn the soldier's
+philosophy--to look with a resigned submission on the present events,
+and trust to heaven for the future. Your share in this struggle is to
+commune with your own heart in solitude, and teach it patience. Right
+nobly have you thus far borne that grievous burden! The sacrifice that
+you have made--its ever present and unmitigated weight, silently and
+sleeplessly inflicting its slow pains upon your free and generous
+spirit; that, Mildred, is the chief and most galling of my cares."
+
+"This weary war, this weary war," breathed Mildred, in a pensive under
+key, "when will it be done!"
+
+"The longest troubles have their end," replied Butler, "and men, at
+last, spent with the vexations of their own mischief, fly, by a selfish
+instinct, into the bosom of peace. God will prosper our enterprise, and
+bring our battered ship into a fortunate haven."
+
+"How little like it seems it now!" returned Mildred. "The general
+sorrow, alone, might well weigh down the stoutest heart. That cause
+which you have made mine, Arthur, to which you have bestowed your life,
+and which, for your sake," she added proudly, "should have this feeble
+arm of mine, could it avail, is it not even now trembling on the verge
+of ruin? Have not your letters, one after another told me of the sad
+train in which misfortunes have thickened upon the whole people? of
+defeat, both north and south, and, at this very time, of disgraceful
+mutiny of whole regiments under the very eye of Washington--that
+Washington who loves his country and her soldiers as a husband loves his
+bride, and a father his children. Have not those, to whom we all looked
+for champions, turned into mere laggards in the war for freedom? Oh,
+Arthur, do you not remember that these are the thoughts, the very words,
+which were penned by your own hand, for my especial meditation? How can
+I but fear that the good end is still far off? How can I but feel some
+weight upon my heart?"
+
+"You have grown overwise, Mildred, in these ruminations. I am to blame
+for this, that in my peevish humor, vexed with the crosses of the day, I
+should have written on such topics to one so sensitive as yourself."
+
+"Still it is true, Arthur, all report confirms it."
+
+"These things do not become your entertainment, Mildred. Leave the
+public care to us. There are bold hearts, love, and strong arms yet to
+spare for this quarrel. We have not yet so exhausted our mines of
+strength, but that much rough ore still lies unturned to the sun, and
+many an uncouth lump of metal remains to be fashioned for serviceable
+use. History tells of many a rebound from despondency, so sudden and
+unreckoned, that the wisest men could see in it no other spring than the
+decree of God. He will fight the battle of the weak, and set the right
+upon a sure foundation."
+
+"The country rings," said Mildred, again taking the more cheerful hue of
+her lover's hopes, and following out, with an affectionate sympathy, his
+tone of thought, "with anticipation of victory from Gates's southern
+march."
+
+"That may turn out to be a broken reed," interrupted Butler, as if
+thinking aloud, and struck by Mildred's reference to a subject that had
+already engrossed his thoughts; "they may be deceived, Washington would
+have put a different man upon that service. I would have a leader in
+such a war, wary, watchful, humble--diffident as well as brave. I fear
+Gates is not so."
+
+"Then, I trust, Arthur," exclaimed Mildred, with anxious alacrity, "that
+your present expedition does not connect you with his fortunes!"
+
+"I neither follow his colors nor partake of his counsels," replied
+Butler. "Still my motions may not be exempt from the influence of his
+failure or success. The enemy, you are aware, has possessed himself of
+every post of value in South Carolina and Georgia. I go commissioned to
+advise with discreet and prudent men upon the means to shake off this
+odious domination. So far only, and remotely, too, I am a fellow-laborer
+with Gates. There are gallant spirits now afoot, Mildred, to strip these
+masters of their power. My office is to aid their enterprise."
+
+"If you needs must go, Arthur, I have no word to say. You will leave
+behind you an aching heart, that morning, noon, and night, wearies
+heaven with its prayers for your safety. Alas, I have no other aid to
+give! How soon--how soon," she said, with a voice that faltered with the
+question, "does your duty compel you to leave me?"
+
+"To-morrow's sunrise, love, must find me forth upon my way."
+
+"To-morrow, Arthur? so quickly to part!"
+
+"I dare not linger; not even for the rich blessing of thy presence."
+
+"And the utmost length of your journey?"
+
+"Indeed, I know not. At present my farthest aim is Ninety-six and
+Augusta. It much depends upon the pleasure of our proud and wilful
+masters."
+
+Mildred stood for some moments looking upon the ground in profound
+silence. Her bosom heaved with a sad emotion.
+
+"It is a dangerous duty," said she, at last. "I cannot speak my
+apprehension at the thought of your risks amongst the fierce and
+treacherous men that overrun the country to which you travel."
+
+"These perils are exaggerated by distance," returned Butler. "A thousand
+expedients of protection and defence occur when present, which the
+absent cannot fancy. It is a light service, Mildred, and may more
+securely be performed with a gay heart than with a sad one. I pray you,
+do not suffer that active imagination of yours to invest the every day
+adventures of your poor soldier with a romantic interest of which they
+are not worthy. I neither slay giants, nor disenchant ladies, nor yoke
+captive griffins together. No, no, I shall outrun some over-fed clown,
+and outwit some simple boobies; and, perhaps, soil my boots in a great
+slough, and then hasten back, love, to boast of my marvels to the
+credulous ear of my own sweet girl, who, I warrant, will think me a most
+preposterous hero."
+
+"How can you laugh, Arthur? And yet I would not have you catch my
+foolish sadness, either."
+
+"I have with me, besides, Mildred, a friend good at need; one Galbraith
+Robinson, a practised and valiant soldier, who sits on yonder bank. He
+is to be the companion of my journey; he is shrewd, vigilant and
+cautious, an inhabitant, moreover, of the district to which I am bound;
+his wisdom can do much for my success. Then I travel, too, in peaceful
+guise. My business is more concerned with negotiation than with battle."
+
+"It is a waylaid path, Arthur," said Mildred, in the same faint voice
+with which she had spoken before.
+
+"Never take it so heavily, my love!" exclaimed Butler, familiarly
+seizing her hand, whose trembling now betrayed her agitation,--"it is
+the mere sport of the war to be upon a running service, where a light
+stratagem or so will baffle a set of dull-pated clodpoles! I scarcely
+deem it a venture, to dodge through a forest, where every man flies from
+his neighbor out of mutual distrust. These fellows have brought
+themselves upon such bad terms with their own consciences, that they
+start like thieves at the waving of a bulrush."
+
+"They would be the more cruel," replied Mildred, "if some ill luck
+should throw you into their power. If that should happen," she added,
+and for a while she hesitated to speak, as a tear fell upon Butler's
+hand--"If that should happen, I cannot bear the thought."
+
+"They dare offer me no wrong, Mildred. The chances of battle are
+sufficiently various to compel even the victors to pursue the policy of
+humanity to prisoners. The conqueror of to-day may himself be a captive
+to-morrow, and a bloody reprisal would await his barbarity. Again, let
+me remind you, these are not fit topics for your meditation."
+
+"They are topics for my heart, Arthur, and will not be driven from it.
+If your lot should put you in the power of the enemy, the name of
+Mildred Lindsay, and the relation you bear her, whispered in their ears,
+may, perhaps, unlock their charity. My father has many friends in those
+ranks, and it may be that I am not unknown to some of them: oh, remember
+that!"
+
+"You have little need to teach me to think or speak of Mildred Lindsay,"
+said Butler, eagerly. "I cannot forget that name. But I may well doubt
+its charm upon the savage bulldogs who are now baiting our citizens in
+Carolina; those ruthless partizans who are poisoning the fountains of
+contentment at every fire-side. It is not a name to conjure evil spirits
+with."
+
+"Major Butler," said Henry, who during this long interval had been
+strolling backward and forward, like a sentinel, at some distance from
+his sister and her lover, and who, with the military punctilio of a
+soldier on duty, forbore even to listen to what he could not have helped
+overhearing, if it had not been for humming a tune--"Major, I don't like
+to make or meddle with things that don't belong to me--but you and
+Mildred have been talking long enough to settle the course of a whole
+campaign. And as my father thinks he can't be too careful of Mildred,
+and doesn't like her walking about after night-fall, I shouldn't be
+surprised if a messenger were despatched for us--only I think that man
+Tyrrel is hatching some plot with him to-night, and may keep him longer
+in talk than usual."
+
+"Who is Tyrrel?" inquired Butler.
+
+"One that I wish had been in his grave before he had ever seen my
+father," answered Mildred with a bitter vehemence. "He is a wicked
+emissary of the royal party sent here to entrap my dear father into
+their toils. Such as it has ever been his fate to be cursed with from
+the beginning of the war; but this Tyrrel, the most hateful of them
+all."
+
+"Alas, alas, your poor father! Mildred, what deep sorrow do I feel that
+he and I should be so estranged. I could love him, counsel with him,
+honor him, with a devotion that should outrun your fondest wish. His
+generous nature has been played upon, cheated, abused; and I, in whom
+fortune and inclination should have raised him a friend, have been made
+the victim of his perverted passion."
+
+"True, true," exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears, and resting her
+head against her lover's breast, "I can find courage to bear all but
+this--I am most unhappy;" and for some moments she sobbed audibly.
+
+"The thought has sometimes crossed me," said Butler, "that I would go to
+your father and tell him all. It offends my self-respect to be obliged
+to practise concealment towards one who should have a right to know all
+that concerns a daughter so dear to him. Even now, if I may persuade you
+to it, I will go hand in hand with you, and, with humble reverence,
+place myself before him and divulge all that has passed between us."
+
+"No, no, Arthur, no," ejaculated Mildred with the most earnest
+determination. "It will not come to good. You do not understand my
+father's feelings. The very sight of you would rouse him into frenzy;
+there is no name which might fall upon his ear with deeper offence than
+yours. Not yet, Arthur, the time has not yet come."
+
+"I have been patient," said Butler, "patient, Mildred, for your sake."
+
+"To try him now," continued Mildred, whose feelings still ran, with a
+heady impetuosity, upon this newly-awakened and engrossing topic; "now,
+in the very depth of his bitterest aversion to what he terms an impious
+rebellion, and whilst his heart is yet moved with an almost
+preternatural hate against all who uphold the cause, and to you,
+especially, above whose head there hovers, in his belief, some horrid
+impending curse that shall bring desolation upon him and all who claim
+an interest in his blood--no, no, it must not be!"
+
+"Another year of pent-up vexation, self-reproach and anxious concealment
+must then glide by, and perhaps another," said Butler. "Well, I must be
+content to bear it, though, in the mean time, my heart bleeds for you,
+Mildred; it is a painful trial."
+
+"For good or for evil our vow is now registered in heaven," replied
+Mildred, "and we must abide the end."
+
+"I would not have it other than it is, dearest girl, except this stern
+resolve of your father--not for the world's wealth," said Butler warmly.
+"But you spoke of this Tyrrel--what manner of man is he? How might I
+know him?"
+
+"To know him would answer no good end, Arthur. His soul is absorbed in
+stratagem, and my dear father is its prey. I too am grievously tormented
+by him; but it is no matter, I need not vex your ear with the tale of
+his annoyance."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Butler with a sudden expression of resentment.
+
+"All that concerns my father, concerns me," said Mildred. "It is my evil
+destiny, Arthur, to be compelled to endure the associations of men,
+whose principles, habits, purposes, are all at war with my own. Alas,
+such are now my father's constant companions. This man Tyrrel, whose
+very name is a cheat put on, I doubt not, to conceal him from
+observation--goes farther than the rest in the boldness of his practice.
+I have some misgiving that he is better acquainted with the interest you
+take in me, than we might suspect possible to a stranger. I fear him.
+And then, Arthur, it is my peculiar misery that he has lately set up a
+disgusting pretension to my regard. Oh! I could give him, if my sex had
+strength to strike, the dagger, sooner than squander upon him one kind
+word. Yet am I obliged by circumstance to observe a strained courtesy
+towards him, which, frugal as it is, makes me an unwilling hypocrite to
+my own heart."
+
+"Tyrrel," ejaculated Butler, "Tyrrel! I have heard no such name abroad!"
+then, muttering a deep curse, as he bit his lip with passion, he added,
+"Oh, that I could face this man, or penetrate his foul purpose! How is
+it likely I might meet him?"
+
+"You shall have no temptation to a quarrel," said Mildred; "your quick
+resentment would but give activity to his venom. For the sake of my
+peace, Arthur, and of your own, inquire no further. Time may disclose
+more than rash pursuit."
+
+"Leave that to sister Mildred and myself, major," said Henry, who
+listened with great interest to this conversation, "I have my eye upon
+him--let that satisfy you; and when sister Mildred puts up the game,
+depend upon it, I will bring him down."
+
+"Thanks, thanks, dear Henry! I can trust you for a ready friend, and
+will even follow your good advice. A more favorable season for this
+concern may soon arrive; meantime, I will bear this hint in mind."
+
+Again Henry made an appeal to the lovers to bring their conference to an
+end. It was a sorrowful moment, the events of which were brief, earnest
+and impassioned, and such as a dull scribbler, like myself, might easily
+mar in the telling; yet they were such as zealous and eager natures, who
+have loved with an intense and absorbing love, and who have parted in
+times of awful danger and uncertainty, may perchance be able to picture
+to themselves, when they recall the most impressive incident of their
+lives to memory. I will only say, that, in that dark shade where the
+beech tree spread his canopy of leaves over the cool bank, and marked
+his shadow's profile on the green sward--that grassy sward, on which
+"the constant moon" lit up the dewy lamps, hung by the spider on blade
+and leaf; and in that silent time, when the distant water-fall came
+far-sounding on the ear, when sleepless insects chirped in the thicket,
+and dogs, at some remote homestead, howled bugle-like to the moon; and
+in that chill hour, when Mildred drew her kerchief close around her
+dew-besprinkled shoulders, whilst Arthur, fondly and affectionately,
+half enveloped her in the folds of a military cloak, as he whispered
+words of tender parting in her ear, and imprinted a kiss upon her cheek;
+and when, moreover, Henry's teeth chattered like a frozen warder's, then
+it was, and there, that this enthusiastic girl again pledged her
+unalterable devotion to the man of her waking thoughts and nightly
+dreams, come weal, come woe, whatever might betide; and the soldier paid
+back the pledge with new ardor and endearment, in the strong language
+that came unstudied from the heart, meaning all that he said, and rife
+with a feeling beyond the reach of words. And, after "mony a locked and
+fond embrace," full tearfully, and lingeringly, and, in phrase oft
+repeated, the two bade "farewell," and invoked God's blessing each upon
+the other, and then, not without looking back, and breathing a fresh
+prayer of blessings, they separated on their dreary way, Mildred
+retiring, as she had come, on the arm of her brother, and Butler,
+springing hurriedly into the skiff and directing its swift passage to
+the middle of the stream, where, after a pause to enable him to discern
+the last footsteps of his mistress, as her form glided into the obscure
+distance, he sighed a low "God bless her," then resumed his oar, and
+sturdily drove his boat against the "opponent bank."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A COMFORTABLE INN, AND A GOOD LANDLADY----THE MISFORTUNES OF HEROES DO
+NOT ALWAYS DESTROY THE APPETITE.
+
+
+As soon as Butler landed from the skiff, he threw his cloak into the
+hands of the sergeant; then, with a disturbed haste, sprang upon his
+horse, and, commanding Robinson to follow, galloped along the road down
+the river as fast as the nature of the ground and the obscurity of the
+hour would allow. A brief space brought them to the spot where the road
+crossed the stream, immediately in the vicinity of the widow Dimock's
+little inn, which might here be discerned ensconced beneath the cover of
+the opposite hill. The low-browed wooden building, quietly stationed
+some thirty paces off the road, was so adumbrated in the shelter of a
+huge willow, that the journeyer, at such an hour as this, might
+perchance pass the spot unconsciously by, were it not for an insulated
+and somewhat haggard sign-post that, like a hospitable seeker of
+strangers, stood hard by the road side, and there displayed a shattered
+emblem in the guise of a large blue ball, a little decayed by wind and
+weather, which said Blue Ball, without superscription or device, was
+universally interpreted to mean "entertainment for man and horse, by the
+widow Dimock." The moonlight fell with a broad lustre upon the sign post
+and its pendent globe; and our travellers, besides, could descry,
+through the drapery of the willow, a window, of some rear building of
+the inn, richly illuminated by what, from the redness of the light,
+might be conjectured to be a bundle of blazing faggots.
+
+As the horses had, immediately upon entering the ford, compelled their
+masters to a halt, whilst they thrust their noses into the water and
+drank with the greediness of a long and neglected thirst, it was with no
+equivocal self-gratulation that Robinson directed his eye to the
+presignifications of good cheer which were now before him. Butler had
+spoken "never a word," and the sergeant's habits of subordination, as
+well as an honest sympathy in what he guessed to be the griefs of his
+superior officer, had constrained him to a respectful silence. The
+sergeant, however, was full of thoughts which, more than once during the
+gallop from the Fawn's Tower, he was on the point of uttering by way of
+consolation to Butler, and which nothing prevented but that real
+delicacy of mind that lies at the bottom of a kind nature, and inhabits
+the shaggy breast of the rustic, at least full as often as it lodges in
+the heart of the trim worldling. The present halt, seemed, in Horse
+Shoe's reckoning, not only to furnish a pretext to speak, but, in some
+degree, to render it a duty; and, in truth, an additional very
+stimulating subject presented itself to our good squire, in his
+instantaneous conviction that the glare from the tavern window had its
+origin in some active operation which, at this late hour, might be going
+on at the kitchen chimney; to understand the full pungency of which
+consideration, it is necessary to inform my reader, that Robinson had,
+for some time past, been yielding himself to certain doubts, whether his
+friend and himself might not arrive at the inn at too late an hour to
+hope for much despatch in the preparation for supper. In this state of
+feeling, partly bent to cheer the spirits of Butler, and partly to
+express his satisfaction at the prospect of his own comfort, he broke
+forth in the following terms--
+
+"God bless all widows that set themselves down by the road-side, is my
+worst wish! and, in particular, I pray for good luck to the widow
+Dimock, for an orderly sort of body, which I have no doubt she is; and
+keeps good hours--to judge by the shine of the kitchen fire which is
+blazing yonder in the rear--and which, to tell truth, major, I began to
+be afeard would be as dead, by this time o' night, as the day the
+hearth-stone was first laid. She desarves to be spoken of as a
+praiseworthy woman. And, moreover, I should say she has popped her house
+down in a most legible situation, touching our day's march, by which I
+mean it isn't one step too near a reasonable bed hour. I count it lucky,
+major, on your account; and although it isn't for me to give advice in
+woman affairs--for I know the creatures do try the grit and edge of a
+man amazingly sometimes--yet, if I mought say what was running in my
+head fit for a gentleman and an officer like you to do in such a
+tribulation, it would be this: drop thinking and chawing over your
+troubles, and take them with a light heart, as things that's not to be
+mended by a solemncolly long-facedness. A good victual's meal and a fair
+night's rest would make another man of you. That's my observation; and I
+remember once to hear you say the same yourself, upon occasion of your
+losing the baggage wagons last fall on the Beaufort convoy. You ha'n't
+forgot it, major?"
+
+"Thank you, thank you, sergeant. Your counsel is kindly offered and
+wisely said, and I will follow it. But it is a little hard, fellow
+soldier," added Butler, with something like an approach to jocularity,
+"it's a little hard to have one's misfortunes cast in his teeth by a
+comrade."
+
+"I thought it would make you laugh, major!" replied Robinson, with a
+good-natured solicitude, "for it wan't in the possibilities of a mortal
+earthly man to save the baggage; and, I remember, you laughed then, as
+well as the rest of us, when them pestifarious, filching sheep stealers
+made off with our dinners: nobody ever blamed you for it."
+
+"Ah, Galbraith, you are a good friend, and you shall say what you please
+to me," said Butler, with a returning cheerfulness; "sorrow is a dull
+companion to him who feeds it, and an impertinent one to everybody
+beside. So, ride forward, and we will endeavor to console ourselves with
+the good cheer of the widow. And, hark, Galbraith, this Mistress Dimock
+is an especial friend of mine: pray you, let her see, by your
+considerateness towards her, that you are aware of that--for my sake,
+good Horse Shoe."
+
+The two soldiers soon reached the inn, and, having dismounted, Butler
+aroused the attention of the inmates by a few strokes upon the door with
+his riding rod.
+
+The reply to this summons was a shrill invitation, in a feminine voice,
+to "walk in;" and no sooner had Butler thrown open the door and advanced
+a few paces into the passage, than the head of an elderly female was
+seen thrust through the partially expanded doorway of the adjoining
+room. Another instant, and the dusky figure of Mistress Dimock herself
+was visible to our travellers.
+
+"What would you be pleased to have, sir?" inquired the dame, with
+evident distrust at this untimely approach of strangers.
+
+"Accommodation for the night, and whatever you have good to offer a
+friend, Mistress Dimock."
+
+"Who are you that ride so late?" again interrogated the hostess; "I am
+cowardly, sir, and cautious, and have reason to be careful who comes
+into my house; a poor unprotected woman, good man."
+
+"A light, mother," said Butler, "and you shall know us better. We are
+travellers and want food and rest, and would have both with as little
+trouble to you as possible; a light will show you an old friend."
+
+"Wait a moment," returned the dame; and then added, as she observed
+Butler walk into a room on the left, "Take care, sir, it is risking a
+fall to grope in the dark in a strange house."
+
+"The house is not so strange to me as you suppose. Unless you have moved
+your furniture I can find the green settee beyond the cupboard," said
+Butler, familiarly striding across the room, and throwing himself into
+the old commodity he had named.
+
+The landlady, without heeding this evidence of the conversancy of her
+visitor with the localities of the little parlor, had hastily retreated,
+and, in a moment afterwards, returned with a light, which, as she held
+it above her head, while she peered through a pair of spectacles, threw
+its full effulgence upon the face of her guest.
+
+"Dear me, good lack!" she exclaimed, after a moment's gazing; "Arthur
+Butler, o' my conscience! And is it you, Mr. Butler?" Then, putting the
+candle upon the table, she seized both of his hands and gave them a long
+and hearty shake. "That Nancy Dimock shouldn't know your voice, of all
+others! Where have you been, and where are you going? Mercy on me! what
+makes you so late? And why didn't you let me know you were coming? I
+could have made you so much more comfortable. You are chilled with the
+night air; and hungry, no doubt. And you look pale, poor fellow! You
+surely couldn't have been at the Dove Cote?" which last interrogatory
+was expressed with a look of earnest and anxious inquiry.
+
+"No, not there," replied Butler, almost in a whisper; "alas, my kind
+dame, not there," he added, with a melancholy smile, as he held the hand
+of the hostess and shook his head; "my fortune has in no jot improved
+since I left you almost a year ago. I broke from you hastily then to
+resume my share in the war, and I have had nothing but hard blows ever
+since. The tide, Mistress Dimock, sets sadly against us."
+
+"Never let your heart fail you," exclaimed the landlady; "it isn't in
+the nature of things for the luck to be for ever on the shady side.
+Besides, take the good and bad together, you have not been so hardly
+dealt by, Captain Butler."
+
+"Major Butler, madam, of the second Carolina continental reg'lar
+infantry," interrupted Robinson, who had stood by all this time
+unnoticed, "_Major_ Butler; the captain has been promoted, by occasion
+of the wiping out of a few friends from the upper side of the adjutant's
+roll, in the scrimmage of Fort Moultrie. He is what we call, in common
+parley, brevetted."
+
+This annunciation was made by the sergeant with due solemnity,
+accompanied by an attempt at a bow, which was abundantly stiff and
+ungraceful.
+
+"My friend Sergeant Robinson," said Butler; "I commend him, Mistress
+Dimock, to your especial favor, both for a trusty comrade, and a most
+satisfactory and sufficient trencher man."
+
+"You are welcome and free to the best that's in the house, sergeant,"
+said the landlady, courtesying; "and I wish, for your sake, it was as
+good as your appetite, which ought to be of the best. Mr. Arthur
+Butler's word is all in all under this roof; and, whether he be captain
+or major, I promise you, makes no difference with me. Bless me! when I
+first saw you, major, you was only an ensign; then, whisk and away! and
+back you come a pretty lieutenant, about my house: and then a captain,
+forsooth! and now, on the track of that, a major. It is up-up-up-the
+ladder, till you will come, one of these days, to be a general; and too
+proud, I misdoubt, to look at such a little old woman as me! hegh, hegh,
+hegh! a pinch of snuff, Mr. Arthur." And here the good dame prolonged
+her phthisicky laugh for some moments, as she presented a box of Scotch
+snuff to her guest. "But I'll engage promotion never yet made the
+appetite of a travelling man smaller than before; so, gentlemen, you
+will excuse me while I look after your supper."
+
+"The sooner the better, ma'am," said Robinson; "your night air is a sort
+of a whetstone to the stomach; but first, ma'am, I would be obligated to
+you, if you would let me see the ostler."
+
+"Hut, tut! and have I been drivelling here all this time," exclaimed the
+dame, "without once spending a thought upon your cattle! Tony, Tony,
+To-ny, I say," almost shrieked the hostess, as she retreated along the
+passage towards the region of the kitchen, and then back again to the
+front door. "Are you asleep? Look to the gentlemen's horses; lead them
+to the stable, and don't spare to rub them down; and give them as much
+as they can eat. Where are you, old man?"
+
+"What's the use of all this fuss, Missus Dimck? Arn't I here on the
+spot, with the cretur's in my hand?" grumbled out an old, stunted negro,
+who answered to the appellation of ostler; "Arn't I getting the baggage
+off, as fast as I can onbuckle the straps?--I don't want nobody to tell
+me when I ought to step out. If a hos could talk, he ain't got nothing
+new to say to me. Get out, you varmints," he shouted, with a sudden
+vivacity of utterance, at three or four dogs that were barking around
+him; "Consarn you! What you making such a conbobberation about? You all
+throat when you see gentmen coming to the house; better wait tell you
+see a thief; bound, you silent enough then, with your tail twixt your
+legs! Blossom, ya sacy slut, keep quiet, I tell you!"
+
+In the course of this din and objurgation, the old negro succeeded in
+disburdening the horses of their furniture, and was about to lead them
+to the stable, when Robinson came to give him some directions.
+
+"Mind what you are after with them there cattle. Give them not a
+mouthful for a good hour, and plenty of fodder about their feet; I'll
+look at them myself before you shut up. Throw a handful of salt into the
+trough, Tony, and above all things, don't let me catch you splashing
+water over their backs; none of that; do you hear?"
+
+"Haw, haw, haw!" chuckled Tony; "think I don't know how to take care of
+a hos, mass! Been too use to creturs, ever sense so high. Bless the
+gentman! one of the best things on arth, when you're feared your hos is
+too much blowed, is to put a sprinkling of salt in a bucket o'water, and
+just stir a leetle Indian meal in with it; it sort of freshes the cretur
+up like, and is onaccountable good in hot weather, when you ain't got no
+time to feed. But cold water across the lines! oh, oh, I too cute in hos
+larning for that! Look at the top of my head--gray as a fox!"
+
+"Skip then, or I'll open upon you like a pack of hounds," said
+Robinson, as he turned on his heel to re-enter the house, "I'll look in
+after supper."
+
+"Never mind me," replied Tony, as he led the horses off, "I have tended
+Captain Butler's hos afore this, and he wan't never onsatisfied with
+me."
+
+These cares being disposed of, Horse Shoe returned to the parlor. The
+tidy display of some plain furniture, and the scrupulous attention to
+cleanliness in every part of the room, afforded an intelligent
+commentary upon the exact, orderly and decent character of the Widow
+Dimock. The dame herself was a pattern of useful thrift. Her short
+figure, as she now bustled to and fro, through the apartment, was
+arrayed in that respectable, motherly costume which befitted her years;
+and which was proper to the period of my story, when the luxury of dress
+was more expensive than at present, and when a correspondent degree of
+care was used to preserve it in repair. Evidences of this laudable
+economy were seen in the neatness with which a ruffle was darned, or a
+weak point fortified by a nicely adjusted patch, presenting, in some
+respect, a token both of the commendable pride of the wearer, and of the
+straitness of the national means, since the prevalence of war for five
+years had not only reduced the wealth of individuals and rendered
+frugality indispensable, but had, also, literally deprived the country
+of its necessary supply of commodities; thus putting the opulent and the
+needy, to a certain extent, upon the same footing. On the present
+occasion, our good landlady was arrayed in a gown of sober-colored
+chintz, gathered into plaits in the skirt, whilst the body fitted
+closely over a pair of long-waisted stays, having tight sleeves that
+reached to the elbow. The stature of the dame was increased a full inch
+by a pair of high-heeled, parti-colored shoes, remarkable for their
+sharp toes; and a frilled muslin cap, with lappets that reached under
+the chin, towered sufficiently high to contribute, also, something
+considerable to the elevation of the tripping little figure of its
+wearer.
+
+In such guise did Mistress Dimock appear, as she busied herself in
+preparing needful refreshment for the travellers; and for some time the
+house exhibited all that stir which belongs to this important care when
+despatched in a retired country inn.
+
+By degrees, the table began to show the bounties of the kitchen. A
+savory dish of fried bacon, the fumes of which had been, for a quarter
+of an hour, gently stimulating the appetite of the guests, now made its
+appearance, in company with a pair of broiled pullets; and these were
+followed by a detachment of brown-crested hoecakes--the peculiar
+favorite of the province; an abundance of rich milk, eggs, butter, and
+other rural knicknackeries, such as no hungry man ever surveys with
+indifference. These were successively deposited upon a homespun table
+cloth, whose whiteness rivalled the new snow, with an accuracy of
+adjustment that, by its delay, produced the most visible effects upon
+the sergeant, who, during the spreading of the board, sat silently by,
+watching, with an eager and gloating earnestness, the slow process, ever
+and anon uttering a short hem, and turning about restlessly on his
+chair.
+
+I may pause here, after the fashion of our worthy friend Horse Shoe, to
+make an observation. There is nothing that works so kindly upon the
+imagination of a traveller, if he be in any doubt as to his appetite, as
+the display of such a table. My particularity of detail, on the present
+occasion, will, therefore, be excused by my reader, when I inform him
+that Butler had arrived at the inn in that depressed tone of spirits
+which seemed to defy refreshment; and that, notwithstanding this
+impediment, he played no insignificant part afterwards at supper; a
+circumstance mainly attributable to that gentle but irresistible
+solicitation, which the actual sight and fragrance of the board
+addressed to his dormant physical susceptibility. I might, indeed, have
+pretermitted the supper altogether, were there not a philosophical truth
+at the bottom of the matter, worthy of the notice of the speculative and
+curious reader; namely, that where a man's heart is a little teased with
+love, and his temper fretted by crossings, and his body jolted by
+travel; especially, when he has been wandering through the night air,
+with owls hooting in his ears; and a thin drapery of melancholy has been
+flung, like cobwebs, across his spirits, then it is my doctrine, that a
+clean table, a good-humored landlady and an odorous steaming-up of good
+things, in a snug, cheerful little parlor, are certain to beget in him a
+complete change of mood, and to give him, instead, a happy train of
+thoughts and a hearty relish for his food. Such was precisely Butler's
+condition.
+
+He and the sergeant now sat down at the table, and each drew the
+attention of the other by the unexpected vigor of their assaults upon
+the dainties before them; Robinson surprised to find the major so
+suddenly revived, and Butler no less unprepared to see a man, who had
+achieved such wonders at dinner, now successively demolish what might be
+deemed a stout allowance for a well fed lion.
+
+"It almost seems to go against the credit of my house," said the
+hostess, "to set gentlefolks down at my table without a cup of tea; but
+so it is; we must get used to be stripped of all the old-fashioned
+comforts. It is almost treason for an honest woman to have such an
+article in her house now, even if it could be fairly come by. Still,
+I'll engage I am tory enough yet to like the smell of hyson. They have
+no mercy upon us old women, major; they should have a care, or they will
+drive us into the arms of the enemy."
+
+"Faith then, ma'am," interrupted Horse Shoe bluntly, as he threw his eye
+over his shoulder at the landlady, who had broken into a laugh at her
+own sally of humor, "it would be no wonder if you were soon driven back
+again."
+
+"Shame on you, Mr. Sergeant Robinson," retorted the dame, laughing
+again, "I didn't expect to hear such a speech from you; that's a very
+sorry compliment to a poor country woman. If the men on our side think
+so little of us as you do, it would be no wonder if we all desert to
+King George; but Major Arthur Butler, I am sure, will tell you that we
+old bodies can sometimes make ourselves very useful--gainsay it who
+will."
+
+"You seem to be rather hard, Galbraith," said Butler, "on my good friend
+Mistress Dimock. I am sure, madam, the sergeant has only been unlucky in
+making himself understood; for I know him to be a man of gallantry to
+your sex, and to cherish an especial liking for the female friends of
+our cause, amongst whom, Mistress Dimock, I can certify he is prepared
+to set a high value upon yourself. The sergeant was only endeavoring to
+provoke your good humor. Try this honey, Galbraith; Mistress Dimock is
+famous for her beehives; and perhaps it will give a sweeter edge to your
+tongue."
+
+"I spoke, major," replied Robinson, awkwardly endeavoring to extricate
+himself under this joint rebuke, and, at the same time, plunging a spoon
+into the dish to which Butler had invited his notice, "consarning the
+difficulty of having ladies--whether old or young makes no difference,
+it wan't respecting the age of Mistress Dimock, nor her beauty, by no
+means, that I said what I did say; but it was consarning of the
+difficulty of having the women with them in their marches and their
+counter-marches. What could such tender creatures have done at such a
+place as the sieging of Charlestown? Certain, this is most elegant
+honey!" he added, by way of parenthesis, as he devoured a large slice of
+bread, well covered with a fragment of honeycomb, as if anxious to gain
+time to collect his ideas; for, with all Horse Shoe's bluntness, he was
+essentially a diffident man. "It is my opinion, ma'am, the best thing
+the women can do, in these here wars, is to knit; and leave the fighting
+of it out, to us who hav'n't faces to be spoiled by bad weather and
+tough times."
+
+"I don't want to have art nor part in these quarrels," replied the
+widow. "The saints above are witnesses, I think it unnatural enough to
+see a peaceable country, and a quiet honest people, vexed and harried,
+and run down with all this trooping of horses, and parading of armies,
+and clattering of drums, amongst the hills that never heard any thing
+worse than the lowing of a heifer before. But still, I wish well to
+liberty; and if it must be fought for, why, I am even content to take my
+share of the suffering, in my own lonesome way; and they that bear the
+heat of the day, and their friends, shall always be served in my house
+with the best that's in it, and at the most reasonable rates. Even if
+they come without money, I am not the woman to turn them off with an
+empty stomach; I mean them of the right side."
+
+"Well, that's as sensible a speech, Mistress Dimock," said Horse Shoe,
+quickly seizing the occasion to make amends to the landlady for his
+former bluntness, "and as much to the purpose, and spoken with as much
+wisdom and circumscription, as mought come out of the mouth of e'er a
+lady in the land--high born or low born--I don't care where the other
+comes from. And it does a man's heart good to hear the woman-kind
+holding out such presentments. It's encouraging on the face of it."
+
+During this conversation the supper was finished, and Mrs. Dimock had
+now seated herself, with her elbows upon the table, so placed as to
+allow her to prop her chin upon her hands, in which position she fell
+into an earnest but quiet, under-toned confabulation with Butler, who
+partook of it with the more interest, as it related to the concerns of
+the family at the Dove Cote.
+
+"Mr. Lindsay, poor man," said the dame, in the course of this
+conference, "is wofully beset. It almost looks as if he was haunted by
+an evil spirit, sure enough, which folks used to say of him after his
+wife's death--and which, to tell you the truth, our young lady Mildred
+has sometimes more than half hinted to me; he is so run at, and
+perplexed, and misguided by strangers that can have no good intention in
+coming to see him. There is Mr. Tyrrel, over at the Dove Cote at this
+very time, on his third visit, major, in less now than two months past;
+yes, let me see, he brought the news here of the recapitulation--I think
+you military call it--though, heaven knows, I have but a poor head for
+these bloodthirsty words--I mean the taking of Charleston; three times
+has he been here, counting from that day. Where he comes from, and who
+are his kith and kin, I am sure I don't know."
+
+"Tyrrel, ha! yes, I have heard of him to-night, for the first time,"
+said Butler.
+
+"He must be a rich man," continued the hostess, "for he travels with two
+white servants, and always pays his way in gold. One of his men is now
+in the house; and, between you and me, major, this man is a very
+inquisitive sort of person, and would hardly be taken for a serving man;
+and he is a cautious fellow too, although there is a good deal of
+swagger and bullying about him, which might deceive one at first sight."
+
+"Here, in the house to-night?" inquired Butler.
+
+"Speak low, major, the man is now walking the porch before our windows."
+
+"What does Mildred say of this Tyrrel?" asked Butler.
+
+"Has she been here lately?"
+
+"The good lady never stirs from home whilst Tyrrel is at the Dove Cote;
+for fear, I believe, that he will follow her, for they do whisper about
+in the neighborhood--though I don't say it to alarm you, Mr. Arthur,
+that this man is of the high quality, a nobleman, some say, and that he
+has come here a-courting. Only think of the assurance of the man! But if
+he was a prince, and every hair of his head strung with diamonds, and
+Miss Mildred was as free as the day you first saw her, I can say with
+safety he would find but cold comfort in that game; for she despises
+him, major, both for himself and for his tory principles. She does hate
+him with a good will. No, no, her heart and soul are both where they
+ought to be, for all her father, poor man, and this rich gentleman! Oh,
+it is a cruel thing that you and our pretty lady cannot live quietly
+together; but Mr. Lindsay is past talking to about it. I declare I think
+his mind is touched: I positively believe it would kill him if he knew
+all that has passed in this house; but he is, in the main, a good man,
+and a kind father, and is very much to be pitied. I see you are sad and
+sorrowful, Mr. Arthur: I didn't mean to distress you with my prating.
+You tell me, you think you may travel as far as Georgie."
+
+"Even so far, good dame, if some accident should not shorten my career.
+These are doubtful times, and my path is as uncertain as the chances of
+war. It may be long before I return.
+
+"I grieve night and day, and my heart bleeds for Miss Mildred, for she
+is so good, so constant, so brave, too, for a woman," said the widow
+with unaffected emotion. "Well-a-day! what woes these wars have brought
+upon us! You told her your plans, Mr. Arthur?"
+
+"Our interview was short and painful," replied Butler. "I scarcely know
+what I said to her. But, one thing I entreat of you: my letters will be
+directed to your charge; you will contrive to have them promptly and
+secretly delivered: oblige me still in that, good mother. Henry will
+often visit you."
+
+"And a brave and considerate young man he is, major; I'll be surety for
+his making of an honorable and a real gentleman. Do you join the army in
+Carolina?"
+
+"Perhaps not. My route lies into the mountains, our troops struggle for
+a footing in the low country."
+
+"If I may make bold, Major Butler, to drop a word of advice into your
+ear, which, seeing that I'm an older man than you," interrupted the
+sergeant, in an admonitory whisper, "I think I have got good right to
+do, why I would just say that there may be no great disconvenience in
+talking before friends; but sometimes silence brings more profit than
+words. So, I vote that we leave off telling the course of our march till
+such time as it is done, and all is safe. There will be briers enough in
+our way, without taking the trouble to sow them by the road-side. The
+man that stands a little aside from that window, out on the porch,
+throws his shadow across the sill oftener than is honest, according to
+my reckoning. You said, ma'am," continued Horse Shoe, addressing the
+widow, "that the fellow in the porch yon is Mr. Tyrrel's man."
+
+"He walks later than usual to-night," replied Mrs. Dimock, "for though
+he can't be called a man of regular hours, yet, unless he can find an
+idler to keep him company, he is accustomed to be in his bed before
+this."
+
+"He is after no good, depend upon that," said Horse Shoe. "I have twice
+seen the light upon his face behind the shutter: so, true man or spy,
+it's my admonishment not to speak above the purring of a cat."
+
+"You are right, Galbraith," said Butler. "We have many reasons to
+distrust him; and it is at least safest to keep our affairs private."
+
+"If I thought he was prying," continued Galbraith, "which I do
+measurably insinuate and believe, I would take the freedom to give him
+the benefit of a drilling on good manners. Ha, major! as I have a hand,
+he is reconnoitring us now at this identical time! Didn't you see him
+pass up and down before the door, and look in as greedily as if our
+faces were picture-books for him to read? I will have a word with him,
+and, wise or simple, I will get his calibre before I am done with him.
+Never let on, major; stay where you are. I promised to look after our
+horses."
+
+The hostess and her guest now continued their communion; in which we
+leave them, whilst we follow Horse Shoe towards the stable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    There're two at fisty-cuffs about it;
+    Sir, I may say at dagger's drawing,
+    But that I cannot say, because they have none.
+
+    _Mayor of Quinborough._
+
+
+
+When Horse Shoe left the apartment, he discovered the person, whose
+demeanor had excited his suspicion, leaning against a post of the porch,
+in front of the house. The moonlight, as it partially fell upon this
+man's figure, disclosed a frame of sufficient mould to raise a surmise,
+that, in whatever form of communication the sergeant might accost him,
+he was not likely to find a very tractable subject to his hand.
+Robinson, however, without troubling himself with the contemplation of
+such a contingency, determined to delay his visit to the stable long
+enough to allow himself the expression of a word of warning or rebuke,
+to indicate to the stranger the necessity for restraining his curiosity
+in regard to the guests of the inn. With this view he halted upon the
+porch, while he scanned the person before him, and directed an earnest
+gaze into his face. The stranger, slightly discomfited by this eager
+scrutiny, turned his back upon his visitor, and, with an air of idle
+musing, threw his eyes towards the heavens, in which position he
+remained until summoned by the familiar accost of Horse Shoe.
+
+"Well! and what do you make of the moon? As sharp an eye as you have in
+your head, neighbor, I'm thinking it will do you no great sarvice there.
+You're good at your spying trade; but you will get nothing out of her;
+she keeps her secrets."
+
+Startled by this abrupt greeting, which was made in a tone half-way
+between jest and earnest, the stranger quickly confronted his
+challenger, and bestowed upon him a keen and inquiring inspection; then
+breaking into a laugh, he replied with a free and impudent swagger--
+
+"You are mistaken, Master Jack Pudding. What says the proverb? Wit's in
+the wane when the moon's at full. Now, our mistress has let me into a
+secret. She tells me that you will not lose your wits, when she comes to
+her growth. The reason why? first, because she never troubles herself
+with so small a stock as yours, and second, because your thick skull is
+moon-proof; so, you're safe, friend."
+
+"A word in your ear," said Horse Shoe; "_you_ are not safe, friend, if
+you are cotched again peeping through the chinks of the window, or
+sneaking upon the dark side of the doorway, to pick up a crumb of talk
+from people that are not axing your company. Keep that in your memory."
+
+"It's a base lie, Mr. Bumpkin, if you mean to insinuate that I did
+either."
+
+"Oh, quiet and easy, good man! No flusterifications here! I am civil and
+peaceable. Take my advice, and chaw your cud in silence, and go to bed
+at a reasonable hour, without minding what folks have to say who come to
+the widow Dimock's. It only run in my head to give you a polite sort of
+a warning. So, good night; I have got business at the stable."
+
+Before the other could reply, Robinson strode away to look after the
+accommodations of the horses.
+
+"The devil take this impertinent ox-driver!" muttered the man to
+himself, after the sergeant had left him; "I have half a mind to take
+his carcase in hand, just to give it the benefit of a good, wholesome
+manipulation. A queer fellow, too--a joker! A civil, peaceable man!--the
+hyperbolical rogue! Well, I'll see him out, and, laugh or fight, he
+shan't want a man to stand up to him!"
+
+Having by this train of reflection brought himself into a mood which
+might be said to hover upon the isthmus between anger and mirth, ready
+to fall to either side as the provocation might serve, the stranger
+sauntered slowly towards the stable, with a hundred odd fancies as to
+the character of the man he sought running through his mind. Upon his
+arrival there he found that Horse Shoe was occupied in the interior of
+the building, and being still in a state of uncertainty as to the manner
+in which it was proper he should greet our redoubtable friend, he took a
+seat on a small bench at the door, resolved to wait for that worthy's
+reappearance. This delay had a soothing effect upon his temper, for as
+he debated the subject over in his mind, certain considerations of
+policy seemed to indicate to him the necessity of making himself better
+acquainted with the business and quality of the individual whom he came
+to meet.
+
+After a few moments, Horse Shoe was seen with old Tony at the stable
+door, where, notwithstanding the unexpected presence of the man to whom
+he had so lately offered his unwelcome advice, and upon whom he now
+conferred not the slightest notice, he continued uninterruptedly, and
+with deliberate composure, to give his orders upon what, at that moment,
+doubtless, he deemed matter of much graver importance than any concern
+he might have in the visit of his new acquaintance.
+
+"Do what I tell you, Tony; get a piece of linen, rub it well over with
+tallow, and bring it here along with a cup of vinegar. The beast's back
+is cut with the saddle, and you must wash the sore first with the
+vinegar, and then lay on the patch. Go, old fellow, and Mrs. Dimock, may
+be, can give you a strip of woollen cloth to sarve as a pad."
+
+With these instructions the negro retired towards the house.
+
+"I see you understand your business," said the stranger. "You look to
+your horse's back at the end of a day's journey, and you know how to
+manage a sore spot. Vinegar is the thing! You have had a long ride?"
+
+"How do you know that?" inquired Horse Shoe.
+
+"Know it! any man might guess as much by the way you shovelled down your
+supper. I happened by chance to pass your window, and seeing you at it,
+faith! for the soul of me I couldn't help taking a few turns more, just
+to watch the end of it. Ha! ha! ha! give me the fellow that does honor
+to his stomach! And your dolt head must be taking offence at my looking
+at you! Why, man, your appetite was a most beautiful rarity; I wouldn't
+have lost the sport of it for the pleasure of the best supper I ever ate
+myself."
+
+"Indeed!" said Robinson, drily.
+
+"Pease upon the trencher!" exclaimed the other, with the air of a pot
+companion; "that's the true music for good fellows of your kidney! But
+it isn't every where that you will find such bountiful quarters as you
+get here at the Blue Ball in that cursed southern country a man like
+you would breed a famine, if you even do not find one ready made to your
+hand when you get there."
+
+"Where mought you be from?" asked the sergeant, with great gravity,
+without responding to the merriment of his visitor, and purposely
+refraining from the answer which he saw it was the other's drift to
+obtain relative to the course of his travel.
+
+"It was natural enough that you should have mistaken my object,"
+continued the stranger, heedless of Horse Shoe's abrupt question, "and
+have suspected me for wanting to hear some of your rigmarole; but there
+you did me wrong. I forgive you for that, and, to tell you the truth, I
+hate your----?"
+
+"That's not to the purpose," said Horse Shoe; "I axed you a civil
+question, and maybe, that's more than you have a right to. You can
+answer it or let it alone. I want to know where mought you be from?"
+
+"Since you are bent upon it, then," replied the other, suddenly changing
+his tone, and speaking with a saucy emphasis, "I'll answer your
+question, when you tell me what _mought_ be your right to know."
+
+"It's the custom of our country," rejoined Horse Shoe, "I don't know
+what it may be in yourn, to larn a little about the business of every
+man we meet; but we do it by fair, out-and-out question and answer--all
+above board, and we hold in despise all sorts of contwistifications,
+either by laying of tongue-traps, or listening under eaves of houses."
+
+"Well, most wise and shrewd master, what do you call my country? Ha! ha!
+ha! I would be sworn you think you have found some mare's nest! If it
+were not that your clown pate is somewhat addled by over feeding, I
+would hold your speech to be impertinent. My country, I'd have your
+sagacity to understand----"
+
+"Tut, man, it arn't worth the trouble of talking about it! I never saw
+one of your people that I didn't know him by the first word that came
+out of his lips. You are an Englishman, and a red coat into the bargain,
+as we call them in these parts. You have been a sodger. Now, never
+bounce at that, man! There's no great harm in belonging to that craft.
+They listed you, as likely as not, when you was flusticated with liquor,
+and you took your pay; there was a bargain, and it was your business to
+stand to it. But I have got a piece of wisdom to whisper to you,
+insomuch as you are not in the most agreeablest part of the world to men
+of your colors, it would be best to be a little more shy against giving
+offence. You said some saucy things to me just now, but I don't grudge
+your talking, because you see, I am an onaccountable hard sort of person
+to be instigated by speeching."
+
+"Verily, you are a most comical piece of dulness," said the other, in a
+spirit of raillery. "In what school did you learn your philosophy,
+friend? You have been brought up to the wholesome tail of the plough, I
+should say--an ancient and reputable occupation."
+
+"When I obsarved, just now," replied Robinson, somewhat sternly, "that I
+couldn't be instigated, I meant to be comprehended as laying down a kind
+of general doctrine that I was a man not given to quarrels; but still,
+if I suspicioned a bamboozlement, which I am not far from at this
+present speaking, if it but come up to the conflagrating of only the
+tenth part of the wink of an eye, in a project to play me off, fore God,
+I confess myself to be as weak in the flesh as e'er a rumbunctious
+fellow you mought meet on the road."
+
+"Friend," said the other, "I do not understand thy lingo. It has a most
+clodpolish smack. It is neither grammar, English, nor sense."
+
+"Then, you are a damned, onmannerly rascal," said Horse-Shoe, "and
+that's grammar, English, and sense, all three."
+
+"Ha, you are at that! Now, my lubberly booby, I understand you,"
+returned the other, springing to his feet. "Do you know to whom you are
+speaking?"
+
+"Better than you think for," replied the sergeant, placing himself in an
+erect position to receive what he had a right to expect, the threatened
+assault of his adversary, "I know you, and guess your arrand here."
+
+"You do?" returned the other sharply. "You have been juggling with me,
+sir. You are not the gudgeon I took you for. It has suited your purpose
+to play the clown, eh? Well, sir, and pray, what do you guess?"
+
+"Nothing good of you, considering how things go here. Suppose I was to
+say you was, at this self-same identical time, a sodger of the king's? I
+have you there!"
+
+The stranger turned on his heel and retreated a few paces, evidently
+perplexed at the new view in which the sergeant suddenly rose to his
+apprehension. His curiosity and his interest were both excited to gain a
+more distinct insight into a man whom he had mistaken for a mere
+simpleton, but whose hints showed him to be shrewdly conversant with the
+personal concerns of one, whom, apparently, he had seen to-night for the
+first time in his life. With this anxiety upon his mind, he again
+approached the sergeant, as he replied to the last question.
+
+"Well, and if I were? It is a character of which I should have no reason
+to be ashamed."
+
+"That's well said!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "Up and speak out, and never
+be above owning the truth; that's the best sign that can be of a man.
+Although it mought be somewhat dangerous, just hereabouts, to confess
+yourself a sodger of King George--let me tell you, that, being against
+you, I am not the person to mislest you on that head, by spreading the
+news abroad, or setting a few dozen of whigs upon your scent, which is a
+thing easily done. If your business here is peaceable and lawful, and
+you don't let your tongue brawl against quiet and orderly people, you
+are free to come and go for me."
+
+"Thank you, sir: but look you; it isn't my way to answer questions about
+my own business, and I scorn to ask any man's leave to come and go where
+and when my occasions call me."
+
+"If it isn't your way to answer questions about your own business,"
+replied Horse Shoe, "it oughtn't to be your way to ax them about other
+people's; but that don't disturb me; it is the rule of the war to
+question all comers and goers that we happen to fall in with, specially
+now, when there's a set of your devils scampering and raging about in
+Carolina, hardly a summer day's ride off this province, burning houses
+and killing cattle, and turning everything topsy-turvy, with a pack of
+rascally tories to back them. In such times all sorts of tricks are
+played, such as putting on coats that don't belong to a man, and
+deceiving honest people by lies, and what not."
+
+"You are a stranger to me," said the other; "but let me tell you,
+without circumlocution or periphrase, I am a free born subject of the
+king, and I see no reason why, because some of his people have turned
+rebels a true man, who travels his highway, should be obliged to give
+an account of himself to every inquisitive fellow who chooses to
+challenge it. Suppose I tell you that you meddle with matters that don't
+concern you?"
+
+"Then you mought chance to get your head in your hand, that's all. And,
+hark you, if it wan't that I am rather good-natured, I mought happen to
+handle you a little rough for that nicknaming of the friends of liberty,
+by calling them rebels. It doesn't suit such six-pence-a-day fellows as
+you, who march right or left at the bidding of your master, to rob a
+church or root up an honest man's peaceful hearth, without so much as
+daring to have a thought about the righteousness of the matter--it
+doesn't suit such to be befouling them that fight for church and
+fire-side both, with your scurvy, balderdash names."
+
+"Well, egad! you are a fine bold fellow who speaks his thoughts, that's
+not to be denied!" said the stranger, again suddenly changing his mood,
+and resorting to his free and easy address. "You suit these times
+devilish well. I can't find it in my heart to quarrel with you. We have
+both been somewhat rough in speech, and so, the account is square. But
+now tell me, after all, are you sure you have guessed me right? How do
+you know I am not one of these very rebels myself?"
+
+"For two good and point-blank reasons. First, you dar'n't deny that you
+have pocketed the king's money and worn his coat--that's one. And,
+second, you are now here under the orders of one of his officers."
+
+"No, no, good friend," said the man, with a voice of less boldness than
+heretofore, "you are mistaken for once in your life. So far what you
+say, I don't deny--I am in the service of a gentleman, who for some
+private affairs of his own has come on a visit to this part of the
+province, and I admit I have been in the old country."
+
+"I am not mistaken, good friend," drawled out Robinson, affectedly. "You
+come from the south. I can tell men's fortunes without looking into the
+palms of their hands."
+
+"You are wrong again," said the other tartly, as he grew angry at being
+thus badgered by his opponent, "I come from the north."
+
+"That's true and it's false both," returned Robinson. "From the north, I
+grant you--to the south with Sir Henry, and from the south up here. You
+will find I can conjure a little, friend."
+
+"The devil take your conjuring!" exclaimed the other, as he bit his lip
+and strode restlessly backward and forward; which perplexity being
+observed by the sergeant, he did not fail to aggravate it by breaking
+into a hoarse laugh, as he said----
+
+"It wa'n't worth your while to try to deceive me. I knowed you by
+manifold and simultaneous signs. Him that sets about scouting after
+other people's secrets, ought to be wary enough to larn to keep his own.
+But don't take it so to heart, neighbor, there's no occasion for
+oneasiness--I have no mind to harm you."
+
+"Master bully," said the stranger, planting himself immediately in front
+of the sergeant, "in England, where I was bred, we play at cudgels, and
+sometimes give broken heads; and some of us are gifted with heavy fists,
+wherewith we occasionally contrive to box a rude fellow who pries too
+much into our affairs."
+
+"In our country," replied Horse Shoe, "we generally like to get a share
+of whatever new is stirring, and, though we don't practise much with
+cudgels, yet, to sarve a turn, we do, now and then, break a head or so;
+and, consarning that fist work you happened to touch upon, we have no
+condesentious scruples against a fair rap or two over the knowledge-box,
+and the tripping-up of a fractious chap's heels, in the way of a sort of
+a rough-and-tumble, which, may be, you understand. You have been long
+enough here, mayhap, to find that out."
+
+"Then, it is likely, it would please you to have a chance at such a
+game? I count myself a pretty tolerable hand at the play," said the
+stranger, with a composure corresponding to that exhibited by Horse
+Shoe.
+
+"Ho, ho! I don't want to hurt you, man," replied the Sergeant. "You will
+get yourself into trouble. You are hot-headeder than is good for your
+health."
+
+"As the game was mentioned, I thought you might have a fancy to play
+it."
+
+"To be sure I would," said Horse Shoe, "rather than disappoint you in
+any reasonable longing. For the sake of quiet--being a peaceable man, I
+will take the trouble to oblige you. Where, do you think, would be the
+likeliest spot to have it?"
+
+"We may readily find a piece of ground at hand," replied the other. "It
+is a good moonlight play, and we may not be interrupted if we get a
+little distance off before the negro comes back. Toe to toe, and face to
+face, suits me best with both friend and foe."
+
+"A mule to drive and a fool to hold back, are two of the contrariest
+things I know," said Robinson, "and so, seeing that you are in arnest
+about it, let us go at it without more ado upon the first good bit of
+grass we can pop upon along the river."
+
+In this temper the two antagonists left the vicinity of the stable, and
+walked some hundred paces down along the bank of the stream. The man
+with whom Horse Shoe was about to hold this strange encounter, and who
+now walked quietly by his side, had the erect and soldierly port of a
+grenadier. He was square-shouldered, compact and muscular, and the
+firmness of his gait, his long and easy stride, and the free swing of
+his arm as he moved onward in the moonlight, showed Robinson that he was
+to engage with an adversary of no common capacity. There was, perhaps,
+on the other side, some abatement in this man's self-confidence, when
+the same light disclosed to his deliberate inspection the brawny
+proportions of the sergeant, which, in the engrossment of the topics
+bandied about in the late dialogue, he had not so accurately regarded.
+
+When they had walked the distance I have mentioned, they had little
+difficulty to select a space of level ground with a sufficient mould for
+the purpose of the proposed trial of strength.
+
+"Here's as pretty a spot as we mought find on the river," said Robinson,
+"and so get ready, friend. Before we begin, I have a word to say. This
+here bout is not a thing of my seeking, and I take it to be close akin
+to downright tom-foolery, for grown up men to set about thumping and
+hammering each other, upon account of a brag of who's best man, or such
+like, when the whole univarse is full of occasions for scuffles, and
+stands in need of able-bodied fellows, to argufy the pints of right and
+wrong, that can't be settled by preachers, or books, or lawyers. I look
+upon this here coming out to fight no better than a bit of arrant
+nonsense. But, as you will have it, it's no consarn of mine to stop
+you."
+
+"You are welcome to do your worst," replied the other, "and the less
+preaching you make with it, the more saving of time."
+
+"My worst," interrupted Horse Shoe, "is almost more than I have the
+conscience to do to any man who isn't a downright flagratious enemy;
+and, once more, I would advise you to think before you draw me into a
+fray; you are flustrated, and sot upon a quarrel, and mayhap, you
+conjecture that by drawing me out from behind my retrenchments, by which
+is signified my good nature, and forcing me to deploy into line and open
+field, you'll get the advantage of an old sodger over me; but there, Mr.
+Dragoon, you are mistaken. In close garrison or open field, in siege or
+sally, crossing a defile or reconnoitring on a broad road, I am not apt
+to lose my temper, or strike without seeing where my blow is to hit.
+Now, that is all I have to say: so, come on."
+
+"You are not what you seem," said the antagonist, in a state of wonder
+at the strain of the sergeant's composed and deliberate speech, and at
+the familiarity which this effusion manifested with the details of
+military life. "In the devil's name, who are you? But, don't fancy I
+pause to begin our fight, for any other reason than that I may know who
+I contend with. On the honor of a soldier, I promise you, I will hold
+you to your game--man, or imp of hell--I care not. Again, who in the
+devil are you?"
+
+"You have hit it," replied Horse Shoe. "My name is Brimstone, I am first
+cousin to Belzebub."
+
+"You have served?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"And belong to the army yet?"
+
+"True again; and I am as tough a sodger, and may be I mought say, as old
+a sodger as yourself."
+
+"Your hand, fellow soldier. I mistook you from the beginning. You
+continentals--that's the new-fangled word--are stout fellows, and have a
+good knack at the trick of war, though you wear rough coats, and are
+savagely unrudimented in polite learning. No matter what colors a man
+fights under, long usage makes a good comrade of him; and, by my faith!
+I am not amongst the last to do him honor, even though we stand in
+opposite ranks. As you say, most sapient Brimstone, we are not much
+better than a pair of fools for this conspiracy to knock about each
+other's pates, here at midnight; but you have my pledge to it, and so,
+we will go at it, if it be only to win a relish for our beds; I will
+teach you, to-night, some skill in the art of mensuration. You shall
+measure two full ells upon this green sod."
+
+"There's my hand," said Horse Shoe; "now, if I am flung, I promise you
+I won't be angry. If I sarve you in the same fashion, you must larn to
+bear it."
+
+"With all my heart. So here I stand upon my guard. Begin."
+
+"Let me feel your weight," said Robinson, laughing, as he put one hand
+upon his adversary's shoulder, and the other against his side. "Hark
+you, master, I feel something hard here about your ribs; you have
+pistols under your coat, friend. For the sake of fair play and keeping
+rid of foul blood, you had best lay them aside before we strike. Anger
+comes up onawares."
+
+"I never part from my weapons," replied the other, stepping back and
+releasing himself from Robinson's grasp. "We are strangers; I must know
+the company I am in, before I dismiss such old cronies as these. They
+have got me out of a scrape before this."
+
+"We took hands just now," said Robinson, angrily. "When I give my hand,
+it is tantamount to a book oath that I mean fair, round dealing with the
+man who takes it. I told you, besides, I was a sodger--that ought to
+have contented you--and you mought sarch my breast, inside and out,
+you'd seen in it nothing but honest meanings. There's something of a
+suspectable rascality, after that, in talking about pistols hid under
+the flaps of the coat. It's altogether onmanful, and, what's more,
+onsodgerly. You are a deceit, and an astonishment, and a hissing, all
+three, James Curry, and no better, to my comprehension, than a coward. I
+know you of old, although, mayhap, you disremember me. I have hearn
+said, by more than one, that you was a double-faced, savage-hearted,
+disregardless beast, that snashed his teeth where he darsn't bite, and
+bullied them that hadn't the heart to fight; I have hearn that of you,
+and, as I live, I believe it. Now, look out for your bull head, for I
+will cuff you in spite of your pistols."
+
+With these words, Horse Shoe gave his adversary some half dozen
+overpowering blows, in such quick succession as utterly defied and broke
+down the others guard; and then, seizing him by the breast, he threw the
+tall and stalwart form of Curry at full length upon the ground.
+
+"There's your two ells for you! there's the art of menstirration, you
+disgrace to the tail of a drum," exclaimed Horse Shoe, with accumulating
+wrath, as the prostrate man strove to extricate himself from the lion
+grasp that held him. In this strife, Curry several times made an effort
+to get his hand upon his pistol, in which he was constantly foiled by
+the superior vigor of the sergeant.
+
+"No, no," continued the latter, as he became aware of this attempt,
+"James Curry, you shall never lay hold upon your fire-arms whilst I have
+the handling of you. Give them up, you twisting prevaricationer; give
+them up, you disgracer of powder and lead; and larn this from a rebel,
+that I don't blow out your brains, only because I wouldn't accommodate
+the devil by flinging such a lump of petrifaction into his clutches.
+There, man," he added, as he threw the pistols far from him into the
+river, his exasperation, at the same time, moderating to a lower
+temperature, "get upon your feet; and now, you may go hunt for your
+cronies in yonder running stream. You may count it a marcy that I
+haven't tossed you after them, to wash the cowardly blood off your face.
+Now that you are upon your legs, I tell you here, in the moonlight, man
+to man, with nobody by to hold back your hand, that you are a lying,
+deceitful skulker, that loves the dark side of a wall better than the
+light, and steals the secrets of honest folks, and hasn't the heart to
+stand up fairly to the man that tells you of it. Swallow that, James
+Curry, and see how it will lay upon your stomach."
+
+"I will seek a time!" exclaimed Curry, "to right myself with your
+heart's blood."
+
+"Pshaw! man," replied Horse Shoe, "don't talk about heart's blood. The
+next time we come into a field together, ax for Galbraith Robinson,
+commonly called Horse Shoe Robinson. Find me out, that's all. We may
+take a frolic together then, and I give you my allowance to wear your
+pistols in your belt."
+
+"We may find a field yet, Horse Shoe Robinson," returned Curry, "and
+I'll not fail of my appointment. Our game will be played with
+broadswords."
+
+"If it should so turn out, James, that you and me are to work through a
+campaign in the same quarter of the world, as we have done afore, James,
+I expect, I'll take the chance of some holiday to pay my respects to
+you. I wont trouble you to ride far to find me; and then, it may be
+broadsword or pistol, rifle or bagnet, I'm not over-scrumptious which.
+Only promise I shall see you when I send for you."
+
+"It's a bargain, Galbraith Robinson! Strong as you think yourself in
+your cursed rough-and-tumble horseplay, I am soldier enough for you any
+day. I only ask that the time may come quickly."
+
+"You have no objection to give us a hand to clinch that bargain, James?"
+asked Horse Shoe. "There's my paw; take it, man, I scorn to bear malice
+after the hot blood cools."
+
+"I take it with more pleasure now," said Curry, hastily seizing the
+hand, "than I gave mine to you before to-night, because it is a pledge
+that suits my humor. A good seat in a saddle, four strong legs below me,
+and a sharp blade, I hold myself a match for the best man that ever
+picked a flint in your lines."
+
+"Now, friend Curry," exclaimed the sergeant, "good night! Go look for
+your pop-guns in the river; and if you find them, hold them as a
+keepsake to remember Horse Shoe Robinson. Good night."
+
+Robinson left his adversary, and returned to the inn, ruminating, as he
+walked, over the strange incident in which he had just been engaged. For
+a while his thoughts wore a grave complexion; but, as his careless good
+humor gradually broke forth through the thin mist that enveloped it, he
+was found, before he reached the porch, laughing, with a quiet chuckle,
+at the conceit which rose upon his mind, as he said, half-audibly, "Odd
+sport for a summer night! Howsever, every one to his liking, as the old
+woman said; but to my thinking, he mought have done better if he had
+gone to sleep at a proper hour, like a moralised and sober Christian."
+
+When he entered the parlor, he found Butler and the landlady waiting for
+him.
+
+"It is late, sergeant," said the Major. "You have forgotten the hour;
+and I began to fear you had more to say to your friend, there, than
+suited the time of night."
+
+"All is right, by your smiling," added the landlady; "and that's more
+than I expected at the time you walked out of the room. I couldn't go to
+my bed, till I was sure you and my lodger had no disagreeable words;
+for, to tell you the truth, I am greatly afraid of his hot and hasty
+temper."
+
+"There is nothing hot or hasty about him, ma'am," replied Robinson; "he
+is about as peaceable a man as you mought expect to meet in such times
+as these. I only told him a little scrap of news, and you would have
+thought he would have hugged me for it, ha, ha, ha."
+
+"We are to sleep in the same room, sergeant," said Butler, "and our good
+hostess will show us the way to it."
+
+The dame, upon this hint, took a candle, and conducted her guests to a
+chamber in the upper story, where, after wishing them "a good night,"
+she courtesied respectfully, and left them to their repose.
+
+"Tell me, sergeant, what you made out of that fellow," said Butler, as
+he undressed himself. "I see that you have had some passage with him;
+and, from your tarrying so long, I began to be a little apprehensive of
+rough work between you. What passed, and what have you learned?"
+
+"Enough, major, to make us more circumscriptious against scouts, and
+spies, and stratagems. When I was a prisoner at Charlestown, there was
+an amazing well-built fellow, a dragoon, that had been out with
+Tarleton; but, when I saw him, he was a sort of rithmatical
+account-keeper and letter-scribbler for that young fighting-cock, the
+Earl of Caithness, him that was aidegong to Sir Henry Clinton. Well,
+this fellow had a tolerable bad name, as being a chap that the devil had
+spiled, in spite of all the good that had been pumped into him at
+school; for, as I have hearn, he was come of gentle people, had a first
+rate edication, and I reckon, now, major, he talks as well as a book,
+whereupon I have an observation."
+
+"Keep that until to-morrow, sergeant," interrupted Butler, "and go on
+with what you had to tell me."
+
+"You must be a little sleepy, major: however, this fellow, they say, was
+cotched cheating with cards one day, when he was playing a game of five
+shilling loo with the King or the Queen, or some of the dukes or
+colonels in the guards--for he wa'n't above any thing rascally. So, it
+was buzzed about, as you may suppose when a man goes to cheating one of
+them big fish--and the King gave him his choice to enlist, or go to the
+hulks; and he, being no fool, listed, as a matter of course. In that way
+he got over here; and, as I tell you, was a sort of sarvent to that
+young Earl. He sometimes came about our quarters to list prisoners and
+make Tories of 'em, for his own people kept him to do all that sort of
+dirty work, upon account of the glibness of his tongue. He was a
+remarkable saucy fellow and got nothing but ill-will from the
+prisoners--though, I make no doubt, the man is a tolerable sodger on
+sarvice. Now, after telling you all this, major, you must know that the
+identical, same, particular man that we saw looking through the porch
+window at us to-night"--
+
+"Is the man you have been describing? Is it possible? Are you sure of
+it?"
+
+"I knowed him the minute I clapped eyes on him: his name is James Curry:
+but, as I didn't stay long at Charlestown, and hadn't any thing to do
+with him in particular, it seems he didn't remember me."
+
+"You conversed with him?"
+
+"Most sartainly I did. I wanted to gather a little consarning of his
+visit up here: but the fellow's been so battered about in the wars, that
+he knows how to hold his tongue. I had some mischief in me, and did want
+to make him just angry enough to set his speech loose; and, besides, I
+felt a little against him upon account of his misdoings with our people
+in Carolina, and so, I said some rough things to him; and, as my
+discourse ar'n't none of the squarest in pint of grammar and
+topographical circumlocution--as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say--why he
+set me down for a piece of an idiot, and began to hoax and bamboozle me.
+I put that matter straight for him very soon, by just letting him say so
+much and no more. And then, as I was a peaceable man, major, he seemed
+to see that I didn't want to have no quarrel with him, which made him
+push it at me rather too hard, and all my civility ended in my giving
+him what he wanted at first--a tolerable, regular thrashing."
+
+The sergeant continued to relate to Butler the details of this
+adventure, which he did with more prolixity than the weariness of his
+listener was able to endure; for the major, having in the progress of
+the narrative got into bed, and having, in the increasing oscitancy of
+his faculties, exhausted every expression of assent by which one who
+listens to a tale is accustomed to notify his attention--he at length
+dropped into a profound sleep, leaving the sergeant to conclude at his
+leisure.
+
+When Robinson perceived this, he had nothing left but to betake himself,
+with all expedition, to his own rest; whereupon he threw off his coat,
+and taking the coverings of the bed appropriated to his use, spread
+them upon the floor, as he pronounced an anathema against sleeping on
+feathers, (for it must be observed, that our good hostess, at that early
+day, was liable to the same censure of an unnatural attachment to
+feather beds in summer, which may, at the present time,[1] be made
+against almost every country inn in the United States,) and then
+extinguishing the candle, he stretched himself upon the planks, as he
+remarked to his unconscious companion, "that he was brought up on a hard
+floor;" and after one or two rolls, he fell into that deep oblivion of
+cares, by which nature re-summons and supplies the strength which toil,
+watching and anxiety wear down.
+
+The speed of Horse Shoe's journey through this pleasant valley of sleep
+might be measured somewhat in the same manner that the route of a mail
+stage may sometimes be traced through a mountain defile, by the notes of
+the coachman's horn; it was defined by the succession of varying
+intonations through which he ascended the gamut, beginning with a low
+but audible breathing, and rising through the several stages of an
+incipient snore, a short quick bark, and up to a snort that constituted
+the greatest altitude of the ascent. Occasionally a half articulated
+interjection escaped him, and words that showed in what current his
+dreams were sailing: "No pistols! Look in the water, James! Ha ha!"
+These utterings were accompanied with contortions of body that more than
+once awaked the sleeper; but, at last, the huge bulk of Horse Shoe grew
+motionless in a deep and strong sleep.
+
+The next morning, at early dawn, our travellers resumed their journey,
+which I will leave them to prosecute, whilst I conduct my reader to the
+affairs and interests that dwell about the Dove Cote.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SOME ACCOUNT OF PHILIP LINDSAY--SENSIBILITY AND RETIREMENT APT TO
+ENGENDER A PERNICIOUS PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+The thread which I have now to take up and weave into this history
+requires that my narrative should go back for some years. It briefly
+concerns the earlier fortunes of Philip Lindsay.
+
+His father emigrated from England, and was established in Virginia about
+the year 1735, as a secretary to the governor of the province. He was a
+gentleman of good name and fortune. Philip was born within a year after
+this emigration. As America was then comparatively a wilderness, and
+afforded but few facilities for the education of youth, the son of the
+secretary was sent at an early age to England, where he remained, with
+the exception of an occasional visit to his parents, under the
+guardianship of a near relative, until he had completed, not only his
+college course, but also his studies in the Temple--an almost
+indispensable requirement of that day for young gentlemen of condition.
+
+His studies in the Temple had been productive of one result, which Lord
+Coke, if I remember, considers idiosyncratic in the younger votaries of
+the law--he had fallen in love with an heiress. The natural consequence
+was a tedious year, after his return home, spent at the seat of the
+provincial government, and a most energetic and persevering interchange
+of letters with the lady, whom my authority allows me to name Gertrude
+Marshall. This was followed by another voyage across the Atlantic, and
+finally, as might be predicted, by a wedding with all proper observance
+and parental sanction. Lindsay then returned, a happier and more
+tranquil man, to Virginia, where he fulfilled the duties of more than
+one public station of dignity and trust.
+
+In due course of time he fell heir to his father's wealth, which with
+the estate of his wife made him one of the most opulent and considerable
+gentlemen of the Old Dominion.
+
+He had but two children--Mildred and Henry--with four years difference
+between their ages. These were nurtured with all the care and indulgent
+bounty natural to parents whose affections are concentrated upon so
+small a family circle.
+
+Lindsay's character was grave and thoughtful, and inclined him to avoid
+the contests of ambition and collision with the world. A delicate taste,
+a nice judgment, and a fondness for inquiry made him a student and an
+ardent lover of books. The ply of his mind was towards metaphysics; he
+delved into the obsolete subtleties of the old schools of philosophy,
+and found amusement, if not instruction, in those frivolous but
+ingenious speculations which have overshadowed even the best wisdom of
+the schoolmen with the hues of a solemn and absurd pedantry. He dreamed
+in the reveries of Plato, and pursued them through the aberrations of
+the Coryphaeans. He delighted in the visions of Pythagoras, and in the
+intellectual revels of Epicurus. He found attraction in the Gnostic
+mysteries, and still more in the phantasmagoria of Judicial Astrology.
+His library furnished a curious index to this unhealthy appetite for the
+marvellous and the mystical. The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, Raymond
+Lully, and Martin Delvio, and others of less celebrity in this circle of
+imposture, were found associated with truer philosophies and more
+approved and authentic teachers.
+
+These studies, although pursued with an acknowledgment of their false
+and dangerous tendency, nevertheless had their influence upon Lindsay's
+imagination. There are few men in whom the mastery of reason is so
+absolute as to be able totally to subdue the occasional uprising of that
+element of superstition which is found more or less vigorous in every
+mind. A nervous temperament, which is almost characteristic of minds of
+an imaginative cast, is often distressingly liable to this influence, in
+spite of the strongest resolves of the will and the most earnest
+convictions of the judgment. If those who possess this temperament would
+confess, they might certify to many extraordinary anxieties and troubles
+of spirit, which it would pain them to have the world believe.
+
+Lindsay's pursuits had impressed his understanding with some sentiment
+of respect for that old belief in the supernatural, and had, perhaps,
+even warmed up his faith to a secret credulity in these awful agencies
+of the spiritual world, or at least to an unsatisfied doubt as to their
+existence. Many men of sober brow and renown for wisdom are unwilling to
+acknowledge the extent of their own credulity on the same topic.
+
+His relations to the government, his education, pursuits and temper, as
+might be expected, had deeply imbued Lindsay with the politics of the
+tory party, and taught him to regard with distrust, and even with
+abhorrence, the revolutionary principles which were getting in vogue. In
+this sentiment he visited with a dislike that did not correspond with
+the more usual development of his character, all those who were in any
+degree suspected of aiding or abetting the prevailing political heresy
+of the times.
+
+About two years after the birth of Mildred, he had purchased a tract of
+land in the then new and frontier country lying upon the Rockfish river.
+Many families of note in the low country had possessed themselves of
+estates at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in this neighborhood, and were
+already making establishments there. Mr. Lindsay, attracted by the
+romantic character of the scenery, the freshness of the soil, and the
+healthfulness of the climate, following the example of others, had laid
+off the grounds of his new estate with great taste, and had soon built,
+upon a beautiful site, a neat and comfortable rustic dwelling, with such
+accommodation as might render it a convenient and pleasant retreat
+during the hot months of the summer.
+
+The occupation which this new establishment afforded his family; the
+scope which its improvement gave to their taste; and the charms that
+intrinsically belonged to it, by degrees communicated to his household
+an absorbing interest in its embellishment. His wife cherished this
+enterprise with a peculiar ardor. The plans of improvement were hers;
+the garden, the lawns, the groves, the walks--all the little appendages
+which an assiduous taste might invent, or a comfort-seeking fancy might
+imagine necessary, were taken under her charge; and one beauty quickly
+following upon another, from day to day, evinced the dominion which a
+refined art may exercise with advantage over nature. It was a quiet,
+calm, and happy spot, where many conveniences were congregated together,
+and where, for a portion of every succeeding year, this little family
+nestled, as it were, in the enjoyment of voluptuous ease. From this
+idea, and especially as it was allied with some of the tenderest
+associations connected with the infancy of Mildred, it was called by the
+fanciful and kindly name of "The Dove Cote."
+
+The education of Mildred and Henry became a delightful household care.
+Tutors were supplied, and the parents gave themselves up to the task of
+supervision with a fond industry. They now removed earlier to the Dove
+Cote with every returning spring, and remained there later in the
+autumn. The neighborhood furnished an intelligent and hospitable
+society; and the great western wilderness smiled with the contentment of
+a refined and polished civilization, which no after day in the history
+of this empire has yet surpassed--perhaps, not equalled. It is not to be
+wondered at, that a mind so framed as Lindsay's, and a family so
+devoted, should find an exquisite enjoyment in such a spot.
+
+Whilst this epoch of happiness was in progression, the political heaven
+began to be darkened with clouds. The troubles came on with harsh
+portents; war rumbled in the distance, and, at length, broke out in
+thunder. Mildred had, in the meantime, grown up to the verge of
+womanhood,--a fair, ruddy, light-haired beauty, of exceeding graceful
+proportions, and full of the most interesting impulses. Henry trod
+closely upon her heels, and was now shooting through the rapid stages of
+boyhood. Both had entwined themselves around their parents' affections,
+like fibres that conveyed to them their chief nourishment; and the
+children were linked to each other even, if that where possible, by a
+stronger band.
+
+The war threw Lindsay into a perilous predicament. His estates were
+large, and his principles exposed him to the sequestration which was
+rigidly enforced against the royalist party. To avoid this blow, or, at
+least, to mitigate its severity, he conveyed the estate of the Dove Cote
+to Mildred; assigning, as his reason for doing so, that, as it was
+purchased with moneys belonging to his wife, he consulted and executed
+her wish, in transferring the absolute ownership of it to his daughter.
+The rest of his property was converted into money, and invested in funds
+in Great Britain. As soon as this arrangement was made, about the second
+year of the war, the Dove Cote became the permanent residence of the
+family; Lindsay preferring to remain here rather than to retire to
+England, hoping to escape the keen notice of the dominant party, and to
+find, in this classic and philosophical privacy, an oblivion of the rude
+cares that beset the pillow of every man who mingled in the strife of
+the day.
+
+He was destined to a grievous disappointment. His wife, to whom he was
+romantically attached, was snatched from him by death, just at this
+interesting period. This blow, for a time, almost unseated his reason.
+The natural calm of such a mind as Lindsay's is not apt to show
+paroxysms in grief. Its sorrow was too still and deep for show. The
+flight of years, however, brought healing on their wings; and Mildred
+and Henry gradually relumed their father's countenance with flashes of
+cheerful thought, that daily grew broader and more abiding; till, at
+last, sense and duty completed their triumph, and once more gave Lindsay
+to his family, unburdened of his grief, or, if not unburdened,
+conversing with it only in the secret hours of self-communion.
+
+His hopes of ease and retirement were disappointed in another way. The
+sequesterment of the Dove Cote was not sufficient to shut out the noise
+nor the intrigues of the war. His reputation, as a man of education, of
+wealth, of good sense, and especially as a man of aristocratic
+pretensions, irresistibly drew him into the agitated vortex of politics.
+His house was open to the visits of the tory leaders, no less than to
+those of the other side; and, although this intercourse could not be
+openly maintained without risk, yet pretexts were not wanting,
+occasionally, to bring the officers and gentlemen in the British
+interest to the Dove Cote. They came stealthily and in disguise, and
+they did not fail to involve him in the insidious schemes and base
+plottings by which a wary foe generally endeavors to smoothe the way of
+invasion. The temporary importance which these connections conferred,
+and the assiduous appeal which it was the policy of the enemy to make to
+his loyalty, wrought upon the vanity of the scholar, and brought him, by
+degrees, from the mere toleration of an intercourse that he at first
+sincerely sought to avoid, into a participation of the plans of those
+who courted his fellowship. Still, however, this was grudgingly
+given--as much from the inaptitude of his character, as from a secret
+consciousness, at bottom, that it was contrary to the purpose that had
+induced him to seek the shelter of the woods. Unless, therefore, the
+spur was frequently applied to the side of his reluctant resolution, his
+zeal was apt to weary in its pace, or, to change my figure for one
+equally appropriate, to melt away in the sunny indolence of his temper.
+
+I have said that, during the tenderer years of the children, and up to
+the period of the loss of their mother, they had received the most
+unremitting attention from their parents. The bereavement of his wife,
+the deep gloom that followed this event, and the now engrossing
+character of the war, had in some degree relaxed Lindsay's vigilance
+over their nurture, although it had in no wise abated his affection for
+them; on the contrary, perhaps this was more concentrated than ever.
+Mildred had grown up to the blossom-time of life, in the possession of
+every personal attraction. From the fanciful ideas of education adopted
+by her father, or rather from the sedulous care with which he
+experimented upon her capacity, and devoted himself to the task of
+directing and waiting upon the expansion of her intellect, she had made
+acquirements much beyond her years, and altogether of a character
+unusual to her sex. An ardent and persevering temper had imparted a
+singular enthusiasm to her pursuits; and her air, though not devoid of
+playfulness, might be said to be habitually abstracted and
+self-communing.
+
+As the war advanced, her temper and situation both enlisted her as a
+partisan in the questions which it brought into discussion; and, whilst
+her father's opinions were abhorrent to this struggle for independence,
+she, on the other hand, unknown to him, was casting her thoughts,
+feelings, affections, and hopes upon the broad waters of rebellion; and,
+if not expecting them to return to her, after many days, with increase
+of good, certainly believing that she was mingling them with those of
+patriots who were predestined to the brightest meed of glory.
+
+A father is not apt to reason with a daughter; the passions and
+prejudices of a parent are generally received as principles by the
+child; and most fathers, counting upon this instinct, deem it enough to
+make known the bent merely of their own opinions, without caring to
+argue them. This mistake will serve to explain the wide difference which
+is sometimes seen between the most tenderly attached parent and child,
+in those deeper sentiments that do not belong to the every-day concerns
+of life. Whilst, therefore, Mr. Lindsay took no heed how the seed of
+doctrine fructified and grew in the soil where he desired to plant it,
+it in truth fell upon ungenial ground, and either was blown away by the
+wind, or perished for want of appropriate nourishment.
+
+As the crisis became more momentous, and the discussion of national
+rights more rife, Mildred's predilections ran stronger on the republican
+side; and, at the opening of my story, she was a sincere and
+enthusiastic friend of American independence,--a character (however it
+may be misdoubted by my female readers of the present day, nursed as
+they are in a lady-like apathy to all concerns of government, and little
+aware, in the lazy lap of peace, how vividly their own quick
+sensibilities may be enlisted by the strife of men) neither rare nor
+inefficient amongst the matrons and maidens of the year seventy-six,
+some of whom--now more than fifty years gone by--are embalmed in the
+richest spices and holiest ointment of our country's memory.
+
+It is, however, due to truth to say, that Mildred's eager attachment to
+this cause was not altogether the free motion of patriotism. How often
+does some little under-current of passion, some slight and amiable
+prepossession, modest and unobserved, rise to the surface of our
+feelings, and there give its direction to the stream upon which floats
+all our philosophy! What is destiny but these under-currents that come
+whencesoever they list, unheeded at first, and irresistible ever
+afterwards!
+
+My reader must be told that, before the war broke out, this enthusiastic
+girl had flitted across the path of Arthur Butler, then a youth of rare
+faculty and promise, who combined with a gentle and modest demeanor an
+earnest devotion to his country, sustained by a chivalrous tone of honor
+that had in it all the fanciful disinterestedness of boyhood. It will
+not, therefore, appear wonderful that, amongst the golden opinions the
+young man was storing up in all quarters, some fragments of this grace
+should have made a lodgment in the heart of Mildred Lindsay.
+
+Butler was a native of one of the lower districts of South Carolina, and
+was already the possessor, by inheritance, of what was then called a
+handsome fortune. He first met Mildred, under the safe-conduct of her
+parents, at Annapolis in Maryland, at that time the seat of opulence and
+fashion. There the wise and the gay, the beautiful and the rarely-gifted
+united in a splendid little constellation, in which wealth threw its
+sun-beam glitter over the wings of love, and learning and eloquence
+were warmed by the smiles of fair women: there gallant men gave the
+fascinations of wit to a festive circle unsurpassed in the new world, or
+the old, for its proportion of the graces that embellish, and the
+endowments that enrich life. In this circle there was no budding beauty
+of softer charm than the young Mildred, nor was there amongst the gay
+and bright cavaliers that thronged the "little academy" of Eden, (the
+governor of the province,) a youth of more favorable omen than Arthur
+Butler.
+
+The war was at the very threshold, and angry men thought of turning the
+ploughshare into the sword. Amongst these was Butler; an unsparing
+denouncer of the policy of Britain, and an unhesitating volunteer in the
+ranks of her opposers. It was at this eventful time that he met Mildred.
+I need hardly add that under these inauspicious circumstances they began
+to love. Every interview afterwards (and they frequently saw each other
+at Williamsburg and Richmond) only developed more completely the tale of
+love that nature was telling in the heart of each.
+
+Butler received from Congress an ensign's commission in the continental
+army, and was employed for a few months in the recruiting service at
+Charlottesville. This position favored his views and enabled him to
+visit at the Dove Cote. His intercourse with Mildred, up to this period,
+had been allowed by Lindsay to pass without comment: it was regarded but
+as the customary and common-place civility of polite society. Mildred's
+parents had no sympathy in her lover's sentiments, and consequently no
+especial admiration of his character, and they had not yet doubted their
+daughter's loyalty to be made of less stern materials than their own.
+Her mother was the first to perceive that the modest maiden awaited the
+coming of the young soldier with a more anxious forethought than
+betokened an unoccupied heart. How painfully did this perception break
+upon her! It opened upon her view a foresight of that unhappy sequence
+of events that attends the secret struggle between parental authority
+and filial inclination, when the absorbing interests of true love are
+concerned: a struggle that so frequently darkens the fate of the noblest
+natures, and whose history supplies the charm of so many a melancholy
+and thrilling page. Mrs. Lindsay had an invincible objection to the
+contemplated alliance, and immediately awakened the attention of her
+husband to the subject. From this moment Butler's reception at the Dove
+Cote was cold and formal, and Mr. Lindsay did not delay to express to
+his daughter a marked aversion to her intimacy with a man so uncongenial
+to his own taste. I need not dwell upon the succession of incidents that
+followed: are they not written in every book that tells of young hearts
+loving in despite of authority? Let it suffice to say that Butler, "many
+a time and oft," hied stealthily and with a lover's haste to the Dove
+Cote, where, "under the shade of melancholy boughs," or sometimes of
+good Mistress Dimock's roof, he found means to meet and exchange vows of
+constancy with the lady of his love.
+
+Thus passed the first year of the war. The death of Mrs. Lindsay, to
+which I have before adverted, now occurred. The year of mourning was
+doubly afflictive to Mildred. Her father's grief hung as heavily upon
+her as her own, and to this was added a total separation from Butler. He
+had joined his regiment and was sharing the perils of the northern
+campaigns, and subsequently of those which ended in the subjugation of
+Carolina and Georgia. During all this period he was enabled to keep up
+an uncertain and irregular correspondence with Mildred, and he had once
+met her in secret, for a few hours only, at Mistress Dimock's, during
+the autumn immediately preceding the date of the opening of my story.
+
+Mrs. Lindsay, upon her death-bed, had spoken to her husband in the most
+emphatic terms of admonition against Mildred's possible alliance with
+Butler, and conjured him to prevent it by whatever means might be in his
+power. Besides this, she made a will directing the distribution of a
+large jointure estate in England between her two children, coupling,
+with the bequest, a condition of forfeiture, if Mildred married without
+her father's approbation.
+
+I have now to relate an incident in the life of Philip Lindsay, which
+throws a sombre coloring over most of the future fortunes of Mildred and
+Arthur, as they are hereafter to be developed in my story.
+
+The lapse of years, Lindsay supposed, would wear out the first favorable
+impressions made by Arthur Butler upon his daughter. Years had now
+passed: he knew nothing of the secret correspondence between the
+parties, and he had hoped that all was forgotten. He could not help,
+however, perceiving that Mildred had grown reserved, and that her
+deportment seemed to be controlled by some secret care that sat upon
+her heart. She was anxious, solicitous, and more inclined, than became
+her youth, to be alone. Her household affections took a softer tone,
+like one in grief. These things did not escape her father's eye.
+
+It was on a night in June, a little more than a year before the visit of
+Butler and Robinson which I have narrated in a former chapter, that the
+father and daughter had a free communion together, in which it was his
+purpose to penetrate into the causes of her disturbed spirit. The
+conference was managed with an affectionate and skilful address on the
+part of the father, and "sadly borne" by Mildred. It is sufficient to
+say that it revealed to him a truth of which he was previously but
+little aware, namely, that neither the family afflictions nor the flight
+of two years had rooted out the fond predilection of Mildred for Arthur
+Butler. When this interview ended Mildred retired weeping to her
+chamber, and Lindsay sat in his study absorbed in meditation. The object
+in life nearest to his heart was the happiness of his daughter; and for
+the accomplishment of this what sacrifice would he not make? He minutely
+recalled to memory all the passages of her past life. What error of
+education had he committed, that she thus, at womanhood, was found
+wandering along a path to which he had never led her, which, indeed, he
+had ever taught her to avoid? What accident of fortune had brought her
+into this, as he must consider it, unhappy relation? "How careful have I
+been," he said, "to shut out all the inducements that might give a
+complexion to her tastes and principles different from my own! How
+sedulously have I waited upon her footsteps from infancy onward, to
+shield her from the influences that might mislead her pliant mind! And
+yet in this, the most determinate act of her life, that which is to give
+the hue to the whole of her coming fortune, the only truly momentous
+event in her history--how strangely has it befallen!"
+
+In such a strain did his thoughts pursue this harassing subject. The
+window of his study was open, and he sat near it, looking out upon the
+night. The scene around him was of a nature to awaken his imagination
+and lead his musings towards the preternatural and invisible world. It
+was past midnight, and the bright moon was just sinking down the western
+slope of the heavens, journeying through the fantastic and gorgeous
+clouds, that, as they successively caught her beam, stood like
+promontories jutting upon a waveless ocean, their rich profiles tipped
+with burnished silver. The long black shadows of the trees slept in
+enchanted stillness upon the earth: the night-wind breathed through the
+foliage, and brought the distant gush of the river fitfully upon his
+ear. There was a witching harmony and music in the landscape that sorted
+with the solitary hour, and conjured up thoughts of the world of
+shadows. Lindsay's mind began to run upon the themes of his favorite
+studies: the array of familiar spirits rose upon his mental vision; the
+many recorded instances of what was devoutly believed the interference
+of the dead in the concerns of the living, came fresh, at this moment,
+to his memory, and made him shudder at his lonesomeness. Struggling with
+this conception, it struck him with an awe that he was unable to master:
+"some invisible counsellor," he muttered, "some mysterious intelligence,
+now holds my daughter in thrall, and flings his spell upon her
+existence. The powers that mingle unseen in the affairs of mortals, that
+guide to good or lead astray, have wafted this helpless bark into the
+current that sweeps onward, unstayed by man. I cannot contend with
+destiny. She is thy child, Gertrude," he exclaimed, apostrophizing the
+spirit of his departed wife. "She is thine, and thou wilt hover near her
+and protect her from those who contrive against her peace: thou wilt
+avert the ill and shield thy daughter!"
+
+Excited almost to phrensy, terrified and exhausted in physical energy,
+Lindsay threw his head upon his hand and rested it against the
+window-sill. A moment elapsed of almost inspired madness, and when he
+raised his head and looked outward upon the lawn, he beheld the pale
+image of the being he had invoked, gliding through the shrubbery at the
+farthest verge of the level ground. The ghastly visage was bent upon
+him, the hand steadily pointed towards him, and as the figure slowly
+passed away the last reverted gaze was directed to him. "Great God!" he
+ejaculated, "that form--that form!" and fell senseless into his chair.
+
+During the night, Mildred was awakened by a low moan, which led her to
+visit her father's chamber. He was not there. In great alarm she betook
+herself to his study, where she found him extended upon a sofa, so
+enfeebled and bewildered by this recent incident that he was scarcely
+conscious of her presence.
+
+A few weeks restored Lindsay to his usual health, but it was long before
+he regained the equanimity of his mind. He had seen enough to confirm
+his faith in the speculations of that pernicious philosophy which is
+wrapt up in the studies of which I have before given the outline; and he
+was, henceforth, oftentimes melancholy, moody, and reserved in spite of
+all the resolves of duty, and in defiance of a temper naturally placid
+and kind.
+
+Let us pass from this unpleasant incident to a theme of more cheerful
+import: the loves of Mildred and Arthur. I have said these two had
+secret meetings. They were not entirely without a witness. There was a
+confidant in all their intercourse: no other than Henry Lindsay, who
+united to the reckless jollity of youth an almost worshipping love of
+his sister. His thoughts and actions were ever akin to hers. Henry was
+therefore a safe depository of the precious secret; and as he could not
+but think Arthur Butler a good and gallant comrade, he determined that
+his father was altogether on the wrong side in respect to the love
+affair, and, by a natural sequence, wrong also in his politics.
+
+Henry had several additional reasons for this last opinion. The whole
+country-side was kindled into a martial flame, and there was nothing to
+be heard but drums and trumpets. There were rifle-corps raising, and
+they were all dressed in hunting-shirts, and bugles were blowing, and
+horses were neighing: how could a gallant of sixteen resist it? Besides,
+Stephen Foster, the woodman, right under the brow of the Dove Cote, was
+a lieutenant of mounted riflemen, and had, for some time past, been
+training Henry in the mystery of his weapon, and had given him divers
+lessons on the horn to sound the signals, and had enticed him furtively
+to ride in a platoon on parade, whereof he had dubbed Henry corporal or
+deputy corporal. All this worked well for Arthur and Mildred.
+
+Mr. Lindsay was not ignorant of Henry's popularity in the neighborhood,
+nor how much he was petted by the volunteer soldiery. He did not object
+to this, as it served to quiet suspicion of his own dislike to the
+cause, and diverted the observation of the adherents of what he called
+the rebel government, from his own motions; whilst, at the same time, he
+deemed it no other than a gewgaw that played upon the boyish fancy of
+Henry without reaching his principles.
+
+Mildred, on the contrary, did not so regard it. She had inspired Henry
+with her own sentiments, and now carefully trained him up to feel warmly
+the interests of the war, and to prepare himself by discipline for the
+hard life of a soldier. She early awakened in him a wish to render
+service in the field, and a resolution to accomplish it as soon as the
+occasion might arrive. Amongst other things, too, she taught him to love
+Arthur Butler and keep his counsel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MANSION OF A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR.
+
+
+The site of the Dove Cote was eminently picturesque. It was an area of
+level ground, containing, perhaps, two acres, on the summit of a hill
+that, on one side, overhung the Rockfish river, and on the other rose by
+a gentle sweep from the champaign country below. This summit might have
+been as much as two hundred feet above the bed of the stream, and was
+faced on that side by a bold, rocky precipice, not absolutely
+perpendicular, but broken into stages or platforms, where grassy mould
+had accumulated, and where the sweet-brier and the laurel, and clusters
+of the azalea, shot up in profuse luxuriance. The fissures of the crag
+had also collected their handful of soil and gave nourishment to
+struggling vines, and everywhere the ash or pine, and not unfrequently
+the dogwood, took possession of such spots upon the rocky wall, as these
+adventurous and cliff-loving trees had found congenial to their nature.
+The opposite or northern bank of the river had an equal elevation, and
+jutted forward so near to the other as to leave between them a cleft,
+which suggested the idea of some sudden abruption of the earth in those
+early paroxysms that geologists have deemed necessary to account for
+some of the features of our continent. Below was heard the ceaseless
+brattle of the waters, as they ran over and amongst the rocks which
+probably constituted the _debris_ formed in the convulsion that opened
+this chasm. It was along through this obscure dell that the road, with
+which my reader is acquainted, found place between the margin of the
+stream and the foot of the rocks. The general aspect of the country was
+diversified by high knolls and broken masses of mountain land, and the
+Dove Cote itself occupied a station sufficiently above the surrounding
+district to give it a prospect, eastward, of several miles in extent.
+From this point the eye might trace the valley of the Rockfish, by the
+abrupt hill-sides that hemmed it in, and by the growth of sombre pines
+that coated the steeps where nothing else could find a foot-hold. Not
+far below, in this direction, was to be seen the Fawn's tower, a
+singular pinnacle of rock, which had acquired its name from the
+protection it was said to have afforded to a young deer against the
+assault of the hounds; the hard-pressed animal, as the tradition
+relates, having gained this insulated point by a bound that baffled the
+most adventurous of his pursuers, and admiration of the successful
+boldness of the leap having won from the huntsman the favor that spared
+his life.
+
+With the exception of a large chestnut near the edge of the cliff, and
+of some venerable oaks, that had counted centuries before the white man
+rested his limbs beneath their shade, the native growth of the forest
+had been removed by Lindsay from the summit I have described, and he had
+substituted for the wild garniture of nature a few of the choicest trees
+of the neighboring woods. Here he had planted the elm, the holly and the
+linden tree, the cedar and the arbor vitae. This platform was
+semicircular, and was bounded by a terrace or walk of gravel that swept
+around its circumference. The space inclosed was covered with a natural
+grass, which the frequent use of the scythe had brought to the
+resemblance of velvet; and the lower side of the terrace was guarded by
+a hedge-row of cedar. Over this green wall, as the spectator walked
+forth in fair summer time, might he look out upon the distant woods and
+meadows; and there he might behold the high-road showing itself, at
+distant intervals, upon the hill-sides; and in the bottom lands, that
+lay open to the sun through the forest-bound valleys, might he see herds
+of grazing cattle, or fields of yellow grain, or, perchance, the slow
+moving wain burdened with hay, or slower moving plough.
+
+The mansion itself partook of the character of the place. It was
+perched--to use a phrase peculiarly applicable to its position--almost
+immediately at that point where the terrace made an angle with the
+cliff, being defended by a stone parapet, through which an iron wicket
+opened upon a flight of rough-hewn steps, that terminated in a pathway
+leading down to the river.
+
+The main building was of stone, consisting of one lofty story, and
+capped with a steep roof, which curved so far over the front as to
+furnish a broad rustic porch that rested almost upon the ground. The
+slim pillars of this porch were concealed by lattice-work, which was
+overgrown with creeping vines; and the windows of the contiguous rooms,
+on either side of a spacious hall, opened to the floor, and looked out
+upon the lawn and upon the quiet landscape far beyond. One of these
+apartments was also accessible through the eastern gable, by a private
+doorway shaded by a light veranda, and was appropriated by Lindsay to
+his library. This portal seemed almost to hang over the rock, having but
+the breadth of the terrace between it and the declivity, and showing no
+other foreground than the parapet, which was here a necessary defence
+against the cliff, and from which the romantic dell of the river was
+seen in all its wildness.
+
+There were other portions of the mansion constructed in the same style
+of architecture, united to this in such a manner as to afford an
+uninterrupted communication, and to furnish a range of chambers for the
+use of the family. A rustic effect was everywhere preserved. Stacks of
+chimneys shot up in grotesque array; and heavy, old-fashioned windows
+looked quaintly down from the peaked roof. Choice exotics, planted in
+boxes, were tastefully arranged upon the lawn; cages with singing-birds
+were suspended against the wall and the whole mass of building,
+extending along the verge of the cliff, so as to occupy the entire
+diameter of the semicircle, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet, sorted
+by its simplicity of costume, if I may so speak, and by its tidy beauty,
+with the close-shaven grass-plot and its trim shades.
+
+Above the whole, flinging their broad and gnarled arms amongst the
+chimney tops, and forming a pleasing contrast with the artificial
+embellishments of this spot, some ancient oaks, in primeval
+magnificence, reared their time-honored trunks, and no less sheltered
+the habitation from the noon-tide heats, than they afforded an asylum to
+the ringdove and his mate, or to the countless travellers of the air
+that here stopped for rest or food.
+
+Such was the general aspect of the Dove Cote; a spot where a philosopher
+might glide through life in unbroken contemplation; where a wearied
+statesman might betake himself to reassemble the scattered forces of
+intellect for new enterprises; where the artist might repair to study
+with advantage the living graces of God's own painting; and where young
+beauty might bud and bloom amongst the most delicate and graceful forms
+of earth.
+
+The interior of the dwelling was capacious and comfortable. Its
+furniture, suitable to the estate of the owner, was plain, and adapted
+to a munificent rather than to an ostentatious hospitality. It was only
+in the library that evidence might be seen of large expense. Here, the
+books were ranged from the floor to the ceiling, with scarcely an
+interval, except where a few choice paintings had found space, or the
+bust of some ancient worthy. One or two ponderous lounging chairs stood
+in the apartment; and the footstep of the visitor was dulled into
+silence by the soft nap of (what, in that day, was a rare and costly
+luxury) a Turkey carpet. This was in all respects an apartment of ease,
+and it was provided with every incentive to beguile a student into
+silent and luxurious communion with the spirit of the sages around
+him,--whose subtlest thoughts and holiest breathings, whose most
+volatile fancies, had been caught up, fixed, and turned into tangible
+substance, more indestructible than adamant, by the magic of letters.
+
+I have trespassed on the patience of my reader to give him a somewhat
+minute description of the Dove Cote, principally because I hope thereby
+to open his mind to a more adequate conception of the character of
+Philip Lindsay. By looking at a man in his own dwelling, and observing
+his domestic habits, I will venture to affirm, it shall scarcely in any
+instance fail to be true, that, if there be seen a tasteful arrangement
+of matters necessary to his comfort; if his household be well ordered,
+and his walks clean and well rolled, and his grassplots neat; and if
+there be no slovenly inattention to repairs, but thrift against waste,
+and plenty for all; and, if to these be added habits of early rising and
+comely attire--and, above all, if there be books, many books, well
+turned and carefully tended--that man is one to warm up at the coming of
+a gentleman; to open his doors to him; to take him to his heart, and to
+do him the kindnesses of life. He is a man to hate what is base, and to
+stand apart from the mass, as one who will not have his virtue tainted.
+He is a man, moreover, whose worldly craft may be so smothered and
+suppressed, in the predominance of the household affections, that the
+skilful and designing, alas, may ever practise with success their plans
+against him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AN INTRIGUE.
+
+
+I must now introduce my reader to the library described in the last
+chapter, where, beside a small table covered with papers, and lighted by
+two tall candles, sate Philip Lindsay, with a perplexed and thoughtful
+brow. Opposite to him, in an easy chair, reclined his guest, Mr. Tyrrel;
+a man whose appearance might entitle him to claim something like
+thirty-five years; and whose shrewd and intellectual expression of
+countenance, to which an air of decision was given by what might be
+called an intense eye, denoted a person conversant with the business of
+life; whilst an easy and flexible address no less distinctly announced
+him one habituated to the most polished society. The time of this
+meeting corresponded with that of the interview of Arthur and Mildred,
+beneath the Fawn's Tower.
+
+It is necessary only to premise that these two had frequently conferred
+together, within the last two or three days, upon the subject with which
+they were now engaged.
+
+"Sir Henry Clinton does me too much honor by this confidence," said
+Lindsay. "He overrates my influence amongst the gentlemen of the
+province. Truly, Mr. Tyrrel, I am well persuaded that neither my precept
+nor my example would weigh a feather in the scale against the heady
+course of this rebellion."
+
+"We are seldom competent to judge of the weight of our own influence,"
+said Tyrrel. "I might scarce expect you to speak otherwise than you do.
+But I, who have the opportunity to know, take upon myself to say that
+many gentlemen of note in this province, who are at present constrained
+by the fear of the new government, look with anxiety to you. They repose
+faith in your discretion, and would follow your lead. If an excuse be
+necessary, you might afford them some pretext of pastime to visit the
+Dove Cote. Here you might concert your plan to co-operate with our
+friends in the south."
+
+"Tis a rash thought," replied Lindsay. "This little nook of woodland
+quiet has never yet been disturbed with the debates of men who meditated
+the spilling of blood. God forbid that these peaceful walls should
+hereafter echo back the words that speak of such a purpose."
+
+"It is to spare the shedding of blood, Mr. Lindsay, and to bring speedy
+peace to a distracted country that we invoke you and other friends to
+counsel. A single battle may decide the question of mastery over the
+province. We are well assured that the moment Lord Cornwallis reaches
+the Roanoke"--
+
+"Cornwallis has yet to win the ground he stands upon," interrupted
+Lindsay: "there may be many a deadly blow struck before he slakes his
+thirst in the waters of that river: many a proud head may be low before
+that day."
+
+"Think you, sir," said Tyrrel, rising as he spoke, "that this patched
+and ragged levy--this ague-stricken army that is now creeping through
+the pines of North Carolina, under the command of that pompous
+pretender, Gates, are the men to dispute with his majesty's forces their
+right to any inch of soil they choose to occupy? It will be a merry day
+when we meet them, Mr. Lindsay. We have hitherto delayed our campaign
+until the harvest was gathered: that is now done, and we shall speedily
+bring this hero of Saratoga to his reckoning. Then, following at the
+heels of the runagates, his Lordship, you may be prepared to hear,
+within two months from this day, will be within friendly hail of the
+Dove Cote."
+
+"You speak like a boastful soldier, Mr. Tyrrel. It is not unlikely that
+his lordship may foil Gates and turn him back; such I learn to be the
+apprehension of the more sagacious amongst the continental officers
+themselves; but whether that mischance is to favor your incursion into
+this province may be worth a soberer study than, I doubt, you have given
+the question. The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it
+leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the
+means of these republicans. They have bold partisans in the field, and
+eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well
+with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's-play of war we
+breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since
+marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What
+was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into
+principle, like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and
+then turns into stone. The delusion of republicanism, like all
+delusions, is embraced with more enthusiasm than men ever embrace truth.
+We deem too lightly of these men and their cause, and we have already,
+more than once, suffered for the error. When they expelled Dunmore they
+committed treason against the British crown; and they are wise enough to
+know that that cup, once tasted, must be drained to the bottom: they
+have, therefore, imbrued their hands the deeper in rebellion. They have
+raised their idol of democracy high, and have fenced it about with the
+penalties of confiscation and death to those who refuse to bow before
+it: and now they stand pledged to the prosecution of their unnatural
+war, by such a bond of fate as unites mariners who have rashly ventured
+forth upon a raging sea, in a bark of doubtful strength; their minds
+braced up, by the thought of instant perdition, to the daring effort
+necessary to reach their haven."
+
+"That haven shall they never reach," cried Tyrrel impatiently. "Let them
+invoke the aid of their patron devils! We have a spell shall conjure
+them back again to their own hell, else there is no virtue in the forged
+steel which these rebels have felt before."
+
+"The battle is not always to the strong," said Lindsay, "nor is the
+craft of soldiership without its chances."
+
+"If we had listened, my friend," said Tyrrel, "to musty proverbs,
+Charleston would have this day been in the secure and peaceful
+possession of the enemy. All that you say against our present scheme was
+heretofore urged, though not with such authority, perhaps, against the
+invasion of Carolina. And yet how prettily have we gainsaid the
+prophets! Look at their principal town surrendered--all the country
+strongholds delivered up--the people flocking to our standard for
+protection--and the whole province lifting up a voice of gratitude for
+the deliverance we have wrought them. They are even now arming
+themselves in our behalf, whilst the shattered fragments of the rebel
+force are flying to the swamps and their mountain fastnesses. Why should
+not the same game be as well played in Virginia? Trust me, Mr. Lindsay,
+your caution somewhat over-leaps that wholesome moderation, which I do
+not deny is necessary to check a too sanguine reckoning. Come, good sir,
+lend us a more auspicious counsel. Sir Henry relies much upon your
+wisdom, and will not, with good heart, forego your service."
+
+"Sir Henry has sadly disturbed my repose," returned Lindsay. "To tell
+the truth, I have no stomach for this business. Here, I am native to the
+province: I have found old friends separated from me; early associations
+torn up by the roots; and the elements which fed my strongest personal
+attachments poisoned, by this accursed spirit of revolution. I would
+hide my head from the storm and die in these shades in peace."
+
+"It is not for Mr. Philip Lindsay, nor such as he," replied Tyrrel, "to
+desert his sovereign in his hour of need."
+
+"God forgive me for the thought, Mr. Tyrrel, but it remains yet to be
+proved who most faithfully serve their sovereign; they who counsel
+peace, or they who push war to its fatal extremes. There lives not a man
+within the realm of England, to whom I would yield in devotion to the
+glory of our country. Once make it clear to my judgment that we may hope
+to regain the lost allegiance of this province by the sacrifice of life
+and fortune, and, dearly as I cherish the welfare of those around me, I
+will obey the first summons to the field, and peril this worthless
+existence of mine in bloody fight. Yea, if need be, I will, with my own
+hand, apply the torch to this peaceful abode, and give it over a smoking
+ruin to the cause."
+
+"I know you too well," replied Tyrrel, "to doubt the sincerity of your
+words. But is it not obvious that the war must inevitably tend to this
+field? Having gained the Carolinas, should we turn our backs as soon as
+we have reached the confines of Virginia? On the contrary, does not
+every obligation of honor impel us to maintain and protect our friends
+here? The conquest of Virginia is an easier enterprise than you deem it.
+If the continentals can muster ten thousand men, we, assuredly, may
+double that number, counting our provincials levied in the south. We
+have money and all the means of war, whilst this crippled Congress has
+drained from the people their last groat; their wretched troops will
+disband from mere want of supplies. They may expect no aid from the
+north; for there Sir Henry will furnish them sufficient motive to stay
+at home! We come animated by victories, full of mettle and vigor, they
+meet us broken by defeats, dejected and torn to pieces by mutiny. Never
+did treason or rebellion array itself with more certainty of punishment
+than this!"
+
+"I have read," said Lindsay, "how John Hampden resisted the exaction of
+twenty shillings of ship money, and for that pittance dared the
+displeasure of Charles and his Star Chamber: how he voted the
+impeachment of the judges who were supple enough to warrant the
+imposition: how, in this cause, he drew the sword and threw away the
+scabbard: how he brought Strafford to the block for levying war against
+the commons of England: and through all that disastrous time, have I
+read that Charles promised the cavaliers splendid victories, and derided
+the feeble means of those who were in arms against him; yet Hampden
+shrunk not from the struggle. To me it seems there is a strange
+resemblance between the congress now sitting at Philadelphia and the
+parliament of 1640; and this George Washington might claim kindred with
+John Hampden. I will not seek for further likenesses."
+
+"If I read that history right," replied Tyrrel, "Hampden met his reward
+at Chalgrove, and Cromwell turned his crop-eared parliament out of
+doors. We may, perhaps, find a Chalgrove on this continent;--and Sir
+Henry Clinton will most probably save the wiseacres at Philadelphia from
+the intrusion of an upstart Cromwell."
+
+"It would be too bold in us to count on that, Mr. Tyrrel. I am the enemy
+of these men and their purpose, but I cannot deem otherwise of them than
+as misguided subjects of the king, frenzied by the imagination of
+grievances. They are men of good intellects and honest hearts, misled by
+passion. I would that we could give their tempers time to cool. I would,
+even now, preach moderation and compromise to his majesty's ministers."
+
+"The die is long since cast," said Tyrrel, "and all that remains now is
+to take the hazard of the throw. At this moment, whilst we debate,
+friend and foe are whetting their swords for a deadly encounter on the
+fields of Carolina. It is too late to talk of other arbitrement.
+Assuredly, my good friend, our destiny directs us to this province: and
+the time has come when you must decide what course you will take. It has
+been our earnest wish--Sir Henry's letters, there upon the table,
+anxiously unfold it--to have you up and active in the cause. Why will
+you disappoint so fair a hope?"
+
+"Alas! Mr. Tyrrel,--it is a thorny path you would have me tread. Think
+you I am the man to win my way through these intricacies? I that live in
+the shelter of these woods by sufferance merely--an unmolested outlaw,
+to speak soberly, whom these fanatics of liberty have forborne for the
+sake of past acquaintance and present peaceful habits? Am I not girded
+round about with the hot champions of independence? Look amongst these
+hills--there is not a cabin, not a woodman's hut, no, nor stately
+dwelling, whose roof defends one friend to the royal cause, but my own.
+My lips are sealed; my very thoughts are guarded, lest I give room to
+think I mean to fly from my neutrality. These papers that lie upon that
+table might cost me my life: your presence here, were your purpose
+known, might consign me to captivity or exile:--one random word spoken
+might give me over to the censures of the power that holds its usurped
+domination in the province. What aid may be expected from one so
+guarded, fettered, watched and powerless?"
+
+"And can you patiently," exclaimed Tyrrel, "bow to this oppression? You,
+a native born freeman of the province--a Briton, nursed in the sunny
+light of liberty! Shall your freedom of speech be circumscribed, your
+footsteps be followed by spies and traitors, your very inmost thoughts
+be read and brought up to the censure of the judgment seat? Shall these
+things be, and the blood still continue to run coolly and temperately
+through your veins! There are ills, Mr. Lindsay, which even your calm
+philosophy may not master. But, perhaps, I have mistaken your temper:
+these evidences, at least, shall not put you in peril," he said, as he
+took up the letters from the table and held them over the candle, and
+then threw the flaming mass upon the hearth. "That fear, I hope, is
+removed; and as for my presence here, one word briefly spoken, and it
+shall not longer jeopard your safety."
+
+Lindsay looked fixedly at his companion as he destroyed the papers, and
+then said with a stern emphasis--
+
+"Your duty, sir, is in the field. You have been bred to a profession
+that teaches you blind obedience to orders. It is not your part to weigh
+the right of the cause, nor to falter in the execution of any foul
+purpose of blood, so that it come under the name of honorable warfare.
+Therefore I excuse this unbecoming warmth: but do not presume upon the
+hazardous nature of your calling, and fancy that it implies more
+fidelity to the king than the allegiance of his more peaceful subjects.
+It is a thought unworthy of you that fear of disaster to myself--be it
+ten-fold more imminent than it has yet been--should arrest my step in
+that path where my country's honor, or my sovereign's command, bids me
+advance."
+
+"Worthy and excellent friend," said Tyrrel, taking Lindsay's hand, "I
+have done you wrong. I am rash and headlong in my temper, and my tongue
+often speaks what my heart disavows. I am little better than a boy, Mr.
+Lindsay, and a foolish one; I humbly crave your pardon."
+
+"Speak on," said Lindsay.
+
+"Then briefly this. Your situation is all that you have described it.
+Sir Henry is aware of the trial he imposes upon you. He would have you
+act with the caution which your wisdom dictates; and if it should become
+necessary to speak that word which is to bring the wrath of the rebels
+upon your head, remember there is sanctuary and defence under the broad
+banner of England. Who so welcome there as Philip Lindsay? Even at this
+moment our councils should be tempered by your presence, and it becomes
+almost a patriotic duty to pluck you from the seclusion of the Dove
+Cote, and give you a share in the stirring events of the day. Sir, the
+country has a claim upon your services, scarce compatible with the idle
+contemplation of this momentous trial of strength."
+
+Lindsay had advanced to the window, where he remained looking over the
+moon-lit scene. His companion stood close beside him, and after a short
+interval took his arm, when they stepped forth upon the porch, and
+sauntered backward and forward, as Tyrrel continued,
+
+"The government would not be unmindful of the benefits you might confer.
+There are offices of trust and dignity to be filled in this province
+when it shall be restored to its allegiance. The highest post would not
+be unfitly bestowed, if it should be assigned to you. Sir Henry Clinton
+bids me speak of that, as of a subject that has already occupied his
+thoughts. It would give grace and dignity to our resumed authority, to
+have it illustrated by the accomplished scholar and discreet statesman,
+who has, before this, discharged important and difficult trusts with a
+fidelity that has won all men's esteem. And then, my dear sir," he added
+after a pause, "who may say that it shall not be Sir Philip Lindsay, or
+even something yet higher?--a coronet would not be an honor unsuited
+even to the wilds of Virginia. His majesty is not slow to discern worth,
+nor backward to raise it to its proper station. These are toys and
+baubles to you, Mr. Lindsay, but they are still worth the seeking. You
+have a son to follow you."
+
+"Ah! there, Mr. Tyrrel, you touch me more nearly than you imagine. You
+remind me by this language that I have also a daughter. As to Henry, he
+has a temper and a capacity to make his own way through the world. I
+fear not for him--nor would I seek for honors to add to his name. But my
+Mildred! You know not what emotions the thought of her, in these
+troubles, costs me. Who shall guard and defend her, whilst I pursue this
+waylaid road of ambition? What sanctuary would she find under a
+war-encircled banner, should misfortune assail me, and adversity
+separate us? Alas, alas!--that is the spell that, like a net cast over
+my limbs, makes me feeble and submissive."
+
+"I have not been without my solicitude, Mr. Lindsay, on that subject,"
+said Tyrrel. "You yesterday did me the honor to say that my proposal in
+regard to Miss Lindsay was not distasteful to you. Could my ardent wish
+but be accomplished, she should be placed in safety, assured of ample
+and kind protection. If, haply, her thoughts should incline to a
+favorable reception of my offer, which I would fain persuade myself her
+reverence for you may render not altogether improbable, when she knows
+that you deem well of my suit, we might remove her to Charleston, where,
+secure amidst assiduous friends, she would pass the brief interval of
+alarm, and leave you free to act on this theatre as your honor and duty
+may impel you."
+
+"Mildred will not leave me," said Lindsay; "my dear daughter would
+suffer a thousand deaths in the anxiety of such a separation."
+
+"Then why not accompany her to Charleston?" asked Tyrrel. "Your presence
+there would be equally efficient as at head-quarters--perhaps more so."
+
+"There are other obstacles, Mr. Tyrrel. You talk of Mildred as if her
+heart were to be disposed of at my bidding. You do not know her. I have
+long struggled to subdue an attachment that has bound her to our worst
+enemy, I fear with little success. I have trusted to time to wear out
+what I deemed a mere girlish liking; but it seems to me the traces fade
+but slowly from her heart."
+
+"I know of whom you speak," said Tyrrel--"that harebrained enthusiast
+Butler. It is a freakish and transient passion, and cannot but fall into
+forgetfulness. Miss Lindsay has from circumstances been but little
+conversant with the world, and, like an inexperienced girl, has fostered
+in solitude a romantic affection. That alone should be a motive to
+remove her into a busier scene. Besides, this Butler will be himself
+forced to give over his hopeless aim--if he has not done so before this:
+measures are already taken, and I do not scruple to tell you, at my
+instance--to confiscate his lands in Carolina to his majesty's use. The
+close of this war will find him penniless, and not unlikely, my dear
+sir, I myself may be the possessor of his inheritance--I have some
+pledge of the preemption of these lands at a small fee."
+
+"It will win you no favor with Mildred," said Lindsay, "to tell her that
+you succeed by such a title to this man's wealth. She is a wayward girl,
+and is not used to crosses. Her devotion to her purpose, as it sometimes
+excites my admiration, gives me, in the present case, cause of profound
+alarm."
+
+"You have spoken to her on this subject?"
+
+"I have not," replied Lindsay, "and almost fear to broach it. I can,
+therefore, give you no encouragement. Some little time hence--perhaps
+to-morrow--I may sound her feelings. But remember, as her father, I
+claim no right beyond that of advice. I shall think myself fortunate if,
+by giving a new direction to the current of her affections, I can divert
+her mind from the thoughts of an alliance to me the most hateful--to her
+full of future misery. A maiden's fancies are scarcely intelligible even
+to a father."
+
+"These subjects require meditation," said Tyrrel. "I will not press them
+further upon your thoughts to-night."
+
+"Heaven guide us in the way of safety and happiness!" said Lindsay,
+almost in a whisper. "Good night, my friend."
+
+When Tyrrel was left alone he strolled forward to the terrace, and
+passing round to that end which overhung the cliff, near the door that
+opened from the library, he leaned his breast upon the parapet and
+looked down upon the wild and beautiful scenery of the valley. The
+night was calm and full of splendor. The tops of the trees that grew in
+the ravine, almost perpendicularly beneath his eye, here and there
+caught the bright moon-beam where it glowed like silver, and the shades,
+rendered deeper by the contrast, seemed to brood over a black and
+impenetrable abyss. Occasional glimpses were seen of the river below, as
+it sparkled along such portions of its channel as were not hidden in
+darkness. The coolness of the hour and the solitude of the spot were not
+ungrateful to the mood of Tyrrel's mind, whilst the monotonous music of
+the river fell pleasantly upon his ear. He was not unheedful of these
+charms in the scene, though his thoughts were busily employed with a
+subject foreign to their contemplation.
+
+"Have I advanced," was the tenor of his present self-communion, "the
+purpose I have so much at heart, by this night's conference? Could I but
+engage Lindsay in the issues of this war, so commit him in its purposes
+and its plots as to render his further residence at the Dove Cote
+insecure, then would I already have half-compassed my point. Where could
+he remove but to Charleston? And there, amidst the blandishments of
+friends and the allurements of gay society, I might make sure of
+Mildred. There, cut off from all means of hearing of this Butler, and
+swayed, as she must necessarily be, by the current of loyal feelings,
+she would learn to detest his foul rebellion, and soon lose her favor
+for the rebel. Then, too, the confiscation of his lands--but I am not so
+sure of that!--she is rich and would make a merit of sharing her fortune
+with a man whose brave resistance of oppression--for so, doubtless,
+Butler persuades her it is--has cost him his wealth: the confiscation
+should not seem, at least, to be my doing. Well, well, let her be
+brought to Charleston. Any change were better than to remain here, where
+anxiety and suspense and solitude nurse and soften her woman's
+affections, and teach her to fancy her lover whatsoever her imagination
+delights to think on. Then may not the chances of war assist me? This
+Butler, all men say, is brave and adventurous. He should be short-lived.
+Whatever ill may befall him cannot but work good to me. Yet Lindsay has
+such a sickly caution--such scruple against involving himself in the
+scheme--I could almost find it in my heart to have it told amongst his
+neighbors that he is in correspondence with the enemy. Ha, that would be
+a bright device!--inform against myself! No, no, I will not abuse his
+generous nature. Let him come fairly into the fold, and I will guard
+his gentle lambkin like a very shepherd. Then if we make him governor of
+the province--that will work well. Mildred will thank me for my zeal in
+that good purpose, at least, and I will marry her and possess her
+estate, if it be only to enable her to be grateful to me. 'Twill be a
+brave reward, and bravely shall it be won."
+
+As Tyrrel ruminated over these topics, in the strain indicated by this
+sketch, the noise of footsteps ascending the rugged stairway of the
+cliff, and the opening of the iron wicket, but a short distance from
+where he leaned over the parapet, roused his attention, and put an end
+to this insidious and selfish communion with his own heart.
+
+The cause of this interruption was soon apparent. Henry and Mildred
+entered through the gate, and hurried along the path to that part of the
+terrace where Tyrrel stood. The shade of the house concealed him from
+their view until they were within a few paces. "Ha, Miss Lindsay! You
+are a late rambler," he said, in a tone of gallantry. "The dampness of
+the valley, at this hour, is not altogether safe; the ague is a sore
+enemy to romance; beware of it."
+
+"I am not afraid of the night," replied Mildred, as she increased the
+rapidity of her gait; then, turning immediately upon the porch, she
+almost ran, leaving Henry and Tyrrel in pursuit, until she reached the
+farthest window which was heard descending the moment she passed through
+it into the parlor. When Tyrrel and Henry entered the same apartment,
+she had disappeared.
+
+"My sister is not well this evening," said Henry. "We strolled too late
+upon the river bank."
+
+"It was still an over-hasty retreat," muttered Tyrrel to himself. "It
+bodes not well for me. I will wager, Henry," he said, raising his voice,
+"that I can guess what you and your sister have been talking about."
+
+"Let me hear," said Henry.
+
+"First," replied Tyrrel, "she repeated some verses from Shakspeare about
+the moonlight sleeping on the bank--this is just the night for
+poetry--and then you both fell to talking sentiment, and then, I'll be
+bound, you had a ghost story, and by that time, you found you had got
+too far from the house and were a little frightened, and so came back as
+fast as you could."
+
+"You are wrong," said Henry. "I have been telling sister Mildred how to
+bob for eels. Did you know that an eel will never pass a streak of
+moonlight for fear of being found out by the watchers?"
+
+"Indeed I did not."
+
+"Well, sister Mildred is wiser than you are; and as I have taught you
+that, I will go to bed."
+
+Tyrrel was again left to resume his meditations, and to hatch his plots
+for invading the peace of the Dove Cote, on his pillow. To that
+sleepless pillow he now betook himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+TYRREL RETREATS.
+
+
+The next morning Tyrrel rose with the sun. He had passed a restless
+night, and now sought refreshment in the early breeze. With this purpose
+he descended to the river, and strayed along the dewy pathway which
+crept through the shrubbery on the right bank in the direction of the
+Fawn's Tower. He had not wandered far before he perceived a horseman
+moving along the road upon the opposite side.
+
+"Halloo, James Curry!--which way?--What news have you?"
+
+"I seek you, sir, I was on my way to the Dove Cote," replied the
+horseman, who at the same time turned his horse's head to the river,
+and, spurring the animal forward, plunged into the stream which was here
+still and deep enough to reach above his saddle flaps. After some
+floundering, the horse and rider gained the margin, where Tyrrel awaited
+them! The vigor of the animal, as well as the practised hand that held
+the rein, was shown in the boldness of the attempt to climb the steep
+bank and break through the briers and bushes that here guarded it. As
+soon as Curry reached the level ground, he dismounted.
+
+"In God's name, man, what is the matter with your face?" asked Tyrrel.
+
+"It is of that, amongst other things, that I came to speak to you," was
+the reply; "I have news for you."
+
+"Speak, without prelude. Tell me."
+
+"Major Butler slept last night at Mrs. Dimock's."
+
+"And is there still?"
+
+"No, sir. He started at early dawn this morning."
+
+"To join Gates?"
+
+"I think not. He talked of going to Ninety-Six--perhaps to Georgia."
+
+"So, ho! The hawk hovers over that field! Does he travel alone?"
+
+"He has a giant in his company, a great ploughman by the name of Horse
+Shoe Robinson. A quarrelsome rascal; he would needs pick a quarrel with
+me last night. And in the skirmish I got this face."
+
+"Did I not command you to bear yourself peaceably? Fool! will you risk
+our lives with your infernal broils? Now, I would wager you told the
+fellow your name."
+
+"Little need of that, sir. He told it to me: said he knew me before. The
+fellow, for all his rough coat, is a regular trained soldier in the
+rebel service, and has met me somewhere--Heaven knows!--I don't remember
+him; yet he isn't a man to see once and forget again."
+
+"And me, did he speak of me?"
+
+"He knew that I was in the employ of an English gentleman who was here
+at the Dove Cote. I have nothing especial to complain of in the man. He
+speaks soldierly enough; he said he would take no advantage of me for
+being here as long as our visit was peaceable."
+
+"Humph! And you believed him. And you must fight with him, like a
+brawling knave. When will you get an ounce of wit into that fool's head!
+What time of day was it when this Butler arrived?"
+
+"Long after night-fall."
+
+"Did you understand any thing of the purpose of his visit?"
+
+"He talked much with Mistress Dimock, and I think their conversation
+related to the lady at the Dove Cote. I could hear but a few scattered
+words."
+
+"Away.--Here (throwing his purse to the horseman), pay up your score at
+the inn, and at your greatest haste attend me on the river bank,
+immediately below Mr. Lindsay's house. Ask Mrs. Dimock to have a
+breakfast prepared for me.--Away, I will expect you in half an hour."
+
+Curry mounted his horse, and choosing a more convenient ford than that
+which he had passed (for the jutting rocks, on this side, prevented his
+reaching Mrs. Dimock's without recrossing the river to the road), he
+soon regained the track, and was seen, almost at high speed, sweeping
+around the base of the Fawn's Tower.
+
+Tyrrel returned hastily to the Dove Cote, and, seeking his valet, gave
+orders to have his portmanteau packed, his horse saddled and to be in
+waiting for him at the foot of the hill. These commands were speedily
+obeyed, and everything was in readiness for his journey before any of
+the family had made their appearance in the breakfast room.
+
+Whilst Tyrrel meditated writing a line to explain to Lindsay his present
+sudden movement, and had drawn near a table for that purpose, he was
+saluted by the voice of Henry, who had entered the apartment, and stolen
+unobserved almost immediately behind his chair.
+
+"Booted and spurred, Mr. Tyrrel!" said Henry. "You are for a ride. Will
+you take a fowling-piece? There are pheasants over upon the hills."
+
+"Oh, ho! Master Henry, you are up! I am glad of it. I was just writing a
+word to say that business calls me away this morning. Is your father yet
+abed?"
+
+"He is sound asleep," said Henry; "I will wake him."
+
+"No, my lad. You must not do that. Say I have received news this morning
+that has called me suddenly to my friends. I will return before long. Is
+your sister stirring?"
+
+"She was in the garden but a moment since," replied Henry; and the young
+man left the room, to which he returned after a short space. "Sister
+Mildred is engaged in her chamber, and begs you will excuse her," said
+he, as he again entered the door.
+
+"Tush, Henry, I didn't tell you to interrupt your sister. Make her my
+most respectful adieu. Don't forget it. I have all my way to win," he
+said to himself, "and a rough road to travel, I fear."
+
+Tyrrel now left the house and descended to the river, accompanied by
+Henry, who sought in vain to know why he departed in such haste as not
+to stay for breakfast. James Curry waited below; and, when Henry saw his
+father's guest mount in his saddle and cross the ford, attended by his
+two servants, he turned about and clambered up the hill again, half
+singing and half saying to him self,--"I'm glad he's gone, I'm glad he's
+gone," accompanied with a trolling chorus, expressive of the
+satisfaction of his feelings at the moment. "He'd a got a flea in his
+ear, if he had stay'd. I should like to know what Major Butler would say
+to Mr. Tyrrel, if he was to meet him. Zooks! may be Butler will see him
+this very morning at Mrs. Dimock's. Now, I wonder! Shall I whisper that
+to sister Mildred? She would be glad, for one, I'll be bound! May be,
+they might have a fight. And if they do, let Mr. Tyrrel look out! He
+never had his bread so buttered in his life, as it would be then."
+
+In such a strain of cogitation and conjecture, Henry reached the parlor,
+where he found Mildred. The melancholy that hung upon her spirits, the
+evening before, seemed to have been dispelled by the repose of the
+night, and was doubtless relieved, in part, by the intelligence that
+Tyrrel had quitted the Dove Cote.
+
+"Come, sister," said Henry, throwing his arm round her waist, and almost
+dancing, as he forced her through the open window, "come, it will be a
+good while before father is ready for his breakfast. Let us look at your
+flowers; I have something to tell you."
+
+"You are quite an important personage, this morning," replied Mildred,
+moving off towards the lawn with her brother. "Your face looks as wise
+as a book of proverbs."
+
+It was some time before the brother and sister returned to the parlor,
+and when they did so, their father had not yet appeared. The delay was
+unusual; for Lindsay generally rose at an early hour, and frequently
+walked abroad before his morning meal. When he at last entered the room,
+there was an expression of care and thought upon his brow that made him
+haggard. Mildred, as was her custom, approached him with a kiss, and,
+taking both of his hands, as she looked up in his face, she said, with
+some earnestness:
+
+"You are not well, my dear father."
+
+Lindsay paused a moment, while he gazed affectionately upon her, and
+then pressing her to his bosom, uttered in a low voice, with a smile,--
+
+"God bless my dear child! How carefully does she read my looks! Come
+hither, Henry," he continued, as he gave his son one hand, and still
+held Mildred with the other, and then turned his eyes alternately upon
+each. "Now, tell me, which of you love me best? Who has waited most
+patiently for me this morning? I see by that glance of your blue eye,
+master Henry, that you have been chiding your lazy father for lying so
+long abed. Now, I dare say, if the truth were known, you have had your
+rifle ready to go out and shoot squirrels an hour ago. I beg your
+pardon, Mr. Sportsman--not to shoot the squirrel, but to shoot at him.
+Or, perhaps, you mean to bring us a deer to-day; you know you have
+promised to do that every morning for a week."
+
+"You shall eat a slice from as fine a saddle of venison to-day, father,
+as you ever saw smoke over a chafing-dish."
+
+"In good truth, shall I, boy? You are a brave promiser! You remember
+your own adage,--Brag was a good dog, but Holdfast was better."
+
+"In right down earnest, father, you shall. You needn't laugh. Now,
+you're thinking I have the deer to shoot; there's your mistake. The
+saddle is this minute lying on the dresser in the kitchen. He was a
+running buck yesterday; and I could tell where the powder and ball came
+from (here Henry made the motion of opening a hunting pouch at his side)
+that put an end to his capers."
+
+"He is a monstrous braggart; is he not, Mildred?" said Lindsay,
+directing a look of incredulity at his daughter.
+
+"What Henry tells you is true," replied Mildred. "Stephen Foster was
+here at sunrise with a part of a buck, which he says was shot
+yesterday."
+
+"Indeed! Then it is to Stephen's rifle we are indebted. You kill your
+bucks by proxy, master."
+
+"I'll bet," said Henry, "that Stephen Foster hasn't the impudence to
+charge one penny for that venison. And why? Because, by the laws of
+chace, one-half belongs to me."
+
+"Oh, I understand," interrupted Lindsay, with affected gravity; "it is a
+matter of great doubt which of you shot it. You both fired at once; or,
+perhaps, Stephen first, and you afterwards; and the poor animal dropped
+the moment you took your aim,--even before your piece went off. You know
+your aim, Harry, is deadly,--much worse than your bullet."
+
+"There is no doubt who killed him," said Henry; "for Stephen was on that
+side of the hill, and I was a little below him, and the buck ran right
+to Stephen, who, of course, gave him the first shot. But there was I,
+father, just ready, if Stephen had missed, to bring old Velvet-Horns to
+the ground, before he could have leaped a rod."
+
+"But, unluckily, Stephen's first shot killed him?"
+
+"I don't know that," replied Henry. "Another person's knife might have
+done the business; for the deer jumped down the bank into the road, and
+there"--
+
+Mildred cast a sidelong look of caution at her brother, to warn him
+against alluding to a third person, whom it was not discreet to mention.
+
+"And there," said Henry, taking the sign, "when I got up to him he was
+stone dead. I would almost think a deer couldn't be shot dead so
+suddenly. But Stephen can pitch his lead, as he calls it, just where he
+likes."
+
+"Well, it isn't fair to inquire who killed him," said Lindsay. "One
+hunter often turns the game to the other's rifle. And, at all events,
+your dogs, Henry, I dare say, did as much as either of you."
+
+"Hylas was just at his heels when he was shot," replied Henry; "and a
+better dog there isn't in Amherst, or Albemarle to boot."
+
+"Well, well! Let us to breakfast. Where is our guest? Tyrrel is surely
+out before this."
+
+"He has been gone from the Dove Cote more than an hour," said Henry. "He
+told me to say, that some sudden news took him off in haste. I would
+have waked you, but he forbade it. His man, Curry, who was waiting for
+him at the ford, I dare say, brought him some dispatches."
+
+"It was very sudden," said Lindsay, musing; "the great game will be
+shortly played."
+
+"My dear father, you have not your usual look of health," said Mildred
+again. "I fear something disturbs you."
+
+"A slight cold, only, from exposure to the night air, perhaps. You did
+not see Tyrrel this morning, Mildred?"
+
+"I did not wish to see him, father. I was up when he set out, but I was
+not in his way."
+
+"Fie, girl, you almost speak crossly! Tyrrel, I must think, is not a man
+to win his way with ladies. But he is a loyal subject to his king. I can
+tell you, Mildred, loyalty is a virtue of good associations in these
+times."
+
+"It is the last virtue, my dear father, that a woman ever writes down in
+the list of noble qualities. We generally forget it altogether. History
+is so full of the glory of disloyal heroes, that the indiscriminate and
+persevering loyalty of brave men has come to be but little noticed.
+Brutus was disloyal, and so was Tell; and the English barons, of whom
+you boast so much, when you call them sturdy, were disloyal; and
+Washington--who knows, my dear father, but that he may be written down
+by some future nation, (and she laid an emphasis on this word,) as
+another name to give credit to this word, disloyal."
+
+"Thou art a shrewd orator, Mildred," exclaimed her father, as he sought
+to change the subject, "and I doubt not, if Heaven had made you man, you
+would now be flattering these rebels by persuading them they were all
+born for heroes. We may thank the gods that they have given you the
+petticoat instead of the soldier's cloak, and placed you at the head of
+a breakfast table instead of a regiment."
+
+"I do not think," replied Mildred smiling, "that I should altogether
+disgrace the cloak now, woman as I am, if the occasion required me to
+put it on."
+
+"Pray drop this subject, my dear child; you know it makes me sad. My
+family, I fear, are foredoomed to some strange mishap from these civil
+broils. Attend me presently in the library, I have matters to
+communicate that concern you. Henry, my boy," Lindsay continued, as he
+rose from his breakfast, "pay Stephen Foster the full value of the
+venison; as a sportsman you have a right perhaps to your share of the
+game, but a gentleman shows his courtesy by waiving such claims; he
+should suffer no friend to be his creditor, even in opinion. Stephen may
+not expect to be paid; no matter, it concerns your own character to be
+liberal."
+
+"I have promised Stephen a new rifle," replied Henry; "since they have
+elected him lieutenant of the Amherst Rangers he wants something better
+than his old deer gun."
+
+"I positively forbid it," interrupted Lindsay hastily, returning towards
+the middle of the room from the door through which he was about to
+depart. "What! would you purchase weapons for those clowns to enable
+them to shoot down his majesty's liege subjects? to make war upon their
+rightful king, against his laws and throne? to threaten your life, your
+sister's and mine, unless we bowed to this impious idol of democracy,
+which they have set up--this Washington?"
+
+"My dear, dear father," interposed Mildred as she came up to him and
+flung her arms about his neck. "Consider, Henry is a thoughtless boy,
+and does not look to consequences."
+
+"Heaven bless you both, my children! I beg your pardons. I am over
+captious. Henry, pay Stephen for the venison, and give him something
+better than a rifle. Mildred, I will see you presently."
+
+When Lindsay had left the parlor Mildred besought her brother, in the
+most earnest terms, to be more guarded against giving expression to any
+sentiment which might bring their father's thoughts to the existing war.
+Her own observation had informed her of the nature of the struggle that
+agitated his mind, and her effort was continually directed to calm and
+soothe his feelings by the most unremitting affection, and thus to
+foster his resolution against taking any part in those schemes in which,
+she shrewdly guessed, it was the purpose of the emissaries of the royal
+party to involve him.
+
+Her attachment to Arthur Butler she feared to mention to her father,
+whilst her self-respect and her conviction of her duty to a parent who
+loved her with unbounded devotion, would not allow her altogether to
+conceal it. Upon this subject, Lindsay had sufficiently read her heart
+to know much more about it than she chose to confess; and it did not
+fail to kindle up in his mind a feverish excitement, that occasionally
+broke forth in even a petulant reproof, and to furnish the only occasion
+that had ever arisen of serious displeasure against his daughter. The
+unhappy association between this incident in the life of Mildred, and
+the current of a feeling which had its foundation in a weak piece of
+superstition, to which I have alluded in a former chapter, gave to the
+idea of Mildred's marriage with Butler a fatal complexion in Lindsay's
+thoughts. "For what purpose," he asked himself, "but to avert this
+ill-omened event could I have had such an extraordinary warning?" It had
+occurred to him that the surest method of protecting his family against
+this misfortune would be to throw Mildred into other associations, and
+encourage the growth of other attachments, such as might be expected to
+grow up in her heart out of the kindness of new friendships. He had even
+meditated removing her to England, but that plan became so repulsive to
+him when he found the mention of it distasteful to his children, and it
+suited so little his own fondness for the retirement he had already
+cultivated, that he had abandoned it almost as soon as it occurred to
+him. His next alternative was to favor--though he did so with no great
+zeal--the proposal lately made by Tyrrel. He little knew the character
+of the woman he had to deal with. Never was more devotion enshrined in a
+woman's heart than in Mildred's. Never was more fixed and steady purpose
+to encounter all hazards and hold cheap all dangers more deeply rooted
+in man's or woman's resolution, than was Mildred's to cherish the love
+and follow the fortunes of Arthur Butler.
+
+This conflict between love and filial duty sadly perplexed the
+daughter's peace; and not less disturbing was the strife between
+parental affection and the supposed mandate of fate, in the breast of
+the father.
+
+Henry protested his sorrow for his recent indiscretion and promised more
+caution for the future, and then recurring to what more immediately
+concerned his sister's interest, he said, "I do much wonder what
+Tyrrel's man had to say this morning; it took our good gentleman away so
+suddenly. I can't help thinking it has something to do with Butler and
+Horse Shoe. They must have been seen by Curry at Mrs. Dimock's, and old
+Tony knows the major very well, and has told his name. Besides, do you
+know, sister, I think Curry is a spy? Else, why should he be left at
+Mrs. Dimock's always? There was room enough here for both of Mr.
+Tyrrel's servants. I have a thought that I will reconnoitre: I will ride
+over to the Blue Ball, and see what I can learn."
+
+"Do, my good brother," replied Mildred, "and in the meantime I must go
+to my father, who has something disagreeable to tell me--so I
+fear--concerning that busy plotter who has just left us. My spirits grow
+heavy at the thought of it. Ah, Henry, if I could but speak out, and
+unpack my heart, what a load would I throw off! How does it grieve me to
+have a secret that I dare not tell my dear father! Thank heaven,
+brother, your heart and mine have not yet had a secret that they could
+not whisper to each other!"
+
+"Give care the whip, sister," said Henry, like a young gallant, "it
+belongs to the bat family and should not fly in day-time. Farewell for
+the next two hours!" and saying these words the sprightly youth kissed
+his hand, and, with an alert step, left the room.
+
+Mildred now retired to prepare for the interview with her father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A SCENE BETWEEN A FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
+
+
+When Mildred entered the library Lindsay was already there. He stood
+before one of the ranges of book shelves, and held a volume in his hand
+which, for a moment after his daughter's entrance, seemed to engross his
+attention. Mildred was sufficiently astute to perceive that by this
+device he struggled to compose his mind for an interview of which she
+more than guessed the import. She was of a constitution not easily to be
+driven from her self-possession; but the consciousness of her father's
+embarrassment, and some perplexity in her own feelings at this moment,
+produced by a sense of the difficult part she had to perform, slightly
+discomposed her; there was something like alarm in her step, and also in
+the expression of her features, as she almost stealthily seated herself
+in one of the large lounging chairs. For a moment she unconsciously
+employed herself in stripping a little flower that she held in her hand
+of its leaves, and looked silently upon the floor; at length, in a low
+accent, she said, "Father, I am here at your bidding." Lindsay turned
+quickly round, and, throwing down the volume he had been perusing,
+approached his daughter with a smile that seemed rather unnaturally to
+play over his grave and almost melancholy countenance, and it was with a
+forced attempt at pleasantry he said, as he took her hand:--
+
+"Now, I dare say, you think you have done something very wrong, and that
+I have brought you here to give you a lecture."
+
+"I hope, father, I have done nothing wrong," was Mildred's grave and
+almost tremulous reply.
+
+"Thou art a good child, Mildred," said Lindsay, drawing a chair close
+beside hers, and then, in a more serious tone, he continued, "you are
+entirely sure, my daughter, that I love you, and devoutly seek your
+happiness?"
+
+"Dear father, you frighten me by this solemn air. Why ask me such a
+question?"
+
+"Pardon me, my girl, but my feelings are full with subjects of serious
+import, and I would have you believe that what I have now to say springs
+from an earnest solicitude for your welfare."
+
+"You have always shown it, father."
+
+"I come to speak to you, without reserve, of Tyrrel," resumed Lindsay;
+"and you will not respond to my confidence, unless you answer me in the
+very truth of your heart. This gentleman, Mr. Tyrrel, has twice avowed
+to me of late an earnest attachment to you, and has sought my leave to
+prosecute his suit. Such things are not apt to escape a woman's notice,
+and you have doubtless had some hint of his predilection before he
+disclosed it to me."
+
+All the woman's bashfulness disappeared with this announcement. Mildred
+grew erect in her seat, and as the native pride of her character beamed
+forth from every feature of her face, she replied--
+
+"He has never, father, vouchsafed to give me such a proof of his good
+opinion. Mr. Tyrrel is content to make his bargain with you: he is well
+aware that whatever hope he may be idle enough to cherish, must depend
+more on your command than on my regard."
+
+"He has never spoken to you, Mildred?" asked Lindsay, without making any
+comment on the indignant reception his daughter had given to his
+disclosure. "Never a word? Bethink you, my daughter, of all that has
+lately passed between you. A maiden is apt to misconstrue attentions.
+Can you remember nothing beyond the mere civilities of custom?"
+
+"I can think of nothing in the conduct of Mr. Tyrrel but his devotion to
+the purpose of embroiling my dear father in his miserable politics. I
+can remember nothing of him but his low voice and noiseless step, his
+mysterious insinuations, his midnight sittings, his fulsome flattery of
+your services in the royal cause, the base means by which he has robbed
+you of your rest and taken the color from your cheek. I thought him too
+busy in distracting your peace to cast a thought upon me. But to speak
+to me, father, of attachment," she said, rising and taking a station so
+near Lindsay's chair as to be able to lean her arm upon his shoulder,
+"to breathe one word of a wish to win my esteem, that he dared not do."
+
+"You speak under the impulse of some unnecessarily excited feeling,
+daughter. You apply terms and impute motives that sound too harsh from
+your lips, when the subject of them is a brave and faithful gentleman.
+Mr. Tyrrel deserves nothing at our hands but kindness."
+
+"Alas, my dear father, alas, that you should think so!"
+
+"What have you discovered, Mildred, or heard, that you should deem so
+injuriously of this man? Who has conjured up this unreasonable aversion
+in your mind against him?"
+
+"I am indebted to no sources of information but my own senses," replied
+Mildred; "I want no monitor to tell me that he is not to be trusted. He
+is not what he seems."
+
+"True, he is not what he seems, but better. Tyrrel appears here but as a
+simple gentleman, wearing, for obvious reasons, an assumed name. The
+letters he has brought me avouch him to be a man of rank and family,
+high in the confidence of the officers of the king, and holding a
+reputable commission in the army: a man of note, worthy to be trusted
+with grave enterprises, distinguished for sagacity, bravery, and honor,
+of moral virtues which would dignify any station, and, as you cannot but
+acknowledge from your own observation, filled with the courtesy and
+grace of a gentleman. Fie, daughter! it is sinful to derogate from the
+character of an honorable man."
+
+"Wearing an assumed name, father, and acting a part, here, at the Dove
+Cote! Is it necessary for his purpose that, under this roof, he should
+appear in masquerade? May I know whether he treats with you for my hand
+in his real or assumed character--does he permit me to know who he is?"
+
+"All in good time, Mildred. Content you, girl, that he has sufficiently
+certified himself to me. These are perilous times, and Tyrrel is obliged
+to practise much address to find his way along our roads. You are aware
+it would not be discreet to have him known even to our servants. But the
+time will come when you shall know him as himself, and then, if I
+mistake not, your generous nature will be ashamed to have wronged him by
+unworthy suspicions."
+
+"Believe me, father," exclaimed Mildred, rising to a tone of animation
+that awakened the natural eloquence of her feelings, and gave them vent
+in language which more resembled the display of a practised orator than
+the declamation of a girl, "believe me, he imposes on you. His purposes
+are intensely selfish. If he has obtained an authority to treat with you
+or others under an assumed name, it has only been to further his
+personal ends. Already has he succeeded in plunging you, against your
+will, into the depth of this quarrel. Your time, my dear father, which
+once glided as softly and as happily as yon sparkling waters through our
+valley, is now consumed in deliberations that wear out your spirits:
+your books are abandoned for the study of secret schemes of politics:
+you are perplexed and anxious at every account that reaches us of
+victory or defeat. It was not so, until you saw Tyrrel: your nights,
+that once knew a long and healthful sleep, are now divided by short and
+unrefreshing slumbers: you complain of unpleasant dreams and you
+foretell some constantly coming disaster. Indeed, dearest father, you
+are not what you were. You wrong yourself by these cares, and you do not
+know how anxiously my brother Henry and myself watch, in secret, this
+unhappy change in your nature. How can I think with patience of this
+Tyrrel when I see these things?"
+
+"The times, Mildred, leave me no choice. When a nation struggles to
+throw off the rule of lawful authority, the friends of peace and order
+should remember that the riotous passions of the refractory people are
+not to be subdued without personal sacrifices."
+
+"You promised yourself, father, here at the Dove Cote to live beyond the
+sphere of these excitements. And, as I well remember, you often, as the
+war raged, threw yourself upon your knees, and taught us,--your
+children,--to kneel by your side, and we put up our joint expressions of
+gratitude to God, that, at least, this little asylum was undisturbed by
+the angry passions of man."
+
+"We did, we did, my dearest child. But I should think it sinful to pray
+for the same quiet when my services might be useful to restore harmony
+to a distracted and misguided country."
+
+"Do you now think," asked Mildred, "that your efforts are or can be of
+any avail to produce peace?"
+
+"The blessing of heaven has descended upon the arms of our sovereign,"
+replied Lindsay. "The southern provinces are subdued, and are fast
+returning to their allegiance. The hopes of England brighten, and a
+speedy close of this unnatural rebellion is at hand."
+
+"There are many valleys, father, amongst these mountains, and the wide
+forests shade a solitude where large and populous nations may be hid
+almost from human search. They who possess the valleys and the
+wilderness, I have heard it said by wise men, will for ever choose their
+own rulers."
+
+"Mildred, you are a dutiful daughter, and are not wont to oppose your
+father's wishes. I could desire to see you, with that shrewd
+apprehension of yours, that quick insight, and that thoughtful mind,
+thoughtful beyond the quality of your sex, less favorably bent towards
+the enterprise of these rebel subjects. I do utterly loathe them and
+their cause, and could wish that child of mine abated in no one jot of
+my aversion to them."
+
+"Heaven, father, and your good tutoring have made me what I am,"
+returned Mildred, calmly; "I am but a woman, and speak with a weak
+judgment and little knowledge. To my unlearned mind it seems that the
+government of every nation should be what the people wish it. There are
+good men here, father, amongst your friends--men, who, I am sure, have
+all kindness in their hearts, who say that this country his suffered
+grievous wrongs from the insolence of the king's representatives. They
+have proclaimed this in a paper which I have heard even you say was
+temperate and thoughtful: and you know nearly the whole land has roused
+itself to say that paper was good. Can so many men be wrong?"
+
+"You are a girl," replied Lindsay, "and a subtile one: you are tainted
+with the common heresy. But what else might I expect! There are few
+_men_ who can think out of fashion. When the multitude is supposed to
+speak, that is warrant enough for the opinions of the majority. But it
+is no matter, this is not a woman's theme, and is foreign to our present
+conference. I came to talk with you about Tyrrel. Upon that subject I
+will use no persuasions, express no wish, not in the slightest point
+essay to influence your choice. When he disclosed his purpose to me, I
+told him it was a question solely at your disposal. Thus much it is my
+duty to say, that should his suit be favored"--
+
+"From the bottom of my heart, father," interrupted Mildred eagerly, and
+with increasing earnestness, "I abhor the thought. Be assured that if
+age, poverty, and deformity were showered upon me at once, if friends
+abandoned me, if my reason were blighted, and I was doomed to wander
+barefooted amongst thorns and briers, I would not exchange that lot, to
+be his wife amidst ten-fold his honors and wealth. I never can listen to
+his hateful proposal: there is that in my condition which would make it
+wicked. Pray, dearest father, as you love your daughter, do not speak of
+it to me again."
+
+"Resume your calmness, child: your earnestness on this subject afflicts
+me; it has a fearful omen in it. It tells of a heart fatally devoted to
+one whom, of all men, I have greatest reason to hate. This unhappy,
+lingering passion for the sworn enemy of his king and country, little
+becomes my daughter, or her regard for me. It may rouse me, Mildred, to
+some unkind wish against thee. Oh, I could curse myself that I ever
+threw you in the way of this insidious rebel, Butler. Nay you need not
+conceal your tears; well do they deserve to flow for this persevering
+transgression against the peace of your father's house. It requires but
+little skill to read the whole history of your heart."
+
+Lindsay now walked to and fro across the apartment, under the influence
+of emotions which he was afraid to trust himself to utter. At length
+resuming his expostulation, in a somewhat moderate tone, he continued:
+
+"Will no lapse of time wear away this abhorred image from your memory?
+Are you madly bent on bringing down misery on your head? I do not speak
+of my own suffering. Will you for ever nurse a hopeless attachment for a
+man whom, it must be apparent to yourself, you can never meet again?
+Whom if the perils of the field, the avenging bullet of some loyal
+subject, do not bring him merited punishment, the halter may reward, or,
+in his most fortunate destiny, disgrace, poverty, and shame pursue. Are
+you for ever to love that man?"
+
+Mildred stood before her father as he brought this appeal to a close;
+her eyes filled with tears, her breast heaving as if it would burst; and
+summoning up all her courage for her reply, when this last question was
+asked, she looked with an expression of almost angry defiance in his
+face, as she answered "For ever, for ever," and hastily left the room.
+
+The firm tone in which Mildred spoke these last words, her proud and
+almost haughty bearing, so unlike anything Lindsay had ever seen before,
+and her abrupt departure from his presence, gave a check to the current
+of his thoughts that raised the most painful emotions. For an instant a
+blush of resentment rose into his cheeks, and he felt tempted to call
+his daughter back that he might express this sentiment: it was but of a
+moment's duration, however, and grief, at what he felt was the first
+altercation he had ever had with his child, succeeded, and stifled all
+other emotions. He flung himself into the chair, and, dropping his
+forehead upon his hand, gave way to the full tide of his feelings. His
+spirits gradually became more composed, and he was able to survey with a
+somewhat temperate judgment the scene that had just passed. His manner,
+he thought, might have been too peremptory--perhaps it was harsh, and
+had offended his daughter's pride: he should have been more conciliatory
+in his speech. "The old," he said, "are not fit counsellors to the
+young; we forget the warmth of their passions, and would reason when
+they only feel. How small a share has prudence in the concerns of the
+heart!" But then this unexpected fervor of devotion to Butler--that
+alarmed him, and he bit his lip, as he felt his anger rising with the
+thought. "Her repugnance to Tyrrel, her prompt rejection of his suit,
+her indignant contempt for the man, even that I could bear with
+patience," he exclaimed. "I seek not to trammel her will by any
+authority of mine. But this Butler! Oh! there is the beginning of the
+curse upon my house! there is the fate against which I have been so
+solemnly warned! That man who had been the author of this unhappiness,
+and whose alliance with my name has been denounced by the awful
+visitation of the dead,--that Mildred should cherish his regard, is
+misery. It cannot and shall not be!"
+
+These and many such reflections passed through Lindsay's mind, and had
+roused his feelings to a tone of exacerbation against Arthur Butler, far
+surpassing any displeasure he had ever before indulged against this
+individual. In the height of this self-communion he was interrupted by
+the return of Mildred to the apartment, almost as abruptly as she had
+quitted it. She approached his chair, knelt, laid her head upon his lap,
+and wept aloud.
+
+"Why, my dear father," she said, at length, looking up in his face while
+the tears rolled down her cheeks, "why do you address language to me
+that makes me forget the duty I owe you? If you knew my heart, you would
+spare and pity my feelings. Pardon me, dear father, if my conduct has
+offended you. I knew not what I spoke; I am wretched, and cannot answer
+for my words. Do not think I would wound your affection by unkindness;
+but indeed, indeed, I cannot hear you speak of Tyrrel without agony."
+
+"Rise, daughter," said Lindsay, almost lifting her up, "I do not chide
+you for your repugnance to Tyrrel. You mistake me if you think I would
+dictate to your affections: my grief has a deeper source. This Arthur
+Butler"--
+
+"Spare that name, father?" interrupted Mildred, retiring to a seat near
+the window and covering her face with her hands.
+
+"Curse him!" exclaimed Lindsay. "May all the plagues that torment the
+human bosom fall upon him! Mark me, daughter, I trust I am not an
+unreasonable father; I know I am not an unkind one; there are few
+requests that you could make which I would not freely grant. But to hear
+with patience the name of that man on your lips, to think of him as
+allied to you by any sympathy, as sharing any portion of your
+esteem--him, a rebel traitor who has raised his sacrilegious hand
+against his king, who has sold his name to infamy, who has contributed
+to fill these peaceful provinces with discord, and to subvert the
+happiness of this land, which heaven had appointed to be an asylum where
+man, disgusted with the lusts, rapine, and murder of his fellow, might
+betake himself as a child to the bosom of his parent--I cannot endure
+the thought of him! Never again, Mildred, I charge you, never allude to
+him again!"
+
+"If I could but tell you all!" interrupted Mildred, sobbing, "if I could
+but patiently have your hearing."
+
+"Never a word of him! as you desire to preserve my affection, I will not
+hear. Get to your chamber," said Lindsay, almost sternly. "Get to your
+chamber, this perverse and resolute temper of thine, needs the restraint
+of solitude."
+
+Mildred rose from her chair and moved towards the door, and as she was
+about to depart she turned her weeping countenance towards her father.
+
+"Come hither," he said, "thou art a foolish girl, and would bring down
+wretchedness and woe upon thee. God forgive you, from the bottom of my
+heart, I forgive you. This thing is not of your own imagining: some
+malignant spirit has spread his baleful wing above our house. Go,
+child, forget what has been said, and believe that your father buffets
+thus harshly with fate for your own welfare. Kiss me, and may heaven
+shield you against this impending ill!"
+
+"Dear father, hear me," said Mildred, as Lindsay imprinted a kiss upon
+her forehead.
+
+"Away, away!" interrupted Lindsay, "I would be temperate nor again
+forget myself. In all love, Mildred, away."
+
+Mildred left the room, and Lindsay, to restore the equanimity of his
+temper, which had been so much overthrown by this interview, wandered
+forth into the valley, whence it was some hours before he returned.
+
+It was not long after the termination of this conference before Henry
+rode up to the door. The clatter of his horse's hoofs brought Mildred
+from her chamber into the parlor.
+
+"What! sister, your eyes red with tears?" said Henry. "Who has
+distressed you?"
+
+"Ah, brother, I have had a weary time in your absence. Our poor father
+is sadly displeased with me."
+
+"Have you told him all?" asked Henry, with an expression of anxiety.
+
+"He bade me," replied Mildred, "never mention Arthur's name again. He
+would not hear me speak of Arthur. Have I not reason, dear brother, to
+be miserable?"
+
+"I love you, Mildred," said Henry, kissing his sister, "and what's more,
+I love Arthur Butler, and will stand up for him against the world. And I
+have a good mind to go to my father and tell him I am man enough to
+think for myself--and more than that--that I, for one, believe these
+rebels, as he calls them, have the right of it. Why shouldn't I? Can't I
+shoot a rifle as well as the best of them, and stand by a friend in a
+quarrel, and make good my words as well as many a man who writes twenty
+years to his age? Tush! I am tired of this boy-play--shooting with
+blunted arrows, and riding with my father's hand ever on the neck of my
+horse, as if I could not hold the reins. Give me sharp steel, Mildred,
+and throw me on the world, and I'll be bound I make my way as well as
+another."
+
+"We are surrounded with difficulties, brother," said Mildred, "and have
+a hard part to perform. We must soothe our dear father's feelings, for
+he loves us, Henry; and if he could but think as we do, how happy should
+we be! But there is something fearful in his passions, and it makes me
+tremble to see them roused."
+
+"This all comes," replied Henry, "from that devil's imp Tyrrel. Oh, I
+could find it in my heart to trounce that fellow, sister. But you
+hav'n't asked me about my reconnoitring! I'll tell you. Tyrrel's man,
+Curry, talked a great deal to old Tony and Mrs. Dimock both, about our
+friends who went there last night, and found out their names and all
+about them: and there was some fray between Horse Shoe and Curry, in
+which, I'll warrant you, Horse Shoe gave him a drubbing; so Tony told
+me. Well, Butler and Horse Shoe set out this morning at daylight. And
+Tyrrel went over there to breakfast: and you may suppose he was lucky in
+not meeting the major, for I am sure there would have been a spot of
+work if he had. Furthermore, I found out that Tyrrel followed on the
+same road after Butler, so they may meet yet, you know."
+
+"I pray not," said Mildred.
+
+"Why pray not, sister? I pray they may meet. Let Tyrrel have all the
+good of it. There, now I believe I have given you all the news, sister,
+exactly as I picked it up. But here is a trifle I forgot," said Henry,
+producing a letter addressed to Mildred. "Ah, ha, you brighten up now!
+This was left by the major with Mrs. Dimock, to be forwarded to you with
+care and speed."
+
+Mildred tore open the letter, and eagerly perused its contents. They
+consisted of a few lines hastily penned by Butler, at early dawn, as he
+was about mounting his horse for the prosecution of his journey. Their
+purpose was to apprise her of the discovery Robinson had made of the
+true character of Curry, and also to express his fears that this latter
+person might disclose to Tyrrel the fact of his, Butler's, visit. He
+cautioned her to observe the conduct of Tyrrel, and to communicate with
+him at Gates's head-quarters where he expected to be delayed a few days
+on his journey: her letter, he said, might be forwarded by some of the
+parties who at that time were continually passing southward: Henry might
+look to this; and he concluded by assuring her that he would write as
+often as he might find means of conveying a packet to the care of good
+Mistress Dimock, who was sufficiently in the interest of the lovers to
+keep faithfully any secret which they might confide to her.
+
+This letter served to explain the cause of Tyrrel's sudden departure,
+and to confirm Mildred in the opinion, which she had before expressed,
+that this guest of her father was not ignorant of the interest Butler
+had in her regard. Her determination therefore was to watch his motions
+narrowly, and to make her lover acquainted with whatever she might
+discover.
+
+"It is even so," she said musing; "Tyrrel either fears or hates Arthur.
+I shudder to think that that man should have any motive supplied him to
+contrive against the peace or safety of one so dear to me. Wretch," she
+exclaimed, "that he should be insolent enough to hope for my regard! Oh!
+my father, my father, what a snare has been spread for you by this man!
+Thank you, brother," she continued, addressing Henry. "You have well
+executed your mission. Be discreet and ready: I shall have much need of
+your head and hand both: your heart is mine already, good brother."
+
+"I will ride for you, sister," said Henry, "I will run for you, speak
+for you, pray for you--if my prayers be worth anything--and strike for
+you, if need be. If I am but turned of sixteen, I am a man, I trow; and
+that's more than you are. Good bye! a soldier ought to look after his
+horse, you know."
+
+"God bless you, dear brother, for an excellent boy," said Mildred
+smiling, "man I mean--aye and a brave one!"
+
+Henry now walked away, and Mildred betook herself to other cares.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A POLITICAL RETROSPECT.--BUTLER ENTERS SOUTH CAROLINA.
+
+
+It was the misfortune of South Carolina, during the revolutionary war,
+to possess a numerous party less attached to the union or more tainted
+with disaffection than the inhabitants of any of the other states.
+Amongst her citizens the disinclination to sever from the mother country
+was stronger, the spread of republican principles more limited, and the
+march of revolution slower, than in either of the other colonies,
+except, perhaps, in the neighbor state of Georgia, where the people
+residing along the Savannah river, were so closely allied to the
+Carolinians in sentiment, habits, and pursuits, as to partake pretty
+accurately of the same political prejudices, and to unite themselves in
+parties of the same complexion. Upon the first invasion of Georgia, at
+the close of the year 1778, the city of Savannah was made an easy
+conquest, and a mere handful of men, early in 1779, were enabled to
+penetrate the interior as far as Augusta, and to seize upon that post.
+The audacity with which Prevost threatened Charleston in the same year,
+the facility of his march through South Carolina, and the safety which
+attended his retreat, told a sad tale of the supineness of the people of
+that province. The reduction of Charleston in the following year, by Sir
+Henry Clinton, was followed with singular rapidity by the conquest of
+the whole province. A civil government was erected. The most remote
+posts in the mountains were at once occupied by British soldiers or
+provincial troops, mustered under the officers of the royal army.
+Proclamations were issued to call back the wandering sheep to the royal
+fold; and they, accordingly, like herds that had been scattered from
+beneath the eye of the shepherd by some rough incursion of wolves,
+flocked in as soon as they were aware of the retreat of their enemy.
+Lord Cornwallis, upon whom the command devolved after the return of Sir
+Henry Clinton in June to New York, recruited his army from these
+repentant or unwilling republicans; and the people rejoiced at what they
+thought the end of strife and the establishment of law. The auxiliaries
+who had marched from Virginia and North Carolina under Colonel Buford,
+to assist in the defence of the southern capital, were informed of its
+surrender as they journeyed thither, and soon found themselves obliged
+to fly through a country they had come to succor;--and when even at the
+distance of one hundred and fifty miles from the city, were overtaken by
+the ruthless troopers of Tarleton, and butchered under circumstances
+peculiarly deplorable.
+
+In truth, a large proportion of the population of South Carolina seem to
+have regarded the revolution with disfavor, and they were slow to break
+their ancient friendship for the land of their forefathers. The colonial
+government was mild and beneficent in its action upon the province, and
+the people had a reverence for the mother country deeper and more
+affectionate than was found elsewhere. They did not resent, because,
+haply, they did not feel the innovations of right asserted by the
+British crown, so acutely as some of their neighbors; to them it did not
+seem to be so unreasonable that taxation should be divorced from
+representation. They did not quarrel with the assumption of Great
+Britain to regulate their trade for them in such manner as best suited
+her own views of interest; nor did they see in mere commercial
+restrictions the justification of civil war and hot rebellion;--because,
+peradventure, (if I may hazard a reason) being a colony of planters
+whose products were much in demand in England, neither the regulations
+of their trade nor the restrictions upon commerce, were likely to be so
+adjusted as to interfere with the profitable expansion of their labors.
+
+Such might be said to be the more popular sentiment of the State at the
+time of its subjugation by Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis. To
+this common feeling there were many brilliant exceptions; and the more
+brilliant because they stood, as it were, apart from the preponderating
+mass of public judgment. There is no trial of courage which will bear
+comparison with that of a man whose own opinions stand in opposition,
+upon fearful questions of passion, to those of the "giddy-paced" and
+excited multitude, and who, nevertheless, carries them "into act." That
+man who can stand in the breach of universal public censure, with all
+the fashions of opinion disgracing him in the thoughts of the lookers
+on, with the tide of obloquy beating against his breast, and the fingers
+of the mighty, combined many, pointing him to scorn; nay, with the fury
+of the drunken rabble threatening him with instant death; and, worse
+than all, having no present friend to whisper a word of defence or
+palliative, in his behalf, to his revilers, but bravely giving his naked
+head to the storm, because he knows himself to be virtuous in his
+purpose; that man shall come forth from this fierce ordeal like tried
+gold; philosophy shall embalm his name in her richest unction, history
+shall give him a place on her brightest page, and old, yea, hoary,
+far-off posterity shall remember him as of yesterday.
+
+There were heroes of this mould in South Carolina, who entered with the
+best spirit of chivalry into the national quarrel, and brought to it
+hearts as bold, minds as vigorous, and arms as strong as ever, in any
+clime, worked out a nation's redemption. These men refused submission to
+their conquerors, and endured exile, chains, and prisons, rather than
+the yoke. Some few, still undiscouraged by the portents of the times,
+retreated into secret places, gathered their few patriot neighbors
+together, and contrived to keep in awe the soldier-government that now
+professed to sway the land. They lived on the scant aliment furnished in
+the woods, slept in the tangled brakes and secret places of the fen,
+exacted contributions from the adherents of the crown, and by rapid
+movements of their woodland cavalry and brave blows, accomplished more
+than thrice their numbers would have achieved in ordinary warfare.
+
+The disaffected abounded in the upper country, and here Cornwallis
+maintained some strong garrisons. The difficulties that surrounded the
+republican leaders may well be supposed to have been appalling in this
+region, where regular posts had been established to furnish the Tories
+secure points of union, and the certainty of prompt assistance whenever
+required. Yet notwithstanding the numerical inferiority of the friends
+of independence, their guarded and proscribed condition, their want of
+support, and their almost absolute destitution of all the necessaries of
+military life, the nation was often rejoiced to hear of brilliant
+passages of arms, where, however unimportant the consequences, the
+display of soldiership and bravery was of the highest order. In such
+encounters, or frays they might almost be called, from the smallness of
+the numbers concerned and the hand-to-hand mode of fighting which they
+exhibited, Marion, Sumpter, Horry, Pickens, and many others, had won a
+fame that in a nation of poetical or legendary associations would have
+been reduplicated through a thousand channels of immortal verse: but,
+alas! we have no ballads: and many men, who as well deserve to be
+remembered as Percy or Douglas, as Adam Bell or Clym of the Clough, have
+sunk down without even a couplet-epitaph upon the rude stone, that in
+some unfenced and unreverenced grave-yard still marks the lap of earth
+whereon their heads were laid.
+
+One feature that belonged to this unhappy state of things in Carolina
+was the division of families. Kindred were arrayed against each other in
+deadly feuds, and, not unfrequently, brother took up arms against
+brother, and sons against their sires. A prevailing spirit of treachery
+and distrust marked the times. Strangers did not know how far they might
+trust to the rites of hospitality; and many a man laid his head upon his
+pillow, uncertain whether his fellow lodger, or he with whom he had
+broken bread at his last meal, might not invade him in the secret
+watches of the night and murder him in his slumbers. All went armed, and
+many slept with pistols or daggers under their pillows. There are tales
+told of men being summoned to their doors or windows at midnight by the
+blaze of their farm-yards to which the incendiary torch had been
+applied, and shot down, in the light of the conflagration, by a
+concealed hand. Families were obliged to betake themselves to the
+shelter of the thickets and swamps, when their own homesteads were
+dangerous places. The enemy wore no colors, and was not to be
+distinguished from friends either by outward guise or speech. Nothing
+could be more revolting than to see the symbols of peace thus misleading
+the confident into the toils of war; nor is it possible to imagine a
+state of society characterized by a more frightful insecurity.
+
+Such was the condition of the country to which my tale now makes it
+necessary to introduce my reader. Butler's instructions required that
+he should report himself to General Gates, and, unless detained for more
+pressing duty, to proceed with all the circumspection which the
+enterprise might require, to Colonel Clarke, who, it was known, was at
+that time in the upland country of South Carolina, raising troops to act
+against Augusta and other British posts. He accordingly arrived at
+head-quarters, on the borders of the two Carolinas, in about a week
+after leaving the Dove Cote. The army of the brave and unfortunate De
+Kalb, which had been originally destined for the relief of Charleston,
+had been increased, by reinforcements of militia from Virginia and the
+adjoining States, to double the computed strength of the British forces;
+and Gates, on taking command of it, was filled with the most lofty
+presentiments of victory. Vainglorious and unadvisable, he is said to
+have pushed forward with an indiscreet haste, and to have thrown himself
+into difficulties which a wiser man would have avoided. He professed
+himself to stand in no need of recruits to his army, and Butler,
+therefore, after the delay of a few days, was left at liberty to pursue
+his original scheme.
+
+The wide-spread disaffection of the region through which our adventurers
+were about to pass, inculcated the necessity of the utmost vigilance to
+avoid molestation from the numerous parties that were then abroad
+hastening to the seat of war. Under the almost entire guidance of
+Robinson, who was familiar with every path in this neighborhood,
+Butler's plan was to temporize with whatever difficulties might beset
+his way, and to rely upon his own and his comrade's address for escape.
+
+The sergeant's first object was to conduct his superior to his own
+dwelling, which was situated on the Catawba, a short distance above the
+Waxhaws. This was safely accomplished on the second day after they had
+left Gates. A short delay at this place enabled Butler to exchange the
+dress he had hitherto worn, for one of a more homely and rustic
+character, a measure deemed necessary to facilitate his quiet passage
+through the country. With these precautions he and the trusty sergeant
+resumed their expedition, and now shaped their course across the region
+lying between the Catawba and Broad rivers, with the intention of
+reaching the habitation of Wat Adair, a well known woodsman who lived on
+the southern side of the latter river, somewhat above its confluence
+with the Pacolet. The route they had chosen for this purpose consisted
+of such circuitous and unfrequented paths as were least likely to be
+infested by the scouts of the enemy, or by questioners who might be too
+curious regarding the object of their journey.
+
+The second week of August had half elapsed when, towards the evening of
+a day that had been distinguished for the exhilarating freshness of the
+atmosphere, such as is peculiar to the highlands of southern latitudes
+at this season, our travellers found themselves descending through a
+long and shady defile to the level ground that lay along the margin of
+the Broad river. The greater part of the day had been spent in threading
+the mazes of a series of sharp and abrupt hills covered with the native
+forest, or winding through narrow valleys, amongst tangled thickets of
+briers and copse-wood, by a path scarce wide enough to permit the
+passage of a single horse. They had now emerged from the wilderness upon
+a public highway, which extended across the strip of lowland that
+skirted the river. The proximity of the river itself was indicated by
+the nature of the ground, that here retained vestiges of occasional
+inundations, as also by the rank character of the vegetation. The road
+led through a swamp, which was rendered passable by a causey of timber,
+and was shaded on either side by a mass of shrubbery, composed of
+laurel, magnolia, and such other plants as delight in a moist soil, over
+whose forms a tissue of creeping plants was woven in such profusion as
+to form a fastness or impregnable retreat for all kinds of noxious
+animals. Above this wilderness, here and there, might be seen in the
+depths of the morass, the robust cypress or the lurid pine, high enough
+for the mast of the largest ship, the ash, and gum, and, towering above
+all, the majestic poplar, with its branchless trunk bound up in the
+embraces of a huge serpent-like grapevine.
+
+As soon as Butler found himself extricated from the difficult path that
+had so much embarrassed his journey, and once more introduced upon a
+road that allowed him to ride abreast with his companion, he could not
+help congratulating himself upon the change.
+
+"Well, here at last, Galbraith," he said, "is an end to this bridle
+path, as you call it. Thank heaven for it! The settlement of the
+account between this and the plain road would not leave much in our
+favor: on one side, I should have to set down my being twice unhorsed in
+riding up perpendicular hills; one plunge up to the belly in the mud of
+a swamp; a dozen times in danger of strangling from grapevines; and how
+often torn by briers, I leave you to reckon up by looking at my clothes.
+And all this is to be cast up against the chance of meeting a few
+rascally Tories. Faith! upon the whole, it would have been as cheap to
+fight."
+
+"Whist, Major, you are a young man, and don't study things as I do. You
+never catch me without reason on my side. As to standing upon the trifle
+of a man or two odds in the way of a fight, when there was need of
+scratching, I wouldn't be so onaccommodating as to ax you to do that.
+But I had some generalship in view, which I can make appear. This road,
+which we have just got into, comes up through Winnsborough, which is one
+of the randyvoos of the Tories: now I thought if we outflanked them by
+coming through the hills, we mought keep our heads out of a hornets'
+nest. The best way, Major Butler, to get along through this world is not
+to be quarrelsome; that's my principle."
+
+"Truly, it comes well from you, sergeant, who within two days past have
+been in danger of getting your crown cracked at least six times! Were
+you not yesterday going to beat a man only for asking a harmless
+question? A rough fellow to-boot, Horse Shoe, who might, from
+appearance, have turned out a troublesome customer."
+
+"Ho, ho, ho, Major! Do you know who that character was? That was mad
+Archy Gibbs, from the Broken Bridge, one of the craziest devils after a
+fracaw on the Catawba; a tearing Tory likewise."
+
+"And was that an argument for wishing to fight him?"
+
+"Why, you see, Major, I've got a principle on that subject. It's an
+observation I have made, that whenever you come across one of these
+rampagious fellows, that's always for breeding disturbances, the best
+way is to be as fractious as themselves. You have hearn of the way of
+putting out a house on fire by blowing it up with gunpowder?"
+
+"A pretty effectual method, Sergeant."
+
+"Dog won't eat dog," continued Horse Shoe. "Ho, ho! I know these
+characters; so I always bullies them. When we stopped yesterday at the
+surveyor's, on Blair's Range, to get a little something to eat, and that
+bevy of Tories came riding up, with mad Archy at their head, a thought
+struck me that the fellows mought be dogging us, and that sot me to
+thinking what answer I should make consarning you, if they were to
+question me. So, ecod, I made a parson of you, ha, ha, ha! Sure enough,
+they began as soon as they sot down in the porch, to axing me about my
+business, and then about yourn. I told them, correspondent and
+accordingly, that you was a Presbyterian minister, and that I had
+undertook to show you the way to Chester, where you was going to hold
+forth. And, thereupon, mad Archy out with one of his tremengious oaths,
+and swore he would have a sarmint from you, for the good of his
+blackguards, before they broke up."
+
+"Mad Archy and his blackguards would have profited, no doubt, by my
+spiritual lessons."
+
+"Rather than let him have anything to say to you," proceeded Robinson,
+"for you wa'n't prepared, seeing that you didn't hear what was going on,
+though I spoke loud enough, on purpose, Major, for you to hear us
+through the window; I up and told Archy, says I, I am a peaceable man,
+but I'll be d----d if any minister of the gospel shall be insulted
+whilst I have the care of him; and, furthermore, says I, I didn't come
+here to interrupt no man; but if you, Archy Gibbs, or any one of your
+crew, says one ondecent word to the parson, they'll run the risk of
+being flung sprawling on this here floor, and that's as good as if I had
+sworn to it; and as for you, Archy, I'll hold you accountable for the
+good conduct of your whole squad. But, Major, you are about the hardest
+man to take a wink I ever knowed. There was I a motioning of you, and
+signifying to get your horse and be off, at least ten minutes before you
+took the hint."
+
+"I was near spoiling all, Galbraith, for from your familiarity with
+these fellows I at first thought them friends."
+
+"They were mighty dubious, you may depend. And it was as much as I could
+do to keep them from breaking in on you. They said it was strange, and
+so it was, to see a parson riding with pistols; but I told them you was
+obliged to travel so much after night that it was as much as you could
+do to keep clear of panthers and wolves; and in fact, major, I had to
+tell them a monstrous sight of lies, just to keep them in talk whilst
+you was getting away: it was like a rare guard scrummaging by platoons
+on a retreat to get the advance off. I was monstrous afeard, major, you
+wouldn't saddle my horse."
+
+"I understood you at last, Galbraith, and made everything ready for a
+masterly retreat, and then moved away with a very sober air, leaving you
+to bring up the rear like a good soldier. And you know, sergeant, I
+didn't go so far but that I was at hand to give you support, if you had
+stood in need of it. I wonder now that they let you off so easily."
+
+"They didn't want to have no uproar with me, Major Butler. They knowed
+me, that although I wa'n't a quarrelsome man, they would'a got some of
+their necks twisted if I had seen occasion: in particular, I would have
+taken some of mad Archy's crazy fits out of him--by my hand I would,
+major! But I'll tell you,--I made one observation, that this here sort
+of carrying false colors goes against a man's conscience: it doesn't
+seem natural for a man, that's accustomed and willing to stand by his
+words, to be heaping one lie upon top of another as fast as he can speak
+them. It really, Major Butler, does go against my grain."
+
+"That point of conscience," said Butler laughing, "has been duly
+considered, and, I believe, we are safe in setting it down as entirely
+lawful to use any deceit of speech to escape from an enemy in time of
+war. We have a dangerous trade, sergeant, and the moralists indulge us
+more than they do others: and as I am a minister, you know, you need not
+be afraid to trust your conscience to my keeping."
+
+"They allow that all's fair in war, I believe. But it don't signify, a
+man is a good while before he gets used to this flat lying, for I can't
+call it by any other name."
+
+"If we should be challenged on this road, before we reach Wat Adair's,"
+said Butler, "it is your opinion that we should say we are graziers
+going to the mountains to buy cattle."
+
+"That's about the best answer I can think of. Though you must be a
+little careful about that. If you see me put my hand up to my mouth and
+give a sort of a hem, major, then leave the answer to me. A gang of raw
+lads might be easily imposed upon, but it wouldn't do if there's an old
+sodger amongst them; he mought ax some hard questions."
+
+"I know but little of this grazier craft to bear an examination. I fear
+I should fare badly if one of these bullies should take it into his head
+to cross-question me."
+
+"If a man takes on too much with you," replied Robinson, "it is well to
+be a little saucy to him. If he thinks you are for a quarrel, the
+chances are he won't pester you. But if any of these Tories should only
+take it into their heads, without our telling them right down in so many
+words, for I would rather a lie, if it is to come out, should take a
+roundabout way, that we are sent up here by Cornwallis, or Rawdon, or
+Leslie, or any of their people to do an arrand, they will be as civil,
+sir, as your grandmother's cat, for, major, they are a blasted set of
+cringin' whelps, the best of them, and will take anything that has G. R.
+marked on it with thanks, even if it was a cat-o'nine tails, which they
+desarve every day at rollcall, the sorry devils!"
+
+"I am completely at my wits' end, Galbraith. I have not done much
+justice to your appointment of me as a parson, and when I come to play
+the grazier it will be still worse; even in this disguise of a plain
+countryman I make a poor performer; I fear I shall disgrace the boards."
+
+"If the worst comes to the worst, major, the rule is run or fight. We
+can manage that, at any rate, for we have had a good deal of both in the
+last three or four years."
+
+"God knows we have had practice enough, sergeant, to make us perfect in
+that trick. Let us make our way through this treacherous ground as
+quickly and as quietly as we can. Get me to Clarke by the shortest
+route, and keep as much among friends as you know how."
+
+"As to that, Major Butler, it is all a matter of chance, for, to tell
+you the plain truth, I don't know who to depend upon. A quick eye, a
+nimble foot, and a ready hand, will be our surest friends. Then with the
+pistols at your saddle, besides a pair in your pocket, and a dirk for
+close quarters, and my rifle here for a long shot, major, I am not much
+doubtful but what we shall hold our own."
+
+"How far are we from Adair's?" asked Butler.
+
+"Not more than a mile," replied Horse Shoe. "You may see the ferry just
+ahead. Wat lives upon the top of the first hill on the other side."
+
+"Is that fellow to be trusted, sergeant?"
+
+"Better with the help of gold, major, than without it. Wat was never
+over honest. But it is worth our while to make a friend of him if we
+can."
+
+Our travellers had now reached the river, which was here a smooth and
+deep stream, though by no means so broad as to entitle it to the
+distinction by which, in its lower portion, it has earned its name. It
+here flowed sluggishly along in deep and melancholy shade.
+
+Butler and his companion were destined to encounter a difficulty at this
+spot which less hardy travellers would have deemed a serious
+embarrassment. The boat was not to be seen on either side of the river,
+having been carried off a few hours before, according to the information
+given by the inmates of a negro cabin, constituting the family of the
+ferryman, by a party of soldiers.
+
+Robinson regarded this obstacle with the resignation of a practised
+philosopher. He nodded his head significantly to his companion upon
+receiving the intelligence, as he said,
+
+"There is some mischief in the wind. These Tories are always dodging
+about in gangs; and when they collect the boats on the river, it is
+either to help them forward on some house-burning and thieving business,
+or to secure their retreat when they expect to have honest men at their
+heels. It would be good news to hear that Sumpter was near their
+cruppers, which, by the by, is not onlikely neither. You would be told
+of some pretty sport then, major."
+
+"Sumpter's means, sergeant," replied Butler, "I fear, are not equal to
+his will. There are heavy odds against him, and it isn't often that he
+can venture from his hiding-place. But what are we to do now,
+Galbraith?"
+
+"Ha, ha! do as we have often done before this, launch our four-legged
+ships, and take a wet jacket coolly and dispassionately, as that quare
+devil Lieutenant Hopkins used to tell us when he was going to make a
+charge of the bagnet. We hav'n't no time to lose, major, and if we had,
+I don't think the river would run dry. So, here goes."
+
+With these words Robinson plunged into the stream, and, with his rifle
+resting across his shoulder, he plied his voyage towards the opposite
+bank with the same unconcern as if he had journeyed on dry land. As soon
+as he was fairly afloat he looked back to give a few cautions to Butler.
+
+"Head slantwise up stream, major, lean a little forward, so as to sink
+your horse's nose nearer to the water, he swims all the better for it.
+Slacken your reins and give him play. You have it now. It isn't
+oncomfortable in a day's ride to get a cool seat once in a while. Here
+we are safe and sound," he continued, as they reached the further
+margin, "and nothing the worse for the ferrying, excepting it be a
+trifle of dampness about the breeches."
+
+The two companions now galloped towards the higher grounds of the
+adjacent country.
+
+By the time that they had gained the summit of a long hill that rose
+immediately from the plain of the river, Robinson apprised Butler that
+they were now in the vicinity of Adair's dwelling. The sun had sunk
+below the horizon, and the varied lustre of early twilight tinged the
+surrounding scenery with its own beautiful colors. The road, as it wound
+upwards gradually emerged from the forest upon a tract of open country,
+given signs of one of those original settlements which, at that day,
+were sparsely sprinkled through the great wilderness. The space that had
+been snatched from the ruggedness of nature, for the purpose of
+husbandry, comprehended some three or four fields of thinly cultivated
+land. These were yet spotted over with stumps of trees, that seemed to
+leave but little freedom to the course of the ploughshare, and bespoke a
+thriftless and slovenly tillage. A piece of half cleared ground,
+occupying the side of one of the adjacent hills, presented to the eye of
+our travellers a yet more uncouth spectacle. This spot was still clothed
+with the native trees of the forest, all of which had been
+death-stricken by the axe, and now heaved up their withered and sapless
+branches towards the heavens, without leaf or spray. In the phrase of
+the woodman, they had been _girdled_ some years before, and were
+destined to await the slow decay of time in their upright attitude. It
+was a grove of huge skeletons that had already been bleached into an
+ashy hue by the sun, and whose stiff and dry members rattled in the
+breeze with a preternatural harshness. Amongst the most hoary of these
+victims of the axe, the gales of winter had done their work and thrown
+them to the earth, where the shattered boles and boughs lay as they had
+fallen, and were slowly reverting into their original dust. Others,
+whose appointed time had not yet been fulfilled, gave evidence of their
+struggle with the frequent storm, by their declination from the
+perpendicular line. Some had been caught in falling by the boughs of a
+sturdier neighbor, and still leaned their huge bulks upon these
+supports, awakening the mind of the spectator to the fancy, that they
+had sunk in some deadly paroxysm into charitable and friendly arms, and,
+thus locked together, abided their tardy but irrevocable doom. It was a
+field of the dead; and the more striking in its imagery from the
+contrast which it furnished to the rich, verdurous, and lively forest
+that, with all the joyousness of health, encompassed this blighted spot.
+Its aspect was one of unpleasant desolation; and the traveller of the
+present day who visits our western wilds, where this slovenly practice
+is still in use, will never pass through such a precinct without a sense
+of disgust at the disfiguration of the landscape.
+
+The field thus marred might have contained some fifty acres, and it was
+now occupied, in the intervals between the lifeless trunks, with a
+feeble crop of Indian corn, whose husky and parched blades, as they
+fluttered in the evening wind, added new and appropriate features to the
+inexpressible raggedness of the scene. The same effect was further aided
+and preserved by the cumbrous and unseemly worm fence that shot forth
+its stiff angles around the tract.
+
+On the very apex of the hill up which our travellers were now
+clambering, was an inclosure of some three or four acres of land, in the
+middle of which, under the shade of a tuft of trees, stood a group of
+log cabins so situated as to command a view, of nearly every part of the
+farm. The principal structure was supplied with a rude porch that
+covered three of its sides; whilst the smoke that curled upwards from a
+wide-mouthed chimney, and the accompaniment of a bevy of little negroes
+that were seen scattered amongst the out-houses, gave an air of
+habitation and life to the place that contrasted well with the
+stillness of the neighboring wood. A well-beaten path led into a narrow
+ravine where might be discerned, peeping forth from the weeds, the roof
+of a spring house; and, in the same neighborhood, a rough garden was
+observable, in which a bed of broad-leaved cabbages seemed to have their
+ground disputed by a plentiful crop of burdock, thistles, and other
+intruders upon a manured soil. In this inclosure, also, the hollyhock
+and sunflower, rival coxcombs of the vegetable community, gave their
+broad and garish tribute to the beautifying of the spot.
+
+The road approached within some fifty paces of the front of the cabins,
+where access was allowed, not by the help of a gate, but only by a kind
+of ladder or stile formed of rails, which were so arranged as to furnish
+steps across the barrier of the worm fence at four or five feet from the
+ground.
+
+"Are you sure of entertainment here, Galbraith?" inquired Butler, as
+they halted at the stile. "This Wat Adair is not likely to be churlish,
+I hope?"
+
+"I don't think I am in much humor to be turned away," replied Robinson.
+"It's my opinion that a man who has rode a whole day has a sort of right
+to quarters wherever the night finds him--providing he pays for what he
+gets. But I have no doubt of Wat, Major. Holloa! who's at home? Wat
+Adair! Wat Adair! Travellers, man! Show yourself."
+
+"Who are you that keep such a racket at the fence there?" demanded a
+female voice. "What do you mean by such doings before a peaceable
+house?"
+
+"Keep your dogs silent, ma'am," returned Horse Shoe, in a blunt and loud
+key, "and you will hear us. If you are Wat Adair's wife you are as good
+as master of this house. We want a night's lodging and must have it--and
+besides, we have excellent stomachs, and mean to pay for all we get.
+Ain't that reason enough to satisfy a sensible woman, Mrs. Adair?"
+
+"If you come to make disturbance," said a man of a short and sturdy
+figure, who at this moment stepped out from the house and took a
+position in front of it, with a rifle in his hand--"if you come here to
+insult a quiet family you had best turn your horses' heads up the road
+and jog further."
+
+"We might do that, sir, and fare worse," said Butler, in a conciliatory
+tone. "You have no need of your gun; we are harmless travellers who have
+come a long way to get under your roof."
+
+"Where from?" asked the other.
+
+"From below," said Horse Shoe promptly.
+
+"What side do you take?"
+
+"Your side for to-night," returned Robinson again. "Don't be
+obstropolous, friend," he continued, at the same time dismounting, "we
+have come on purpose to pay Wat a visit, and if you ha'n't got no
+brawlers in the house, you needn't be afraid of us."
+
+By this time the sergeant had crossed the stile and approached the
+questioner, to whom he offered his hand. The man gazed for a moment upon
+his visitor, and then asked--
+
+"Isn't this Galbraith Robinson?"
+
+"They call me so," replied Horse Shoe; "and if I ain't mistaken, this is
+Michael Lynch. You wan't going to shoot at us, Michael?"
+
+"A man must have sharp eyes when he looks in the face of a neighbor
+now-a-days," said the other. "Come in; Wat's wife will be glad to see
+you. Wat himself will be home presently. Who have you here, Galbraith?"
+
+"This is Mr. Butler," answered Horse Shoe, as the Major joined them. "He
+and me are taking a ride across into Georgia, and we thought we would
+give Wat a call just to hear the news."
+
+"You are apt to fetch more news than you will take away," replied the
+other; "but there is a good deal doing now in all quarters. Howsever, go
+into the house, we must give you something to eat and a bed besides."
+
+After putting their horses in charge of a negro who now approached in
+the character of an ostler, our adventurers followed Michael Lynch into
+the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A WOODMAN'S FAMILY.
+
+
+The apartment into which the travellers were introduced was one of large
+dimensions, conspicuous for its huge kitchen-like fire-place and ample
+chimney. The floor, consisting of broad planks, was so much warped as,
+in several places, to show the ground through the chinks. The furniture
+was of the rudest form and most homely materials. Three or four rifles
+were suspended against the walls, together with some trapping implements
+and various skins of such wild animals of prey and game as abounded in
+the woods of this region: these were associated with the antlers of the
+buck, powder-horns, hunting pouches, and a few articles of
+clothing,--the whole array giving to the room that air of woodland life
+which denotes the habitation of a hunter, and which so distinctly
+characterizes the dwellings of our frontier population.
+
+Amongst other articles of household use was a large spinning-wheel that
+was placed near the door, and beside it stood the dame who had first
+challenged the visitors. She was a woman who could scarcely be said to
+have reached the middle period of life, although her wan and somewhat
+haggard features, and a surly, discontented expression of face, might
+well induce an observer to attribute more years to her worldly account
+than she had actually seen. The presence of a rough and untidy cradle
+and some five or six children, the majority of whom might be below three
+feet in stature, served in some degree to explain the care-worn and
+joyless countenance of the hostess. When Butler and his companion were
+ushered by Lynch into her presence, she gave them no other welcome than
+a slight nod of the head, and continued to ply her task at the wheel
+with unremitted assiduity.
+
+In another corner of the room sat a smart-looking young girl who, at
+this moment, was employed in carding wool. She was sylvan Hebe, just
+verging upon womanhood, with a round, active, and graceful figure, which
+was adorned with that zealous attention to neatness and becoming
+ornament which, in every station of life, to a certain extent,
+distinguishes those of the sex who are gifted with beauty. Her cheek had
+the rich bloom of high health; a full round blue eye seemed habitually
+to laugh with pleasure; and the same trick of a happy temperament had
+stamped its mark upon the lines of her mouth. Her accost was altogether
+different from that of the mistress of the house. She arose from her
+work immediately upon the entrance of the strangers, courtesied with a
+modest and silent reserve, and then proceeded to gather up the rolls of
+carded wool at her feet and to dispose of them in a chest near at hand.
+Having done this, she left the apartment, not without casting sundry
+prying glances towards the guests.
+
+Another member of the family was an aged female: she had perhaps seen
+her eightieth winter. Her attenuated frame seemed to be hovering on the
+verge of dissolution: a hollow cheek, a sunken, moist eye, and a
+tremulous palsied motion of the head denoted the melancholy period of
+dotage; and it was apparent at a glance that this unfortunate being had
+far outlived both her capacity for enjoyment and the sympathy of her
+kindred. She now sat in a low elbow-chair, with her head almost in
+contact with her knees, upon the stone hearth, bending over a small fire
+of brushwood which had been kindled as well for the purpose of preparing
+the evening meal as for the comfort of the ancient dame herself--the
+chilliness of night-fall rendering this additional warmth by no means
+unpleasant. The beldam silently smoked a short pipe, unmoved by anything
+that occurred in the apartment, and apparently engrossed with the
+trivial care of directing the smoke, as she puffed it from her lips,
+into a current that should take it up the chimney.
+
+Michael Lynch, who acted as landlord in the casual absence of Wat Adair,
+had no other connexion with the family than that of being joint owner,
+with the lord of this wild domain, of a small saw-mill in the vicinity,
+the particular superintendence of which was his especial province. He
+was, therefore, at particular seasons of the year, an in-dweller at the
+homestead, and sufficiently in authority to assume a partial direction
+in the affairs of the house. This man now replaced his rifle upon the
+pegs appropriated to receive it, and then offered Butler and Robinson
+chairs, as he said to the mistress of the family:--
+
+"Here's Horse Shoe Robinson, Mrs. Adair; and this other man I think they
+call Mr. Butler. They've come for a night's lodging. I believe Wat will
+be right glad to see them."
+
+"You are not often visited with travellers in this part of the country,"
+said Butler, addressing the matron as he drew his chair near to the fire
+to dry his clothes.
+
+"We have enough of them, such as they are," replied the woman; "and it's
+a dangerous thing, when there's so many helpless women at home, to be
+opening the door to all sorts of persons."
+
+"You, at least, run no risk in offering shelter to us this evening,"
+returned Butler; "we are strangers to the quarrel that prevails in your
+district."
+
+"People puts on so many pretences," said the woman, "that there's no
+knowing them."
+
+"You have a fine troop of boys and girls," continued Butler, patting the
+head of one of the boys who had summoned courage to approach him, after
+various shy reconnoitrings of his person. "Your settlement will require
+enlargement before long."
+
+"There is more children than is needful," replied the hostess; "they are
+troublesome brats; but poor people generally have the luck that way."
+
+"Does your husband ever serve with the army, madam?" asked Butler.
+
+The woman stopped spinning for a moment, and turning her face towards
+Butler with a scowl, muttered,
+
+"How does that matter concern you?"
+
+"Pardon me," replied Butler; "I was recommended to Mr. Adair as a
+friend, and supposed I might approach his house without suspicion."
+
+"Wat Adair is a fool," said the wife; "who is never content but when he
+has other people thrusting their spoons into his mess."
+
+"Wat's a wiser man than his wife," interrupted Robinson bluntly, "and
+takes good care that no man thrusts his spoon into his mess without
+paying for it. You know Wat and me knows each other of old, Mrs. Adair;
+and devil a ha'penny did Wat ever lose by good manners yet."
+
+"And who are you to talk, forsooth, Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed the
+ill-favored dame, tartly. "Who are you to talk of Wat Adair? If he knows
+you he knows no good of you, I'm sure? I warrant you have come here on
+honest business now--you and your tramping friend. What do you do up
+here in the woods, when there is work enough for hearty men below? No
+good, I will undertake. It is such as you, Horse Shoe Robinson, and your
+drinking, rioting, broadsword cronies that has given as all our troubles
+here. You know Wat Adair!"
+
+"A little consideration, good woman! Not so fast; you run yourself out
+of breath," said Robinson mildly, interrupting this flood of
+objurgation. "Why, you are as spiteful as a hen with a fresh brood!
+Remember, Wat and me are old friends. Wat has been at my house both
+before the war and since, and I have been here--all in friendship you
+know. And many's the buck I have helped Wat to fetch down. What's the
+use of tantrums? If we had been thieves, Mrs. Adair, you couldn't have
+sarved us worse. Why, it's unreasonable in you to fly in a man's face
+so."
+
+"I'll vouch for Horse Shoe Robinson, Mrs. Peggy Adair," said Lynch. "You
+oughtn't to think harm of him; and you know it isn't long since we heard
+Wat talk of him, and say he would like to see him once more!"
+
+"Well, it's my way," replied the hostess, soothed down into a placid
+mood by this joint expostulation. "We have had cause to be suspicious,
+and I own I am suspicious. But, Horse Shoe Robinson, I can't say I have
+anything against you; you and your friend may be welcome for me."
+
+"Heyday!" exclaimed the old crone from the chimney corner "Who is
+talking about Horse Shoe Robinson? Is this Horse Shoe? Come here, good
+man," she said, beckoning with her finger to the sergeant. "Come close
+and let me look at you. Galbraith Robinson, as I am a sinner! All the
+way from the Waxhaws. Who'd 'a thought to find you here amongst the
+Tories? Such a racketing whig as you. Heyday!"
+
+"Whisht, granny!" said Robinson almost in a whisper. "Don't call names."
+
+"We are all Tories here," said the old woman, heedless of the sergeant's
+caution, "ever since last Thursday, when the handsome English officer
+was here to see Watty, and to count out his gold like pebble-stones."
+
+"Grandmother, you talk nonsense," said the wife.
+
+"Old Mistress Crosby," interposed Robinson, "is as knowing as she ever
+was. It's a mark of sense to be able to tell the day of the week when a
+man changes his coat. But, granny, you oughtn't to talk of Wat's seeing
+an English officer in his house."
+
+"Golden guineas, honey!" continued the drivelling old woman. "All good
+gold! And a proud clinking they make in Watty's homespun pocket. A
+countryman's old leather bag, Galbraith Robinson, doesn't often scrape
+acquaintance with the image of the king's head--ha, ha, ha! It makes me
+laugh to think of it! Ha, ha, ha! Watty's nose cocked up so high too!
+Who but he, the proud gander! Strutting like quality. Well, well, pride
+will have a fall, some day, that's the Lord's truth. Both pockets full!"
+she continued, muttering broken sentences and laughing so violently that
+the tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+"If you call Wat Adair your friend," interrupted the wife sullenly, and
+addressing Robinson, "you will show your sense by keeping away from this
+foolish old woman. She is continually raving with some nonsense that she
+dreams of nights. You ought to see that she is only half witted. It's
+sinful to encourage her talking. Grandmother, you had better go to your
+bed."
+
+"Come this way, deary," said the beldam, addressing an infant that
+toddled across the floor near to her seat, at the same time extending
+her shrivelled arm to receive it. "Come to the old body, pretty
+darling!"
+
+"No," lisped the child with an angry scream, and instantly made its way
+towards the door.
+
+"Then do you come to me, Peggy," she said, looking up at her
+granddaughter, the mistress of the family, who was still busy with her
+wheel. "Wipe my old eye with your handkerchief. Don't you see I have
+laughed my eyes dim at Watty and his gold? And fill my pipe again,
+Peggy."
+
+Instead of obeying this command, the mother left her spinning, and ran
+with some precipitation towards the door to catch up the child, who had
+staggered to the very verge of the sill, where it paused in imminent
+peril of falling headlong down the step; and having rescued it from its
+danger, she returned with the infant in her arms to a chair, where,
+without scruple at the presence of her visitors, she uncovered her bosom
+and administered to her off-spring that rich and simple bounty which
+nature has so lavishly provided for the sustenance of our first and
+tenderest days of helplessness.
+
+"Well-a-day, I see how it is!" muttered the grandmother in an accent of
+reproof, "that's the way of the world. Love is like a running river, it
+goes downwards, but doesn't come back to the spring. The poor old granny
+in the chimney corner is a withered tree up the stream, and the youngest
+born is a pretty flower on the bank below. Love leaves the old tree and
+goes to the flower. It went from me to Peggy's mother, and so downwards
+and downwards, but it never will come back again. The old granny's room
+is more wanted than her company; she ought to be nailed up in her coffin
+and put to sleep down, down in the cold ground. Well, well! But Watty's
+a proud wretch, that's for certain!"
+
+In this strain the aged dame continued to pour forth a stream of
+garrulity exhibiting a mixture of the silly dreamings of dotage, with a
+curious remainder of the scraps and saws of former experience--a strange
+compound of futile drivelling and shrewd and quick sagacity.
+
+During the period of the foregoing dialogue, preparations were making
+for supper. These were conducted principally under the superintendence
+of our Hebe, who, my reader will recollect, some time since escaped from
+the room, and who, as Butler learned, in the course of the evening, was
+a niece of Adair's wife and bore the kindly name of Mary Musgrove. The
+part which she took in the concerns of the family was in accordance with
+the simple manners of the time, and such as might be expected from her
+relationship. She was now seen arranging a broad table, and directing
+the domestics in the disposition of sundry dishes of venison, bacon, and
+corn bread, with such other items of fare as belonged to the sequestered
+and forest-bound region in which Adair resided.
+
+Mary was frequently caught directing her regards towards Butler, whose
+face was handsome enough to have rendered such a thing quite natural
+from a young girl: but she seemed to be moved by more than ordinary
+interest, as the closeness of her scrutiny almost implied a suspicion in
+her mind of his disguise. In truth there was some incongruity between
+his manners and the peasant dress he wore, which an eye like Mary's
+might have detected, notwithstanding the plainness of demeanor which
+Butler studied to assume.
+
+"We have nothing but corn bread in the house," said Mary in a low tone
+to her kinswoman, "perhaps the gentlemen (here she directed her eye, for
+the fiftieth time, to Butler) expected to get wheat. Had I not better
+pull some roasting-ears from the garden and prepare them? they will not
+be amiss with our milk and butter."
+
+"Bless you, my dear," said Butler, thrown completely off his guard, and
+showing more gallantry than belonged to the station he affected. "Give
+yourself no trouble on my account; we can eat anything. I delight in
+corn cakes, and will do ample justice to this savory venison. Pray do
+not concern yourself for us."
+
+"It is easy as running to the garden," said Mary in a sweet and almost
+laughing tone.
+
+"That's further, my dear," replied Butler, "than I choose you should run
+at this time of night. It is dark, my pretty girl."
+
+"Gracious!" returned Mary with natural emotion, "do you think I am
+afraid to go as far as the garden in the dark? We have no witches or
+fairies in our hills to hurt us: and if we had, I know how to keep them
+away."
+
+"And how might that be?"
+
+"By saying my prayers, sir. My father taught me, before my head was as
+high as the back of this chair, a good many prayers: and he told me they
+would protect me from all sorts of harm, if I only said them in right
+earnest. And I hear many old people, who ought to know, say the same
+thing."
+
+"Your father taught you well and wisely," replied Butler; "prayer will
+guard us against many ills, and chiefly against ourselves. But against
+the harm that others may do us, we should not forget that prudence is
+also a good safeguard. It is always well to avoid a dangerous path."
+
+"But, for all that," said the maiden smiling, "I am not afraid to go as
+far as the garden."
+
+"If you mean to get the corn," interrupted Mistress Adair, in no very
+kindly tone, "you had as well go without all this talk. I warrant if you
+listen to every man who thinks it worth while to jabber in your ear, you
+will find harm enough, without going far to seek it."
+
+"I thought it was only civil to speak when I was spoken to," replied
+Mary, with an air of mortification. "But I will be gone this moment:"
+and with these words the girl went forth upon her errand.
+
+A moment only elapsed when the door was abruptly thrown open, and the
+tall and swarthy figure of Wat Adair strode into the room. The glare of
+the blazing faggots of pine which had been thrown on the fire to light
+up the apartment, fell broadly over his person, and flung a black and
+uncouth shadow across the floor and upon the opposite wall; thus
+magnifying his proportions and imparting a picturesque character to his
+outward man. A thin, dark, weather-beaten countenance, animated by a
+bright and restless eye, expressed cunning rather than hardihood, and
+seemed habitually to alternate between the manifestations of waggish
+vivacity and distrust. The person of this individual might be said, from
+its want of symmetry and from a certain slovenly and ungraceful stoop in
+the head and shoulders, to have been protracted, rather than tall. It
+better deserved the description of sinewy than muscular, and
+communicated the idea of toughness in a greater degree than strength.
+His arms and legs were long; and the habit of keeping the knee bent as
+he walked, suggested a remote resemblance in his gait to that of a
+panther and other animals of the same species; it seemed to be adapted
+to a sudden leap or spring.
+
+His dress was a coarse and short hunting-shirt of dingy green, trimmed
+with a profusion of fringe, and sufficiently open at the collar to
+disclose his long and gaunt neck; a black leather belt supported a
+hunting knife and wallet; whilst a pair of rude deer-skin moccasins and
+a cap manufactured from the skin of some wild animal, and now deprived
+of its hair by long use, supplied the indispensable gear to either
+extremity of his person.
+
+Adair's first care was to bestow in their proper places his rifle and
+powder-horn; then to disburden himself of a number of squirrels which
+were strung carelessly over his person, and, finally, to throw himself
+into a chair that occupied one side of the fire-place. The light for a
+moment blinded him, and it was not until he shaded his brow with his
+hand and looked across the hearth, that he became aware of the presence
+of the strangers. His first gaze was directed to Butler, to whom he
+addressed the common interrogatory, "Travelling in these parts, sir?"
+and, before time was afforded for a reply to this accost, his eye
+recognised the sergeant, upon which, starting from his seat, he made up
+to our sturdy friend, and slapping him familiarly on the back, uttered a
+chuckling laugh, as he exclaimed:
+
+"Why, Galbraith, is it you, man? To be sure it is! What wind has blown
+you up here? Have you been running from red coats, or are you hunting of
+Tories, or are you looking for beeves? Who have you got with you here?"
+
+"Wat, it don't consarn you to know what brought us here--it is only your
+business to do the best you can for us whilst we are here," replied the
+sergeant. "This here gentleman is Mr. Butler, a friend of mine that
+wants to get across into Georgia; and trouble enough we've had to find
+our way this far, Wat Adair. You've got such an uproarious country, and
+such a cursed set of quarrelsome devils in it, that a peaceable man is
+clean out of fashion amongst you. We are as wet as muskrats in swimming
+the river, and as hungry as wolves in winter."
+
+"And happy," said Butler, "to be at last under the roof of a friend."
+
+"Well, I am glad to see you both," replied Wat. "What put it in my head,
+Galbraith, I am sure I can't tell, but I was thinking about you this
+very day; said I to myself, I should just like to see Horse Shoe
+Robinson, the onconceivable, superfluous, roaring devil! Haw, haw, haw!"
+
+"You were ashamed of your own company, Wat, and wanted to see a decent
+man once more," replied Horse Shoe, echoing the laugh.
+
+"Mary Musgrove, bustle, girl," said the woodman, as the maiden entered
+the room with her arms loaded with ears of Indian corn, "bustle, mink!
+here are two runaways with stomachs like mill stones to grind your corn.
+Horse Shoe, get up from that chist, man; I can give you a little drop of
+liquor, if you will let me rummage there for it. Marcus, boy, go bring
+us in a jug of cool water. Wife, I'm 'stonished you didn't think of
+giving our friends something to drink afore."
+
+"I am sure I don't pretend to know friend from foe," returned the dame;
+"and it is a bad way to find that out by giving them liquor."
+
+When the boy returned with the water, and the host had helped his guests
+to a part of the contents of a flask which had been extracted from the
+chest, Butler took occasion to commend the alacrity of the young
+servitor.
+
+"This is one of your children, I suppose?"
+
+"A sort of a pet cub," replied the woodman; "just a small specimen of my
+fetching up: trees squirrels like a dog--got the nose of a hound--can
+track a raccoon in the dark--and the most meddlesome imp about fire-arms
+you ever see. Here t' other day got my rifle and shot away half the hair
+from his sister's head; but I reckon I skinned him for it! You can
+answer for that, Marcus, you shaver, eh?"
+
+"I expect you did," answered the boy pertly, "but I don't mind a
+whipping when I've got room to dodge."
+
+"Do you know, Mr. Butler, how I come to call that boy Marcus?" said
+Adair.
+
+"It is one of your family names, perhaps."
+
+"Not a bit. There's nare another boy nor man in this whole country round
+has such a name--nor woman, neither. It's a totally oncommon name. I
+called him after that there Frenchman that's come out here to help
+General Washington--Marcus Lafayette; and I think it sounds mighty
+well."
+
+Butler laughed, as he replied, "That was a soldierly thought of yours. I
+think you must call your next Baron, after our old Prussian friend De
+Kalb."
+
+"Do you hear that, wife?" exclaimed Wat. "Keep that in your head, if it
+will hold there a twelvemonth. No occasion to wait longer, haw! haw!
+haw!"
+
+"Wat talks like a natural born fool," retorted the wife. "We have no
+friends nor enemies on any side. The boy was called Marcus because Watty
+was headstrong, and not because we cared any more for one general nor
+another. I dare say there is faults enough on both sides, if the truth
+was told; and I can't see what people in the woods have to do with all
+this jarring about liberty and such nonsense."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" said Wat. "Boil your kettle, and give us none of
+your tinkling brass, as the Bible calls it. You see, Horse Shoe, there's
+such ridings and burnings, and shooting and murder about here, that
+these women are scared out of the little wits God has given them; and
+upon that account we are obliged sometimes to play a little double, just
+to keep out of harm's way. But I am sure I wish no ill to the
+Continental army."
+
+"If we thought you did, Wat," replied Robinson, "we would have slept on
+the hill to-night, rather than set foot across the sill of your door.
+Howsever, let's say nothing about that; I told Mr. Butler that you would
+give us the best you had, and so you will. I have known Wat Adair, Mr.
+Butler, a good many years. We used to call him Wat with the double hand.
+Show us your fist here, Wat. Look at that, sir! it's as broad as a
+shovel!"
+
+"Cutting of trees," said the woodman, as he spread his large
+horny-knuckled hand upon the supper table, "and handling of logs, will
+make any man's paw broad, and mine wa'n't small at first."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated the sergeant, "you ha'n't forgot Dick Rowley
+over here on Congaree, Wat,--Walloping Dick, as they nicknamed him--and
+the scrimmage you had with him when he sot to laughing at you because
+they accused you for being light-fingered, and your letting him see that
+you had a heavy hand, by giving him the full weight of it upon his ear
+that almost drove him through the window of the bar-room at the Cross
+Roads? You ha'n't forgot that--and his drawing his knife on you?"
+
+"To be sure I ha'n't. That fellow was about as superfluous a piece of
+wicked flesh as I say--as a man would meet on a summer's day journey.
+But for all that, Horse Shoe, he wa'n't going to supererogate me,
+without getting as good as he sent. When I come across one of your merry
+fellows that's for playing cantraps on a man, it's my rule to make them
+pay the piper; and that's a pretty good rule, Horse Shoe, all the world
+through. But come, here is supper; draw up, Mr. Butler."
+
+Mary Musgrove having completed the arrangement of the board whilst this
+conversation was in progress, the family now sat down to their repast.
+It was observable, during the meal, that Mary was very attentive in the
+discharge of the offices of the table, and especially when they were
+required by Butler. There was a modest and natural courtesy in her
+demeanor that attracted the notice of our soldier, and enhanced the
+kindly impression which the artless girl had made upon him; and it was,
+accordingly, with a feeling composed, in one degree, of curiosity to
+learn more of her character, and, in another, of that sort of tenderness
+which an open-hearted man is apt to entertain towards an ingenuous and
+pretty female, that he took occasion after supper, when Mary had seated
+herself on the threshold of the porch, to fall into conversation with
+her.
+
+"You do not live here, I think I have gathered, but are only on a
+visit?" was the remark addressed to the maiden.
+
+"No, sir; it is thirty good long miles by the shortest road, from this
+to my father's house. Mistress Adair is my mother's sister, and that
+makes her my aunt, you know, sir."
+
+"And your father's name?"
+
+"Allen Musgrove. He has a mill, sir, on the Ennoree."
+
+"You are the miller's daughter, then. Well, that's a pretty title. I
+suppose they call you so?"
+
+"The men sometimes call me," replied Mary, rising to her feet, and
+leaning carelessly against one of the upright timbers that supported the
+porch, "the miller's pretty daughter, but the women call me plain Mary
+Musgrove."
+
+"Faith, my dear, the men come nearer to the truth than the women."
+
+"They say not," replied the maiden, "I have heard, and sometimes I have
+read in good books--at least, they called them good books--that you
+mustn't believe the men."
+
+"And why should you not?"
+
+"I don't well know why not," returned the girl doubtingly, "but I am
+young, and maybe I shall find it out by and by."
+
+"God forbid," said Butler, "that you should ever gain that experience!
+But there are many toils spread for the feet of innocence in this world,
+and it is well to have a discreet eye and good friends."
+
+"I am seventeen, sir," replied Mary, "come next month; and though I have
+travelled backwards and forwards from here to Ennoree, and once to
+Camden, which, you know, sir, is a good deal of this world to see, I
+never knew anybody that thought harm of me. But I don't dispute there
+are men to be afraid of, and some that nobody could like. And yet I
+think a good man can be told by his face."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Yes. My father is a good man, and every one says you may see it in his
+looks."
+
+"I should like to know your father," said Butler.
+
+"I am sure he would be glad to know you, sir."
+
+"Now, my pretty miller's daughter, why do you think so?"
+
+"Because you are a gentleman," replied the girl, courtesying, "for all
+your homespun clothes."
+
+"Ha! pray how have you found that out?"
+
+"You talk differently from our people, sir. Your words or your voice, I
+can't rightly tell which, are softer than I have been used to hear. And
+you don't look, and walk, and behave as if homespun had been all you
+ever wore."
+
+"And is that all?"
+
+"You stop to consider, as if you were studying what would please other
+people; and you do not step so heavy, sir; and you do not swear; and you
+do not seem to like to give trouble. I can't think, sir, that you have
+been always used to such as are hereabouts. And then there's another
+reason, sir," added the maiden, almost in a whisper.
+
+"What is that?" asked Butler, smiling.
+
+"Why, sir, when you stooped down to pick up your fork, that fell from
+the table, I saw a blue ribbon round your neck, and a beautiful gold
+picture hanging to it. None but gentlemen of quality carry such things
+about them: and as there is so much contriving and bloody doings going
+on about here, I was sure you wasn't what you seemed."
+
+"For heaven's sake, my dear," exclaimed Butler, startled by the
+disclosure of the maiden's suspicion, which was so naturally accounted
+for, "keep this to yourself, and the time may come when I shall be able
+to reward your fidelity. If you have any good will towards me, as I hope
+you have, tell nobody what you have seen."
+
+"Never fear me, sir," returned the maid. "I wouldn't let on to any one
+in the house for the world. I am for General Washington and the
+Congress, which is more than I think the people here are."
+
+"Indeed!" muttered Butler, thoughtfully, and scarce above his breath.
+"What side does your father take, Mary?"
+
+"My father is an old man, sir. And he reads his Bible, and every night,
+before we go to bed, he prays aloud before us all, I mean all that
+belong to his house, for quiet once more and peace. His petition is that
+there may be an end of strife, and that the sword and spear may be
+turned into the pruning-hook and ploughshare--you know the words, sir,
+perhaps, for they are in the good book, and so he doesn't take any side.
+But then, the English officers are not far off, and they take his house
+and use it as they please, so that he has no mind of his own. And almost
+all the people round us are Tories, and we are afraid of our lives if we
+do not say whatever they say."
+
+"Alas! that's the misfortune of many more than your father's household.
+But how comes it that you are a friend of General Washington?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I think he is our friend; and then he is a good man. And I
+have a better reason still to be on his side," added the maiden
+tremulously, with her head averted.
+
+"What reason, my good girl?"
+
+"John Ramsay, sir."
+
+"Indeed! a very cogent reason, I doubt not, my pretty maid of the mill.
+And how does this reason operate?"
+
+"We have a liking, sir," she replied bashfully, but with innocent
+frankness; "he is for Washington, and we are to be married when the war
+is over."
+
+"Truly, that is a most excellent reason! Who is John Ramsay?"
+
+"He is a trooper, sir, and out with General Sumpter. We don't see him
+often now, for he is afraid to come home, excepting when the Tories are
+away."
+
+"These Tories are very troublesome, Mary," said Butler, laughing; "they
+annoy us all, on our side of the question. But love John Ramsay, my
+dear, and don't be ashamed of it, for I'll warrant he is a brave fellow,
+and deserves a pretty girl with a true heart, for his love to his
+country."
+
+"That he does!" replied Mary, "for his greatest fault is that he
+ventures too much. If you should see him, sir, I would like you just to
+drop him a hint that he ought to take more care of himself. He would
+mind it from you, but he puts me off with a laugh when I tell him so."
+
+"If I have the schooling of him, he shall be more cautious, for your
+sake. But the current of true love never did run smooth, Mary; remember
+that."
+
+"I must go into the house, my aunt Peggy calls me," interrupted the
+maiden. "I will keep the secret, sir," she added, as she retired from
+the porch to the household service where her presence was demanded.
+
+"Simple, innocent, and confiding girl," ejaculated Butler, as he now
+strolled forth under the starlit canopy of night; "how are you
+contrasted with the rough and savage natures around you! I wear but a
+thin disguise, when this unpractised country girl is able so soon to
+penetrate it. And this miniature, too! Oh, Mildred! that the very
+talisman I bear about me to guard me from evil, should betray me! Well,
+this discovery admonishes me that I should wear that image nearer to my
+heart. There," he continued, as he buttoned his waistcoat across his
+breast; "lie closer and more concealed. I doubt this double-faced
+woodman, and almost believe in the seeming frivolous dotings of the
+crone at his fire-side. Now, God defend us from treachery and
+ambuscade!"
+
+Robinson, at this moment, being on his way to the stable, was met by
+Butler, who half whispered, "Good sergeant, keep your eyes about you,
+and, mark me, do not omit to take our weapons to our chamber. I have
+reasons for this caution. I would not trust these people too far."
+
+"Wat dare not play us a trick, major," replied the sergeant. "He knows
+I would shake the life out of his carcase if I saw him take one step of
+a traitor. Besides, in this here war time, it's a part of my discipline
+to be always ready for stolen marches. As you say, major, we will stack
+arms where we sleep. There is no trust in this dubious country that
+isn't something the surer with powder and ball to back it."
+
+With this intimation the sergeant continued his walk, and Butler,
+retiring to the family group, seated himself near the fire.
+
+Wat Adair and his crony, Michael Lynch, had each lighted a pipe, and
+were now in close conference under the cover of their own smoke, amidst
+the combined din of romping children and of the noisy spinning-wheel of
+the wife, which gave life and occupation to the apartment.
+
+"How far do you expect to travel to-morrow?" asked the host, as Butler
+drew a chair near him.
+
+"That will depend very much," replied Butler, "upon the advice you may
+give us."
+
+"You wish to get across here into Georgia?" continued Wat.
+
+"By the route least liable to molestation," added the major.
+
+"Let me see, Michael, Grindall's Ford is the best point to make: then
+there's Christie's, about three miles beyont."
+
+"Just so," replied Lynch; "that will make about twenty-seven and three
+are thirty miles: an easy day's journey."
+
+"In that case," said Adair, "if you know the road--doesn't Horse Shoe
+know it, sir?"
+
+"I rather think not," answered Butler.
+
+"Well, it's a little tangled, to be sure; but if you will wait in the
+morning until I look at my wolf trap, which is only a step off, I will
+go with you part of the way, just to see you through one or two cross
+paths: after that all is clear enough. You will have a long day before
+you, and, with good horses, not much to do."
+
+"Are we likely to meet parties on the road?" asked Butler.
+
+"Oh, Lord, sir, no chance of it," replied the woodman; "everything is
+drawing so to a head down below at Camden 'twixt Cornwallis and Gates,
+that we have hardly anything but old women left to keep the country free
+of Indians."
+
+"And how have you escaped the levy?" inquired the major.
+
+"He, he, he!" chuckled our host; "there's a trick in that. They call me
+a man of doubtful principles, and neither side are willing to own me,"
+he added, with a tone that seemed to indicate a sense of his own
+cleverness. "But, bless you, sir, if I chose to speak out, there
+wouldn't be much doubt in the case. Would there, Michael?"
+
+"Not if you was to be plain in declaring your sentiments," answered
+Lynch, sedately puffing out a huge cloud of smoke.
+
+"Betwixt you and me, sir," continued Wat, putting his hand up to his
+mouth, and winking an eye at Butler, "the thing's clear enough. But
+these are ticklish times, Mr. Butler, and the wise man keepeth his own
+counsel, as the Scripture says. You understand me, I dare say."
+
+"Perhaps, I do," returned Butler. And here the conversation dropped, Wat
+and his companion gravely pouring forth volumes of tobacco-fumes in
+silence, until the sergeant, having made his visit to the stable, now
+re-entered the room.
+
+"Wat," said Robinson, "show us where we are to sleep. Mr. Butler, to my
+thinking, it's time to be turning in."
+
+Then throwing his rifle upon one arm, and Butler's holsters over the
+other, the sergeant waited in the middle of the floor until Mary
+Musgrove, at the order of Adair, took a candle in her hand, and beckoned
+our travellers to follow her out at the door. The maiden conducted her
+charge along the porch to the opposite end of the cabin, where she
+pointed out their chamber. After bidding their pretty conductress "good
+night," our travellers prepared themselves for that repose which their
+wearied frames did not long seek in vain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SOMETHING VERY LIKE A DREAM.
+
+
+It was after midnight, and the inmates of the woodman's cabin had been
+some hours at rest, when Mary Musgrove's sleep was disturbed by strange
+and unwonted alarms. She was dreaming of Arthur Butler, and a crowd of
+pleasant visions flitted about her pillow, when, suddenly, clouds
+darkened the world of her dream, and images of bloodshed caused her to
+shudder. Horrid shapes appeared to her, marching with stealthy pace
+through her apartment, and a low and smothered footfall seemed to strike
+her ear like the ticking of a death-watch. The fright awakened her, but
+when she came to herself all was still. Her chamber was at the opposite
+end of the cabin from that where Butler and Robinson slept, and it was
+separated from the room occupied by Lynch only by a thin partition of
+boards. The starlight through her window fell upon the floor, just
+touching, as it passed, the chair over which Mary had hung her clothes,
+and lighting with a doubtful and spectral light the prominent points of
+the pile of garments, in such manner as to give it the semblance of some
+unearthly thing. Mary Musgrove had the superstition common to rustic
+education, and, as her dream had already filled her mind with
+apprehensions, she now trembled when her eye fell upon what seemed to
+her a visitant from another world. For some moments she experienced that
+most painful of all sufferings, the agony of young and credulous minds
+when wrought upon by their horror of spectres in the night. Gradually,
+however, the truth came to her aid, and she saw the dreaded ghost
+disrobed of his terrors, and changed into a familiar and harmless
+reality. But this night-fear was scarcely dissipated before she again
+heard, what in her sleep had conjured up the train of disagreeable
+images, the noise of footsteps in the adjoining room. In another instant
+she recognised the sound of voices conversing in a half whisper.
+
+"Michael," said the first voice; "Damn it, man, will you never awake?
+Rouse yourself; it is time to be stirring."
+
+"Wat!" exclaimed the second voice, with a loud yawn, whilst at the same
+moment the creaking of the bedstead and a sullen sound upon the floor
+showed that the speaker had risen from his couch. "Is it you? I have
+hardly gone to bed, before you are here to rouse me up. What o'clock is
+it?"
+
+"It is nearly one," replied Wat Adair. "And let me tell you, you have no
+time to lose. Hugh Habershaw is good ten miles off, and you must be back
+by daylight."
+
+"You might have given me another hour, I think, if it was only to
+consider over the right way of setting about this thing. Always look
+before you leap, that's common sense."
+
+"You were always a heavy-headed devil," said Adair; "and take as much
+spurring as a spavined horse. What have you to do with considering?
+Isn't all fixed? Jog, man, jog. You have a beautiful starlight: and I
+had the crop-ear put up in the stable last night, that no time might be
+lost; so up, and saddle, and away!"
+
+"Well, you needn't be so d----d busy; don't you see that I am getting
+ready?"
+
+"Quiet, Mike; you talk too loud. Take your shoes in your hand, you can
+put them on when you get into the porch."
+
+"There, give me my coat, Wat; and I think I should have no objection to
+a drop before I set out. It's raw riding of a morning. Now tell me
+exactly what I am to say to Hugh Habershaw."
+
+"Tell him," replied Wat, "that we have got Horse Shoe Robinson and Major
+Butler of the Continental army, as snug as a pair of foxes in a bag, and
+that I will let them run exactly at seven; and--"
+
+"Not to interrupt you, Wat," said the other, "let me ask you a question
+before you go on. Suppose this shouldn't be the man? Are you sure of it?
+It would be a d----d unchristian job to give over any other human being
+to such a set of bloodhounds as Hugh Habershaw and his gang."
+
+"Shaw, Mike; you are a fool! Who, in the name of all the imps, could it
+be, but Major Butler! Weren't we expecting him along with Horse Shoe,
+and just at this time?"
+
+"It looks likely enough," replied Lynch. "So go on."
+
+"Tell Hugh to be ready at the Dogwood Spring, at the latest, by eight
+o'clock. I'll give him a game to play that will supple his joints for
+him. And mind me Mike, warn the greasy captain to have his whole squad
+with him; for Horse Shoe Robinson, you know, is not to be handled by
+boys; it will be a bull-fight, or I'm mistaken."
+
+"The major seems to have a wicked eye too, Wat," said Lynch. "I
+shouldn't like much to be in his way, if he was angry; these copperheads
+are always in a coil ready to strike. But, Wat, how if they don't ride
+by the Dogwood Spring?"
+
+"Leave that to me; I'll contrive to go as far as the forks of the road
+with them. And then, if they don't take the right hand fork, why, you
+may say it's for the want of my not knowing how to tell a lie."
+
+"Now, Wat Adair, I don't like to spoil sport, but, may be, you have
+never thought whether it would be worth while just to take t'other side,
+and tell Horse Shoe the whole business. Couldn't we, don't you think,
+get as much money, and just as honestly, by hoisting colors with Major
+Butler?"
+
+"But I _have_ thought of that, and it won't do, for two reasons. First,
+these Continentals are on the down-hill, and money is as scarce with
+them as honesty with the red-coats: and, second, the Tories have got so
+much the upper hand in the whole country, that I should have my house
+burnt down and my children thrown into the blaze of it, in less than
+three days, if I was to let these fellows slip through my fingers."
+
+"Well, I never knew," said Mike Lynch, "any piece of villany that hadn't
+some good reasons to stand by it, and that's what makes it agreeable to
+my conscience to take a hand."
+
+"Why, you off-scouring," replied Wat, "it is enough to make Old Scratch
+laugh, to hear you talk about conscience! There ain't no such a thing
+going in these days. So be off; I'll look for you at daylight."
+
+"I'll ride, Wat, as if the devil was on my crupper; so good bye!"
+
+The cessation of the voices, the distant tramp of Lynch when he had left
+the cabin, and the cautious retreat of Wat Adair to his chamber, told
+to Mary that the affair was settled, and the plan of treachery in full
+career towards its consummation.
+
+The dialogue that had just passed in the hearing of the maiden,
+disclosed a plot that deeply agitated and distressed her. What did it
+become her to do, was the first question that presented itself to her
+reflection, as soon as she was sufficiently self-possessed to turn her
+thoughts upon herself. Was it in her power to avert the impending
+disaster which threatened the lives, perhaps, of those who had sought
+the hospitality of her kinsman? Perplexed, dismayed, and uncertain how
+to act, she had recourse to an expedient natural to her education, and
+such as would appear most obvious to a feeble and guileless female: it
+was to the simple and faith-inspired expedient of prayer. And now, in
+artless but sincere language, having first risen up in her bed, and bent
+her body across her pillow, in the attitude of supplication, she
+fervently implored the support of Heaven in her present strait, and
+besought wisdom and strength to conceive and to do that which was
+needful for the security of the individuals whose peace was threatened
+by this conspiracy.
+
+"I will arise," she said, as she finished her short and earnest prayer,
+"with the first light of the dawn, and wait the coming of the strangers
+from their chamber, and I will then be the first to tell them of the
+snare that is prepared for them." With this resolve she endeavored to
+compose herself to rest, but sleep fled her eyelids, and her anxious
+thoughts dwelt upon and even magnified the threatened perils. It might
+be too late, she reflected, to wait for the dawn of day; Adair might be
+before her at the door of the guests, and his constant presence might
+take from her all hope of being able to communicate the important secret
+to them: it was undoubtedly her surest course to take advantage of the
+stillness of the night, whilst the household were wrapt in sleep, and
+apprise the strangers of their danger. But then, how was she to make her
+way to their apartment, and arouse them, at this hour, from their
+slumbers? To what suspicions might the attempt expose her, even from
+Arthur Butler himself? And, more particularly, what would John Ramsay
+think of it, if the story should be afterwards told to her disadvantage?
+
+This last was an interrogatory which Mary Musgrove was often found
+putting to herself, in winding up a self-communion. On the present
+occasion this appeal to the opinion of John Ramsay had the opposite
+effect from that which might have been expected from it. It suggested
+new lights to her mind, and turned her thoughts into another current,
+and brought that resolution to her aid which her prayer was intended to
+invoke. What would John Ramsay think--he, the friend of liberty, and of
+Washington, the compatriot of Butler and Robinson, now toiling with them
+in the same cause! What would he think, if she, his own Mary (and the
+maiden rested a moment on this phrase), did _not_ do everything in her
+power to save these soldiers of independence from the blow which
+treachery was now aiming at them? "John would have good right to be
+angry with me," she breathed out in a voice that even startled herself,
+"if I did not give them full warning of what I have heard. This I am
+sure of, he will believe _my_ story whatever others may say."
+
+Innocence and purity of mind are both sword and shield in this world,
+and no less inspire confidence to defy the malice and uncharitableness
+of enemies than they strengthen the arm to do what is right. Mary,
+therefore, resolved to forego all maidenly scruples and bravely to
+perform her duty, come what might; and having settled upon this
+conclusion she impatiently awaited the moment when she might venture
+forth upon her office of humanity. In this situation it was not long
+before she heard the distant footfall of a horse's gallop along the
+road, indicating to her the departure of Michael Lynch upon his
+traitorous embassy.
+
+The time seemed to be propitious, so Mary arose and dressed herself.
+Then tripping stealthily to the door that opened upon the porch, she
+undid the bolt. A loud and prolonged creak, from the wooden hinges,
+caused her to shake from head to foot. She listened for a moment, and,
+finding that no one stirred, stepped forth with the timid and faltering
+step which would no less have marked the intent of the burglar, than, as
+now it did, the frightened motion of a guardian spirit bent upon an
+errand of good. Midway along the porch she had to pass the window of
+Adair's apartment; first, the low growl, and then the sudden bark of the
+watch-dog saluted her ear, and made her blood run cold. The maiden's
+hand, however, soothed him into silence; but the noise had attracted
+the notice of Wat Adair, who grumbled out a short curse from within,
+which was distinctly audible to Mary. She hastily fled to the further
+end of the porch, and there stood cowering close against the wall,
+almost as mute and motionless as a statue, scarce daring to breathe, and
+poised, as in the act to run, with her weight resting on one foot, the
+other raised from the floor. In this position she remained during a long
+interval of fear, until, at length, convinced that all was quiet, she
+again ventured forward. The window of the travellers' chamber looked out
+from the gable end of the dwelling, and she was now immediately before
+it. One of the beds of the room, she knew, was placed beside this
+window, and was occupied by either Butler or Robinson. Tremblingly and
+mistrustfully, she gave a feeble tap with her hand against the sash.
+There was no answer: the sleep within was the sleep of tired men, and
+was not to be broken by the light play of a maiden's fingers. She now
+picked up a pebble from the ground, and with it again essayed to wake
+the sleepers. This, too, was unsuccessful. In utter hopelessness of
+accomplishing her purpose by other means, she ventured upon raising the
+sash; and having done so, she thrust her head partially into the room as
+she held up the window-frame with one hand, crying out with an almost
+choked voice.
+
+"Mr. Butler! Mr. Butler! For mercy, awake!"
+
+There was no other response but the deep breathings of the sleep-subdued
+inmates.
+
+"Oh! what shall I do?" she exclaimed, as her heart beat with a violent
+motion. "I might as well call to the dead. Mr. Galbraith Robinson! Ah
+me, I cannot rouse them without alarming the whole house! Major Butler,"
+she continued, laying a particular stress upon this designation of his
+rank, "Oh, good sir, awake!"
+
+"What do you want?" muttered Butler in a smothered and sleep-stifled
+voice, as he turned himself heavily on his pillow, like one moved by a
+dream.
+
+"Oh, heaven, sir, make no noise! I am ashamed to tell you who I am,"
+said the terrified girl, "but I come for your good--I have something to
+tell you."
+
+"Away, away!" cried Butler, speaking in his sleep, "I will not be
+disturbed: I do not fear you. Begone!"
+
+"Oh, sir, hear me," entreated the maiden, "the people in this house know
+you and they are contriving evil against you."
+
+"It makes no difference," muttered the only half-awakened soldier. "I
+will ride where it suits me, if the Tories were as thick as the leaves
+of the trees."
+
+"There are people gathering to do you harm to-morrow," continued Mary,
+not suspecting the unconsciousness of the person to whom she addressed
+herself, "and I only come with a word of warning to you. Do not ride by
+the Dogwood Spring to-morrow, nor take the right hand road at the first
+forks: there are wicked men upon that road. Have your eye," she
+whispered, "upon my uncle Walter. Ride fast and far, before you stop;
+and pray, sir, as you think fairly of me--Mary Musgrove, sir,--the
+daughter of Allen Musgrove, the miller--oh, do not tell my name. If you
+knew John Ramsay, sir, I am certain you would believe me."
+
+The watch-dog had growled once or twice during the period while Mary
+spoke, and at this moment the door of the principal room of the cabin
+was heard to move slightly ajar, and the voice of Adair, in a whisper,
+reached the girl's ear.
+
+"Hist, Michael! In the devil's name what brought you back? Why do you
+loiter, when time is so precious?"
+
+A long, heavy, and inarticulate exclamation, such as belongs to
+disturbed sleep, escaped from Butler.
+
+"Father of heaven, I shall let the window fall with fright!" inwardly
+ejaculated Mary, as she still occupied her uneasy station. "Hush, it is
+the voice of my uncle."
+
+There was a painful pause.
+
+A heavy rush of wind agitated the trees, and sweeping along the porch
+caused some horse-gear that was suspended against the wall to vibrate
+with a rustling noise: the sound pierced Mary's ear like the accents of
+a ghost, and her strength had well nigh failed her from
+faint-heartedness.
+
+"I thought it was Michael," said Adair, speaking to some one within,
+"but it is only the rattling of harness and the dreaming of Drummer.
+These dogs have a trick of whining and growling in their sleep according
+to a way of their own. They say a dog sometimes sees a spirit at night.
+But man or devil it's all one to old Drummer! Sleep quiet, you
+superfluous, and have done with your snoring!"
+
+With these words, the door was again closed, and Mary, for the moment,
+was released from suffering.
+
+"Remember," she uttered in the most fear-stricken tone, as she lowered
+the sash. "Be sure to take the left hand road at the first fork!"
+
+"In God's name, what is it? Where are you?" was the exclamation heard by
+Mary as the window was closing. She did not halt for further parley or
+explanation, but now hastily stole back, like a frightened bird towards
+its thicket. Panting and breathless, she regained her chamber, and with
+the utmost expedition betook herself again to bed, where, gratified by
+the consciousness of having done a good action, and fully trusting that
+her caution would not be disregarded, she gradually dismissed her
+anxiety, and, before the hour of dawning, had fallen into a gentle
+though not altogether unperturbed slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HORSE SHOE AND BUTLER RESUME THEIR JOURNEY, WHICH IS DELAYED BY A SAVAGE
+INCIDENT.
+
+
+Morning broke, and with the first day-streak Robinson turned out of his
+bed, leaving Butler so thoroughly bound in the spell of sleep, that he
+was not even moved by the loud and heavy tramp of the sergeant, as that
+weighty personage donned his clothes. Horse Shoe's first habit in the
+morning was to look after Captain Peter, and he accordingly directed his
+steps towards the rude shed which served as a stable, at the foot of the
+hill. Here, to his surprise, he discovered that the fence-rails which,
+the night before, had been set up as a barrier across the vacant
+doorway, had been let down, and that no horses were to be seen about the
+premises.
+
+"What hocus-pocus has been here?" said he to himself, as he gazed upon
+the deserted stable. "Have these rummaging and thieving Tories been out
+maraudering in the night? or is it only one of Captain Peter's
+old-sodger tricks, letting down bars and leading the young geldings into
+mischief? That beast can snuff the scent of a corn field or a pasture
+ground as far as a crow smells gunpowder. He'd dislocate and corruptify
+any innocent stable of horses in Carolina!"
+
+In doubt to which of these causes to assign this disappearance of their
+cavalry, the sergeant ascended the hill hard-by, and directed his eye
+over the neighboring fields, hoping to discover the deserters in some of
+the adjacent pastures. But he could get no sight of them. He then
+returned to the stable and fell to examining the ground about the door,
+in order to learn something of the departure of the animals by their
+tracks. These were sufficiently distinct to convince him that Captain
+Peter, whose shoes had a peculiar mark well known to the sergeant, had
+eloped during the night, in company with the major's gelding and two
+others, these being all, as Horse Shoe had observed, that were in the
+stable at the time he had retired to bed. He forthwith followed the
+foot-prints which led him into the high road, and thence along it
+westward for about two hundred paces, where a set of field bars, now
+thrown down, afforded entrance into the cornfield. At this point the
+sergeant traced the deviation of three of the horses into the field,
+whilst the fourth, it was evident, had continued upon the road.
+
+The conclusion which Galbraith drew from this phenomenon was expressed
+by a wise shake of the head and a profound fit of abstraction. He took
+his seat upon a projecting rail at the angle of the fence, and began to
+sum up conjectures in the following phrase:
+
+"The horse that travelled along that road, never travelled of his own
+free will: that's as clear as preaching. Well, he wa'n't rode by Wat nor
+by Mike Lynch, or else they are arlier men than I take them to be: but
+still, I'll take a book oath that creetur went with a bridle across his
+head, and a pair o' legs astride his back. And whoever held that bridle
+in his hand, did it for no good! Scampering here and scampering there,
+and scouring woods in the night too, when the country is as full of
+Tories as a beggar's coat with----, it's a dogmatical bad sign, take it
+which way you will. Them three horses had the majority, and it is the
+nature of these beasts always to follow the majority: that's an
+observation I have made; and, in particular, if there's a cornfield, or
+an oatpatch, or a piece of fresh pasture to be got into, every
+individual horse is unanimous on the subject."
+
+Whilst the sergeant was engrossed with these reflections, "he was ware,"
+as the old ballads have it, of a man trudging past him along the road.
+This was no other than Wat Adair, who was striding forward with a long
+and rapid step, and with all the appearance of one intent upon some
+pressing business.
+
+"Halloo! who goes there? where away so fast, Wat?" was Robinson's
+challenge.
+
+"Horse Shoe!" exclaimed Adair, in a key that bespoke surprise, and even
+alarm,--"Ha, ha, ha!--By the old woman's pipe, you frightened me! I'll
+swear, Galbraith Robinson, I heard you snoring as I passed by your
+window three minutes ago."
+
+"I'll swear that's not the truest word you ever spoke in your life,
+Wat; though true enough for you, mayhap. Do you see how cleverly yon
+light has broke across the whole sky? When I first turned out this
+morning it was a little ribbon of day: the burning of a block-house at
+night, ten miles off, would have made a broader streak. It was your own
+snoring you heard, Wat; you have only forgot under whose window it was."
+
+"What old witch has been pinching you, Horse Shoe, that _you_ are up so
+early?" asked Adair. "Get back to the house, man, I will be with you
+presently; I have my farm to look after, I'll see you presently."
+
+"You seem to me to be in a very onreasonable hurry, Wat, considering
+that you have the day before you. But, softly, I'll walk with you, if
+you have no unliking to it."
+
+"No, no, I'm busy, Galbraith; I'm going to look after my traps; I'd
+rather you'd go back to the house and hurry breakfast. Go! You would
+only get scratched with briers if you followed me."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! Wat! Briers, did you say? Look here, man, do you see them
+there legs? Do they look as if they couldn't laugh at yourn in any sort
+of scrambling I had a mind to set them to? Tut, I'll go with you just to
+larn you the march drill."
+
+"Then I'll not budge a foot after the traps."
+
+"You are crusty, Wat Adair; what's the matter with you?"
+
+"Is Major Butler up yet?" asked the woodman thoughtfully.
+
+"_Who_ do you say? _Major_ Butler."
+
+"_Major!_" cried Adair, with affected surprise.
+
+"Yes, you called him Major Butler?"
+
+"I had some dream, I think, about him: or, didn't you call him so
+yourself, Horse Shoe?"
+
+"Most undoubtedly, I did not," replied Robinson seriously.
+
+"Then I dreamt it, Horse Shoe: these dreams sometimes get into the head,
+like things we have been told. But, Galbraith, tell me the plain
+up-and-down truth, what brings you and Mr. Butler into these parts? What
+are you after in Georgia? It does seem strange to find men that are
+wanted below, straggling here in our woods at such a time as this."
+
+"There are two sorts of men in this world, Wat," said the sergeant, with
+a smile, "them that axes questions, and them that won't answer
+questions. Now, which, do you think, I belong to? Why, to the last, you
+tinker! Where are our horses, Wat? Tell me that. Who let them out of the
+stable?"
+
+"Perhaps they let themselves out," replied Adair, "they were not
+haltered."
+
+"You are either knave or fool, Wat. Come here. There are the tracks of
+the beast that carried the man up this road, who sot loose all the
+horses that were in that stable."
+
+"Mike Lynch, perhaps," said Adair, with an assumed expression of
+ignorance. "Where can that fellow have been so early? Oh, I remember, he
+told me last night that he was going this morning to the blacksmith's.
+He ought to be back by this time."
+
+"And you are here to larn the news from him?" said the sergeant, eyeing
+Adair with a suspicious scrutiny.
+
+"You have just hit it, Horse Shoe," returned Wat, laughing. "I did want
+to know if there were any more squads of troopers foraging about this
+district: for these cursed fellows whip in upon a man and cut him up
+blade and ear, without so much as thanks for their pillage, and so I
+told Mike to inquire of the blacksmith, for he is more like to know than
+anybody else, whether there was any more of these pestifarious
+scrummagers abroad."
+
+"And your traps, Wat?"
+
+"That was only a lie, Galbraith--I confess it. I was afeard to make you
+uneasy by telling you what I was after. But still it wasn't a broad,
+stark, daylight lie neither; it was only a civil fib, for I was going
+after my wolf trap before I got my breakfast. But here comes Mike."
+
+At this juncture Lynch was seen emerging from the wood, mounted on a
+rough, untrimmed pony, which he was urging forward under repeated blows
+with his stick. The little animal was covered with foam; and, from his
+travel-worn plight, gave evidence of having been taxed to the utmost of
+his strength in a severe journey. At some hundred paces distant, the
+rider detected the presence of Adair and his companion, and came to a
+sudden halt. He appeared to deliberate as if with a purpose to escape
+their notice; but finding that he was already observed by them, he put
+his horse again in motion, advancing only at a slow walk. Adair hastily
+quitted Robinson, and, walking forward until he met Lynch, turned about
+and accompanied him along the road, conversing during this interval in
+a key too low to be heard by the sergeant.
+
+"Here's Horse Shoe thrusting his head into our affairs. Conjure a lie
+quickly about your being at the blacksmith's; I told him you were there
+to hear the news."
+
+"Aye, aye! I understand."
+
+"You saw Hugh?"
+
+"Yes. The gang will be at their post."
+
+"Hush! Be merry; laugh and have a joke--Horse Shoe is very suspicious."
+
+"You have ridden the crop-ear like a stolen horse," continued Adair, as
+soon as he found himself within the sergeant's hearing. "See what a
+flurry you have put the dumb beast in. If it had been your own nag, Mike
+Lynch, I warrant you would have been more tedious with him."
+
+"The crop-ear is not worth the devil's fetching, Wat. He is as lazy as a
+land-turtle, and too obstinate for any good-tempered man's patience.
+Look at that stick--I have split it into a broom on the beast."
+
+"You look more like a man at the end of the day than at the beginning of
+it," said Robinson. "How far had you to ride, Michael?"
+
+"Only over here to the shop of Billy Watson, in the Buzzard's nest,"
+replied Lynch, "which isn't above three miles at the farthest. My saw
+wanted setting, so I thought I'd make an early job of it, but this beast
+is so cursed dull I have been good three-quarters of an hour since I
+left the smith's."
+
+"What news do you bring?" inquired Adair.
+
+"Oh, none worth telling again. That cross-grained, contrary,
+rough-and-tumble bear gouger, old Hide-and-Seek, went down yesterday
+with the last squad of Ferguson's new draughts."
+
+"Wild Tom Eskridge," said Wat Adair. "You knowed him, Horse Shoe, a
+superfluous imp of Satan!" continued the woodman, laying a particular
+accent on the penultimate of this favorite adjective, which he was
+accustomed to use as expressive of strong reprobation. "So he is cleared
+out at last! Well, I'm glad on't, for he was the only fellow in these
+hills I was afeard would give you trouble, Galbraith."
+
+"Superfluous or not," replied the sergeant, pronouncing the word in the
+same manner as the woodman, and equally ignorant of its meaning, "it
+will be a bad day for Tom Eskridge, the rank, obstropolous Tory, when he
+meets me, Wat Adair. I have reason to think that he tried to clap some
+of Tarleton's dragoons on my back over here at the Waxhaws. There's hemp
+growing for that scape-grace at this very time."
+
+"You heard of no red coats about the Tiger?" asked Adair.
+
+"Not one," replied Lynch; "the nearest post is Cruger's, in Ninety-Six."
+
+"Then your way, Mr. Robinson, is tolerable for to-day," added Adair:
+"but war is war, and there is always some risk to be run when men are
+parading with their rifles in their hands. But see! it is hard upon
+sunrise. Let us go and give some directions about breakfast. I will send
+out some of the boys to hunt up the horses; they will be ready by the
+time we have had something to eat."
+
+Without further delay, Adair strode rapidly up the hill to the
+dwelling-house, the sergeant and Lynch following as soon as the latter
+had put his jaded beast in the stable. By the time these were assembled
+in the porch the family began to show signs of life, and it was a little
+after sunrise when Butler came forth ready for the prosecution of his
+journey. A few words were exchanged in private between Lynch and the
+woodman, and after much idle talk and contrived delay, two lazy and
+loitering negro boys were sent off in quest of the travellers' horses.
+Not long after this the animals were seen coursing from one part of the
+distant field to another, defying all attempts to get them into a
+corner, or to compel them to pass through the place that had been opened
+in order to drive them towards the stable.
+
+There was an air of concern and silent bewilderment visible upon
+Butler's features, and an occasional expression of impatience escaped
+his lips as he watched from the porch the ineffectual efforts of the
+negroes to force the truant steeds towards the house.
+
+"All in good time," said Adair, answering the thoughts and looks of
+Butler, rather than his words, "all in good time; they must have their
+play out. It is a good sign, sir, to see a traveller's horse so
+capersome of a morning. Wife, make haste with your preparations; Horse
+Shoe and his friend here mustn't be kept back from their day's journey.
+Stir yourself, Mary Musgrove!"
+
+"Will the gentlemen stay for breakfast?" inquired Mary, with a doubtful
+look at Butler.
+
+"Will they? To be sure they will! Would you turn off friends from the
+door with empty stomachs, you mink, and especially with a whole day's
+starvation ahead of them?" exclaimed the woodman.
+
+"I thought they had far to ride," replied the girl, "and would choose,
+rather than wait, to take some cold provision to eat upon the road."
+
+"Tush! Go about your business, niece! The horses are not caught yet, and
+you may have your bacon fried before they are at the door."
+
+"It shall be ready, then, in a moment," returned Mary, and she betook
+herself diligently to her task of preparation. During the interval that
+followed, the maiden several times attempted to gain a moment's speech
+with Butler, but the presence of Adair or Lynch as frequently forbade
+even a whisper; and the morning meal was at length set smoking on the
+table without the arrival of the desired opportunity. The repast was
+speedily finished, and the horses having surrendered to the emissaries
+who had been despatched to bring them in, were now in waiting for their
+masters. Horse Shoe put into the woodman's hand a small sum of money in
+requital for the entertainment afforded to his comrade and himself, and
+having arranged their baggage upon the saddles, announced that they were
+ready to set forward on their journey. Whilst the travellers were
+passing the farewells customary on such occasions, Mary Musgrove, whose
+manner during the whole morning gave many indications of a painful
+secret concern, now threw herself in Butler's way, and as she modestly
+offered him her hand at parting, and heard the little effusion of
+gallantry and compliment with which it was natural for a well-bred man
+and a soldier to speak at such a moment, she took the opportunity to
+whisper--"The left hand road at the Fork--remember!" and instantly
+glided away to another part of the house. Butler paused but for an
+instant, and then hurried forward with the sergeant to their horses.
+
+"Wat, you promised to put us on the track to Grindall's Ford," said
+Horse Shoe, as he rose into his seat.
+
+"I am ready to go part of the way with you," replied the woodman, "I
+will see you to the Fork, and after that you must make out for
+yourselves. Michael, fetch me my rifle."
+
+It was not more than half past six when the party set forth on their
+journey. Our two travellers rode along at an easy gait, and Wat Adair,
+throwing his rifle carelessly across his shoulder, stepped out with a
+long swinging step that kept him, without difficulty, abreast of the
+horsemen, as they pursued their way over hill and dale.
+
+They had not journeyed half a mile before they reached a point in the
+woods at which Adair called a halt.
+
+"My trap is but a little off the road," he said, "and I must beg you to
+stop until I see what luck I have this morning. It's a short business
+and soon done. This way, Horse Shoe; it is likely I may give you sport
+this morning."
+
+"Our time is pressing," said Butler. "Pray give us your directions as to
+the road, and we will leave you."
+
+"You would never find it in these woods," replied Wat; "there are two or
+three paths leading through here, and the road is a blind one till you
+come to the fork; the trap is not a hundred yards out of your way."
+
+"Rather than stop to talk about it, Wat," said the sergeant, "we will
+follow you, so go on."
+
+The woodman now turned into the thickets, and opening his way through
+the bushes, in a few moments conducted the two soldiers to the foot of a
+large gum tree.
+
+"By all the crows, I have got my lady!" exclaimed Wat Adair, with a
+whoop that made the woods ring. "The saucy slut! I have yoked her, Horse
+Shoe Robinson! There's a picture worth looking at."
+
+"Who?" cried Butler; "of whom are you speaking?"
+
+"Look for yourself, sir," replied the woodman. "There's the mischievous
+devil; an old she-wolf that I have been hunting these two years. Oh, ho,
+madam! Your servant!"
+
+Upon looking near the earth, our travellers descried the object of this
+triumphant burst of joy, in a large wolf that was now struggling to
+release herself from the thraldom of her position. The trap was
+ingeniously contrived. It consisted of a long opening into the hollow
+trunk of the tree, beginning about four feet from the ground and cut out
+with an axe down to the root. An aperture had been made at the upper end
+of the slit about a foot wide, and the wood had been hewed away
+downwards, in such a manner as to render the slit gradually narrower as
+it approached the lower extremity, until near the earth it was not more
+than four inches in width, thus forming a wedge-shaped loophole into the
+hollow body of the tree. A part of the carcase of a sheep had been
+placed on the bottom inside, the scent of which had attracted the wolf,
+and, in her eagerness to possess herself of this treasure she had risen
+on her hind legs high enough to find the opening sufficiently wide to
+allow her head to be thrust in, whence, slipping downwards, the slit
+became so narrow as to prevent her from withdrawing her jaws. The only
+mode of extrication from this trap was to rear her body to the same
+height at which she found admission, an expedient which, it seems,
+required more cunning than this proverbially cunning animal was gifted
+with. She now stood captive pretty much in the same manner that oxen are
+commonly secured in their stalls.
+
+For a few moments after the prisoner was first perceived, and during the
+extravagant yelling of Adair at the success of his stratagem, she made
+several desperate but ineffectual efforts to withdraw her head; but as
+soon as Butler and Robinson had dismounted, and, together with their
+guide, had assembled around her, she desisted from her struggles, and
+seemed patiently to resign herself to the will of her captor. She stood
+perfectly still with that passive and even cowardly submission for
+which, in such circumstances, this animal is remarkable: her hind legs
+drooped and her tail was thrust between them, whilst not a snarl nor an
+expression of anger or grief escaped her. Her characteristic sagacity
+had been completely baffled by the superior wolfish cunning of her
+ensnarer.
+
+Wat laughed aloud with a coarse and almost fiendish laugh, as he cried
+out--
+
+"I have cotched the old thief at last, in spite of her cunning! With a
+warning to boot. Here is a mark I sot upon her last winter," he added,
+as he raised her fore leg, which was deprived of the foot; "but she
+would be prowling, the superfluous devil! It is in the nature of these
+here blood-suckers, to keep a going at their trade, no matter how much
+they are watched. But I knowed I'd have her one of these days. These
+varmints have always got to pay, one day or another, for their
+villanies. Wa'n't she an old fool, Horse Shoe, to walk into this here
+gum for a piece of dead mutton? Ha, ha, ha! if she had had only the
+sense to rear up, she might have had the laugh on us! But she hadn't;
+ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Well, Wat Adair," said Robinson, "you had a mischievous head when you
+contrived that trap."
+
+"Feel her ribs, Mr. Butler," cried Wat, not heeding the sergeant; "I
+know who packed that flesh on her. There isn't a lamb in my flock to-day
+that wouldn't grin if he was to hear the news."
+
+"Well, what are you going to do with her, Adair?" inquired Butler;
+"remember you are losing time here."
+
+"Do with her!" ejaculated the woodman; "that's soon told: I will skin
+the devil alive."
+
+"I hope not," exclaimed Butler. "It would be an unnecessary cruelty.
+Despatch her on the spot with your rifle."
+
+"I wouldn't waste powder and ball on the varmint," replied Adair. "No,
+no, the knife, the knife!"
+
+"Then cut her throat and be done with it."
+
+"You are not used to these hellish thieves, sir," said the woodman.
+"There is nothing that isn't too good for them. By the old sinner, I'll
+skin her alive! That's the sentence!"
+
+"Once more, I pray not," said Butler imploringly.
+
+"It is past praying for," returned Adair, as he drew forth his knife and
+began to whet it on a stone. "She shall die by inches, and be damned to
+her!" he added, as his eye sparkled with savage delight. "Now look and
+see a wolf punished according to her evil doings."
+
+The woodman stood over his captive and laughed heartily, as he pointed
+out to his companions the quailing and subdued gestures of his victim,
+indulging in coarse and vulgar jests whilst he described minutely the
+plan of torture he was about to execute. When he had done with his
+ribaldry, he slowly drew the point of his knife down the back-bone of
+the animal, from the neck to the tail, sundering the skin along the
+whole length. "That's the way to unbutton her jacket," he said, laughing
+louder than ever.
+
+"For God's sake, desist!" ejaculated Butler. "For my sake, save the poor
+animal from this pain! I will pay you thrice the value of the skin."
+
+"Money will not buy her," said Wat, looking up for an instant. "Besides,
+the skin is spoiled by that gash."
+
+"Here is a guinea, if you will cut her throat," said Butler, "and
+destroy her at once."
+
+"That would be murder out-right," replied Adair; "I never take money to
+do murder; it goes agin my conscience. No, no, I will undress the old
+lady, and let her have the benefit of the cool air in this hot weather.
+And if she should take cold, you know, and fall sick and die of that,
+why then, Mr. Butler, you can give me the guinea. That will save my
+conscience," he added, with a grin that expressed a struggle between his
+avarice and cruelty.
+
+"Come, Galbraith, I will not stay to witness the barbarity of this
+savage. Mount your horse, and let us take our chance alone through the
+woods. Fellow, I don't wish your further service."
+
+"Look there now!" said Adair; "where were you born, that you are so
+mighty nice upon account of a blood-sucking wolf? Man, it's impossible
+to find your way through this country; and you might, by taking a wrong
+road, fall in with them that would think nothing of serving you as I
+serve this beast."
+
+"Wat, curse your onnatural heart," interposed the sergeant. "Stob her at
+once. It's no use, Mr. Butler," he said, finding that Adair did not heed
+him, "we can't help ourselves. It's wolf agin wolf."
+
+"I knowed you couldn't, Horse Shoe," cried Wat, with another laugh. "So
+you may as well stay to see it out."
+
+Butler had now walked to his horse, mounted, and retired some distance
+into the wood to avoid further converse with the tormentor of the
+ensnared beast, and to withdraw himself from a sight so revolting to his
+feelings. In the meantime, Adair proceeded with his operation with an
+alacrity that showed the innate cruelty of his temper. He made a cross
+incision through the skin, from the point of one shoulder to the other,
+the devoted subject of his torture remaining, all the time, motionless
+and silent. Having thus severed the skin to suit his purpose, the
+woodman now, with an affectation of the most dainty precision,
+flourished his knife over the animal's back, and then burst into a loud
+laugh.
+
+"I can't help laughing," he exclaimed, "to think what a fine, dangling,
+holiday coat I am going to make of it. I shall strip her as low as the
+ribs, and then the flaps will hang handsomely. She will be considered a
+beauty in the sheep-folds, and then she may borrow a coat, you see, from
+some lamb; a wolf in sheep's clothing is no uncommon sight in this
+world."
+
+"Wat Adair," said Horse Shoe, angrily, "I've a mind to take the wolf's
+part and give you a trouncing. You are the savagest wolf in sheep's
+clothing yourself that it was ever my luck to see."
+
+"You think so, Horse Shoe!" cried Wat, tauntingly. "You might chance to
+miss your way to-day, so don't make a fool of yourself! Ill will would
+only take away from you a finger-post--and it isn't every road through
+this district that goes free of the Tory rangers."
+
+"Your own day will come yet," replied Horse Shoe, afraid to provoke the
+woodman too far on account of the dependence of himself and his
+companion upon Adair's information in regard to the route of their
+journey. "We have to give and take quarter in this world."
+
+"You see, Horse Shoe," said Adair, beginning to expostulate, "I don't
+like these varmints, no how; that's the reason why. They are cruel
+themselves and I like to be cruel to them. It's a downright pleasure to
+see them winch, for, bless your soul! they don't mind common
+throat-cutting, no more than a calf. Now here's the way to touch their
+feelings."
+
+At this moment he applied the point of his knife to separating the hide
+from the flesh on either side of the spine, and then, in his eagerness
+to accomplish this object, he placed his knife between his teeth and
+began to tug at the skin with his hands, accompanying the effort with
+muttered expressions of delight at the involuntary and but
+ill-suppressed agonies of the brute. The pain, at length became too
+acute for the wolf, with all her characteristic habits of submission,
+to bear, and, in a desperate struggle that ensued between her and her
+tormentor, she succeeded, by a convulsive leap, in extricating herself
+from her place of durance. The energy of her effort of deliverance
+rescued her from the woodman's hand, and turning short upon her
+assailant, she fixed her fangs deep into the fleshy part of his thigh,
+where, as the foam fell from her lips, she held on firmly as if
+determined to sell her life dearly for the pain she suffered. Adair
+uttered a groan from the infliction, and, in the hurry of the instant,
+dropped his knife upon the ground. He was thus compelled to bear the
+torment of the grip, until he dragged the still pertinaciously-adhering
+beast a few paces forward, where, grasping up his knife, he planted it,
+by one deeply driven blow, through and through her heart. She silently
+fell at his feet, without snarl or bark, releasing her hold only in the
+impotency of death.
+
+"Curse her!" cried Adair, "the hard-hearted, bloody-minded devil! That's
+the nature of the beast--cruel and wicked to the last, damn her!" he
+continued, raving with pain, as he stamped his heel upon her head: "damn
+her in the wolf's hell to which she has gone!"
+
+Robinson stood by, unaiding, and not displeased to see the summary
+vengeance thus inflicted by the victim upon the oppressor. This calmness
+provoked the woodman, who, with that stoicism which belongs to
+uncivilized life, seemed determined to take away all pretext for the
+sergeant's exultation, by affecting to make light of the injury he had
+received.
+
+"I don't mind the scratch of the cursed creature," he said, assuming a
+badly counterfeited expression of mirth, "but I don't like to be cheated
+out of the pleasure of tormenting such mischievous varmints. It's well
+for her that she put me in a passion, or she should have carried a
+festered carcase that the buzzards might have fed upon before she died.
+But come--where is Mr. Butler? I want that guinea. Ho, sir!" he
+continued, bawling to Butler, as he tied up his wound with a strap of
+buckskin taken from his pouch, "my guinea! I've killed the devil to
+please you, seeing you would have it."
+
+Butler now rode up to the spot, and, in answer to this appeal, gave it
+an angry and indignant refusal.
+
+"Lead us on our way, sir," he added. "We have lost too much time already
+with your brutal delay. Lead on, sir!"
+
+"You will get soon enough to your journey's end," replied Adair with a
+smile, and then sullenly took up his rifle and led the way through the
+forest.
+
+A full half hour or more was lost by the incident at the trap, and
+Butler's impatience and displeasure continued to be manifested by the
+manner with which he urged the woodman forward upon their journey. After
+regaining the road, and traversing a piece of intricate and tangled
+woodland, by a bridle-path into which their guide had conducted them,
+they soon reached a broader and more beaten highway, along which they
+rode scarce a mile before they arrived at the Fork.
+
+"I have seen you safe as far as I promised," said the woodman, "and you
+must now shift for yourselves. You take the right hand road; about ten
+miles further you will come to another prong, there strike to the left,
+and if you have luck you will get to the ford before sundown. Three
+miles further is Christie's. Good bye t' ye! And Horse Shoe, if you
+should come across another wolf stuck in a tree, skin her, d' ye hear?
+Ha! ha! ha! Good bye!"
+
+"Ride on!" said Butler to the sergeant, who was about making some reply
+to Adair; "ride on! Don't heed or answer that fellow, but take the road
+he directs. He is a beast and scoundrel. Faster, good sergeant, faster!"
+
+As he spoke he set his horse to a gallop. Robinson followed at equal
+speed, the woodman standing still until the travellers disappeared from
+his view behind the thick foliage that overhung their path. Having seen
+them thus secure in his toil, the treacherous guide turned upon his
+heel, shouldered his rifle, and limped back to his dwelling.
+
+"I have a strange misgiving of that ruffian, sergeant," said Butler,
+after they had proceeded about a quarter of a mile. "My mind is
+perplexed with some unpleasant doubts. What is your opinion of him?"
+
+"He plays on both sides," replied Horse Shoe, "and knows more of you
+than by rights he ought. He spoke consarning of you, this morning, as
+_Major_ Butler. It came out of his mouth onawares."
+
+"Ha! Is my name on any part of my baggage or dress?"
+
+"Not that I know of," replied the sergeant; "and if it was, Wat can't
+read."
+
+"Were you interrupted in your sleep last night, Galbraith? Did you hear
+noises in our room?"
+
+"Nothing, Major, louder nor the gnawing of a mouse at the foot of the
+plank partition. Did you see a spirit that you look so solemn?"
+
+"I did, sergeant!" said Butler, with great earnestness of manner. "I had
+a dream that had something more than natural in it."
+
+"You amaze me, Major! If you saw anything, why didn't you awake me?"
+
+"I hadn't time before it was gone, and then it was too late. I dreamed,
+Galbraith, that somehow--for my dream didn't explain how she came
+in--Mary Musgrove, the young girl we saw----"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Major, that young girl's oversot you! Was that the sperit?"
+
+"Peace, Galbraith, I am in earnest; listen to me. I dreamt Mary Musgrove
+came into our room and warned us that our lives were in danger; how, I
+forget, or perhaps she did not tell, but she spoke of our being waylaid,
+and, I think, she advised that at this very fork of the road we have
+just passed, we should take the left hand--the right, according to my
+dream, she said, led to some spring."
+
+"Perhaps the Dogwood, Major," said Robinson, laughing; "there is such a
+place, somewhere in these parts."
+
+"The Dogwood! by my life," exclaimed Butler; "she called it the Dogwood
+spring."
+
+"That's very strange," said Robinson gravely; "that's very strange,
+unless you have hearn some one talk about the spring before you went to
+bed last night. For, as sure as you are a gentleman, there is such a
+spring not far off, although I don't know exactly where."
+
+"And what perplexes me," continued Butler, "is that, this morning,
+almost in the very words of my dream, Mary Musgrove cautioned me, in a
+whisper, to take the left road at the fork. How is she connected with my
+dream? Or could it have been a reality, and was it the girl herself who
+spoke? I have no recollection of such a word from her before I retired
+to bed."
+
+"I have hearn of these sort of things before, major, and never could
+make them out. For my share, I believe in dreams. There is something
+wrong here," continued the sergeant, after pondering over the matter for
+a few moments, and shaking his head, "there is something wrong here,
+Major Butler, as sure as you are born. I wasn't idle in making my own
+observations: first, I didn't like the crossness of Wat's wife last
+night; then, the granny there, she raved more like an old witch, with
+something wicked in her that wouldn't let her be still, than like your
+decent old bodies when they get childish. What did she mean by her
+palaver about golden guineas in Wat's pocket, and the English officer?
+Such notions don't come naturally into the head, without something to go
+upon. And, moreover, when I turned out this morning, before it was
+cleverly day, who do you think I saw?"
+
+"Indeed I cannot guess."
+
+"First, Wat walking up the road with a face like a man that had sot a
+house on fire; and when I stopped him to ax what he was after, down
+comes Mike Lynch--that peevish bull-dog--from the woods, on a little
+knot of a pony, pretty nigh at full speed, and covered with lather; and
+there was a sort of colloguing together, and then a story made up about
+Mike's being at Billy Watson's, the blacksmith's. It didn't tell well,
+major, and it sot me to suspicions. The gray of the morning is not the
+time for blacksmith's work: there's the fire to make up, and what not.
+Besides, it don't belong to the trade, as I know, here in the country,
+to be at work so arly. I said nothing; but I made a sort of reckoning in
+my own mind that they looked like a couple of desarters trying to sham a
+sentry. Then again, there was our horses turned loose. There is
+something in these signs, you may depend upon it, Major Butler!"
+
+"That fellow has designs against us, Galbraith," said Butler, musing,
+and paying but little attention to the surmises of the sergeant, "I can
+hardly think it was a dream. It may have been Mary Musgrove herself, but
+how she got there is past my conjecture. I saw nothing, I only heard the
+warning. And I would be sworn she addressed me as Major Butler. You say
+Wat Adair gave me the same title?"
+
+"As I am a living man," replied Horse Shoe, "he wanted to deny it; and
+then he pretended it was a fancy of his own."
+
+"It is very strange, and looks badly," said Butler.
+
+"Never mind, let the worst come to the worst, we have arms and legs
+both," returned the sergeant.
+
+"I will take the hint for good or for ill," said the major. "Sergeant,
+strike across into the left hand road; in this I will move no farther."
+
+"That's as wise a thing as we can do," replied Robinson. "If you have
+doubts of a man, seem to trust him, but take care not to follow his
+advice. There is another hint I will give you, let us examine our
+fire-arms to see that we are ready for a battle."
+
+Butler concurring in this precaution, the sergeant dismounted, and
+having primed his rifle afresh, attempted to fire it into the air, but
+it merely flashed, without going off. Upon a second trial the result was
+the same. This induced a further examination, which disclosed the fact
+that the load which had been put in the day previous had been
+discharged, and a bullet was now driven home in the place of the powder.
+It was obvious that this was designed. The machination of an enemy
+became more apparent when, upon an investigation into the condition of
+Butler's pistols, they were also found incapable of being used.
+
+"This is some of Michael Lynch's doings whilst we were eating our
+breakfast," said Horse Shoe, "and it is flat proof of treason in our
+camp. I should like to go back if it was only for the satisfaction of
+blowing out Wat's brains. But there is no use in argufying about it. We
+must set things to rights, and move on with a good look-out ahead."
+
+With the utmost apparent indifference to the dangers that beset them,
+the sergeant now applied himself to the care of restoring his rifle to a
+serviceable condition. With the aid of a small tool which he carried for
+such a use, he opened the breach and removed the ball: Butler's pistols
+were likewise put in order, and our travellers, being thus restored to
+an attitude of defence, turned their horses' heads into the thicket upon
+their left, and proceeded across the space that filled up the angle made
+by the two branches of the road; and, having gained that branch which
+they sought, they pressed forward diligently upon their journey.
+
+The path they had to travel was lonely and rugged, and it was but once
+or twice, during the day, that they met a casual wayfarer traversing
+the same wild. From such a source, however, they were informed that they
+were on the most direct road to Grindall's ford, and that the route they
+had abandoned would have conducted them to the Dogwood spring, a point
+much out of their proper course, and from which the ford might only have
+been reached by a difficult and tortuous by-way.
+
+These disclosures opened the eyes of Butler and his companion to the
+imminent perils that encompassed them, and prompted them to the exercise
+of the strictest vigilance. Like discreet and trusty soldiers, they
+pursued their way with the most unwavering courage, confident that the
+difficulty of retreat was fully equal to that of the advance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+TORY TROOPERS, A DARK ROAD AND A FRAY.
+
+
+"By the whiskers of the Grand Turk, I have got the four points on you,
+bully Buff! High, low, jack and the game!" exclaimed Peppercorn.
+
+"You have luck enough to worry out the nine lives of a cat. That's an
+end to Backbiter, the best horse 'twixt Pedee and the Savannah. So,
+blast me, if I play any more with you! There, send the cards to hell!"
+roared out Hugh Habershaw, rising and throwing the pack into the fire.
+
+It was just at the closing in of night, when a party of
+ruffianly-looking men were assembled beneath a spreading chestnut, that
+threw forth its aged arms over a small gravelly hillock, in the depths
+of the forest that skirted the northern bank of the Pacolet, within a
+short distance of Grindall's ford. The spot had all the qualities of a
+secret fastness. It was guarded on one side by the small river, and on
+the other by a complicated screen of underwood, consisting principally
+of those luxuriantly plaited vines which give so distinct a character to
+the southern woodland. The shrubbery, immediately along the bank of the
+river, was sufficiently open to enable a horseman to ride through it
+down to the road which, at about two hundred paces off, led into the
+ford.
+
+The group who now occupied this spot consisted of some ten or twelve men
+under the command of Hugh Habershaw. Their appearance was half rustic
+and half military; some efforts at soldierly costume were visible in the
+decoration of an occasional buck-tail set in the caps of several of the
+party, and, here and there, a piece of yellow cloth forming a band for
+the hat. Some wore long and ungainly deer-skin pantaloons and moccasins
+of the same material; and two or three were indued with coats of coarse
+homespun, awkwardly garnished with the trimmings of a British uniform.
+All were armed, but in the same irregular fashion. There were rifles to
+be seen stacked against the trunk of the tree; most of the men wore
+swords, which were of different lengths and sizes; and some of the gang
+had a horseman's pistol bestowed conspicuously about their persons.
+Their horses were attached to the drooping ends of the boughs of the
+several trees that hemmed in the circle, and were ready for service at
+the first call. A small fire of brushwood had been kindled near the foot
+of the chestnut, and its blaze was sufficiently strong to throw a bright
+glare over the motley and ill-looking crew who were assembled near it.
+They might well have been taken for a bivouac of banditti of the most
+undisciplined and savage class. A small party were broiling venison at
+the fire: the greater number, however, were stretched out upon the
+ground in idleness, waiting for some expected summons to action. The two
+I have first noticed, were seated on the butt-end of a fallen trunk,
+immediately within the light of the fire, and were engaged with a pack
+of dirty cards, at the then popular game of "all fours."
+
+These two personages were altogether different in exterior from each
+other. The first of them, known only by the sobriquet of Peppercorn, was
+a tall, well-proportioned and active man, neatly dressed in the uniform
+of a British dragoon. His countenance indicated more intelligence than
+belonged to his companions, and his manners had the flexible, bold, and
+careless port that generally distinguishes a man who has served much in
+the army, and become familiar with the varieties of character afforded
+by such a career. The second was Hugh Habershaw, the captain of the
+gang. He was a bluff, red-visaged, corpulent man, with a face of gross,
+unmitigated sensuality. A pale blood-shot eye, which was expressionless,
+except in a sinister glance, occasioned by a partial squint, a small
+upturned nose, a mouth with thin and compressed lips inclining downwards
+at the corners, a double chin, bristling with a wiry and almost white
+beard, a low forehead, a bald crown, and meagre, reddish whiskers, were
+the ill-favored traits of his physiognomy. The figure of this person was
+as uncouth as his countenance. He was rather below the middle height,
+and appeared still shorter by the stoop of his massive round shoulders,
+by the ample bulk of his chest, and by the rotundity of his
+corporation. In consideration of his rank, as the leader of this
+vagabond squadron, he aimed at more military ornament in his dress than
+his comrades. A greasy cocked hat, decorated after the fashion described
+by Grumio, "with the humor of forty fancies pricked in it for a
+feather," was perched somewhat superciliously upon his poll, and his
+body was invested in an old and much abused cloth coat of London brown,
+as it was then called, to the ample shoulders of which had been attached
+two long, narrow, and threadbare epaulets of tarnished silver lace. A
+broad buckskin belt was girded, by the help of a large brass buckle,
+around his middle, on the outside of his coat, and it served as well to
+suspend a rusty sabre, as to furnish support to a hunting knife, which
+was thrust into it in front. His nether person was rendered conspicuous
+by a pair of dingy small-clothes, and long black boots. Close at the
+feet of this redoubtable commander lay a fat, surly bull-dog, whose
+snarlish temper seemed to have been fostered and promoted by the
+peremptory perverseness with which his master claimed for him all the
+privileges and indulgencies of a pampered favorite.
+
+Such were the unattractive exterior and circumstances of the man who
+assumed control over the band of ruffians now assembled.
+
+"I wish you and the cards had been broiled on the devil's gridiron
+before I ever saw you!" continued Habershaw, after he had consigned the
+pack to the flames. "That such a noble beast as Backbiter should be
+whipped out of my hand by the turn of a rascally card! Hark'ee, you imp
+of Satan, you have the knack of winning! your luck, or something
+else--you understand me--something else, would win the shirt off my back
+if I was such a fool as to play longer with you. I suspect you are a
+light-fingered Jack--a light-fingered Jack--d'ye hear that, Master
+Peppercorn?"
+
+"How now, Bully!" cried Peppercorn; "are you turning boy in your old
+days, that you must fall to whining because you have lost a turn at
+play? Is every man a rogue since you have set up the trade? For shame!
+If I were as hot a fool as you, I would give you steel in your guts. But
+come, noble Captain, there's my hand. This is no time for us to be
+catching quarrels; we have other business cut out. As to Backbiter, the
+rat-tailed and spavined bone-setter, curse me if I would have him as a
+gift: a noble beast! ha, ha, ha! Take him back, man, take him back! he
+wasn't worth the cards that won him."
+
+"Silence, you tailor's bastard! Would you breed a mutiny in the camp?
+Look around you: do you expect me to preserve discipline amongst these
+wild wood-scourers, with your loud haw-haws to my very teeth? You make
+too free, Peppercorn; you make too free! It wouldn't take much to make
+me strike; damn me, there's fighting blood in me, and you know it. When
+I am at the head of my men, you must know your distance, sir. Suffice
+it, I don't approve of this familiarity to the commander of a squad. But
+it is no matter: I let it pass this time. And, hark in your ear, as you
+underrate Backbiter, you are a fool, Peppercorn, and know no more of the
+points of a good horse than you do of the ten commandments. Why, blast
+you, just to punish you, I'll hold you to the word of a gentleman, and
+take him back. Now there's an end of it, and let's have no more
+talking."
+
+"Right, noble Captain!" ejaculated Peppercorn, with a free and
+swaggering laugh, "right! I will uphold the discipline of the valiant
+Hugh Habershaw of the Tiger against all the babblers the world over. By
+the God of war, I marvel that Cruger hasn't forced upon you one of his
+commissions, before this; the army would be proud of such a master of
+tactics."
+
+"The time will come, Peppercorn; the time will come, and then I'll teach
+them the elements of military construction. Mark that word, Peppercorn,
+there's meaning in it."
+
+"Huzza for Captain Tiger of Habershaw--Habershaw of Tiger, I mean!"
+cried Peppercorn. "Here's Tiger Habershaw, my boys! Drink to that." And
+saying these words, the dragoon snatched up a leathern canteen from the
+ground, and, pouring out some spirits into the cup, drank them off.
+
+The rest of the crew sprang from the grass, and followed the example set
+them by their comrade, roaring out the pledge until the woods rang with
+their vociferation.
+
+"Peace! you rapscallions!" screamed the captain. "Have you so little
+notion where you are, that you bellow like bulls? Is this your
+discipline, when you should be as silent as cats in a kitchen,
+hellhound! And you, you coarse-throated devil, Beauty," he said as he
+kicked his dog, that had contributed to the chorus with a loud
+sympathetic howl, "you must be breaking the laws of service guard with
+your infernal roar, like the other fools of the pack. Be still, puppy!"
+
+The clamor upon this rebuke ceased, and the bull-dog crouched again at
+his master's feet.
+
+"Isn't it time that we were at the ford? Oughtn't our friends to be near
+at hand?" inquired Peppercorn.
+
+"Black Jack will give us notice," replied Habershaw. "Depend upon him. I
+have thought of everything like a man that knows his business. I have
+sent that rascal up the road, with orders to feel the enemy; and I'll
+undertake he'll clink it back when he once lays eyes on them, as fast as
+four legs will carry him. But it is always well to be beforehand,
+Peppercorn. Learn that from me: I never in my campaigns knowed any harm
+done by being too early. So, Master Orderly, call the roll."
+
+"Ready, sir; always ready when you command," answered Peppercorn. "Shall
+I call the ragamuffins by their nicknames, or will you have them handled
+like christians."
+
+"On secret service," said Habershaw, "it is always best to use them to
+their nicknames."
+
+"As when they go horse-stealing, or house-burning, or throat-cutting,"
+interrupted Peppercorn.
+
+"Order, sir, no indecencies! do you hear? Go on with your roll, if you
+have got it by heart. Be musical, dog!"
+
+"Faith will I, most consummate captain! It is just to my hand: I'll sing
+you like a bagpipe. I have learnt the rollcall handsomely, and can go
+through it as if it were a song."
+
+"Begin then: the time is coming when we must move. I think I hear Black
+Jack's horse breaking through the bushes now."
+
+"Attention, you devil's babies, the whole of you!" shouted Peppercorn.
+"Horse and gun, every mother's imp of you!"
+
+In a moment the idlers sprang to their weapons and mounted their horses.
+
+"Answer to your names," said the orderly; "and see that you do it
+discreetly. Pimple!"
+
+"Here," answered one of the disorderly crew, with a laugh.
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" cried Habershaw, "or, by the blood of your
+bodies, I'll make my whinger acquainted with your hearts!"
+
+"Long Shanks."
+
+"Here! if you mean me," said another.
+
+"Good! Black Jack."
+
+"On patrole," said the captain.
+
+"Red Mug."
+
+"At the book," answered the man in the ranks; and here rose another
+laugh.
+
+"Red Mug! do you mind me?" said Habershaw, in a threatening tone, as his
+eye squinted fiercely towards the person addressed.
+
+"Platter Breech."
+
+"I'll stand out against the nickname," said the person intended to be
+designated, whilst the whole squad began to give symptoms of a mutiny of
+merriment. "I'll be d----d if I will have it, and that's as good as if I
+swore to it. I am not going to be cajoled at by the whole company."
+
+"Silence! Blood and butter, you villains!" roared the captain. "Don't
+you see that you're in line? How often have I told you that it's against
+discipline to chirp above a whisper when you are drawn out? Take care
+that I hav'n't to remind you of that again! Andy Clopper, you will keep
+the denomination I have set upon you. Platter Breech is a good
+soldier-like name, and you shall die in it, if I bid you. Go on,
+Orderly--proceed!"
+
+"Marrow Bone."
+
+"Here!"
+
+"Fire Nose."
+
+"Fire Nose yourself, Mister Disorderly!" replied another refractory
+member, sullenly from the ranks.
+
+"Well, let him pass. That's a cross-grained devil," said the captain,
+aside to Peppercorn. "I'll bring that chap into order yet, the d----d
+mutineering back hanger! Pass him."
+
+"Screech Owl."
+
+"Here!"
+
+"That's a decent, good-natured Screech Owl," said Peppercorn. "Clapper
+Claw! Bow Legs!"
+
+"Both here."
+
+"They are all here, most comfortable Captain, all good fellows and true,
+and as ready to follow you into the belly of an earthquake as go to
+supper, it is all the same to them."
+
+"Let them follow where I lead, Peppercorn; that is all I ask, said
+Habershaw significantly.
+
+"You have forgot one name on your roll, Mister Orderly," said he who had
+been written down by the name of Fire Nose.
+
+"Whose was that?"
+
+"You forgot Captain Moonface Bragger--captain of the squad."
+
+"Gideon Blake!" shouted Habershaw, with a voice choked by anger, until
+it resembled the growl of a mastiff, whilst, at the same time, he drew
+his sword half out of the scabbard. "Howsever, it is very well," he
+said, restraining his wrath and permitting the blade to drop back into
+its sheath. "Another time, sir. I have marked you, you limb of a
+traitor. May all the devils ride over me if I don't drive a bullet
+through your brain if you ever unfringe my discipline again! Yes, you
+foul-mouthed half-whig, I have had my suspicions of you before to-day.
+So look to yourself. A fine state of things when skunks like you can be
+setting up a mutiny in the service! Take care of yourself, sir, you know
+me. Now, my lads, to business. Remember the orders I issued at the
+Dogwood Spring, this morning. This Whig officer must be taken dead or
+alive, and don't be chicken-hearted about it. Give him the lead--give
+him the lead! As to the lusty fellow that rides with him--big Horse
+Shoe--have a care of him; that's a dog that bites without barking. But
+be on the watch that they don't escape you again. Since we missed them
+at the spring they have cost us a hard ride to head them here, so let
+them pay for it. See that they are well into the ford before you show
+yourselves. Wait for orders from me, and if I fall by the fortune of
+war, take your orders from Peppercorn. If by chance we should miss them
+at the river, push for Christie's; Wat has taken care that they shall
+make for that, to-night. If any of you, by mistake, you understand me,
+take them prisoners, bring them back to this spot. Now you have heard my
+orders, that's enough. Keep silent and ready. Mind your discipline.
+Black Jack is long coming, Orderly; these fellows must travel slow."
+
+"I hear him now," replied Peppercorn.
+
+In the next moment the scout referred to galloped into the circle. His
+report was hastily made. It announced that the travellers were moving
+leisurely towards the ford, and that not many minutes could elapse
+before their arrival. Upon this intelligence Habershaw immediately
+marched his troop to the road and posted them in the cover of the
+underwood that skirted the river, at the crossing-place. Here they
+remained like wild beasts aware of the approach of their prey, and
+waiting the moment to spring upon them when it might be done with the
+least chance of successful resistance.
+
+Meantime Butler and Robinson advanced at a wearied pace. The twilight
+had so far faded as to be only discernible on the western sky. The stars
+were twinkling through the leaves of the forest, and the light of the
+fire-fly spangled the wilderness. The road might be descried, in the
+most open parts of the wood, for some fifty paces ahead; but where the
+shrubbery was more dense, it was lost in utter darkness. Our travellers,
+like most wayfarers towards the end of the day, rode silently along,
+seldom exchanging a word, and anxiously computing the distance which
+they had yet to traverse before they reached their appointed place of
+repose. A sense of danger, and the necessity for vigilance, on the
+present occasion, made them the more silent.
+
+"I thought I heard a wild sort of yell just now--people laughing a great
+way off," said Robinson, "but there's such a hooting of owls and piping
+of frogs that I mought have been mistaken. Halt, Major. Let me
+listen--there it is again."
+
+"It is the crying of a panther, sergeant; more than a mile from us, by
+my ear."
+
+"It is mightily like the scream of drunken men," replied the sergeant;
+"and there, too! I thought I heard the clatter of a hoof."
+
+The travellers again reined up and listened.
+
+"It is more like a deer stalking through the bushes, Galbraith."
+
+"No," exclaimed the sergeant, "that's the gallop of a horse making down
+the road ahead of us, as sure as you are alive; I heard the shoe strike
+a stone. You must have hearn it too."
+
+"I wouldn't be sure," answered Butler.
+
+"Look to your pistols, Major, and prime afresh."
+
+"We seem to have ridden a great way," said Butler, as he concluded the
+inspection of his pistols and now held one of them ready in his hand.
+"Can we have lost ourselves? Should we not have reached the Pacolet
+before this?"
+
+"I have seen no road that could take us astray," replied Robinson, "and,
+by what we were told just before sundown, I should guess that we
+couldn't be far off the ford. We hav'n't then quite three miles to
+Christie's. Well, courage, major! supper and bed were never spoiled by
+the trouble of getting to them."
+
+"Wat Adair, I think, directed us to Christie's?" said Butler.
+
+"He did; and I had a mind to propose to you, since we caught him in a
+trick this morning, to make for some other house, if such a thing was
+possible, or else to spend the night in the woods."
+
+"Perhaps it would be wise, sergeant; and if you think so still, I will
+be ruled by you."
+
+"If we once got by the river-side where our horses mought have water, I
+almost think I should advise a halt there. Although I have made one
+observation, Major Butler--that running water is lean fare for a hungry
+man. Howsever, it won't hurt us, and if you say the word we will stop
+there."
+
+"Then, sergeant, I do say the word."
+
+"Isn't that the glimmering of a light yonder in the bushes?" inquired
+Horse Shoe, as he turned his gaze in the direction of the bivouac, "or
+is it these here lightning bugs that keep so busy shooting about?"
+
+"I thought I saw the light you speak of, Galbraith; but it has
+disappeared."
+
+"It is there again, major; and I hear the rushing of the river--we are
+near the ford. Perhaps this light comes from some cabin on the bank."
+
+"God send that it should turn out so, Galbraith! for I am very weary."
+
+"There is some devilment going on in these woods, major. I saw a figure
+pass in front of the light through the bushes. I would be willing to
+swear it was a man on horseback. Perhaps we have, by chance, fallen on
+some Tory muster; or, what's not so likely, they may be friends. I think
+I will ride forward and challenge."
+
+"Better pass unobserved, if you can, sergeant," interrupted Butler. "It
+will not do for us to run the risk of being separated. Here we are at
+the river; let us cross, and ride some distance; then, if any one follow
+us, we shall be more certain of his design."
+
+They now cautiously advanced into the river, which, though rapid, was
+shallow; and having reached the middle of the stream, they halted to
+allow their horses water.
+
+"Captain Peter is as thirsty as a man in a fever," said Horse Shoe. "He
+drinks as if he was laying in for a week. Now, major, since we are here
+in the river, look up the stream. Don't you see, from the image in the
+water, that there's a fire on the bank? And there, by my soul! there are
+men on horseback. Look towards the light. Spur, and out on the other
+side! Quick--quick--they are upon us!"
+
+At the same instant that Horse Shoe spoke, a bullet whistled close by
+his ear; and, in the next, six or eight men galloped into the river,
+from different points. This was succeeded by a sharp report of fire-arms
+from both parties, and the vigorous charge of Robinson, followed by
+Butler, through the array of the assailants. They gained the opposite
+bank, and now directed all their efforts to outrun their pursuers; but
+in the very crisis of their escape, Butler's horse, bounding under the
+prick of the spur, staggered a few paces from the river and fell dead. A
+bullet had lodged in a vital part, and the energy of the brave steed was
+spent in the effort to bear his master through the stream. Butler fell
+beneath the stricken animal, from whence he was unable to extricate
+himself. The sergeant, seeing his comrade's condition, sprang from his
+horse and ran to his assistance, and, in the same interval, the ruffian
+followers gained the spot and surrounded their prisoners. An ineffectual
+struggle ensued over the prostrate horse and rider, in which Robinson
+bore down more than one of his adversaries, but was obliged, at last, to
+yield to the overwhelming power that pressed upon him.
+
+"Bury your swords in both of them to the hilts!" shouted Habershaw; "I
+don't want to have that work to do to-morrow."
+
+"Stand off!" cried Gideon Blake, as two or three of the gang sprang
+forward to execute their captain's order; "stand off! the man is on his
+back, and he shall not be murdered in cold blood;" and the speaker took
+a position near Butler, prepared to make good his resolve. The spirit
+of Blake had its desired effect, and the same assailants now turned upon
+Robinson.
+
+"Hold!" cried Peppercorn, throwing up his sword and warding off the
+blows that were aimed by these men at the body of the sergeant. "Hold,
+you knaves! this is my prisoner. I will deal with him to my liking.
+Would a dozen of you strike one man when he has surrendered? Back, ye
+cowards; leave him to me. How now, old Horse Shoe; are you caught, with
+your gay master here? Come, come, we know you both. So yield with a good
+grace, lest, peradventure, I might happen to blow out your brains."
+
+"Silence, fellows! You carrion crows!" roared Habershaw. "Remember the
+discipline I taught you. No disorder, nor confusion, but take the
+prisoners, since you hav'n't the heart to strike; take them to the
+rendezvous. And do it quietly--do you hear? Secure the baggage; and
+about it quickly, you hounds!"
+
+Butler was now lifted from the ground, and, with his companion, was
+taken into the custody of Blake and one or two of his companions, who
+seemed to share in his desire to prevent the shedding of blood. The
+prisoners were each mounted behind one of the troopers, and in this
+condition conducted across the river. The saddle and other equipments
+were stripped from the major's dead steed; and Robinson's horse, Captain
+Peter, was burdened with the load of two wounded men, whose own horses
+had escaped from them in the fray. In this guise the band of
+freebooters, with their prisoners and spoils, slowly and confusedly made
+their way to the appointed place of re-assembling. In a few moments they
+were ranged beneath the chestnut, waiting for orders from their
+self-important and vain commander.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+SCENE IN THE BIVOUAC.
+
+
+"Bustle, my lads--bustle! These are stirring times," exclaimed
+Habershaw, riding with an air of great personal consequence into the
+midst of the troop, as they were gathered, still on horseback, under the
+chestnut. "We have made a fine night's work of it, and, considering that
+we fought in the dark against men ready armed for us, this has not been
+such a light affair. To be sure, in point of numbers, it is a trifle;
+but the plan, Peppercorn--the plan, and the despatch, and the neatness
+of the thing--that's what I say I am entitled to credit for. Bless your
+soul, Peppercorn, these fellows were sure to fall into my trap--there
+was no getting off. That's the effect of my generalship, you see,
+Peppercorn. Study it, boy! We could have managed about twenty more of
+the filthy rebels handsomely; but this will do--this will do. I took, as
+a commanding officer ought always to do, the full responsibility of the
+measure, and a good share of the fight. Did I not, Peppercorn? Wasn't I,
+in your opinion, about the first man in the river?"
+
+"I'll bear witness, valiant and victorious captain," answered the
+dragoon, "that you fired the first shot; and I am almost willing to make
+oath that I saw you within at least twenty paces of the enemy, exhorting
+your men."
+
+"Now lads--wait for the word--dismount!" continued the captain, "and
+make up your minds to pass the night where you are. Peppercorn, the
+prisoners I put under your identical charge. Remember that! keep your
+eyes about you. Set a guard of four men upon them; I will make you
+accountable." He then added, in an under tone, "hold them safe until
+to-morrow, man, and I promise you, you shall have no trouble in watching
+them after that."
+
+"You shall find them," replied Peppercorn.
+
+"Silence," interrupted the captain; "hear my orders, and give no reply.
+Now, sir, before you do anything else, call your roll, and report your
+killed, wounded, and missing."
+
+Upon this order, the dragoon directed the men, after disposing of their
+horses, to form a line. He then called over the squad by their real
+names, and immediately afterwards reported to his superior, who, in
+order to preserve a proper dignified distance, had retreated some paces
+from the group, the following pithy and soldier-like account:--
+
+"Two men wounded, noble captain, in the late action; two missing; one
+horse, saddle and bridle lost; one horse and two prisoners taken from
+the enemy."
+
+"The names of the wounded, sir?"
+
+"Tom Dubbs and Shadrach Green; one slightly scratched, and the other
+bruised by a kick from the blacksmith."
+
+"The missing, sir?"
+
+"Dick Waters, commonly called Marrow Bone, and Roger Bell, known in your
+honor's list by the name of Clapper Claw."
+
+"They have skulked," said the captain.
+
+"Marrow Bone is as dead as a door nail, sir," said the orderly with
+perfect indifference, and standing affectedly erect. "He fell in the
+river, and the probability is that Clapper Claw keeps him company."
+
+"What!" roared Habershaw, "have the diabolical scoundrels made away with
+any of my good fellows? Have the precious lives of my brave soldiers
+been poured out by the d----d rebels? By my hand, they shall feel
+twisted rope, Peppercorn!--cold iron is too good for them."
+
+"Softly, captain!" said the orderly. "You don't blame the enemy for
+showing fight? We mustn't quarrel with the chances of war. There is not
+often a fray without a broken head, captain. We must deal with the
+prisoners according to the laws of war."
+
+"Of Tory war, Peppercorn, aye, that will I! String the dogs up to the
+first tree. The devil's pets, why didn't they surrender when we set upon
+them! To-morrow: let them look out to-morrow. No words, orderly; send
+out two files to look for the bodies, and to bring in the stray horse
+if they can find him. A pretty night's work! to lose two good pieces of
+stuff for a brace of black-hearted whigs!"
+
+The two files were detailed for the duty required, and immediately set
+out, on foot, towards the scene of the late fray. The rest of the troop
+were dismissed from the line.
+
+"I would venture to ask, sir," said Butler, addressing the captain, "for
+a cup of water: I am much hurt."
+
+"Silence, and be d----d to you!" said Habershaw gruffly, "silence, and
+know your place, sir. You are a prisoner, and a traitor to boot."
+
+"Don't you hear the gentleman say he is hurt?" interposed Robinson.
+"It's onnatural, and more like a beast than a man to deny a prisoner a
+little water."
+
+"By my sword, villain, I will cleave your brain for you, if you open
+that rebel mouth of yours again!"
+
+"Pshaw, pshaw! Captain Habershaw, this will never do," said Peppercorn;
+"men are men, and must have food and drink. Here, Gideon Blake, give me
+your flask of liquor and bring me some water from the river. It is my
+duty, captain, to look after the prisoners."
+
+Gideon Blake, who was a man of less savage temper than most of his
+associates, obeyed this command with alacrity, and even added a few
+words of kindness, as he assisted in administering refreshment to the
+prisoners. This evidence of a gentler nature did not escape the comment
+of the ruffian captain, who still remembered his old grudge against the
+trooper.
+
+"Away, sir," he said in a peremptory and angry tone, "away and attend to
+your own duty. You are ever fond of obliging these beggarly whigs. Hark
+you, Peppercorn," he added, speaking apart to the dragoon, "take care
+how you trust this skulking vagabond: he will take bribes from the
+rebels, and turn his coat whenever there is money in the way. I have my
+eye upon him."
+
+"If I chose to speak," said Gideon Blake.
+
+"Hold your peace, you grey fox," cried the captain. "Not a word! I know
+your doublings. Remember you are under martial law, and blast me, if I
+don't make you feel it! There are more than myself suspect you."
+
+"I should like to know," said Butler, "why I and my companion are
+molested on our journey. Have we fallen amongst banditti, or do you bear
+a lawful commission? If you do, sir, let me tell you, you have disgraced
+it by outrage and violence exercised towards unoffending men, and shall
+answer for it when the occasion serves. On what pretence have we been
+arrested?"
+
+"Hark, my young fighting-cock," replied the captain. "You will know your
+misdemeanors soon enough. And if you would sleep to-night with a whole
+throat, you will keep your tongue within your teeth. It wouldn't take
+much to persuade me to give you a little drum-head law. Do you hear
+that?"
+
+"It is my advice, major," whispered Robinson, "to ax no questions of
+these blackguards."
+
+"Be it so, sergeant," said Butler, "I am weary and sick."
+
+When other cares were disposed of, and the excited passions of the
+lawless gang had subsided into a better mood, the dragoon took Butler's
+cloak from the baggage and spread it upon the ground beneath the shelter
+of the shrubbery, and the suffering officer was thus furnished a bed
+that afforded him some small share of comfort, and enabled to take that
+rest which he so much needed. Robinson seated himself on the ground
+beside his companion, and in this situation they patiently resigned
+themselves to whatever fate awaited them.
+
+Soon after this the whole troop were busy in the preparations for
+refreshment and sleep. The horses were either _hobbled_, by a cord from
+the fore to the hind foot, and turned loose to seek pasture around the
+bivouac, or tethered in such parts of the forest as furnished them an
+opportunity to feed on the shrubbery. The fire was rekindled, and some
+small remnants of venison roasted before it; and in less than an hour
+this reckless and ill-governed band were carousing over their cups with
+all the rude ribaldry that belonged to such natures.
+
+"Come, boys," said Peppercorn, who seemed to take a delight in urging
+the band into every kind of excess, and who possessed that sort of sway
+over the whole crew, including their leader no less than the privates,
+which an expert and ready skill in adapting himself to the humor of the
+company gave him, and which faculty be now appeared to exercise for the
+increase of his own influence. "Come, boys, laugh while you can--that's
+my motto. This soldiering is a merry life, fighting, drinking, and
+joking. By the God of war! I will enlist the whole of you into the
+regular service--Ferguson or Cruger, which you please, boys! they are
+both fine fellows and would give purses of gold for such charming, gay,
+swaggering blades. Fill up your cans and prepare for another bout. I'm
+not the crusty cur to stint thirsty men. A toast, my gay fellows!"
+
+"Listen to Peppercorn," cried out some three or four voices.
+
+"Here's to the honor of the brave captain Hugh Habershaw, and his
+glorious dogs that won the battle of Grindall's ford!"
+
+A broad and coarse laugh burst from the captain at the announcement of
+this toast.
+
+"By my sword!" he exclaimed, "the fight was not a bad fight."
+
+"Can you find a joint of venison, Gideon?" said Peppercorn, aside. "If
+you can, give it, and a cup of spirits, to the prisoners. Stop, I'll do
+it myself, you will have the old bull-dog on your back."
+
+And saying this the dragoon rose from his seat, and taking a few
+fragments of the meat which had been stripped almost to the bone, placed
+them, together with a canteen, beside Butler.
+
+"Make the best of your time," he said, "you have but short allowance and
+none of the best. If I can serve you, I will do it with a good heart;
+so, call on me."
+
+Then turning to the sergeant, who sat nigh, he whispered in his ear,
+and, with a distinct and somewhat taunting emphasis, inquired,
+
+"Friend Horse Shoe, mayhap thou knowest me?"
+
+"That I do, James Curry," replied the sergeant, "and I have a mean
+opinion of the company you keep. I don't doubt but you are ashamed to
+say how you come by them."
+
+"All is fish that comes into the Dutchman's net," said Curry. "To-night
+I have caught fat game. You are a sturdy fellow, master Blacksmith, and
+good at a tug, but remember, friend, I owe you a cuff, and if you
+weren't a prisoner you should have it."
+
+"Show me fair play, James Curry, and you shall have a chance now," said
+Horse Shoe; "I'll keep my parole to surrender when it is over."
+
+"Silence, fool!" returned Curry, at the same time rudely pinching
+Robinson's ear. "You will be a better man than I take you to be, if you
+ever wrestle with me again. I have not forgotten you."
+
+The dragoon now rejoined his comrades.
+
+"Peppercorn," cried Habershaw, "d----n the prisoners, let them fast
+to-night. The lads want a song. Come, the liquor's getting low, we want
+noise, we want uproar, lad! Sing, bully, sing!"
+
+"Anything to get rid of the night, noble captain. What shall I give
+you?"
+
+"The old catch, master Orderly. The Jolly Bottle, the Jolly Bottle,"
+cried Habershaw, pronouncing this word according to ancient usage, with
+the accent on the last syllable, as if spelt "bottel;" "give us the
+Jolly Bottle, we all know the chorus of that song. And besides it's the
+best in your pack."
+
+"Well, listen, my wet fellows!" said Peppercorn, "and pipe lustily in
+the chorus."
+
+Here the orderly sang, to a familiar old English tune, the following
+song, which was perhaps a common camp ditty of the period.
+
+    "You may talk as you please of your candle and book,
+    And prate about virtue, with sanctified look;
+    Neither priest, book, nor candle, can help you so well
+    To make friends with the world as the Jolly Bottle."
+
+"Chorus, my lads; out with it!" shouted the singer; and the whole crew
+set up a hideous yell as they joined him.
+
+            "Sing heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            The Jolly Bottle is the best I trow.
+
+    "Then take the bottle, it is well stitched of leather,
+    And better than doublet keeps out the wind and weather:
+    Let the bottom look up to the broad arch of blue,
+    And then catch the drippings, as good fellows do.
+            With heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            'Tis sinful to waste good liquor, you know.
+
+    "The soldier, he carries his knapsack and gun.
+    And swears at the weight as he tramps through the sun
+    But, devil a loon, did I ever hear tell,
+    Who swore at the weight of the Jolly Bottle.
+            So heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            The Jolly Bottle is a feather, I trow."
+
+Here the song was interrupted by the return of the two files who had
+been sent to bring in the bodies of the dead. They had found the missing
+horse, and now led him into the circle laden with the corpses of Bell
+and Waters. The troopers halted immediately behind the ring of the
+revellers, and in such a position as to front Peppercorn and the
+captain, who were thus afforded a full view of the bodies by the blaze
+of the fire.
+
+"Easy," almost whispered Habershaw, now half-intoxicated, to the two
+troopers, as he lifted his hands and motioned to them to halt; "put them
+down gently on the ground. Go on, Peppercorn; let the dead help
+themselves: finish the song! That chorus again, my boys!" And here the
+last chorus was repeated in the highest key of merriment.
+
+Peppercorn cast an eye at the bodies which, during the interval, had
+been thrown on the earth, and while the men who had just returned were
+helping themselves to the drink, he proceeded, in an unaltered voice,
+with the song.
+
+    "When drinkers are dry, and liquor is low,
+    A fray that takes off a good fellow or so,
+    Why, what does it do, but help us to bear
+    The loss of a comrade, in drinking his share?
+            Then heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            A fray and a feast are brothers, you know.
+
+    "The philosophers say it's a well-settled fact,
+    That a vessel will leak whose bottom is cracked;
+    And a belly that's drilled with a bullet, I think,
+    Is a very bad belly to stow away drink.
+            So heave and ho, and trombelow,
+            The dead will be dry to-night, I trow."
+
+"There they are, captain," said one of the returning troopers, after the
+song, to which he and his companions had stood listening with delighted
+countenances, was brought to an end, "there they are. We found Dick
+Waters lying in the road, and when we first came to him he gave a sort
+of groan, but we didn't lift him until we came back from hunting Roger
+Bell; by that time the fellow was as dead as a pickled herring. Where do
+you think we found Clapper Claw? Why, half a mile, almost, down the
+stream. He was washed along and got jammed up betwixt the roots of a
+sycamore. We had a long wade after him, and trouble enough to get
+him--more, I'm thinking, than a dead man is worth. So, give us some more
+rum; this is ugly work to be done in the dark."
+
+"Scratch a hole for them, lads, under the bushes," said Habershaw; "put
+a sod blanket over them before morning. That's the fortune of war, as
+Peppercorn calls it. How are the wounded men getting along?"
+
+"Oh bravely, captain," replied Shad Green, or, according to his
+nickname, Red Mug: "this here physic is a main thing for a scratch."
+
+"Bravely!" echoed Screech Owl, or Tom Dubbs, the same who had been
+reported by the dragoon as "kicked by the blacksmith;" "we are
+plastering up sores here with the jolly bottle:--
+
+    "Sing heave and ho, and trombelow,
+    The Jolly Bottle is a feather, I trow."
+
+"What's a cracked crown, so as it holds a man's brains?" continued the
+drunken carouser, whilst a laugh deformed his stupid physiognomy.
+
+"How are we off for provisions, quarter-master?" inquired the captain of
+one of the gang.
+
+"Eaten out of skin, from nose to tail," replied Black Jack.
+
+"Then the squad must forage to-night," continued Habershaw. "We must
+take a buck, my sweet ones; there are plenty along the river. Get your
+rifles and prepare lights, and, to keep out of the way of our horses,
+don't stop short of a mile. Be about it, lads. Black Jack, this is your
+business."
+
+"True, Captain," replied the person addressed: "I shall have all things
+ready directly."
+
+It was near midnight when Black Jack, having prepared some faggots of
+pitch-pine, and selected three or four of the best marksmen, left the
+bivouac to look for deer. Habershaw himself, though lazy and
+inordinately impressed with a sense of his own dignity, and now confused
+with liquor, could not resist the attraction of this sport. He
+accordingly, not long after the others had departed, took a rifle, and,
+attended by his bull-dog, whom he never parted from on any occasion,
+slowly followed in the direction chosen by the hunters.
+
+Those in advance had scarcely walked along the margin of the river a
+mile before they lighted their faggots, and began to beat the
+neighboring thickets; and their search was not protracted many minutes
+when the light of their torches was thrown full upon the eyes of a buck.
+A shot from one of the marksmen told with unerring precision in the
+forehead of the animal.
+
+The report and the light brought the corpulent captain into the
+neighborhood. He had almost walked himself out of breath and, as he did
+not very well preserve his perpendicularity, or a straight line of
+march, he had several times been tripped up by the roots of trees, or by
+rocks and briers in his path. Exhausted, at length, and puzzled by the
+stupefaction of his own brain, as well as by the surrounding darkness,
+he sat down at the foot of a tree, determined to wait the return of the
+hunting party. His faithful and congenial "Beauty," not less pursy and
+short-winded than himself, and not more savage or surly in disposition,
+now couched upon his haunches immediately between his master's legs; and
+here this pair of beastly friends remained, silent and mutually soothed
+by their own companionship. During this interval the person who bore the
+fire, followed by one of the marksmen, crept slowly onward to the
+vicinity of the spot where the captain had seated himself. The lapse of
+time had proved too much for Habershaw's vigilance, and he had, at
+length, with his head resting against the trunk of the tree, fallen into
+a drunken slumber. The short crack of a rifle at hand, and the yell of
+his dog awakened him. He started upon his feet with sudden surprise, and
+stepping one pace forward, stumbled and fell over the dead body of his
+favorite Beauty, who lay beneath him weltering in blood. The shot was
+followed by a rush of the hunter up to the spot: it was Gideon Blake.
+
+"Buck or doe, it is my shot!" cried Gideon, as he halted immediately
+beside Habershaw.
+
+"May all the devils blast you, Gideon Blake!" thundered on the incensed
+captain. "You have sought my life, you murdering wolf, and your bullet
+has killed Beauty."
+
+"I shot at the eyes of what I thought a deer," returned Blake. "You were
+a fool, Hugh Habershaw, to bring a dog into such a place.
+
+"My poor dog! my brave dog! Beauty was worth ten thousand such bastard
+villains as you! And to have him killed! May the devil feast upon your
+soul this night, Gideon Blake! Go! and account for your wickedness. Take
+that, snake! tiger! black-hearted whig and rebel! and be thankful that
+you didn't come to your end by the help of hemp!" and in this gust of
+passion he struck his knife into the bosom of the trooper, who groaned,
+staggered, and fell.
+
+At this moment the person bearing the fire, hearing the groan of his
+comrade, rushed up to the spot and seized Habershaw's arm, just as the
+monster was raising it over the fallen man to repeat the blow.
+
+"Damn him! see what he has done!" exclaimed the captain, as he lifted up
+the dead body of the dog so as to show in the light the wound inflicted
+by the ball between the eyes; "this poor, faithful, dumb beast was worth
+a hundred such hell-hounds as he!"
+
+"I am murdered," said the wounded man; "I am murdered in cold blood."
+
+The noise at this place brought together the rest of the hunters, who
+were now returning with the buck thrown across a horse that had been led
+by one of the party. Blake's wound was examined by them, and some linen
+applied to staunch the blood. The man had fainted, but it was not
+ascertained whether the stab was mortal. Habershaw stood sullenly
+looking on during the examination, and, finding that life had not
+instantly fled, he coolly wiped his knife and restored it to his girdle.
+
+"The fellow has no idea of dying," he said with a visible concern, "and
+has got no more than he deserves. He will live to be hung yet. Take him
+to quarters."
+
+"Make a hurdle for him," said one of the bystanders, and, accordingly,
+two men cut a few branches from the neighboring wood, and twisting them
+together, soon constructed a litter upon which they were able to bear
+the body of the wounded hunter to the rendezvous. The others, scarcely
+uttering a word as they marched along, followed slowly with the buck,
+and in half an hour the troop was once more assembled under the
+chestnut.
+
+For a time there was a sullen and discontented silence amongst the whole
+crew, that was only broken by the groans of the wounded trooper.
+Occasionally there was a slight outburst of sedition from several of the
+troop, as a sharper scream, indicating some sudden increase of pain,
+from Gideon Blake, assailed their ears. Then there were low and muttered
+curses pronounced by Habershaw, in a tone that showed his apprehension
+of some vengeance against himself; and these imprecations were mingled
+with hints of the disloyalty of the trooper, and charges of a pretended
+purpose to betray his fellow-soldiers, evidently insinuated by the
+captain to excuse his act of violence. Then he approached the sick man
+and felt his pulse, and examined his wound, and pronounced the hurt to
+be trifling. "It will do him good," he said, with affected unconcern,
+"and teach him to be more true to his comrades hereafter." But still the
+fate of the man was manifestly doubtful, and the rising exasperation of
+the troop became every instant more open. Alarmed and faint-hearted at
+these symptoms of discontent, Habershaw at last called the men into a
+circle and made them a speech, in which he expressed his sorrow for the
+act he had committed, endeavored to excuse himself by the plea of
+passion at the loss of his dog, and, finally, perceiving that these
+excuses did not satisfy his hearers, acknowledged his drunken condition
+and his unconsciousness of the deed he had done until the horrible
+consequences of it were before his eyes. Here Peppercorn interposed in
+his favor, alleging that he had examined the wound, and that, in his
+opinion, the trooper's life was not in danger.
+
+"And as the captain is sorry for it, lads," he concluded, "why, what is
+to be done but let the thing drop? So, if there's another canteen in the
+squad, we will wet our whistles, boys, and go to sleep."
+
+This appeal was effectual, and was followed by a hearty cheer. So,
+draining the dregs of the last flask, this debauched company retired to
+rest--Habershaw sneaking away from them with a heart loaded with malice
+and revenge.
+
+A few men were employed, for a short time, in burying the bodies of the
+troopers who were killed in the fray; and, excepting the guard, who
+busied themselves in skinning the buck and broiling some choice slices
+before the fire, and in watching the prisoners, or attending upon their
+sick comrade, all were sunk into silence if not repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE TROOPERS MOVE WITH THEIR PRISONERS.
+
+    "Oft he that doth abide,
+    Is cause of his own paine,
+    But he that flieth in good tide,
+    Perhaps may fight again."--_Old Proverb._
+
+
+It was with the most earnest solicitude that Butler and his companion
+watched the course of events, and became acquainted with the character
+of the ruffians into whose hands they had fallen. The presence of James
+Curry in this gang excited a painful consciousness in the mind of the
+soldier, that he had powerful and secret enemies at work against him,
+but who they were was an impenetrable mystery. Then the lawless habits
+of the people who had possession of him, gave rise to the most anxious
+distrust as to his future fate: he might be murdered in a fit of
+passion, or tortured with harsh treatment to gratify some concealed
+malice. His position in the army was, it seemed, known too; and, for
+aught that he could tell, his mission might be no secret to his captors.
+Robinson's sagacity entered fully into these misgivings. He had narrowly
+observed the conduct of the party who had made them prisoners, and with
+that acute insight which was concealed under a rude and uneducated
+exterior, but which was strongly marked in his actions, he had already
+determined upon the course which the safety of Butler required him to
+pursue. According to his view of their present difficulties it was
+absolutely necessary that he should effect his escape, at whatever
+personal hazard. Butler, he rightly conjectured, was the principal
+object of the late ambuscade; that, for some unknown purpose, the
+possession of this officer became important to those who had procured
+the attack upon him, and that James Curry had merely hired this gang of
+desperadoes to secure the prize. Under these circumstances, he concluded
+that the Major would be so strictly guarded as to forbid all hope of
+escape, and that any attempt by him to effect it would only be punished
+by certain death. But, in regard to himself, his calculation was
+different. "First," said he, "I can master any three of this beggarly
+crew in an open field and fair fight; and, secondly, when it comes to
+the chances of a pell-mell, they will not think me of so much account as
+to risk their necks by a long chase; their whole eyes would undoubtedly
+be directed to the Major." The sergeant, therefore, determined to make
+the attempt, and, in the event of his success, to repair to Sumpter, who
+he knew frequented some of the fastnesses in this region; or, in the
+alternative, to rally such friends from the neighboring country as were
+not yet overawed by the Tory dominion, and bring them speedily to the
+rescue of Butler. Full of these thoughts, he took occasion during the
+night, whilst the guard were busy in cooking their venison, and whilst
+they thought him and his comrade wrapt in sleep, to whisper to Butler
+the resolution he had adopted.
+
+"I will take the first chance to-morrow to make a dash upon these
+ragamuffins," he said; "and I shall count it hard if I don't get out of
+their claws. Then, rely upon me, I shall keep near you in spite of these
+devils. So be prepared, if I once get away, to see me like a witch that
+travels on a broomstick or creeps through a keyhole. But whisht! the
+drunken vagabonds mustn't hear us talking."
+
+Butler, after due consideration of the sergeant's scheme, thought it,
+however perilous, the only chance they had of extricating themselves
+from the dangers with which they were beset, and promised the most ready
+co-operation; determining also, to let no opportunity slip which might
+be improved to his own deliverance. "Your good arm and brave heart,
+Galbraith, never stood you in more urgent stead than they may do
+to-morrow," was his concluding remark.
+
+When morning broke the light of day fell upon a strange and disordered
+scene. The drunken and coarse wretches of the night before, now lessened
+in number and strength by common broil and private quarrel, lay
+stretched on their beds of leaves. Their motley and ill-assorted weapons
+lay around in disarray; drinking cups and empty flasks were scattered
+over the trodden grass, the skin and horns of the buck, and disjointed
+fragments of raw flesh were seen confusedly cast about beneath the tree,
+and a conspicuous object in the scene were the clots of blood and gore,
+both of men and beast, that disfigured the soil. Two new-made graves, or
+rather mounds, hastily scratched together and imperfectly concealing the
+limbs of the dead, prominently placed but a few feet from the ring of
+last night's revelry, told of the disasters of the fight at the ford.
+The brushwood fire had burned down into a heap of smouldering ashes, and
+the pale and sickly features of the wounded trooper were to be discerned
+upon a pallet of leaves, hard by the heap of embers, surrounded by the
+remnants of bones and roasted meat that had been flung carelessly aside.
+In a spot of more apparent comfort, sheltered by an overhanging canopy
+of vines and alder, lay Butler stretched upon his cloak, and, close
+beside him, the stout frame of Horse Shoe Robinson. In the midst of all
+these marks of recent riot and carousal, sat two swarthy figures,
+haggard and wan from night-watching, armed at every point, and keeping
+strict guard over the prisoners.
+
+The occasional snort and pawing of horses in the neighboring wood showed
+that these animals were alert at the earliest dawn; whilst among the
+first who seemed aware of the approach of day, was seen rising from the
+earth, where it had been flung in stupid torpor for some hours, the
+bloated and unsightly person of Hugh Habershaw, now much the worse for
+the fatigue and revelry of the preceding night. A savage and surly
+expression was seated on his brow, and his voice broke forth more than
+ordinarily harsh and dissonant, as he ordered the troop to rouse and
+prepare for their march.
+
+The summons was tardily obeyed; and while the yawning members of the
+squad were lazily moving to their several duties and shaking off the
+fumes of their late debauch, the captain was observed bending over the
+prostrate form of Gideon Blake, and directing a few anxious inquiries
+into his condition. The wounded man was free from pain, but his limbs
+were stiff, and the region of the stab sore and sensitive to the least
+touch. The indications, however, were such as to show that his wound was
+not likely to prove mortal. By the order of Habershaw, a better litter
+was constructed, and the troopers were directed to bear him, by turns,
+as far as Christie's, where he was to be left to the nursing of the
+family. It was a full hour before the horses were saddled, the scattered
+furniture collected, and the preparations for the march completed. When
+these were accomplished the prisoners were provided with the two
+sorriest horses of the troop, and they now set forward at a slow pace,
+under the escort of four men commanded by James Curry. The two troopers
+who bore the sick man followed on foot; Habershaw with the remainder,
+one of whom had appropriated Captain Peter, whilst he led the horses of
+the dismounted men, brought up the rear.
+
+On the journey there was but little spoken by any member of the party;
+the boisterous and rude nature of the men who composed the troop seemed
+to have been subdued by sleep into a temper of churlish indifference or
+stolid apathy. Peppercorn, or James Curry, as the reader now recognises
+him, strictly preserved his guard over the prisoners, manifesting a
+severity of manner altogether different from the tone of careless
+revelry which characterized his demeanor on the preceding night. It
+never relaxed from an official and sullen reserve. A moody frown sat
+upon his brow, and his communication with the prisoners was confined to
+short and peremptory commands; whilst, at the same time, he forbade the
+slightest intercourse with them on the part of any of the guard. During
+the short progress to Christie's he frequently rode apart with
+Habershaw; and the conversation which then occupied these two was
+maintained in a low tone, and with a serious air that denoted some grave
+matter of deliberation.
+
+It was more than an hour after sunrise when the cavalcade reached the
+point of their present destination. There were signs of an anxious
+purpose in the silence of the journey, broken as it was only by low
+mutterings amongst the men, above which sometimes arose an expression of
+impatience and discontent, as the subject of their whispered discussions
+appeared to excite some angry objection from several of the party; and
+this mystery was not less conspicuous in the formal order of the halt,
+and in the pause that followed upon their arrival at the habitation.
+
+The house, in front of which they were drawn up, was, according to the
+prevailing fashion of the time, a one-storied dwelling covering an ample
+space of ground, built partly of boards and partly of logs, with a long
+piazza before it, terminating in small rooms, made by inclosing the
+sides for a few feet at either extremity. Being situated some twenty
+paces aside from the road, the intervening area was bounded by a fence
+through which a gate afforded admission. A horse-rack, with a few
+feeding troughs, was erected near this gate; and a draw-well, in the
+same vicinity, furnished a ready supply of water. With the exception of
+a cleared field around the dwelling, the landscape was shaded by the
+natural forest.
+
+A consultation of some minutes' duration was held between Habershaw and
+Curry, when the order to dismount was given, accompanied with an
+intimation of a design to tarry at this place for an hour or two; but
+the men, at the same time, were directed to leave their saddles upon
+their horses. One or two were detailed to look after the refreshment of
+the cattle, whilst the remainder took possession of the principal room.
+The first demands of the troop were for drink, and this being indulged,
+the brute feeling of conviviality which in gross natures depends
+altogether upon sensual excitement, began once more to break down the
+barriers of discipline, and to mount into clamor.
+
+The scenes of the morning had made a disagreeable impression upon the
+feelings of Butler and his comrade. The changed tone and the ruffian
+manners of the band, the pause, and the doubts which seemed to agitate
+them, boded mischief. The two prisoners, however, almost instinctively
+adopted the course of conduct which their circumstances required. They
+concealed all apprehension of harm, and patiently awaited the end. Horse
+Shoe even took advantage of the rising mirth of the company when drink
+began to exhilarate them, and affected an easy tone of companionship
+which was calculated to throw them off their guard. He circulated freely
+amongst the men, and by private conference with some of the individuals
+around him, who, attracted by his air of confiding gaiety, seemed
+inclined to favor his approaches of familiarity, he soon discovered that
+the gang were divided in sentiment in regard to some important subject
+touching the proposed treatment of himself and his friend. A party, at
+least, he was thus made aware, were disposed to take his side in the
+secret disputes which had been in agitation. He was determined to profit
+by this dissension, and accordingly applied himself still more
+assiduously to cultivate the favorable sentiment he found in existence.
+
+Whilst breakfast was in preparation, and Habershaw and Curry were
+occupied with the wounded man in an adjoining apartment, the sergeant,
+playing the part of a boon companion, laughed with the rioters, and,
+uninvited, made himself free of their cups.
+
+"I should like to know," he said to one of the troopers, "why you are
+giving yourselves all this trouble about a couple of simple travellers
+that happened to be jogging along the road? If you wanted to make a
+pitched battle you ought to have sent us word; but if it was only upon a
+drinking bout you had set your hearts, there was no occasion to be
+breaking heads for the honor of getting a good fellow in your company,
+when he would have come of his own accord at the first axing. There was
+no use in making such a mighty secret about it; for, as we were
+travelling the same road with you, you had only to show a man the
+civility of saying you wanted our escort, and you should have had it at
+a word. Here's to our better acquaintance, friend!"
+
+"You mightn't be so jolly, Horse Shoe Robinson," said Shad Green--or,
+according to his nickname, Red Mug, in a whisper; "if some of them that
+took the trouble to find you, should have their own way. It's a d----d
+tight pull whether you are to be kept as a prisoner of war, or shoved
+under ground this morning without tuck of drum. That for your private
+ear."
+
+"I was born in old Carolina myself," replied Horse Shoe, aside to the
+speaker; "and I don't believe there is many men to be found in it who
+would stand by and see the rules and regulations of honorable war
+blackened and trod down into the dust by any cowardly trick of murder.
+If it comes to that, many as there are against two, our lives will not
+go at a cheap price."
+
+"Whisht!" returned the other, "with my allowance, for one, it shan't be.
+A prisoner's a prisoner, I say; and damnation to the man that would make
+him out worse."
+
+"They say you are a merry devil, old Horse Shoe," exclaimed he who was
+called Bow Legs, who now stepped up and slapped the sergeant on the
+back. "So take a swig, man; fair play is a jewel!--that's my doctrine.
+Fight when you fight, and drink when you drink--and that's the sign to
+know a man by."
+
+"There is some good things," said the sergeant, "in this world that's
+good, and some that's bad. But I have always found that good and bad is
+so mixed up and jumbled together, that you don't often get much of one
+without a little of the other. A sodger's a sodger, no matter what side
+he is on; and they are the naturalest people in the world for
+fellow-feeling. One day a man is up, and then the laugh's on his side;
+next day he is down, and then the laugh's against him. So, as a sodger
+has more of these ups and downs than other folks, there's the reason his
+heart is tenderer towards a comrade than other people's. Here's your
+health, sir. This is a wicked world, and twisted, in a measure, upside
+down; and it is well known that evil communications corrupts good
+manners; but sodgers were made to set the world right again, on its
+legs, and to presarve good breeding and Christian charity. So there's a
+sarmon for you, you tinkers!"
+
+"Well done, mister preacher!" vociferated a prominent reveller. "If you
+will desert and enlist with us you shall be the chaplain of the troop.
+We want a good swearing, drinking, and tearing blade who can hold a
+discourse over his liquor, and fence with the devil at long words.
+You're the very man for it! Huzza for the blacksmith!"
+
+"Huzza for the blacksmith!" shouted several others in the apartment.
+
+Butler, during this scene, had stretched himself out at full length upon
+a bench, to gain some rest in his present exhausted and uncomfortable
+condition, and was now partaking of the refreshment of a bowl of milk
+and some coarse bread, which one of the troopers had brought him.
+
+"What's all this laughing and uproar about?" said Habershaw, entering
+the room with Curry, just at the moment of the acclamation in favor of
+the sergeant "Is this a time for your cursed wide throats to be braying
+like asses! We have business to do. And you, sir," said he, turning to
+Butler, "you must be taking up the room of a half dozen men on a bench
+with your lazy carcase! Up, sir; I allow no lolling and lying about to
+rascally whigs and rebels. You have cost me the death of a dog that is
+worth all your filthy whig kindred; and you have made away with two of
+the best men that ever stept in shoe leather. Sit up, sir, and thank
+your luck that you haven't your arms pinioned behind you, like a horse
+thief."
+
+"Insolent coward," said Butler, springing upon his feet; "hired ruffian!
+you shall in due time be made to pay for the outrage you have inflicted
+upon me."
+
+"Tie him up!" cried Habershaw; "tie him up! And now I call you all to
+bear witness that he has brought the sentence upon himself; it shall be
+done without waiting another moment. Harry Gage, I give the matter over
+to you. Draw out four men, take them into the yard, and dispatch the
+prisoners off-hand! shoot the traitors on the spot, before we eat our
+breakfasts! I was a fool that I didn't settle this at daylight this
+morning--the rascally filth of the earth! Have no heart about it, men;
+but make sure work by a short distance. This is no time for whining.
+When have the Whigs shown mercy to us!"
+
+"It shall be four against four, then!" cried out Shadrach Green,
+seconded by Andrew Clopper; "and the first shot that is fired shall be
+into the bowels of Hugh Habershaw! Stand by me, boys!"
+
+In a moment the parties were divided, and had snatched up their weapons,
+and then stood looking angrily at each other as if daring each to
+commence the threatened affray.
+
+"Why, how now, devil's imps!" shouted Habershaw. "Have you come to a
+mutiny? Have you joined the rebels? James Curry, look at this! By the
+bloody laws of war, I will report every rascal who dares to lift his
+hand against me!"
+
+"The thing is past talking about," said the first speaker, coolly. "Hugh
+Habershaw, neither you nor James Curry shall command the peace if you
+dare to offer harm to the prisoners. Now, bully, report that as my
+saying. They are men fairly taken in war, and shall suffer no evil past
+what the law justifies. Give them up to the officer of the nearest
+post--that's what we ask--carry them to Innis's camp if you choose; but
+whilst they are in our keeping there shall be no blood spilled without
+mixing some of your own with it, Hugh Habershaw."
+
+"Arrest the mutineers!" cried Habershaw, trembling with rage. "Who are
+my friends in this room? Let them stand by me, and then--blast me if I
+don't force obedience to my orders!"
+
+"You got off by the skin of your teeth last night," said Green, "when
+you tried to take the life of Gideon Blake. For that you deserved a
+bullet through your skull. Take care that you don't get your reckoning
+this morning, captain and all as you are."
+
+"What in the devil would you have?" inquired Habershaw, stricken into a
+more cautious tone of speech by the decided bearing of the man opposed
+to him.
+
+"The safety of the prisoners until they are delivered to the commander
+of a regular post; we have resolved upon that!" was the reply.
+
+"Curry!" said Habershaw, turning in some perplexity to the dragoon as if
+for advice.
+
+"Softly, Captain; we had better have a parley here," said Curry, who
+then added in a whisper: "There's been some damned bobbery kicked up
+here by the blacksmith. This comes of giving that fellow the privilege
+of talking."
+
+"A word, men," interposed Horse Shoe, who during this interval had
+planted himself near Butler, and with him stood ready to act as the
+emergency might require. "Let me say a word. This James Curry is my man.
+Give me a broadsword and a pair of pistols, and I will pledge the hand
+and word of a sodger, upon condition that I am allowed five minutes'
+parole, to have a pass, here in the yard, with him--it shall be in sight
+of the whole squad--I pledge the word of a sodger to deliver myself back
+again to the guard, dead or alive, without offering to take any chance
+to make off in the meantime. Come, James Curry, your word to the back of
+that, and then buckle on your sword, man. I heard your whisper."
+
+"Soldiers," said Curry, stepping into the circle which the party had now
+formed round the room, "let me put in a word as a peace-maker. Captain
+Habershaw won't be unreasonable. I will vouch for him that he will
+fulfil your wish regarding the conveying of the prisoners to a regular
+post. Come, come, let us have no brawling! For shame! put down your
+guns. There may be reason in what you ask, although it isn't so much
+against the fashion of the times to shoot a Whig either. But anything
+for the sake of quiet amongst good fellows. Be considerate, noble
+captain, and do as the babies wish. As for Horse Shoe's brag--he is an
+old soldier, and so am I; that's enough. We are not so green as to put a
+broadsword and a brace of pistols into the hands of a bullying prisoner.
+No, no, Horse Shoe! try another trick, old boy! Ha, ha, lads! you are a
+set of fine dashing chaps, and this is only one of your mad-cap bits of
+spunk that boils up with your liquor. Take another cup on it, my merry
+fellows, and all will be as pleasant as the music of a fife. Come,
+valiant Captain of the Tiger, join us. And as for the prisoners--why let
+them come in for snacks with us. So there's an end of the business. All
+is as mild as new milk again."
+
+"Well, well, get your breakfasts," said Habershaw gruffly. "Blast you! I
+have spoiled you by good treatment, you ungrateful, carnivorous dogs!
+But, as Peppercorn says, there's an end of it! So go to your feeding,
+and when that's done we will push for Blackstock's."
+
+The morning meal was soon despatched, and the party reassembled in the
+room where the late disturbance had taken place. The good-nature of
+Robinson continued to gain upon those who had first taken up his cause,
+and even brought him into a more lenient consideration with the others.
+Amongst the former I have already noted Andrew Clopper, a rough and
+insubordinate member of the gang, who, vexed by some old grudge against
+the fat captain, had efficiently sustained Green in the late act of
+mutiny, and who now, struck with Horse Shoe's bold demeanor towards
+Curry, began to evince manifest signs of a growing regard for the worthy
+sergeant. With this man Horse Shoe contrived to hold a short and secret
+interview that resulted in the quiet transfer of a piece of gold into
+the freebooter's hand, which was received with a significant nod of
+assent to whatever proposition accompanied it. When the order of "boot
+and saddle" was given by Habershaw, the several members of the troop
+repaired to their horses, where a short time was spent in making ready
+for the march; after which the whole squad returned to the porch and
+occupied the few moments of delay in that loud and boisterous carousal
+which is apt to mark the conduct of such an ill-organized body in the
+interval immediately preceding the commencement of a day's ride. This
+was a moment of intense interest to the sergeant, who kept his eyes
+steadily fixed upon the movements of Clopper, as that individual
+lingered behind his comrades in the equipment of his horse. This
+solicitude did not, however, arrest his seeming mirth, as he joined in
+the rude jests of the company and added some sallies of his own.
+
+"Give me that cup," he said at length, to one of the men, as he pointed
+to a gourd on a table; "before we start I have a notion to try the
+strength of a little cold water, just by way of physic, after all the
+liquor we have been drinking," and, having got the implement in his
+hand, he walked deliberately to the draw-well, where he dipped up a
+draught from the bucket that stood on its brink. As he put the water to
+his lips and turned his back upon the company, he was enabled to take a
+survey of the horses that were attached to the rack near him: then,
+suddenly throwing the gourd from him, he sprang towards his own trusty
+steed, leaped into his saddle at one bound, and sped, like an arrow from
+a bow, upon the highway. This exploit was so promptly achieved that no
+one was aware of the sergeant's purpose until he was some twenty paces
+upon his journey. As soon as the alarm of his flight was spread, some
+three or four rifles were fired after him in rapid succession, during
+which he was seen ducking his head and moving it from side to side with
+a view to baffle the aim of the marksmen. The confusion of the moment in
+which the volley was given rendered it ineffectual, and the sergeant was
+already past the first danger of his escape.
+
+"To horse and follow!" resounded from all sides.
+
+"Look to the other prisoner!" roared out Habershaw; "if he raises his
+head blow out his brains! Follow, boys, follow!"
+
+"Two or three of you come with me," cried Curry, and a couple of files
+hastened with the dragoon to their horses. Upon arriving at the rack it
+was discovered that the bridles of the greater part of the troop were
+tied in hard knots in such a manner as to connect each two or three
+horses together.
+
+A short delay took place whilst the horsemen were disentangling their
+reins, and Curry, being the first to extricate his steed, mounted and
+set off in rapid pursuit. He was immediately followed by two others.
+
+At the end of half an hour the two privates returned and reported that
+they had been unable to obtain a view of the sergeant or even of Curry.
+Shortly afterwards the dragoon himself was descried retracing his steps
+at a moderate trot towards the house. His plight told a tale upon him of
+discomfiture. One side of his face was bleeding with a recent bruise,
+his dress disarranged and his back covered with dust. The side of his
+horse also bore the same taint of the soil.
+
+He rode up to Habershaw--who was already upon the road at the head of
+the remaining members of the squad, having Butler in charge--and
+informed him that he had pursued the sergeant at full speed until he
+came in sight of him, when the fugitive had slackened his gait as if on
+purpose to allow himself to be overtaken.
+
+"But, the devil grip the fellow!" he added, "he has a broad-side like a
+man-of-war! In my hurry I left my sword behind me, and, when I came up
+with him, I laid my hand upon his bridle; but, by some sudden sleight
+which he has taught his horse, he contrived, somehow or other, to upset
+me--horse and all--down a bank on the road-side. And, when I lay on the
+ground sprawling, do you think the jolly runagate didn't rein up and
+give me a broad laugh, and ask me if he could be of any _sarvice_ to me?
+He then bade me good bye, saying he had an engagement that prevented him
+from favoring me any longer with his company. Gad! it was so civilly
+done that all I could say was, luck go with you, Mr. Horse Shoe; and,
+since we are to part company so soon, may the devil pad your saddle for
+you! I'll do him the justice to say that he's a better horseman than I
+took him for. I can hardly begrudge a man his liberty who can win it as
+cleverly as he has done."
+
+"Well, there's no more to be said about it," remarked Habershaw. "He is
+only game for another day. He is like a bear's cub; which is as much as
+to signify that he has a hard time before him. He would have only given
+us trouble; so let him go. Now, boys, away for Blackstock's; I will
+engage I keep the fox that's left safely enough."
+
+With these words the troop proceeded upon their march.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Horse Shoe's successful escape from the hands of the Tories, it will be
+conjectured, had been aided by Clopper. The sergeant had sufficiently
+assured himself of the present safety of Butler, from the spirit with
+which a strong party of Habershaw's followers had resisted the bloody
+purpose of their leader before breakfast; and he had also, by the timely
+reward secretly conveyed to Clopper, received a pledge from that
+individual that the same protection should still be accorded to the
+major, in the event of his own extrication from the gang by the perilous
+exploit which he then meditated. It is no doubt apparent to the reader,
+that the favor which saved the lives of the prisoners was won from the
+captors by the address of Robinson, and that whatever good will was
+kindled up amongst them, was appropriated principally to the sergeant,
+Butler having elicited but little consideration from the band, beyond
+that interest which the roughest men are apt to take in the fortunes of
+a young and enterprising soldier. Neither the major's manners nor temper
+were adapted to conciliate any special regard from such natures.
+
+The escape of the sergeant, therefore, although it added nothing to the
+perils of Butler's situation, still operated in some degree to his
+present inconvenience. It caused him to be more rigorously guarded than
+before, and consequently to be more restricted in his personal comfort.
+He was hurried forward at a rough and uneasy pace; and both from
+Habershaw and Curry, and those more immediately of their party, he
+experienced a surly indifference to the pain that this occasioned him.
+They seemed to have no regard either to his wants or feelings, and in
+the passing remarks that fell from them he could gather harsh surmises
+as to the manner in which he was now likely to be disposed of.
+
+"It is their own fault," said one of them to his companion, as Butler
+overheard the conversation; "if every prisoner is strung up and shot
+now-a-days. He makes no more of hanging out people than so many wolves;
+and there was Captain Huck--will any man say that Sumpter hadn't him
+murdered in cold blood?"
+
+"Yes," added the other, "let a Tory be caught over yonder amongst the
+Iredell Whigs, on t'other side of the line, or in Tryon, or down here at
+the Waxhaws, why, a grey fox in a barn yard with forty dogs would have
+as good a chance for his life. So, for my share, I am glad to see our
+folks break up that blasted breed, root and branch."
+
+"Innis has got as keen a nose for a Whig as a bloodhound," said the
+first speaker, "and won't stop long to consider what's right to be done,
+if he gets this chap in his clutches; so it is of no great account that
+we didn't make short work of it this morning."
+
+Such remarks produced a gloomy effect upon Butler's mind. He had
+witnessed enough, in the scenes of the morning, to convince him that
+Habershaw had been employed to waylay him and take his life, and that
+the latter purpose had only failed by the lucky conjuncture of
+circumstances which led to the mutiny. He was aware, too, that Curry was
+the prime conductor of the scheme, and drove matters, by a secret
+influence, as far as he could towards its accomplishment, whilst with a
+professional hardihood and most hypocritical bearing he affected to be
+indifferent to the issue. This fellow's malice was the more venomous
+from his address, and the gay, swaggering, remorseless levity with which
+he could mask the most atrocious designs: nothing could baffle his
+equanimity; and he seemed to be provided, at all times, with a present
+expedient to meet the emergency of his condition.
+
+The most perplexing feature in this man's present position was his
+recent connexion with Tyrrel; a fact that recurred to Butler with many
+alarming doubts. All the other circumstances accompanying Butler's
+condition, at this moment, were subjects of distressful uncertainty.
+Ignorant of the place to which he was to be taken, into whose hands he
+was to be delivered, how he was to be disposed of, he could only
+anticipate the worst. It was obvious that his journey was an expected
+one, and that the gang who held him were employed by persons in
+authority, set on, no doubt, by the agency of Tyrrel: but where was
+he--and who was he?--and what influence could he bring to bear against
+his, Butler's life, now that he had failed in his bloody purpose of
+lying in wait; and that it was resolved by these ruffians, who had in
+part only obeyed his behests, to deliver their prisoner up to the
+regular authorities of the British army? The mention of the name of
+Innis by one of the troopers was not calculated to allay his inquietude.
+This person he knew to have been an active confederate and eager adviser
+of the new court, lately established at Charleston, to promote the
+confiscation of the estates of the inhabitants of Carolina disaffected
+to the royal cause. He was, besides, a zealous Tory partisan, and,
+having lately joined the army, was now in command of a detachment of
+loyalists on the Ennoree.
+
+Then, again, there was abundant cause of anxiety to the unfortunate
+officer in the question whether Robinson could be kept acquainted with
+his condition, or even of the place to which he might be removed--and if
+acquainted with these particulars, whether, in the disturbed state of
+the country, he could render any service. These thoughts all contributed
+to sink his spirits.
+
+Notwithstanding the usual assumed levity of Curry, he had now become
+resentful towards Butler, and did not give himself the trouble to
+conceal it. His manner was quick and unaccommodating, showing his
+vexation at his own want of sagacity, inferred by the successful flight
+of Robinson. Expressions occasionally escaped him that indicated a
+self-reproof on this subject, though they were partially disguised by an
+affected undervaluing of the importance of having such a prisoner, so
+long as he retained the custody of the principal object of the
+enterprise. But the consciousness of being again baffled by a man who
+had once before obtained the mastery over him, roused his pride into the
+exhibition of a peevish and vindictive demeanor. In this temper he
+seconded the brutal disposition of Habershaw, and abandoned the captive
+officer to the coarse insults of those who exercised control over him.
+There was some mitigation to this annoyance, in the reserved and partial
+spirit in which the insurgent party of the squad manifested some slight
+signs of good will towards him. An instance of this spirit was afforded
+in a passing hint conveyed by Clopper, on one occasion when the troop
+had halted to water their horses. "Whatever is to come of it, after we
+give you up to other hands," he said, apart to Butler, "we will stick to
+the ground we have taken, that no harm shall be done to you in our
+keeping."
+
+The day was intensely hot, and the road, over which the party travelled,
+rugged and fatiguing; it was, therefore, near one o'clock when they came
+in sight of the Tiger, a rough, bold, impetuous stream that rushed over
+an almost unbroken bed of rocks. On the opposite bank was Blackstocks, a
+rude hamlet of some two or three houses, scattered over a rugged
+hill-side--a place subsequently rendered famous by the gallant repulse
+of Tarleton by Sumpter. The troop struck into a narrow ford, and, with
+some scrambling amongst the rocks, succeeded in crossing the stream;
+they then galloped rapidly up the hill, towards a farm-house which
+seemed to be the principal place of resort for the people of the
+neighborhood. The approach of the party of cavalry drew to the door a
+bevy of women, children, and negroes, who stood idly gaping at the
+spectacle; and, in addition to these, a detachment of militia,
+consisting of between twenty and thirty men, were seen to turn out and
+form a line in front of the house. Habershaw, with an air of magnified
+importance, halted opposite this detachment, gave a few prompt orders to
+Curry in regard to the disposition of the troop, and in an authoritative
+tone of command, ordered the officer of the militia to detail a guard
+for the safe keeping of a prisoner of state. The personage addressed--a
+tall, ungainly, and awkward subaltern--signified his acquiescence with a
+bow, and immediately took possession of Butler by seizing the rein of
+his horse and leading him to one side, where two men, armed with rifles,
+placed themselves at either stirrup. Habershaw now directed his men to
+alight, accompanying the order with a caution that the prisoner was not
+to be allowed to enter the house. "The d----d rascal," he added, "shall
+not play the trick of his rebel associate: no more privilege of going
+into bar-rooms, and lounging about doors! See the man stowed away in the
+barn; and tell the sentinels never to take their eyes off of him--do you
+hear, lieutenant?"
+
+"You may depend upon my look-out," replied the lieutenant, with a
+flourish of a hacked and rusty sword. "Men, march your prisoner straight
+to the barn. Have a relief, Corporal, every two hours, and towards
+night, set four on the watch at a time."
+
+"Look to it, Lieutenant!" shouted Habershaw. "No words, sir: do your
+duty!"
+
+And having thus given vent to his own high opinion of himself the bulky
+captain withdrew into the house.
+
+Butler was now marched into a large log barn, in one corner of which an
+armful of fodder, or dried blades of Indian corn, were shaken out for
+his bed; and this, he was told, was to be his prison until other orders
+awaited him. The guard, consisting of two sentinels, were stationed on
+the inner side of the door, having the prisoner immediately under their
+eye; and, this disposition being completed, the officer commanding the
+detachment retired to mingle with the troopers in the farm-house.
+
+Half an hour had scarcely elapsed after the arrival of the troopers at
+Blackstocks, before James Curry had refreshed himself with a hasty meal,
+and had his horse brought to the door. He seemed bound upon some urgent
+mission.
+
+"Captain St. Jermyn, you say, left this at sunrise this morning?" said
+the dragoon, addressing the lieutenant of the militia.
+
+"He did. He was here all day yesterday, and thought he should hear from
+you last night."
+
+"What route did he take?"
+
+"To Turnbull, at Ninety-Six."
+
+"Is Turnbull there now, think you?"
+
+"He is," replied the lieutenant. "They say orders have gone up from
+Cornwallis to the post for four light companies, and it is expected that
+Captain Campbell is now on his way with them towards Camden; neither
+Turnbull nor Cruger would leave the post."
+
+"I have heard that this corps was marching to head-quarters Are you sure
+St. Jermyn is not with Campbell?"
+
+"He said nothing about it yesterday, but I think he wishes to join
+Colonel Innis with the loyalist cavalry."
+
+"Where is Innis?" inquired Curry.
+
+"Over on Ennoree, about two miles from Musgrove's mill."
+
+"Humph!" said Curry, thoughtfully, "I must ride to the garrison at
+Ninety-Six. The devil take this cantering about the country! I have had
+more than enough of it."
+
+And saying this, the dragoon mounted his horse, and clapping spurs to
+the restive animal, was soon out of sight.
+
+It was late in the day before the wants of Butler were attended to. He
+had thrown aside his coat, from the oppressive heat of the weather, and,
+placing it under his head for a pillow, had fallen into a sleep, from
+which he was awakened by a summons from one of the sentinels to partake
+of food. There was more kindness apparent in the demeanor of the soldier
+than Butler had been accustomed to meet from the persons who held him
+captive, and this circumstance won upon his heart and induced him to
+accept with courtesy the proffered attentions.
+
+"You live in a divided country, and witness much to make a good man wish
+this unhappy war was at an end," said Butler, after he had eaten of the
+provisions placed before him.
+
+"Indeed we do, sir," replied the soldier, "and it is enough to make a
+man's heart bleed to see brothers fighting against each other, and
+kindred that ought to hold together seeking each other's lives. Men will
+have, and ought to have their opinions, sir; but it is hardly good
+reason for treating one another like savage Indians, because all cannot
+think alike."
+
+"Do you live in this neighborhood?" inquired Butler.
+
+"Not far away," answered the man.
+
+"You are married?"
+
+"Yes, and have six children."
+
+"They should be young," said Butler, "judging by your own age."
+
+"Thank God, sir!" exclaimed the soldier, with fervor, "they are young!
+And I would pray that they may never live to be old if these wars are to
+last. No father can count upon his own child's living in harmony with
+him. My boys, if they were grown enough, might be the first I should
+meet in battle."
+
+"Your name, friend?" said Butler.
+
+"Bruce," replied the other.
+
+"A good and a brave name; a name once friendly to the liberty of his
+country."
+
+"Stop, sir!" said the sentinel. "This is not the place to talk upon
+questions that might make us angry with each other. It is a name still
+friendly to the liberty of his country; that liberty that supports the
+king and laws, and punishes treason."
+
+"I cannot debate with you," replied Butler; "I am your prisoner."
+
+"I am a man," said the soldier, firmly, "and would not take advantage of
+him that cannot take his own part; but these questions, sir, are best
+dropped--they have made all the provinces mad. However, I do not blame
+you, sir; I will not deny that there are good men on your side."
+
+"And on yours, doubtless," returned Butler.
+
+"We have many bad ones, sir," returned the soldier; "and as you have
+spoken like a well-tempered gentleman to me, I will give you a friendly
+hint." Here the sentinel spoke in a lowered tone. "Have your eyes about
+you; these men are none of the best, and would think but little of
+taking from you anything of value. As you slept, just now, I saw a
+golden trinket hanging by a ribbon in your bosom. You are a young man,
+sir, and a soldier, I hear; this may be some present from your lady, as
+I guess you have one. If others had seen it, as I saw it, you might have
+been the loser. That's all."
+
+"Thank you, honest friend! from my heart, I thank you!" replied Butler
+eagerly. "Oh, God! that bauble is a consolation to me that in this hour
+I would not part with--no, no! Thank you, friend, a thousand times!"
+
+"Have done," said the soldier, "and in future be more careful. The
+relief is coming this way."
+
+And the sentinel, taking up his rifle, repaired to his post. In a few
+moments the guard was changed, and those lately on duty were marched to
+the dwelling-house.
+
+When night came on the immediate guard around Butler's person was
+doubled. Some few comforts were added to his forlorn prison by the
+kindness of the soldier Bruce, and he was left to pass the weary hours
+of darkness in communion with his own thoughts, or in the enjoyment of
+such repose as his unhappy state of thraldom allowed. If the agitation
+of his spirit had permitted sleep, there were but few moments of the
+night when it might have been indulged. The outbursts of revelry, the
+loud and boisterous laugh, and still louder oaths of the party who
+occupied the dwelling-house near at hand, showed that they had plunged
+into their usual debauch, and now caroused over their frequently filled
+cups; and the clamor that broke upon the night might have baffled the
+slumbers of a mind less anxious and wakeful than his own.
+
+The party of troopers and militia sat at the door to take advantage of
+the coolness of the night, and as they plied the busy flagon, and with
+heavy draught grew more noisy, scarce a word fell from their lips that
+was not distinctly heard by Butler. It was with intense interest,
+therefore, that he listened to the conversation when it led to a topic
+that greatly concerned himself; and that he might not alarm the
+suspicion of the speakers he affected sleep.
+
+"Sumpter has been hovering about Ninety-Six," said the lieutenant; "and
+if one could believe all the stories that are told about him, he must be
+a full cousin at least to a certain person that it wouldn't be right to
+mention in respectable company; for, by the accounts, he is one day on
+the Wateree, and the next, whoop and away!--and there he is, almost over
+at Augusta. It seems almost past the power of human legs for a mortal
+man to make such strides as they tell of him."
+
+"Who says Sumpter is near Ninety-Six?" inquired one of the party; "I can
+only say, if that's true, he is a ghost--that's all. Here's Harry Turner
+will swear that he saw him, day before yesterday, in North Carolina, on
+his march towards Burk."
+
+"Indeed did I," responded Harry, one of the militia-men.
+
+"There is no mistake about it," interposed the lieutenant. "A vidette of
+Brown's came scampering through here this morning, who reported the
+news; and the man had good right to know, for he saw Cruger yesterday,
+who told him all about it, and then sent him off to Wahab's plantation,
+near the Catawba fords, for Hanger's rangers. It was on his way back
+this morning that he stopped here five minutes, only to give us
+warning?"
+
+"This is only some story that your drunken head has been dreaming about,
+Gabriel," said Habershaw. "There is not a word of truth in it; the
+rangers went down to Camden three days ago. Who saw the vidette besides
+yourself?"
+
+"The whole detachment," replied the lieutenant. "We talked to the man
+and had the story from him--and a queer fellow he was--a good stout chap
+that liked to have been caught by a pair of reconnoitring Whigs, a few
+miles back between this and Pacolet; they pushed him up to the
+saddleflaps. But you must have seen him yourself, Captain Habershaw;
+for he told us you were on the road."
+
+"From towards Pacolet!" exclaimed the captain with surprise. "We saw
+nobody on that road. When did the man arrive?"
+
+"About an hour before you. He came at full speed, with his horse--a
+great, black, snorting beast seventeen hands high at least--all in a
+foam. He was first for passing by without stopping, but we challenged
+him and brought him short upon his haunches, and then he told us he was
+in a hurry, and mustn't be delayed."
+
+"What kind of a looking man was he?" inquired Habershaw.
+
+"A jolly fellow," replied the lieutenant: "almost as big as his horse. A
+good civil fellow, too, that swigs well at a canteen. He made a joke of
+the matter about your coming up, and called you old Cat-o'-nine
+tails--said that you were the cat, and your nine tag-rags were the
+tails--ha, ha ha!"
+
+"Blast the bastard!" exclaimed Habershaw; "who could he be?"
+
+"Why we asked that, but he roared out with a great haw-haw--took another
+drink, and said he was never christened."
+
+"You should, as a good soldier," said Habershaw, "have made him give his
+name."
+
+"I tried him again, and he would only let us have a nickname; he told us
+then that he was called Jack-o'-Lantern, and had a special good stomach,
+and that if we wanted more of him we must give him a snatch of something
+to eat. Well, we did so. After that, he said he must have our landlord's
+sword, for his own had been torn from him by the Whig troopers that
+pushed him so hard, and that the bill for it must be sent to Cruger. So
+he got the old cheese-knife that used to hang over the fire-place and
+strung it across his shoulder. He laughed so hard, and seemed so
+good-natured, that there was no doing anything with him. At last he
+mounted his horse again, just stooped down and whispered in my ear at
+parting, that he was an old friend of yours, and that you could tell us
+all the news, and away he went, like a mad bully, clinking it over the
+hill at twenty miles to the hour."
+
+"A black horse did you say?" inquired Habershaw. "Had he a white star in
+the forehead, and the two hind legs white below the knee?"
+
+"Exactly," said the lieutenant and several others of the party.
+
+"It was Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Habershaw, "by all the black
+devils!"
+
+"Horse Shoe, Horse Shoe, to be sure!" responded half a dozen voices.
+
+"He was a famous good rider, Horse Shoe or anybody else," said the
+lieutenant.
+
+"That beats all!" said one of the troopers; "the cunning old fox! He
+told the truth when he said you would tell the news, captain: but to
+think of his lies getting him past the guard, with a sword and a
+bellyfull into the bargain!"
+
+"Why didn't you report instantly upon our arrival?" asked Habershaw.
+
+"Bless you," replied the lieutenant, "I never suspicioned him, more than
+I did you. The fellow laughed so naturally that I would never have
+thought him a runaway."
+
+"There it is," said Habershaw; "that's the want of discipline. The
+service will never thrive till these loggerheads are taught the rules of
+war."
+
+Butler had heard enough to satisfy him on one material point, namely,
+that Robinson had secured his escape, and was in condition to take
+whatever advantage of circumstances the times might afford him. It was a
+consolation to him also to know that the sergeant had taken this route,
+as it brought him nearer to the scene in which the major himself was
+likely to mingle. With this dawn of comfort brightening up his doubts,
+he addressed himself more composedly to sleep, and before daylight, the
+sounds of riot having sunk into a lower and more drowsy tone, he
+succeeded in winning a temporary oblivion from his cares.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+    "What ho! What ho!--thy door undo:
+    Art watching or asleep?"--_Burger's Leonora._
+
+
+On the banks of the Ennoree, in a little nook of meadow, formed by the
+bend of the stream which, fringed with willows, swept round it almost in
+a semicircle, the inland border of the meadow being defined by a gently
+rising wall of hills covered with wood, was seated within a few paces of
+the water, a neat little cottage with a group of out-buildings,
+presenting all the conveniences of a comfortable farm. The
+dwelling-house itself was shaded by a cluster of trees which had been
+spared from the native forest, and within view were several fields of
+cultivated ground neatly inclosed with fences. A little lower down the
+stream and within a short distance of the house, partially concealed by
+the bank, stood a small low-browed mill, built of wood. It was near
+sundown, and the golden light of evening sparkled upon the shower which
+fell from the leaky race that conducted the water to the head gate, and
+no less glittered on the spray that was dashed from the large and slowly
+revolving wheel. The steady gush of the stream, and the monotonous clack
+of the machinery, aided by the occasional discordant scream of a flock
+of geese that frequented the border of the race, and by the gambols of a
+few children, who played about the confines of the mill, excited
+pleasant thoughts of rural business and domestic content. A rudely
+constructed wagon, to which were harnessed two lean horses, stood at the
+door of the mill, and two men, one of them advanced in years, and the
+other apparently just beyond the verge of boyhood, were occupied in
+heaping upon it a heavy load of bags of meal. The whitened habiliments
+of these men showed them to be the proper attendants of the place, and
+now engaged in their avocation. A military guard stood by the wagon, and
+as soon as it was filled, they were seen to put the horses in motion,
+and to retire by a road that crossed the stream and take the descending
+direction of the current close along the opposite bank.
+
+When this party had disappeared, the old man directed the mill to be
+stopped. The gates were let down, the machinery ungeared, and, in a few
+moments, all was still. The millers now retired to the little habitation
+hard by.
+
+"There is so much work lost," said the elder to his companion, as they
+approached the gate that opened into the curtilage of the dwelling. "We
+shall never be paid for that load. Colonel Innis doesn't care much out
+of whose pocket he feeds his men; and as to his orders upon Rawdon's
+quarter-master, why it is almost the price of blood to venture so far
+from home to ask for payment--to say nothing of the risk of finding the
+army purse as low as a poor miller's at home. I begrudge the grain,
+Christopher, and the work that grinds it; but there is no disputing with
+these whiskered foot-pads with bayonets in their hands--they must have
+it and will have it, and there's an end of it."
+
+"Aye," replied the man addressed by the name of Christopher, "as you
+say, they will have it; and if they are told that a poor man's sweat has
+been mixed with their bread, they talk to us about the cause--the
+cause--the cause. I am tired of this everlasting preaching about king
+and country. I don't know but if I had my own way I'd take the country
+against the king any day. What does George the Third care for us, with a
+great world of water between?"
+
+"Whisht, Christopher Shaw--whisht, boy! We have no opinions of our own;
+trees and walls have ears at this time. It isn't for us to be bringing
+blood and burning under our roof, by setting up for men who have
+opinions. No, no. Wait patiently; and perhaps, Christopher, it will not
+be long before this gay bird Cornwallis will be plucked of his feathers.
+The man is on his way now that, by the help of the Lord, may bring down
+as proud a hawk as ever flew across the water. If it should be
+otherwise, trust to the power above the might of armies, and wiser than
+the cunning of men, that, by a righteous and peaceful life, we shall
+make our lot an easier one than it may ever be in mingling in the strife
+of the evil-minded."
+
+"It is hard, for all that--wise as it is--to be still," said
+Christopher, "with one's arms dangling by one's side, when one's
+neighbors and kinsmen are up and girding themselves for battle. It will
+come to that at last; fight we must. And, I don't care who knows it, I
+am for independence, uncle Allen."
+
+"Your passion, boy, and warmth of temper, I doubt, outrun your
+discretion," said the old man. "But you speak bravely and I cannot chide
+you for it. For the present, at least, be temperate, and, if you can,
+silent. It is but unprofitable talk for persons in our condition."
+
+The uncle and nephew now entered the house, and Allen Musgrove--for this
+was the person to whom I have introduced my reader--was soon seated at
+his family board, invoking a blessing upon his evening meal, and
+dispensing the cares of a quiet and peaceful household.
+
+"I wonder Mary stays so long with her aunt," he said, as the early hour
+of repose drew nigh. "It is an ill place for her, wife, and not apt to
+please the girl with anything she may find there. Wat Adair is an
+irregular man, and savage as the beasts he hunts. His associates are not
+of the best, and but little suited to Mary's quiet temper."
+
+The wife, a staid, motherly-looking woman of plain and placid exterior,
+who was busily engaged amongst a thousand scraps of coarse,
+homespun-cloth, which she was fashioning into a garment for some of the
+younger members of her family, paused from her work, upon this appeal to
+her, and, directing her glances above her spectacles to her husband,
+replied:
+
+"Mary has been taught to perform her duties to her kinsfolk, and it
+isn't often that she counts whether it is pleasant to her or not.
+Besides, Watty, rough as he is, loves our girl; and love goes a great
+way to make us bear and forbear both, husband. I'll warrant our daughter
+comes home when she thinks it right. But it is a weary way to ride over
+a wild country, and more so now when Whig and Tory have distracted the
+land. I wish Christopher could be spared to go for her."
+
+"He shall go to-morrow, wife," returned Allen Musgrove. "Wat Adair, love
+her or not, is not the man to go out of his way for a wandering girl,
+and would think nothing to see the child set out by herself. But come,
+it is Saturday night and near bed-time. Put aside your work, wife; a
+lesson from the Book of Truth, and prayers, and then to rest," he said,
+as he took down a family Bible from a shelf and spread it before him.
+
+The old man put on a pair of glasses, which, by a spring, sustained
+themselves upon his nose, and with an audible and solemn voice he read a
+portion of scripture; then, placing himself on his knees, whilst the
+whole family followed his example, he poured forth a fervent and
+heart-inspired prayer. It was a simple and homely effusion, delivered
+from the suggestions of the moment, in accordance with a devout habit of
+thanksgiving and supplication to which he had long been accustomed. He
+was a Presbyterian, and had witnessed, with many a pang, the profligate
+contempt and even savage persecution with which his sect had been
+visited by many of the Tory leaders--especially by the loyalist
+partisan, Captain Huck, who had been recently killed in an incursion of
+Sumpter's at Williams's plantation, not far distant from Musgrove's
+present residence. It was this unsparing hostility towards his religion,
+and impious derision of it, that, more than any other circumstance, had
+begotten that secret dislike of the Tory cause which, it was known to a
+few, the miller entertained, although his age, situation, and, perhaps,
+some ancient prejudice of descent (for he was the son of an early Scotch
+emigrant), would rather have inclined him to take the royal side; that
+side which, in common belief and in appearance, he still favored.
+
+"Thou hast bent thy bow," he said, in the warmest effusion of his
+prayer, "and shot thine arrows, O Lord, amongst this people; thou hast
+permitted the ministers of vengeance, and the seekers of blood to ride
+amongst us, and thy wrath hath not yet bowed the stubborn spirit of
+sin--but the hard hearts are given strong arms, and with curses they
+have smitten the people. Yet even the firebrand that it did please thee
+not to stay because of our sins--yea, even the firebrand that did cause
+conflagration along our border, until by the light the erring children
+of men might read in the dark night, from one end of our boundary even
+unto the other, the enormity of their own backslidings, and their
+forgetfulness of thee; that firebrand hath been thrown into the blaze
+which it had itself kindled, and, like a weapon of war which hath grown
+dull in the work of destruction, hath been cast into the place of
+unprofitable lumber, and hath been utterly consumed. The persecutor of
+the righteous and the scoffer of the word hath paid the price of blood,
+and hath fallen into the snares wherewith he lay in wait to ensnare the
+feet of the unthinking. But stay now, O Lord of Hosts, the hand of the
+destroyer, and let the angel of peace again spread his wing over our
+racked and wearied land. Take from the wicked heart his sword and
+shield, and make the righteous man safe beside his family hearth.
+Shelter the head of the wanderer, and guide in safety the hunted
+fugitive who flees before the man of wrath; comfort the captive in his
+captivity, and make all hearts in this rent and sundered province to
+know and bless thy mercies for ever more. In especial, we beseech thee
+to give the victory to him that hath right, and to 'stablish the
+foundations of the government in justice and truth, giving liberty of
+conscience and liberty of law to those who know how to use it." At this
+point the worship of the evening was arrested by a slight knocking at
+the door.
+
+"Who goes there?" exclaimed the old man, starting from his kneeling
+position. "Who raps at my door?"
+
+"A stranger, good man," replied a voice without. "A poor fellow that has
+been hot pressed and hard run."
+
+"Friend or foe?" asked Allen Musgrove.
+
+"A very worthless friend to any man at this present speaking," replied
+the person on the outside of the door; "and not fit to be counted a foe
+until he has had something to eat. If you be Allen Musgrove, open your
+door."
+
+"Are you alone, or do you come with followers at your heels? My house is
+small and can give scant comfort to many?"
+
+"Faith, it is more than I know," responded the other; "but if I have
+followers it is not with my will that they shall cross your door-sill.
+If you be Allen Musgrove, or if you be not, open, friend. I am as
+harmless as a barndoor fowl."
+
+"I do not fear you, sir," said Musgrove, opening the door; "you are
+welcome to all I can give you, whatever colors you serve."
+
+"Then give us your hand," said Horse Shoe Robinson, striding into the
+apartment. "You are a stranger to me, but if you are Allen Musgrove, the
+miller, that I have hearn men speak of, you are not the person to turn
+your back on a fellow creature in distress. Your sarvent, mistress," he
+added, bowing to the dame. "Far riding and fast riding gives a sort of
+claim these times; so excuse me for sitting down."
+
+"You are welcome, again; your name, sir?" said Musgrove.
+
+"Have I guessed yours?" inquired Horse Shoe.
+
+"You have."
+
+"Then you must guess mine; for it isn't convenient to tell it."
+
+"Some poor Whig soldier," said Christopher Shaw privately to Musgrove.
+"It isn't right to make him betray himself. You are hungry, friend,"
+added Christopher; "and we will first get you something to eat, and then
+you may talk all the better for it."
+
+"That's a good word," said Horse Shoe, "and a brave word, as things go;
+for it isn't every man has the courage to feed an enemy in these days,
+though I made the devils do it for me this morning, ha, ha, ha! Some
+water, Mr. Musgrove, and it will not come badly to my hand if you can
+tangle it somewhat."
+
+The refreshment asked for was produced by Christopher Shaw; and Horse
+Shoe, taking the brimming cup in his hand, stood up, and with a rather
+awkward courtesy, pledged the draught with "Your health, good mistress,
+and luck to the little ones! for we grown-up babies are out of the days
+of luck, except the luck of escaping twisted hemp, or drum-head law,
+which for to-night, I believe, is mine;" and he swallowed the mixture at
+a draught; then, with a long sigh, placed the cup upon the table and
+resumed his seat. "That there spirit, Mr. Musgrove," he added, "is a
+special good friend in need, preach against it who will!"
+
+"You say you have ridden far to-day," remarked the miller: "you must be
+tired."
+
+"I am not apt to get tired," replied the sergeant, turning his
+sword-belt over his head, and flinging the weapon upon a bench; "but I
+am often hungry."
+
+"My wife," said Musgrove, smiling, "has taken that hint before you spoke
+it; she has already ordered something for you to eat."
+
+"That's an excellent woman!" exclaimed Horse Shoe. "You see, Allen
+Musgrove, I don't stand much upon making myself free of your house. I
+have hearn of you often before I saw you, man; and I know all about you.
+You are obliged to keep fair weather with these Tories--who have no
+consideration for decent, orderly people--but your heart is with the
+boys that go for liberty. You see I know you, and am not afeard to trust
+you. Perchance, you mought have hearn tell of one Horse Shoe Robinson,
+who lived over here at the Waxhaws?"
+
+"I have heard many stories about that man," replied the miller.
+
+"Well, I won't tell you that he is in your house to-night, for fear the
+Tories might take you to account for harboring such a never-do-well. But
+you have got a poor fellow under your roof that has had a hard run to
+get here."
+
+"In my house!" exclaimed Musgrove; "Horse Shoe Robinson!" and then,
+after a pause, he continued, "well, well, there is no rule of war that
+justifies a Christian in refusing aid and comfort to a houseless and
+hunted stranger, who comes with no thought of harm to a peaceful family
+hearth. I take no part in the war on either side; and, in your ear,
+friend Robinson, I take none _against_ you or the brave men that stand
+by you."
+
+"Your hand again," said Horse Shoe, reaching towards the miller. "Allen,
+I have come to you under a sore press of heels. An officer of the
+Continental army and me have been travelling through these here parts,
+and we have been most onaccountably ambushed by a half wild-cat, half
+bull-dog, known by the name of Captain Hugh Habershaw, who cotched us in
+the night at Grindall's ford."
+
+"Heaven have mercy on the man who has anything to do with Hugh
+Habershaw!" exclaimed the miller's wife.
+
+"Amen, mistress," responded the sergeant; "for a surlier, misbegotten
+piece of flesh, there's not in these wild woods, giving you the choice
+of bear, panther, catamount, rattlesnake, or what not. We were sot
+upon," continued the sergeant, "by this bully and a bevy of his
+braggadocios, and made prisoners; but I took a chance to slip the noose
+this morning, and after riding plump into a hornet's nest at
+Blackstock's, where I put on a new face and tricked the guard out of a
+dinner and this here old sword, I took a course for this mill, axing
+people along the road where I should find Allen Musgrove; and so, after
+making some roundabouts and dodging into the woods until night came on,
+to keep clear of the Tories, here I am."
+
+"And the officer?" said Musgrove.
+
+"He is in the hands of the Philistines yet--most likely now at
+Blackstock's."
+
+"What might be his name?"
+
+"Major Butler--a bold, warm gentleman--that's been used to tender life
+and good fortune. He has lands on the sea-coast--unless that new-fangled
+court at Charlestown, that they call the Court of Seekerstations, has
+made them null and void--as they have been making the estates of better
+gentleman than they could ever pretend to be; taking all the best lands,
+you see, Allen, to themselves, the cursed iniquiters!"
+
+"Where did you come from with this gentleman?"
+
+"A long way off, Mr. Musgrove--from old Virginny--but lastly from Wat
+Adair's."
+
+"Wat's wife is a relation of my family."
+
+"Then he is a filthy disgrace to all who claim kin with him, Allen
+Musgrove. Wat was the man who put us into the wild-cat's claws--at
+least, so we had good reason to think. There was a tidy, spruce, and
+smart little wench there--tut, man--I am talking of your own kith and
+kindred, for her name was Mary Musgrove."
+
+"Our girl!" said the dame with an animated emphasis; "our own Mary; what
+of _her_, Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson?"
+
+"That she is as good a child, Mistress Musgrove, as any honest parent
+mought wish for. She got some sort of inkling of what was contrived; and
+so she appeared to Major Butler in a dream--or her ghost."
+
+"Mercy on us! the child has not been hurt?" cried the mother.
+
+"Ondoubtedly not, ma'am," said Robinson; "but it is as true as you are
+there, she gave us, somehow or other, a warning that there was harm in
+the wind; and we took her advice, but it didn't do."
+
+"I wish the child were home," said Musgrove. "Christopher, at daylight,
+boy, saddle a horse and be off to Adair's for Mary."
+
+The nephew promised to do the errand.
+
+"Come, Mr. Robinson, draw near the table and eat something."
+
+"With right good heart," replied Horse Shoe; "but it's a kind of camp
+rule with me, before I taste food--no matter where--just to look after
+Captain Peter Clinch; that's my horse, friend Musgrove. So, by your
+leave, I'll just go take a peep to see that the Captain is sarved. A
+good beast is a sort of right arm in scrapish times; and as God ha'n't
+given them the gift of speech, we must speak for them."
+
+"Christopher shall save you the trouble," replied Musgrove.
+
+"A good horse never loses anything by the eye of his master," said Horse
+Shoe; "so, Christopher, I'll go with you."
+
+In a short time the sergeant returned into the house, and took his seat
+at the table, where he fell to, at what was set before him, with a
+laudable dispatch.
+
+"How far off," he inquired, "is the nearest Tory post, Mr. Musgrove?"
+
+"Colonel Innis has some light corps stationed within two miles. If you
+had been a little earlier you would have found some of them at my mill."
+
+"Innis!" repeated Horse Shoe, "I thought Floyd had these parts under
+command?"
+
+"So he has," replied the miller, "but he has lately joined the garrison
+at Rocky Mount."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" ejaculated Robinson, "that's a pot into which Sumpter will
+be dipping his ladle before long. All the land between Wateree and Broad
+belongs to Tom Sumpter, let mad-cap Tarleton do his best! We Whigs, Mr.
+Musgrove, have a little touch of the hobgoblin in us. We travel pretty
+much where we please. Now, I will tell you, friend, very plainly what I
+am after. I don't mean to leave these parts till I see what is to become
+of Major Butler. Innis and Floyd put together sha'n't hinder me from
+looking after a man that's under my charge. I'm an old sodger, and they
+can't make much out of me if they get me."
+
+"The country is swarming with troops of one kind or another," said the
+miller; "and a man must have his wits about him who would get through
+it. You are now, Mr. Robinson, in a very dangerous quarter. The fort at
+Ninety-Six on one side of you, and Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock on the
+other--the road between the three is full of loyalists. Colonel Innis is
+here to keep the passage open, and, almost hourly, his men are passing.
+You should be careful in showing yourself in daylight. And as for your
+poor friend, Major Butler, there is not likely to be much good will
+shown towards him. I greatly fear his case is worse than it seems to
+you."
+
+"There is somewhere," said Robinson, "in that book that lies open on the
+table--which I take to be the Bible--the story of the campaigns of King
+David; and as I have hearn it read by the preacher, it tells how David
+was pushed on all sides by flying corps of the enemy, and that, seeing
+he had no sword, he came across a man who gave him victuals and the
+sword of Goliath--as I got my dinner and a sword this morning from the
+tavern-keeper at Blackstock's; and then he set off on his flight to some
+strange place, where he feigned himself crazy and scrabbled at the gate,
+and let the spit run down on his beard--as I have done before now with
+Tarleton, Mr. Musgrove; and then King David took into a cave--which I
+shouldn't stand much upon doing if there was occasion; and there the
+King waited, until he got friends about him and was able to drub the
+Philistians for robbing the threshing-floors--as I make no doubt these
+Tories have robbed yours, Allen Musgrove. But you know all about it,
+seeing that you are able to read, which I am not. Now, I don't pretend
+to say that I nor Major Butler are as good men as David--not at all; but
+the cause of liberty is as good a cause as ever King David fought for,
+and the Lord that took his side in the cave, will take the side of the
+Whigs, sooner or later, and help them to beat these grinding, thieving,
+burning, and throat-cutting Tories. And, moreover, a brave man ought
+never to be cast down by such vermin; that's my religion, Mr. Musgrove,
+though you mought hardly expect to find much thought of such things left
+in a rough fellow like me, that's been hammered in these here wars like
+an old piece of iron that's been one while a plough coulter, and after
+that a gun-barrel, and finally that's been run up with others into a
+piece of ordnance--not to say that it moughtn't have been a horse shoe
+in some part of its life, ha! ha! ha! There's not likely to be much
+conscience or religion left after all that hammering."
+
+"'He shall keep the simple folk by their right,'" said Musgrove, quoting
+a passage from the Psalms, "'defend the children of the poor and punish
+the wrong-doer.' You have finished your supper, Mr. Robinson," he
+continued, "and before we retire to rest you will join us in the
+conclusion of our family worship, which was interrupted by your coming
+into the house. We will sing a Psalm which has been given to us by that
+man whose deliverance has taught you where you are to look for yours."
+
+"If I cannot help to make music, Allen," said Horse Shoe, "I can listen
+with good will."
+
+The miller now produced a little book in black-letter, containing a
+familiar and ancient version of the Psalms, and the following quaint and
+simple lines were read by him in successive couplets, the whole family
+singing each distich as soon as it was given out--not excepting Horse
+Shoe, who, after the first couplet, having acquired some slight
+perception of the tune, chimed in with a voice that might have alarmed
+the sentinels of Innis's camp:
+
+    "A king that trusteth in his host
+    Shall not prevail at length;
+    The man that of his might doth boast
+    Shall fall, for all his strength.
+
+    "The troops of horsemen eke shall fail,
+    Their sturdy steeds shall starve:
+    The strength of horse shall not prevail
+    The rider to preserve.
+
+    "But so the eyes of God intend,
+    And watch to aid the just;
+    With such as fear him to offend,
+    And on his goodness trust.
+
+    "That he of death and great distress
+    May set their souls from dread;
+    And if that dearth their land oppress,
+    In hunger them to feed.
+
+    "Wherefore our soul doth whole depend
+    On God, our strength and stay;
+    He is our shield us to defend
+    And drive all darts away."
+
+When this act of devotion was concluded the old man invoked a blessing
+upon his household, and gave his orders that the family should betake
+themselves to rest. Horse Shoe had already taken up his sword and was
+about retiring to a chamber, under the guidance of Christopher Shaw,
+when the door was suddenly thrown wide open, and in rushed Mary
+Musgrove. She ran up, threw herself into her father's arms, and cried
+out--
+
+"Oh, how glad I am that I have reached home to-night!" then kissing both
+of her parents, she flung herself into a chair, saying "I am tired--very
+tired. I have ridden the livelong day, alone, and frightened out of my
+wits."
+
+"Not alone, my daughter!--on that weary road, and the country so
+troubled with ill-governed men! Why did you venture, girl? Did you not
+think I would send your cousin Christopher for you?"
+
+"Oh, father," replied Mary, "there have been such doings! Ah! and here
+is Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson; Major Butler, where is he, sir?" she
+exclaimed, turning to the sergeant, who had now approached the back of
+her chair to offer his hand.
+
+"Blessings on you for a wise and a brave girl!" said Robinson. "But it
+wouldn't do; we were ambushed, and the Major is still a prisoner."
+
+"I feared it," said Mary, "and therefore I stole away. They are
+bloody-minded and wicked, father; and uncle Adair's house has been the
+place where mischief and murder has been talked of. Oh, I am very sick!
+I have had such a ride!"
+
+"Poor wench!" said the father, taking her to his bosom. "You have not
+the temper nor the strength to struggle where ruthless men take up their
+weapons of war. What has befallen? Tell us all!"
+
+"No, no!" interposed the mother; "no, Allen, not now. The girl must have
+food and sleep, and must not be wearied with questions to-night. Wait,
+my dear Mary, until to-morrow. She will tell us everything to-morrow."
+
+"I must hear of Major Butler," said Mary; "I cannot sleep until I have
+heard all that has happened. Good Mr. Robinson, tell me everything."
+
+In few words the sergeant unfolded to the damsel the eventful history of
+the last two days, during the narrative of which her cheek waxed pale,
+her strength failed her, and she sank almost lifeless across her
+father's knee.
+
+"Give me some water," she said. "My long ride has worn me out. I ran off
+at daylight this morning, and have not stopped once upon the road."
+
+A glass of milk with a slice of bread restored the maiden to her
+strength, and she took the first opportunity to inform the circle who
+surrounded her of all the incidents that had fallen under her
+observation at Adair's.
+
+Her father listened with deep emotion to the tale, and during its
+relation clenched his teeth with anger, as he walked, to and fro,
+through the apartment. There was an earnest struggle in his feelings to
+withhold the expression of the strong execration, which the narrative
+brought almost to his lips, against the perfidy of his wife's kinsman.
+But the habitual control of his temper, which his religious habits
+inculcated, kept him silent; and considerations of prudence again swayed
+him from surrendering to the impulse, which would have led him to
+declare himself openly against the cause of the royal government and its
+supporters in the district where he lived. He cross-questioned his
+daughter as to many minute points of her story, but her answers were
+uniform and consistent, and were stamped with the most unequivocal
+proofs of her strict veracity. Indeed, the collateral evidences
+furnished by Robinson, left no doubt on the miller's mind that the whole
+of Mary's disclosures were the testimony of a witness whose senses could
+not have been disturbed by illusions, nor distempered by fear.
+
+"It is a dreadful tale," he said, "and we must think over it more
+maturely. Be of good heart, my daughter, you have acted well and wisely;
+God will protect us from harm."
+
+"And so it was no ghost, nor spirit," said Horse Shoe, "that the major
+saw in the night? But I wonder you didn't think of waking me. A word to
+me in the night--seeing I have sarved a good deal on outposts, and have
+got used to being called up--would have had me stirring in a wink. But
+that's part of Wat's luck for I should most ondoubtedly have strangled
+the snake in his bed."
+
+"I called you," said Mary, "as loudly as I durst, and more than once,
+but you slept so hard!"
+
+"That's like me too," replied Horse Shoe. "I'm both sleepy and watchful,
+according as I think there is need of my sarvices."
+
+"Now to bed, my child," said Musgrove. "Your bed is the fittest place
+for your wearied body. God bless you, daughter!"
+
+Once more the family broke up, and as Robinson left the room Mary
+followed him to the foot of the little stair that wound up into an attic
+chamber; here she detained him one moment, while she communicated to him
+in a half whisper,
+
+"I have a friend, Mr. Robinson, that might help you to do something for
+Major Butler. His name is John Ramsay: he belongs to General Sumpter's
+brigade. If you would go to his father's, only six miles from here, on
+the upper road to Ninety-Six, you might hear where John was. But, may
+be, you are afraid to go so near to the fort?"
+
+"May be so," said Robinson, with a look of comic incredulity. "I know
+the place, and I know the family, and, likely, John himself. It's a good
+thought, Mary, for I want help now, more than I ever did in my life.
+I'll start before daylight--for it won't do to let the sun shine upon
+me, with Innis's Tories so nigh. So, if I am missed to-morrow morning,
+let your father know how I come to be away."
+
+"Tell John," said Mary, "I sent you to him. Mary Musgrove, remember."
+
+"If I can't find John," replied Horse Shoe, "you're such a staunch
+little petticoat sodger, that I'll, perhaps, come back and enlist you.
+'Tisn't everywhere that we can find such valiant wenches. I wish some of
+our men had a little of your courage; so, good night!"
+
+The maiden now returned to the parlor, and Horse Shoe, under the
+guidance of Christopher Shaw, found a comfortable place of deposit for
+his hard-worked, though--as he would have Christopher believe--his
+unfatigued frame. The sergeant, however, was a man not born to cares,
+notwithstanding that his troubles were "as thick as the sparks that fly
+upward," and it is a trivial fact in his history, that, on the present
+occasion, he was not many seconds in bed before he was as sound asleep
+as the trapped partridges, in the fairy tale, which, the eastern
+chronicle records, fell into a deep sleep when roasting upon the spit,
+and did not wake for a hundred years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+    "Now if you ask who gave the stroke
+    I cannot tell, so mote I thrive;
+    It was not given by man alive."--_Lay of the last Minstrel._
+
+
+It was a little before daybreak on Sunday morning, the fifteenth of
+August (a day rendered memorable by the exploit of Sumpter, who
+captured, in the vicinity of Rocky Mount, a large quantity of military
+stores, and a numerous escort, then on their way from Ninety-Six to
+Camden), that James Curry was travelling in the neighborhood of the
+Ennoree, some four miles distant from Musgrove's mill. He had a few
+hours before left the garrison of Ninety-Six, and was now hieing with
+all haste to Blackstock's on a mission of importance. The night had been
+sultry, but the approach of the dawn had brought with it that refreshing
+coolness which is always to be remarked in the half hour that precedes
+the first blush of morning. The dragoon had had a weary night-ride, but
+the recent change of temperature had invigorated his system and given
+buoyancy to his spirits. This effect was exhibited in his first
+whistling a tune, then humming the words of a ditty, and, finally, in
+breaking forth into a loud full song, which, as he had a good voice and
+practised skill, increased in loudness as he became better pleased with
+the trial of his powers. The song was occasionally intermitted to give
+room to certain self-communings which the pastime suggested.
+
+    "You may take it for sooth, that wit without gold,"
+
+he sang in the loudest strain, trying the words on different keys, and
+introducing some variations in the tune--
+
+    "Will make a bad market whenever 'tis sold."
+
+"That's true; your poor moneyless devil, how should his wit pass
+current? He was a shrewd fellow that wrote it down. Your rich man for
+wit, all the world over, and so the song runs:--
+
+    "'But all over the world it is well understood
+    That the joke of a rich man is sure to be good.'
+
+"True, true as gospel! Give the knaves dinners, plenty of Burgundy and
+Port, and what signifies an empty head? Go to college, and how is it
+there? What is a sizer's joke? If the fellow have the wit of Diogenes,
+it is sheer impertinence. But let my young lord Croesus come out with
+his flatulent nonsense, oh, that's the true ware for the market! James
+Curry, James Curry, what ought you to have been, if the supple jade
+fortune had done your deserts justice! Instead of a d----d dodging
+dragoon, obedient to the beck of every puppy who wears his majesty's
+epaulets; but it's no matter, that's past; the wheel has made its turn,
+and here I am, doing the work of the scullion, that ought to sit above
+the salt-cellar. Vogue la galere! We will play out the play. Meantime,
+I'll be merry in spite of the horoscope: come then, I like these words
+and the jolly knave, whoever he was, that penned them.
+
+    "'You may take it for sooth that wit without gold.'"
+
+The singer was, at this instant, arrested at the top of his voice by a
+blow against the back of his head, bestowed, apparently, by some
+ponderous hand, that so effectually swayed him from the line of gravity,
+as to cause him to reel in his saddle, and, by an irrecoverable impetus,
+to swing round to the ground, where he alighted on his back, with the
+reins of his horse firmly held in his hand.
+
+"Singing on Sunday is against the law," said a hoarse voice, that came
+apparently from the air, as the darkness of the hour--which was
+increased by an overcast and lowering sky, as well as by the thick wood
+through which the road ran, prevented the stricken man from discerning
+anything that might have done him harm, even if such thing had been
+bodily present. The soldier lay for a moment prostrate, bewildered by
+the suddenness of this mysterious visitation; and when, at length, he
+regained his feet, he almost fancied that he heard receding from him,
+at a great distance, the dull beat of a horse's foot upon the sandy
+road.
+
+Curry, who as a soldier was insensible to fear, now shook in every
+joint, as he stood beside his horse in a state of confused and ravelled
+wonderment. He strained his ear to catch the sound in the direction
+towards which he thought he had heard the retreating footsteps, but his
+more deliberate attention persuaded him that he was mistaken in his
+first impression. Still more puzzled as he came into the possession of
+his faculties, of which the abruptness of the surprise had almost bereft
+him, he stood for some time mute; then drawing his sword with the
+alacrity of a man, who all at once believes himself in danger of an
+uplifted blow, he called out loudly,
+
+"Speak, and show yourself, if you be a man! Or if there be a party, let
+them come forth. Who waylays me? Remember, I warn him, in the name of
+the king, that I am on his majesty's errand, and that they are not far
+off who will punish any outrage on my person. By all the powers of
+Satan, the place is bewitched!" he exclaimed, after a pause. "Once more,
+speak; whether you are to be conjured in the name of the king or of the
+devil!"
+
+All remained silent, except the leaves of the forest that fluttered in
+the breeze; and it was with an awkward and unacknowledged sense of
+faint-heartedness that Curry put up his sword and remounted into his
+saddle. He first moved slowly forward in continuation of his journey;
+and, as his thoughts still ran upon the extraordinary incident, he
+applied spurs to his horse's side, and gradually increased his pace from
+a trot to a gallop, and from that to almost high speed, until he emerged
+from the wood upon a track of open country. When he reached this spot
+the day had already appeared above the eastern horizon; and reassured,
+as the light waxed stronger, the dragoon, by degrees, fell into his
+customary travelling pace, and resumed the equanimity of his temper.
+
+About ten o'clock in the day he reached Blackstock's, where he arrived
+in a heavy rain, that had been falling for the last three hours, and
+which had drenched him to the skin. So, rapidly dismounting and giving
+his horse into the charge of some of the idlers about the door, he
+entered the common room in which were assembled the greater part of the
+militia guard and of Habershaw's troopers. His first movement was to
+take the burly captain aside, and to communicate to him certain orders
+from the commanding officer at Ninety-Six, respecting the prisoner;
+which being done, he mingled with his usual affectedly careless and
+mirthful manner amongst the throng.
+
+Butler, through the intercession of Bruce, had been indulged with some
+mitigation of the restraints at first imposed upon him; and he was, at
+this moment, availing himself of the privilege that had been allowed
+him, on account of the leaky condition of the barn in which he had spent
+the night, to take his morning meal inside of the dwelling-house. He was
+accordingly seated at a table, in a corner of the room, with some
+eatables before him in a more comfortable state of preparation than he
+had hitherto enjoyed. Two soldiers stood sufficiently near to render his
+custody effectual without much personal annoyance. As yet he had been
+unable to glean anything from the conversation of those around him, by
+which he might form the least conjecture as to his probable destiny. His
+intercourse with his captors was restricted to the mere supply of his
+immediate wants. All other communication was strictly interdicted. Even
+Habershaw himself seemed to be under some authoritative command, to deny
+himself the gratification of either exhibiting his own importance, or of
+wreaking his spleen upon his prisoner; and when Butler attempted to gain
+from Bruce some hint as to what was intended, the only answer he
+received was conveyed by the soldier's putting his finger on his lip.
+
+Butler knew enough of Robinson's hardihood and venturesome disposition,
+to feel perfectly confident that he would make good his promise to be
+near him, at whatever personal hazard; and he was, therefore, in
+momentary expectation of receiving further intelligence from the
+sergeant in some of those strange, bold, and perilous forms of
+communication, which the character of the trusty soldier warranted him
+in counting upon. His knowledge that Robinson had passed by Blackstock's
+on the day preceding, gave him some assurance that the sergeant was in
+the diligent prosecution of his purpose to seek Sumpter, or some other
+of the partisan Whig corps in their hiding-places, and to try the
+hazardous experiment of his (Butler's) rescue from his present thraldom,
+by a vigorous incursion into the district where he was now confined.
+With this calculation of the course of events, he was prepared to hear,
+at every hour of the day, of some sudden alarm; and ready to co-operate,
+by seizing the first moment of confusion to snatch up a weapon, and
+force his way through the ranks of his guard. It was with such
+anticipations that now, whilst seemingly engrossed with the satisfaction
+of his physical wants at the table, he lent an attentive ear to the
+conversation which passed in the house between Curry and the company who
+were clustered around him. The dragoon, at first, in a light and merry
+vein of narrative, recounted to his hearers the singular visitation he
+had experienced before daybreak; and he contrived to fling over his
+story an additional hue of mystery, by the occasional reflections with
+which he seasoned it, tending to inculcate the belief to which he
+himself partly inclined, that the incident was brought about through the
+agency of some pranking and mischievous spirit,--a conclusion which, at
+that period, and amongst the persons to whom the adventure was related,
+did not require any great stretch of faith to sustain it. Some of his
+auditors fortified this prevailing inclination of opinion, by expressing
+their own conviction of the interference of malignant and supernatural
+influences in the concerns of mankind, and gave their personal
+experience of instances in which these powers were active. The
+conversation by degrees changed its tone from that of levity and
+laughter into one of grave and somewhat fearful interest, according to
+the increasing marvel which the several stories that were told excited
+in the superstitious minds of the circle; and in the same proportion
+that this sentiment took possession of the thoughts of the company, they
+became more unreserved in their language, and louder in the utterance of
+it, thus giving Butler the full benefit of all that was said.
+
+"But, after all," said one of the men, "mightn't you have been asleep on
+your horse, James Curry, and had a sort of jogging dream, when a limb of
+a tree across the road, for it was a dark morning, might have caught you
+under the throat and flung you out of your saddle: and you, not knowing
+whether you was asleep or awake, for a man who is on duty, without his
+night's rest, sometimes can't tell the difference, thought it was some
+hobgoblin business?"
+
+"No," said Curry, "that's impossible; for I was singing a song at the
+time, and almost at the top of my voice. I had been sleepy enough before
+that, just after I left Ninety-Six, near midnight, for I had ridden a
+long way; but as it grew towards daylight I began to rouse up, so that
+when this thing happened I was as much awake as I am now."
+
+"Then it's a downright case of ghost," said the other. "It knew you was
+upon a wicked errand, and so that back-handed blow was a warning to you.
+These things are sometimes meant to be friendly; and who knows but this
+oversetting you in the road might have been intended to signify that you
+had better not meddle in cases of life and death. If you would take my
+advice, you would just treat this Major Butler, that you took
+prisoner"--
+
+Curry looked at the speaker with a frown, as he made a motion to him to
+be silent. "Remember where you are, and who may hear you," he said in a
+cautious voice, as he glanced his eye towards Butler, who was leaning
+his head upon the table, as if in slumber.
+
+"Oh, I understand," replied the soldier of the guard. "I forgot he was
+in the room."
+
+"The weather holds up," said Habershaw, who now walked into the house.
+"The rain has slackened; and so, orderly, if you have had a bite of
+something to eat, the boys had better be got ready to march. We have a
+long way to go, and as the infantry march with us we shall get on
+slowly."
+
+"I think so, noble Captain," replied Curry. "I shall be ready to join
+you before you get your line formed."
+
+Orders were now issued by Habershaw, both to the troopers of his own
+squad and to the militia detachment, to put themselves in condition for
+an immediate movement. The clouds, during the last half hour, had been
+breaking away, and the sun soon burst forth upon the wet and glittering
+landscape, in all the effulgence of mid summer. During a brief interval
+of preparation the party of infantry and cavalry that now occupied the
+hamlet exhibited the bustle incident to the gathering of the corps. Some
+ran to one quarter for their arms, others to the stables for their
+horses; a cracked trumpet in the hands of a lusty performer, who here
+joined the troop, kept up a continual braying, and was seconded by the
+ceaseless beat of a slack and dull drum. There were some who, having put
+on their military equipments, thronged the table of the common room of
+the house, where spirits and water had been set out for their
+accommodation, and rude jokes, laughter, and oaths, were mingled
+together in deafening clamor.
+
+"Move out the prisoner," shouted Habershaw; "he goes with the infantry
+afoot. I'll never trust another of the tribe with a horse."
+
+"Follow, sir," said one of the sentinels near Butler's person, as he
+faced to the right with his musket at an "advance," and led the way to
+the door.
+
+Butler rose, and, before he placed himself in the position required,
+asked:
+
+"Where is it you purpose to conduct me?"
+
+"Silence!" said Habershaw sternly. "Obey orders, sir, and march where
+you are directed."
+
+Butler folded his arms and looked scornfully at the uncouth savage
+before him as he replied:
+
+"I am a prisoner, sir, and therefore bound to submit to the force that
+constrains me. But there will be a day of reckoning, both for you and
+your master. It will not be the lighter to him for having hired such a
+ruffian to do the business in which he is ashamed to appear himself."
+
+"Devil's leavings!" screamed Habershaw, almost choked with choler, "dare
+you speak to me so? By my heart, I have a mind to cleave your skull for
+you! My master, sir! You will find out, before long, who is master, when
+Hugh Habershaw has tied the knot that is to fit your neck."
+
+"Peace, villain!" exclaimed Butler; "I cannot come too soon into the
+presence of those who claim to direct your motions."
+
+Here James Curry interposed to draw off the incensed captain, and
+Butler, having received another order from the officer of the guard,
+moved out upon the road and took the place that was assigned him,
+between two platoons of the foot soldiers.
+
+The troopers being mounted and formed into column of march with
+Habershaw and his trumpeter at the head and Curry in the rear, now moved
+forward at a slow gait, followed by the detachment of infantry who had
+the prisoner under their especial charge.
+
+It was near noon when the party took up the line of march, and they
+prosecuted their journey southward with such expedition as to tax
+Butler's powers to the utmost to keep even pace with them over roads
+that were in many places rendered miry by the late rain. Towards
+evening, however, the sun had sufficiently dried the soil to make the
+travel less fatiguing; and by that hour when the light of day only
+lingered upon the tops of the western hills, the military escort, with
+their prisoner, were seen passing through a defile that opened upon
+their view an extensive bivouac of some two or three hundred horse and
+foot, and occupying a space of open field, encompassed with wood and
+guarded in its rear by a smooth and gentle river.
+
+The spot at which they had arrived was the camp of a partisan corps
+under the command of Colonel Innis. A farm-house was seen in the
+immediate neighborhood, which was used as the head-quarters of a party
+of officers. Numerous horses were attached to the trees that bounded the
+plain, and various shelters were made in the same quarter, in the rudest
+form of accommodation, of branches and underwood set against
+ridge-poles, that were sustained by stakes, to protect the men against
+the weather. Groups of this irregular soldiery were scattered over the
+plain, a few wagons were seen collected in one direction, and, not far
+off, a line of fires, around which parties were engaged in cooking food.
+Here and there a sentinel was seen pacing his short limits, and
+occasionally the roll of a drum and the flourish of a fife announced
+some ceremony of the camp police.
+
+The escort marched quickly across this plain until it arrived in front
+of the farm-house. Here a guard was drawn up to receive them; and, as
+soon as the usual military salute was passed and the order to "stand at
+ease" given, Habershaw put the detachment under the command of the
+lieutenant of infantry, and, accompanied by Curry, walked into the house
+to make his report to the commanding officer of the post.
+
+In a few moments afterwards Colonel Innis, attended by two or three
+military men--some of whom wore the uniform of the British regular
+army--came from the house and passed hastily along the line of the
+escort, surveying Butler only with a rapid glance. Having regained the
+door, he was heard to say--
+
+"It is very well; let the prisoner have a room above stairs. See that he
+wants nothing proper to his situation; and, above all, be attentive that
+he be kept scrupulously under the eye of his guard."
+
+When this order was given, the Colonel retired with his attendants to
+his quarters, and Butler was forthwith conducted, by a file of men, up a
+narrow, winding stair, to a small apartment in the angle of the roof,
+where he was provided with a chair, a light, and a comfortable bed. His
+door was left open, and on the outside of it, full in his view, was
+posted a sentinel. He was too weary even to be troubled with the cares
+of his present condition; and, without waiting, therefore, for food, or
+seeking to inquire into whose hands he had fallen, or even to turn his
+thoughts upon the mysterious train of circumstances that hung over him,
+he flung himself upon the couch and sank into a profound and grateful
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+AN ADVENTURE WHEREIN IT IS APPARENT THAT THE ACTIONS OF REAL LIFE ARE
+FULL AS MARVELLOUS AS THE INVENTIONS OF ROMANCE.
+
+
+David Ramsay's house was situated on a by-road, between five and six
+miles from Musgrove's mill, and at about the distance of one mile from
+the principal route of travel between Ninety-six and Blackstock's. In
+passing from the military post that had been established at the former
+place, towards the latter, Ramsay's lay off to the left, with a piece of
+dense wood intervening. The by-way leading through the farm, diverged
+from the main road, and traversed this wood until it reached the
+cultivated grounds immediately around Ramsay's dwelling. In the journey
+from Musgrove's mill to this point of divergence, the traveller was
+obliged to ride some two or three miles upon the great road leading from
+the British garrison, a road that, at the time of my story, was much
+frequented by military parties, scouts, and patroles, that were
+concerned in keeping up the communication between the several posts
+which were established by the British authorities along that frontier.
+Amongst the whig parties, also, there were various occasions which
+brought them under the necessity of frequent passage through this same
+district, and which, therefore, furnished opportunities for collision
+and skirmish with the opposite forces.
+
+It is a matter of historical notoriety, that immediately after the fall
+of Charleston, and the rapid subjugation of South Carolina that followed
+this event, there were three bold and skilful soldiers who undertook to
+carry on the war of resistance to the established authorities, upon a
+settled and digested plan of annoyance, under the most discouraging
+state of destitution, as regarded all the means of offence, that,
+perhaps, history records. It will not detract from the fame of other
+patriots of similar enthusiasm and of equal bravery, to mention the
+names of Marion, Sumpter, and Pickens, in connexion with this plan of
+keeping up an apparently hopeless partisan warfare, which had the
+promise neither of men, money, nor arms,--and yet which was so nobly
+sustained, amidst accumulated discomfitures, as to lead eventually to
+the subversion of the "Tory ascendency" and the expulsion of the British
+power. According to the plan of operations concerted amongst these
+chieftains, Marion took the lower country under his supervision; Pickens
+the south-western districts, bordering upon the Savannah; and to Sumpter
+was allotted all that tract of country lying between the Broad and the
+Catawba rivers, from the angle of their junction, below Camden, up to
+the mountain districts of North Carolina. How faithfully these men made
+good their promise to the country, is not only written in authentic
+history, but it is also told in many a legend amongst the older
+inhabitants of the region that was made the theatre of action. It only
+concerns my story to refer to the fact, that the events which have
+occupied my last five or six chapters, occurred in that range more
+peculiarly appropriated to Sumpter, and that the high road from
+Blackstock's towards Ninety-six was almost as necessary for
+communication between Sumpter and Pickens, as between the several
+British garrisons.
+
+On the morning that succeeded the night in which Horse Shoe Robinson
+arrived at Musgrove's, the stout and honest sergeant might have been
+seen, about eight o'clock, leaving the main road from Ninety-six, at the
+point where that leading to David Ramsay's separated from it, and
+cautiously urging his way into the deep forest, by the more private path
+into which he had entered. The knowledge that Innis was encamped along
+the Ennoree, within a short distance of the mill, had compelled him to
+make an extensive circuit to reach Ramsay's dwelling, whither he was now
+bent; and he had experienced considerable delay in his morning journey,
+by finding himself frequently in the neighborhood of small foraging
+parties of Tories, whose motions he was obliged to watch for fear of an
+encounter. He had once already been compelled to use his horse's heels
+in what he called "fair flight;" and once to ensconce himself, a full
+half hour, under cover of the thicket afforded him by a swamp. He now,
+therefore, according to his own phrase, "dived into the little road
+that scrambled down through the woods towards Ramsay's, with all his
+eyes about him, looking out as sharply as a fox on a foggy morning:" and
+with this circumspection, he was not long in arriving within view of
+Ramsay's house. Like a practised soldier, whom frequent frays has taught
+wisdom, he resolved to reconnoitre before he advanced upon a post that
+might be in possession of an enemy. He therefore dismounted, fastened
+his horse in a fence corner, where a field of corn concealed him from
+notice, and then stealthily crept forward until he came immediately
+behind one of the out-houses.
+
+The barking of a house-dog brought out a negro boy, to whom Robinson
+instantly addressed the query--
+
+"Is your master at home?"--
+
+"No, sir. He's got his horse, and gone off more than an hour ago."
+
+"Where is your mistress?"
+
+"Shelling beans, Sir."
+
+"I didn't ask you," said the sergeant, "what she is doing, but where she
+is."
+
+"In course, she is in the house, Sir,"--replied the negro with a grin.
+
+"Any strangers there?"
+
+"There was plenty on 'em a little while ago, but they've been gone a
+good bit."
+
+Robinson having thus satisfied himself as to the safety of his visit,
+directed the boy to take his horse and lead him up to the door. He then
+entered the dwelling.
+
+"Mistress Ramsay," said he, walking up to the dame, who was occupied at
+a table, with a large trencher before her, in which she was plying that
+household thrift which the negro described; "luck to you, ma'am, and all
+your house! I hope you haven't none of these clinking and clattering
+bullies about you, that are as thick over this country as the frogs in
+the kneading troughs, that they tell of."
+
+"Good lack, Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson," exclaimed the matron, offering the
+sergeant her hand. "What has brought you here? What news? Who are with
+you? For patience sake, tell me!"
+
+"I am alone," said Robinson, "and a little wettish mistress;" he added,
+as he took off his hat and shook the water from it "it has just sot up a
+rain, and looks as if it was going to give us enough on't. You don't
+mind, doing a little dinner-work of a Sunday, I see--shelling of beans,
+I s'pose, is tantamount to dragging a sheep out of a pond, as the
+preachers allow on the Sabbath--ha, ha!--Where's Davy?"
+
+"He's gone over to the meeting-house on Ennoree, hoping to hear
+something of the army at Camden: perhaps you can tell us the news from
+that quarter?"
+
+"Faith, that's a mistake, Mistress Ramsay. Though I don't doubt that
+they are hard upon the scratches, by this time. But, at this present
+speaking, I command the flying artillery. We have out one man in the
+corps--and that's myself; and all the guns we have got is this piece of
+ordnance, that hangs in this old belt by my side (pointing to his
+sword)--and that I captured from the enemy at Blackstock's. I was hoping
+I mought find John Ramsay at home--I have need of him as a recruit."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Robinson, John has a heavy life of it over there with Sumpter.
+The boy is often without his natural rest, or a meal's victuals; and the
+general thinks so much of him, that he can't spare him to come home. I
+hav'n't the heart to complain, as long as John's service is of any use,
+but it does seem, Mr. Robinson, like needless tempting of the mercies of
+providence. We thought that he might have been here to-day; yet I am
+glad he didn't come--for he would have been certain to get into trouble.
+Who should come in, this morning, just after my husband had cleverly got
+away on his horse, but a young cock-a-whoop ensign, that belongs to
+Ninety-Six, and four great Scotchmen with him, all in red coats; they
+had been out thieving, I warrant, and were now going home again. And who
+but they! Here they were, swaggering all about my house--and calling for
+this--and calling for that--as if they owned the fee-simple of
+everything on the plantation. And it made my blood rise, Mr. Horse Shoe,
+to see them run out in the yard, and catch up my chickens and ducks, and
+kill as many as they could string about them--and I not daring to say a
+word: though I did give them a piece of my mind, too."
+
+"Who is at home with you?" inquired the sergeant eagerly.
+
+"Nobody but my youngest boy, Andrew," answered the dame. "And then, the
+filthy, toping rioters--" she continued, exalting her voice.
+
+"What arms have you in the house?" asked Robinson, without heeding the
+dame's rising anger.
+
+"We have a rifle, and a horseman's pistol that belongs to John.--They
+must call for drink, too, and turn my house, of a Sunday morning, into a
+tavern."
+
+"They took the route towards Ninety-Six, you said, Mistress Ramsay?"
+
+"Yes,--they went straight forward upon the road. But, look you, Mr.
+Horse Shoe, you're not thinking of going after them?"
+
+"Isn't there an old field, about a mile from this, on that road?"
+inquired the sergeant, still intent upon his own thoughts.
+
+"There is," replied the dame; "with the old school-house upon it."
+
+"A lop-sided, rickety log-cabin in the middle of the field. Am I right,
+good woman?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And nobody lives in it? It has no door to it?"
+
+"There ha'n't been anybody in it these seven years."
+
+"I know the place very well," said the sergeant, thoughtfully; "there is
+woods just on this side of it."
+
+"That's true," replied the dame: "but what is it you are thinking
+about, Mr. Robinson?"
+
+"How long before this rain began was it that they quitted this house?"
+
+"Not above fifteen minutes."
+
+"Mistress Ramsay, bring me the rifle and pistol both--and the
+powder-horn and bullets."
+
+"As you say, Mr. Horse Shoe," answered the dame, as she turned round to
+leave the room; "but I am sure I can't suspicion what you mean to do."
+
+In a few moments the woman returned with the weapons, and gave them to
+the sergeant.
+
+"Where is Andy?" asked Horse Shoe.
+
+The hostess went to the door and called her son, and, almost immediately
+afterwards, a sturdy boy of about twelve or fourteen years of age
+entered the apartment, his clothes dripping with rain. He modestly and
+shyly seated himself on a chair near the door, with his soaked hat
+flapping down over a face full of freckles, and not less rife with the
+expression of an open, dauntless hardihood of character.
+
+"How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole
+your mother's chickens this morning?" asked Horse Shoe.
+
+"I'm agreed," replied the boy, "if you will tell me what to do."
+
+"You are not going to take the boy out on any of your desperate
+projects, Mr. Horse Shoe?" said the mother, with the tears starting
+instantly into her eyes. "You wouldn't take such a child as that into
+danger?"
+
+"Bless your soul, Mrs. Ramsay, there ar'n't no danger about it! Don't
+take on so. It's a thing that is either done at a blow, or not
+done,--and there's an end of it. I want the lad only to bring home the
+prisoners for me, after I have took them."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Robinson, I have one son already in these wars--God protect
+him!--and you men don't know how a mother's heart yearns for her
+children in these times. I cannot give another," she added, as she threw
+her arms over the shoulders of the youth and drew him to her bosom.
+
+"Oh! it aint nothing," said Andrew, in a sprightly tone. "It's only
+snapping of a pistol, mother,--pooh! If I'm not afraid, you oughtn't to
+be."
+
+"I give you my honor, Mistress Ramsay," said Robinson, "that I will
+bring or send your son safe back in one hour; and that he sha'n't be put
+in any sort of danger whatsomedever: come, that's a good woman!"
+
+"You are not deceiving me, Mr. Robinson?" asked the matron wiping away a
+tear. "You wouldn't mock the sufferings of a weak woman in such a thing
+as this?"
+
+"On the honesty of a sodger, ma'am," replied Horse Shoe, "the lad shall
+be in no danger, as I said before--whatsomedever."
+
+"Then I will say no more," answered the mother. "But Andy, my child, be
+sure to let Mr. Robinson keep before you."
+
+Horse Shoe now loaded the fire-arms, and having slung the pouch across
+his body, he put the pistol into the hands of the boy; then shouldering
+his rifle, he and his young ally left the room. Even on this occasion,
+serious as it might be deemed, the sergeant did not depart without
+giving some manifestation of that light-heartedness which no
+difficulties ever seemed to have the power to conquer. He thrust his
+head back into the room, after he had crossed the threshold, and said
+with an encouraging laugh, "Andy and me will teach them, Mistress
+Ramsay, Pat's point of war--we will _surround_ the ragamuffins."
+
+"Now, Andy, my lad," said Horse Shoe, after he had mounted Captain
+Peter, "you must get up behind me. Turn the lock of your pistol down,"
+he continued, as the boy sprang upon the horse's rump, "and cover it
+with the flap of your jacket, to keep the rain off. It won't do to hang
+fire at such a time as this."
+
+The lad did as he was directed, and Horse Shoe, having secured his rifle
+in the same way, put his horse up to a gallop, and took the road in the
+direction that had been pursued by the soldiers.
+
+As soon as our adventurers had gained a wood, at the distance of about
+half a mile, the sergeant relaxed his speed, and advanced at a pace a
+little above a walk.
+
+"Andy," he said, "we have got rather a ticklish sort of a job before us,
+so I must give you your lesson, which you will understand better by
+knowing something of my plan. As soon as your mother told me that these
+thieving villains had left her house about fifteen minutes before the
+rain came on, and that they had gone along upon this road, I remembered
+the old field up here, and the little log hut in the middle of it; and
+it was natural to suppose that they had just got about near that hut,
+when this rain came up; and then, it was the most supposable case in the
+world, that they would naturally go into it, as the driest place they
+could find. So now, you see, it's my calculation that the whole batch is
+there at this very point of time. We will go slowly along, until we get
+to the other end of this wood, in sight of the old field, and then, if
+there is no one on the look-out, we will open our first trench; you know
+what that means, Andy?"
+
+"It means, I s'pose, that we'll go right smack at them," replied Andrew.
+
+"Pretty exactly," said the sergeant. "But listen to me. Just at the edge
+of the woods you will have to get down, and put yourself behind a tree.
+I'll ride forward, as if I had a whole troop at my heels, and if I
+catch them, as I expect, they will have a little fire kindled, and, as
+likely as not, they'll be cooking some of your mother's fowls."
+
+"Yes, I understand," said the boy eagerly--
+
+"No, you don't," replied Horse Shoe, "but you will when you hear what I
+am going to say. If I get at them onawares, they'll be mighty apt to
+think they are surrounded, and will bellow, like fine fellows, for
+quarter. And, thereupon, Andy, I'll cry out 'stand fast,' as if I was
+speaking to my own men, and when you hear that, you must come up full
+tilt, because it will be a signal to you that the enemy has surrendered.
+Then it will be your business to run into the house and bring out the
+muskets, as quick as a rat runs through a kitchen: and when you have
+done that, why, all's done. But if you should hear any popping of
+fire-arms--that is, more than one shot, which I may chance to let
+off--do you take that for a bad sign, and get away as fast as you can
+heel it. You comprehend."
+
+"Oh! yes," replied the lad, "and I'll do what you want, and more too,
+may be, Mr. Robinson."
+
+"_Captain_ Robinson,--remember, Andy, you must call me captain, in the
+hearing of these Scotsmen."
+
+"I'll not forget that neither," answered Andrew.
+
+By the time that these instructions were fully impressed upon the boy,
+our adventurous forlorn hope, as it may fitly be called, had arrived at
+the place which Horse Shoe Robinson had designated for the commencement
+of active operations. They had a clear view of the old field, and it
+afforded them a strong assurance that the enemy was exactly where they
+wished him to be, when they discovered smoke arising from the chimney of
+the hovel. Andrew was soon posted behind a tree, and Robinson only
+tarried a moment to make the boy repeat the signals agreed on, in order
+to ascertain that he had them correctly in his memory. Being satisfied
+from this experiment that the intelligence of his young companion might
+be depended upon, he galloped across the intervening space, and, in a
+few seconds, abruptly reined up his steed, in the very doorway of the
+hut. The party within was gathered around a fire at the further end,
+and, in the corner near the door, were four muskets thrown together
+against the wall. To spring from his saddle and thrust himself one pace
+inside of the door, was a movement which the sergeant executed in an
+instant, shouting at the same time--
+
+"Halt! File off right and left to both sides of the house, and wait
+orders. I demand the surrender of all here," he said, as he planted
+himself between the party and their weapons. "I will shoot down the
+first man who budges a foot."
+
+"Leap to your arms," cried the young officer who commanded the little
+party inside of the house. "Why do you stand?"
+
+"I don't want to do you or your men any harm, young man," said Robinson,
+as he brought his rifle to a level, "but, by my father's son, I will not
+leave one of you to be put upon a muster-roll if you raise a hand at
+this moment."
+
+Both parties now stood, for a brief space, eyeing each other in a
+fearful suspense, during which there was an expression of doubt and
+irresolution visible on the countenances of the soldiers, as they
+surveyed the broad proportions, and met the stern glance of the
+sergeant, whilst the delay, also, began to raise an apprehension in the
+mind of Robinson that his stratagem would be discovered.
+
+"Shall I let loose upon them, captain?" said Andrew Ramsay, now
+appearing, most unexpectedly to Robinson, at the door of the hut. "Come
+on, boys!" he shouted, as he turned his face towards the field.
+
+"Keep them outside of the door--stand fast," cried the doughty sergeant,
+with admirable promptitude, in the new and sudden posture of his affairs
+caused by this opportune appearance of the boy. "Sir, you see that it's
+not worth while fighting five to one; and I should be sorry to be the
+death of any of your brave fellows; so, take my advice, and surrender to
+the Continental Congress and this scrap of its army which I command."
+
+During this appeal the sergeant was ably seconded by the lad outside,
+who was calling out first on one name, and then on another, as if in the
+presence of a troop. The device succeeded, and the officer within,
+believing the forbearance of Robinson to be real, at length said:--
+
+"Lower your rifle, sir. In the presence of a superior force, taken by
+surprise, and without arms, it is my duty to save bloodshed. With the
+promise of fair usage, and the rights of prisoners of war, I surrender
+this little foraging party under my command."
+
+"I'll make the terms agreeable," replied the sergeant. "Never doubt me,
+sir. Right hand file, advance, and receive the arms of the prisoners!"
+
+"I'm here, captain," said Andrew, in a conceited tone, as if it were a
+mere occasion of merriment; and the lad quickly entered the house and
+secured the weapons, retreating with them some paces from the door.
+
+"Now, sir," said Horse Shoe to the Ensign, "your sword, and whatever
+else you mought have about you of the ammunitions of war!"
+
+The officer delivered up his sword and a pair of pocket pistols.
+
+As Horse Shoe received these tokens of victory, he asked, with a lambent
+smile, and what he intended to be an elegant and condescending
+composure, "Your name, sir, if I mought take the freedom?"
+
+"Ensign St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's seventy-first regiment of light
+infantry."
+
+"Ensign, your sarvent," added Horse Shoe, still preserving this unusual
+exhibition of politeness. "You have defended your post like an old
+sodger, although you ha'n't much beard on your chin; but, seeing you
+have given up, you shall be treated like a man who has done his duty.
+You will walk out, now, and form yourselves in line at the door. I'll
+engage my men shall do you no harm; they are of a marciful breed."
+
+When the little squad of prisoners submitted to this command, and came
+to the door, they were stricken with equal astonishment and
+mortification to find, in place of the detachment of cavalry which they
+expected to see, nothing but a man, a boy, and a horse. Their first
+emotions were expressed in curses, which were even succeeded by laughter
+from one or two of the number. There seemed to be a disposition on the
+part of some to resist the authority that now controlled them; and
+sundry glances were exchanged, which indicated a purpose to turn upon
+their captors. The sergeant no sooner perceived this, than he halted,
+raised his rifle to his breast, and, at the same instant, gave Andrew
+Ramsay an order to retire a few paces, and to fire one of the captured
+pieces at the first man who opened his lips.
+
+"By my hand," he said, "if I find any trouble in taking you, all five,
+safe away from this here house, I will thin your numbers with your own
+muskets! And that's as good as if I had sworn to it."
+
+"You have my word, sir," said the Ensign. "Lead on."
+
+"By your leave, my pretty gentleman, you will lead, and I'll follow,"
+replied Horse Shoe. "It may be a new piece of drill to you; but the
+custom is to give the prisoners the post of honor."
+
+"As you please, sir," answered the Ensign. "Where do you take us to?"
+
+"You will march back by the road you came," said the sergeant.
+
+Finding the conqueror determined to execute summary martial law upon the
+first who should mutiny, the prisoners submitted, and marched in double
+file from the hut back towards Ramsay's--Horse Shoe, with Captain
+Peter's bridle dangling over his arm, and his gallant young auxiliary
+Andrew, laden with double the burden of Robinson Crusoe (having all the
+fire-arms packed upon his shoulders), bringing up the rear. In this
+order victors and vanquished returned to David Ramsay's.
+
+"Well, I have brought you your ducks and chickens back, mistress," said
+the sergeant, as he halted the prisoners at the door; "and, what's more,
+I have brought home a young sodger that's worth his weight in gold."
+
+"Heaven bless my child! my brave boy!" cried the mother, seizing the lad
+in her arms, and unheeding anything else in the present perturbation of
+her feelings. "I feared ill would come of it; but Heaven has preserved
+him. Did he behave handsomely, Mr. Robinson? But I am sure he did."
+
+"A little more venturesome, ma'am, than I wanted him to be," replied
+Horse Shoe; "but he did excellent service. These are his prisoners,
+Mistress Ramsay; I should never have got them if it hadn't been for
+Andy. In these drumming and fifing times the babies suck in quarrel with
+their mother's milk. Show me another boy in America that's made more
+prisoners than there was men to fight them with, that's all!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+SHOWING HOW A GOOD SOLDIER WILL TURN THE ACCIDENTS OF WAR TO
+THE BEST ACCOUNT. ENSIGN ST. JERMYN IN A DISAGREEABLE DILEMMA.
+
+
+Robinson having thus succeeded in his enterprise, now found himself in
+circumstances of peculiar perplexity in regard to the disposal of his
+prisoners. Here he was, in the neighborhood of the British posts--in a
+district of country of which the enemy might be said to have, at this
+moment, complete possession--(for Horse Shoe himself was almost the only
+belligerent in the field against them)--and, more than that, he was but
+a few miles' distant from a camp whose scouts had chased him almost to
+his present place of refuge. It was scarcely probable, therefore, that
+he could hope to retain his captives long under his control, or prevent
+the enemy from receiving intelligence of the capture. He was, however,
+notwithstanding these embarrassments, as usual, cheerful, confident, and
+self-possessed. He had no wish or motive to detain the private soldiers
+as prisoners of war, and would at once have dismissed them, if he could
+have assured himself that they would not make the earliest use of their
+liberty to convey information of their misadventure to the first corps
+of loyalists they should meet, and thus get up a hot pursuit of him
+through the whole district. But he had cogent and most important reasons
+for holding the ensign, St. Jermyn, in close custody. It occurred to
+him, that this officer might be used to control the procedure that
+should be adopted by those who meditated injury to Arthur Butler; and he
+therefore, at once formed the resolution of communicating with the
+nearest British authorities, in order to assure them that he would
+retaliate upon the Ensign any pain that might be inflicted upon his late
+comrade. His plan was speedily formed--it was to keep his prisoners
+until night-fall, move off under cover of the darkness to some remote
+and concealed spot with St. Jermyn, and release the others, on their
+parole or pledge not to take up arms until regularly exchanged.
+
+Whilst the sergeant was deliberating over these arrangements, the
+prisoners were allowed to shelter themselves from the rain under a shed
+near the door of the dwelling, where Andrew, with all the pride and
+importance of his new station, marched to and fro, before them, like a
+trained sentinel. There was a small log building in the yard of Ramsay's
+mansion, which had been recently erected as a store-house, and which
+being well secured at the door by a padlock, Robinson determined to
+convert for the nonce into a prison. It contained but one room, not
+above twelve feet square, with an earthen floor, and received no light
+except such as was admitted under the door, and through a few crannies
+about the roof. Into this narrow apartment the soldiers were now
+marched; a bundle of straw was thrown upon the floor; sundry flitches of
+bacon, that hung upon the walls, were removed; and a few comforts, in
+the way of food and drink, were supplied to render the accommodation as
+tolerable to the inmates as was compatible with their safe custody. This
+being done, our friend Andrew was posted in the passage-way of the
+dwelling, in full view of the door of the store-house, which was
+carefully locked, with a musket in his hand, and with orders to make a
+circuit every five minutes round the little building, to guard against
+any attempts at escape by under-mining the foundation.
+
+As noon approached the weather began to clear up, and with the first
+breaking forth of the sun came David Ramsay, the proprietor of the farm
+which was the scene of the present operations. His recognition of Horse
+Shoe Robinson was accompanied by a hearty greeting, and with an
+expression of wonder that he should have ventured, in hostile guise,
+through a country so beset as this was by the forces of the enemy; but
+when he heard the narrative of the exploit of the morning, and saw the
+trophies of its success in the weapons piled against the wall, and, more
+especially, when he received from the lips of his wife a circumstantial
+account of the part which had been performed in this adventure by his
+son Andrew, his delight seemed almost to be absorbed by his astonishment
+and incredulity. The proofs, however, were all around him; and after
+assuring himself, by an actual inspection of the prisoners through one
+of the chinks of the store-house, he came into his own parlour, sat
+down, and laughed out-right.
+
+Ramsay was a staunch friend of the independence of his country; and
+although he had not been up in arms in the cause, he gave it all the aid
+he could by the free expression of opinion, and by a resolute refusal to
+comply with the requisitions of the royalists. His eldest son had joined
+Sumpter, and had already been active in the field; and he himself
+looked, with an almost certain expectation, to see visited upon himself
+that proscription under which thousands were already suffering, and
+which he had only escaped as yet by the temporizing delays of his
+opponents, or by their neglect, arising out of the incessant hurry and
+pressure of their military operations in the organization of the new
+dominion which the royal forces had but lately acquired. He was a man of
+sturdy frame--now only in the prime of life--brave, thoughtful, and
+intelligent, and firmly resolved to stand by his principles through
+whatever adverse chances. The present aspect of affairs was, to his
+mind, almost decisive of his fate: the capture of these prisoners, made
+from information derived from his own family, and in which his own son
+had been a principal agent; their confinement, too, in his own house,
+were facts of so unequivocal a character as inevitably to draw upon him
+the prompt ire of the Tories, and compel him to assume the attitude and
+abide by the issues of a partisan. As he had faith in the justice of his
+quarrel, and a strong devotion to the principles upon which it was
+sustained, he did not hesitate in the crisis before him, but heroically
+determined to meet the worst that might befal. He, therefore, in the
+present emergency, became a useful and efficient ally to Robinson, who
+opened to him the full history of Butler, and the course of measures he
+was about to pursue for the relief of that unfortunate officer.
+
+We must now leave the sergeant holding watch and ward over his
+vanquished foes, and shift our scene to Musgrove's Mill. The
+family of Allen Musgrove were in a state of great disquietude. Horse
+Shoe Robinson had disappeared before daylight; and when the miller and
+his nephew left their beds, a little after the dawn, the only
+intelligence they had of the departure of their guest was inferred from
+finding the stable door open and the sergeant's horse absent. This fact
+was explained when Mary met them at breakfast. Horse Shoe had set out
+for Ramsay's to learn some tidings of John, and to enlist him in an
+effort to liberate Butler. He had departed under cover of darkness to
+avoid molestation from Innis's scouts, and she, Mary Musgrove, had
+placed the key of the stable, the night before, in a place where Horse
+Shoe might find it. Such was the extent of the maiden's information. The
+day passed wearily upon her hand: she was anxious to hear something of
+Butler--something of Horse Shoe--and something, we suppose, of John
+Ramsay. Frequently during the morning she and Christopher Shaw held
+secret conferences: they spoke in whispers: suspense, care, and doubt
+were pictured upon her face; and as the rain pattered against the
+windows she oftentimes stood before them, and looked out upon the
+distant road, and across the wide fields, and then upwards to the
+clouded sky. The sun at length appeared, and his rays seemed to shoot a
+glimpse of joy into the breast of the maiden, as she walked forth to
+note the drying of the roads, and to see the clear blue, which, in that
+climate, outvies the mellow and rich tints of a Tuscan heaven.
+
+The day waxed, and the birds sang, and nature was gay, but the maiden
+was restless and unquiet: the day waned, and the sun rode downwards on
+the western slope in gorgeous beauty; but Mary was ill at ease, and
+thought little of the grand and glorious firmament. Her communings with
+Christopher Shaw, meantime, became more eager: she and her cousin were
+seen to wander towards the mill; then Christopher left her, and,
+presently, he might be discovered leading two horses, one bearing a
+side-saddle, down to the margin of the stream. There was a short visit
+to the house by the young man--a word whispered in the ear of the
+mother--a shake of her head, an expression of doubt, a final nod of
+assent,--and, in the next moment, Mary and Christopher were seen
+trotting off on horseback, on the road that led towards Ramsay's.
+
+When they had ridden some two or three miles, and had entered upon the
+high-road between Ninety-Six and Blackstock's--somewhere near to that
+piece of haunted ground, where, on the morning of this very day, a
+goblin had struck down James Curry from his steed--they descried a
+military party of horse and foot slowly advancing from the direction to
+which they were travelling. In a few moments they met the first platoon
+of the cavalry, headed by a trumpeter and the unsightly captain Hugh
+Habershaw. They were detained at the head of this column, whilst some
+questions were asked respecting the object of their journey, the troops
+in their neighborhood, and other matters connected with the affairs of
+the times. Christopher's answers were prompt and satisfactory: he was
+only riding with his kinswoman on a visit to a neighbor; Innis's camp
+was not above two miles and a half away, and the country in general was
+quiet, as far as he had the means of knowing. The travellers were now
+suffered to pass on. In succession, they left behind them each platoon
+of threes, and then encountered the small column of march of the
+infantry. Mary grew pale as her eyes fell upon the form of Arthur
+Butler, posted in the centre of a guard. Her feeling lest he might not
+recognise her features, and guess something of her errand, almost
+overpowered her. She reined up her horse, as if to gratify an idle
+curiosity to see the soldiers passing, and halted in a position which
+compelled the ranks to file off, in order to obtain a free passage round
+her. Every look seemed to be turned upon her as the escort marched near
+her horse's head, and it was impossible to make the slightest sign to
+Butler without being observed. She saw him, however, lift his eyes to
+hers, and she distinctly perceived the flash of surprise with which it
+was kindled as he became aware of her features. A faint and transient
+smile, which had in it nothing but pain, was the only return she dared
+to make. An order from the van quickened the march; and the detachment
+moved rapidly by. As Mary still occupied the ground on which she had
+halted, and was gazing after the retreating corps, she saw Butler turn
+his face back towards her; she seized the moment to nod to him and to
+make a quick sign with her hand, which she intended should indicate the
+fact that she was now engaged in his service. She thought she perceived
+a response in a slight motion of Butler's head, and now resumed her
+journey, greatly excited by the satisfaction of having, in this
+accidental encounter, obtained even this brief insight into the
+condition of the prisoner.
+
+The sun was set, when Mary with her convoy, Christopher Shaw, arrived at
+Ramsay's. Always an acceptable guest at this house, she was now more
+than ever welcome. There was business to be done in which she could
+discharge a most important part, and the service of Christopher Shaw in
+reinforcing the garrison was of the greatest moment. When the
+intelligence regarding the movement of Butler to Innis's camp was
+communicated to the sergeant, it suggested a new device to his mind,
+which he determined instantly to adopt. Butler was at this moment, he
+concluded, in the hands of those who had engaged the ruffians to set
+upon him at Grindall's ford, and it was not improbable that he would be
+summarily dealt with: there was no time, therefore, to be lost. The
+sergeant's plan, in this new juncture, was, to compel the young ensign
+to address a letter to the British commandant, to inform that officer of
+his present imprisonment, and to add to this information the
+determination of his captors to put him to death, in the event of any
+outrage being inflicted upon Butler. This scheme was communicated to
+Ramsay, Shaw, and Mary. The letter was to be immediately written; Mary
+was to return with it to the mill, and was to contrive to have it
+secretly delivered, in the morning, at Innis's head-quarters; and David
+Ramsay himself was to escort the maiden back to her father's house,
+whilst Shaw was to attend the sergeant and assist him to transport the
+young ensign to some fit place of concealment. The private soldiers were
+to remain prisoners, under the guard of Andrew, until his father's
+return, when they were to be released on parole, as prisoners of war.
+
+The plan being thus matured, Robinson went forthwith to the
+prison-house, and directed Ensign St. Jermyn to follow him into the
+dwelling. When the young officer arrived in the family parlor, he was
+ordered to take a chair near a table, upon which was placed a light,
+some paper, pen, and ink.
+
+"Young man," said Robinson, "take up that pen and write as I bid you."
+
+"To what end am I to write? I must know the purpose you design to
+answer, before I can put my hand to paper."
+
+"To the end," replied Horse Shoe firmly, and with unwonted gravity, "of
+the settlement of your worldly affairs, if the consarns of to-morrow
+should bring ill luck to a friend of mine."
+
+"I do not understand you, sir. If my life is threatened to accomplish an
+unrighteous purpose, it is my duty to tell you at once, that that life
+belongs to my king; and if his interests are to suffer by any forced act
+of mine, I am willing to resign it at once."
+
+"Never was purpose more righteous, sir, in the view of God and man, than
+ours," said David Ramsay.
+
+"I have a friend," added Horse Shoe, greatly excited as he spoke, "who
+has been foully dealt by. Some of your enlisted gangs have laid an
+ambuscade to trap him: villany has been used, by them that ought to be
+ashamed to see it thriving under their colors, to catch a gentleman who
+was only doing the common duties of a good sodger; and by mean
+bush-fighting, not by fair fields and honest blows--they have seized him
+and carried him to the camp of that blood-sucking Tory, Colonel Innis. I
+doubt more harm is meant him than falls to the share of a common
+prisoner of war."
+
+"I know nothing of the person, nor of the circumstances you speak
+about," said the ensign.
+
+"So much the better for you," replied the sergeant. "If your people are
+brave sodgers or honest men, you will not have much occasion to be
+afeard for yourself; but, by my right hand! if so much as one hair of
+Major Arthur Butler's head be hurt by Colonel Innis, or by any other man
+among your pillaging and brandishing bullies, I myself will drive a
+bullet through from one of your ears to the other. This game of war is a
+stiff game, young man, but we will play it out."
+
+"Major Arthur Butler!" exclaimed the officer, with astonishment, "is he
+taken?"
+
+"Ha! you've hearn of him, and know something, mayhap, of them that were
+on the look-out for him?"
+
+"I cannot write," said the officer sullenly.
+
+"No words, sir," interrupted Horse Shoe, "but obey my orders; write what
+I tell you, or take your choice. I will bind you hand and foot to a tree
+on yonder mountain, to starve till you write that letter; or to feed the
+wild vermin with your body, if you refuse."
+
+The ensign looked in Robinson's face, where a frown of stern resolution
+brooded upon his brow, and a kindling tempest of anger showed that this
+was not a moment to hazard the trial of his clemency.
+
+"What would you have the purport of my letter?" asked the officer, in a
+subdued voice.
+
+"That you have got into the hands of the Whigs," replied the sergeant;
+"and that if so be any mischief should fall upon Major Butler, by the
+contrivings of your friends, you die the first minute that we hear of
+it."
+
+"I have had no hand in the taking of Major Butler," said the young St.
+Jermyn.
+
+"I am glad of it," answered Robinson, "for your sake. You will die with
+a better conscience. If you had a hand in it, young man, I wouldn't ask
+you to write a line to any breathing man: your brains would spatter that
+door-post. Take up the pen and write, or stand by the consequences."
+
+The officer took up the pen, then, hesitating a moment, flung it down,
+saying:
+
+"I will not write; do with me as you choose."
+
+"The young man drives me to it, against my own nature," said Robinson,
+speaking under strong excitement. "If he will not pen that letter, then,
+David Ramsay, you will write to Innis, in my name, and say Galbraith
+Robinson has got the Ensign where no Tory foot will ever follow him, and
+holds him to answer the first mischief that is done to Arthur Butler.
+But, I swear to this sulky boy, that if that letter goes to Innis for
+want of a better, as I am a man and a sodger, he will never taste food
+or water till I hear that Major Butler is free. He shall starve in the
+mountain."
+
+"Oh, God! oh, God!" ejaculated the young soldier, in bitterness of
+heart; and covering his face with his hands, he threw his head upon the
+table, where he wept tears of agony. At length, looking in the
+countenance of Robinson, he said: "I am young, sir--not above twenty
+years. I have a mother and sisters in England."
+
+"We have no time to spare," interrupted Robinson, "much less to talk
+about kinsfolk. Major Butler has them that love his life better than
+e'er an Englishwoman loves her son. If they are brought to grief by this
+onnatural rascality, it matters nothing to me if every daughter and
+sister in England pines away of heart-sickness, for the loss of them
+that they love best. Take my advice, my lack-beard," added Robinson,
+patting him on the shoulder, "and write the letter. You have the
+chances of war in your favor, and may save your neck."
+
+"I will do your bidding, sir," said the ensign, after a pause. "Under
+the compulsion of force, I agree to write," and he once more took up the
+pen.
+
+"You speak now like a reasonable gentleman," said Horse Shoe. "I pity
+you, friend, and will preserve you against harm, so far as it can be
+done in the circumstances of the case."
+
+The ensign then wrote a few lines, in which he communicated to Colonel
+Innis, or to whatever officer his letter might be delivered, the straits
+in which he found himself, and the resolution of his captors to hold his
+life forfeit upon the event of any rigors, beyond those of an ordinary
+prisoner of war, imposed upon Major Butler. When he had finished, he
+gave the paper to Robinson.
+
+"Read it aloud, Mr. Ramsay," said Horse Shoe, delivering the scrawl to
+his friend.
+
+Ramsay read what was written.
+
+"It must be wrote over again," said Horse Shoe, after he had heard the
+contents. "First, it must make no mention of his being only a few miles
+off; that must be left out. Secondly, my name needn't be told; though if
+the runagates knowed he was in my hands, they wouldn't think his chance
+any better on that account. Let him say that the Whigs have got
+him--that's enough. And, lastly, he must write his own name in full at
+the bottom. And, look you, young man, don't be scrawling out the lines
+in such a way that your own hand-write moughtn't be known. That must
+speak for itself, because upon this letter depends your life. You
+understand?"
+
+"Give it me," said the ensign; "I will write it as you desire."
+
+And again the unfortunate officer applied himself to the task that was
+imposed upon him; and in a short time produced a letter, which, being
+subjected to the criticism of the bystanders, was pronounced
+satisfactory.
+
+As soon as this was done, St. Jermyn was conducted into another
+apartment, and there confided to the guardianship of Christopher Shaw.
+Horse Shoe now took a light and the writing materials from the table,
+and repaired with David Ramsay--both of them well armed--to the
+store-house, where the other prisoners were confined. After they had
+entered and closed the door, posting Andrew with his musket on the
+outside, Horse Shoe addressed the men in a gay and cheerful tone:
+
+"Come, my lads, as you are good, honest fellows, that can have no great
+love for these little country cabins, judging by your bad luck and
+oncomfortable circumstances in that one where I found you this morning,
+I have come to set you free. By the laws of war, you have the right, if
+I choose to take it, to give me your parole. So now, if you have a mind
+to promise me, on the honor of sodgers, not to sarve again until you are
+fairly exchanged, you shall all leave this before daybreak. What do you
+say to the terms?"
+
+"We are all agreed," replied the men, with one accord.
+
+"Then write out something to that effect," said the sergeant to Ramsay.
+"You that can't scratch like scholards, stick your marks to the
+paper--d'ye hear?"
+
+The parole was written out by Ramsay, and duly signed or marked by each
+of the four men. This being done, the sergeant informed them that,
+exactly at three in the morning, the door would be opened, and they
+would be at liberty to go where they pleased, provided they pledged
+themselves to visit no post of the enemy within twenty miles, nor
+communicate any particulars relating to their capture or detention to
+any British or Tory officer or soldier, within seven days. This pledge
+was cheerfully given, and after a few words of jocular good-nature were
+exchanged on both sides, Horse Shoe and his companion retired.
+
+David Ramsay now ordered out his own and Mary Musgrove's horses, with an
+intention to set out immediately for the mill.
+
+"Does Major Butler know that you are in his neighborhood?" inquired
+Ramsay of the sergeant, before the horses were brought to the door.
+
+"Oh, bless you, yes," replied Horse Shoe. "I left word for him yesterday
+at Blackstock's, by giving the babblers there something to talk about,
+which I knew he would hear." And the sergeant went on to relate the
+particulars of his stop at that post: "And I sent him a message,"
+continued he, "this morning, by James Curry, in the same sort of
+fashion. A little before daylight, I heard the devil singing one of his
+staves upon the road back here, so loud that he seemed to be frightened
+by ghosts or sperits; so I rode up fast behind him, and cuffed him out
+of his saddle, and then away I went like a leather-winged bat. I knowed
+the curmudgeon's voice, and I expect he knowed my hand, for he has felt
+it before. I'll be bound, he made a good story out of it; and, as such
+things fly, I make no doubt it wasn't long reaching the ear of the
+major, who would naturally think it was me, whether James told my name
+or not, because he knows my way. It was as good as writing a letter to
+the major, to signify that I was lurking about, close at hand. I never
+went to school, Mr. Ramsay, so I write my letters by making my mark. I
+can make a blow go further than a word upon occasion, and that's an
+old-fashioned way of telling your thoughts, that was found out before
+pen and ink."
+
+"Well, Horse Shoe, you are a man after your own sort," replied Ramsay,
+laughing. "Come, Mary, take the letter; our horses are at the door."
+
+"Good bye t'ye, David," said Horse Shoe, shaking Ramsay's hand; "it may
+be some days before we see each other again. Kit and me will be off with
+this young ensign before you get back. Don't forget the prisoners at
+three o'clock. And, a word, David--where had we best take this young
+sparrow, the ensign, to keep him out of the way of these fellows that
+are scouring the country?"
+
+"Leave that to Christopher Shaw," replied Ramsay; "he knows every nook
+in the country. So, now, friend Robinson, good night, and luck go with
+you!"
+
+It was a clear starlit night, and every tree and pool sent forth a
+thousand notes from the busy insects and reptiles that animate the
+summer hours of darkness, when David Ramsay set out with Mary Musgrove
+for her father's house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+NEW DIFFICULTIES OPEN UPON BUTLER.
+
+
+With the last notes of the reveillee everything was stirring in Innis's
+camp. It was a beautiful, fresh morning; a cool breeze swept across the
+plain, and each spray and every blade of grass sparkled with the dew;
+whilst above, an unclouded firmament gave promise of a rich and
+brilliant mid-summer's day. The surrounding forest was alive with the
+twittering of birds; and the neighing of horses showed that this portion
+of the animal creation partook of the hilarity of the season. From every
+little shed or woodland lair, crept forth parties of soldiers, who
+betook themselves to their several posts to answer at the rollcall; and
+by the time the sun had risen, officers, on horseback and on foot, were
+seen moving hurriedly across the open plain, to join the groups of
+infantry and cavalry, which were now forming in various quarters for the
+purposes of the morning drill. Companies were seen in motion, passing
+through the rapid evolutions of the march, the retreat, and the many
+exercises of service. Drums were beating, and fifes were piercing the
+air with their high notes, and, ever and anon, the trumpet brayed from
+the further extremities of the field. Picquet-guards were seen mustering
+on the edge of the camp--wearied and night-worn: salutes were exchanged
+by the small detachments on service; and, here and there, sentinels
+might be descried, stationed at the several outlets of the plain, and
+presenting their arms as an officer passed their lines.
+
+The troops that occupied this space were mostly of the irregular kind.
+Some were distinguished by ill-fitted and homely uniforms; others were
+clad in the common dress of the country, distinguished as soldiers only
+by their arms and accoutrements; but amongst them was also a
+considerable party of British regulars, clad in the national livery of
+scarlet. Amongst the officers, who were in command of the subordinate
+departments of this mixed and parti-colored little army, were several
+who, from their costume, might be recognised as belonging to the
+regiments that had come from the other side of the Atlantic.
+
+Colonel Innis himself was seen upon the parade, directing the movements
+of divisions that, under their proper officers, were practising the
+customary lessons of discipline. He was a tall, thin man, of an
+emaciated complexion, with a countenance of thoughtful severity. A keen
+black eye seemed almost to burn within its orb, and to give an
+expression of petulant and peevish excitability, like the querulousness
+of a sick man. A rather awkward and ungainly person, arrayed in a
+scarlet uniform that did but little credit to the tailor-craft employed
+in its fabrication, conveyed to the spectator the idea of a man unused
+to the pride of appearance that belongs to a soldier by profession; and
+would have suggested the conclusion, which the fact itself sustained,
+that the individual before him had but recently left the walks of civil
+life to assume a military office. His demeanour, however, showed him to
+be a zealous if not a skilful officer. He gave close attention to the
+duties of his command, and busied himself with scrupulous exactitude in
+enforcing the observances necessary to a rigorous system of tactics.
+
+This officer, as we have before hinted, had been an active participator
+in the proceedings of the new court of sequestrations at Charleston; and
+had rendered himself conspicuous by the fierce and unsparing industry
+with which he had brought to the judgment of that tribunal, the imputed
+delinquencies of some of the most opulent and patriotic citizens of the
+province.
+
+Amongst the cases upon which he had been called into consultation was
+that of Arthur Butler, whose possessions being ample, and whose
+position, as a rebellious belligerent, being one of "flagrant delict,"
+there was but little repugnance, on the part of the judges and their
+adviser, to subject him to the severest law of confiscation. The
+proceedings, however, had been delayed, not from any tenderness to the
+proprietor, but, as it was whispered in the scandal of the day, on
+account of certain dissensions, amongst a few prominent servants of the
+British crown, as to which of them the privilege of a cheap purchase
+should be extended. The matter was still in suspense, with a view (as
+that busybody, common rumor, alleged) to reward a particular favorite of
+the higher powers with the rich guerdon of these good lands, in
+compensation for private and valuable secret services, rendered in a
+matter of great delicacy and hazard--no less a service than that of
+seducing into the arena of politics and intrigue, an opulent and
+authoritative gentleman of Virginia, Mr. Philip Lindsay.
+
+In consequence of the odious nature of the duty which Colonel Innis had
+assumed to perform, he became peculiarly hateful to the Whigs; and this
+sentiment was in no degree abated when, relinquishing his occupation as
+a counsellor to the court at Charleston, he accepted a commission to
+command a partisan corps of royalists in the upper country. He was, at
+the juncture in which I have exhibited him to my reader, new in his
+command, and had not yet "fleshed his maiden sword:" the day, however,
+was near at hand when his prowess was to be put to the proof.
+
+Such was the person into whose hands Arthur Butler had now fallen.
+
+After the morning exercises of the camp were finished, and the men were
+dismissed to prepare their first repast, the principal officers returned
+to the colonel's head-quarters in the farm-house, where, it will be
+remembered, Butler had been delivered by the escort that had conducted
+him from Blackstock's. The prisoner had slept soundly during the whole
+night; and now, as the breakfast hour drew nigh, he had scarcely awaked
+and put on his clothes, before he heard an inquiry, made by some one
+below, of the orderly on duty, whether the Whig officer was yet in a
+condition to be visited; and, in the next moment, the noise of
+footsteps, ascending the stair towards his chamber, prepared him to
+expect the entrance of the person who had asked the question.
+
+A British officer, in full uniform, of a graceful and easy carriage,
+neat figure, and of a countenance that bespoke an intelligent and
+cultivated mind, made his appearance at the door. He was apparently of
+five or six and thirty years of age; and whilst he paused a moment, as
+with a purpose to apologize for the seeming intrusion, Butler was struck
+with the air of refined breeding of the individual before him.
+
+"Major Butler, I understand, of the Continental army?" said the
+stranger. "The unpleasant nature of the circumstances in which you are
+placed, I hope will excuse the trespass I have committed upon your
+privacy. Captain St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's army, and lately an
+aide-de-camp of Lord Rawdon."
+
+Butler bowed coldly, as he replied:
+
+"To meet a gentleman, as your rank and name both import, is a privilege
+that has not been allowed me of late. Without knowing wherefore, I have
+been waylaid and outraged by bravoes and ruffians. You, perhaps, sir,
+may be able to afford me some insight into the causes of this
+maltreatment."
+
+"Even if it were proper for me to hold discourse with you on such a
+subject, I could only speak from common report," replied the officer. "I
+know nothing of your seizure, except that, by the common chances of war,
+you have fallen into the hands of the ruling authorities of the
+province, and you will, doubtless, as a soldier, appreciate my motives
+for declining any reference to the circumstances in which you have been
+found. My visit is stimulated by other considerations, amongst which is
+foremost a desire to mitigate the peculiarly uncomfortable captivity to
+which I am sorry to learn you have been subjected."
+
+"I thank you," replied Butler, "for the intention with which your good
+offices are proffered; but you can render me no service that I should
+value so much as that of informing me why I have been brought hither, at
+whose suggestion, and for what purpose."
+
+"I will be plain with you, Major Butler. Your situation demands
+sympathy, however inexorably the present posture of our affairs may
+require the decrees of stern justice, in respect to yourself, to be
+executed. I feel for you, and would gladly aid you to any extent which
+my duty might allow, in averting the possible calamity that may hang
+over you. You are known as a gentleman of consideration and influence in
+the colonies. I may further add, as a brave and venturesome soldier. You
+are believed to have, more boldly than wisely, enterprised the
+accomplishment of certain schemes against the safety of his majesty's
+acknowledged government in this province; besides having committed other
+acts in violation of a faith plighted for you by those who had full
+authority to bind you, thus bringing yourself within the penalties
+appropriate to the violation of a military parole, if not within those
+of treason itself."
+
+"He lies in his throat," cried Butler, "who charges me with forfeiture
+of plighted word or honor, in any action of my life. That I have arrayed
+myself against what you are pleased to term his majesty's acknowledged
+government in this province, I am proud to confess, here in the midst of
+your bands, and will confess it again at your judgment seat; but if
+aught be said against me that shall be intended to attaint my honor as a
+gentleman, I will, in the same presence and before God, throw the lie in
+the teeth of my accuser. Aye, and make good my word, now or hereafter,
+wheresoever it may be allowed me to meet the slanderer."
+
+"I do not condemn your warmth," said St. Jermyn, calmly, "in a matter
+that so deeply stirs your self-esteem; and only desire now to second it
+in all things wherein an honorable enemy may claim the support of those
+who themselves value a good name. The authorities of this post have
+considerately resolved to give you the benefit of a court of inquiry.
+And I hope you will take it as it was meant, in all kindness to you,
+that I have come, before the communication of an official order, to
+apprise you that charges will be duly exhibited against you, and a trial
+be instantly had. If you will accept of my services, feeble and
+inadequate as they may be, I would gladly tender them to afford you such
+facilities as the pressure of the present emergency may allow."
+
+"To be tried! when, and for what? If the charge is that I carry on open
+war against those who are in the habit of calling me and my compatriots
+rebels--I am ready to confess the charge. What need of court or trial?"
+
+"There are graver and more serious offences than that imputed to you,"
+said St. Jermyn.
+
+"When am I to be informed of them, and to what do they tend?"
+
+"You will hear them this morning; when, I am sorry to add, the nature of
+our military operations also enforces the necessity of your trial."
+
+"You can be of little service, if that be true," returned Butler,
+thoughtfully. "My cause can only be defended by my country, long after I
+am made the victim of this unrighteous procedure."
+
+"There is one alternative," said St. Jermyn, with some hesitation in his
+manner, "which a mature deliberation upon your relations as a
+subject,--pardon me, for I do not deem this ill-timed rebellion to have
+obliterated them--may present to your mind."
+
+"Speak it," said Butler, vehemently; "speak out the base thought that is
+rising to your lip, if you dare. Prisoner as I am, I will avenge the
+insult on the spot with the certainty of loss of life. The alternative
+you suggest, is to dishonor me and all who are dear to me by the foul
+opprobrium of treason to my country. You would have me, I suppose,
+renounce the cause to which I have dedicated my life, and take shelter
+with the recreants that have crowded under the banner of St. George?"
+
+"Hold! remember, sir, that you are a prisoner," said St. Jermyn, with
+great coolness; and then after a pause, he added with a sigh: "I will
+not wound, by further converse, the exaggerated and delusive sense of
+honor which is too fatally predominant in your breast, and, as I have
+found it, in the breasts of many of your misguided countrymen. I came to
+serve you, not to excite your feelings; and I will now, even in your
+displeasure, serve you as far as the occasion may afford me means: I
+pray you, call on me without reserve. For the present, believe me, in
+pain and sorrow I take my leave."
+
+With these words, the officer retired.
+
+Butler paced to and fro through his narrow chamber for some minutes, as
+his mind revolved the extraordinary and unexpected disclosures which had
+been made to him in this short visit. A thousand conjectures rose into
+his thoughts as to the nature of the supposed charges that were to be
+brought against him. He minutely retraced all the incidents of his late
+adventures, to ascertain how it was possible to found upon them an
+accusation of violated faith, or to pervert them into an imputation of
+treason against the present doubtful and disputed authority of the
+self-styled conquerors of Carolina. If his attempt to join Clarke was
+treason, it could be no less treason in the followers of Gates to array
+themselves against the royal army; and, that every prisoner hereafter
+taken in battle was to be deemed a traitor to the contested power of
+Cornwallis, seemed to be a pretension too absurd for the most inveterate
+partisans to assert. There was nothing in this review of his actions
+that the most ingenious malice could pervert into an offence punishable
+by the laws of war, by other rigor than such as might be inflicted upon
+an ordinary prisoner taken in arms. Still, there were unhappy doubts of
+some secret treachery that rose to his reflections: the perfidy of
+Adair, manifestly the effect of a bribe; the ambuscade promoted and
+managed by James Curry; the bloody purpose of the brutal gang who
+captured him, frustrated only by the accidental fray in which Blake was
+wounded. Then the "doubtful givings out" which fell from the lips of
+some of the soldiers at Blackstock's, of his case still being one of
+life and death; the insinuation of the savage Habershaw, at the same
+place, conveyed in the threat of twisted hemp; the knowledge which his
+present keepers affected to have of his rank and consequence, of his
+past life and present aims; and, above all, his being brought for
+immediate trial, in a matter affecting his life, before the very man,
+now in the capacity of a military commander, who had heretofore been
+active in promoting the design of confiscating his estate. All these
+considerations, although unconnected with any circumstance of specific
+offence within his knowledge, led him into the most anxious and
+melancholy forebodings as to the result of this day's proceedings.
+
+"I am doomed to fall," he said, "under some secret stroke of vengeance,
+and my country is to have in my case another stirring appeal against the
+enormity of that iron rule that seeks to bow her head into the dust. So
+be it! The issue is in the hand of God, and my fate may turn to the
+account of the establishment of a nation's liberty. Oh, Mildred, I
+tremble to think of thee! Heaven grant, my girl, that thy fortitude may
+triumph over the martyrdom of him that loves thee better than his
+life!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+A TRIAL.--A GRAVE ACCUSATION THAT STILL FURTHER CONFIRMS BUTLER IN HIS
+BELIEF OF A SECRET ENEMY.--A SUDDEN RESPITE.
+
+
+Butler's baggage, ever since he left Robinson's habitation on the
+Catawba, had been divided into two parcels, one of which he carried in a
+portmanteau on his own horse, and the other had been stowed away in a
+pair of black leather saddle-bags that were flung across Captain Peter.
+These latter sufficed, also, to inclose, in addition to the sergeant's
+own wardrobe, sundry stores of provender, which the careful appetite and
+soldier-like foresight of the trusty squire had, from time to time,
+accumulated for their comfort upon the road-side. After the escape of
+the sergeant, this baggage had been kept with more scrupulousness than
+might have been expected from the character of the freebooters into
+whose possession it had fallen; and now, when Butler had been
+surrendered up to the custody of Colonel Innis, it was restored to the
+prisoner without the loss of any article of value. On this morning,
+therefore, Butler had thrown aside the rustic dress in which he had
+heretofore travelled, and appeared habited as we have described him when
+first introduced to the reader.
+
+After a very slight meal, which had been administered with more personal
+attention and consideration for his rank and condition than he was
+prepared to expect, an officer entered his apartment and communicated an
+order to him to repair to the yard in front of the quarters. Here he
+found a sergeant's guard mustered to receive him, and he was directed to
+march with them to the place that had been selected for his trial. The
+spot pitched upon for this purpose, was at the foot of a large mulberry
+that stood on the border of the plain, at a short distance from the
+house.
+
+When the guard arrived with the prisoner, Colonel Innis was already
+seated at the head of a table, around which were placed several
+officers, both of the regular and militia forces. Writing materials were
+also arranged upon the board, and at the lower end, a few paces removed
+from it, stood a vacant chair. Behind this was erected a pile of drums,
+with one or two colours laid transversely across them. Sentinels were
+stationed at different points near this group, and within their lines
+were collected the principal officers of Innis's command. Somewhat more
+remote, a number of idle spectators were assembled, amongst whom might
+have been discerned Habershaw, Curry, and many of the heroes who had
+figured at Grindall's ford. Captain St. Jermyn had taken a station a
+little to the left of the presiding officer at the table, and in the
+rear of those who appeared to have the management of the approaching
+procedure, and now stood, with his hands folded, apparently an anxious
+and interested looker-on.
+
+There was a thoughtful and even stern expression upon every face when
+Butler appeared--and a silence that was scarce broken by the occasional
+whispers in which the several individuals present communicated with each
+other. The guard marched the prisoner around the circle, and inducted
+him into the vacant chair, where he was received by a quiet and cold
+inclination of the head from each member of the court.
+
+For a few moments he looked around him with a scornful gaze upon the
+assemblage that were to sit in judgment upon him, and bit his lip, as
+his frame seemed to be agitated with deep emotion: at length, when every
+look was bent upon him, and no one breathed a word, he rose upon his
+feet and addressed the company.
+
+"I understand that I am in the presence of a military court, which has
+been summoned for the purpose of inquiring into certain offences, of the
+nature of which I have not yet had the good fortune to be informed,
+except in so far as I am given to infer that they purport of treason. I
+ask if this be true."
+
+The presiding officer bowed his head in token of assent, and then
+presented a paper, which he described as containing the specification of
+charges.
+
+"As an officer of the American army, and the citizen of an independent
+republic," continued Butler, "I protest against any accountability to
+this tribunal; and, with this protest, I publish my wrongs in the face
+of these witnesses, and declare them to arise out of facts disgraceful
+to the character of an honorable nation. I have been drawn by treachery
+into an ambuscade, overpowered by numbers, insulted and abused by
+ruffians. I wish I could say that these outrages were practised at the
+mere motion of the coarse banditti themselves who assailed me; but their
+manifest subserviency to a plan, the object of which was to take my
+life, leaves me no room to doubt that they have been in the employ and
+have acted under the orders of a more responsible head"--
+
+"Keep your temper," interrupted Innis, calmly. "Something is to be
+allowed to the excited feelings of one suddenly arrested in the height
+of a bold adventure, and the court would, therefore, treat your
+expression of such feelings at this moment with lenity. You will,
+however, consult your own welfare, by giving your thoughts to the
+charges against you, and sparing yourself the labor of this useless
+vituperation. Read that paper, and speak to its contents. We will hear
+you patiently and impartially."
+
+"Sir, it can avail me nothing to read it. Let it allege what it may, the
+trial, under present circumstances, will be but a mockery. By the
+chances of war, my life is in your hands; it is an idle ceremony and
+waste of time to call in aid the forms of justice, to do that which you
+have the power to do, without insulting Heaven by affecting to assume
+one of its attributes."
+
+"That we pause to inquire," replied Innis, "is a boon of mercy to you.
+The offence of rank rebellion which you and all your fellow-madmen have
+confessed, by taking up arms against your king, carries with it the last
+degree of punishment. If, waiving our right to inflict summary pain for
+this transgression, we stay to hear what you can say against other and
+even weightier charges, you should thank us for our clemency. But this
+is misspending time. Read the paper to the prisoner," he added,
+addressing one of the officers at the table.
+
+The paper was read aloud. It first presented a charge against the
+prisoner for violating the terms of the parole given at the capitulation
+of Charleston. The specification to support this charge was that, by the
+terms of the surrender, General Lincoln had engaged that the whole
+garrison should be surrendered as prisoners of war, and that they should
+not serve again until exchanged. The prisoner was described as an
+officer of that garrison, included in the surrender, and lately taken in
+the act of making war upon his majesty's subjects.
+
+The second charge was, that the prisoner had insinuated himself, by
+false representations, into the territory conquered by the royal army;
+and that, in the quality of a spy, he had visited the family of a
+certain Walter Adair, with a view to obtain a knowledge of the forces,
+plans, movements, and designs of the various detachments engaged in his
+majesty's service in the neighborhood of Broad River.
+
+And, third and last, that he, together with certain confederates, had
+contrived and partially attempted to execute a plan to seize upon and
+carry away a subject of his majesty's government, of great consideration
+and esteem--Mr. Philip Lindsay, namely, of the Dove Cote, in the
+province of Virginia. That the object of this enterprise was to possess
+himself of the papers as well as of the person of the said Philip
+Lindsay, and, by surrendering him up to the leaders of the rebel army,
+to bring upon him the vengeance of the rebel government, thus exposing
+him to confiscation of property, and even to peril of life.
+
+Such was the general import and bearing of the accusations against the
+prisoner, expressed with the usual abundance of verbiage and minuteness
+of detail. Butler listened to them, at first, with indifference, and
+with a determination to meet them with inflexible silence; but, as the
+enunciation of them proceeded, and the extraordinary misrepresentations
+they contained were successively disclosed, he found his indignation
+rising to a height that almost mastered his discretion, and he was on
+the point of interrupting the court with the lie direct, and of
+involving himself in an act of contumacy which would have been instantly
+decisive of his fate. His better genius, however, prevailed, and,
+smothering his anger by a strong effort of self-control, he merely
+folded his arms and abided until the end, with a contemptuous and proud
+glance at his accusers.
+
+"You have heard the allegations against you, sir," said Colonel Innis;
+"what say you to them?"
+
+"What should an honorable man," replied Butler, "say to such foul
+aspersions? The first and second charges, sir, I pronounce to be
+frivolous and false. As to the last, sir, there are imputations in it
+that mark the agency of a concealed enemy, lost to every impulse of
+honor--a base and wicked liar. Confront me with that man, and let the
+issue stand on this--if I do not prove him to be, in the judgment of
+every true gentleman of your army, an atrocious and depraved slanderer,
+who has contrived against my life for selfish purposes, I will submit
+myself to whatever penalty the most exasperated of my enemies may
+invent. It was my purpose, sir, to remain silent, and to refuse, by any
+act of mine, to acknowledge the violation of the rights of war by which
+I have been dragged hither. Nothing could have swayed me from that
+determination, but the iniquitous falsehood conveyed in the last
+accusation."
+
+"We cannot bandy words with one in your condition," interrupted the
+president of the court. "I must remind you again, that our purpose is to
+give you a fair trial, not to listen to ebullitions of anger. Your honor
+is concerned in these charges, and you will best consult your interest
+by a patient demeanor in your present difficulties."
+
+"I am silent," said Butler, indignantly, taking his seat.
+
+"Let the trial proceed," continued the president. "You will not deny,"
+he said, after an interval of reflection, "that you are a native of
+Carolina?"
+
+"I can scarcely deny that before you," replied Butler, "who, in my
+absence, as report says, have been busy in the investigation of my
+affairs."
+
+"There are bounds, sir, to the forbearance of a court," said Innis,
+sternly. "I understand the taunt. Your estates have been the subject of
+consideration before another tribunal; and if my advice were listened
+to, the process relating to them would be a short one."
+
+"You are answered," returned Butler.
+
+"Nor can you deny that you were an officer belonging to the army under
+the command of General Lincoln."
+
+Butler was silent.
+
+"You were at Charleston during the siege?" inquired one of the court.
+
+"In part," replied Butler. "I left it in March, the bearer of despatches
+to Congress."
+
+"And you were in arms on the night of the thirteenth, at Grindall's
+Ford?" continued the same questioner.
+
+"I confess it, sir."
+
+"That's enough," interrupted Innis. "In the ninth article of the
+capitulation of Charleston we read: 'all civil officers, and the
+citizens who have borne arms _during the siege_, must be prisoners on
+parole.'"
+
+"I should say," interposed St. Jermyn, who now, for the first time,
+opened his lips, "that the prisoner scarcely falls within that
+description. The words 'during the siege' would seem to point to a
+service which lasted to the end. They are, at least, equivocal; and I
+doubt Lord Cornwallis would be loath to sanction a judgment on such a
+ground."
+
+Upon this ensued a consultation amongst the officers at the table,
+during which Butler was withdrawn to a short distance in the rear of the
+assemblage. Several of the unoccupied soldiers of the camp, at this
+stage of the trial, had crowded into the neighborhood of the court; and
+the sentinels, yielding to the eagerness of the common curiosity, had
+relaxed their guard so far as to allow the spectators to encroach beyond
+the lines. Among those who had thrust themselves almost up to the
+trial-table were a few children, male and female, bearing on their arms
+baskets of fruit and vegetables, which had been brought within the camp
+for sale. A smart-looking girl, somewhat older than the rest, seemed to
+have gained more favor from the crowd than her competitors, by the
+temptation which she presented of a rich collection of mellow apples;
+and perhaps her popularity was in some degree increased by the soft and
+pleasant-toned voice in which she recommended her wares, no less than by
+the ruddy, wholesome hue of her cheek, and an agreeable, laughing, blue
+eye, that shone forth from the shade of a deep and narrow sun-bonnet,
+the curtain of which fell upon her shoulders and down her back.
+
+"Buy my apples, gentlemen," said the pretty fruit-merchant, coming up
+fearlessly to Colonel Innis, in the midst of the consultation.
+
+"Three for a penny; they are very ripe and mellow, sir."
+
+The colonel cast his eye upon the treasures of the basket, and began to
+select a few of the choicest fruit. Thus encouraged, the girl set her
+load upon the table, in the midst of the hats and swords with which it
+was encumbered, and very soon every other member of the court followed
+the example of the presiding officer, and became purchasers of the
+greater part of the store before them. When this traffic was concluded,
+the little huckster took up her burden and retired towards the group of
+spectators. Seeing the prisoner in this quarter, she walked up to him,
+curtsied, and presented him an apple, which was gratefully accepted, and
+the proffered return, from him, in money, refused.
+
+When about a quarter of an hour had elapsed, Butler was resummoned to
+his seat, and the court again proceeded to business. The inquiry now
+related to the second charge--that, namely, which imputed to the
+prisoner the character of a spy in his visit at Adair's. To this
+accusation, Captain Hugh Habershaw and several of his troop were called
+as witnesses. The amount of testimony given by them was, that, on the
+eleventh of the month, they had received information that a Continental
+officer, whose real name and title was Major Butler, but who was
+travelling in disguise and under an assumed name, from the Catawba
+towards the Broad River, in company with a well known, stark Whig--a
+certain Horse Shoe Robinson--was expected in a few days to arrive at Wat
+Adair's. That Habershaw, hoping to intercept them, had scoured the
+country between the two rivers; but that the travellers had eluded the
+search, by taking a very circuitous and unfrequented route towards the
+upper part of Blair's Range and Fishing Creek. That, on the night of the
+twelfth, the two men arrived at Adair's, unmolested; and, on the morning
+of the thirteenth, some of the woodman's family had met Habershaw and
+apprised him of this fact; adding, further, that the prisoner had
+offered a bribe to Adair, to induce him to give information in regard to
+the loyalist troops in the neighborhood, with a view to communicate it
+to a certain Colonel Clarke, who had appointed to meet Butler and his
+companion somewhere on the upper border of the province. That, in
+consequence of this attempt, Adair had directed the prisoner towards
+Grindall's Ford; and, this intelligence being communicated to the
+witness, he had conducted his troop to that place, where he succeeded in
+arresting the prisoner and his comrade, with the loss of two men in the
+struggle. The narrative then went on to give the particulars of Horse
+Shoe's escape, and the other facts with which the reader is acquainted.
+This account was corroborated by several witnesses, and, amongst the
+rest, by Curry.
+
+Butler heard the testimony with the most painful sensations. There was
+just enough of truth in it to make the tale plausible; and the falsehood
+related to points which, as they were affirmed upon hearsay, he could
+not repel by proof. There was a common expression of opinion amongst the
+bystanders--who in general were inclined to take the side of the
+prisoner in reference to the charge which was supposed to affect his
+life--that this accusation of Butler's acting the part of a spy was
+sustained by the proof. In vain did he protest against the injustice of
+being condemned on what was alleged to have been said by some of Adair's
+family; in vain did he deny that he had offered a bribe to Adair for
+information respecting the Tories; and equally in vain did he affirm
+that he had asked of Adair nothing more than the common hospitality due
+to a traveller, and for which he had made him a moderate requital--the
+only money the woodman had received from him. The current was now
+setting violently against him, and it seemed impossible to stem it.
+
+"It is but due," said Captain St. Jermyn, a second time interposing in
+behalf of the prisoner, "to the rank and character of Major Butler,
+since a portion of this testimony is second-hand, to take his own
+examination on these alleged facts. With permission, therefore, I would
+ask him a few questions."
+
+"The court will not object," said Innis, who throughout affected the air
+of an impartial judge.
+
+"It is true, Major Butler, that you were at Adair's on the night of the
+twelfth?" said the volunteer advocate of the prisoner.
+
+"I was, sir."
+
+"And you made no concealment of your name or rank?"
+
+"I will not say that," replied Butler.
+
+"You were under a feigned name then, sir?" inquired Innis, as St. Jermyn
+seemed a little confounded by the answer he had received.
+
+"I was called Mr. Butler, sir; my rank or station was not communicated."
+
+"Your dress?"
+
+"Was an assumed one, to avoid inquiry."
+
+"This man, Horse Shoe Robinson," said St. Jermyn, "was known to Adair as
+a whig soldier?"
+
+"Well known," replied Butler; "and I was also represented as belonging
+to that party. Adair himself led us to believe that he was friendly to
+our cause."
+
+Here several members of the court smiled.
+
+"Had you met any parties of loyalists," inquired Innis, "in your journey
+between Catawba and Broad?"
+
+"We had--more than one."
+
+"How did you escape them?"
+
+"By assuming feigned characters and names."
+
+"Your purpose was to join Clarke?"
+
+"I am not at liberty to answer that question," replied the prisoner.
+"Suffice it, sir, I was travelling through this region on a mission of
+duty. My purpose was to act against the enemy. So far the charge is
+true, and only to this extent. I came with no design to pry into the
+condition of the royal troops; I sought only a successful passage
+through a contested, though sadly overpowered country."
+
+"You offered no money to Adair," said St. Jermyn again, as if insisting
+on this point of exculpation, "but what you have already called a
+moderate requital for his entertainment?"
+
+"None," replied the prisoner--"except," he added, "a guinea, to induce
+him to release, from some wicked torture, a wolf he had entrapped."
+
+"It will not do," said Colonel Innis, shaking his head at St. Jermyn;
+and the same opinion was indicated in the looks of several of the court.
+
+"I was at Walter Adair's that night, and saw the gentleman there, and
+heard all that was said by him; and I am sure that he offered Watty no
+money," said our little apple-girl, who had been listening with
+breathless anxiety to the whole of this examination, and who had now
+advanced to the table as she spoke the words. "And I can tell more about
+it, if I am asked."
+
+"And who are you, my pretty maid?" inquired Colonel Innis, as he lifted
+the bonnet from her head and let loose a volume of flaxen curls down
+upon her neck.
+
+"I am Mary Musgrove, the miller's daughter," said the damsel, with great
+earnestness of manner, "and Watty Adair is my uncle, by my mother's
+side--he married my aunt Peggy; and I was at his house when Major Butler
+and Mr. Horse Shoe Robinson came there."
+
+"And what in the devil brought you here?" said Habershaw gruffly.
+
+"Silence!" cried Innis, impatient at the obtrusive interruption of the
+gross captain. "What authority have you to ask questions? Begone, sir."
+
+The heavy bulk of Hugh Habershaw, at this order, sneaked back into the
+crowd.
+
+"I came only to sell a few apples," said Mary.
+
+"Heaven has sent that girl to the rescue of my life," said Butler, under
+the impulse of a feeling which he could not refrain from giving vent to
+in words. "Pray allow me, sir, to ask her some questions."
+
+"It is your privilege," was the answer from two or three of the court;
+and the spectators pressed forward to hear the examination.
+
+Butler carefully interrogated the maiden as to all the particulars of
+his visit, and she, with the most scrupulous fidelity, recounted the
+scenes to which she had been a witness. When she came to detail the
+conversation which she had overheard between Adair and Lynch, and the
+events that followed it, the interest of the bystanders was wound up to
+the highest pitch. There was a simplicity in her recital of this strange
+and eventful story, that gave it a force to which the most skilful
+eloquence might in vain aspire; and when she concluded, the court
+itself, prejudiced as the members were against the prisoner, could not
+help manifesting an emotion of satisfaction at the clear and unequivocal
+refutation which this plain tale inferred against the testimony of
+Habershaw and his confederates. Innis alone affected to treat it
+lightly, and endeavored in some degree to abate its edge, by suggesting
+doubts as to the capacity of a young girl, in circumstance so likely to
+confuse her, to give an exact narrative of such a complicated train of
+events. Every cross-examination, however, which was directed to the
+accuracy of the maiden's story, only resulted in producing a stronger
+conviction of its entire truth. This concluded the examination on the
+second charge.
+
+The court now proceeded to the third and last accusation against the
+prisoner.
+
+To this there was but one witness called--James Curry. In the course of
+the examination this man showed great address and knowledge of the
+world. He gave some short account of himself. He had been a man born to
+a better condition of life than he now enjoyed. His education had been
+liberal, and his associations in life extremely various. It was to be
+inferred from his own relation, that he had fallen into some early
+indiscretion which had thrown him into the lowest stations of society,
+and that his original delinquency had prevented him from ever rising
+above them. He had served for many years in the army, and was present at
+the surrender of Charleston, being at that period a confidential
+servant, or man of business, to the young Earl of Caithness, the
+aide-de-camp of Sir Henry Clinton. Upon the departure of that young
+nobleman with the rest of Sir Henry's military family, for New York, he
+had remained behind, and had taken a similar service to that which he
+had left, with another officer of some repute. "There were state
+reasons," he said, "why this gentleman's name could not now be
+communicated to the court." That, in the month of July, he had attended
+his master on a visit to Mr. Philip Lindsay, in Virginia; and whilst in
+the immediate vicinity of that gentleman's residence, at a small country
+tavern, he had accidentally become privy to the design of the prisoner,
+and the same Horse Shoe Robinson who had been mentioned before, to seize
+upon the person and papers of Mr. Lindsay: that these two persons had
+actually arrived at the tavern he spoke of to commence operations. That
+he had overheard them discussing the whole plan; and he had no doubt
+they had allies at hand to assist in the scheme, and would have
+proceeded that same night to put it in execution, if he had not
+frustrated their design at the risk of his life. That, with the view of
+interrupting this enterprise, he had lured Robinson, the companion of
+the prisoner, to walk with him at night to the margin of a small river
+near the tavern, where he accused him of the treacherous design which he
+and his comrade had in view: that, in consequence of this, Robinson had
+endeavored to take his life which was only saved by a severe struggle;
+and that, being thus discovered in their purpose, this man, Robinson,
+and the prisoner had made a hasty retreat towards Gates's head-quarters.
+
+Such was in effect the narrative of James Curry, which was solemnly
+given upon oath. Butler was for some moments confounded with
+astonishment at the audacity of this falsehood. He urged to the court
+the improbability of the whole story. "It would have been easy," he
+said, "if I had been hostile to Mr. Philip Lindsay--which, God knows,
+there are most cogent reasons to disprove--it would have been easy to
+procure his arrest without an attempt at a violent seizure by me. I had
+only to speak, and the whole country around him would have united in
+treating him as an object of suspicion, on account of his politics." He
+admitted that he was at Mrs. Dimock's at the time spoken of--that
+Robinson attended him there; but all else that had been said relating to
+the visit, he affirmed to be utterly false. He gave the particulars of
+the meeting between Horse Shoe and the witness, as he had it from
+Robinson; and spoke also of his knowledge of the visit of Tyrrel at the
+Dove Cote--"which person," he said, "he had reason to believe, came
+under a name not his own."
+
+"How do you happen to be so familiar," inquired Innis, "with the affairs
+of Mr. Lindsay?"
+
+"That question," replied Butler, "as it refers to matters entirely
+private and personal, I must decline to answer."
+
+Curry, upon a second examination, re-affirmed all he had said before,
+and commented with a great deal of dexterity upon Butler's statement,
+particularly in reference to such parts of it as the prisoner's repeated
+refusal to answer had left in doubt. After a protracted examination upon
+this point, the trial was at length closed, and Butler was ordered back
+to his apartment in the farm-house.
+
+Here he remained for the space of half an hour, an interval that was
+passed by him in the most distressing doubt and anxiety. The whole
+proceeding of the court boded ill to him. The haste of his trial, the
+extraordinary nature of the charges, and the general unsympathizing
+demeanor of the court itself, only spoke to his mind as evidences of a
+concealed hostility, which sought to find a plausible pretext for making
+him a sacrifice to some private malevolence. He was therefore prepared
+to expect the worst when, at the close of the half hour, St. Jermyn
+entered his chamber.
+
+"I come, sir," said the officer, "to perform a melancholy duty. The
+court have just concluded their deliberations."
+
+"And I am to be a sacrifice to their vengeance. Well, so be it! There
+was little need of deliberation in my case, and they have soon
+despatched it," said Butler, with a bitter spirit, as he paced up and
+down his narrow chamber. "What favor have these, my impartial judges,
+vouchsafed to me in my last moment? Shall I die as a common felon, on a
+gibbet, or am I to meet a soldier's doom?"
+
+"That has been thought of," said St. Jermyn. "The commanding officer has
+no disposition to add unnecessary severity to your unhappy fate."
+
+"Thank God for that! and that the files detailed for this service are to
+be drawn from the ranks of my enemies! I will face them as proudly as I
+have ever done on the field of battle. Leave me, sir; I have matters in
+my thought that require I should be alone."
+
+"Your time, I fear, is brief," said St. Jermyn. "The guard is already at
+hand to conduct you to the court, who only stay to pass sentence. I came
+before to break the unhappy news to you."
+
+"It is no news to me," interrupted Butler. "I could expect no other
+issue to the wicked designs by which I have been seized. This solemn
+show of a trial was only got up to give color to a murderous act which
+has been long predetermined."
+
+At this moment, the heavy and regular tap of the drum, struck at equal
+intervals, and a mournful note from a fife, reached the prisoner's ear.
+
+"I come!" exclaimed Butler. "These fellows are practising their manual
+for an occasion in which they appear impatient to act. One would think,
+Captain St. Jermyn," he added, with a smile of scorn, "that they needed
+but little practice to accomplish them for a ceremony which has of late,
+since his majesty has extended his merciful arm over this province,
+grown to be a familiar piece of military punctilio."
+
+St. Jermyn hastily fled from the room, and rushing out upon the
+grass-plot where the guard was collected, cried out:
+
+"Silence, you base and worthless knaves! Is it thus you would insult the
+sufferings of an unfortunate enemy, by drumming, under his very ear,
+your cursed death-notes? Strike but one note upon that drum again, and I
+will have you up to the halberds."
+
+"The music did but try a flourish of the dead march," replied the
+sergeant of the guard; "they are a little rusty, and seeing that the
+Whig officer"--
+
+"Another word, sir, and you shall be sent to the provost-marshal. Attend
+the prisoner."
+
+"I am here," said Butler, who had overheard this conversation, and had
+already descended to the door.
+
+With a mournful and heavy heart, though with a countenance that
+concealed his emotions under an air of proud defiance, he took his place
+in the ranks, and marched to the spot where the court were yet
+assembled.
+
+"A chair for the prisoner," said some of the individuals present, with
+an officious alacrity to serve him.
+
+"I would rather stand," replied Butler. "It is my pleasure to hear the
+behests of my enemies in the attitude a soldier would choose to meet his
+foe in the field."
+
+"Mine is a painful duty, Major Butler," said Innis, rising, as he
+addressed the prisoner. "It is to announce to you that, after a full and
+most impartial trial, in which you have had the advantage of the freest
+examination of witnesses, and every favor accorded to you which the
+usages and customs of war allow, you have been found guilty of two of
+the charges imputed to you in the list with which you were furnished
+this morning. Notwithstanding the satisfactory testimony which was given
+in your behalf by the girl Mary Musgrove, in relation to your conduct at
+the house of Adair, and however disposed the court were to abandon an
+accusation which thus seemed to be refuted, it has occurred to them,
+upon subsequent reflection, that, by your own confession--given, sir,
+permit me to say, with the frankness of a soldier--you came into this
+district in disguise and under false names, and thus enabled yourself to
+collect information relative to the condition of the royal forces, which
+it was doubtless your purpose to use to our detriment. The court, for a
+moment, might have led you to entertain hope that they were satisfied
+that in this charge you had been wronged. The simple, affecting, and,
+no doubt, true narrative made by the miller's daughter produced a
+momentary sensation that was too powerful to be combated. That
+narrative, however, does not relieve you from the effect of your own
+confessions, since both may be true, and the charge still remain
+unimpaired against you.
+
+"The offence of breaking your parole and infringing the terms of the
+capitulation of Charleston, is open to a legal doubt, and, therefore, in
+tenderness to you, has not been pressed; although the court think, that
+the very circumstance of its doubtful character should have inculcated
+upon you the necessity of the most scrupulous avoidance of service in
+the conquered province.
+
+"The last charge against you is fully proved. Not a word of counter
+evidence has been offered. Strictly speaking, by the usages of war, this
+would not be an offence for the notice of a military tribunal. The
+perpetrators of it would be liable to such vindictive measures as the
+policy of the conqueror might choose to adopt. That we have given you,
+therefore, the benefit of an inquiry, you must regard as an act of
+grace, springing out of our sincere desire to do you ample justice. The
+nature of the offence imputed and proved is such as, at this moment,
+every consideration of expediency demands should be visited with
+exemplary punishment. The friends of the royal cause, wherever they may
+reside, shall be protected from the wrath of the rebel government; and
+we have, therefore, no scruple in saying, that the attempt upon the
+person of Mr. Philip Lindsay requires a signal retribution. But for this
+last act, the court might have been induced to overlook all your other
+trespasses. Upon this, however, there is no hesitation.
+
+"Such being the state of the facts ascertained by this tribunal, its
+function ceases with its certificate of the truth of what has been
+proved before it. The rest remains to me. Without the form of an
+investigation, I might, as the commanding officer of a corps on detached
+service, and by virtue of special power conferred upon me, have made up
+a private judgment in the case. I have forborne to do that, until, by
+the sanction of a verdict of my comrades, I might assure myself that I
+acted on the clearest proofs. These have been rendered.
+
+"My order, therefore, is, in accordance with the clear decision of the
+court,--and, speaking to a soldier, I use no unnecessary phrase of
+condolence,--that you be shot to death. Time presses on us and forbids
+delay. You will be conducted to immediate execution. Major Frazer," he
+said, turning to one of his officers, "to your discretion I commit this
+unpleasant duty." Then, in a tone of private direction, he added, "Let
+it be done without delay; pomp and ceremony are out of place in such a
+matter. I wish to have it despatched at once."
+
+"I would speak," said Butler, repressing the agitation of his feelings,
+and addressing Innis with a stern solemnity, "not to implore your mercy,
+nor to deprecate your sentence: even if I could stoop to such an act of
+submission, I know my appeal would reach your ears like the idle wind:
+but I have private affairs to speak of."
+
+"They were better untold, sir," interrupted Innis with an affected air
+of indifference. "I can listen to nothing now. We have other business to
+think of. These last requests and settlements of private affairs are
+always troublesome," he muttered in a tone just audible to the officers
+standing near him; "they conjure up useless sympathies."
+
+"I pray you, sir," interposed St. Jermyn.
+
+"It is in vain, I cannot hear it," exclaimed the commander, evidently
+struggling to shake from his mind an uncomfortable weight. "These are
+woman's requests! God's mercy! How does this differ from death upon the
+field of battle? a soldier is always ready. Ha! What have we here?" he
+exclaimed, as a trooper rode up to the group. "Where are you from? What
+news?"
+
+"A vidette from Rocky Mount," answered the horseman. "I am sent to
+inform you that, yesterday, Sumpter defeated three hundred of our people
+on the Catawba, and has made all that were alive, prisoners, besides
+capturing fifty or sixty wagons of stores which the detachment had under
+convoy for Camden."
+
+The first inquiries that followed this communication related to
+Sumpter's position, and especially whether he was advancing towards this
+camp.
+
+"He is still upon Catawba, tending northwards," replied the vidette.
+
+"Then we are free from danger," interrupted Innis. "I am stripping the
+feathers from a bird to-day that is worth half of Sumpter's prize," he
+added, with a revengeful smile, to an officer who stood by him.
+
+During this interval, in which the commander of the post was engaged
+with the vidette, the guard had conducted the prisoner back to the
+house, and Innis, freed from the restraint of Butler's presence, now
+gave way to the expression of a savage exultation at the power which the
+events of the morning had given him, to inflict punishment upon one that
+he termed an audacious rebel. "The chances jump well with us," he said,
+"when they enable us to season the joy of these ragged traitors, by so
+notable a deed as the execution of one of their shrewdest emissaries.
+This fellow Butler has consideration amongst them, and fortune too: at
+least he had it, but that has gone into better hands; and, to say truth,
+he has a bold and mischievous spirit. The devil has instigated him to
+cross our path; he shall have the devil's comfort for it. The whole
+party taken did you say?"--
+
+"Every man, sir," replied the vidette.
+
+"How many men had this skulking fellow, Sumpter, at his back?"
+
+"They say about seven hundred."
+
+"And did the cowards strike to seven hundred rebels?"
+
+"They were tangled with the wagons," said the soldier, "and were set on
+unawares, on the bank of the river, at the lower ferry."
+
+"Aye, that's the way! An ambuscade, no doubt,--a piece of cowardly
+bush-fighting. Fresh men against poor devils worn down by long marching!
+Well, well, I have a good requital for the rascally trick. Major
+Butler's blood will weigh heavy in the scale, or I am mistaken! Come,
+gentlemen, let us to quarters--we must hold a council."
+
+"Here is a letter," said one of the officers of the court, "which I have
+this moment found on the table, under my sword belt; it seems, from its
+address, to contain matter of moment. How it came here does not appear."
+
+"'To Colonel Innis, or any other officer commanding a corps in his
+majesty's service,'" said Innis, reading the superscription, "besides,
+here is something significant, '_for life or death, with speed_.' What
+can this mean?" he added, as he broke open the paper and ran his eyes
+hastily over the contents. St. George! here is something strange,
+gentlemen. Listen!--
+
+     "'By ill luck I have fallen into the possession of the Whigs.
+     They have received intelligence of the capture of Major Butler,
+     and, apprehending that some mischief might befal him, have
+     constrained me to inform you that my life will be made
+     answerable for any harsh treatment that he may receive at the
+     hands of our friends. They are resolute men, and will certainly
+     make me the victim of their retaliation.
+
+     EDGAR ST. JERMYN,
+
+     Ensign of the 71st Reg't.
+
+     P. S. For God's sake respect this paper, and be lenient to the
+     prisoner.'"
+
+"Treason and forgery, paltry forgery!" exclaimed Innis, with a smile of
+derision, as he finished reading the letter. "What ho! tell Frazer to
+lead out the prisoner, and despatch him without a moment's delay. So
+much for this shallow artifice!"
+
+"A base forgery," said one of the officers in attendance, "and doubtless
+the work of the rebel major himself. He will die with this silly lie
+upon his conscience. St. Jermyn, here!" cried out the same officer to
+the captain, who was now at some distance, "here is an attempt to put a
+trick upon us by a counterfeit of your brother's hand, telling a most
+doleful and improbable falsehood. Look at it."
+
+St. Jermyn read the letter, and suddenly turning pale, exclaimed: "Sir,
+this is no trick. It is my brother's own writing. He is in the custody
+of the Whigs! How came this here? Who brought it? When was it written?
+Can nobody tell me?"
+
+"Tut, St. Jermyn!" interrupted the officer, smiling, "you surely cannot
+be imposed upon by such a device. Look at the scrawl again. In truth,
+are you sure of it, man?" he inquired with great surprise, as he
+perceived the increasing paleness of St. Jermyn's brow.
+
+"My brother's life is in imminent danger," replied St. Jermyn, with
+intense earnestness. "Colonel Innis, as you value my happiness, I
+entreat you, countermand the order for the prisoner's execution. I
+implore you, respect this letter; it is genuine, and I dread the
+consequences. My poor brother, the youngest of my family and the
+special darling of his parents! For heaven's sake, good colonel, pause
+until we learn something more of this mysterious business."
+
+"For your sake, my friend, and until we can investigate this matter,"
+said Innis, "let the execution be suspended."
+
+St. Jermyn instantly hurried to the guard, to communicate the new order.
+
+"Whence comes this missive?" demanded Innis. "It has neither date nor
+place described. Who brought it? Did any one see the bearer?" he asked
+aloud of the bystanders.
+
+No one answered except the officer who had first discovered the paper.
+"I know nothing more than what you see. It was here upon the table. How
+long it had been there I cannot tell."
+
+"It is strange," continued Innis. "Can this young St. Jermyn have fallen
+in with Sumpter? Or, after all, is it not an ingenious forgery which has
+deceived our friend the captain? Still, who could have brought it here?"
+
+The letter was again examined by every individual present.
+
+"It must be genuine," said one of the officers, shaking his head.
+"Captain St. Jermyn was very much in earnest, and it is not likely he
+could be deceived. It has been mysteriously deposited here by some agent
+of the Whigs. The person should be found, and compelled to give us more
+specific information. This matter must be looked to; the ensign, I doubt
+not, is in perilous circumstances."
+
+"Let the prisoner be strictly guarded, and held to wait our future
+pleasure," said Innis. "I would not put in jeopardy the young ensign's
+life. A reward of twenty guineas shall be given to any one who brings me
+the bearer of this letter. And you, Lieutenant Connelly, take thirty
+troopers, and scour the country round to gain intelligence of this
+capture of Edgar St. Jermyn. Be careful to examine every man you meet,
+as to the presence of Whig parties in this district. Away instantly, and
+do not return without tidings of this singular event."
+
+The camp, by these occurrences, was thrown into great bustle. The
+prisoner was securely lodged in his former quarters, and placed under a
+double guard; consultations were held amongst the officers; and Butler
+himself was strictly interrogated in regard to the appearance of this
+mysterious letter, of the contents of which he was yet ignorant. The
+examination threw no light on the affair; and, very soon afterwards, a
+troop of horse were seen sallying beyond the limits of the camp, under
+Lieutenant Connelly, to seek information of the fate of Ensign St.
+Jermyn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE SERGEANT AND HIS COMRADE PROJECT AN EXPEDITION WHICH FURNISHES THE
+ENSIGN AN OPPORTUNITY OF ENJOYING THE PICTURESQUE.
+
+
+As soon as David Ramsay had departed with the maiden for Musgrove's
+mill, Robinson ordered his own and Christopher Shaw's horse to be
+saddled, and another to be made ready for St. Jermyn. His next care was
+to determine upon a secure place of retreat--reflecting that the news of
+the capture of the ensign must soon reach the British posts, and that
+the country would be industriously explored with a view to his rescue. A
+spot known to the woodsmen of this region by the name of the Devil's
+Ladder, which was situated in the defile of a mountain brook that
+emptied into the Ennoree, occurred to Christopher Shaw as the most
+secret fastness within their reach. This spot lay some twenty miles
+westward of Ramsay's, accessible by roads but little known, and
+surrounded by a district which grew more wild and rugged the nearer it
+approached the defile.
+
+Here it was supposed the party might arrive by daylight the next
+morning, and remain for a few days at small risk of discovery; and
+thither, accordingly, it was resolved they should repair.
+
+This being settled, Horse Shoe now procured a supply of provisions from
+Mistress Ramsay, and then proceeded to arm himself with the sword and
+pistols of the ensign, whilst Christopher suspended across his body the
+sword of Goliath, as the sergeant called the brand he had snatched up at
+Blackstock's, and also took possession of one of the captured muskets.
+
+"If it don't go against your conscience, Mistress Ramsay," said Horse
+Shoe, when the preparations for the journey were completed, "I would
+take it as a favor, in case any interlopers mought happen to pop in upon
+you, if you would just drop a hint that you have hearn that Sumpter's
+people had been seen about these parts. It would have an amazing good
+bearing on the Tories. Besides making them wary how they strayed about
+the woods it would be sure to put the bloodhounds on a wrong scent, if
+they should chance to be sarching for the young ensign. I know you women
+are a little ticklish about a fib, but then it's an honest trick of the
+war sometimes. And, to make you easy about it, it will be no more than
+the truth to say you did hear it--for, you obsarve, I tell you so now."
+
+"But," replied the scrupulous matron, "if they should ask me who told
+me, what should I answer?"
+
+"Why," said the sergeant, hesitating, "just out with it--tell 'em you
+heard it from one Horse Shoe Robinson; that'll not make the news the
+worse in point of credit. And be sure, good woman, above all things, to
+remind David, when he gets back to night, that the rank and file, in our
+prison yonder, are not to be turned loose before three o'clock in the
+morning."
+
+This last caution was repeated to Andy, who still performed the duty of
+a sentinel at the door of the out-house. All things being now arranged
+for their departure, Ensign St. Jermyn was brought from the chamber
+where he had been confined, and was invited to join the sergeant and
+Christopher at supper before they set out. This meal was ably and
+rapidly discussed by the stout yeomen, and scarcely less honored by the
+prisoner, whom the toils and privations of the day had brought to
+enjoyment of a good appetite.
+
+With many cheering and kind expressions of encouragement from the
+sergeant, the young officer prepared to comply with the demands of his
+captors, and was soon in readiness to attend them. Robinson lifted him
+into his saddle with a grasp as light as if he was dealing with a boy,
+and then bound him by a surcingle to the horse's back, whilst he offered
+a good-humored apology for the rigor of this treatment.
+
+"It is not the most comfortable way of riding, Mr. Ensign," he said,
+with a chuckle; "but fast bind, fast find, is a'most an excellent good
+rule for a traveller in the dark. I hope you don't think I take any
+pleasure in oncommoding you, but it is my intention to lead your horse
+by the rein to-night, and this friend of mine will keep in the rear. So,
+by way of a caution, I would just signify to you that if you should
+think of playing a prank you will certainly bring some trouble upon your
+head--as one or another of us would in that case be obliged to fire. It
+is nothing more than military punctilium to give you a friendly warning
+of this."
+
+"You might dispense with this severity, I should think," replied the
+prisoner, "upon my pledge of honor that I will make no effort to
+escape."
+
+"I can take no pledge in the dark," returned Horse Shoe; "daylight
+mought make a difference. If we should happen to fall in with any of
+your gangs I'm thinking a pledge wouldn't come to much more than a
+cobweb when I should ax you to gallop out of the way of your own people.
+Flesh is weak, as the preacher says, and, to my mind, it's a little the
+weaker when the arm is strong or the foot swift. Temptation is at the
+bottom of all backsliding. No, no, Mr. Ensign, you may get away, if you
+can; we'll take care of you whilst we're able--that's a simple
+understanding."
+
+Without further speech the party proceeded on their journey. They
+travelled as rapidly as was consistent with the ease of the prisoner and
+the nature of the ground over which they had to move. For the first
+eight or ten miles, their route lay across a country with but few
+impediments, except such as arose from the unseasonable hour of the
+ride. After this they found the toil and hazard of travel continually
+increasing. They had been retreating from the settled country towards a
+rough wilderness, which was penetrated only by an obscure road, so
+little beaten as to be scarcely discernible in the faint starlight, and
+which it required all Christopher's skill in woodcraft to follow. Our
+travellers, consequently, often lost their way, and were obliged to get
+down from their horses and grope about to ascertain the path. The stars
+had shone all night through a cloudless firmament, but the deep shade of
+the forest thickened around the wanderers, and it was frequently with
+difficulty, even, that they could discern each other's figures.
+
+They reached at length the small stream upon whose banks, some miles
+above, was situated the place to which their steps were directed; and
+they were thus rendered more sure of their road, as they had only to
+follow the ascending course of the brook. The delays and impediments of
+the journey had nearly outrun the night, and whilst our travellers were
+yet some two or three miles from their destination, the first traces of
+morning began to appear in the east. The increasing light disclosed to
+them the nature of the scenery around. A limpid rivulet tumbled over a
+rocky channel, girt with a profusion of brush and briar, amongst which
+were scattered a thousand wild-flowers, that, renovated by the dew,
+threw forth a delicious perfume. A succession of abrupt hills, covered
+with the varied foliage of a rich forest growth, bounded the brook on
+either side. Occasional rocks jutted above the heads of the travellers
+as they wound along the paths, worn by the wild cattle in the bottom of
+the dell.
+
+Both Robinson and Shaw had dismounted when they entered this defile, and
+whilst the former led the horse of the prisoner his companion preceded
+him to explore the doubtful traces of the road, which frequently became
+so obscure as to render it necessary to seek a passage in the bed of the
+stream. During all this progress Horse Shoe's good nature and
+light-heartedness were unabated. He conversed with the prisoner in the
+same terms of friendly familiarity that he did with Shaw, and neglected
+no attention that might in any degree relieve the irksomeness of St.
+Jermyn's necessary thraldom.
+
+That peculiar conformation of country which had given rise to the name
+of the place to which they were conducting the prisoner, was now to be
+discerned at some little distance ahead. It presented a series of bold
+crags of granite intermixed with slate, in which rock piled upon rock
+presented a succession of shelves, each beetling over its base, and thus
+furnishing a shelter against the weather. Some of these were situated
+near the bank of the stream, projecting over the water, whilst others
+towered at different heights, in such a manner as to bear a resemblance
+to a flight of huge steps cut in the slope of the mountain, and by this
+likeness, doubtless, suggesting the imaginative name by which the spot
+was known to the few hunters to whom it was familiar. The cavern-like
+structure of these ledges abundantly supplied the means of concealment
+to both men and horses, from the casual notice of such persons as
+accident might have brought into this sequestered defile.
+
+When the party arrived at the foot of the Devil's Ladder, it was with
+great satisfaction to all that they now made a halt. A short time was
+spent in selecting a spot, amongst the impending cliffs, of such a
+character as might afford the advantage of shelter, as well as the means
+of ready look-out and escape in case of discovery or pursuit. The place
+chosen was about half way up the hill, where the ridge of a promontory
+enabled the occupants to see some distance up and down the valley;
+whilst the crag itself contained within its recesses a chamber
+sufficiently large for the purpose to which it was to be applied. A
+natural platform, near this point, allowed sufficient space for the
+horses, which might be conducted there by a sideling path up the slope;
+at the same time, the means of retreat were furnished by the nature of
+the ground towards the top of the hill.
+
+To this place of security the ensign was ordered by his guard, and,
+being released from his bonds, he dismounted and threw himself at length
+upon the mossy surface of the rock, where he lay wearied in body and
+dejected in mind. The horses were taken in charge by Shaw; provisions
+were produced, and all arrangements of caution and comfort were made for
+passing the next two or three days in this wild sojourn.
+
+Here, for the present, we must leave our adventurers, to tell of other
+matters that are proper to be made known to the reader of this history.
+
+In due time David Ramsay returned from Musgrove's. Precisely at three
+o'clock in the morning, the soldiers were released according to the
+terms of the parole; and my reader will, no doubt, be pleased to hear
+that Andy, being discharged from duty, went to bed as drowsy as e'er a
+man of mould after a feat of glory, and slept with a sleep altogether
+worthy of his heroic achievement.
+
+The next day passed by, at Ramsay's dwelling, with a varied and fearful
+interest to his family. They had received intelligence, before night, of
+the event of Butler's trial, and had reason to rejoice that Mary
+Musgrove had so played her part in the delivery of the letter. They were
+apprised also of the reward that had been offered for the discovery of
+the bearer of this letter, and were informed that detachments of horse
+were out to scour the country in quest of the ensign. These tidings
+filled them with apprehension. It occurred to Ramsay that if, perchance,
+the released prisoners should fall in with any of the parties of the
+loyalists, they would of course relate their story, and thus bring down
+the full rancor of the Tory wrath upon his household: this would also
+lead with more certainty to the pursuit of Horse Shoe. There was still
+good reason to hope that the liberated men might not so soon be able to
+give the alarm; inasmuch as they were more likely to shape their course
+towards Fort Ninety-Six than to repair to Innis's camp, where they might
+be forced to do duty, as much against their inclinations as against
+their parole. They might even, from a natural aversion to labor, prefer
+loitering about the country rather than put themselves voluntarily in
+the way of military operations.
+
+"Come what will of it," said Ramsay, summing up the chances for and
+against him; "I will be ready for the worst. Many better men have given
+all they had to the cause of independence, and I will not flinch from
+giving my share. They may burn and break down; but, thank God, I have a
+country--aye, and a heart and an arm to stand by it!"
+
+On the same evening, towards sundown, a horseman drew up his rein at
+Ramsay's door. He was young--in the prime of early manhood, his dress
+was that of a rustic, his equipment showed him to be a traveller--a
+weary one, from the plight of his horse, and, like most travellers of
+the time, well armed. He did not stand to summon any one to the door,
+but put his hand upon the latch with eager haste, and entered with the
+familiarity of one acquainted with the place. Mistress Ramsay was seated
+at her spinning-wheel, anxiously brooding over the tales of the day. Her
+husband reclined in his chair, silently and thoughtfully smoking his
+pipe. They both sprang up at once, as the visitor crossed the threshold,
+and with fervent joy greeted their son John Ramsay. The household was
+clamorous with the affectionate salutations of the parents, of the
+brothers and sisters, and of the domestics. John was the eldest of
+Ramsay's children, and had just reached his paternal roof after an
+absence of some months, during which he had been in service with
+Sumpter. The gathering in of the members of a family around the domestic
+board, in times of peril and distress, is one of the luxuries of the
+heart that in peace we cannot know. The arrival of John Ramsay at the
+present moment was a source of the liveliest happiness to his parents.
+They needed a cheerful as well as a resolute comforter. John had, only
+twenty-four hours previous, left Sumpter near Rocky Mount--immediately
+after the battle with the British convoy was won. He was sent with
+despatches to Colonel Williams, a Whig partisan of note, who was now
+supposed to be in the neighborhood of the Saluda. These had some
+reference to the military movements of the parties; and John Ramsay was
+permitted by Sumpter to make a short halt at his father's house.
+
+In the first hour after his arrival, he had given to the family the
+history of his homeward ride. He had discovered that hostile forces--of
+which, until his journey was nearly finished, he heard nothing--were
+encamped in the neighborhood; that a court-martial had been sitting for
+the trial of an American officer, as a spy, and had condemned him to be
+shot. He had been apprised, moreover, that small parties were out,
+riding into every corner of the country. He himself had nearly been
+surprised by one of these, as he endeavored to make his way to the house
+of Allen Musgrove, where he had proposed to himself a visit, even before
+he came to his father's, but, fearing something wrong, he had fled from
+them, and baffled their pursuit, although they had chased him more than
+a mile; he had, in consequence, been deprived of the opportunity of
+visiting the miller.
+
+"Although it is four months since we have seen you, John," said the
+dame, with a tone of affectionate chiding, "yet, you would turn aside to
+get under Allen Musgrove's roof, before you thought of the arms of your
+mother."
+
+John's sun-burnt cheek blushed crimson red as he replied, "It was but a
+step out of the way, mother, and I should not have stayed long. Mr.
+Musgrove and his folks are safe and well, I hope, and Christopher?"
+
+"Tut, boy! speak it out, and don't blush about it," interrupted the
+father briskly: "she is a good girl, and you needn't be ashamed to name
+her, as you ought to have done, first and before all the rest. Mary is
+well, John, and has just proved herself to be the best girl in the
+country."
+
+This little passage of mirth between the parents and their son, led to a
+full narrative by David Ramsay of the events which had occurred in the
+last two or three days, concluding with the capture of the ensign, and
+the retreat of Horse Shoe and Christopher Shaw to the Devil's Ladder.
+The communication wrought a grave and thoughtful mood on the young
+soldier. It presented a crisis to him for immediate action. He was
+wearied with a long ride, but it seemed to him to be no time for rest.
+
+"Father," he said, after turning over in his thoughts the intelligence
+he had just received, "it was a brave and beautiful thing for so young a
+lad as Andy to do; and the taking of the ensign has served a useful
+purpose, but it brings this house and family into danger. And I fear for
+poor Mary. Christopher Shaw must get back to the mill, and quickly too.
+His absence will bring his uncle's family into trouble. I will take
+Christopher's place, and go to Horse Shoe's assistance this night. We
+may take the prisoner with us to Williams."
+
+"To-night!" said the mother anxiously, "you would not leave us to-night,
+John?"
+
+"Aye, to-night, wife," answered David Ramsay, "the boy is right, there
+is no time to spare."
+
+"Have mercy upon us," exclaimed the dame; "to ride so far to-night,
+after so heavy a journey, John!--you have not strength."
+
+"Dear mother," said John, "think that you are all in danger and that
+Mary, who has behaved so well, might be suspected, and brought to harm.
+I must hurry forward to Colonel Williams, and this road by the Devil's
+Ladder is far out of my way. No, I am not so much fatigued, mother, as
+you suppose. I will rest for a few hours, and then try the woods.
+Daybreak, I warrant, shall not find me far from Horse Shoe."
+
+John Ramsay was not above six-and-twenty. He was endued with a stout and
+manly frame, well adapted to hard service; and this was associated with
+a bold and intelligent countenance, which, notwithstanding the dint of
+wind and weather, was handsome. He had for a year or two past been
+actively engaged in the war, and his manners had, in consequence,
+acquired that maturity and decision which are generally found in those
+whose habits of life render them familiar with perils. On the present
+occasion he regarded the necessity of co-operation with Robinson as so
+urgent, that no other thought crossed his mind but that which belonged
+to the care of putting himself in condition to make his services
+effectual.
+
+With this view he now directed his horse to be carefully tended; then,
+having taken a hearty meal, he retired to rest, desiring that he might
+be waked up at midnight, when he proposed to follow the path of Horse
+Shoe and his comrade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A RETREAT AFTER THE MANNER OF XENOPHON.
+
+
+The next morning, a little after sunrise, as Robinson was holding the
+watch on the outer ledge of the rock, in a position that enabled him to
+survey the approaches to the spot through the valley, as well as to keep
+his eye upon the ensign and Christopher Shaw, who were both asleep under
+cover of the crag, he was startled by a distant noise of something
+breaking through the bushes on the margin of the brook. At first it
+struck him that this was caused by deer stalking up the stream; but he
+soon afterwards descried the head and shoulders of a man, whose motions
+showed him to be struggling through the thicket towards the base of the
+hill. This person at length reached a space of open ground, where he
+halted and looked anxiously around him, thus revealing his figure, as he
+sat on horseback, to the observation of the sergeant, who, in the
+meantime, had taken advantage of a low pine tree and a jutting angle of
+a rock to screen himself from the eager eye of the traveller--at least
+until he should be satisfied as to the other's character and purpose.
+
+A loud and cheerful halloo, several times repeated by the stranger,
+seemed to indicate his quest of a lost companion; and this gradually
+drew the sergeant, with a weary motion, from his hiding-place, until
+assuring himself that the comer was alone, he stept out to the edge of
+the shelf of rock, and presenting his musket, peremptorily gave the
+common challenge of "Who goes there?"
+
+"A friend to Horse Robinson," was the reply of the visitor, in whom my
+reader recognises John Ramsay.
+
+Before further question might be asked and answered, John had dismounted
+from his horse and clambered to the platform, where he greeted the
+sergeant and the hastily-awakened Christopher Shaw, with a hearty shake
+of the hand; and then proceeded to communicate the pressing objects of
+his visit, and to relate all that he had learned of the recent events
+during his short stay at his father's house.
+
+In the consultation that followed these disclosures, Ramsay earnestly
+urged his comrades to make instant preparation to quit their present
+retirement, and to attempt the enterprise of conducting the prisoner to
+Williams, who was supposed to be advancing into the neighborhood of a
+well known block-house, or frontier fortification, on the Saluda, about
+forty miles from their present position.
+
+The message with which Ramsay was charged from Sumpter to Williams, made
+it necessary that he should endeavor to reach that officer as soon as
+possible; and the sergeant, rejoicing in the thought of being so near a
+strong body of allies who might render the most essential aid to the
+great object of his expedition, readily concurred in the propriety of
+the young trooper's proposal. This enterprise was also recommended by
+the necessity of taking some immediate steps to preserve the custody of
+the ensign, whose capture had already been so serviceable to the cause
+of Arthur Butler. In accordance, moreover, with John Ramsay's anxious
+entreaty, Christopher Shaw, it was determined, should hasten back to the
+mill at the earliest moment.
+
+A speedy departure was, therefore, resolved on, and accordingly all
+things were made ready, in the course of an hour, to commence the march.
+At the appointed time the ensign was directed to descend into the
+valley, where he was once more bound to his horse. The conferences
+between the sergeant and his two comrades had been held out of the
+hearing of the prisoner; but it was now thought advisable to make him
+acquainted with the late proceedings that had transpired with regard to
+Butler, and especially with the respite that had been given to that
+officer by Innis. This communication was accompanied by an intimation
+that he would best consult his own comfort and safety by a patient
+submission to the restrictions that were put upon him: inasmuch as his
+captors had no disposition to vex him with any other precautions than
+were necessary for his safe detention during the present season of peril
+to Butler.
+
+With this admonition the party began their journey. The first two or
+three hours were occupied in returning, by the route of the valley, to
+the Ennoree. When they reached the river they found themselves relieved
+from the toils of the narrow and rugged path by which they had threaded
+the wild mountain dell, and introduced into an undulating country
+covered with forest, and intersected by an occasional but unfrequented
+road leading from one settlement to another. Here Christopher Shaw was
+to take leave of his companions, his path lying along the bank of the
+Ennoree, whilst the route to be pursued by the others crossed the river
+and extended thence southwards to the Saluda. The young miller turned
+his horse's head homewards, with some reluctance at parting with his
+friends in a moment of such interest, and bore with him many messages of
+comfort and courage to those whom he was about to rejoin--and more
+particularly from the sergeant to Butler, in case Christopher should
+have the good fortune to be able to deliver them. At the same time,
+Horse Shoe and John Ramsay, with the prisoner, forded the Ennoree, and
+plunged into the deep forest that lay upon its further bank.
+
+For several hours they travelled with the greatest circumspection,
+avoiding the frequented roads and the chance of meeting such wayfarers
+as might be abroad on their route. It was a time of great anxiety and
+suspense, but the habitual indifference of military life gave an air of
+unconcern to the conduct of the soldiers, and scarcely affected, in any
+visible degree, the cheerfulness of their demeanor.
+
+They reached, at length, the confines of a cultivated country--a region
+which was known to be inhabited by several Tory families. To avoid the
+risk of exposure to persons who might be unfriendly to their purpose,
+they thought it prudent to delay entering upon this open district until
+after sunset, that they might continue their journey through the night.
+The difficulty of ascertaining their road in the dark, and the danger of
+seeking information from the few families whose habitations occurred to
+their view, necessarily rendered their progress slow. The time was,
+therefore, passed in weary silence and persevering labor, in the anxious
+contemplation of the probability of encountering some of the enemy's
+scouts.
+
+At the break of day they stopped to refresh themselves; and the contents
+of Horse Shoe's wallet, unhappily reduced to a slender supply of
+provisions, were distributed amongst the party. During this halt, John
+Ramsay commanded the ensign to exchange his dress with him; and our
+faithful ally was converted, by this traffic, for the nonce, into a
+spruce, well-looking, and gay young officer of the enemy's line.
+
+The most hazardous portion of their journey now lay before them. They
+were within a few miles of the Saluda, from whence, at its nearest
+point, it was some six or seven more down the stream to the
+Block-house--the appointed rendezvous, where it was yet a matter of
+uncertainty whether Williams had arrived. The space between the
+travellers and the river was a fertile and comparatively thickly-peopled
+region, of which the inhabitants were almost entirely in the Tory
+interest. The broad daylight having overtaken them on the confines of
+this tract, exposed them to the greatest risk of being questioned. They
+had nothing left but to make a bold effort to attain the river by the
+shortest path; and thence to pursue the bank towards the rendezvous.
+
+"Courage, John," said Horse Shoe, smiling at the new garb of his
+comrade; "you may show your pretty feathers to-day to them that are fond
+of looking at them. And you, my young clodpole, ride like an honest
+Whig, or I mought find occasion to do a discomfortable thing, by putting
+a bullet through and through you. Excuse the liberty, sir, for these are
+ticklish times; but I shall ondoubtedly be as good as my word."
+
+Our adventurers soon resumed their journey. They had come within a mile
+of the Saluda without interruption, and began to exchange
+congratulations that the worst was passed, when they found themselves
+descending a sharp hill which jutted down upon an extensive piece of
+pasture ground. One boundary of this was watered by a brook, along whose
+margin a fringe of willows, intermixed with wild shrubbery of various
+kinds, formed a screen some ten or fifteen feet in height. As soon as
+this range of meadow was observed, our cautious soldiers halted upon the
+brow of the hill to reconnoitre; and perceiving nothing to excite their
+apprehension, they ventured down, upon the track of an ill-defined road,
+which took a direction immediately over the broadest portion of the
+field.
+
+They had scarcely crossed the brook at the bottom of the hill, before
+they heard the remote voices of men in conversation, and the tones of a
+careless laugh. On looking towards the upper section of the stream, they
+were aware of a squad of loyalist cavalry, who came riding, in the shade
+of the willows, directly towards the spot where the travellers had
+entered upon the meadow. The party consisted of seven or eight men, who
+were, at this instant, not more than one hundred paces distant.
+
+"They are upon us, sergeant!" exclaimed John Ramsay. "Make sure of the
+prisoner: retreat as rapidly as you can. Leave me to myself. Make for
+the Block-house--I will meet you there."
+
+With these hasty intimations, he pricked his courser up to full speed,
+and shaped his flight directly across the open field, in full view of
+the enemy.
+
+Horse Shoe, at the same moment, drew a pistol, cocked it, and throwing
+the rein of St. Jermyn's horse into the hands of the rider, he cried
+out:--
+
+"Back across the branch and into the woods! Push for it, or you are a
+dead man! On, on!" he added, as he rode at high speed immediately beside
+the ensign; "a stumble, or a whisper above your breath, and you get the
+bullet. Fly--your life is in your horse's heels!"
+
+The resolute tone of the sergeant had its effect upon his prisoner, who
+yielded a ready obedience to the pressing orders, and bounded into the
+thicket with as much alacrity as if flying from an enemy.
+
+Meanwhile, the troopers, struck with the earnest haste of one whose
+dress bespoke a British officer, speeding across the field, did not
+doubt that they had afforded this timely opportunity for the escape of a
+prisoner from the hands of the Whigs.
+
+"Wheel up, lads," shouted the leader of the squad, "it is the ensign!
+Wheel up and form a platoon to cut off the pursuit. We have him safe out
+of their clutches!"
+
+Impressed with the conviction that a considerable force of Whig cavalry
+were at hand, the troopers directed all their efforts to cover what they
+believed Ensign St. Jermyn's retreat, and were now seen formed into a
+platoon, and moving towards the middle of the plain, in such a manner as
+to place themselves between the fugitive and his supposed pursuers. Here
+they delayed a few minutes, as if expecting an attack; until finding
+that the object of their solicitude had safely crossed the field and
+plunged into the distant woods, they rode away at a rapid pace in the
+same direction. When they reached the further extremity of the open
+ground, they halted for an instant, turned their eyes back towards the
+spot of their first discovery, and, finding that no attempt was made to
+follow, gave a hearty huzza, and rode onward in search of their prize.
+
+The stratagem had completely succeeded: Ramsay had escaped, and Horse
+Shoe had withdrawn his prisoner into the neighboring wood upon the hill,
+where he was able to observe the whole scene. After a brief interval,
+the sergeant resumed his journey, and, with all necessary
+circumspection, bent his steps towards the river, where he arrived
+without molestation, and thence he continued his march in the direction
+of the rendezvous.
+
+John Ramsay did not stop until he had crossed the Saluda and advanced a
+considerable distance on the opposite bank, where, to his great joy, he
+was encountered by a look-out party of Williams's regiment. Our fugitive
+had some difficulty in making himself known to his friends, and escaping
+the salutation which an enemy was likely to obtain at their hands; but
+when he surrendered to them, and made them acquainted with the cause of
+his disguise, the party instantly turned about with him, and proceeded
+in quest of the sergeant and his prisoner.
+
+It was not long before they fell in with the small detachment of
+Connelly's troopers,--as the late masters of the meadow turned out to
+be--who were leisurely returning from their recent exploit. These,
+finding themselves in the presence of superior numbers, turned to
+flight. Not far behind them Ramsay and his new companions encountered
+Horse Shoe; and the whole party proceeded without delay to Williams's
+camp.
+
+Colonel Williams had reached the Block-house on the preceding evening
+with a force of two hundred cavalry. Clarke and Shelby happened, at this
+juncture, to be with him; and these three gallant partisans were now
+anxiously employed in arranging measures for that organized resistance
+to the Tory Dominion which fills so striking a chapter in the history of
+the Southern war, and which it had been the special object of Butler's
+mission to promote. Horse Shoe was enabled to communicate to Williams
+and his confederates the general purpose of this mission, and the
+disasters which had befallen Butler in his attempt to reach those with
+whom he was to co-operate. This intelligence created a lively interest
+in behalf of the captive, and it was instantly determined to make some
+strenuous effort for his deliverance. Whilst these matters were brought
+into consultation by the leaders, Horse Shoe and John Ramsay mingled
+amongst the soldiers, in the enjoyment of that fellowship which forms
+the most agreeable feature in the associations of the camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+BUTLER'S DIFFICULTIES INCREASE.--INNIS FINDS OCCASION TO THINK OF THE
+ADAGE--"THERE'S MANY A SLIP BETWIXT THE CUP AND THE LIP."
+
+
+When Arthur Butler was conducted back to his place of confinement, after
+his trial, orders were given that no one should be allowed to approach
+him, except the officer to whom was intrusted his safe custody. The
+intercourse of this person with him was short; and concerned only with
+the scant accommodation which his condition required. He was, therefore,
+deprived of all chance of becoming acquainted with the extraordinary
+events that had led to his present respite from death. In the
+interrogations that had, during the first moments of excitement, been
+put to him, in regard to the letter, he was not told its import; from
+what quarter it had come; nor how it affected his fate. He only knew, by
+the result, that it had suspended the purpose of his immediate
+execution; and he saw that it had produced great agitation at
+head-quarters. He found, moreover, that this, or some other cause, had
+engendered a degree of exasperation against him, that showed itself in
+the retrenchment of his comforts, and in the augmented rigor of his
+confinement.
+
+Agitated with a thousand doubts, his mind was too busy to permit him to
+close his eyes during the night that followed; and in this wakeful
+suspense he could sometimes hear, amongst the occasional ramblers who
+passed under his window, an allusion, in their conversation, to a
+victory gained over the royal troops. Coupling this with the name of
+Sumpter, which was now and then uttered with some adjective of
+disparagement, he conjectured that Horse Shoe had probably fallen in
+with that partisan, and was, peradventure, leading him to this vicinity.
+But this conclusion was combated by the fact that there seemed to be no
+alarm in the camp, nor any preparations on foot either for instant
+battle or retreat. Then the letter--that was a mystery altogether
+impenetrable. There was only one point upon which his mind could rest
+with satisfaction: of that he was sure--Horse Shoe was certainly at the
+bottom of the scheme, and was active in his behalf.
+
+The whole of the next day passed over in the same state of uncertainty.
+It was observed by Butler, with some stress upon the circumstance, that
+Captain St. Jermyn, who had heretofore evinced a disposition to make
+himself busy in his behalf, had absented himself ever since the trial;
+and he thus felt himself cut off from the slightest exhibition of
+sympathy on the part of a single individual in the multitude of fellow
+beings near him. Indeed, there were various indications of a general
+personal ill-will against him. The house, in which he was confined, was
+so constructed that he could frequently hear such expressions, in the
+conferences of those who inhabited the rooms below stairs, as were
+uttered above the lower key of conversation, and these boded him no
+good. Once, during the day, Colonel Innis visited him. This officer's
+countenance was severe, and indicated anger. His purpose was to extort
+something from the prisoner in reference to his supposed knowledge of
+the course of operations of Sumpter, from whose camp Innis did not doubt
+this letter regarding St. Jermyn had come. He spoke in a short, quick,
+and peremptory tone:
+
+"It may be well for you," he said, "that your friends do not too rashly
+brave my authority. Let me advise you to warn them that others may fall
+into our hands; and that if the ensign be not delivered up, there may be
+a dreadful retaliation."
+
+"I know not, sir, of what or whom you speak," replied Butler; "and it is
+due to my honor to say, that I will not be induced, for the sake of
+saving my life, to interfere with any operations which the soldiers of
+Congress may have undertaken in the cause of the country. In this
+sentiment I admonish Colonel Innis that I desire to be put in possession
+of no facts from him that may be communicated under such an expectation.
+And having made this determination known to you, I will add to it that,
+from the same motives, I will answer no questions you can propose to me.
+You may spare yourself, therefore, the useless labor of this visit. My
+life is in your hands, and I have already experienced with what justice
+and clemency you will use your power when you dare."
+
+"A more humble tone," said Innis, with a bitter smile, "I think would
+better suit your circumstances." And with this remark the commandant
+haughtily walked out of the apartment.
+
+The next morning, whilst Butler was taking his breakfast, which had been
+brought to him by one of the soldiers of the guard, he heard a loud
+cheering from the troops that at that hour were on parade in the plain.
+This was followed by the discharge of a _feu de joie_ from the whole
+line, and a flourish of drums and trumpets.
+
+"What is that?" he inquired eagerly of the soldier, who, forgetful, in
+the excitement of the moment, of the order to restrain his intercourse
+with the prisoner, answered--
+
+"They have just got the news from Camden: two days ago Cornwallis
+defeated Gates, and cut his army to pieces. The troops are rejoicing for
+the victory, and have just had the despatches read."
+
+Butler heaved a deep sigh, as he said, "Then all is lost, and liberty is
+but a name! I feared it; God knows, I feared it."
+
+The soldier was recalled to his duty by the sentinel at the door, and
+Butler was again left alone.
+
+This was a day of crowding events. The tidings of the battle of Camden,
+gained on the sixteenth, and which had early this morning reached Innis,
+threw a spirit of the highest exultation into the camp. The event was
+considered decisive of the fate of the rebel power; and the most
+extravagant anticipations were indulged by the loyalists, in regard to
+the complete subjugation of the Whigs of the southern provinces. The
+work of confiscation was to be carried out to the most bitter extreme,
+and the adherents of the royal government were to grow rich upon the
+spoils of victory. The soldiers of Innis were permitted to give way to
+uncontrolled revelry; and, from the first promulgation of the news, this
+became a day devoted to rejoicings. Innis himself looked upon the
+victory at Camden with more satisfaction, as it gave him reason to
+believe that the sentence pronounced against Butler might be executed,
+without fear of vengeance threatened against the Ensign St. Jermyn. He
+was, however, exceedingly anxious to see this young officer released
+from the hands of the enemy; and had determined to respect the threat
+as long as there was any doubt that it might be performed. The personal
+consideration of Captain St. Jermyn, his station as an officer of
+importance, and, above all, the great influence of his family, in the
+esteem of the royal leaders, made it an object of deep concern to Innis
+to save the ensign, by the most scrupulous regard to his present
+difficulties. His power to do so seemed to be much increased by the late
+victory.
+
+In the afternoon of the same day, further rumors were brought to Innis's
+camp, importing that Sumpter had been attacked on that morning upon the
+Catawba, by Tarleton, and completely routed. The prisoners and baggage,
+taken on the fifteenth, had been regained, and Sumpter was flying with
+the scattered remnant of his troops towards North Carolina. At the same
+time an order was brought to Innis to break up his camp and move
+northwards. This only added to the shouts and rejoicings of the troops,
+and drove them into deeper excesses. The war, they thought, was coming
+rapidly to an end, and they already anticipated this conclusion, by
+throwing off the irksomeness of military restraint. The officers were
+gathered into gossiping and convivial circles; and laughed, in
+unrestrained feelings of triumph, at the posture of affairs. The private
+soldiers, on their part, imitated their leaders, and formed themselves
+into knots and groups, where they caroused over their cups, danced, and
+sang. All was frolic and merriment.
+
+In the midst of this festivity, a portion of Connelly's troopers, who
+had now been absent forty-eight hours, arrived, and made an immediate
+report to Innis. The purport of this was, that they had found Ensign St.
+Jermyn in the possession of a detachment of Whig cavalry near the
+Saluda: as soon as they descried him, which they did, some three hundred
+paces distant, knowing him by his scarlet uniform, they prepared to
+attack this party of Whigs; but the ensign perceiving his friends at
+hand, had already, by a brave effort, disentangled himself from his
+keepers, and taken off into the open field. The scouts, therefore,
+instead of attacking the Whigs, directed all their attention to secure
+the ensign's retreat, by holding themselves ready to check the pursuit:
+their manoeuvre had been successful, and the prisoner was free.
+
+"And is now with you in the camp, my brave fellows?" said Innis, with
+great exultation.
+
+"Not yet," replied the sergeant of the squad. "He is upon the road, and
+will, no doubt, soon be here. We have not seen him since his escape.
+Whilst we hung back, with a view to favor his retreat, we fell in with a
+party that we took to be the escort that had made him prisoner; and as
+they outnumbered us, we thought it prudent to decline a skirmish with
+them. So we filed off and made our way back to head quarters. The ensign
+must have been a good mile ahead of us, and as the road is hard to find,
+he may have lost his way. But this is certain, we saw him clear of the
+Whigs, with his horse's head turned towards this camp."
+
+"Thank you, good friends," said Innis; "you have performed your duty
+handsomely. Go to your comrades; they have news for you, and an extra
+allowance to-day. Faith, Ker, this is a day for settling old accounts,"
+he continued, as he turned and addressed an officer by his side. "Gates
+beaten, Sumpter beaten, and Ensign St. Jermyn delivered from captivity!
+That looks well! And now I have another account, which shall be settled
+on the nail. Stirring times, Captain St. Jermyn. I congratulate you, my
+friend, on your brother's safety, and mean to signalize the event as it
+deserves. Major Frazer, bring out your prisoner, and let him die the
+death punctually at sundown--at sundown, to the minute, major. We must
+get that job off our hands. To-morrow, my friends, we shall move towards
+Catawba, and thence to Hanging Rock. Meantime, we must sweep up our
+rubbish. So, major, look to your duty! It might as well have been done
+at first," he added, speaking to himself, as he walked away from the
+group of officers to look after other affairs.
+
+The execution of Butler was now regarded as a mere matter of business,
+and to be despatched as one item of duty amongst the thousand others
+that were to be looked after in the hurry of breaking up the post. The
+interest of the trial had faded away by the lapse of time, and in the
+more predominating excitements which the absorbing character of the late
+events had afforded. The preparations for this ceremony were, therefore,
+attended with no display, and scarcely seemed to arouse inquiry amongst
+the soldiers of the camp. It was treated in all respects as a
+subordinate point of police. Ten files were detailed; one drum and fife
+put in requisition; and this party, attended by Frazer, and two or three
+officers who happened to be near at the moment, marched with a careless
+step to head-quarters.
+
+The first announcement of this sudden resolve was made to the prisoner
+by a subaltern; who, without prelude or apology, or the least effort to
+mitigate the harshness of the order he bore, walked abruptly into the
+chamber and delivered the message of his superior.
+
+"It is a sudden proceeding," said Butler, calmly; "but your pleasure
+must be obeyed."
+
+"You have had two days to think of it," replied the officer; "it is not
+often so much time is allowed. Ensign St. Jermyn, sir, is safe, and that
+is all we waited for. We march to-morrow, and therefore have no time to
+lose. You are waited for below."
+
+Butler stood a moment with his hand pressed upon his brow, and then
+muttered,
+
+"It is even so; our unhappy country is lost, and the reign of blood is
+but begun. I would ask the poor favor of a moment's delay, and the
+privilege of pen, ink, and paper, whilst I write but a line to a
+friend."
+
+"Impossible, sir," said the man. "Time is precious, and our orders are
+positive."
+
+"This is like the rest," answered Butler; "I submit." Then buttoning his
+coat across his breast, he left the room with a firm and composed step.
+
+When he reached the door the first person who met his eye was Captain
+St. Jermyn. There was an expression of formal gravity in the manner of
+this officer, as he accosted the prisoner, and lamented the rigor of the
+fate that awaited him. And it was somewhat with a cold and polite
+civility that he communicated his readiness to attend to any request
+which Butler, in his last moments, might wish to have performed.
+
+Butler thanked him for his solicitude, and then said, "I asked
+permission to write to a friend; that has been denied. I feel reluctant
+to expose myself to another refusal. You have taken a slight interest in
+my sufferings, and I will, therefore, confide to you a simple wish,
+which it will not cost my persecutors much to gratify. It is that I may
+be taken to my grave, dressed as you see me now. I would not have my
+person stripped or plundered."
+
+"If you have valuables about you, sir, trust them to my keeping; I
+promise you they shall be faithfully delivered according to your wish."
+
+"What money there is about my person," replied Butler, "may be given to
+the soldiers who are compelled to execute this harsh and unjust sentence
+on my person; but I have a trinket," he said, drawing from his bosom a
+miniature, which was suspended by a ribbon, "it is the gift of
+one,"--here, for the first time, a tear started into Butler's eye, and
+his power of utterance failed him.
+
+"I understand, sir," said St. Jermyn, eagerly reaching out his hand to
+take the picture, "I will seek the lady, at whatever hazard"--
+
+"No," answered the unfortunate officer, "it must be buried with me. It
+has dwelt here," he added with emotion, as he placed his hand upon his
+heart, "and here it must sleep in death."
+
+"On the honor of a soldier," said St. Jermyn, "I promise you its rest
+shall not be violated."
+
+"You will attend me?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Lead on," said the prisoner, stepping to the place assigned him in the
+ranks. "I seek no further delay."
+
+"March down the river, half a mile below the camp," said Innis, who now
+came up, as the escort had begun its progress towards the place of
+execution. And the soldiers moved slowly, with the customary funeral
+observances, in a direction that led across the whole extent of the
+plain.
+
+When this little detachment had disappeared on the further side of the
+field, a sudden commotion arose at head-quarters by the hasty arrival of
+a mounted patrol--
+
+"We are followed!" cried the leading horseman, in great perturbation.
+"They will be here in an instant! We have been pressed by them for the
+last two miles."
+
+"Of whom do you speak?" inquired Innis, eagerly.
+
+"The enemy! the enemy!" vociferated several voices.
+
+At the same moment a cloud of dust was seen rising above the trees, in
+the direction of the road leading up the Ennoree.
+
+"To arms--to arms!" ejaculated the commander. "Gentlemen, spring to your
+horses, and sound the alarm through the camp--we are set upon by
+Sumpter--it can be no other. Curry, take a few dragoons--follow the
+prisoner--mount him behind one of your men, and retreat with him
+instantly to Blackstock's!"
+
+Having given these hasty orders, Innis, with the several officers who
+happened to be at hand, ran to their horses, mounted, and pushed forward
+to the camp. They had scarcely left their quarters before two dragoons,
+in advance of a party of twenty or thirty men, rushed up to the door.
+
+"Sarch the house!" shouted the leading soldier. "Three or four of you
+dismount and sarch the house! Make sure of Major Butler, if he is there!
+The rest of you forward with me!"
+
+The delay before head-quarters scarcely occupied a moment, and in the
+meantime the number of the assailants was increased by the squadrons
+that poured in from the rear. These were led by a young officer of great
+activity and courage, who, seeing the disordered condition of the
+royalists, waved his sword in the air as he beckoned his men to follow
+him in a charge upon the camp.
+
+The advanced party, with the two dragoons, were already on the field
+charging the first body that they found assembled; and, close behind
+them, followed Colonel Williams--the officer of whom I have spoken--with
+a large division of cavalry. At the same moment that Williams entered
+upon the plain from this quarter, a second and third corps, led
+respectively by Shelby and Clarke, were seen galloping upon the two
+flanks of the encampment.
+
+The plain was now occupied by about two hundred Whig cavalry. The
+royalists, taken by surprise, over their cups it may be said, and in the
+midst of a riotous festival, were everywhere thrown into the wildest
+confusion. Such of them as succeeded in gaining their arms, took post
+behind the trees, and kept up an irregular fire upon the assailants.
+Colonel Innis had succeeded in getting together about a hundred men at a
+remote corner of his camp, and had now formed them into a solid column
+to resist the attack of the cavalry, whilst from this body he poured
+forth a few desultory volleys of musketry, hoping to gain time to
+collect the scattered forces that were in various points endeavoring to
+find their proper station. Horse Shoe Robinson and John Ramsay--the two
+foremost in the advance--were to be discovered pushing through the
+sundered groups of the enemy with a restless and desperate valor that
+nothing could withstand.
+
+"Cut them down," cried Horse Shoe, "without marcy! remember the
+Waxhaws!" And he accompanied his exhortation with the most vehement and
+decisive action, striking down, with a huge sabre, all who opposed his
+way.
+
+Meantime, Colonel Williams and his comrades charged the column formed by
+Innis, and, in a few moments, succeeded in riding through the array and
+compelling them to a total rout. Robinson and Ramsay, side by side,
+mingled in this charge, and were seen in the thickest of the fight.
+Innis, finding all efforts to maintain his ground ineffectual, turned
+his horse towards Musgrove's mill, and fled as fast as spur and sword
+could urge the animal forward. The sergeant, however, had marked him for
+his prize, and following as fleetly as the trusty Captain Peter was able
+to carry him, soon came up with the fugitive officer, and, with one
+broad sweep of his sword, dislodged him from his saddle and left him
+bleeding on the ground. Turning again towards the field, his quick eye
+discerned the unwieldy bulk of Hugh Habershaw. The gross captain had, in
+the hurry of the assault, been unable to reach his horse; and, in the
+first moments of danger, had taken refuge in one of the little sheds
+which had been constructed for the accommodation of the soldiers. As the
+battle waxed hot in the neighborhood of his retreat, he had crept forth
+from his den and was making the best of his way to an adjoining
+cornfield. He was bare-headed, and his bald crown, as the slanting rays
+of the evening sun fell upon it, glistened like a gilded globe. The well
+known figure no sooner occurred to the sergeant's view than he rode off
+in pursuit. The cornfield was bounded by a fence, and the burly braggart
+had just succeeded in reaching it when his enemy overtook him.
+
+"Have mercy, good Mr. Horse Shoe, have mercy on a defenceless man!"
+screamed the runaway, in a voice discordant with terror, as he stopped
+at the fence, which he was unable to mount, and looked back upon his
+pursuer. "Remember the good-will I showed you when you was a prisoner!
+Quarter, quarter--for God's sake, quarter!"
+
+"You get no quarter from me, you cursed blood-lapper!" exclaimed Horse
+Shoe, excited to a rage that seldom visited his breast; "think of
+Grindall's Ford!" and at the same instant he struck a heavy downward
+blow, with such sheer descent, that it clove the skull of the perfidious
+freebooter clean through to the spine. "I have sworn your death," said
+the sergeant, "even if I catch you asleep in your bed, and right fairly
+have you earned it."
+
+The body fell into a bed of mire, which had been the resort of the
+neighboring swine; and, leaving it in this foul plight, Horse Shoe
+hastened back to rejoin his comrades.
+
+The battle now ended in the complete route of the enemy. Williams's
+first care, after the day was won, was to collect his men and to secure
+his prisoners. Many of the Tories had escaped; many were killed and
+wounded; but of Butler no tidings could be gained; he had disappeared
+from the field before the fight began, and all the information that the
+prisoners could give was that orders had been sent to remove him from
+the neighborhood. Colonel Innis was badly wounded, and in no condition
+to speak with his conquerors; he was sent, with several other disabled
+officers, to head-quarters. Captain St. Jermyn had fled, with most of
+those who had mounted their horses before the arrival of Williams.
+
+The day was already at its close, and order was taken to spend the night
+upon the field. Guards were posted, and every precaution adopted to
+avoid a surprise in turn from the enemy, who, it was feared, might soon
+rally a strong party and assail the conquerors.
+
+The disturbed condition of the country, and the almost unanimous
+sentiment of the people against the Whigs, now strengthened by the late
+victories, prevented Williams from improving his present advantage, or
+even from bearing off his prisoners. Robinson and Ramsay volunteered to
+head a party to scour the country in quest of Butler, but the commanding
+officer could give no encouragement to the enterprise; it was, in his
+judgment, a hopeless endeavor, when the forces of the enemy were
+everywhere so strong. His determination, therefore, was to retreat, as
+soon as his men were in condition, back to his fastnesses. His few
+killed were buried; the wounded, of which there were not more than
+fifteen or twenty were taken care of, and the jaded troops were
+dismissed to seek refreshment amongst the abundant stores captured from
+the enemy. Ensign St. Jermyn was still a prisoner; and, for the sake of
+adding to Butler's security, Williams selected two or three other
+officers that had fallen into his hands to accompany him in his retreat.
+These arrangements all being made, the colonel and his officers retired
+to repose. The next morning at daylight there were no traces of the
+Whigs to be seen upon the plain. It was abandoned to the loyalist
+prisoners and their wounded comrades.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+WILLIAMS TAKES A FANCY TO FOREST LIFE.--HORSE SHOE AND JOHN RAMSAY
+CONTINUE ACTIVE IN THE SERVICE OF BUTLER.--MARY MUSGROVE BECOMES A
+VALUABLE AUXILIARY.
+
+
+Williams had commenced his retreat before the dawn, as much with a view
+to accomplish a large portion of his journey before the heat of the day,
+as to protect himself against the probable pursuit of the rallied forces
+of the enemy. His destination was towards the mountains on the
+north-western frontier. The overthrow of Gates had left a large force of
+Tory militia at the disposal of Cornwallis, who, it was conjectured,
+would use them to break up every remnant of opposition in this region.
+It was therefore a matter of great importance to Williams, to conduct
+his little force into some place of security against the attacks of the
+royalists.
+
+Colonel Elijah Clarke had, ever since the fall of Charleston, been
+employed in keeping together the few scattered Whig families in that
+part of Carolina lying contiguous to the Savannah, with a view to an
+organized plan of resistance against the British authorities; and he had
+so far accomplished his purpose as to have procured some three or four
+hundred men, who had agreed to hold themselves in readiness to strike a
+blow whenever the occasion offered. These men were to be mustered at any
+moment by a preconcerted signal; and, in the meantime, they were
+instructed, by confining themselves to their dwellings, or pursuing
+their ordinary occupations, to keep as much as possible out of the way
+of the dominant authorities.
+
+Clarke resided in Georgia, whence he had fled as soon as the royalist
+leader, Brown, had taken possession of Augusta; and we have already seen
+that a letter from Colonel Pinckney, at Charleston, which Horse Shoe
+Robinson had been intrusted to deliver, had summoned Arthur Butler to
+this frontier to aid in Clarke's enterprise.
+
+Colonel Isaac Shelby, a resident of Washington county in Virginia, until
+the settlement of the southern line of the State had left him in the
+district at present known as Sullivan county in Tennessee, had been an
+efficient auxiliary in Clarke's scheme, and was now ready to summon a
+respectable number of followers for the support of the war on the
+mountain border. He and Clarke had accidentally arrived at Williams's
+camp a day or two before the attack upon Innis, with a view to a
+consultation as to the general interests of the meditated campaign; and
+they had only tarried to take a part in the engagement from a natural
+concern for the fate of their intended comrade, Butler. Having no
+further motive for remaining with Williams, they were both intent upon
+returning to their respective duties, and, accordingly, during the
+retreat of the following day, they took their leave.
+
+The vigilance with which these partisans were watched by their enemies,
+almost forbade the present hope of successful combination. From a
+consciousness of the hazard of attempting to concentrate their forces at
+this juncture, they had determined still to pursue their separate
+schemes of annoyance, until a more favorable moment for joint action
+should arise; and, in the interval, to hide themselves as much as
+possible in the forest. It was consequently in the hope of preserving
+his independence at least, if not of aiding Clarke, that Williams now
+moved with so much despatch to the mountains.
+
+His course lay towards the head waters of the Fair Forest river, in the
+present region of Spartanburg. This district was inhabited only by a few
+hunters, and some scattered Indians of an inoffensive character; it
+abounded in game, and promised to afford an easy subsistence to men
+whose habits were simple, and who were accustomed to rely upon the chase
+for support. The second day brought our hardy soldiers into the sojourn
+they sought. It was a wilderness broken by mountains, and intersected by
+streams of surpassing transparency; whilst its elevated position and
+southern latitude conferred upon it a climate that was then, as well as
+now, remarked for its delicious temperature in summer, and its exemption
+from the rigors of winter.
+
+The spot at which Williams rested was a sequestered valley deep hidden
+in the original woods, and watered by the Fair Forest, whose stream, so
+near its fountain, scarcely exceeded the dimensions of a little brook.
+Here he determined to form a camp, to which in times of emergency he
+might safely retreat. With a view to render it easy of access as a
+rendezvous, he caused landmarks to be made, by cutting notches on the
+trees--or _blazing_ them, in the woodman's phrase--in several
+directions, leading towards the principal highways that penetrated the
+country. The retreat thus established is familiar to the history of the
+war, under the name of the Fair Forest camp.
+
+These arrangements being completed in the course of the first day after
+his arrival, Williams now applied himself to the adoption of measures
+for the safety of Arthur Butler. Amongst the spoils that had fallen into
+his hands, after the victory over Innis, was the document containing the
+proceedings of the court-martial. The perusal of this paper, together
+with the comments afforded by Robinson, convinced him of the malignity
+of the persecution which had aimed at the life of the prisoner. It
+occurred to him, therefore, to submit the whole proceeding to Lord
+Cornwallis, to whom, he was persuaded, it either had been
+misrepresented, or, most probably, was entirely unknown. He did not
+doubt that an appeal to the honorable feelings of that officer, with a
+full disclosure of the facts, would instantly be followed by an order
+that should put Butler under the protection of the rules of war, and
+insure him all the rights that belong to a mere prisoner taken in arms
+in a lawful quarrel. A spirited remonstrance was accordingly prepared to
+this effect. It detailed the circumstances of Butler's case, which was
+accompanied with a copy of the proceedings of the court, and it
+concluded with a demand that such measures should be adopted by the head
+of the army, as comported with the rights of humanity and the laws of
+war; "a course," the writer suggested, "that he did not hesitate to
+believe his lordship would feel belonged both to the honor and duty of
+his station." This paper was consigned to the care of an officer, who
+was directed to proceed with it, under a flag of truce, to the
+head-quarters of the British commander.
+
+Soon after this, Robinson apprised Williams that Ramsay and himself had
+determined to venture back towards the Ennoree, to learn something of
+the state of affairs in that quarter, and to apply themselves more
+immediately to the service of Butler. In aid of this design, the
+sergeant obtained a letter from Williams, the purport of which was to
+inform the commandant of any post of the loyalists whom it might
+concern, that an application had been made on Butler's behalf to
+Cornwallis, and that the severest retaliation would be exercised upon
+the prisoners in Williams's custody, for any violence that might be
+offered the American officer. Putting this letter in his pocket, our man
+of "mickle might," attended by his good and faithful ally, John Ramsay,
+took his leave of "The Fair Forest" towards noon of the fourth day after
+the battle near Musgrove's mill.
+
+The second morning after their departure, the two companions had reached
+the Ennoree, not far from the habitation of David Ramsay. It was fair
+summer weather, and nature was as gay as in that piping time before the
+blast of war had blown across her fields. All things, in the course of a
+few days, seemed to have undergone a sudden change. The country
+presented no signs of strife: no bands of armed men molested the
+highways. An occasional husbandman was seen at his plough: the deer
+sprang up from the brushwood and fled into the forest, as if inviting
+again the pastime of the chase; and even when the two soldiers
+encountered a chance wayfarer upon the road, each party passed the other
+unquestioned--there was all the seeming quiet of a pacified country. The
+truth was, the war had rolled northwards--and all behind it had
+submitted since the disastrous fight at Camden. The lusty and
+hot-brained portions of the population were away with the army; and the
+non-combatants only, or those wearied with arms, were all that were to
+be seen in this region.
+
+Horse Shoe, after riding a long time in silence, as these images of
+tranquillity occupied his thoughts, made a simple remark that spoke a
+volume of truth in a few homely words.
+
+"This is an onnatural sort of stillness, John. Men may call this peace,
+but I call it fear. If there is a poor wretch of a Whig in this
+district, it's as good as his life is worth to own himself. How far off
+mought we be from your father's?"
+
+The young trooper heaved a deep sigh "I knew you were thinking of my
+poor father when you spoke your thoughts, Horse Shoe. This is a heavy
+day for him. But he could bear it: he's a man who thinks little of
+hardships. There are the helpless women, Galbraith Robinson," he
+continued, as he shook his head with an expression of sorrow that almost
+broke into tears. "Getting near home one thinks of them first. My good
+and kind mother--God knows how she would bear any heavy accident. I am
+always afraid to ask questions in these times about the family, for fear
+of hearing something bad. And there's little Mary Musgrove over at the
+mill"--
+
+"You have good reason to be proud of that girl, John Ramsay,"
+interrupted Robinson. "So speak out, man, and none of your stammering.
+Hoot!--she told me she was your sweetheart! You hav'n't half the tongue
+of that wench. Why, sir, if I was a lovable man, haw, haw!--which I'm
+not--I'll be cursed if I wouldn't spark that little fusee myself."
+
+"This fence," said Ramsay, unheeding the sergeant's banter, "belongs to
+our farm, and perhaps we had better let down the rails and approach the
+house across the field: if the Tories should be there we might find the
+road dangerous. This gives us a chance of retreat."
+
+"That's both scrupulous and wise, John," replied the sergeant. "So down
+with the pannel: we will steal upon the good folks, if they are at home,
+and take them by surprise. But mind you, my lad, see that your pistols
+are primed; we mought onawares get into a wasp's nest."
+
+The fence was lowered, and the horsemen cautiously entered the field.
+After passing a narrow dell and rising to the crest of the opposite
+hill, they obtained a position but a short distance in the rear of the
+homestead. From this point a melancholy prospect broke upon their sight.
+The dwelling-house had disappeared, and in its place was a heap only of
+smouldering ashes. A few of the upright frame-posts, scorched black, and
+a stone chimney with its ample fire-place, were all that remained of
+what, but a few days before, was the happy abode of the family of a
+brave and worthy man.
+
+"My God! my thoughts were running upon this! I feared their spite would
+break at last upon my father's head," cried John Ramsay, as he put spurs
+to his horse and galloped up to the ruins. "The savages have done their
+worst. But my father and mother where are they?" he exclaimed, as the
+tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+"Take heart, my brave boy!" said Robinson, in the kindliest tones.
+"There's a reckoning to come for all these villanies--and it will go
+hard with many a Tory yet before this account is settled."
+
+"I will carry a hot hand into the first house that covers a Tory head,"
+replied the young trooper, passionately; "this burning shall be paid
+with ten like it."
+
+"All in good time, John," said Robinson coolly. "As for the burning, it
+is no great matter; a few good neighbors would soon set that to rights,
+by building your father a better house than the one he has lost.
+Besides, Congress will not forget a true friend when the war is well
+fought out. But it does go against my grain, John Ramsay, to see a
+parcel of cowardly runaways spitting their malice against women and
+children. The barn, likewise, I see is gone," continued the sergeant,
+looking towards another pile of the ruins a short distance off. "The
+villains! when there's foul work to be done, they don't go at it like
+apprentices. No matter--I have made one observation: the darkest hour is
+just before the day, and that's a comfortable old saying."
+
+By degrees John Ramsay fell into a calmer temper, and now began to cast
+about as to the course fit to be pursued in their present emergency.
+About a quarter of a mile distant, two or three negro cabins were
+visible, and he could descry a few children near the doors. With an
+eager haste, therefore, he and the sergeant shaped their course across
+the field to this spot. When they arrived within fifty paces of the
+nearest hovel, the door was set ajar, and a rifle, thrust through the
+aperture, was aimed at the visitors.
+
+"Stand for your lives!" shouted the well known voice of David Ramsay. In
+the next instant the door was thrown wide open, the weapon cast aside,
+and the father rushed forward as he exclaimed, "Gracious God, my boy and
+Horse Shoe Robinson! Welcome, lads; a hundred times more welcome than
+when I had better shelter to give you! But the good friends of King
+George, you see, have been so kind as to give me a call. It is easy to
+tell when they take it in their head to visit a Whig."
+
+"My mother!" exclaimed John Ramsay.
+
+"In and see her, boy--she wants comfort from you. But, thank God! she
+bears this blow better than I thought she could."
+
+Before this speech was uttered John had disappeared.
+
+"And how came this mishap to fall upon you, David?" inquired Horse Shoe.
+
+"I suppose some of your prisoners," replied Ramsay, "must have informed
+upon Andy and me: for in the retreat of Innis's runaways, a party came
+through my farm. They stayed only long enough to ransack the house, and
+to steal whatever was worth taking; and then to set fire to the dwelling
+and all the out-buildings. Both Andy and myself, by good luck, perhaps,
+were absent, or they would have made us prisoners: so they turned my
+wife and children out of doors to shift for themselves, and scampered
+off as fast as if Williams was still at their heels. All that was left
+for us was to crowd into this cabin, where, considering all things, we
+are not so badly off. But things are taking an ill turn for the country,
+Horse Shoe. We are beaten on all sides."
+
+"Not so bad, David, as to be past righting yet," replied the sergeant.
+"What have they done with Major Butler?"
+
+"He was carried, as I learned, up to Blackstock's, the evening of the
+fight; and yesterday it was reported that a party has taken him back to
+Musgrove's. I believe he is now kept close prisoner in Allen's house.
+Christopher Shaw was here two days since, and told us that orders had
+come to occupy the millers dwelling-house for that purpose."
+
+Horse Shoe had now entered the cabin with David Ramsay, and in the
+course of the hour that followed, during which the family had prepared
+refreshment for the travellers, the sergeant had fully canvassed all the
+particulars necessary to be known for his future guidance. It was
+determined that he and John should remain in their present concealment
+until night, and then endeavor to reach the mill under cover of the
+darkness, and open some means of communication with the family of the
+miller.
+
+The rest of the day was spent in anxious thought. The situation of the
+adventurers was one of great personal peril, as they were now
+immediately within the circle of operations of the enemy and likely to
+be observed and challenged the first moment they ventured upon the
+road.
+
+The hour of dusk had scarcely arrived before they were again mounted on
+horseback. They proceeded cautiously upon the road that led through the
+wood, until it intersected the highway; and, having attained this point,
+John Ramsay, who was well acquainted with every avenue through the
+country, now led the way, by a private and scarcely discernible path,
+into the adjacent forest, and thence, by a tedious and prolonged route,
+directed his companion to the banks of the Ennoree. This course of
+travel took them immediately to the plain on which Innis had been
+encamped--the late field of battle. All here was still and desolate. The
+sheds and other vestiges of the recent bivouac were yet visible, but not
+even the farm-house that had constituted Innis's head-quarters was
+reoccupied by its original inhabitants. The bat whirred over the plain,
+and the owl hooted from the neighboring trees. The air still bore the
+scent of dead bodies which had either been left exposed, or so meagrely
+covered with earth as to taint the breeze with noisome exhalations.
+
+"There is a great difference, John," said Horse Shoe, who seldom let an
+occasion to moralize after his own fashion slip by, "there's a great
+difference between a hot field and a stale one. Your hot field makes a
+soldier, for there's a sort of a stir in it that sets the blood to
+running merrily through a man, and that's what I call pleasure. But when
+everything is festering like the inside of a hospital--or what's next
+door to it, a grave-yard--it is mighty apt to turn a dragoon's stomach
+and make a preacher of him. This here dew falls to-night like frost, and
+chills me to the heart, which it wouldn't do if it didn't freshen up the
+smell of dead men. And there's the hogs, busy as so many sextons among
+Innis's Tories: you may hear them grunt over their suppers. Well, there
+is one man among them that I'll make bold to say these swine hav'n't got
+the stomach to touch--that's Hugh Habershaw: he sleeps in the mud in
+yonder fence-corner."
+
+"If you had done nothing else in the fight, Horse Shoe, but cleave that
+fellow's skull," said Ramsay, "the ride we took would have been well
+paid for--it was worth the trouble."
+
+"And the rapscallionly fellow to think," added Horse Shoe, "that I was a
+going to save him from the devil's clutches, when I had a broadsword in
+my hand, and his bald, greasy pate in reach. His brain had nothing in it
+but deceit and lies, and all sorts of cruel thoughts, enough to poison
+the air when I let them out. I have made an observation, John, all my
+life on them foul-mouthed, swilling braggers--that when there's so much
+cunning and blood-thirstiness, there's no room for a thimbleful of
+courage: their heart's in their belly, which is as much as to signify
+that the man's a most beastly coward. But now, it is my opinion that we
+had best choose a spot along upon the river here, and leave our horses.
+I think we can manoeuvre better on foot: the miller's house is short
+of two miles, and we mought be noticed if we were to go nearer on
+horseback."
+
+This proposal was adopted, and the two friends, when they had ridden a
+short distance below the battle ground, halted in a thicket, where they
+fastened their horses, and proceeded towards the mill on foot. After
+following the course of the stream for near half an hour, they
+perceived, at a distance, a light glimmering through the window of Allen
+Musgrove's dwelling. This induced a second pause in their march, when
+Ramsay suggested the propriety of his advancing alone to reconnoitre the
+house, and attempting to gain some speech with the inmates. He
+accordingly left the sergeant to amuse himself with his own thoughts.
+
+Horse Shoe took his seat beneath a sycamore, where he waited a long time
+in anxious expectation of the return of his comrade. Growing uneasy, at
+last, at John's delay, he arose, and stole cautiously forward until he
+reached the mill, where he posted himself in a position from which he
+was able to see and hear what was going on at the miller's house. The
+porch was occupied by three or four persons, whose conversation, as it
+came to the sergeant's ear, proved them to be strangers to the family;
+and a ray of light from a taper within, after a while, made this more
+manifest, by revealing the scarlet uniform of the enemy. Horse Shoe was
+thus confirmed in the truth of the report that Butler had been brought
+to this place under a military escort. With this conviction he returned
+to the sycamore, where he again sat down to wait for the coming of his
+companion.
+
+It was after ten o'clock, and the sergeant was casting over in his
+thoughts the long absence of John, when his attention was aroused by the
+sound of footsteps, and the next instant John Ramsay and Mary Musgrove
+stood beside him.
+
+"What kept you till this time of night?" was the sergeant's accost.
+
+"Softly, man, I have news for you," replied Ramsay. "Here is Mary
+herself."
+
+"And so she is, indeed!" exclaimed the sergeant, at the same time
+shaking her hand, "this is my petticoat-sodger; how goes it with you,
+girl?"
+
+"I have only a moment to spare," replied the maiden cheerfully, "and it
+is the greatest of good luck that I thought of coming out; for John gave
+me a signal, which I was stupid enough not to understand at first. But,
+after a while, I thought it could be no one but John Ramsay; and that,
+partly, because I expected he would be coming into the neighborhood ever
+since I heard of his being at his father's, after the ensign was made a
+prisoner."
+
+"I went," said John Ramsay, "to the further side of the house, where I
+set to whistling an old-fashioned tune that Mary was acquainted
+with--walking away all the time in an opposite direction--as if there
+was nothing meant--"
+
+"And I knew the tune, Mr. Horse Shoe," interrupted Mary, eagerly, "it
+was Maggie Lauder. John practised that trick once before to show me how
+to find my way to him. Upon that, I made an excuse to leave the room,
+and slipped out through the garden--and then I followed the whistling,
+as folks say they follow a jack-o'-lantern."
+
+"And so, by a countermarch," continued the young dragoon, "we came round
+the meadow and through the woods, here."
+
+"Now that you've got here at last," said Horse Shoe, "tell me the news."
+
+"Major Butler is in the house," said Mary and John, both speaking at
+once. "He was brought there yesterday from Blackstock's," continued the
+maiden. "Orders came from somebody that he was to be kept at our house,
+until they had fixed upon what was to be done with him. Colonel Innis
+was too ill to think of such matters, and has been carried out of the
+neighborhood--and it is thought he will die."
+
+"How many men are there to guard the prisoner?" asked the sergeant.
+
+"There are more than twenty, with a lieutenant from Ninety-Six, who has
+the charge of them."
+
+"And how does the major bear his troubles?"
+
+"He seems to be heavy at heart," replied the maiden. "But that may be
+because he is away from his friends. Though my father, who is a good
+judge of such things, says he suffers tribulation like a Christian. He
+asked me privately, if I had heard anything of you, Mr. Robinson: and
+when I told him what folks said about your being with the people that
+beat Colonel Innis, he smiled, and said if any man could get him free,
+it was Horse Shoe Robinson."
+
+"Do they allow you to see him often?" inquired the sergeant.
+
+"I have seen him only two or three times since he came to the house,"
+answered the maiden. "But the officer that has charge of him is not
+contrary or ill-natured, and makes no objection to my carrying him his
+meals--though I am obliged to pretend to know less about Major Butler
+than I do, for fear they might be jealous of my talking to him."
+
+"You can give him a letter?"
+
+"I think I can contrive it," replied the maiden.
+
+"Then give him this, my good girl," said Robinson, taking Williams's
+letter from his pocket and putting it in Mary's hand. "It is a piece of
+writing he can use whenever he is much pressed. It may save him from
+harm. Now, I want you to do something more. You must find a chance just
+to whisper in his ear that Horse Shoe Robinson and John Ramsay are in
+the neighborhood. Tell him, likewise, that Colonel Williams has sent a
+messenger to Lord Cornwallis to lay his case before that officer, and to
+get some order for his better treatment. That the doings of that
+rascally court-martial have been sent by the messenger, hoping that Lord
+Cornwallis, if he is a brave and a Christian man--as they say he
+is--will stop this onmerciful persecution of the major--which has no
+cause for it under heaven. Will you remember all this?"
+
+"I'll try, sir," responded Mary; "and besides I will tell it to my
+father, who has more chance of speaking to Major Butler than I have."
+
+"Now," said Horse Shoe, "we will be here again to-morrow night, a
+little earlier than this; you must meet us here. And say to the major,
+if he has any message for us, he may send it by you. But be cautious,
+Mary, how you are seen talking with the prisoner. If they suspect you it
+will spoil all."
+
+"Trust to me," said the girl; "I warrant I have learned by this time how
+to behave myself amongst these red-coats."
+
+"There, John," continued Horse Shoe, "I have said all I want to say, and
+as you, I have no doubt, have got a good deal to tell the girl, it is
+but fair that you should have your chance. So, do you walk back with her
+as far as the mill, and I'll wait here for you. But don't forget
+yourself by overstaying your furlough."
+
+"I must get home as fast as possible," said Mary; "they will be looking
+for me."
+
+"Away, John Ramsay--away," added Horse Shoe; "and have your eyes about
+you, man."
+
+With this command John Ramsay and the miller's daughter hastily
+withdrew, and were soon out of the sergeant's hearing.
+
+After an interval, which doubtless seemed short to the gallant dragoon,
+he returned to his comrade, and the two set out rapidly in quest of
+their horses; and once more having got into their saddles, they retraced
+their steps at a brisk speed to Ramsay's cabin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+    All distant and faint were the sounds of the battle;
+    With the breezes they rise, with the breezes they fail,
+    Till the shout and the groan and the conflict's dread rattle,
+    And the chase's wild clamor come loading the gale.
+
+    THE MAID OF TORO.
+
+
+In the confusion that ensued upon the defeat of Innis, James Curry
+succeeded in conducting Butler from the field. His orders were to
+retreat with the prisoner to Blackstock's; and he had accordingly set
+out with about a dozen troopers, by a private path that led towards a
+quarter secure from the molestation of the enemy, when the attack
+commenced. Butler was mounted behind one of the men, and in this uneasy
+condition was borne along the circuitous by-way that had been chosen,
+without a moment's respite from the severe motion of the horse, nearly
+at high speed, until, having accomplished three miles of the retreat,
+the party arrived at the main road that extended between Innis's camp
+and Blackstock's. Here Curry, conceiving himself to be out of danger of
+pursuit, halted his men, with a purpose to remain until he could learn
+something of the combat. Butler was in a state of the most exciting
+bewilderment as to the cause of this sudden change in his affairs. No
+explanation was given to him by his conductors; and although, from the
+first, he was aware that an extraordinary emergency had arisen from some
+assault upon Innis's position, no one dropped a word in his hearing to
+give him the slightest clue to the nature of the attack. The troopers
+about him preserved a morose and ill-natured silence, and even
+manifested towards him a harsh and resentful demeanor. He heard the
+firing, but what troops were engaged, by whom led, or with what chances
+of success, were subjects of the most painfully interesting doubt. He
+could only conjecture that this was a surprise accomplished by the
+Whigs, and that the assailants must have come in sufficient force to
+justify the boldness of the enterprise. That Horse Shoe was connected
+with this irruption he felt fully assured; and from this circumstance he
+gathered the consolatory and cheerful prognostic of a better issue out
+of his afflictions than, in his late condition, seemed even remotely
+possible. This hope grew brighter as the din of battle brought the
+tidings of the day to his ear. The first few scattered shots that
+told of the confusion in which the combat was begun, were, after an
+interval, succeeded by regular volleys of musketry that indicated an
+orderly and marshalled resistance. Platoon after platoon fired in
+succession--signifying, to the practised hearing of the soldier, that
+infantry was receiving the attacks of cavalry, and that as yet the first
+had not faltered. Then the firing grew more slack, and random shots were
+discharged from various quarters--but amidst these were heard no
+embodied volleys. It was the casual and nearly overpowered resistance of
+flying men.
+
+At this juncture there was a dark frown on the brow of Curry, as he
+looked at his comrades, and said, in a low and muttered tone, "That
+helter-skelter shot grates cursedly on the ear. There's ill-luck in the
+sound of it."
+
+Presently a few stragglers appeared at a turn of the road, some quarter
+of a mile in the direction of the battle, urging their horses forward at
+the top of their speed. These were followed by groups both of infantry
+and cavalry, pressing onwards in the utmost disorder--those on horseback
+thrusting their way through the throng of foot-soldiers, seemingly
+regardless of life or limb; the wounded with their wounds bleeding
+afresh, or hastily bandaged with such appliances as were at hand. All
+hurried along amidst the oaths, remonstrances, and unheeded orders of
+the officers, who were endeavoring to resume their commands. It was the
+flight of men beset by a panic, and fearful of pursuit; and the clouds
+of dust raised by the press and hurry of this career almost obscured the
+setting sun.
+
+During the first moments of uncertainty, Curry, no less anxiously than
+Butler, remained stationary by the road-side, reading the distant signs
+of the progress of the fight; but now, when the disastrous issue was no
+longer doubtful, he commanded his cavalcade to move forward, and from
+that moment prosecuted his journey with unabated speed until he arrived
+at Blackstock's.
+
+Butler was unceremoniously marched to his former place of confinement
+in the barn, where a rigorous guard was set over his person. In the
+confusion and insubordination that prevailed amongst the crowd, that,
+during the night, was continually increasing in the little hamlet, the
+common rites of humanity towards the prisoner were forgotten, and he was
+left to pass the weary hours till morning, on a shock of hay, without
+food or other refreshment than a simple draught of water. From the
+unreserved murmurs of those who frequented the place, and the querulous
+upbraidings of the soldiery against each other, Butler was enabled to
+glean the principal incidents of the day. The supposed death of Innis
+reached him through this channel, and, what was scarcely a subject of
+less personal interest to him, the certain end of Hugh Habershaw. It was
+with a silent satisfaction at the moral or _poetical_ justice--as it has
+been called--of the event, that he heard the comrades of the late
+self-conceited captain describe his death in terms of coarse and
+unpitying ribaldry--a retribution due to the memory of a cruel and
+cowardly braggart.
+
+When the morning was fully abroad, the disarranged and broken remnants
+of the Tory camp began gradually to be reduced to a state of discipline.
+The day was spent in this occupation. Orders were every moment arriving
+from the higher officers of the late camp, or from the nearest British
+posts. Videttes bore the tidings of the different military operations
+from the neighborhood of the enemy. The fragments of companies were
+marshalled into squads and subdivisions; and, successively, one party
+after another was seen to leave the hamlet, and take a direction of
+march that led towards the main British army, or to the garrisons of the
+lower districts.
+
+Towards the close of the day one detachment only was left; and Butler
+was given to understand that this was intrusted with his especial
+keeping. It was composed of a few regular soldiers of the garrison of
+Ninety-Six, and a small number of the country militia,--making, in all,
+about twenty men, commanded by Lieutenant Macdonald, of the regular
+army.
+
+Butler remained in his present state of seclusion four or five days,
+during which he experienced much mitigation of the rigors of his
+captivity. Macdonald was a careful and considerate soldier, and demeaned
+himself towards his prisoner with such kindness as the nature of his
+trust allowed. He removed him into a comfortable apartment in the
+dwelling-house, and supplied him with the conveniences his situation
+required; he even made him occasional visits, which were attended with
+more than the mere observances of courtesy and respect, and expressed a
+sympathy in his sufferings.
+
+These unexpected tones of comfort, from a quarter in which Butler had
+hitherto heard nothing but fierce hatred and harsh rebuke, fell
+gratefully upon his ear, and gave a brighter color to his hopes for the
+future. But he could not help observing, that no hint was dropped by
+Macdonald which might furnish him the slightest ground of surmise as to
+the vicissitudes that yet awaited him. The reported fall of Innis seemed
+to afford a natural foundation for the belief, that the malice of his
+enemies might hereafter be less active,--as he attributed much of the
+persecution he had suffered to the secret machinations of that
+individual. He no longer saw around his person those agents who first
+pursued him with such bitter hostility. He seemed to have fallen into
+entirely new combinations, and had reason to augur, from all he saw,
+that their purposes against him were less wicked. And first, above all
+other topics of consolation and comfort, was the conviction that a brave
+and efficient party of friends were in the field, intent upon his
+liberation. Still, his situation was one in which it required all his
+manhood to sustain himself. A young soldier of an ardent temper, and
+zealously bent upon active and perilous service, can ill brook the
+tedious, dull delays of captivity, even in its mildest form: but if this
+thraldom befal in a period of universal agitation, when "great events
+are on the gale," of which the captive is only a witness to the
+pervading interest they excite, without being permitted to know their
+import; if moreover, as in the case of Butler, an impenetrable veil of
+mystery hang over the purpose of his captivity, behind which the few
+short glimpses afforded him, open upon his view nothing but death in its
+most frightful forms; and if to these are added, by far the bitterest of
+its qualities, the anxieties, cares, and pains of a devoted, plighted
+lover, separated from the heart that loves him, we may well conjecture
+that the most gallant spirit may find in it, even amidst occasional
+gleams of sunshine, that sinking of hope which the philosophic king of
+Israel has described as making "the heart sick,"--that chafing of the
+soul that, like the encaged eaglet, wearies and tears its wing against
+the bars of its prison. Even so fared it with Arthur Butler, who now
+found himself growing more and more into the shadow of a melancholy
+temper.
+
+It was soon ascertained that Williams had abandoned the field he had
+won, and had retreated beyond the reach of immediate pursuit. And as the
+post at Musgrove's mill afforded many advantages, in reference to the
+means of communicating with the garrisons of the middle section of the
+province, and was more secure against the hazard of molestation from
+such parties of Whigs as might still be out-lying, an order was sent to
+Macdonald to remove with his prisoner to the habitation of the miller,
+and there to detain him until some final step should be taken in his
+case.
+
+In pursuance of this requisition, Butler was conducted, after the
+interval of the few days we have mentioned, to Allen Musgrove's. The old
+man received his guest with that submission to the domination of the
+military masters of the province, which he had prescribed to himself
+throughout the contest,--secretly rejoicing that the selection made of
+his house for this purpose, might put it in his power to alleviate the
+sufferings of a soldier, towards whose cause he felt a decided though
+unavowed attachment. This selection furnished evidence to the miller,
+that nothing had transpired to arouse the distrust of the British
+authorities in the loyalty of any part of his family,--and to Butler, it
+inferred the consolatory fact, that the zealous devotion of Mary
+Musgrove to his service had as yet passed without notice; whilst to the
+maiden herself, it was proof that her agency in the delivery of the
+letter, which she had so adroitly put within the reach of the officers
+of the court, had not even excited a suspicion against her.
+
+The best room in the house was allotted to the prisoner; and the most
+sedulous attention on the part of the family, so far as it could be
+administered without inducing mistrust, was employed in supplying him
+with whatever was needful to his condition. On the part of the
+commanding officer, the usual precautions known to military experience
+for the safe keeping of a prisoner were adopted. The privates of the
+guard occupied the barn, whilst Macdonald and one or two subordinate
+officers took up their quarters in the dwelling-house: sentinels were
+posted at the several avenues leading to the habitation, and a sergeant
+had the especial care of the prisoner, who, under this supervision, was
+occasionally allowed the range of the garden. The usual forms of a camp
+police were observed with scrupulous exactness;--and the morning and the
+nightly drum, the parade, the changing of sentries, the ringing of
+ramrods in the empty barrels of the muskets, and the glitter of weapons,
+were strangely and curiously associated with the rural and unwarlike
+features of the scenery around.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+BUTLER FINDS A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE IN HIS DISTRESS.
+
+
+Allen Musgrove had heard enough of Butler's history from his daughter
+and from Galbraith Robinson, to feel a warm interest in that officer's
+safety; and now his personal acquaintance with the prisoner still
+further corroborated his first prepossessions. The old man took the
+earliest opportunity to indicate to Butler the concern he felt in his
+welfare. From the moderate and kindly tone of his own character, he was
+enabled to do this without drawing upon himself the distrust of the
+officer of the guard. His expressions of sympathy were regarded, by
+Macdonald, as the natural sentiments of a religious mind imbued with an
+habitual compassion for the sufferings of a fellow creature, and of one
+who strove to discharge the duties of a peace-maker. His visits were
+looked upon as those of a spiritual counsellor, whose peculiar right it
+was to administer consolation to the afflicted, in whatever condition;
+he was therefore permitted freely to commune with the prisoner, and, as
+it sometimes happened, alone with him in his chamber.
+
+This privilege was now particularly useful; for Mary having, on the
+morning after her midnight interview with John Ramsay and Robinson,
+communicated to her father the incidents of that meeting, and put in his
+possession the letter which the sergeant had given her, and having also
+repeated her message to him accurately as she had received it, Musgrove
+took occasion, during the following day, to deliver the letter to
+Butler, and to make known to him all that he had heard from his
+daughter. This disclosure produced the most cheering effect upon
+Butler's spirits. It, for the first time since the commencement of his
+sufferings, opened to his mind a distinct view of his chance of eventual
+liberation. The expectation of having his case represented to Cornwallis
+inspired him with a strong confidence that justice would be done to
+him, and the covert malice of his enemies be disarmed. In this hope, it
+occurred to him to take some instant measures to satisfy the British
+commander-in-chief of the groundless character of the principal
+accusation brought against him by the court-martial,--that which related
+to the pretended design to deliver up Philip Lindsay to the wrath of the
+Republican government. For this purpose he resolved to make an appeal to
+Lindsay himself, by letter, and frankly to call upon him to put at rest
+this most unjust and wicked accusation. He knew that however strong
+Lindsay's antipathy to him might be, the high sense of honor which
+distinguished the father of Mildred might be confidently and
+successfully invoked to furnish such a statement as should entirely
+satisfy his accusers of the gross injustice of the charge. "I will write
+to him," he said, "and throw myself upon his protection. I will require
+of him to detail the whole history of my intercourse with his family,
+and to say how improbable even he must deem it, that I could be so base
+as to plot against his peace. And I will appeal to Mildred to fortify
+her father's statement, to show that this wicked accusation rests upon a
+story which it is impossible could be true."
+
+Whilst Butler's thoughts were still occupied with this resolve, Mary
+Musgrove entered his apartment, bearing in her hands a napkin and plate
+which she had come to spread for his dinner, and as the maiden employed
+herself in arranging a small table in the middle of the room, she cast a
+few distrustful glances towards the sentinel who paced to and fro
+opposite the door, and then, seizing on a moment when the soldier had
+disappeared from view, she whispered to Butler--
+
+"You have seen my father, sir?"
+
+Butler nodded his head.
+
+"He has told you all?"
+
+Butler again signified a silent assent.
+
+The tramp of the sentinel showed that he was again approaching the door;
+and when Mary turned her eyes in that direction, she beheld the watchful
+soldier halting in such a position as to enable him both to see and hear
+what was passing in the room. Without showing the least perturbation, or
+even appearing to notice the guard, she said in a gay and careless
+voice,--"My father and Lieutenant Macdonald,--who is a good
+gentleman--think it belongs to Christian people to do all the good we
+can for them that providence has put under us; and so, sir, I have been
+to gather you some blackberries, which I thought, may be, you would
+like, sir."
+
+The sentinel walked away, and Mary smiled as she saw her little
+stratagem succeed.
+
+"Bring me some paper," said Butler cautiously. "You are a considerate
+girl," he continued, in a louder voice, "and I thank you for this good
+will." Then finding that the sentinel did not immediately return, he
+whispered--"I wish to write to Robinson--you shall take the letter and
+read it to him."
+
+"I will do my best," replied the maiden; and again the sentinel
+interrupted the conference.
+
+Mary, having arranged the table, left the room. In a few moments she
+returned, bringing with her the family Bible.
+
+"If you would like to read, sir," she said, "here is a book that a body
+may look at a long time without getting tired of it. We have only got
+this, and the Pilgrim's Progress, and the hymn-book, in the house; but
+my father says this is worth all the others that ever were printed, put
+together; and especially, sir, when one's in distress, and away from
+their friends."
+
+An expression of pleasure played across Butler's features as he took the
+heavy volume from the girl.
+
+"A thousand thanks to you, my pretty maiden," he replied. "I doubt not I
+shall grow both wiser and better under your tutoring. This kindness
+almost reconciles me to my fate."
+
+"John is doing all he can for you, and he is a good helper to Mr.
+Robinson," said Mary, in the same cautious whisper that she had first
+spoken in, as she retreated from the room. Butler opened the book, and
+found a sheet of paper folded away amongst the leaves; then closing it,
+he threw it upon his bed.
+
+In due course of time, Mary Musgrove returned with a few dishes of food
+which she set out upon the table, and, in one of the successive visits
+which were employed in furnishing the repast, she took from beneath her
+apron a small ink-horn and pen, which she placed, unobserved by the
+sentinel, in Butler's hand. Having done this, she retired, leaving the
+prisoner to despatch his meal alone.
+
+After dinner, Butler threw himself upon his bed, where he lay with the
+Bible opened out before him, with his back turned towards the door; and,
+whilst Mary Musgrove was engaged in removing the furniture of the table,
+he found means to write a few lines to Philip Lindsay. He took the same
+opportunity to pen a short letter to Mildred; and then to set down some
+directions for Horse Shoe Robinson, the purport of which was that the
+sergeant should take the two letters and depart, with all despatch, for
+the Dove Cote, and to put both into the hands of Mildred, with a request
+that she would procure him the necessary reply from her father. Horse
+Shoe was also directed to explain to Mildred such particulars of
+Butler's history as were necessary to be made known for the
+accomplishment of the object of the mission.
+
+When these papers were finished they were folded up into a small
+compass, and in the course of the evening put into Mary's hands, with a
+request that she would herself read the instructions intended for the
+sergeant, and apprise him of their contents when she delivered the
+papers to him.
+
+So far all had succeeded well, and Butler found additional reason to
+dispel the gloom that hung upon his spirits, in the prospect that was
+now opened to him of enlisting strong and authoritative friends in the
+scheme of his liberation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+MARY MUSGROVE'S PERPLEXITIES.
+
+
+As a mariner who watches the heavens from the deck, and notes the first
+uprising of the small cloud, "no bigger than a man's hand," that to his
+practised eye shows the sign of tempest; and anon, as the speck quickly
+changes into a lurid mass, whence volume after volume of dun vapor is
+driven in curled billows forward, covering the broad welkin with a
+gloomy pall, he looks more frequently and more intently upwards, anxious
+to lay his vessel safe, and assure himself of his proper course to
+steer: so--not with the same doubt of safety, but with the same restless
+inspection of the heavens--did Mary watch the slow approach of night.
+First, she looked wistfully at the declining sun, and observed with
+pleasure the night-hawk begin to soar: then, through the long twilight,
+she noted the thickening darkness, and saw the bat take wing, and heard
+the frog croaking from his pool. And as the stars, one by one, broke
+forth upon the night, it gladdened her to think the hour of her mission
+was approaching, for she was troubled in her spirit and anxious to
+acquit herself of her charitable office; and perhaps, too, it may be
+told of her, without prejudice to her modest, maidenly emotions, a spur
+was given to her wishes by the hope of meeting John Ramsay.
+
+For an hour after supper she paced the porch, and still looked out upon
+the stars, to mark the slow waxing of the night; and, now and then she
+walked forth as far as the mill, and lingered by the bank of the river,
+and again returned to ask the sentinel the hour.
+
+"You seem disturbed, Mary," said Macdonald, playfully. "Now, I'll
+venture to say I can guess your thoughts: this star-gazing is a great
+tell-tale. You were just now thinking that, as the tug of the war is
+over, some lad who has borne a musket lately, will be very naturally
+tripping this way to-night, instead of going home to see his mother.
+Come--isn't that a good guess?"
+
+"Do you know him, sir?" asked Mary, with composure.
+
+"Aye, to be sure I do: a good, brave fellow, who eats well, drinks well,
+and fights well."
+
+"All men do that now," replied the maiden, "but I am sure you are wrong,
+sir, if you think any such considers it worth his while to come here."
+
+"He must come quickly, or we cannot let him in without a countersign,"
+said the officer: "sergeant, order the tattoo to beat, it is nine
+o'clock. Mary, stay, I must cross-question you a little about this same
+gallant."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I did but jest, and so I thought you did. My father says
+it is not proper I should loiter to talk with the men; good night, sir:
+it is our time for prayers." And with these words the young girl
+withdrew into the house.
+
+In some half hour afterwards Mary escaped by another door and, taking a
+circuitous path through the garden, she passed behind the sentinel and
+sped towards the mill, intent upon keeping her appointment with the
+friends of Butler. As soon as she reached the river bank, she quickened
+her pace, and hurried with a nimble step towards the distant thicket.
+
+"What ho! who goes there?" shouted the voice of a man from the
+neighborhood of the mill: "who flies so fast?"
+
+"Faith, Tom, it must be a ghost," said a second voice, loud enough to be
+heard by the damsel, who now increased the speed with which she fled
+towards the cover.
+
+In an instant two of the soldiers of the guard rushed upon the track of
+the frightened girl.
+
+"Spare me, good sir--for pity's sake, spare me!" exclaimed the maiden,
+suddenly turning round upon her pursuers.
+
+"Where away so fast?" said one of the men. "This is a strange time of
+night for girls to be flying into the woods. What matter have you in
+hand that brings you here--and what is your name?"
+
+"I am the daughter of Allen Musgrove," replied Mary indignantly.
+
+"Is it so?" said the first speaker; "then it is the Miller's own
+daughter, and we ask your pardon. We only saw you flying along the bank
+of the river, and not knowing what it was, why we thought it right to
+follow. But as it is all explained now, we will see you back to the
+house."
+
+"I can find my way without help," replied the maiden.
+
+"Now, that's not good-natured for so kind a girl as the miller's
+daughter ought to be," said the second soldier.
+
+"I will see if my father can protect me," said Mary, hastening back
+towards the house so rapidly as almost to run. "I will know if
+Lieutenant Macdonald will allow me to be insulted."
+
+With a hurried step she entered upon the porch, and, without stopping to
+parley with those who occupied this part of the dwelling, retired to her
+chamber and threw herself into a chair, where she sat for some time
+panting with affright. As she gradually recovered her strength, she
+began to turn her thoughts upon her recent discomfiture; and it was with
+a deep sense of chagrin and disappointment, that she reflected upon her
+not being able successfully to renew her enterprise on the same night.
+The hour of meeting had arrived; the officers of the guard were still
+frequenting the porch; her conduct had already excited notice, and if
+she wished to be in a condition to render future service, her most
+obvious duty was to postpone any further attempt to deliver the papers
+until another time. On the other hand, she had reason to fear that John
+Ramsay would be hovering near to ascertain the cause of her failure to
+meet him, and might rashly resort to the same mode of conveying a signal
+which he had successfully practised heretofore. This would infallibly,
+she believed, provoke an investigation that might entirely frustrate all
+their views. "But then John is a good soldier," she said, in the way of
+self-consolation, "and will know that the enemy is awake; because if it
+was not so, he would be sure I would keep my word. And if he only takes
+that notion into his head, he is too careful to run the chance of
+spoiling all by coming here."
+
+Still, with some little mistrust as to John's soldiership when it
+crossed the path of his love, which naturally, she reflected, makes a
+man rash, she thought it best to provide against accident, by throwing
+herself into the company of the officers who loitered about the door in
+idle discourse with her father. She accordingly left her room, and, with
+an anxious and troubled heart, went out and seated herself quietly on
+the steps of the porch, where she remained for some time a silent but
+inattentive listener to the conversation of those around her.
+
+As a part of that system of things by which it is contrived that the
+current of true love shall never run smooth, I have ever found that when
+it was peculiarly fitting that some grandam, uncle, cousin, father, or
+guest, should retire early to bed, in order that some scheme of interest
+to young lovers might be successfully achieved; precisely on such nights
+is the perversity of fate most conspicuous, in inclining the minds of
+such grandam, uncle, cousin, and so forth, to sit up much longer than
+they are wont; thus showing that the grooves and dovetails of things in
+this world are not nicely fitted to the occasions of those who deal in
+the tender passion. And so it befel for poor Mary Musgrove this night.
+
+The hour was now fast verging upon eleven, and she anxiously noted every
+sentence that was spoken, hoping it was to be the last; and then she
+trembled to think that John, regardless of the danger, might be lurking
+near, and indiscreetly expose himself. And still the talkers discoursed
+as if they meant to sit up all night. It was a delicious, cool hour,
+after a sultry day, and there was luxury in the breeze; but as the
+minutes were counted over by the maiden, in their slow passage, her
+fears increased. At length, far off, as if it were a mile away, the
+clear notes of one whistling an old tune were heard. Mary involuntarily
+started from her seat, and moved along the little pathway towards the
+gate, her heart beating against her bosom as if it would have
+"overbourne its continents." The signal notes freshened upon the air,
+and the tune came forth blithely and boldly, showing that the wayfarer
+was trudging, with a light heart, down the main road towards the mill.
+The party in the porch, however, were too much engrossed in their
+colloquy to notice the incident. The whistling came still nearer, until,
+at last, it seemed to be scarce a gunshot from the house. Beyond this
+point it did not advance; but here indicated that the person from whom
+it proceeded had halted. If Mary's cheek could have been brought to the
+light, it would have shown how the blood had deserted it from very fear:
+her whole frame shook with this emotion. To exhibit her unconcern,
+which, in truth, was most sadly affected, she mingled amongst the
+company in the porch, and leant against the door-post. Still the
+whistling continued, with no symptom of retreat, and Mary impatiently
+walked towards the further end of the house. "John Ramsay makes a fool
+of himself," she muttered peevishly. "Hasn't he the sense to see I
+cannot get out? What keeps the simple man dallying shilly-shally at the
+fence, as if he actually wanted them to take him? I don't believe in the
+mighty sense and wisdom of these men! If John had half an eye he would
+see that I couldn't get away to-night."
+
+As the maiden grew fretful, her fears had less mastery over her; and
+now, taking heart of grace, she returned to the porch.
+
+"Sergeant," said Macdonald, calling to one of his men, "take two files
+and patrole the road until you ascertain who that fellow is who makes
+himself so merry to-night. I thought it some fool," he continued,
+addressing himself to Allen Musgrove, "who, as the poet says, 'whistled
+as he went for want of thought,' but he seems to have a hankering after
+these premises that is not exactly to my mind. Perhaps, after all,
+Mary," he added privately in the maiden's ear; "it is the lad I was
+telling you of; and as he is a bashful youth, we will bring him in by
+force. You know, he can't help that; and old dad here can never blame
+you if I should make the fellow come to see you against your will.
+Sergeant, treat the man civilly, you understand."
+
+"It is not worth your while to be sending after Adam Gordon," said Mary,
+with some slight confusion in her accent; "he is only half-witted; and
+almost the only thing he does for a living, is to come down of nights
+here to the mill-dam, to bob for eels. If it wasn't for that, his mother
+would go many a day without a meal."
+
+"No matter, we will bring Adam in," replied the lieutenant, "and if he
+is good at his sport, why we will go and join him."
+
+"He is shy of company," said Mary, still faltering in her speech, "and
+will not come amongst strangers."
+
+Partly from a spirit of resignation, partly to avoid further exposure of
+her feelings, and in part too, perhaps, from some slight feeling of
+remorse, such as is natural to a virtuous and youthful mind at being
+obliged to practise a deceit however lawful (as I contend it was in
+this case), the maiden withdrew into the parlor, where, unseen by any,
+she offered up a short and earnest prayer for direction and forgiveness.
+
+Meantime the patrole had set out, and, after the lapse of a short time,
+returned, when the officer reported that before his arrival, the person
+they had gone in quest of had left the place, and, in the darkness of
+the night, they had no clue to follow him. This was scarcely announced
+before the same whistle was heard, at the same remote point where it had
+first attracted Mary's notice.
+
+"It is as our young mistress has said," muttered Macdonald, "some
+bumpkin, too shy to be caught, and not worth the catching. We have sat
+it out to-night long enough, friend Musgrove, so let's to bed."
+
+In a few moments the party betook themselves to their several places of
+rest.
+
+As Mary prepared herself for her couch, the anxious events of the night
+busied her thoughts, and the image of John Ramsay was summoned up
+alternately to be reproved and applauded. "If he is foolhardy," she
+said, as she laid her head on the pillow, "no one will say he isn't wise
+besides. And if he will be thrusting his head into danger, he knows
+right well how to get it out again. So God bless him, for a proper man
+as he is!" And thus, in a better temper with her lover, the maiden fell
+asleep.
+
+In order to avert all suspicion of disloyalty from the miller's family,
+Christopher Shaw had offered his services to Macdonald, to do duty as
+one of the detachment, during the period of Butler's detention in the
+house. The offer had been accepted, and Christopher was appointed to
+serve in the character of a quarter-master, or purveyor for the little
+garrison,--a post, whose duties did not materially interfere with his
+daily occupation at the mill.
+
+Mary was in the habit of communicating to Christopher all her secrets,
+and of enlisting his aid in her plans whenever it was necessary. And
+now, soon after the morning broke, the maiden arose and went to the
+mill, where she communicated to Christopher all the perplexities of the
+preceding night.
+
+"The thing must be managed to-day," said the young man, after he had
+heard the whole story. "I have provisions to collect from the
+neighborhood; and what is to hinder you, Mary, from riding out with
+me,--if it should only be to buy some eggs?--and then, what is to hinder
+us from popping in upon David Ramsay, and there fixing the whole
+matter?"
+
+"Will not the lieutenant be sending some of his own men with you?"
+inquired the maid.
+
+"He doesn't suspect us," answered Christopher, as cautiously as if the
+walls of his mill had ears. "At any rate we can try it, you know, and if
+the thing should take a wrong turn, you can only stay at home; and we
+may, at the worst, make another venture at night."
+
+"I have the letter in my bosom," said Mary, "and will be ready
+immediately after breakfast."
+
+When the appointed time arrived, things went as favorably as Mary could
+have wished. Her good spirits had returned; and she plied her household
+duties with a happy cheerfulness in her looks that completely disarmed
+all suspicion. She received the banter of Macdonald, as to the cause of
+her restlessness on the preceding night, with perfect good nature; and
+when Christopher announced to the commanding officer his purpose of
+going out upon a purveying ride, and invited his cousin to accompany
+him, she accepted the proposal with such a tone of laughing pleasure, as
+put it on the footing of a pastime.
+
+The horses were brought to the door, and the maiden and her escort rode
+cheerily forth. They were not long in accomplishing the five or six
+miles that brought them to David Ramsay's cabin. I need not tell the
+affectionate concern with which Mary Musgrove met her lover, John
+Ramsay; nor how she upbraided him as a silly fellow, for tramping and
+trudging about the mill, and whistling his signals, when he ought to
+have known, by her not coming to meet him, that there was good reason
+for it. Nor is it important to detail the circumstances of Horse Shoe's
+and John's fruitless expedition, and their disappointment at not seeing
+Mary; and how shrewdly, last night, Robinson guessed the true cause of
+it; and how entirely he agreed with the maiden, beforehand, in thinking
+John a venturesome, harebrained fool, to put himself in danger, when he
+might have been certain it would have ended as it did, in a run from
+"the rascally red coats," as John had to run to get out of the clutches
+of the patrole. My story requires that I should pass these things by,
+and go to the business in hand.
+
+Horse Shoe and Ramsay had grown exceedingly impatient, both because they
+were in hourly danger of being surprised by casual parties of the enemy,
+and because the time for useful action was fast gliding away. They had
+used every precaution to keep their visit to David Ramsay's a profound
+secret to the neighborhood; and had, with that object, lain perdue in
+one of the small cabins, from which they might watch the approach of
+visitors, and, if need required, secure an immediate retreat. During the
+day, they seldom left their concealment, confining all their out-door
+operations to the night.
+
+A consultation was held in David Ramsay's cabin,--the letters were
+produced and delivered to Horse Shoe, and the instructions intended for
+him by Butler were carefully read. It was resolved that Horse Shoe
+should set out for the Dove Cote without delay, taking the route through
+the mountain country of North Carolina, as that least likely to be
+interrupted by the British troops. John Ramsay, for the present, was to
+return to the Fair Forest camp, to inform Williams of the state of
+affairs; and he was hereafter to act as occasion might suggest.
+Christopher Shaw and Mary were to attend upon Butler, and communicate
+whatever might transpire of interest to David Ramsay, who promised to
+find means of intercourse with Williams or Sumpter, as circumstances
+should allow.
+
+These matters being arranged, Mary and Christopher Shaw took their
+leaves of Ramsay's family, and went about the ostensible object of their
+expedition.
+
+Horse Shoe's plan of travel during the first and most perilous stages of
+his journey towards Virginia, was to avail himself of the darkness of
+the night; and he accordingly resolved to set out as soon as this day
+should draw to a close. His immediate cares were, therefore, directed to
+making all the necessary preparations for his departure. Captain Peter
+was carefully tended, and supplied with a double allowance of provender;
+provisions were stowed away, both for himself and his trusty beast: his
+pistols were put in order: his rifle cleaned out, and a supply of
+ammunition provided; and, finally, the letters were sewed up in a
+leather pouch, and buckled around his body by a strap, inside of his
+clothes. It was no inconsiderable item in the sergeant's preparation for
+his expedition, to sit down and eat a meal, which, from the quantity
+bestowed, and the vigor with which the assault upon it was made, might
+have betokened a full week's starvation.
+
+The day waned, and the night came a welcome visitor to the sergeant;
+and, at that hour which old chroniclers designate as "inter canem et
+lupum," Captain Peter was brought to the door, ready dight for travel.
+Ramsay's family stood around,--and whilst Andy, with boyish affection,
+held Horse Shoe's rifle in his hand, the sergeant feelingly spoke the
+words of parting to his friends;--then, with a jaunty air of careless
+mirth, springing into his saddle, and receiving his trusty weapon from
+the young comrade of his late gallant adventure, he rode forth with as
+stout a heart as ever went with knight of chivalry to the field of
+romantic renown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+A GLANCE AT THE DOVE COTE.--THE COMPANIONSHIP OF BROTHER AND SISTER.
+
+
+Our story once more brings us back to the Dove Cote. During the first
+week that followed her interview with Arthur Butler under the Fawn's
+Tower, Mildred was calm and thoughtful, and even melancholy: her usual
+custom of exercise was foregone, and her time was passed chiefly in her
+chamber. By degrees, however, her firm and resolute temper predominated
+over the sadness of her fortunes, and she began to resume that
+cheerfulness which circumstances can never long subdue in a strong and
+disciplined mind. She had grown more than ever watchful of the public
+events, and sought, with an intense avidity, to obtain information in
+regard to the state of things in the south. She now felt herself closely
+allied to the cause in which Arthur Butler had embarked, and therefore,
+caught up the floating rumors of the day, in what regarded the progress
+of the American arms in the southern expedition, with the interest of
+one who had a large stake depending on the issue.
+
+She had received several letters from Butler, which detailed the
+progress of his journey from the Dove Cote to Gates's camp, and from
+thence to Horse Shoe's cottage. They were all written in the confident
+and even jocular tone of a light-hearted soldier who sought to amuse his
+mistress; and they narrated such matters of personal history as were of
+a character to still her fears for his safety. Their effect upon Mildred
+was to warm up her enthusiasm, as well as to brighten her anticipations
+of the future, and thus to increase the returning elasticity of her
+spirits. Up to this period, therefore, she grew every day more buoyant
+and playful in her temper, and brought herself to entertain a more
+sanguine reckoning of the eventual determination of affairs. She was now
+frequently on horseback, attended by her brother, with whom she scarcely
+ever failed to make a visit to the good Mistress Dimock, where she
+either found a letter from Butler, or heard some of the thousand tidings
+which report was for ever busy in propagating or exaggerating in regard
+to the movements of the army.
+
+"I'll warrant you, Arthur is a man for the pen as well as for the spur
+and broadsword, my pretty lady," was one of the landlady's comments, as
+she handed to Mildred the eighth or ninth epistle that had fallen into
+her hands since Butler's departure; "there scarcely comes trotting by a
+soiled traveller with his head set northwards, but it is--'Good woman,
+is this Mistress Dimock's?' and when I say, 'aye,' then 'here's a
+letter, madam, for you, that comes from the army:' and so, there's
+Arthur's own hand-writing to a great pacquet, 'for Mistress Dimock of
+the Rockfish inn, of Amherst,' and not even, after all, one poor line
+for me, but just a cover, and the inside for Miss Mildred Lindsay of the
+Dove Cote. Ha, ha! we old bodies are only stalking-horses in this world.
+But God bless him!--he is a fine and noble gentleman." And Mildred would
+take the pacquet and impatiently break the seal; and as she perused the
+close-written contents the color waxed and waned upon her cheek, and her
+eye would one instant sparkle with mirth, and in the next grow dim with
+a tear. And when she had finished reading, she would secretly press the
+paper to her lips, and then bestow it away in her bosom, evincing the
+earnest fondness of a devoted and enthusiastic nature.
+
+Mildred and Henry were inseparable; and, in proportion as his sister's
+zeal and attachment to the cause of independence became more active, did
+Henry's inclination to become a partisan grow apace. Hers was a
+character to kindle the spirit of brave adventure. There was in it a
+quiet and unostentatious but unvarying current of resolution, that
+shrank before no perils. Her feelings, acute and earnest, had given all
+their warmth to her principles; and what she once believed her duty
+commanded, was pursued with the devout self-dedication of a religious
+obligation. To this temper, which, by some secret of its constitution,
+has a spell to sway the minds of mankind, there was added the grace of
+an exquisitely feminine address. The union of these two attributes
+rendered Mildred Lindsay an object of conspicuous interest in such a
+time as that of the revolutionary struggle. Her youth, her ready
+genius, her knowledge and her habits of reflection, much in advance of
+her years, enhanced the impression her character was adapted to produce,
+and brought upon her, even in her secluded position, a considerable
+share of public observation. It was not wonderful that a mind so
+organized and accomplished should have acquired an unlimited dominion
+over the frank, open-hearted, and brave temper of her brother, now just
+stepping beyond the confines of mere boyhood. Her influence over Henry
+was paramount and unbounded: her affections were his, her faith was his,
+her enthusiasm stole into and spread over his whole temper.
+
+With these means of influence she had sedulously applied herself to
+infuse into Henry's mind her own sentiment in regard to the war; and
+this purpose had led her to interest herself in subjects and pursuits,
+which, in general, are very foreign from her sex. Her desire to enlist
+his feelings in aid of Butler, and her conviction that a time was at
+hand when Henry might be useful, gave rise to an eager solicitude to see
+him well prepared for the emergencies of the day, by that necessary mode
+of education which, during the period of the revolution, was common
+amongst the young gentlemen of the country. He was a most willing and
+ready pupil; and she delighted to encourage him in his inclination for
+military studies, however fanciful some of his conceptions in regard to
+them might be. She, therefore, saw, with great satisfaction, the
+assiduous though boyish devotion with which he set himself to gain a
+knowledge of matters relating to the duties of a soldier. However little
+this may fall within the scope of female perception in ordinary times,
+it will not appear so much removed from the capabilities or even the
+habits of the sex, when we reflect that in the convulsions of this great
+national struggle, when every resource of the country was drained for
+service, the events of the day were contemplated with no less interest
+by the women than by the men. The fervor with which the American women
+participated in the cares and sacrifices of the revolutionary war, has
+challenged the frequent notice and warmest praises of its chroniclers.
+Mildred but reflected, in this instance, the hues of the society around
+the Dove Cote, which consisted of many families, scattered along the
+country side, composed of persons of elevated character, easy
+circumstances, and of the staunchest Whig politics, with whom she held
+an uninterrupted and familiar intercourse.
+
+Another consideration may serve to explain the somewhat masculine
+character of Mildred's pursuits. Her most intimate companion, at all
+times, and frequently for weeks together her only one, was her brother.
+These two had grown up together in all the confidence of childhood; and
+this confidence continued still unabated. Their pursuits, sports,
+exercises, thoughts, and habits were alike, with less of the
+discrimination usual between the sexes, than is to be found between
+individuals in larger associations. They approximated each other in
+temper and disposition; and Henry might, in this regard, be said to be,
+without disparagement to his manly qualities, a girlish boy; and
+Mildred, on the other hand, with as little derogation, to be a boyish
+girl. This home-bred freedom of nurture produced, in its development,
+some grotesque results, which my reader has, doubtless, heretofore
+observed with a smile; and it will, likewise, serve to explain some of
+the peculiar forms of intercourse which may hereafter be noticed between
+the brother and sister.
+
+The news of the battle of Camden had not yet reached the neighborhood of
+the Dove Cote; but the time drew nigh when all the country stood on
+tiptoe, anxious to receive tidings of that interesting event. A week had
+elapsed without bringing letters from Butler; and Mildred was growing
+uneasy at this interval of silence. There was a struggle in her mind; an
+unpleasant foreboding that she was almost ashamed to acknowledge, and
+yet which she could not subdue. The country was full of reports of the
+hostile operations, and a thousand surmises were entertained, which
+varied according to the more sanguine or desponding tempers of the
+persons who made them. Mildred was taught by Butler to expect defeat,
+yet still she hoped for victory; but the personal fate of her lover
+stole upon her conjectures, and she could not keep down the misgiving
+which affection generally exaggerates, and always renders painful. In
+this state of doubt, it was observable that her manners occasionally
+rose to a higher tone of playfulness than was natural to her; and by
+turns they sank to a moody silence, showing that the equipoise of the
+mind was disturbed, and that the scales did not hang true: it was the
+struggle of mental resolution with a coward heart--a heart intimidated
+by its affections.
+
+Such was the state of things when, in the latter fortnight of August,
+the morning ushered in a day of unsurpassed beauty. The air was elastic;
+the cool breeze played upon the shrubbery, and stole the perfume of a
+thousand flowers. The birds sang with unwonted vivacity from the
+neighboring trees; and the sun lighted up the mountains with a golden
+splendor, the fast drifting clouds flinging their shadows upon the
+forest that clothed the hills around, and the eagle and the buzzard
+sailing in the highest heavens, or eddying around the beetling cliffs
+with a glad flight, as if rejoicing in the luxuries of the cool summer
+morning. Breakfast was scarcely over before Henry was seen upon the
+terrace, arrayed in his hunting dress. His bugle was daintily suspended
+by a green cord across his shoulders; it was a neat and glittering
+instrument, whose garniture was bedizened with the coxcombry of silken
+tassels, and was displayed as ostentatiously as if worn by the hero of a
+melodrame.
+
+Like St. Swithin in the ballad, he had "footed thrice the wold," when he
+put the bugle to his mouth and "blew a recheate both loud and long."
+
+"How now, good master Puff," said Mildred, coming up playfully to her
+brother, "what means this uproar? Pray you, have mercy on one's ears."
+
+Henry turned towards his sister, without taking the bugle from his lips,
+and continued the blast for a full minute; then, ceasing only from want
+of breath, he said, with a comic earnestness--
+
+"I'm practising my signals, sister; I can give you 'to Horse,' and
+'Reveillee,' and 'Roast Beef,' like a trained trumpeter."
+
+"Truly you are a proper man, master," replied Mildred. "But it is hardly
+a time," she continued, half muttering to herself, "for you and me,
+Henry, to wear light hearts in our bosoms."
+
+"Why, sister," said Henry, with some astonishment in his looks, "this
+seems to me to be the very time to practise my signals. We are at the
+very tug of the war, and every man that has a sword, or bugle either,
+should be up and doing."
+
+"How come on your studies, brother?" interrupted Mildred, without
+heeding Henry's interpretation of his duty.
+
+"Oh, rarely! I know most of the speeches of Coriolanus all by heart:--
+
+    "'Like an eagle in a dove cote, I
+    Fluttered your voices in Corioli:
+    Alone I did it.--Boy!'"
+
+he spouted, quoting from the play, and accompanying his recitation with
+some extravagant gestures.
+
+"This is easy work, Henry," said Mildred laughing, "there is too much of
+the holiday play in that. I thought you were studying some graver
+things, instead of these bragging heroics. You pretended to be very
+earnest, but a short time ago, to make a soldier of yourself."
+
+"Well, and don't you call this soldiership? Suppose I were to pounce
+down upon Cornwallis--his lordship, as that fellow Tyrrel calls
+him--just in that same fashion. I warrant they would say there was some
+soldiership in it! But, sister, haven't I been studying the attack and
+defence of fortified places, I wonder? And what call you that? Look now,
+here is a regular hexagon," continued Henry, making lines upon the
+gravel walk with a stick, "here is the bastion,--these lines are the
+flank,--the face,--the gorge: here is the curtain. Now, my first
+parallel is around here, six hundred paces from the counterscarp. But I
+could have taken Charleston myself in half the time that poking fellow,
+Clinton, did it, if I had been there, and one of his side, which--thank
+my stars--I am not."
+
+"You are entirely out of my depth, brother," interrupted Mildred.
+
+"I know I am. How should women be expected to understand these matters?
+Go to your knitting, sister: you can't teach me."
+
+"Have you studied the Military Catechism, Henry? that, you know, Baron
+Steuben requires of all the young officers."
+
+"Most," replied Henry. "Not quite through it. I hate this getting prose
+by heart. Shakspeare is more to my mind than Baron Steuben. But I will
+tell you what I like, sister: I like the management of the horse. I can
+passage, and lunge, and change feet, and throw upon the haunches, with
+e'er a man in Amherst or Albemarle either, may be."
+
+"You told me you had practised firing from your saddle."
+
+"To be sure I did: and look here," replied the cadet, taking off his cap
+and showing a hole in the cloth. "Do you see that, Mildred? I flung the
+cap into the air, and put a ball through it before it fell--at a
+gallop."
+
+"Well done, master; you come on bravely!"
+
+"And another thing I have to tell you, which, perhaps, Mildred, you will
+laugh to hear:--I have taken to a rough way of sleeping. I want to
+harden myself; so, I fling a blanket on the floor and stretch out on
+it--and sleep like--"
+
+"Like what, good brother; you are posed for a comparison."
+
+"Like the sleeping beauty, sister."
+
+"Ha! ha! that's a most incongruous and impertinent simile!"
+
+"Well, like a Trojan, or a woodman, or a dragoon, or like Stephen
+Foster, and that is as far as sleeping can go. I have a notion of trying
+it in the woods one of these nights--if I can get Stephen to go along."
+
+"Why not try it alone?"
+
+"Why it's a sort of an awkward thing to be entirely by one's self in the
+woods, the livelong night--it is lonesome, you know, sister; and, to
+tell the truth, I almost suspect I am a little afraid of ghosts."
+
+"Indeed! and you a man! That's a strange fear for a young Coriolanus.
+Suppose you should get into the wars, and should happen to be posted as
+a sentinel at some remote spot--far from your comrades; on picket, I
+think you call it? (Henry nodded) on a dark night, would you desert your
+duty for fear of a goblin!"
+
+"I would die first, Mildred. I would stick it out, if I made an
+earthquake by trembling in my shoes."
+
+Mildred laughed.
+
+"And then if a ghost should rise up out of the ground," she continued,
+with a mock solemnity of manner.
+
+"I would whistle some tune," interrupted Henry. "That's an excellent way
+to keep down fear."
+
+"Shame on you, to talk of fear, brother."
+
+"Only of ghosts, sister, not of men."
+
+"You must cure yourself of this childish apprehension, master."
+
+"And how shall I do so, Mildred? I have heard people say that the
+bravest men have been alarmed by spirits."
+
+"You must accustom yourself to midnight hours and dark places, all
+alone. Our poor mother taught you this fear."
+
+"I should think of _her_, Mildred, until my heart would burst, and my
+cheek grew pale as ashes," said Henry, with an earnest and solemn
+emphasis.
+
+"Her spirit, could it rise, would love you, brother; it would never seek
+to do you harm," replied Mildred thoughtfully.
+
+"Sister," said Henry, "you came here in sport, but you have made me very
+sad."
+
+Mildred walked off a few paces and remained gazing steadfastly over the
+parapet. When she looked back she saw Henry approaching her.
+
+"You stoop, brother, in your gait," she said, "that's a slovenly habit."
+
+"It comes, sister, of my climbing these mountains so much. We
+mountaineers naturally get a stoop on the hill-sides. But if you think,"
+continued Henry, reverting to the subject which had just been broken
+off, "it would make me bolder to watch of nights, I should not care to
+try it."
+
+"I would have you," said Mildred, "walk your rounds, like a patrole,
+through the woods from twelve until two, every night for a week."
+
+"Agreed, sister--rain or shine."
+
+"And then I shall think you completely cured of this unsoldier-like
+infirmity, when you are able to march as far as the church, and serve
+one tour of duty in the grave-yard."
+
+"By myself?" inquired Henry, with concern.
+
+"You wouldn't have me go with you, brother?"
+
+"I should feel very brave if you did, Mildred; for you are as brave as a
+general. But if Stephen Foster will keep in the neighborhood--near
+enough to hear my 'All's well'--I think I could stand it out."
+
+"You must go alone," said Mildred, cheerfully, "before I shall think you
+fit to be promoted."
+
+"If you say I must, sister Mildred, why, then I must: and there's an end
+of it. But your discipline is forty times more severe than the German
+Baron's at Richmond. Father looks pale this morning," continued Henry,
+as he turned his eyes towards the porch, where Mr. Lindsay was now seen
+walking forward and back, with his arms folded across his breast.
+"Something perpetually troubles him, Mildred. I wish that devil, Tyrrel,
+had been buried before he ever found his way to the Dove Cote! See he
+comes this way."
+
+Both Mildred and Henry ran to meet Lindsay, and encountered him before
+he had advanced a dozen paces over the lawn.
+
+"Such a day, father!" said Mildred, as she affectionately took his hand.
+"It is a luxury to breathe this air."
+
+"God has given us a beautiful heaven, my children, and a rich and
+bountiful earth. He has filled them both with blessings. Man only mars
+them with his cursed passions," said Lindsay, with a sober accent.
+
+"You have heard bad news, father?" said Henry, inquiringly; "what has
+happened?"
+
+Mildred grew suddenly pale.
+
+"We shall hear glorious news, boy, before many days," replied Lindsay;
+"as yet, all is uncertain. Henry, away to your sports, or to your
+studies. Mildred, I have something for your ear, and so, my child, walk
+with me a while."
+
+Henry took his leave, looking back anxiously at his sister, whose
+countenance expressed painful alarm. Mildred accompanied her father
+slowly and silently to the small veranda that shaded the door of the
+gable next the terrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+MILDRED PUT TO A SEVERE TRIAL:--HER FIRMNESS.
+
+
+"My mind troubles me," said Lindsay: "Mildred, hear me--and mark what I
+say. Our fortunes are coming to a period of deep interest: it is
+therefore no time to deal in evasive speeches, or to dally with coy and
+girlish feelings. I wish, my daughter, to be understood."
+
+"Father, have I offended you?" inquired Mildred, struck with the painful
+and almost repulsive earnestness of Lindsay's manner.
+
+"Arthur Butler has been at the Dove Cote," he said, sternly, "and you
+have concealed it from me. That was not like my child."
+
+"Father!" exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears.
+
+"Nay--these tears shall not move me from my resolution. As a parent I
+had a right, Mildred, to expect obedience from you; but you saw him in
+the very despite of my commands: here, on the confines of the Dove Cote,
+you saw him."
+
+"I did--I did."
+
+"And you were silent, and kept your secret from your father's bosom."
+
+"You forbade me to speak of him," replied Mildred, in a low and sobbing
+voice, "and banished me from your presence when I but brought his name
+upon my lips."
+
+"He is a villain, daughter; a base wretch that would murder my peace,
+and steal my treasure from my heart."
+
+Mildred covered her eyes with her hands, and trembled in silent agony.
+
+"I have received letters," continued Lindsay, "that disclose to me a
+vile plot against my life. This same Butler--this furious and fanatic
+rebel--has been lurking in the neighborhood of my house, to watch my
+family motions, to pry into the character of my guests, to possess
+himself of my sacred confidences, to note the incoming and the out-going
+of my most attached friends, and thereupon to build an accusation of
+treason before this unholy and most accursed power that has usurped
+dominion in the land. I am to be denounced to these malignant masters,
+and to suffer such penalties as their passions may adjudge. And all this
+through the agency of a man who is cherished and applauded by my own
+daughter!"
+
+"My dear father, who has thus abused your mind, and led your thoughts
+into a current so foreign from that calm judgment with which you have
+been accustomed to look upon the things of life?"
+
+"Can you deny, Mildred, that this Butler followed Tyrrel to the Dove
+Cote; lay concealed here, close at hand; sought by discourse through
+some of his coadjutors with Tyrrel's servant, to learn the object of
+Tyrrel's visit; and offered gross outrage to the man when he failed to
+persuade him to betray his master? Can you deny this? Can you deny that
+he fled precipitately from his hiding-place when he could no longer
+conceal his purpose?--and, knowing these things, can you doubt he is a
+villain?"
+
+"He is no villain, father," said Mildred, indignantly. "These are the
+wretched forgeries of that unworthy man who has won your confidence--a
+man who is no less an enemy to your happiness than he is a selfish
+contriver against mine. The story is not true: it is one of Tyrrel's
+basest falsehoods."
+
+"And Butler was not here; you would persuade me so, Mildred?"
+
+"He was in the neighborhood for a single night; he journeyed southwards
+in the course of his duty," answered Mildred, mildly.
+
+"And had no confederates with him?"
+
+"He was attended by a guide--only one--and hurried onwards without
+delay."
+
+"And you met him on that single night--by accident, I suppose?"
+
+"Do you doubt my truth, father?"
+
+"Mildred, Mildred! you will break my heart. Why was he here at all--why
+did you meet him?"
+
+"He came, father--" said Mildred, struggling to speak through a sudden
+burst of tears.
+
+"Silence! I will hear no apology!" exclaimed Lindsay. Then relenting in
+an instant, he took his daughter's hand, as he said: "My child, thou art
+innocent in thy nature, and knowest not the evil imaginings of this
+world. He wickedly lied, if he told you that he came casually hither, or
+that his stay was circumscribed to one short night. I have proofs, full
+and satisfactory, that, for several days, he lay concealed in this
+vicinity; and, moreover, that his scheme was frustrated only by an
+unexpected discovery, made through the indiscretion of a drunken bully,
+who came linked with him in his foul embassy. It was a shameless lie,
+invented to impose upon your credulity, if he gave you room to believe
+otherwise."
+
+"Arthur Butler scorns a falsehood, father, with the deepest scorn that
+belongs to a noble mind, and would resent the charge with the spirit of
+a valiant and virtuous man. If Mr. Tyrrel has such accusations to make,
+it would be fitter they should be made face to face with the man he
+would slander, than in my father's ear. But it is the nature of the
+serpent to sting in the grass, not openly to encounter his victim."
+
+"The first duty of a trusty friend is to give warning of the approach of
+an enemy--and that has Tyrrel done. For this act of service does he
+deserve your rebuke? Could you expect aught else of an honorable
+gentleman? Shame on you, daughter!"
+
+"Father, I know the tale to be wickedly, atrociously false. Arthur
+Butler is not your enemy. Sooner would he lay down his life than even
+indulge a thought of harm to you. His coming hither was not unknown to
+me--his delay, but one brief night; business of great moment called him
+hastily towards the army of the south."
+
+"You speak like a girl, Mildred. I have, against this tale, the avowal
+of a loyal and brave soldier. Aye, and let me tell you--favorably as you
+may deem of this false and traitorous rebel--his wily arts have been
+foiled, and quick vengeance is now upon his path--his doom is fixed."
+
+"For heaven's sake, father, dear father, tell me what this means. Have
+you heard of Arthur?" cried Mildred, in the most impassioned accents of
+distress, at the same time throwing her head upon Lindsay's breast. "Oh,
+God! have you heard aught of harm to him?"
+
+"Girl! foolish, mad, self-willed girl!" exclaimed Lindsay, disengaging
+himself from his daughter, and rising from his seat and angrily striding
+a few paces upon the terrace. "Dare you show this contumacy to me! No, I
+did not mean that--have you the heart, Mildred, to indulge these
+passionate fervors for the man I hate more than I can hate any other
+living thing! He, a wretch, upon whose head I invoke nightly curses! A
+loathsome, abhorred image to my mind! Hear me, Mildred, and hear me,
+though your heart break while I utter it--May the felon's death whelm
+him and his name in eternal disgrace!--may his present captivity be
+beset with all the horrors of friendlessness, unpitied--"
+
+"His captivity, father! And has he then fallen into the hands of the
+enemy? Quick! tell me all!--I shall die--my life is wrapped up in his!"
+ejaculated Mildred, in agony, as she sprang towards her father and
+seized his arm, and then sank at his feet.
+
+"For God's sake, my child!" said Lindsay, becoming alarmed at the
+violence of the paroxysm he had excited, and now lifting his daughter
+from the ground. "Mildred!--speak, girl! This emotion will drive me mad.
+Oh, fate, fate!--how unerringly dost thou fulfil the sad predictions of
+my spirit! How darkly does the curse hang upon my household! Mildred,
+dear daughter, pardon my rash speech. I would not harm thee, child--no,
+not for worlds!"
+
+"Father, you have cruelly tortured my soul," said Mildred, reviving from
+the half lifeless state into which she had fallen, and which for some
+moments had denied her speech. "Tell me all; on my knees, father, I
+implore you."
+
+"It was a hasty word, daughter," replied Lindsay, ill concealing the
+perturbation of his feelings; "I meant not what I said."
+
+"Nay, dear father," said Mildred, "I am prepared to hear the worst; you
+spoke of Arthur's captivity."
+
+"It was only a rumor," replied Lindsay, struck with apprehension at his
+daughter's earnestness, and now seeking to allay the feeling his hint
+had aroused in her mind; "it may be exaggerated by Tyrrel, whose letter,
+hastily written, mentions the fact, that Butler had been made a prisoner
+by some bands of Tories, amongst whom he had rashly ventured. The
+clemency of his king may yet win him back to his allegiance. A salutary
+confinement, at least, will deprive him of the power of mischief. His
+lands will be confiscated--and the close of the war, now fast
+approaching, will find him a houseless adventurer, baffled in his
+treason, and unpitied by all good men. This should persuade you,
+Mildred, to renounce your unnatural attachment, and to think no more of
+one whose cause heaven has never sanctioned, and whose condition in life
+should forbid all pretension to your regard--one, above all, repulsive
+even to loathing to the thoughts of your father."
+
+"I loved him, father, in his happiest and brightest day," said Mildred,
+firmly; "I cannot desert him in his adversity. Oh, speak to me no more!
+Let me go to my chamber; I am ill and cannot bear this torrent of your
+displeasure."
+
+"I will not detain you, Mildred. In sorrow and suffering, but still with
+a father's affection as warmly shining on you as when, in earliest
+infancy, I fondled thee upon my knee, I part with thee now. One kiss,
+girl. There, let that make peace between us. For your sake and my own, I
+pledge my word never to distress you with this subject again. Destiny
+must have its way, and I must bide the inevitable doom."
+
+With a heavy heart and an exhausted frame, Mildred slowly and tearfully
+withdrew.
+
+Lindsay remained some time fixed upon the spot where his daughter had
+left him. He was like a man stupefied and astounded by a blow. His
+conference had ended in a manner that he had not prepared himself to
+expect. The imputed treachery of Butler, derived from Tyrrel's letters,
+had not struck alarm into the heart of Mildred, as he had supposed it
+could not fail to do. The wicked fabrication had only recoiled upon the
+inventor; and Mildred, with the resolute, confident, and unfaltering
+attachment of her nature, clung with a nobler devotion to her lover. To
+Lindsay, in whose mind no distrust of the honesty of Tyrrel could find
+shelter; whose prejudices and peculiar temperament came in aid of the
+gross and disgraceful imputation which the letters inferred, the
+constancy and generous fervor of his daughter towards the cause of
+Butler seemed to be a mad and fatal infatuation.
+
+Ever since his first interview with Mildred on the subject of her
+attachment, his mind had been morbidly engrossed with the reflections to
+which it had given rise. There was such a steadiness of purpose apparent
+in her behavior, such an unchangeable resolve avowed, as seemed to him,
+in the circumstances of her condition, to defy and stand apart from the
+ordinary and natural impulses by which human conduct is regulated. He
+grew daily more abstracted and moody in his contemplations; and as study
+and thought gave a still graver complexion to his feelings, his mind
+fled back upon his presentiments; and that intense, scholar-like
+superstition, which I have heretofore described as one of the tendencies
+of his nature, began more actively to conjure up its phantasmagoria
+before his mental vision. A predominating trait of this superstition was
+an increasing conviction that, in Mildred's connexion with Arthur
+Butler, there was associated some signal doom to himself, that was to
+affect the fortunes of his race. It was a vague, misty, obscure
+consciousness of impending fate, the loss of reason or the loss of life
+that was to ensue upon that alliance if it should ever take place.
+
+It was such a presentiment that now, in the solitary path of Lindsay's
+life, began to be magnified into a ripening certainty of ill. The needle
+of his mind trembled upon its pivot, and began to decline towards a
+fearful point; that point was--frenzy. His studies favored this
+apprehension--they led him into the world of visions. The circumstances
+of his position favored it. He was perplexed by the intrigues of
+politicians, against whom he had no defence in temper nor worldly skill:
+he was deluded by false views of events: he was embarrassed and
+dissatisfied with himself: above all, he was wrought upon, bewildered,
+and glamoured (to use a most expressive Scotch phrase) by the
+remembrance of a sickly dream.
+
+Thus hunted and badgered by circumstances, he fled with avidity to the
+disclosures made in Tyrrel's letters, to try, as a last effort, their
+effect upon Mildred, hoping that the tale there told might divert her
+from a purpose which now fed all his melancholy.
+
+The reader has just seen how the experiment had failed.
+
+Lindsay retired to his study, and, through the remainder of the day,
+sought refuge from his meditations in the converse of his books. These
+mute companions, for once, failed to bring him their customary balm. His
+feelings had been turned, by the events of the morning, into a current
+that bore them impetuously along towards a dark and troubled ocean of
+thought; and when the shades of evening had fallen around him, he was
+seen pacing the terrace with a slow and measured step.
+
+"It is plain, she passionately loves Butler," he said, "in despite of
+all the visible influences around her. Her education, habits,
+affections, duty--all set in an opposing tide against this passion, and
+yet does it master them all. That I should be bound to mine enemy by a
+chain, whose strongest link is forged by my own daughter.
+She--Mildred!--No, no--that link was not forged by her: it hath not its
+shape from human workmanship. Oh, that like those inspired enthusiasts
+who, in times of old,--yea, and in a later day--have been able to open
+the Book of Destiny, and to read the passages of man's future life, I
+might get one glimpse of that forbidden page!--To what a charitable use
+might I apply the knowledge. Wise men have studied the journeyings of
+the stars, and have--as they deemed--discovered the secret spell by
+which yon shining orbs sway and compel the animal existences of this
+earth; even as the moon governs the flow of the ocean, or the fever of
+the human brain. Who shall say what is the invisible tissue--what the
+innumerable cords--that tie this planet and all its material natures to
+the millions of worlds with which it is affined? What is that mysterious
+thing which men call attraction, that steadies these spheres in their
+tangled pathways through the great void?--that urges their swift and
+fearful career into the track of their voyage, without the deviation of
+the breadth of a single hair--rolling on the same from eternity to
+eternity? How awfully does the thought annihilate our feeble and
+presumptuous philosophy! Is it, then, to excite the scorn of the wise,
+if we assert that some kindred power may shape out and direct the
+wanderings of man?--that an unseen hand may lay the threads by which
+this tottering creature is to travel through the labyrinth of this
+world; aye, and after it is done, to point out to him his course along
+the dark and chill valley, which the dead walk through companionless and
+silent? Have not men heard strange whispers in the breeze--the voice of
+warning? Have they not felt the fanning of the wing that bore the secret
+messenger through the air? Have they not seen some floating fold of the
+robe as it passed by? O God!--have they not seen the dead arise? What
+are these but the communings, the points of contact, between the earthy
+and spiritual worlds--the essences or intelligences that sometimes flit
+across the confine of our gross sphere, and speak to the children of
+clay? And wherefore do they speak, but that the initiated may regard the
+sign, and walk in safety? Or, perchance, some mischief-hatching
+fiend,--for such, too, are permitted to be busy to mar the good that God
+has made--may speak in malice to allure us from our better purpose. Aye,
+as aptly this, as the other. Miserable child of doubt, how art thou
+beset! Let the vain pedant prate of his philosophy, let the soldier
+boast his valor, the learned scholar his scepticism, and the worldling
+laugh his scorn, yet do they each and all yield homage to this belief.
+There comes a time of honest self-confession, of secret meditation to
+all, and then the boding spirit rises to his proper mastery: then does
+instinct smother argument: then do the darkness of the midnight hour,
+the howling wind, the rush of the torrent, the lonesomeness of the
+forest and the field, shake the strong nerves; and the feeble, pigmy
+man, trembles at his own imaginings."
+
+In such a strain did Lindsay nurse his doubting superstition; and by
+these degrees was it that his mind soothed itself down into a calmer
+tone of resignation. In proportion as this fanciful and distempered
+philosophy inclined his reflection towards the belief of preternatural
+influences, it suggested excuses for Mildred's seeming contumacy, and
+inculcated a more indulgent sentiment of forbearance in his future
+intercourse with her.
+
+Towards the confirmation of this temper an ordinary incident, which, at
+any other time, would have passed without comment, now contributed. A
+storm had arisen: the day, towards its close, had grown sultry, and had
+engendered one of those sudden gusts which belong to the summer in this
+region. It came, without premonition, in a violent tornado, that rushed
+through the air with the roar of a great cataract. Lindsay had scarcely
+time to retreat to the cover of the porch, before the heavy-charged
+cloud poured forth its fury in floods of rain. The incessant lightnings
+glittered on the descending drops, and illuminated the distant landscape
+with more than the brilliancy of day. The most remote peaks of the
+mountain were sheeted with the glare; and the torrents that leaped down
+the nearer hill-sides sparkled with a dazzling radiance. Peal after
+peal of abrupt and crashing thunder roared through the heavens, and
+echoed with terrific reverberations along the valleys. Lindsay gazed
+upon this scene, from his secure cover, with mute interest, inwardly
+aroused and delighted with the grand and sublime conflict of the
+elements, in a spot of such wild and compatible magnificence: the solemn
+and awful emotions excited by these phenomena were exaggerated by the
+peculiar mood of his mind, and now absorbed all his attention. After a
+brief interval, the rain ceased to fall as suddenly as it had begun; the
+thunder was silent, and only a few distant flashes of wide-spread light
+broke fitfully above the horizon. The stars soon again shone forth
+through a transparent and placid heaven, and the moon sailed in beauty
+along a cloudless sea. The frog chirped again from the trees, and the
+far-off owl hooted in the wood, resuming his melancholy song, that had
+been so briefly intermitted. The foaming river below, swollen by the
+recent rain, flung upwards a more lively gush from its rocky bed: the
+cock was heard to crow, as if a new day had burst upon his harem; and
+the house-dogs barked in sport as they gambolled over the wet grass.
+
+Lindsay looked forth and spoke.
+
+"How beautiful is the change! But a moment since, and the angry elements
+were convulsed with the shock of war; and now, how calm! My ancient oaks
+have weathered the gale, and not a branch has been torn from their hoary
+limbs: not the most delicate of Mildred's flowers; not the tenderest
+shrub has been scathed by the threatening fires of heaven! The Dove Cote
+and its inmates have seen the storm sweep by without a vestige of harm.
+Kind heaven, grant that this may be a portent of our fortune; and that,
+when this tempest of human passion has been spent, the Dove Cote and its
+inhabitants may come forth as tranquil, as safe, as happy, as
+now--more--yes, more happy than now! Our ways are in thy hands; and I
+would teach myself to submit to thy providence with patient hope. So,
+let it be! I am resigned."
+
+As Lindsay still occupied his position in the porch, Stephen Foster
+appeared before him dripping with the rain of the late storm.
+
+"A letter, sir," said Stephen. "I have just rode from the post-office,
+and was almost oversot in the gust: it catched me upon the road; and it
+was as much as I could do to cross the river. It is a mighty fretful
+piece of water after one of these here dashes."
+
+Lindsay took the packet.
+
+"Get your supper, good Stephen," he said. "Order lights for me in the
+library! Thank you--thank you!"
+
+When Lindsay opened the letter, he found it to contain tidings of the
+victory at Camden, written by Tyrrel. After he had perused the contents,
+it was with a triumphant smile that he exclaimed, "And it is come so
+soon! Thank God, the omen has proved true! a calmer and a brighter hour
+at last opens upon us."
+
+He left the study to communicate the news to his children, and spent the
+next hour with Mildred and Henry in the parlor. His feelings had risen
+to a happier key; and it was with some approach to cheerfulness, but
+little answered in the looks or feelings of his children, that he
+retired to his chamber at a late hour, where sleep soon came, with its
+sweet oblivion, to repair his exhausted spirits, and to restore him to
+the quiet of an easy mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+MILDRED IN GRIEF.--SHE IS NEAR MAKING A DISCLOSURE.--A VISITOR ARRIVES
+AT THE DOVE COTE.
+
+    "Then in that hour remorse he felt,
+    And his heart told him he had dealt
+    Unkindly with his child."--_Rogers._
+
+
+On the following day Mildred confined herself to her chamber. She had
+passed a sleepless night, and the morning found her a pale, anxious, and
+distressed watcher of the slow approach of light. Her thoughts were busy
+with the fate of Butler. This topic overwhelmed all other cares, and
+struck deep and unmitigated anguish into her mind. The hints that had
+been so indiscreetly dropped by her father, more than if the whole tale
+had been told, had worked upon her imagination, and conjured up to her
+apprehension the certain destruction of her lover. In her interview with
+Lindsay, her emotions had been controlled by the extreme difficulty of
+her situation. The fear of rousing in her father that deep and solemn
+tone of passion, which had now become the infirmity of his mind, and
+almost threatened to "deprive his sovereignty of reason," and of which
+she was painfully aware, had subdued the strength of her own
+feelings--so far, at least, as to inculcate a more seeming moderation
+than, in other circumstances, she could have exhibited. It was the
+struggle between filial affection and duty on the one side, and an
+ardent, though tremblingly acknowledged, attachment on the other. The
+course that she had previously determined to pursue, in reference to the
+many earnest and assiduous efforts of Lindsay to persuade her from her
+love, was steadily to persevere in the open acknowledgment of her
+plighted vow, and endeavor to win her father's favor by a calm and
+gentle expostulation; or to seek, in a respectful silence, the means of
+averting the occasion of that gusty and moody outbreak of temper, which
+the peculiar exacerbation of his mind was apt to make frequent. She
+would have resorted to this silence in the late communion with Lindsay,
+if he had not, with an unusual bitterness, denounced Arthur Butler as
+the author of a hateful crime; a crime which she knew had been foully
+insinuated against him by a man of whose subtle wickedness she was
+persuaded, and whom, of all others, she most heartily execrated. She
+was, therefore, led indignantly, though temperately, to repel the
+slander by which her father's hatred had been artfully envenomed. But
+when, in the fierce fervor of his displeasure, Lindsay had announced to
+her the danger that had befallen Butler, the disclosure opened to her
+mind a world of misery. The late silence of her lover had already
+alarmed her fears, and this announcement suggested the worst of the many
+anxious conjectures which her brooding spirit had imagined as the cause
+of that absence of tidings. Her emotions upon this disclosure were those
+of a bursting heart that dared not trust itself with words; and when her
+father, seeing the unlooked-for mischief he had done, sought to temper
+his speech, and retract some of the harshness of his communication, by
+an explanation, the only effect was, for the moment, to take off the
+edge of her keenest grief. But when she left his presence, and recovered
+herself sufficiently to recall all that had passed, the dreadful thought
+of disaster to Butler, came back upon her imagination with all the
+horrors which a fond heart could summon around it. A weary hour was
+spent in sobs and tears; and it was only by the blandishments of her
+brother Henry's kind and earnest sympathy, when the youth found her in
+the parlor thus whelmed in sorrow, and by his manly and cheering
+reckoning of the many chances of safety that attend the footsteps of a
+prudent and a brave man, that she began to regain that resolute
+equanimity that was a natural and even predominating attribute of her
+character.
+
+When Lindsay came into the parlor with the tidings of the victory at
+Camden, such was the state in which he found her; and whilst he
+announced to her that event which had given him so much joy, he was not
+unheedful of the pang he had previously inflicted, and now endeavored to
+make amends by throwing in some apparently casual, though intentional,
+reference to the condition of Butler, who, he doubted not, would now be
+disposed of on easy terms. "Perhaps," he continued, "as the war was
+drawing to a close, and the royal clemency had been singularly
+considerate of the mistaken men who had taken arms against their king,
+he would in a little while be discharged on his parole." This reluctant
+and forced crumb of comfort fell before one who had but little appetite
+to take it, and Mildred received it only in cold silence. Henry,
+however, made better use of the event, and by that assiduity which, in
+true and gentle friendships, never wearies, and never misses its aim,
+when that aim is to revive a sinking hope, succeeded in lifting both his
+father and sister into a kindlier climate of feeling. But solitude and
+her pillow ravelled all this work of charity. Fancy, that stirring
+tormentor of acute minds, summoned up all its phantoms to Mildred's
+waking fears, and the night was passed by her as by one who could not be
+comforted. In the morning she was ill, and therefore, as I have said,
+remained in her chamber.
+
+Lindsay, ever solicitous for the happiness of his children, and keenly
+sensitive to whatever gave them pain, now that the turbid violence of
+his passion had subsided into a clearer and calmer medium, applied
+himself by every art which parental fondness could supply, to mitigate
+the suffering of his daughter. Like a man who, in a reckless and
+ungoverned moment, having done an injury which his heart revolts at, and
+having leisure to contemplate the wrong he has inflicted, hastens to
+administer comfort with an alacrity which even outruns the suggestions
+of ordinary affection, so did he now betake himself to Mildred's
+chamber, and, with sentiments of mixed alarm and contrition, seek her
+forgiveness for what he acknowledged a rash and unbecoming assault upon
+her feelings.
+
+His soothing did not reach the disease. They could give her no assurance
+of Butler's safety; and on that point alone all her anguish turned. "My
+dear, dear father," she said, with a feeble and dejected voice, "how do
+you wrong me, by supposing I could harbor a sentiment that might cause
+me to doubt the love I bear you! I know and revere the purity of your
+nature, and need no assurance from you that your affection itself has
+kindled up this warmth of temper. But you have opened a fountain of
+bitterness upon my feelings," she added, sobbing vehemently, "in what
+you have divulged relating to a man you loathe, and one, dear
+father--take it from me now, as the expression of a sacred duty--one
+that I must ever love. Call it fate--call it infatuation; say that it
+does not befit my womanly reserve to avow it--but if misfortune and
+death have fallen upon the head of Arthur Butler, there is that bond
+between us, that I must die. Oh, father--"
+
+As Mildred pronounced these words she had gradually raised herself into
+a sitting posture in her bed, and, at the conclusion, fell back
+exhausted upon her pillow. The enthusiasm, the violence and the
+intensity of her emotions had overborne her strength, and for some
+moments she lay incapable of speech.
+
+"Mildred, Mildred! daughter!" exclaimed Lindsay, in alarm, "I forgive
+you, my child. Great heaven, if this should be too much for her
+sensitive nature, and she should die before my eyes! Dear Mildred," he
+said in a softer accent, as he kissed her pale forehead, "but look up,
+and never, never more will I oppose your wish."
+
+"Father," she uttered, in a scarce audible whisper.
+
+"Thank God, she revives! Forbear to speak, my love; that is enough. Do
+not exhaust your strength by another effort."
+
+"Father!" she repeated in a firmer accent.
+
+"There, there, my child," continued Lindsay, fanning the air before her
+face with his hand.
+
+"Father," again uttered Mildred, "tell me of Arthur."
+
+"He is safe, my love--and thou shalt yet be happy. Daughter--no more;
+compose yourself--nor attempt again to speak." And saying these words,
+Lindsay stole out of the chamber and summoned one of the domestics to
+administer a cordial to the exhausted patient; and then gave orders that
+she should be left to recruit her strength by sleep.
+
+Mildred by degrees revived. Jaded by mental affliction, she had sunk
+into repose; and when another morning arrived, the lustre had returned
+to her eye, and her recovery was already well advanced. She did not yet
+venture from her chamber, but she was able to leave her bed and take the
+fresh air at her window.
+
+Whilst she sat in the loose robe of an invalid, towards noon, looking
+out upon the green forest and smiling fields around her, with Henry
+close by her side, seeking to soothe and amuse her mind, they were
+enabled to descry a horseman, attended by a single servant, making his
+way up the hill from the ford, by the road that led directly to the
+door.
+
+"As I live, sister," ejaculated Henry, "there is Tyrrel, covered with
+dust, and his horse all but worn down by travel."
+
+"Heaven forbid that it should be Tyrrel indeed!" said Mildred, growing
+paler, and trembling as she spoke. "Oh, what ill fortune brings him
+hither?"
+
+"I'll be bound," replied Henry, "that he comes with a whole budget of
+lies and foul thoughts. He has a knavish look, sister, and has been
+hatching mischief with every step of his horse. I, for one, will not see
+him; unless I can't help it. And you, sister, have an excuse to keep
+your room: so, he is like to have cold comfort here, with his rascally
+news of victory. We shall hear enough of Camden now. By-the-by, sister,
+I should like much to see our account of that business. I would bet it
+gives another face to the matter. These Tories do so bespatter his
+lordship with praises, and tell such improbable things about their
+victories! I will not see Tyrrel, that's flat."
+
+"Nay, brother, not so fast. You must see him, for my sake. He has
+something to tell of Arthur. Persuade my father to ask him: tell him, if
+need be, that I requested this. And, Henry, if he says that Arthur is
+safe and well, if he has heard anything of him, knows anything of him,
+fly to and tell me it all. And, remember, brother," she said earnestly,
+"tell me all--whether it be good or bad."
+
+"This is a new view of the case," said Henry. "Mildred, you are a wise
+woman, and think more ahead than I do. I did not reflect that this
+fellow might know something of Major Butler, though I am pretty sure he
+kept as clear of the major as a clean pair of heels would allow him.
+And, moreover, I take upon me to say, that he will bring as little good
+news of our Arthur in this direction, as he ever did of a good act in
+his life. But I will spy him out, sister, and report like a--like
+a--forty-two pounder, or the dispatch of a general who has won a fight.
+So, adieu, sister."
+
+By the time that Henry had reached the porch, Tyrrel was already there.
+He had dismounted, and his weary steed stood panting on the grave walk,
+while the servant stripped him of his baggage.
+
+"Well met, good master Henry!" said Tyrrel approaching, and offering the
+youth his hand, "I am somewhat of a soiled traveller, you see. Is your
+father at home? And your sister, how is she?"
+
+"My father is at home," replied Henry, dropping the proffered hand of
+the visitor, almost as soon as it had touched his own. "I will send him
+to you, sir."
+
+"But you have not asked me the news, Henry," said Tyrrel, "and, seeing
+that I have come from the very theatre of war, I could tell you
+something good."
+
+"I have heard my father speak of your good news," answered Henry,
+carelessly, "I do not serve under the same colors with you, sir."
+
+And the youth left the porch to announce the arrival of the traveller to
+Lindsay.
+
+"There spoke the rebel Mildred," muttered Tyrrel, as Henry left his
+presence.
+
+In an instant, Lindsay hastened from the library and received his guest
+with a warm welcome.
+
+The first cares of his reception, and some necessary order relating to
+his comfort, being despatched, Tyrrel began to disburden himself of his
+stock of particulars relating to the great and important movements of
+the opposing armies in the south. He had left Cornwallis a few days
+after the battle, and had travelled with post haste to Virginia, on a
+leave of absence. He described minutely the state of things consequent
+upon the recent victory; and it was with a tone of triumphant exultation
+that he frequently appealed to his predictions as to the course of
+events, when last at the Dove Cote. The conversation soon became too
+confidential for the presence even of Henry, who sat greedily devouring
+every word that fell from the lips of the narrator, and the further
+interview was transferred to the library.
+
+Henry hastened back to Mildred.
+
+"The fellow is so full of politics, sister," said the eager scout, "that
+he has not dropped one solitary word about Butler. He talks of the
+province being brought back to a sense of its duty, and public sentiment
+putting an end to this unnatural war forsooth! And his majesty reaping
+fresh laurels on the fields of Virginia! Let his majesty put in his
+sickle here--he shall reap as fine a crop of briers to bind round his
+brow, as ever grew in a fence-corner! But Butler! Oh, no, he has nothing
+to say of Butler. He is a cunning man, sister, and keeps out of the
+major's way, take my word for that."
+
+"Brother, get you again to my father, and say to him that I desire to
+know what tidings Mr. Tyrrel brings us. Say it in his ear privately,
+Henry."
+
+The young emissary again took his leave, and, without apology, entered
+the library.
+
+Mildred, in the meantime, restless and impatient, applied herself to the
+duties of the toilet, and, with the assistance of her maid, was soon in
+a condition to leave her chamber. She had, almost unwittingly, and in
+obedience to her engrossing wish to know something of Butler, made these
+preparations to appear in the parlor, without thinking of her repugnance
+to meet Tyrrel. And now, when she was on the point of going forth, her
+resolve changed, and she moved through the chamber like a perturbed
+spirit, anxiously waiting the return of Henry. She walked to the window,
+whence, looking out towards the terrace she perceived that her father
+and his guest had strolled out upon the lawn, where they were moving
+forward at a slow pace, whilst their gesticulations showed that they
+were engaged in an earnest conference.
+
+Henry's footsteps at the same moment were heard traversing the long
+passage, and Mildred, no longer able to restrain her eagerness, hastily
+left her room and met her brother, with whom she returned to the parlor.
+
+"My news, upon the whole, is good," said Henry, as he put his arm round
+Mildred's waist. "When I entered the library, and took a seat by my
+father, he suddenly broke up some long talk that was going on, in which
+he looked very grave, and, as if he knew what I came for--he is an
+excellent, kind father, sister, for all his moping and sad humors, and
+loves both you and me."
+
+"He does, Henry, and we must never forget it."
+
+"I would fight for him to the very death, Mildred. So, seeing that I
+looked as if you had sent me to him, he turned, in a kind of careless
+way, and asked Tyrrel if he had heard anything lately of Butler."
+
+"Well--brother."
+
+"'I scarce thought to mention it, answered Tyrrel, 'but the man'--think
+of that way of speaking of Major Butler--'the man had the temerity to
+push himself amongst the loyal troops, and was made a prisoner; he was
+suspected to be a spy, and there was, as I have understood, an idea of
+trying him by court-martial for it, and for other misdemeanors, of which
+I wrote you some particulars. I believe indeed, he was tried, and would,
+perhaps, have been shot.'"
+
+"Oh, heaven! brother, can this be true?" exclaimed Mildred, as the color
+deserted her cheek.
+
+"I give you exactly Tyrrel's words," replied Henry, "but the court were
+attacked, said he, by some bands of Whigs who stole a march upon them."
+
+"And Arthur escaped? Kind heaven, I thank thee!" almost screamed
+Mildred, as she clasped her hands together.
+
+"So Tyrrel thinks," continued Henry. "At all events they did not shoot
+him, like a pack of cowardly knaves as they were. And as some Tory
+prisoners were taken and dragged away by our good friend General
+Sumpter, who was the man, Tyrrel says, that set upon them, it is
+considered good policy--these were his words, sister--to spare the
+unnecessary effusion of blood on both sides. And then my father asked
+Tyrrel if Cornwallis knew of these doings, and he answered, not--that it
+was the indiscreet act of some mountain boys, who were in the habit of
+burning and slaying, against the wish of his Lordship: that the regular
+officers disapprove of harsh measures, and that peace now reigns all
+through the province."
+
+"When they make a desert of the land, they call it peace," said Mildred
+thoughtfully, quoting a translation of the beautiful passage of Tacitus.
+"This war is a dreadful trade."
+
+"For us, sister, who stay at home," replied Henry. "But God is good to
+us, and will favor the right, and will protect the brave men who draw
+their swords to maintain it."
+
+"From treachery, ambuscade, and privy murder--I thank you, brother, for
+that word. Heaven shield us, and those we love! But these are fearful
+times."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOR TYRREL's INFLUENCE OVER LINDSAY.
+
+
+The discourse between Lindsay and Tyrrel was one of deep moment. Tyrrel
+had taken advantage of the pervading fervor which the late successes of
+the British arms had diffused amongst the adherents of the royal cause,
+in behalf of what was deemed their certain triumph, to urge forward his
+own views. This was the occasion of his present unexpected visit at the
+Dove Cote. His immediate aim was to plunge Lindsay into the contest, by
+forcing him to take some step that should so commit him, in the opinion
+of the republican government, as to leave him no chance of retreat, nor
+the means longer to enjoy the privileges of his late neutrality. He,
+unhappily, found Lindsay in a mood to favor this intrigue. The
+increasing anxieties of that gentleman's mind, his domestic griefs, his
+peculiar temperament, and the warmth of his political animosities, all
+stimulated him to the thought of some active participation in the
+struggle. Tyrrel had sufficient penetration to perceive that such was
+likely to be the current of Lindsay's feelings, and he had by frequent
+letters administered to this result.
+
+There were several opulent families in the lower sections of the state,
+who still clung to the cause of the King, and who had been patiently
+awaiting the course of events, for the time when they might more boldly
+avow themselves. With the heads of these families Tyrrel had been in
+active correspondence, and it was now his design which under the
+sanction of the British leaders, he had already nearly matured, to bring
+these individuals together into a secret council, that they might act in
+concert, and strengthen themselves by mutual alliance. Immediately after
+the battle of Camden, it is known that Cornwallis had laid his plans for
+the invasion of North Carolina, by intrigues of the same kind: it was
+only extending the system a little in advance to apply it to Virginia.
+Arrangements had been made for this meeting of malcontents to be held
+at the house of a Mr. Stanhope, on one of the lower sections of the
+James river--a gentleman of good repute, with whom Lindsay had long been
+in the relations of close friendship.
+
+"The moments are precious, and you are waited for," said Tyrrel, in the
+course of his conference with Lindsay; "we must strike whilst the iron
+is hot. Separated as our good friends are from each other, you are now
+in the power, and at the mercy--which is a significant phrase--of the
+unruly government of Congress. Your motions, therefore, should be
+prompt. There are seasons, in the history of every trouble, when the
+virtue of deliberation mainly lies in its rapidity and the boldness of
+its resolve. I beseech you, sir, to regard this as such a season, and to
+take the course which the honor of our sovereign demands, without
+further pause to think of consequences."
+
+"When you were here a month ago," replied Lindsay, "I had my scruples.
+But things have strangely altered in that short interval. Your standard
+floats more bravely over the path of invasion than I had deemed it
+possible. You charged me then with being a laggard, and, you may
+remember, even impeached my loyalty."
+
+"I did you a grievous wrong, my dear friend; and did I not know your
+generous nature pardoned, as soon as it was uttered, my rash and
+intemperate speech, it would have cost me many a pang of remorse. Even
+in this, good sir," said Tyrrel, smiling and laying his hand upon
+Lindsay's shoulder; "even in this, you see how necessary is it that we
+should have a wise and considerate councillor to moderate the ungoverned
+zeal of us younger men."
+
+"My mind is made up," replied Lindsay. "I will attend the meeting."
+
+"And Mildred will be removed forthwith to Charleston?" eagerly
+interrupted Tyrrel.
+
+"Ah, sir, not one word of that. If I attend this meeting, it must be in
+secret. Nor do I yet commit myself to its resolves. I shall be a
+listener only. I would learn what my compatriots think, reserving to
+myself the right to act. Even yet, I would purchase peace with many a
+sacrifice. I abjure all violent measures of offence."
+
+"I am content," answered Tyrrel, "that you should hold yourself
+unpledged to any measures which your gravest and severest judgment does
+not approve. Though I little doubt that, from all quarters, you will
+hear such tidings as shall convince you that the road, both of safety
+and honor, leads onward in this glorious enterprise. 'Tis from this
+nettle danger, that we pluck the flower 'safety.' Conscious of this, I
+would have Mildred and her brother cared for."
+
+"Mildred can never be yours," said Lindsay musing. "There is the thought
+that makes me pause. I believed, and so do you, that the favor this
+Butler had found with her was the capricious and changeful fancy of a
+girl. It is the devoted passion of a woman: it has grown to be her
+faith, her honor, her religion."
+
+"Butler is a fool--a doomed madman," replied Tyrrel with earnestness.
+"He came here with the hellish purpose to betray you; and he was silly
+enough to think he could do so, and still win your daughter. She should
+be told of this."
+
+"She has been told of it, and she believes it not."
+
+"Was my avouch given to her for the truth of the fact."
+
+"It was. And, to speak plainly to you, it has only made your name
+hateful to her ear."
+
+"Then shall she have proof of it, which she cannot doubt. She shall have
+it in the recorded judgment of a court-martial, which has condemned him
+as a traitor and a spy; she shall have it in the doom of his death, and
+the sequestration of his estate," exclaimed Tyrrel with a bitter
+malignity, "proud girl!"
+
+"Remember yourself, sir!" interrupted Lindsay, sternly. "This is not the
+language nor the tone fit for a father's ear, when the subject of it is
+his own daughter."
+
+Tyrrel was instantly recalled to his self-possession; and with that
+humility which he could always assume when his own interest required it,
+spoke in a voice of sudden contrition.
+
+"Why, what a fool am I to let my temper thus sway me! Humbly, most
+humbly, dear sir, do I entreat your forgiveness. I love your daughter,
+and revere the earnest enthusiasm of her nature; and, therefore, have
+been galled beyond my proper show of duty, to learn that she could
+discredit my word."
+
+"I enjoin it upon you," said Lindsay, "that in your intercourse with my
+family here, you drop no word calculated to alarm my daughter for the
+safety of this Butler. It is a topic which distracts her, and must be
+avoided."
+
+"For the present," replied Tyrrel, "as I have before told you, I think
+he is safe. The forfeiture of his estate is not a secret. But to
+business, my friend. When shall we set out?"
+
+"To-morrow," answered Lindsay. "We must travel cautiously, and amongst
+our friends."
+
+"This disguise has served me so far," said Tyrrel. "I may the better
+trust to it when in your company."
+
+Mildred and Henry remained in the parlor, and were there when Lindsay
+and his guest, having terminated their secret conference, returned to
+the house.
+
+"Your cheek denies your customary boast of good health, Miss Lindsay,"
+said Tyrrel, respectfully approaching the lady, and with an air that
+seemed to indicate his expectation of a cold reception. "It grieves me
+to learn that, at a time when all good men are rejoicing in the prospect
+of peace, you should not be in a condition to share the common
+pleasure."
+
+"I think there is small occasion for rejoicing in any quarter," replied
+Mildred, calmly.
+
+"Miss Lindsay would, perhaps, be interested to hear," said Tyrrel, not
+discomfited by the evident aversion of the lady, "that I have, within a
+few days past, left the head-quarters of the British army, where I was
+enabled to glean some particulars of a friend of hers, Major Butler, of
+the Continental service."
+
+Mildred colored, as she said in a faint voice, "He is my friend."
+
+"He has been unfortunate," continued Tyrrel, "having fallen into the
+hands of some of our skirmishers. But I believe I may assure Miss
+Lindsay that he is both safe and well. He enjoys the reputation of being
+a brave gentleman. I may be permitted to say, that had his destiny
+brought him under other colors, I should have been proud to be better
+known to him."
+
+"Major Butler chooses his own colors," said Henry, interposing. "I don't
+think destiny had much to do with it. He took his side because they
+wanted men to help out a brave war."
+
+Lindsay frowned, and strode once or twice across the apartment, during
+which an embarrassing silence prevailed.
+
+"You are the same cockerel you always were, Henry," said Tyrrel, with
+undaunted playfulness; "always warm for the fight. But it is a Christian
+duty, you know, to be peace-makers in such times as these. We may trust,
+Miss Lindsay, that some conciliatory spirit shall arise to quell the
+quarrelsome humors of the people, and bring all things back to
+tranquillity. For myself, I devoutly wish it."
+
+"The day for such a spirit does not seem to be at hand," said Mildred,
+quietly rising to withdraw.
+
+"You are not well, my daughter," interposed Lindsay. "Mildred is but
+recently from a sick bed," he continued, addressing Tyrrel, in the way
+of apology for her marked coldness of demeanor.
+
+"I am not well, father," replied Mildred, "I must be permitted to leave
+you;" and she now retired.
+
+When Henry soon afterwards joined her, he found her agitated and
+excited.
+
+"Better known to Arthur Butler!" she exclaimed, dwelling on the speech
+of Tyrrel. "He is better known already than he dreams of. Think,
+brother, of the cool hypocrisy of this bold schemer--this secret
+disturber of the quiet of our house--that he should dare boast to me of
+Arthur's bravery."
+
+"And to talk about his colors too!" said Henry. "Did you mark, sister,
+how I set him down--in spite of my father's presence? And did you see
+how his brow blanched when I spoke my mind to him? He will find me too
+hot a cockerel, as he calls me, to venture upon our colors again. I hold
+no terms with him, sister, more than yourself."
+
+"You will excuse me to my father, Henry, I will not go in to dinner
+to-day."
+
+"I wondered," replied Henry, "that you met him at all, sister; but he
+took us unawares. And, truly, I don't think it would be safe to bring
+you near him again. So I advise you, keep your room. As for me--tut! I
+am not afraid to meet him. I warrant he gets his own upon occasion!"
+
+"I entreat you, Henry," said Mildred, "to guard your temper. It would
+give our father pain to hear a rash speech from you. It would answer no
+good end."
+
+"I will be as circumspect, Mildred, as the state of the war requires,"
+answered Henry. "Fight when it is necessary, and be silent when we can't
+strike."
+
+Henry now left his sister and went to his usual occupations.
+
+Mildred, in accordance with the purpose expressed to her brother did not
+appear at the dinner table; and the day was passed, by Lindsay and
+Tyrrel, in close communion over the topics connected with the object of
+the enterprise in which they were about to embark. Tyrrel had seen
+enough to convince him that he might, at least for the present, abandon
+all effort to win Mildred's good opinion; and his whole thoughts were
+now bent to bring Lindsay into such an attitude of hostility to the
+republican authorities as would inevitably lead to his removal from the
+state, and perhaps compel him to retire to England. Either of these
+events would operate to the advantage of the aspiring and selfish policy
+by which Tyrrel hoped to accomplish his object.
+
+In the course of the evening Lindsay held a short interview with his
+children, in which he made known to them that affairs of importance were
+about to call him away, for a fortnight perhaps, from the Dove Cote. It
+was in vain that Mildred endeavored to turn him from his purpose, which,
+though undivulged to her, she conjectured to be, from its association
+with Tyrrel, some sinister political move, of which her father was to be
+the dupe.
+
+In accordance with Lindsay's intimation, he and Tyrrel set out, at an
+early hour of the following day, on their journey towards the low
+country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A DOMESTIC SCENE AT THE DOVE COTE.
+
+
+On the third morning following Lindsay's and Tyrrel's departure, the
+season being now about the commencement of September, Henry was seen,
+after an unusually early breakfast, to come forth upon the grass-plot,
+in front of the house, bearing in his hand a short rifle,--his customary
+accompaniment of the bugle being slung across his shoulders. For some
+moments he was occupied in examining his weapon; then leaning it against
+a tree that stood upon the lawn, he put the bugle to his mouth and
+sounded a long and clear signal-note. The first effects of this spell
+were to bring up Bell, Blanche, and Hylas, the three flap-eared hounds,
+who came frisking over the grass with many antics that might be said to
+resemble the bows and curtsies of the human species, and which were
+accompanied by the houndish salutation of deep-mouthed howls that the
+horn never fails to wake up in these animals.
+
+Soon after these, came striding up the hill the long gaunt form of
+Stephen Foster, who, mounting the stone wall on the lower side, with one
+bound sprang over the thickset-hedge that begirt the terrace. He was now
+arrayed in a yellow hunting shirt that reached to the middle of his
+thigh, and which was decorated with an abundance of red fringe that
+bound the cape, elbows, wrists, and extremity of the skirt, and a wool
+hat encircled with a broad red band, in one side of which was set the
+national ornament of the buck-tail. Around his waist was buckled a broad
+buckskin belt; he was armed besides with a rifle a little short of six
+feet in length.
+
+Stephen Foster was one of that idle craft, who, having no particular
+occupation, was from this circumstance, by a contradiction in terms,
+usually called a man of all work. He belonged to that class of beings
+who are only to be found in a society where the ordinary menial
+employments are discharged by slaves; and was the tenant of a few acres
+of land, appertaining to the domain of the Dove Cote, where he professed
+to make his living by husbandry. But by far the greater proportion of
+his revenues was derived from divers miscellaneous services,--such as
+driving a team of four lean horses, of which he was proprietor; hauling
+wood for fuel; assisting in the harvest fields; somtimes working in the
+garden; and, when required, riding errands--which he preferred to all
+other business. But labor was not Stephen's forte: it was
+constitutionally a part of his system to postpone matters of work for
+pleasure; and, if there was anything for which he was particularly
+famous, it was in avoiding all appearances of punctuality to irksome
+engagements. If he can be said to have had a calling at all, it was that
+of a hunter, a species of employment that possessed a wonderful charm
+for his fancy, and which was excellently adapted both to his physical
+and moral qualities. He, therefore, gave much of his time to the
+concerns of vert and venison; and his skill with the rifle was such that
+he could make sure of putting a ball through the brain of a wild pigeon
+as far as he was able to draw a sight. He was skilled in the habits of
+all the forest animals common to this part of Virginia, and accurately
+drew the line of distinction between vermin and game. He hunted wolves,
+bears, panthers (painters, in his own pronunciation), racoons, foxes,
+opossums, and squirrels; and trapped otter, beaver, and muskrats;
+moreover, he was an expert jigger and bobber of eels, and well knew the
+trouting streams. For these pursuits he was endowed with a patient
+nature that could endure a whole day and night in the woods without
+eating or sleeping; my authority says nothing of his forbearance in the
+third primary want of humanity. He was a man of fine thews and sinews,
+stout and brave; and withal of a generous, frank, and invariable good
+nature. The war had furnished occasion for such talents as be possessed;
+and Stephen was now meditating a bold severance from his wife and
+children, who had heretofore exerted such a dominion over his
+affections, that he had not the heart to leave them. But the present
+difficulties of the nation had made such a cogent appeal to his
+patriotism, that he had resolved to take one campaign in the field, and
+thus give scope to his natural love of adventure. It was now his
+peculiar glory, and one that wrought with a potent influence upon his
+self-love, that he held the post of lieutenant to the company of Amherst
+Rangers, a volunteer corps that had lately been organized with a view to
+the state of affairs in the south.
+
+This worthy, when he had no expedition in hand, was generally to be
+found lounging about the mansion of the Dove Cote, in expectation of
+some call from Henry, between whom and himself there existed a mutual
+and somewhat exorbitant affection.
+
+On his present appearance there was a broad, complacent grin on
+Stephen's features as he accosted the young bugleman with the
+interrogatory--
+
+"What's in the wind now, Mister Henry? Arter another buck, I reckon? And
+an elegant morning it is for a drive! May be, the wind's just a little
+too fresh, 'cepting you was able to steal on the lower side of the game,
+and then the scent would come down like a rose. Thar's a great advantage
+in being down the wind, because the animal can't hear you breaking
+through the bushes, for the wind makes naturally such a twittering of
+the leaves that it deceives him, you see."
+
+"I fancy I know a good hunting day, Lieutenant Foster," said Henry,
+putting his arms akimbo, "as well as you. Who told you I was going after
+a buck? Why, man, if that had been my drift I should have started you
+two hours ago. But we have other business in hand, Stephen. There is
+such dreadful news in the country! We shall march soon, take my word for
+it. I am resolved to go, Stephen, as soon as ever the Rangers set out,
+let my father say what he will. It is time men should take their
+sides--that's my opinion."
+
+"Mister Henry, I wouldn't advise you," said Stephen, with a wise shake
+of the head. "Your father would grieve himself to death if you were to
+leave him."
+
+"Don't believe the half of that, lieutenant. There would be a flurry for
+a little while, and, after that, father would see that the thing
+couldn't be helped, and so he would have to be satisfied. I'll steal
+away--that's flat."
+
+"Well, take notice, Mister Henry," said Stephen, chuckling, "I give you
+my warning against it. But if you do go along with me I'll take as much
+care of you as if you were my own son."
+
+"I know sister Mildred thinks," replied Henry, "it wouldn't be very
+wrong in me to go; and so I'll leave her to make my peace at home.
+Besides, I am going on her account, just to try and hear something of
+Major Butler."
+
+"If that's her opinion," returned Stephen, "thar isn't much wrong about
+it. She is the head contriver and main privy-councillor," added Stephen,
+laughing, as he used these slang words, with which he was in the habit
+of garnishing his conversation, "of all matters that are done here in
+this house."
+
+"These are your new regimentals, Stephen," said Henry, looking at
+Foster's dress; "you shine like a flecker on a sunny day. It will please
+sister to the life to see you so spruce; she's a prodigious
+disciplinarian, and doesn't like to see us rebels (here he put his hand
+to his mouth and pronounced this word with a mock circumspection), worse
+dressed than the rascally red-coats. When do the Rangers march,
+Stephen?"
+
+"We are waiting for orders every day. We parade, you know, Mister Henry,
+this morning."
+
+"You must plead off to-day," said Henry; "I called you up to tell you
+that sister and I were going to ride, and I wanted you to go with us. At
+any rate, if you must go to the troop, you can leave us on the road. You
+don't meet till twelve, and both sister and I want to talk to you. She
+commanded me to tell you this. I believe she wishes you to take a letter
+for her. Poor Mildred doesn't know that I am going with you; so, as to
+that, you needn't let on. Go, Stephen, have our horses ready as soon as
+you can get them. Quick, good Stephen; sister and I will wait for you on
+the lawn."
+
+The lieutenant of the Rangers, having received his orders, hurried away
+to attend to their execution.
+
+Mildred was already apparelled for her ride, and came at this moment
+from the house along the gravel walk. Her cheek, lately pale, had now
+begun to show the ruddy hue of health. Her full, dark-blue eye, although
+habitually expressive of a thoughtful temperament, frequently sparkled
+with the sudden flashes of a playful spirit, and oftener with the fire
+of an ardent resolution. Her features, marked by a well-defined outline,
+bore a strong resemblance to her brother's, and, when animated by the
+quick-speeding emotions of her mind, presented a countenance unusually
+gifted with the graces of external beauty. The impression which her
+physiognomy conveyed, was that of an impassioned and enthusiastic
+nature, and of a feminine courage that was sufficient for any emergency.
+A clear skin gave brilliancy to her complexion; and, although habits of
+exposure to the air had slightly impaired its lustre, the few traces
+which this exposure left, rather communicated the agreeable idea of a
+wholesome and vigorous constitution. The tones of her voice were soft
+and gentle, and full of harmony; and, when stimulated by her feelings,
+rich, deep, and commanding. Her figure, of what might be deemed a medium
+height in females, was neat and agile, well proportioned, and combining
+the flexible ease proper to her sex, with a degree of steadiness and
+strength that might be denominated masculine. Her movement was graceful,
+distinguished by a ready hand and free step; and it was impossible to
+look upon her most familiar bearing, without being struck by the
+indication which it gave of a self-possessed, fearless, and careering
+temper, allied to a mind raised above the multitude by a consciousness
+of intellectual force.
+
+As Mildred advanced along the shaded walk, she was followed by a
+fantastical little attendant, whom, in the toyish freak of a solitary
+and luxurious life, she had trained to fill the station of a lady's
+page. This was a diminutive negro boy, not above ten years of age, of a
+delicate figure, and now gaudily bedecked in a vest of scarlet cloth, a
+pair of loose white linen trowsers drawn at the ancle, and red slippers.
+A ruffle fell over his neck, and full white sleeves were fastened with
+silken cords at his wrists. A scarlet velvet cap gave a finish to the
+apparel of this gorgeous little elf; and the dress, grotesque as it was,
+was not badly set off by the saucy, familiar port of the conceited
+menial. Whether he had been destined from his birth to this pampered
+station,--or, accidentally, like many of the eastern monarchs, raised to
+the purple,--he bore the romantic name of Endymion, and was fully as
+much at the call of his patroness, and as fond of sleep, as him of Mount
+Latmos. His business seemed to be at the present moment to acquit
+himself of the responsible duty of holding an ivory-mounted riding-whip
+in readiness for the service of his mistress.
+
+When Mildred had crossed the lawn and arrived at the spot where Henry
+now stood, she was saluted by her brother, with--
+
+"Stand, my gentle sister, you and your monkey! Ah, Mildred, you are not
+what you used to be; you have grown much too grave of late. Bear up,
+dear sister: for, after all, what is it! Why we have been beaten, and we
+must fight it over again, that's all. And as to the major, your
+partiality magnifies his dangers. Hasn't he an arm?--yes; and hasn't he
+a leg?--which, in war, I hold to be just as useful sometimes."
+
+"There is a dreadful uncertainty, brother," replied Mildred. "I dream of
+the worst."
+
+"A fig for your dreams, sister Mildred! They have been all sorts of
+ways, and that you know. Now, I have a waking dream, and that is, that
+before you are twenty-four hours older you will hear of Major Butler."
+
+"Would to heaven your dream may prove true!" replied Mildred. "But,
+Henry, you love me, and affection is an arrant cheat in its prophecies."
+
+"Tush then, sister! don't talk of it. For when we know nothing, it does
+no good to get to fancying. These are the times to act; and perhaps I'll
+surprise you yet."
+
+"With what, good brother?"
+
+"Order arms," replied Henry, evading his sister's inquiry, and at the
+same time assuming a military erectness, and bringing his rifle briskly
+to the ground--"with the beauty of my drill, sister. It even surprises
+myself. You shall see me march." And here he sportively shouldered his
+rifle and stepped with a measured pace across the green, and then back
+again; whilst the saucy Endymion, presuming on his privilege, with mimic
+gestures, followed immediately in Henry's rear, taking large strides to
+keep his ground. When Henry perceived the apish minion thus upon his
+track he burst out into a laugh.
+
+"You huge giant-killer, do you mock me?" he exclaimed. "Sister, I will
+smother your body-guard in the crown of my cap, if he isn't taught
+better manners."
+
+"Henry, I cannot share your light heart with you," said Mildred
+sorrowfully, "mine is heavy."
+
+"And mine is yours, sister, light or heavy; in sunshine or in storm,
+summer and winter, dear Mildred, it is always yours. It was a trick of
+mine to amuse you. And if I do not seem to feel, sister, as you do, it
+is because I mean to act. We men have no time for low spirits."
+
+"Stephen Foster is here at the door with our horses, brother. Boy, give
+me the whip--now, away. The gay feathers of this bird," said Mildred, as
+the little black retired, "do not become a follower of mine."
+
+The new aspect of affairs, since the defeat of Camden, had pressed
+grievously upon Mildred's spirits. The country was full of disheartening
+rumors, and every day added particulars that were of a nature to
+increase the distress. The bloody fate of the brave De Kalb, and the
+soldiers that fell by his side; the triumph with which Cornwallis had
+begun his preparations for further conquests; the destitution and
+disarray of the American army, now flying before its enemy; the tales of
+unsparing sequestration with which, in Carolina, the lands of those who
+still bore arms in the cause of independence, were visited; the military
+executions of prisoners charged with the violation of a constructive
+allegiance, in the conquered districts; the harsh measures which were
+adopted to break the heart of the rebellion, that still lingered behind
+the march of the victorious army; and, above all, the boastful
+confidence with which Cornwallis, by his proclamations, sought to open
+the way for his invasion of North Carolina and Virginia, by attempting
+to rally the liege subjects of the king under his standard: all these
+events came on the wings of rumor, and had lighted up a flame through
+the whole country. To Mildred, they all imported an ill omen as regarded
+the fate of Arthur Butler. Now and then, a straggling soldier of Gates's
+broken force arrived at the Dove Cote, where he was received with an
+eager hospitality, and closely questioned as to the events in which he
+had participated. But of Butler, not even the remotest tidings were
+obtained. For the present, the uncertainty of his fortune filled
+Mildred's thoughts with the most anxious and unhappy misgivings; and
+this frame of mind over-mastered all other feelings. The late visit of
+Tyrrel to the Dove Cote, and the abrupt departure of her father with
+this individual, on an unavowed expedition, were not calculated to allay
+her fears; and she felt herself pressed on all sides with the presages
+of coming misfortune. In these difficulties she did not lose her
+fortitude; but, like a mariner benighted in a dangerous strait, she
+counted over the anxious moments of her voyage, expecting, at each
+succeeding instant, to hear the dreadful stranding of her bark upon the
+unseen rock, though bravely prepared for the worst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+AN ARRIVAL AT THE DOVE COTE. MILDRED RESOLVES ON A PERILOUS ADVENTURE.
+
+
+It was in the state of painful expectation described in the last
+chapter, that Mildred now rode out, daily, upon the highways, in the
+feeble hope of hearing something of importance from the casual wayfarers
+who, in the present excited condition of the country, were thronging the
+roads. On the morning to which our narrative refers, she had charged
+Henry to procure the attendance of Stephen Foster, to whom, as it was
+known that he was about to accompany his troop towards the scene of
+hostilities, she was anxious to intrust a letter for Butler, as well as
+to communicate to him some instructions relating to it.
+
+Stephen was, accordingly, now in attendance. A sleek, full-blooded roan,
+of an active, deer-like figure, and showing by his mettlesome antics the
+high training of a pampered favorite, stood in the care of the groom at
+the door; and Mildred, aided by her brother, sprang into her saddle with
+the ease and confidence of one familiarized to the exploit. When
+mounted, she appeared to great advantage. She was an expert rider, and
+managed her horse with a dexterous grace. The very position of command
+and authority which her saddle gave her, seemed to raise her spirits
+into a happier elevation.
+
+"Follow me, Mister Stephen," she said, "I have service for you. And it
+will not be out of the fashion of the time that a lady should be
+'squired by an armed soldier. We take the road down the river. Have a
+care, brother, how you bound off at the start--the hill is steep, and a
+horse's foot is not over sure when pressed too rapidly on the descent."
+
+The cavalcade descended the hill, crossed the ford, and then took a
+direction down the stream, by the road that led beneath the Fawn's
+Tower. Mildred sighed as she gazed around her, and saw the spot of her
+last meeting with Butler. The little skiff by which her lover had glided
+across the water, now lay upon a dry bed of rock, in the same position,
+perhaps, where a month ago he had left it. The summer drought had
+reduced the stream, and deprived the light boat (whose tackle kept it
+prisoner to the root of the sycamore) of the element on which it had
+floated. This spectacle suggested to Mildred's thoughts a melancholy
+image. "Even thus," she muttered to herself, "have I been left by him.
+He has gone to obey the calls of honor and duty, and I, fettered to my
+native woods, have seen the stream of happiness roll by, one while
+swollen to a torrent, and again dried up by the fervid heat of war,
+until, like this sun-withered bark, I have been left upon the shore,
+without one drop of that clear current on which alone I hoped to live.
+Come hither, Stephen," she said, as she slackened the rein of her horse:
+and the obedient attendant was immediately at her side.
+
+"You set out southwards, with your comrades of the troop, in a few
+days?"
+
+"Orders may come to-morrow," replied Foster.
+
+"It is no holiday game that you are going to play," continued the lady.
+
+"When Congress cut out this here war for us, Miss Mildred," answered the
+hunter, "they didn't count upon settling of it without making some tall
+fellows the shorter. And it is my opinion that it is a p'int of
+conscience that every man should take his spell of the work."
+
+"You go to it with a good heart," said Mildred. "We women can only pray
+for you, lieutenant."
+
+"I shall pull trigger with a steadier hand, ma'am, when I think that
+your father's daughter is praying for me."
+
+"Stephen," continued Mildred, "you may chance to see some one whose duty
+may lead him further south than, perhaps, you may be required to travel:
+I will give you a letter to a friend of mine, who, I fear, is in
+distress. If such traveller be trusty and willing to do me a service, as
+perhaps he may for your sake, I must beg you to put the letter in his
+charge, and tell him to seek out Major Butler, and contrive to have it
+delivered to him."
+
+"If it concerns you, Miss Mildred, I will take upon myself to hunt Major
+Butler, or I will make as sure of the letter reaching him as I may have
+a chance."
+
+"Many thanks, Stephen. There is a purse containing some few pieces of
+gold for you. Do not spare the use of it to perform my wish."
+
+Stephen looked bashfully at the lady as she held the proffered purse in
+her hand.
+
+"Take it, Mr. Foster. It is money to be employed in my service, and it
+may stand you in good stead when better friends are absent."
+
+The hunter uttered an awkward laugh. "If you would allow me to take the
+smallest piece of money, it would more than hire a man express."
+
+"Take it all, Stephen, it is but a trifle. They call this the sinew of
+war," said Mildred, smiling.
+
+"It's an utter, moral, and resolute impossibility," answered Foster,
+"for me to take all that money. Bless your soul, Miss Mildred, my pocket
+arn't used to such company."
+
+"Pshaw, Steve," ejaculated Henry, "you are the greenest soldier in these
+hills, to be playing boy about this money. Take it, man, and none of
+your nonsense; precious little gold you'll see before you get back!"
+
+"Well, I'll not be ticklish about it," said Foster. "Empty the bag, Miss
+Mildred, into my hand."
+
+"I mean that you shall have the purse with it," added Mildred.
+
+"No, no; that's too valuable a piece of fine silk net-work for me."
+
+"There again, Lieutenant Foster," said Henry; "if you were not my own
+superior officer, I would say you were a fool."
+
+"Give it to me," replied Stephen, laughing, "I have heard of cheating
+money out of a man's pocket, but I never saw it cheated into it before."
+
+"You shall have the letter to-morrow, Stephen," said Mildred, "and as
+you value your poor friend, who worked that purse with her own hands, do
+not fail to make an effort to learn something of Major Butler, and to
+have my letter delivered to him. He was made a prisoner somewhere on his
+way to Georgia, and I have heard escaped; but, perhaps, that's not true.
+You may find some one who can tell you more about him. Inquire of all
+you meet: and, Stephen, in my name, beg your comrades to aid you.
+Remember," added Mildred, with a smile, "this is a lady's secret. I am
+sure you will keep it."
+
+"Most sacrilegiously and with all possible punctuation!" replied the
+woodsman. "And you shall hear of the Major, Miss Mildred, dead or
+alive."
+
+"Oh heaven!" exclaimed Mildred aloud; and then recollecting herself, she
+breathed in a whisper, "that word vibrated a note of fear. Your zeal
+shall have my warmest gratitude, Stephen."
+
+By this time the party had reached the second ford, where the road
+recrossed the river, in the neighborhood of Mrs. Dimock's, and in a few
+moments they were at the door of the little inn.
+
+A brief halt, and a few words with the good hostess, furnished Mildred
+neither with a letter nor with any information of moment from the
+quarter, where at this time the thoughts of nearly the whole of the
+American people were turned.
+
+"Woful days, Miss Mildred," said the landlady, shaking her head, and
+wearing a face of lugubrious length, "woful indeed! nothing but
+hurry-skurry, and bragging and swearing. What with Gates's runaways,
+that--shame upon them!--come whipping post haste along the road; and
+messengers, dragoons, and drill sergeants, all out of breath, out of
+money, and out of everything but appetites; which, mercy on me! never
+fail in the worst of times: and what with musterings of volunteers, and
+drumming and fifing of it, up hill and down dale, it is as much as one
+can do to keep one's wits. Heaven help us, my dear! I don't know what we
+shall come to. But poor Arthur," she continued, in a mournful and lower
+key, "not a word from him. It looks awfully: I could almost sit down and
+weep. Nevertheless, Miss Mildred, my child, be of good cheer, God will
+keep his foot from the path that leads to the snares; we must all trust
+in His goodness."
+
+"Alas, alas!" breathed Mildred, in an accent of sorrow. "Brother, ride
+forward. If a good word reaches you, Mistress Dimock, send it to me,
+even if it be at midnight."
+
+Mildred pursued her ride, and Henry, seeing how much she was dejected,
+applied himself, with the kindest assiduity, to bring back comfort and
+cheerfulness to her mind. He sought to amuse her with such fragments of
+the gossip of the country-side as were likely to interest her
+patriotism; and he contrived to recall to her recollection passages in
+the life of Butler, which related to the perils he had heretofore
+encountered, and from which he had extricated himself by his address and
+soldiership; and Henry told these in such a way as to infer from them
+arguments of comfort that suited the present state of his sister's
+feelings. As was usual in most of the young cadet's discourses, he
+glided into that half-boastful and half-waggish vein in which he
+delighted to refer to his own pursuits and aspirations after military
+glory.
+
+"A man naturally, sister," he said, erecting himself in his stirrups,
+and assuming the stiff carriage of a conceited young adjutant on parade,
+"a man naturally feels proud on horseback. It is what I call
+glorification, to have a noble beast under you, that you can turn and
+wind and check and set forward as you please, as if his limbs were your
+own. You feel stronger; and, in this world, I do believe a strong man is
+always proud. Now, I should think that a woman would feel even more so
+than a man; because, being weak by nature, she must grow happier to
+think how much muscle she can put in motion by only pulling a rein."
+
+"There is some philosophy in that, Henry," replied Mildred.
+
+"So there is, sister; and I tell you more, that when a person has this
+sort of glorification, as they call it, they always get more contented
+with themselves. And that's the reason, as far as I am a judge, that you
+always feel in better spirits when you are on horseback; and,
+especially, if it should be in front of a troop. Hallo, Stephen!"
+ejaculated Henry, taken by surprise, in the midst of his discourse, by
+the sight of a flock of wild turkeys that ran across the road, some
+hundred paces ahead. "Did you see that? Halt, man--here's game for us."
+And, in an instant, he sprang from his horse, which he fastened to one
+of the neighboring trees, and ran off with his rifle in his hand, in
+pursuit of the flock.
+
+Stephen, whose instincts were those of a keen sportsman, when game was
+before him, did the same thing; and in a few moments Mildred found
+herself left entirely alone in the road, half disposed to chide and
+half to smile at the eager and ungallant desertion of her attendants,
+who were now in quick but cautious pursuit of the brood of turkeys. The
+speed with which these birds are accustomed to run through the woods,
+allured their pursuers to some distance into the depths of the forest;
+and Mildred patiently awaited the return of her companions on the ground
+where they had left her.
+
+After five or ten minutes had elapsed, it was with a sensation of some
+little concern that she descried, upon the road, a stranger mounted on
+horseback, and coming at a brisk trot to the spot where she had halted.
+The appearance of the individual was that of one of the irregular
+soldiers who had accompanied Gates's array; his dress was rustic, and
+his weapon, according to the almost universal fashion of the country
+troops, the long rifle. The condition of his sturdy steed showed long
+and fatiguing service; whilst the bold and manly person of the rider
+left little room to suppose that he was to be classed amongst the many
+who had fled in panic from the field of action. As soon as the stranger
+became aware of the presence of the lady, he slackened his speed and
+approached with a respectful salutation.
+
+"If I mought be so bold, ma'am, how far mought it be to a river they
+call the Rockfish?"
+
+"It is scarce two miles away, sir," replied Mildred.
+
+"And there, if I don't disremember," said the traveller, "is a house
+kept by the widow Dimock; the Blue Ball, I think?"
+
+"There is, sir."
+
+"And no forks in the road betwixt this and the widow's?"
+
+"It is a plain road," replied Mildred.
+
+"And about two miles beyont--is squire Lindsay's, at a place they call
+the Dove Cote?"
+
+"Does your business take you there?" asked Mildred, with interest; "are
+you from the army?--whence come you?"
+
+"Beg pardon, ma'am," replied the stranger, smiling, "but I am an old
+sodger, and rather warry about answering questions that consarn myself.
+I suppose it is likely I mought see Mr. Lindsay?"
+
+"Pray, sir, tell me what brings you here, and who you are? I have
+special reasons for presuming so far upon your kindness. I myself live
+at the Dove Cote, and"--
+
+"Then, mayhap, you mought have hearn of one Major Arthur Butler?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir,--if you have any news of him, speak it to me quickly,"
+exclaimed Mildred, with much agitation.
+
+"By that sparkling of your eye, ma'am, it is no fool's guess that you
+are the identical particular lady that I have rode nigh on to five
+hundred miles to see. You have hearn the Major tell of Horse Shoe
+Robinson?"
+
+"And Arthur Butler."
+
+"He is well, madam, and in good heart, excepting some trifling drawbacks
+that don't come to much account."
+
+"Thank God, thank God, for this news!"
+
+"I have brought two letters, Miss Lindsay, from the Major, for you; they
+will tell you, I believe, mainly, that the Major is in the hands of the
+Philistians," said Horse Shoe, rummaging through the plaits of his
+dress, and getting loose the belt and leathern pouch from which, by the
+help of his jack-knife, he extricated the missives; "but they leave the
+story to be told pretty much by me. The long and the short of it is,
+that the Major is a prisoner, and wants some assistance from you: but
+there is no danger of any harm being done him."
+
+Mildred eagerly tore open the letters and read them; then heaving a
+sigh, she said, "He is closely watched, and galled with misfortune. He
+refers to you, Mr. Robinson, and I must beg you to tell me all."
+
+Horse Shoe, with a cheerful and occasionally even with a laughing
+manner, adopted to reassure the lady and quell her fears, recounted all
+such particulars of Butler's adventures as were necessary to enable her
+to comprehend the nature of his present mission to the Dove Cote.
+
+Before this narrative was brought to a close, Henry and Foster had
+returned, bringing with them a large turkey which Henry had shot, and
+which the young sportsman was exhibiting with ostentatious triumph.
+
+"Huzza, here's a new turn of good luck! Horse Shoe Robinson, the brave
+sergeant," shouted Henry, as soon as he observed the stout figure of our
+old friend. "Is Major Butler here too?" he demanded, as he shook the
+sergeant's hand, "or have you come alone? Now, sister, you ought to be a
+happy woman. You bring us good news, Mr. Horse Shoe, I know you do."
+
+"The news is better than it mought have been if the Tories had had their
+way," replied Horse Shoe. "But a sodger's life has both shade and
+sunshine in it; and the Major is now a little in the shade."
+
+"Brother, mount quickly," said Mildred, "we have business before us. Mr.
+Robinson, ride beside me; I have much to say to you."
+
+Stephen Foster, after saluting the sergeant, and reminding Mildred of
+his engagement to meet his troop, took his leave of the party.
+
+The rest repaired, with as much expedition as they were able to employ,
+to the Dove Cote, Horse Shoe detailing to the brother and sister, as
+they went along, a great many particulars of the late history of Butler.
+
+When they reached the house, orders were given for the accommodation of
+the sergeant; and the most sedulous attention was shown to everything
+that regarded his comfort. Frequent conferences were held between
+Mildred and Henry, and the trusty emissary. The letters were reperused,
+and all the circumstances that belonged to Butler's means of liberation
+were anxiously discussed.
+
+"How unlucky is it," said Mildred, "that my father should be absent at
+such a moment as this! Arthur's appeal to him would convince him how
+wicked was Tyrrel's charge against his honor. And yet, in my father's
+late mood, the appeal might have been ineffectual: he might have
+refused. Sergeant, we are in great difficulties, and I know not what to
+do. A letter, you say, has been written to Lord Cornwallis?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, and by a man who sharpened his pen with his sword."
+
+"You heard nothing of the answer of his Lordship?"
+
+"There was not time to hear."
+
+"Cornwallis will be prejudiced by those around him, and he will refuse,"
+said Mildred, with an air of deep solicitude.
+
+"Not if he be the man I take him to be, young lady," replied Horse
+Shoe. "The world says he is above doing a cowardly thing; and it isn't
+natural for one brave man to wish harm against another, except in open
+war."
+
+"Did you hear of one Tyrrel, in the British camp? But how could
+you?--that was an assumed name."
+
+"You mean the gentleman who was here when the major stopped at Mrs.
+Dimock's?" said Robinson: "that was the name the landlady spoke
+about--if I remember myself. I did not hear of him, ma'am, in my
+travels; but his servant, James Curry, I met oftener, I undertake to
+say, than the fellow wished. He was consarned in ambushing Major Butler
+and me at Grindall's Ford. It was our opinion he was hired."
+
+"There," exclaimed Mildred, "that confirms what I guessed of Tyrrel's
+villany. I will go to Cornwallis myself: I will expose the whole matter
+to his lordship. Henry, my dear brother, it is a rash venture, but I
+will essay it. You must accompany and protect me."
+
+"That's a sudden thought, sister, and you may count on my hearty good
+will to help it along. It is a brave thought of yours, besides," said
+Henry, pondering over it--"and everybody will praise you for it."
+
+Robinson listened to this resolve with an incredulous ear.
+
+"You wouldn't venture, young madam, to trust yourself amongst such rough
+and unchristian people, as you would have to go among before you could
+see Cornwallis? in danger of being taken up by outposts and pickets, or
+arrested by patroles, or dragged about by dragoons and fellows that have
+more savagery in them than wolves. Oh no, ma'am, you don't know what you
+would have to put up with; that's onpossible. Mr. Henry, here, and me,
+can take a letter."
+
+"I may not trust to letters, I must go myself. You will protect me, Mr.
+Robinson? my brother and I will form some good excuse that shall take us
+through safely."
+
+"Sartainly, ma'am, I will stand by you through all chances, if you go,"
+replied the sergeant. "But there's not many women, with their eyes open,
+would set out on such a march."
+
+"It will be easily achieved," said Mildred: "it is an honest and
+virtuous cause that takes me away, and I will attempt it with a valiant
+spirit. It cannot but come to good. My father's name will give me free
+passage through the enemy's lines. And you shall pass as my attendant."
+
+"If you have a heart stout enough, ma'am, for such hard fare, I believe
+I mought undertake for your safe passage," answered Horse Shoe, "and it
+sartainly would do the major great good to hear that you was stirring in
+this matter."
+
+"Sergeant, recruit yourself as long as you think necessary," said
+Mildred; "but if you can be ready to set out to-morrow, I should like to
+go then, and at an early hour."
+
+"Don't stand upon my fatigue, young lady: I never saw the time when I
+wan't ready to march at the shortest warning. With your leave, I will go
+look after my horse, Captain Peter, I call him, ma'am. A little chance
+of a roll, and the privilege of a good green pasture, soon puts him in
+marching trim."
+
+The sergeant now left the room.
+
+"Sister," said Henry, "you never thought a better thought, and you never
+contrived a better act, than just taking this matter in hand yourself,
+under mine and Horse Shoe's protection. Because Horse Shoe is as brave a
+man as you ever fell in with, and as for me, I'll back the sergeant. We
+can finish the thing in two or three weeks, and then, when I see you
+safe home, I'll go and join the Rangers."
+
+"It is a perilous and uncertain journey, brother, but it is my duty. I
+would rather fall beneath the calamities of war than longer endure my
+present feelings. Provide yourself, brother, with all things requisite
+for our journey, and give old Isaac, the gardener, notice that he must
+go with us. We shall set out to-morrow. I will write a letter to my
+father to-night explaining my purpose. And one thing, Henry; you will be
+careful to say nothing to any one of the route we shall travel."
+
+"I'll take my carbine, sister," said Henry, "I can sling it with a
+strap. And I was thinking I had better have a broadsword."
+
+"Leave that behind," replied Mildred, as a smile rose on her features.
+
+"The bugle I will certainly take," added Henry; "because it might be
+useful in case we got separated; and I will teach you to understand my
+signals. Isaac shall carry horse-pistols on his saddle, and the
+sergeant shall have a great wallet of provisions. You see I understand
+campaigning, Mildred. And now," added the eager young soldier, as he
+left the apartment, "hurra for the volunteers of the Dove Cote!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+MILDRED BEGINS HER JOURNEY.
+
+
+The man who writes the history of woman's love will find himself
+employed in drawing out a tangled skein. It is a history of secret
+emotions and vivid contrasts, which may well go nigh to baffle his
+penetration and to puzzle his philosophy. There is in it a surface of
+timid and gentle bashfulness concealing an underflow of strong and heady
+passion: a seeming caprice that a breath may shake or a word alarm; yet,
+all the while, an earnest devotion of soul which, in its excited action,
+holds all danger cheap that crosses the path of its career. The
+sportive, changeful, and coward nature that dallies with affection as a
+jest, and wins admiration by its affrighted coyness; that flies and
+would be followed; that revolts and would be soothed, entreated, and on
+bended knee implored, before it is won; that same nature will undergo
+the ordeal of the burning ploughshare, take all the extremes of misery
+and distress, brave the fury of the elements and the wrath of man, and
+in every peril be a patient comforter, when the cause that moves her is
+the vindication of her love. Affection is to her what glory is to man,
+an impulse that inspires the most adventurous heroism.
+
+There had been for some days past in Mildred's mind an anxious misgiving
+of misfortune to Butler, which was but ill concealed in a quiet and
+reserved demeanor. The argument of his safety seemed to have little to
+rest upon, and she could perceive that it was not believed by those who
+uttered it. There rose upon her thoughts imaginings or presentiments of
+ill, which she did not like to dwell upon, but which she could not
+banish. And now when Horse Shoe had told his tale, the incidents did not
+seem to warrant the levity with which he passed them by. She was afraid
+to express her doubts: and they brooded upon her mind, hatching pain and
+secret grief. It was almost an instinct, therefore, that directed her
+resolve, when she announced her determination to go in person in quest
+of Cornwallis, and to plead Butler's cause herself to the British
+general. Her soul rebelled at the gross calumny which had been invented
+to bring down vengeance upon Arthur's head; and she had no thought of
+thwarting the accuser's wickedness, but by an appeal to the highest
+power for that redress which an honorable soldier, in her opinion, could
+not refuse, even to an enemy. As to the personal hazard, inconvenience,
+or difficulty of her projected enterprise, no thought of either for a
+moment occupied her. She saw but her purpose before her, and did not
+pause to reckon on the means by which she was to promote it. She
+reflected not on the censure of the world; nor on its ridicule; nor on
+its want of sympathy for her feelings: she reflected only on her power
+to serve one dearer to her than a friend, upon her duty, and upon the
+agony of her doubts. If her father had been at hand she might have
+appealed to him, and, perhaps, have submitted to his counsel; but he was
+absent, she knew not where, and she was convinced that no time was to be
+lost. "Even now, whilst we debate," she said, "his life may be forfeited
+to the malice of the wicked men who have ensnared him."
+
+Her conduct in this crisis is not to be weighed in the scale wherein the
+seemly and decorous observances of female propriety are ordinarily
+balanced. The times, the occasion, and the peculiar position of Mildred,
+take her case out of the pale of common events, and are entitled to
+another standard. She will be judged by the purity of her heart, the
+fervor of her attachment, and her sense of the importance of the service
+she was about to confer. And with the knowledge of these, I must leave
+her vindication to the generosity of my reader.
+
+When the morning came and breakfast was over, the horses were brought to
+the door. Henry was active in all the preliminary arrangements for the
+journey, and now bestirred himself with an increased air of personal
+importance. Isaac, a grey-haired negro of a sedate, and, like all his
+tribe, of an abundantly thoughtful length of visage, appeared in a suit
+of livery, ready booted and spurred for his journey. A large
+portmanteau, containing a supply of baggage for his mistress, was duly
+strapped behind his saddle, whilst a pair of pistols were buckled upon
+the pummel. Henry's horse also had all the furniture necessary to a
+campaign and the young martialist himself, notwithstanding his sister's
+disapproval, was begirt with a sword-belt, from which depended a light
+sabre, with which he was in the habit of exhibiting himself in the corps
+of the Rangers. His bugle hung gracefully by his side, and his carbine
+was already provided with a strap to sling it across his back. Stephen
+Foster was lost in wonder at these sudden preparations, of the import of
+which he could gain no more intelligence from Henry than that a movement
+towards the army was intended, of a portentous character.
+
+Horse Shoe sat quietly in the porch looking on with a professional
+unconcern, whilst his trusty Captain Peter, bearing a pair of
+saddle-bags, now stuffed with a plethora of provisions, slouched his
+head, in patient fixedness, waiting the order to move. A bevy of
+domestics hung around the scene of preparation, lost in conjectures as
+to the meaning of this strange array, and prosecuting an inquiry to
+satisfy themselves, with fruitless perseverance.
+
+When Mildred appeared at the door she was habited for her journey. The
+housekeeper, an aged dame, stood near her.
+
+"My travel, Mistress Morrison," she said, addressing the matron, and at
+the same time putting a letter into her hand, "I trust will not keep me
+long from home. If my father should return before I do, be careful to
+give him that. Mr. Foster, you will not forget your promise," she added,
+as she delivered the second letter, which, notwithstanding her own
+expedition, she had prepared for Butler, in the hope that opportunity
+might favor its transmission by Stephen.
+
+"The gold," said Stephen, putting his hand in his pocket; "you will want
+it yourself, Miss Mildred, and I can do without it."
+
+"Never mind that," interrupted Mildred. "Keep your promise, and I hope
+to be able to reward you more according to your deserts."
+
+"Heaven and the saints protect you, Miss Mildred!" said the housekeeper,
+as the lady bade her farewell. "You leave us on some heavy errand. God
+grant that you come back with a gayer face than you take away!" Then
+turning up her eyes, and raising her hands, she ejaculated, "This is an
+awful thing, and past my understanding!"
+
+Mildred took leave of the rest of the group around the door, and was
+soon in her saddle. This was a signal for the rest to mount, and as
+Stephen Foster delivered Henry his rifle, the latter took occasion to
+whisper in the hunter's ear--
+
+"It is not unlikely, Steve, that we may meet each other again over here
+in Carolina; so remember to make inquiries for us as you go along, and
+tell the men I hope to join them before they fire one shot in spite. But
+mum, Steve, not a word about our route."
+
+Stephen shook hands with his young comrade; and Henry, seeing that the
+rest of the party had already left the door and were some distance down
+the hill, called out with an elated tone of good humor--"Farewell, Mrs.
+Morrison, and all the rest of you!" and putting spurs to his horse
+galloped off to join his sister.
+
+The route pursued by the travellers lay due south, and during the first
+three or four days of their journey they were still within the confines
+of Virginia. To travel on horseback was a customary feat, even for
+ladies, in those days of rough roads and scant means of locomotion: and
+such a cavalcade as we have described was calculated to excite no
+particular inquiry from the passer-by, beyond that which would now be
+made on the appearance of any party of pleasure upon the high-roads, in
+the course of a summer excursion. Mildred experienced severe fatigue in
+the first stages of her journey; but by degrees this wore off, and she
+was soon enabled to endure the long day's ride with scarcely less
+inconvenience than her fellow-travellers.
+
+At that period there were but few inns in these thinly-peopled
+districts, and such as were already established were small and but
+meagrely provided. This deficiency was, in some degree, compensated by
+the good will with which the owners of private establishments in the
+country received the better class of travellers, and the ready
+hospitality with which they entertained them. Henry took upon himself to
+obtain information of the gentlemen's seats that lay near the route of
+his journey, and to conduct the party to them whenever his sister's
+comfort required better accommodation than the common inns afforded.
+
+As our travellers had thus far kept along that range of country which
+lay immediately under the mountains, they were not annoyed by the
+intense heats which, at this season, prevailed in the lowlands. The
+weather, ever since their departure, had been uncommonly fine, and as is
+usual in this district, the month of September had brought its cool,
+dewy nights, whilst the early hours of the morning were even marked by a
+little sharpness, almost approaching to frost. The effect of this on
+Mildred was to recruit the weariness of travel, and better enable her to
+encounter the noon-tide fervors of the sun; and she had so far endured
+the toils of her journey with an admirable spirit. Actual trial
+generally results in demonstrating how much we are prone to exaggerate
+in advance the difficulties of any undertaking. Accordingly, Mildred's
+present experience strengthened her resolution to proceed, and even
+communicated an unexpected increase of contentment to her feelings.
+
+On the fifth day the party crossed the river Dan, and entered the
+province of North Carolina. A small remnant of Gates's shattered army
+lay at Hillsborough, at no great distance from the frontier; and as
+Mildred was anxious to avoid the inquiry or molestation to be expected
+in passing through a military post, she resolved to travel by a lower
+route, and Horse Shoe, therefore, at her suggestion, directed his
+journey towards the little village of Tarborough.
+
+Cornwallis, it was understood, since the battle of Camden, had removed
+his head-quarters into the neighborhood of the Waxhaws, some distance up
+the Catawba, where he was supposed to be yet stationary. The whole
+country in the neighborhood of either army was in a state of earnest
+preparation; the British commander recruiting his forces for further and
+immediate operations--the American endeavoring to reassemble his feeble
+and scattered auxiliaries for defence. At the present moment, actual
+hostilities between these two parties were entirely suspended, in
+anxious anticipation of the rapidly approaching renewal of the struggle.
+It was a breathing time, when the panting combatants, exhausted by
+battle, stood sullenly eyeing each other and making ready--the one to
+strike, the other to ward off another staggering blow.
+
+The country over which Mildred was now to travel was calculated to tax
+her powers of endurance to the utmost. It was a dreary waste of barren
+wilderness, covered with an endless forest of gloomy pine, through which
+a heavy, sandy road crept in lurid and melancholy shade. Here and there
+a miserable hut occurred to view, with a few ragged inmates, surrounded
+by all the signs of squalid poverty. The principal population were only
+to be seen along the banks of the rivers which penetrated into this
+region, some twenty or thirty miles distant from each other. The
+alluvial bottoms through which these streams found a channel to the
+ocean, were the only tracts of land of sufficient fertility to afford
+support to man--all between them was a sterile and gloomy forest.
+
+Still, these regions were not deserted. Bodies of irregular troops, ill
+clothed and worse armed, and generally bearing the haggard features of
+disease, such as mark the population of a sickly climate, were often
+encountered upon the road, directing their wearied march towards the
+head-quarters of the republican army. The rigors of the Southern summer
+had not yet abated; and it was with painful steps in the deep sand, amid
+clouds of suffocating dust, that these little detachments prosecuted
+their journey.
+
+Mildred, so far from sinking under the weariness and increasing
+hardships of her present toils, seemed to be endued with a capacity for
+sustaining them much beyond anything that could have been believed of
+her sex. Her courage grew with the difficulties that beset her. She
+looked composedly upon the obstacles before her, and encountered them,
+not only without a murmur, but even with a cheerfulness to which she had
+hitherto been a stranger. The steadiness of her onward march, her
+unrepining patience, and the gentle solicitude with which she turned the
+thoughts of her companions from herself, and forbade the supposition
+that her powers were over-taxed, showed how deeply her feelings were
+engaged in her enterprise, and how maturely her mind had taken its
+resolution.
+
+"One never would have guessed," said Horse Shoe, towards the close of
+the second day after they had entered North Carolina, "that a lady so
+daintily nursed as you was at home, Mistress Mildred, could have ever
+borne this here roughing of it through these piney woods. But I have
+made one observation, Miss Lindsay, that no one can tell what they are
+fit for till they are tried; and on the back of that I have another,
+that when there's a great stir that rouses up a whole country, it don't
+much signify whether they are man or woman, they all get roused alike.
+'Pon my word, ma'am, I have seen men--who think themselves sodgers
+too--that would be onwilling to trust themselves at this time o' year
+through such a dried up piece of pine barren as we have been travelling
+over for two days past."
+
+"You remember the fable of the willow and the oak, Mr. Robinson,"
+replied Mildred, smiling; "the storm may bring down the sturdy tree, but
+the supple shrub will bend before it without breaking."
+
+"I'm not much given to religious takings-on," said the sergeant, "but
+sometimes a notion comes into my head that looks a little that way, and
+that is, when God appoints a thing to be done, he gives them that's to
+do it all the wherewithals. Now, as Major Butler is a good man and a
+brave sodger--God bless him!--it does seem right that you, Mistress
+Lindsay,--who, I take on me to understand enough of your consarns and
+his'n, without offence, to say has a leaning towards the major,--I say
+it does seem right and natural that you should lend a hand to help him
+out of tribulation; and so you see the cause being a good cause, the
+Lord has given you both wisdom and strength to do what is right."
+
+"We owe, sergeant, a duty to our country; and we serve God and our
+country both, when we strengthen the hands of its defenders."
+
+"That's a valiant speech, young lady, and it's a noble speech," said
+Horse Shoe, with an earnest emphasis. "I have often told the major that
+the women of this country had as honest thoughts about this here war,
+and was as warm for our cause as the men; and some of them, perhaps, a
+little warmer. They could be pitted against the women of any quarter of
+the aqueous globe, in bearing and forbearing both, when it is for the
+good of the country."
+
+"Henry is asleep on his horse," said Mildred, looking at her brother,
+who now, jaded and worn with the effort of travel, was nodding and
+dropping his head forward, and almost losing his seat. "What, Henry,
+brother!" she added, loud enough to rouse up the young horseman. "My
+trusty cavalier, are you going to fall from your horse? Where is all
+that boasted glorification upon which you were disposed to be so
+eloquent only a week ago? I thought a man on horseback was naturally
+proud: I fear it was only on holiday occasions you meant, Henry. Hav'n't
+you a word for a sunny day and a dry journey? You lag more like a
+miller's boy with his bag of meal, than a young soldier setting out on
+his adventures."
+
+"Ah, sister," said Henry, waking up, "this is nothing but
+pine--pine--and sand, without end. There is no game in the woods to keep
+a man on the look-out, except here and there a herd of wild hogs, that
+snort and run from us, like a squadron of cavalry, with their bristles
+set up on their backs as fierce as the back fin of a sunfish. There is
+not even grass to look at: you might see a black snake running half a
+mile amongst the trees. And then there are such great patches of burnt
+timber, every trunk staring right at you, as black as thunder. I'm tired
+of it all--I want to see the green fields again."
+
+"And, in truth, brother, so do I: but not until we can bring merry faces
+to look upon them. How far are we from Tarborough?"
+
+"We should be drawing nigh to the town," replied Horse Shoe, "for you
+may see that we shall soon be out of these woods, by the signs of open
+country ahead. The last squad of sodgers that passed us, said that when
+we came to the farms, we shouldn't be more than five miles from the
+town, and the sun isn't above an hour high."
+
+"In the hope of being soon housed, then, Mr. Robinson, I may confess to
+you I am somewhat weary; but a good night's rest will put me in fair
+condition for to-morrow's ride again."
+
+After the lapse of an hour, the party were safely sheltered in a
+tolerably comfortable inn at the village: and Mildred, aided by the
+sedulous care of Henry, found herself well bestowed in the best chamber
+of the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+From Tarborough our travellers continued their route towards the Pedee,
+by the main road which led through Cross creek, a small hamlet on Cape
+Fear river, near the site of the present town of Fayetteville. The
+general features of the country were even more forbidding than those I
+have already described as characteristic of this portion of North
+Carolina. Even to the present day, cultivation has done but little to
+cheer up the natural desolation of those tracts of wilderness which lie
+between the rivers. But at the early period to which the events I have
+been detailing have reference, the journey undertaken by our little
+caravan might be compared to that which is now frequently made through
+the more southern extremity of the Union, from the Atlantic to the Gulf
+of Mexico, an attempt seldom essayed by a female, and sufficiently
+trying to the hardihood of the stoutest travellers. The forethought and
+attention of Horse Shoe Robinson, however, contributed to alleviate the
+pains of the enterprise, and to enable Mildred to overcome its
+difficulties.
+
+In the present alarmed and excited state of this province, the party
+were less liable to interruption in this secluded and destitute section
+of the country, than they might have been, had they chosen a lower and
+more populous district; and the consciousness that every day's
+perseverance brought them nearer to the ultimate term of their journey,
+gave new vigor, at least, to Mildred's capacity to endure the privations
+to which she was exposed. But few vestiges of the war yet occurred to
+their view. The great wilderness, like the great ocean, retains no
+traces of the passage of hostile bodies. Sometimes, indeed, the signs of
+a woodland encampment were visible in the midst of the forest, on the
+margin of some sluggish brook or around a sylvan fountain, where the
+impression of recent hoof-prints, the scattered fragments of brushwood
+cut for temporary shelter, and the still smouldering ashes of camp
+fires, showed that masses of men had been in motion. The deer fled,
+too, with a more frightened bound towards their coverts, as if lately
+alarmed by the pursuit of the huntsman; but the images of devastation,
+which are associated with the horrid front of war in the mind of all
+familiar with its ravage, were absent. The eternal, leafy shade high
+arching over the heads of the wayfarers, furnished no object for human
+vengeance; and it still sighed in the fanning of the breeze, as of old
+it sighed before man claimed dominion in the soil it sheltered. A far
+different scene was shortly to be looked upon by our venturesome
+friends.
+
+Several days had again passed by, for the journey through the wilderness
+had been slowly prosecuted, when Robinson, towards the approach of
+evening, announced to Mildred his conjecture that they were not far off
+the Pedee. The banks of this river had been the scene of frequent
+hostilities, and the war that had been carried on here was of the most
+ruthless kind. The river is characterized by a broad, deep, and quiet
+stream, begirt with a vegetation of exceeding luxuriance. Its periodical
+overflow seems to have poured out upon its margin a soil of
+inexhaustible richness, that, for a mile or two on either side, forms a
+striking contrast with the low, barren sand-hills that hem in the river
+plain. Along this tract of level border, all the way to the Atlantic,
+are found, as is usually the case throughout the Carolinas, the large
+plantations of opulent gentlemen, who, by the cultivation of rice and
+cotton, turn the fertility of the soil to the best account. These
+possessions, presenting the most assailable points to an enemy, and,
+indeed, almost the only ones in which the great interests of the
+province might be wounded, were, during the whole of that bloody
+struggle which distinguished the days of the "Tory Ascendency," the
+constant objects of attack; and here the war was waged with a vindictive
+malignity, on the part of the British and Tory partisans, that is
+scarcely surpassed in the history of civil broils. The finest estates
+were sacked, the dwellings burnt, and the property destroyed with
+unsparing rage. The men were dragged from their houses and hung, the
+women and children turned without food or raiment into the wilderness,
+and political vengeance seemed to gorge itself to gluttony upon its own
+rapine.
+
+The thoughts of Robinson had been, for some days past, running upon the
+probable difficulties that might attend the guise in which he was now
+about to return to his native province. This was a subject of some
+concern, since he ran a risk of being compelled either to desert his
+charge, or to bring his companions into jeopardy, amongst the many
+persons of both armies who were, at least by report, acquainted with his
+name and his military connexions. He had explained to Mildred the
+necessity of his appearing in some definite character, associated with
+the object of her journey, and of which, upon emergency, he might claim
+the benefit to retain his post near her. This matter was summarily
+settled by Henry.
+
+"In general, Mr. Horse Shoe, you can call yourself Stephen Foster: you
+know Steve; and you can say that you are Mr. Philip Lindsay's gardener.
+Isaac, here, can let you enough into the craft to pass muster, if any of
+them should take it into their heads to examine you. Mind that, Isaac:
+and recollect, old fellow, you are only sister Mildred's waiting man."
+
+"Sartainly, master," replied Isaac.
+
+"And sergeant, I'll tell you all about Steve; so that you can get your
+lesson by heart. You have a wife and five children--remember that. I'll
+give you all their names by-and-by."
+
+"Thanks to the marcies of God, that ar'n't my misfortune yet," said
+Horse Shoe, laughing; "but, Mr. Henry, I have got conscience enough now
+for any lie that can be invented. The major and me talked that thing
+over, and he's of opinion that lying, in an enemy's country, is not
+forbidden in the scriptures. And I have hearn the preacher say that
+Rahab, who was not a woman of good fame no how, yet she was excused by
+the Lord for telling the king of Jericho a most thumping lie, consarning
+her not knowing what had become of the two men that Joshua, the judge of
+Israel, who was a general besides, had sent into the town to
+reconnoitre; which was a strong case, Mister Henry, seeing that Rahab,
+the harlot, was a taking of sides against her own people. So, I like
+your plan and I'll stick by it."
+
+This being agreed upon, it became one of the amusements of the road-side
+to put the sergeant through his catechism, which was designed to make
+him familiar with the traits of private history relating to the Dove
+Cote and its appurtenances, that he might thereby maintain his
+identity, in the event of a close investigation. Horse Shoe was but an
+awkward scholar in this school of disguise, and gave Henry sufficient
+employment to keep him in the path of probability; and, indeed, the
+young teacher himself found it difficult to maintain an exact
+verisimilitude in the part which it was his own province to play in this
+deception.
+
+On the evening to which we have alluded, the sergeant, finding himself
+within a short distance of the district of country in which he was
+almost certain to encounter parties of both friends and foes, adopted a
+greater degree of circumspection than he had hitherto deemed it
+necessary to observe. His purpose was to halt upon the borders of the
+forest, and endeavor to obtain accurate information of the state of
+affairs along the river, before he entered upon this dangerous ground.
+Like a soldier who had a rich treasure to guard, he was determined to
+run no hazard that might be avoided, in the safe conduct of the lady in
+whose service he was enlisted. In accordance with this caution, he
+directed the cavalcade to move onward at a moderate walk, in order that
+they might not reach the limit of the woodland before the dusk of the
+evening; and also in the hope of finding there some habitation where
+they might pass the night. They had not advanced far in this manner
+before the sergeant descried, at some distance ahead, a small log hut
+standing by the road side, which, by the smoke that issued from the
+chimney, he perceived to be inhabited. Upon this discovery, he ordered
+the party to stop and await his return. Then giving spurs to his horse
+he galloped forward, and, after a short interval of absence, returned,
+made a favorable report of his reconnoissance, and conducted his
+companions to the house.
+
+The little cabin to which Mildred was thus introduced was the homestead
+of an honest Whig soldier, by the name of Wingate, who was now in
+service, under the command of one of the most gallant partisans that any
+country ever produced, Francis Marion, then recently promoted to the
+rank of a brigadier. The inmates were the soldier's family, consisting
+of a young woman and a number of small children, all demonstrating by
+their appearance a condition of exceedingly limited comfort. The hut
+contained no more than two rooms, which exhibited but a scanty supply of
+the meanest furniture. The forest had been cleared for the space of a
+few acres around the dwelling, and these were occupied by a small
+garden or vegetable patch, meagrely stocked with scattered and half
+parched plants; and by a cornfield, along the skirts of which some lean
+hogs were seen groping with a felonious stealthiness. A shed, in the
+same inclosure, formed a rendezvous for a few half-starved cattle, that
+probably obtained their principal but slender support from the
+neighboring wood. Add to these a troop of fowls, that were now at roost
+upon one of the trees hard by, and we have, probably, a tolerably
+correct inventory of the worldly goods of this little family.
+
+The woman of the house was kind and hospitable, and her attentions were
+in no small degree quickened by the application of a few pieces of money
+which Mildred insisted upon her receiving--much to the discomfiture of
+the dame's self-possession--the boon consisting of hard coin, to an
+amount of which, perhaps, she had never before been mistress.
+
+Mildred was exceedingly fatigued, and it was an object of early
+consideration to furnish her the means of rest. Our hostess assisted by
+old Isaac, and officiously but awkwardly superintended by Horse Shoe,
+began her preparations for supper, to the abundance of which the
+provident sergeant was enabled to contribute some useful elements from
+his wallet. In one of the apartments of the hut, a shock-bed was spread
+for the lady, and by the assistance of her cloak and some other
+commodities which had been provided as part of her travelling gear, she
+was supplied with a couch that formed no ill exchange for the weariness
+of her long-inhabited saddle. Use and necessity are kind nursing-mothers
+to our nature, and do not often fail to endow us with the qualities
+proper to the fortune they shape out for us. This was not Mildred's
+first experience of a homely lodging since she left the Dove Cote; and,
+as privation and toil have a faculty to convert the rough pallet of the
+peasant into a bed of down, she hailed the present prospect of rest with
+a contented and grateful spirit.
+
+The supper being dispatched, our lady was left alone with her hostess,
+to seek the repose of which she stood so much in need.
+
+The sergeant now set about making provision for the rest of his party.
+This was done by erecting a shelter beneath one of the trees of the
+forest, opposite to the door of the cabin. It was composed of a few
+boughs stacked against the trunk of the tree, sufficiently covered with
+leaves to turn aside any rain that might happen to fall. Under this
+cover Horse Shoe appointed that he and his comrades should pass the
+night, enjoining them to keep a regular watch for the security of the
+lady, whose welfare was now the object of his most sedulous attention.
+All these preparations were made with the exactness of military rule,
+and with a skill that greatly delighted Henry.
+
+The long summer twilight had faded away. Mildred had been, from an early
+period, in the enjoyment of a profound slumber, and Henry and his negro
+ally were seated at the front of their sylvan tent. The sergeant had
+lighted his pipe, and now, taking his seat upon a log that lay near his
+post, he began to smoke in good earnest, with a mind as free from
+anxiety as if universal peace prevailed. In the sedate enjoyment of this
+luxury, he fell into a descant on matters and things, interlarded with
+long and strange stories of his own singular adventures, which he told
+to the no small edification and amusement of Henry and the negro.
+
+The habits of the experienced soldier were curiously illustrated in the
+thoughtful and sober foresight with which Robinson adapted his plans to
+the exigencies of his condition, and then in the imperturbable
+light-heartedness with which, after his measures of safety were taken,
+he waited the progress of events. His watchfulness seemed to be an
+instinct, engendered by a familiarity with danger, whilst the steady and
+mirthful tone of his mind was an attribute that never gave way to the
+inroads of care. He was the same composed and self-possessed being in a
+besieged garrison, in the moment of a threatened escalade, as amongst
+his cronies by a winter fire-side.
+
+"In this here starlight, Mister Henry," he said, after he had puffed out
+two or three charges of his pipe, "I can't see your eyes, but by your
+yawning, I judge you are a little sleepy. Take my advice and turn in. A
+sodger ought to snatch his rest when he can get it. I'll keep guard over
+our young lady; the Lord protect her, for a most an elegant and oncommon
+precious young creature! Fling your great coat upon the leaves, and go
+at it, my lad, like a good fellow."
+
+"If I was at home Mr. Horse Shoe, at the Dove Cote, I could sit up all
+night listening to your stories; but I believe I am bewitched to-night,
+for my eyelids, this hour past, have been snapping like rat traps. So,
+I'll just stretch out for an hour or so, and then get up and take my
+turn at the guard."
+
+"Don't trouble your head about watching," replied Horse Shoe, "you are
+not old enough for that yet. At your time of life, Mr. Lindsay, a good
+night's rest is the best part of a ration. And to-morrow, if I'm not
+mistaken, you will have need of all the strength you can muster
+to-night. As for me, it isn't much account whether I'm asleep or awake."
+
+"Not so fast, sergeant," rejoined the youth, "I'm an older soldier than
+you take me for; Stephen and I have watched many a night for racoons.
+No, no, I'll have my turn towards morning. So, you and Isaac take the
+first part of the night between you, and if anything should happen, call
+me; I'm one of your minute men. So good night. My horse trots harder
+than I thought he did."
+
+It was not long before our boasted minute man was locked up in a spell
+apparently as profound as that which the legend affirms assailed the
+seven sleepers: and Isaac, not even waiting for the good example of his
+master, had already sunk upon the ground, with that facility which
+distinguishes his race, the most uncaring and happiest of mortals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+    Our fortress is the good green wood,
+      Our tent the cypress tree,
+    We know the forest round us
+      As seamen know the sea.
+
+    We know its walls of thorny vines,
+      Its glades of reedy grass,
+    Its safe and silent islands
+      Within the dark morass.--BRYANT.
+
+
+The faithful Horse Shoe being thus left to himself, replenished his
+pipe, and, taking his rifle in his hand, paced to and fro upon the
+border of the road, holding communion with his own thoughts, carefully
+weighing the probabilities connected with his present singular
+expedition, and revolving, after his own fashion, the fortunes of Arthur
+Butler and Mildred Lindsay.
+
+It was within an hour of midnight, when the sergeant's meditations were
+interrupted by the tramp of a horse approaching the hut at a gallop. But
+a few moments elapsed before a traveller, who, in the starlight, Horse
+Shoe could discern to be armed, drew up his rein immediately at the door
+of the dwelling, against which he struck several blows with his weapon,
+calling out loudly at the same time--
+
+"Mistress Wingate--for God's sake, open your door quickly! I have news
+to tell you, good woman."
+
+"In the name of mercy! who are you?" exclaimed the voice of the dame
+within, whilst a note of alarm was also heard from her fellow-lodger.
+
+"What do you mean by this racket and clatter?" demanded Horse Shoe, in
+the midst of the uproar, at the same time laying his hand upon the
+stranger's bridle rein. "What brings you here, sir?--stand back; the
+women in that house are under my charge, and I won't have them
+disturbed."
+
+"If you are a friend to Mistress Wingate," said the horseman, sternly,
+"speak the word; if an enemy, I will shiver your skull with the butt of
+my musket."
+
+"Don't be rash, good fellow," replied Horse Shoe; "I take it you and me
+are on the same side. What's afoot that you stir in such a hurry?"
+
+"The Tories are afoot--the devil's afoot! Open, Mistress Wingate--open
+to Dick Peyton!"
+
+"The Lord preserve us!" ejaculated the mistress of the hovel, as she
+opened the door; "Bloody Spur, is it you? What ill luck brings you here
+to-night?"
+
+"A gang of Tories, Mistress Wingate, from the Black River, under that
+cut-throat Fanning, crossed Pedee this morning at Lowder's Lake. They
+have been thieving and burning as far as Waggamaw, and are now on the
+road home by the upper ferry. They will be along here in less than half
+an hour. Your husband, Bob Wingate, and myself, were sent out by General
+Marion this morning, to reconnoitre the roads. We fell in with the
+ruffians, after sunset, below Lumberton, and have tracked them up here.
+Bob has got a pistol-shot through his arm. He was lucky enough, however,
+to escape their clutches; but believing they had a spite against him,
+and would ride past his house to-night, he told me to call and give you
+warning, and to help you to drive the cattle back into the swamp."
+
+"How many mought there be, friend?" asked Horse Shoe, calmly.
+
+"Between two and three hundred, at least," said the trooper; "we counted
+fifty in the vanguard--those that followed made a long column of march.
+They have stolen a good many horses and cattle, all of which are with
+them, and several prisoners."
+
+"What, ho!--Isaac, Henry Lindsay; fall to, and saddle, boys," shouted
+Horse Shoe. "Miss Mildred, it will not do to stand. I am sorry to break
+in upon your rest, but you must be ready to move in a few minutes."
+
+Everything about the hut was now in confusion. Henry and the sergeant
+were equipping the horses, whilst Isaac was gathering up the baggage.
+Bloody Spur--to adopt the rider's _nom de guerre_--had dismounted, and
+was busy in removing the few articles of value from the hut; the mother
+and children, meanwhile, were pouring forth loud lamentations.
+
+Mildred, in the midst of this scene of uproar, hurriedly made her
+preparations for departure; and whilst she was yet engaged in this care,
+a confused murmur was heard, at some distance up the road--and the
+rattle of sabres, as well as the hoarse voice and abrupt laughter of
+men, announced that the freebooters were at no great distance from the
+dwelling.
+
+"Merciful heaven!" exclaimed Mildred, giving way for the first time to
+her fears; "they are fast approaching, and we shall be captured."
+
+"Sister," said Henry, with scarcely less alarm, "I will die by your
+side, before they shall hurt a hair of your head."
+
+Horse Shoe, who at this moment was tightening the girths of Mildred's
+saddle, paused for an instant to listen, and then said:
+
+"The wind is north-east, young lady, and the voice sounds far to-night.
+One could hardly expect you to be cool when one of these night-frays is
+coming on, but there's no occasion to be frightened. Now, ma'am, if you
+please, I'll heave you into your seat. There," continued the sergeant,
+setting Mildred upon her horse, "you have got four good legs under you,
+and by a fair use of them will be as safe as a crowned king. Mister
+Henry, mount, and ride with your sister slowly down the road, till I
+overtake you."
+
+Henry obeyed the order.
+
+"Is the portmanteau and the rest of the baggage all safe, Isaac? Don't
+be flurried, you old sinner, but look about you, before you start off."
+
+"All safe," replied the negro.
+
+"Up and follow your master, then. Hark you, Mr. Bloody Spur," said Horse
+Shoe, as Isaac rode off, to the trooper, who was still actively employed
+in turning the cattle loose from the inclosure, "what is the best road
+hereabouts for my squad to keep out of the way of these bullies?"
+
+"About a mile from here, take a road that strikes into the woods, upon
+your right hand," answered the trooper hastily, "it will lead you up the
+river to the falls of Pedee. If you should meet any of Marion's men,
+tell them what you have seen; and say Dick Peyton will be along close
+after you."
+
+"Where is Marion?" asked the sergeant, mounting his horse.
+
+"What man that knows Frank Marion could ever answer that question?" said
+the trooper. "He is everywhere, friend. But you have no time to lose: be
+off."
+
+As Bloody Spur said this, he disappeared, driving the cattle before him;
+whilst the mother, laden with an infant and as many pieces of furniture
+as she could carry, and followed by her terrified children, fled towards
+the neighboring thicket.
+
+Horse Shoe in a few moments overtook his companions, and, urging them
+forward at a rapid flight, soon reached the diverging road, along which
+they journeyed with unabated speed for upwards of a mile.
+
+"How do you bear it, sister?" asked Henry, with concern.
+
+"Ah, brother, with a sore heart to be made so painfully acquainted with
+these frightful scenes. I lose all thought of my own annoyance, in
+seeing the calamities that are heaped upon the unoffending family of a
+man who dares to draw his sword for his country."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Horse Shoe, gravely, "these incarnivorous devils have
+broken the rest of many a good woman in the Carolinas, before they
+routed you out to-night, ma'am. But it is one of God's marcies to see
+how you keep up under it."
+
+"Mine's a trifling grievance, good sergeant: I lose but a little repose:
+that poor mother flies to save her children, uncertain, perhaps, of
+to-morrow's subsistence; and her husband's life is in daily peril. It is
+a sad lot. Yet truly," added Mildred with a sigh, "mine is scarcely
+better. Gracious heaven!" she exclaimed, looking behind her, "they have
+set fire to the dwelling!"
+
+In the quarter to which she directed her eyes, the horizon was already
+illuminated with the blaze of Wingate's hut. The light grew brighter for
+a short interval, and brought into bold relief upon the sky, the tall,
+dark forms of the stately pines of which the forest was composed.
+
+"They are fools as well as villains," said Horse Shoe, with an angry
+vehemence; "they have had liquor to-night, or they would hardly kindle
+up a blaze which should rouse every Whig on Pedee to track them like
+hounds. It would be sport worth riding to look at, if Marion should get
+a glimpse of that fire. But these wolves have grown obstropolous ever
+since Horatio Gates made his fox paw at Camden."
+
+"Oh, it is a most savage war," said Mildred, "that roots up the humble
+hearth, and fires the lowly roof, where none but defenceless women and
+children abide. I shudder to think of such wanton barbarity."
+
+"There's the thing, Miss Lindsay, that turns all our blood bitter. Man
+to man is fair game, all the world over: but this ere stealing of
+cattle, and burning of houses, and even cutting up by the roots the
+plants of the 'arth, and turning of women and children naked into the
+swamps, in the dead of night! it's a sorry business to tell of a
+Christian people, and a cowardly business for a nation that's a boasting
+of its bravery."
+
+The light of the conflagration had soon died away, and our wanderers
+pursued their solitary road in darkness, ignorant of the country through
+which they passed, and uncertain of the point to which they tended. A
+full hour had gone by in this state of suspense, and Robinson had once
+more resolved to make a halt, and encamp his party in the woods. Before,
+however, he could put this design into execution, he was unexpectedly
+challenged, from the road-side, with the military demand of--"Who goes
+there?"
+
+"Travellers," was the reply.
+
+"Where do you come from, and where are you going?"
+
+"The first question I can answer," said Horse Shoe, "and that is, from
+Old Virginny, a fortnight ago, but, to-night, from a tolerable snug
+lodging, where some onmannerly fellows troubled our sleep. But as to
+where we're going, it's more likely you can tell that for us."
+
+"You are saucy, sir."
+
+"It's more than I meant to be," replied the sergeant. "Mayhap you mought
+have hearn of a man they call Bloody Spur?"
+
+"He has pricked your pillows for you--has he? Dick Peyton is good at
+that," said a second questioner.
+
+"Aha, comrades, I understand you now," said Horse Shoe, with alacrity.
+"Dick Peyton and Bob Wingate both belong to your party. Am I right? We
+are friends to Marion."
+
+"And therefore friends to us," said the patrole. "Your name, sir, and
+the number you have in company?"
+
+"Take us to the general, and we will answer that," replied Horse Shoe.
+"The Tories have set upon Wingate's house and burnt it to the ground.
+It's like we may be able to tell something worth hearing at
+head-quarters. Your man Bloody Spur gave us in charge to report him, and
+to say that he would soon follow upon our track. I wonder that he isn't
+here before now."
+
+"I will remain," said one of the soldiers to his companion; "you shall
+take charge of the travellers."
+
+The trooper accordingly turned his horse's head and commanded Horse Shoe
+and his party to follow.
+
+The scout conducted our adventurers along a by-road that led round the
+head of a marsh, and through several thickets which, in the darkness of
+the night, were penetrated with great difficulty; during this ride he
+interrogated Horse Shoe as to the events of the late inroad of the
+Tories. He and his comrade had been stationed upon the path where the
+sergeant encountered them, to direct the out-riding parties of his corps
+to the spot of Marion's encampment, the policy of this wary officer
+being to shift his station so frequently as almost equally to defy the
+search of friend and foe. Peyton and Wingate were both expected; and the
+trooper who remained behind only waited to conduct them to the
+commanding officer, who had, since the disappearance of daylight, formed
+a bivouac in this neighborhood. Marion's custom was to order his
+reconnoitring parties to return to him by designated roads, where
+videttes were directed to repair in order to inform them of his
+position,--a fact which, as his movements were accomplished with
+wonderful celerity and secresy, they were generally unable to ascertain
+in any other way.
+
+At length, emerging from the thicket, and crossing what seemed, by the
+plash of the horse's feet, a morass, the party, under the guidance of
+the scout, came upon a piece of thinly-timbered woodland, which, rising
+by a gentle slope, furnished what might be called an island of dry
+ground, that seemed to be only accessible by crossing the circumjacent
+swamp. Upon this spot were encamped, in the rudest form of the bivouac,
+a party of cavalry, which might have amounted to two hundred men.
+Several fires, whose ruddy glare had been discerned for the last half
+mile of the journey, were blazing forth from different quarters of the
+wood, and threw a bold and sharp light upon the figures of men and
+horses, imparting a feature of lively, picturesque beauty to the scene.
+The greater portion of the soldiers were stretched beneath the trees,
+with no other covering than the leafy bowers above them. The horses were
+picketed in the neighborhood of their riders; and the confused array of
+saddles, sabres, muskets, rifles, and other warlike instruments, that
+were hung upon projecting boughs, or leant against the trunks, as they
+caught the flashes of the frequent fires, seemed to be magnified in
+number equal to the furniture of thrice the force. Sentinels were seen
+pacing their limits on the outskirts of this company, and small bodies
+of patroles on horseback moved across the encampment with the regularity
+of military discipline. Here and there, as if regardless of rest, or
+awaiting some soon-expected tour of duty, small knots of men sat
+together amusing themselves, by torch-light, at cards; and, more
+appropriately, others had extended their torpid frames in sleep upon
+their grassy pallets and knapsack pillows.
+
+"We have seen war in its horrors," exclaimed Mildred, with an
+involuntary vivacity; "and here it is in all its romance!"
+
+"Sister, I wish you were at home," said Henry, eagerly, "and Steve and I
+had the Rangers on this field to-night. I would undertake to command a
+picket with any man here!"
+
+To Horse Shoe these were familiar scenes, and he could not comprehend
+the source of that sudden interest which had so vividly aroused the
+admiration of his companions; but asking the guide to conduct them
+immediately to General Marion, he followed the soldier across the whole
+extent of the bivouac, until they halted beneath a large tree, near
+which a few officers were assembled. One of this group was seated on the
+ground; and close by him, planted in the soil, a blazing pine-faggot
+flung a broad light upon a saddle, the flap of which the officer had
+converted, for the occasion, into a writing-desk.
+
+"Make way for a squad of travellers picked up on the road to-night,"
+said the scout in a loud voice. "They wish to see General Marion."
+
+In a moment our party was surrounded by the officers; and Horse Shoe,
+unceremoniously dismounting, addressed the person nearest to him:--
+
+"A lady, sir, from Virginia, that I started with from her father's
+house, to fetch to Carolina; but who has been most audaciously unhoused
+and unbedded in the very middle of the night by a hellish pack of
+Tories."
+
+"My name is Lindsay, sir," said Henry, riding to the front; "my sister
+and myself were travelling south, and have been obliged to fly,
+to-night, before a detachment of horse-stealers."
+
+"From Bob Wingate's," said Horse Shoe, "as I should judge, some six
+miles back. I want to report to General Marion: the lady, likewise, is
+tired, as she has good right to be."
+
+The officer to whom this was addressed, directed a soldier to seek
+General Marion, and then approaching Mildred, said:
+
+"Madam, we can promise but little accommodation suitable to a lady: the
+greenwood tree is but an uncouth resting-place: but what we can supply
+shall be heartily at your service."
+
+"I feel sufficiently thankful," replied Mildred, "to know that I am in
+the hands of friends."
+
+"Sister, alight," said Henry, who now stood beside her stirrup, and
+offered his hand: and in a moment Mildred was on her feet.
+
+The officer then conducted her to a bank, upon which a few blankets were
+thrown by some of the soldiers in attendance. "If this strange place
+does not alarm you," he said, "you may perhaps find needful repose upon
+a couch even as rough as this."
+
+"You are very kind," replied Mildred, seating herself. "Brother, do not
+quit my side," she added, in a low voice: "I feel foolishly afraid."
+
+But a few moments elapsed before the light of the torches, gleaming upon
+his figure, disclosed to Mildred the approach of a person of short
+stature and delicate frame, in whose step there was a singular alertness
+and rapidity. He wore the blue and buff uniform of the staff, with a
+pair of epaulets, a buckskin belt, and broadsword. A three-cornered
+cocked-hat, ornamented with a buck-tail, gave a peculiar sharpness to
+his naturally sharp and decided features; and a pair of small, dark eyes
+twinkled in the firelight, from a countenance originally sallow, but now
+swarthy from sun and wind. There was a conspicuous alacrity and courtesy
+in the gay and chivalrous tone in which he accosted Mildred:
+
+"General Marion, madam, is too happy to have his poor camp honored by
+the visit of a lady. They tell me that the Tories were so uncivil as to
+break in upon your slumbers to-night. It adds greatly to my grudge
+against them."
+
+"I have ventured," said Mildred, "into the field of war, and it does not
+become me to complain that I have met its vicissitudes."
+
+"Gallantly spoken, madam! May I be allowed to know to whom I am indebted
+for the honor of this visit?"
+
+"My name is Lindsay, my father resides at the Dove Cote in Virginia:
+under the protection of my brother and a friend, I left home to travel
+into Carolina."
+
+"A long journey, madam," interrupted Marion; "and you have been sadly
+vexed to-night, I learn. We have a rude and unquiet country."
+
+"My sister and myself," said Henry, "counted the chances before we set
+out."
+
+"I would call you but an inexperienced guide, sir," said the General,
+addressing Henry, and smiling.
+
+"Oh, as to that," replied the youth, "we have an old soldier with
+us--Horse Shoe Robinson--hem--Stephen Foster, I meant to say."
+
+"Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Marion, "where is he?"
+
+"Mr. Henry Lindsay, General, and me," said the sergeant, bluntly, "have
+been practising a lie to tell the Tories, in case they should take us
+unawares; but it sticks, you see, in both of our throats. It's the true
+fact that I'm Horse Shoe himself. This calling me Stephen Foster is only
+a hanging out of false colors for the benefit of the red-coats and
+Tories, upon occasion."
+
+"Horse Shoe, good fellow, your hand," said Marion, with vivacity, "I
+have heard of you before. Miss Lindsay, excuse me, if you please; I have
+business to-night which is apt impertinently to thrust itself between us
+and our duty to the ladies. Richards," he continued, addressing a young
+officer who stood near him, "see if you can find some refreshment that
+would be acceptable to the lady and her brother. Horse Shoe, this way: I
+would speak with you."
+
+Marion now retired towards the place where the writing materials were
+first noticed, and entered into an examination of the sergeant, as to
+the particulars of the recent attack upon Wingate's cabin.
+
+Before Robinson had finished his narrative of the events of the night, a
+horseman dashed up almost at full speed to the spot where Marion stood,
+and, flinging himself from his saddle, whilst his horse stood panting
+beside him, asked for the General.
+
+"How now, Bloody Spur! What's the news?" demanded Marion.
+
+"The Black River hawks are flying," said the soldier.
+
+"I have heard that already," interrupted the chieftain. "Tell me what
+else."
+
+"I stayed long enough to secure Wingate's cattle, and then set out for
+the river to cut loose the boats at the Ferry. I did it in good time.
+Four files followed close upon my heels, who had been sent ahead to make
+sure of the means of crossing. The fellows found me after my work was
+done, and chased me good three miles. They will hardly venture, General,
+to swim the river to-night, with all the thievery they have in their
+hands; and I rather take it they will halt at the ferry till daylight."
+
+"Then that's a lucky cast, Dick Peyton," exclaimed Marion. "Ho, there!
+Peters, wake up that snoring trumpeter. Tell him to sound 'to saddle.'
+Come lads, up, up. Gentlemen, to your duties!"
+
+Forthwith the trumpet sounded, and with its notes everything asleep
+started erect. Troopers were seen hurrying across the ground in rapid
+motion: some hastily buckling on broadswords and slinging their muskets;
+others equipping the horses; and everywhere torches were seen passing to
+and fro in all the agitation of a sudden muster. As soon as Marion had
+set this mass in action, he repaired to Mildred, and in a manner that
+betokened no excitement from the general stir around him, he said--
+
+"I owe you an apology, Miss Lindsay, for this desertion, which I am sure
+you will excuse when you know that it is caused by my desire to punish
+the varlets who were so ill-mannered as to intrude upon your slumbers. I
+hope, however, you will not be a loser by the withdrawal of our people,
+as I will take measures to put you under the protection of a good friend
+of mine, the widow of a worthy soldier, Mistress Rachel Markham, who
+lives but two miles from this, and whose hospitable mansion will afford
+you a shelter more congenial to your wishes than this broad canopy of
+ours. A guide shall be ready to conduct you."
+
+"Your kindness, general," said Mildred, "puts me under many
+obligations."
+
+"Horse Shoe shall take a line of explanation to my friend," added
+Marion. "And now, madam, farewell," he said, offering his hand. "And
+you, Master or Mister Henry, I don't know which--you seem entitled to
+both--good night, my brave lad: I hope, before long, to hear of your
+figuring as a gallant soldier of independence."
+
+"I hope as much myself," replied Henry.
+
+Marion withdrew, and by the time that he had prepared the letter and put
+it into Horse Shoe's hands, his troops were in line, waiting their order
+to march. The general mounted a spirited charger, and galloping to the
+front of his men, wheeled them into column, and, by a rapid movement,
+soon left Horse Shoe and his little party, attended by one trooper who
+had been left as a guide, the only tenants of this lately so busy scene.
+The change seemed almost like enchantment. The fires and many torches
+were yet burning, but all was still, except the distant murmur of the
+receding troops, which grew less and less, until, at last, there reigned
+the silence of the native forest.
+
+Our travellers waited, almost without exchanging a word, absorbed in the
+contemplation of an incident so novel to Mildred and her brother, until
+the distant tramp of the cavalry could be no longer heard: then, under
+the direction of the guide, they set out for the residence of Mrs.
+Markham.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+The day had just begun to dawn as our party, under the guidance of
+Marion's soldier, were ferried across the Pedee, on the opposite bank of
+which river lay the estate and mansion of Mrs. Markham. The alarms and
+excitements of the past night had ceased to stimulate the frame of
+Mildred, and she now found herself sinking under the most painful
+weariness. Henry had actually fallen asleep as he sat upon the gunwale
+of the ferry-boat, and rested his head against the sergeant's shoulder:
+the whole party were overcome with the lassitude that is so distressing,
+at this hour of dawning, to all persons who have spent the night in
+watching; and even the sergeant himself, to the influences of fatigue
+and privation the most inaccessible of mortals, and, by fate or fortune,
+the most unmalleable--occasionally nodded his head, as if answering the
+calls of man's most welcome visitor. It was, therefore, with more than
+ordinary contentment that our travellers, when again mounted, were
+enabled to descry, in the first light of the morning, a group of
+buildings seated upon an eminence about a mile distant, on the further
+side of the cultivated lowland that stretched along the southern margin
+of the river. The guide announced that this was the point of their
+destination, and the intelligence encouraged the party to accelerate the
+speed with which they journeyed over the plain. When they arrived at the
+foot of the hill, the character of the spot they were approaching was
+more distinctly developed to their view. The mansion, encompassed by a
+tuft of trees that flung their broad and ancient limbs above its roof,
+was of the best class of private dwellings, old and stately in its
+aspect, and exhibiting all the appendages that characterized the seat of
+a wealthy proprietor. It was constructed entirely of wood, in accordance
+with a notion that prevailed at that period, no less than at the
+present, that a frame structure was best adapted to the character of the
+climate. It occupied the crest of a hill which commanded a view of the
+river with its extensive plains; whilst, in turn, it was overlooked by
+the adjacent tract of country bearing the name of the Cheraw Highlands.
+
+As the party ascended this eminence, Henry, in the eager and thoughtless
+satisfaction of the moment, put his bugle to his mouth and continued to
+blow with all his might, deaf to the remonstrances of his sister, who
+was endeavoring to explain that there was some want of courtesy in so
+abrupt a challenge of the hospitality of the family. The blast was
+interrupted by Horse Shoe's laying his hand upon the instrument, as he
+gave the indiscreet bugler a short military lecture:
+
+"You might fetch trouble upon us, Mister Henry: this here screeching of
+horns or trumpets is sometimes a sort of bullying of a garrison; and if
+an enemy should happen to be on post here--as, God knows, is likely
+enough in such scampering wars as these, why you have set the thing past
+cure: for it is cutting off all chance of escape, just as much as if the
+people had been ordered 'to horse.' It leaves nothing for us but to
+brazen it out."
+
+An old negro was first startled by the summons, and appeared for a
+moment at the door of one of the out-buildings, evincing, as he looked
+down the road upon the approaching cavalcade, manifest signs of
+consternation. After a brief glance, he was seen to retreat across the
+yard to the door of the mansion-house, where he fell to beating at it
+with as much earnestness as if giving an alarm of fire, shouting at the
+same time, "Lord bless us, mistress! here is a whole rigiment of sodgers
+coming to turn everything topsy-turvy. Get up, get up--open the door!"
+
+"Stop your bawling, you stunted black-jack!" said Robinson, who had
+galloped up to the spot, "and none of your lies. Is the lady of the
+house at home?"
+
+A window was thrown up, at the same moment, in an upper story, and a
+female head, decorated with a nightcap, was thrust out, whilst a voice,
+tremulous with affright, inquired what was the cause of this
+disturbance; but before an answer could be given the head was withdrawn,
+and the door opening discovered a youth scarcely in appearance over
+sixteen, with a loose robe thrown around his person and a pistol in his
+hand.
+
+"Who comes here, and with what purpose?" was the question firmly put by
+the young man.
+
+"Friends," said Horse Shoe--"sent to the good lady by General Marion.
+Sorry, sir, to be the occasion of such a rumpus. But this here young
+lady has travelled all night and is 'most dead with hardships."
+
+Mildred, who with the rest of the company had now arrived near the door,
+was about to speak, when the questioner retired, calling the negro after
+him into the house. In a moment the servant returned with Mrs. Markham's
+compliments to the party, and a request that they would alight.
+
+"Then all's well," said Horse Shoe, dismounting, and immediately
+afterwards lifting Mildred from her saddle, "a friend in need, madam, is
+the greatest of God's blessings. I make no doubt you will find this as
+snug a nest as you ever flew into in your life."
+
+"And, good sergeant, most specially welcome," replied Mildred, smiling
+in the midst of all her pain, "for in truth I never was so weary."
+
+The guide, having now performed his duty, announced that he must return
+to his corps; and, after a few cheering words of kind remembrance from
+Mildred, coupled with a message of thanks to Marion, he wheeled about
+and galloped back towards the river. Mildred and Henry entered the
+house: and the sergeant, taking command of Isaac, followed the horses
+towards the stable.
+
+The brother and sister were ushered into an ample parlor, comfortably
+furnished according to the fashion of the wealthier classes of that day;
+and, Mildred as she threw herself upon a capacious sofa, could not fail
+to recognise in the formal portraits that were suspended to the
+pannelled walls, that she was in the dwelling of a family of some pride
+of name and lineage.
+
+After a short interval, the proprietress of the mansion entered the
+parlor. She was a lady of a kind and gentle aspect, apparently advanced
+beyond the middle period of life; and her features, somewhat emaciated,
+gave a sign of feeble health. She was attired in dishabille, hastily
+thrown on; and there was some expression of alarm in the unreserved and
+familiar manner with which she approached Mildred, and inquired into the
+nature of this early journey.
+
+"I hope no unhappy accident, my dear, has driven you at this unusual
+hour to my poor house? You are heartily welcome. I fear to ask what has
+brought you."
+
+"My brother and myself, madam," said Mildred, "have had a most
+adventurous night. This letter will explain. General Marion was so kind
+as to commit us to your hospitality."
+
+The lady took the letter and read it.
+
+"Miss Lindsay, my child, I am truly happy to serve you. You have had an
+awful night, but these times make us acquainted with strange
+afflictions. This young gentleman, your brother, is he your only
+attendant?"
+
+Mildred began to communicate the details of her journey, when she was
+interrupted by her hostess.
+
+"I will not trouble you with questions, now, my dear. You must have
+sleep; I dread lest your health may suffer by this harsh exposure. After
+you have had rest, we will talk more, and become better acquainted.
+Judith," continued the matron, addressing a servant maid, who had just
+entered the room, "attend this lady to a chamber. Mr. Henry Lindsay, I
+believe--so General Marion calls you--my son Alfred shall take you in
+charge."
+
+With these words the good lady left the room, and in an instant after
+returned with the youth who had first appeared at the door. Upon being
+introduced by his mother to the guests, he lost no time in obeying her
+orders in regard to Henry, whom he had conducted out of the room at the
+same moment that Mildred followed the servant towards a chamber.
+
+The entire day was spent by our party in recruiting their strength,
+towards which needful care the hospitable hostess contributed by the
+tenderest attentions. On the following morning Mildred, although
+refreshed by the slumbers of the long interval, still exhibited the
+traces of her recent fatigue; and upon the earnest recommendation of
+Mrs. Markham, seconded by the almost oracular authority of Horse
+Shoe,--for the sergeant had greatly won upon the respect of his
+companions by his prudence and discretion--she determined to remain
+another day in her present resting-place.
+
+Mrs. Markham was the widow of a Carolina gentleman, who had borne the
+rank of a colonel in the Whig militia, and had been actively employed,
+in the earlier stages of the war, in the southern provinces. He had
+fallen in an unfortunate skirmish with some of Prevost's light troops,
+on the Savannah river, some sixteen months before; and his widow, with
+three daughters and no other male protector than an only son, was now,
+in this season of extreme peril, residing upon a large estate, which the
+evil fortune of the times had made the theatre of an eventful and active
+desultory war. She had been exposed to the most cruel exactions from the
+Tories, to whom her possessions were generally yielded up with a passive
+and helpless submission; and the firmness with which, in all her
+difficulties, she had adhered to the cause for which her husband fell,
+had gained for her the generous sympathy of the whig leaders, and more
+than once stimulated them to enterprises, in her behalf, that were
+followed by severe chastisement upon her enemies. These circumstances
+had given extensive notoriety to her name, and drawn largely upon her
+the observation of both friend and foe. To Marion, who hovered upon this
+border more like a goblin than a champion whose footsteps might be
+tracked, her protection had become a subject of peculiar interest; and
+the indefatigable soldier frequently started up in her neighborhood when
+danger was at hand, with a mysterious form of opposition that equally
+defied the calculations of Whigs and Tories.
+
+The lady was still in her weeds, and grief and care had thrown a pallor
+upon her cheek; but the watchfulness imposed upon her by the emergencies
+of the day, her familiarity with alarms, and the necessity for constant
+foresight and decisive action, had infused a certain hardihood into her
+character, that is seldom believed to be,--but yet in the hour of trial
+unerringly exhibits itself--an attribute of the female bosom. Her
+manners were considerate, kind, and fraught with dignity. She was the
+personation of a class of matrons that--for the honor of our country and
+of the human race--was not small in its numbers, nor upon trial unworthy
+of its fame, in the sad history of the sufferings of Carolina.
+
+The evening of the day on which Mildred arrived at the mansion brought
+rumors of a brilliant exploit achieved by Marion; and more
+circumstantial accounts on the following morning confirmed the good
+tidings. The alert partisan had fallen upon the track of the freebooters
+who had been marauding on the confines of North Carolina, and whose
+incursion had expelled our travellers from Wingate's cabin. Marion had
+overtaken them before sunrise, on the bank of the Pedee, where they had
+been detained by reason of Peyton's successful removal of the boats. A
+short but most decisive combat was the consequence, and victory, as she
+was wont, had seated herself upon Marion's banner. The chieftain and his
+followers had, as usual, disappeared, and the whole country was in a
+state of agitation and dread; the one side fearing a repetition of the
+blow in some unlooked-for quarter, the other alarmed by the expectation
+of quick and bloody reprisal.
+
+These events still more contributed to fortify Mildred's resolution to
+remain another day under the shelter of Mrs. Markham's friendly roof,
+before she would venture forth in the further prosecution of her
+journey.
+
+Here, for the present, we must leave her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+OCCURRENCES AT MUSGROVE'S MILL.
+
+    She passed by stealth the narrow door,
+    The postern way also,
+    And thought each bush her robe that tore,
+    The grasp of a warding foe.--JOANNA BAILLIE.
+
+
+The month of September was more than half gone. The night had just set
+in, and the waxing moon shone forth from a clear heaven, flinging her
+rays upon the rippling surface of the Ennoree and upon the glossy leaves
+that flickered in the wind by the banks of the stream, when Mary
+Musgrove, with wary and stealthy pace, glided along the path, intricate
+with shrubbery, that led upwards immediately upon the margin of the
+river. For a full half hour had she toiled along this narrow way since
+she had stolen past the sentinel near her father's gate. The distance
+was not a mile; but the anxious maiden, pursued by her own fears, had
+more than once, in the fancy that she was followed, stopped in her
+career and concealed herself in the thick copse-wood, and listened with
+painful intensity for the footsteps of those whom her imagination had
+set upon her track. There was, however, no pursuit: it was the prowling
+fox or the raccoon whose leap had disturbed the dry and rotten branches
+that lay upon the ground; and Mary smiled with faint-heartedness at the
+illusions of her own mind. She arrived at last beneath the brow of a
+crag that jutted over the stream, and in the shade of one of the angles
+of the rock, she discerned the figure of a man seated upon the grass.
+She paused with a distrustful caution, as she challenged the silent and
+half-concealed person.
+
+"Hist, John! is it you? For mercy, speak! Why would you frighten
+me?--Me, Mary. Don't you know me?" said the maiden, as she took heart of
+grace and advanced near enough to put her hand upon John Ramsay's
+shoulder. "Powers above! the man's asleep," she added with a laugh.
+"Who would have thought I should have caught you napping, John, at such
+a time as this!"
+
+"Why, in truth, Mary," said John Ramsay, waking up under the touch of
+his mistress, and rising to his feet, "I deserve to be shot for sleeping
+on my watch; but I have been so driven from post to pillar for this last
+fortnight, that it is as much as I can do to keep my eyes open when
+night comes on. So Mary, you will forgive me, and more particularly when
+I tell you I was dreaming of you; and thought this war was at an end,
+and that you and I were happy in a house of our own. I have been waiting
+for you for upwards of an hour."
+
+"Ah, John, I don't think I could sleep if it had been my turn to watch
+for you."
+
+"There's the difference," replied John, "betwixt you women and us men;
+you are so full of frights and fidgetings and fancyings, that I do
+verily believe all the sleeping doses in the world could never make you
+shut your eyes when anything is going on that requires watching, whether
+it be for a sick friend or for a piece of scheming. Now, with us, we
+take a nap on a hard-trotting horse, and fall to snoring up to the very
+minute that the trumpet wakes us to make a charge. What news from
+Butler?"
+
+"It is all fixed," answered Mary, "to our hearts' content. Lieutenant
+Macdonald, ever since Cornwallis's letter, allows Major Butler greater
+privileges; and the sentinels are not half so strict as they used to be;
+so that I think we may give them the slip. By the gable window that
+looks out from the garret room, the Major will be able to get upon the
+roof, and that, he thinks, is near enough to the tree for him to risk a
+leap into its branches; though I am almost afraid he is mistaken, for it
+looks awfully wide for a spring. He says if you will be ready with the
+horses an hour before daylight to-morrow, he will try the leap, and join
+you at the willows above the mill. Christopher will saddle one of the
+wagon-horses and lead him to the place."
+
+"And the sentinel who keeps guard on that side?"
+
+"Ah, John, that puzzles us," said Mary; "I'm so much afraid that you
+will be rash. It is in your nature to forget yourself."
+
+"Tut, girl; don't talk of that. I'll find a way to manage the sentinel.
+I will steal up to him and take him unawares; and then seizing him by
+the throat, give him his choice of a knife in between his ribs, or a
+handful of guineas in his pocket."
+
+"Hadn't we better tell him what a good man the Major is?" said Mary,
+alarmed at the idea of a struggle in which her lover's life might be
+endangered, "and try to coax him to take our side?"
+
+"Ha, ha!" ejaculated the trooper involuntarily, "that's a very good
+woman's thought, but it won't hold out in a campaign. The fellow might
+happen to have some honesty, and then away goes our whole scheme. No,
+no; blows are the coin that these rascals buy their bread with, and,
+faith, we'll trade with them in the same article."
+
+"But then, John, you will be in danger."
+
+"What of that, girl? When have I been out of danger? And don't you see,
+Mary, what good luck I have with it? Never fear me; I will stifle the
+fellow in the genteelest fashion known in the wars."
+
+"And if it must be so, John, I will say my prayers for you with more
+earnestness than I ever said them in my life. As my father says, the God
+of Israel will stand by our cause: and when He is for us, what care we
+who is against us?"
+
+"You are a good girl, Mary," replied John Ramsay, smiling. "Get back to
+the house; let Major Butler know that you have seen me, and that I will
+be ready."
+
+"He is to be at the window," said Mary, "and I am to signify to him that
+you are prepared, by setting up a plank against the garden fence in a
+place where he can see it. He is to keep a look-out from the window all
+night, and when the time comes you are to flash a little powder on the
+edge of the woods upon the hill: if he is ready then he will show his
+candle near the window-sill; that, he says, must be a sign for you to
+come on; and when he sees you he will take the leap."
+
+"I understand it," said Ramsay. "Tell Christopher to be sure of the
+horse."
+
+"I have a great deal of courage, John, when danger is far off--but when
+it comes near, I tremble like a poor coward," said Mary. "Does not my
+hand feel cold?"
+
+"Your lips are warm, Mary," replied John, kissing her, "and your heart
+is warm. Now, never flag when it comes to the trial. Everything depends
+upon you. We shall be very happy, by-and-by, to talk this thing all
+over. How many soldiers are on Macdonald's guard? Have none left you
+since I saw you yesterday?"
+
+"None," said Mary: "one man left the mill two days since. I think I
+heard them say he was going to Ninety-six, on business for the
+lieutenant."
+
+"Well, well, it makes but little odds how many are there, so they but
+sleep soundly. Our business is more to run than to fight. Mary, my girl,
+step across to my father's to-morrow, and he will tell you what has
+become of me. We must get the Major out of this country of wolf-traps as
+fast as we can."
+
+"I forgot to ask you," said the maiden, "if you had some coarse clothes
+ready for the Major. He must not seem to be what he is."
+
+"Trust me for that," replied the trooper. "Christopher has given me a
+bundle with as fine a dusty suit in it as any miller's boy ever wore;
+and besides that, I have a meal bag to throw across the Major's saddle:
+and as for myself, Mary, there's ploughman in my very looks. We shall
+cheat all the Tories betwixt this and Catawba."
+
+"Now, John, before I leave you, I have one favor to ask."
+
+"And what is that?" inquired the generous-hearted soldier, "you know, if
+I can, I will grant it before it is named."
+
+"I would ask as a favor to me," said Mary, with earnestness, "that you
+will not be too venturesome: the Major is a wiser man than you, so be
+governed by him. Remember, John, if any ill were to happen to you, it
+would break my heart."
+
+"I am not so foolhardy, my girl," replied Ramsay, "but, that when
+there's occasion for it, I can show as clean a pair of heels as any man:
+and so, for your sake, you kitten," he said, as he put his hands upon
+her cheeks, and again snatched a kiss, "I will run to-morrow like a
+whole troop of devils. And now, Mary, good night, and God bless you
+girl! it is time you were at home. Yet upon second thoughts, I will walk
+part of the way with you. So, take my arm and let us begin the retreat."
+
+"John, I do so fear you may be hurt," said the maiden, as they pursued
+their way along the path, her whole thoughts being absorbed with the
+danger of the enterprise. "Be careful when you come near the sentinel to
+wait until his back is turned. This moon shines bright, and you may
+easily be seen."
+
+"But look, girl, the moon has scarcely two hours yet to travel, and,
+from that circle round it, I shouldn't wonder if we had rain before
+daylight; so by the hour we have fixed for the Major's escape, it will
+be dark enough: therefore you may be easy on that score."
+
+The humble and ardent lovers pursued their way towards the miller's
+dwelling with slow steps, intently engaged in conversing over the
+chances of their perilous project, until they arrived at a point beyond
+which it was not safe for John Ramsay to venture. Here, after many
+affectionate caresses and fond adieus, they separated--the maiden to
+steal to her place of rest, the soldier to hasten back to his horse,
+that awaited him near the scene of the late meeting.
+
+Mary soon arrived at the mill; then sauntering carelessly towards the
+dwelling-house, began, the better to conceal her purpose, to sing a
+simple air, during which she had wandered up to the garden fence, where
+she delayed long enough to set up the plank. The small window in the
+angle of the roof of the cottage looked down upon the spot where she
+stood; and as she cast her eyes towards this part of the building, she
+received a recognition from the prisoner, in a slight waving of the
+hand, which was sufficiently observable by the light of the taper
+within.
+
+Matters having gone so far to the maiden's satisfaction, she now
+retreated into the house.
+
+The reader will perceive from this narrative that Butler's fortunes had
+greatly improved since we last took leave of him. The messenger
+despatched to Cornwallis by Williams had brought back to the Fair
+Forest, where it will be remembered the vanquishers of Innis had
+retreated, a more favorable answer than even the republican leader had
+hoped. The British commander was not ignorant of the capture of Butler,
+but the circumstances of the trial had not before been communicated to
+him. Upon the representation of Williams, he had no hesitation to order
+a respite to be given to the prisoner for such reasonable time as might
+be necessary for further investigation. This obvious act of justice was
+more than, in the circumstances of the times, might have been expected
+from Cornwallis. The cruel and bloody policy which he adopted towards
+the inhabitants of the Carolinas, immediately after the battle of
+Camden, showed a tone of personal exacerbation that was scarcely
+consistent with the lenity displayed towards Butler. It is not unlikely,
+therefore, that the fear of retaliation upon the young St. Jermyn, of
+whose fate he might have been informed from officers of his own camp,
+might have induced him to temporize in the present case, and to grant a
+suspension of proceedings against the rebel prisoner. The reply to
+Williams's letter accordingly intimated that, for the present, Major
+Butler should be held in close custody as a prisoner of war, leaving the
+determination of the manner in which he was finally to be disposed of, a
+subject for future consideration.
+
+John Ramsay, after the departure of Horse Shoe Robinson for Virginia,
+instead of rejoining his regiment, returned to the Fair Forest camp,
+where he remained with Williams, until the answer from Cornwallis was
+received. The tidings of this answer he undertook to convey to Butler,
+and he again set out for his father's house. John felt himself now
+regularly enlisted in the service of the prisoner, and having found
+means to communicate his present employment to General Sumpter, he
+obtained permission to remain in it as long as his assistance was of
+value. The service itself was a grateful one to the young trooper: it
+accorded with the generosity of his character, and gratified his
+personal pride by the trust-worthiness which it implied: but more than
+this, it brought him into opportunities of frequent meeting with Mary
+Musgrove, who, passionately beloved by the soldier, was not less ardent
+than he in her efforts to promote the interest of Butler.
+
+The state of the country did not allow John to be seen in day-time, and
+he and Mary had consequently appointed a place of meeting, where in the
+shades of night they might commune together on the important subjects of
+their secret conspiracy. Night after night they accordingly met at this
+spot, and here all their schemes were contrived. Mary sometimes came to
+David Ramsay's dwelling, and the old man's counsel was added to that of
+the lovers. Christopher Shaw and Allen Musgrove were not ignorant of
+what was in contemplation, but it was a piece of necessary policy that
+they should appear to be as little connected with the prisoner as
+possible. Christopher, therefore, pursued his duties as
+assistant-quarter-master or purveyor to the little garrison under
+Macdonald's command, with unabated assiduity.
+
+The plan of Butler's escape was John Ramsay's. He had been anxiously
+awaiting an opportunity to attempt this enterprise for the last
+fortnight, but the difficulty of concerting operations with the prisoner
+had retarded his movement. This difficulty was at last overcome, and,
+for a few days past, the plan had been arranged. All that was left to be
+done was to appoint the hour. Christopher Shaw and Mary, alone of the
+miller's family, were made acquainted with the details. Christopher was
+to provide a horse and a suitable disguise for Butler, and these were to
+be ready at a tuft of willows that grew upon the edge of the river some
+quarter of a mile above the mill, whenever Mary should announce that
+John was ready to act. Ramsay's horse was to be brought to the same
+spot. The preparatory signals, already mentioned, were all agreed upon
+and understood by the parties. Butler was to escape to the roof, and
+thence by the boughs of a large oak that grew hard by the miller's
+dwelling. A sentinel was usually posted some fifty paces from this tree,
+and it was a matter of great perplexity to determine how his vigilance
+was to be defeated. This difficulty, John resolved, should be overcome
+by a stern measure: the man was to be silenced, if necessary, by a blow.
+John Ramsay was to steal upon him in the dark, and if signs of alarm
+were given, he was to master the sentinel in such a manner as the
+occasion might require, being furnished by Butler with a purse of gold,
+if such a form of influence might be necessary.
+
+Such is the outline of the plan by which Butler's disenthralment was to
+be attempted.
+
+Mary Musgrove, before she retired to her chamber, sought Christopher
+Shaw and made him acquainted with the appointment of the hour, and then
+left him to manage his own share of the enterprise. It was now near ten
+at night, and Christopher, who had charge of Allen Musgrove's stable, in
+order to avoid the suspicion of being seen stirring at a later hour,
+immediately set off to saddle the horse. One of the wagon team, well
+known in the family by the name of Wall Eye, was selected for this
+service, and being speedily accoutred, was conducted to the willows,
+where he was tied fast to a tree, to remain until the hour of need. The
+young miller soon returned, and it was not long afterwards that the
+household and its military companions were wrapt in the silence of
+unsuspecting repose.
+
+Butler, at the hour of the customary visit of the watch, had gone to
+bed; and, feigning sickness, had been allowed to burn a light in his
+room during the night. His chamber door, also, by special favor, was
+closed; and the night advanced without suspicion or distrust from any
+quarter. At two o'clock the last sentinels were relieved, and the form
+had been gone through of inspecting the prisoner's chamber. To all
+outward show, Butler was asleep: the door was again shut, and all was
+still. The time for action now arrived. Butler rose silently from his
+bed, dressed himself, and, putting his shoes into his pockets, stole in
+his stockinged feet to the little gable window at the further end of his
+apartment. Here he remained, gazing out upon the night with fixed
+attention. The moon had set, and the sky was overcast with clouds,
+adding a fortunate obscurity to the natural darkness of the hour. By
+still greater good luck, after a few moments the wind began to rise and
+rain to descend. Everything seemed to favor the enterprise. The shadowy
+form of the sentinel, who was stationed on this side of the house, was
+dimly discerned by Butler through the gloom; and it was with joyful
+satisfaction that he could perceive the soldier, as the rain fell in
+larger drops, retreat some distance from his post and take shelter
+beneath the shrubbery that grew in the garden. At the same moment a
+flash upon the hill, which might have been mistaken for summer
+lightning, announced to him that his faithful comrade was at hand.
+Desirous to take advantage of the present neglect of the sentinel, and
+to avoid the possibility of bringing him into conflict with Ramsay,
+Butler hastily showed his candle at the window, then extinguished it,
+and throwing himself out upon the roof, scrambled towards the nearest
+point of the impending branches of the oak. Here, without a moment's
+pause, he made a fearless leap that flung him amongst the boughs. The
+darkness prevented him from choosing the most favorable lodgment in the
+tree, and he fell across a heavy limb with such force as to take away
+his breath--receiving at the same time, a severe contusion in the head.
+For a brief space he hung almost senseless, and there was reason to
+apprehend that he would fall in a swoon to the ground; but the occasion
+braced his sinking strength, and before many minutes he revived
+sufficiently to make his way to the trunk, by which he descended safely
+to the earth. He now threw himself on his hands and feet, and crept to
+the garden fence. The rain still increased, and fell in a heavy shower.
+In another instant he surmounted the barrier, and betook himself with
+his utmost speed towards the mill, behind which he sought concealment
+and temporary rest.
+
+"Stand," said John Ramsay, who had just reached this point on his way to
+the house, and now, taken by surprise, presented a pistol to Butler's
+breast. "One word above your breath and you die. Be silent, and here is
+gold for you."
+
+"Ramsay," said Butler, in a low tone, "is it you?"
+
+"Your name?" demanded the trooper, still presenting the pistol.
+
+"Butler," was the reply.
+
+"Thanks--thanks, good Major, for that word! You have been before me. I
+thought you would not miss this rain. Is all well?"
+
+"Better, much better, than we could have hoped," answered Butler.
+"Seeing the sentinel was off his guard, I took time by the forelock, and
+have saved you trouble."
+
+"For God's sake, Major, let us not delay here. Our horses are waiting
+for us above."
+
+"I am ready," said Butler, having now put on his shoes. "My brave
+fellow, I owe you more than I can find words to utter: lead the way."
+
+The liberated captive and his gallant comrade instantly hastened towards
+the horses, and mounting with a joyful alacrity, soon set forward at a
+gallop in the direction leading to David Ramsay's cottage. Here they
+arrived just as the day began to dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+A MELANCHOLY INCIDENT.
+
+    The hand of the reaper
+    Takes the ears that are hoary,
+    But the voice of the weeper
+    Wails manhood in glory.--_Scott._
+
+
+Brief time was taken by the fugitives for refreshment at David Ramsay's
+dwelling. Here Butler put on the disguise which Christopher Shaw had
+provided for him. Then arming himself with a pair of pistols which John
+had appropriated to his use, the trooper himself using a similar
+precaution, our two adventurers resumed their journey. Their first
+object was to gain a point, some seven or eight miles distant, in the
+direction of the Fair Forest, where John Ramsay had concealed a few
+troopers that had been furnished him by Williams, to give their aid, if
+necessary, in securing Butler's escape.
+
+From this point they were to proceed, with all possible despatch, to
+Williams's camp. However hazardous the experiment of attempting to
+traverse the country in open daylight, it was deemed still more
+dangerous to tarry any length of time so near the scene of their late
+adventure. Butler and his comrade, therefore, pushed forward with as
+much expedition as possible, resolved to outrun the fresh pursuit which
+they had reason to apprehend upon the discovery which the morning must
+produce at the miller's habitation.
+
+Soon after sunrise the rain ceased to fall, the clouds dispersed, and a
+fresh and brilliant morning broke forth upon the heavens. The success of
+their late exploit had raised the spirits of the wanderers. A sense of
+intense delight animated Butler's feelings: a consciousness of liberty
+once more enjoyed, after hopes deferred and almost despairing captivity,
+seemed to regenerate him and make him acquainted with emotions he had
+never felt before. His heart was full of gratitude to his new friend
+Ramsay, and the expression of it was warm and sincere. Nature had never
+appeared so lovely to him as now: the whispers of the forest and the
+murmur of the clear brook fell on his enfranchised ear like the sweetest
+music: there was melody for him even in the screams of the jay and the
+harsh notes of the crow: and once when his companion had halted in sight
+of a buck that bounded through the wood before him, Butler, apprehensive
+that John was about to discharge a bullet after the forest-rover, found
+himself involuntarily pleading the cause of the noble animal: "Do not
+draw your pistol on him, Ramsay, I pray you. Let him run; it is
+liberty--liberty, good comrade--and that is sacred."
+
+Before eight o'clock they had reached the rendezvous. Here they found
+three troopers who, although armed, were habited in the plain dress of
+the country, which enabled them to claim the denomination either of Whig
+or Tory militia, as their occasions might demand. These men had lain
+perdue, for some days, in the depth of the forest, impatiently awaiting
+for intelligence from Ramsay.
+
+"Well, Harry Winter," said John, laughing, "what say you now? I have
+brought you the miller's boy at last. Have I not made my word good?"
+
+"Truth, John," replied the trooper, "there is more stuff in you than we
+counted on. Macdonald must be a silly crow to let the fox steal his
+cheese from him so easily."
+
+"You would have come nearer the mark, Harry, if you had called him a
+sleepy lout, for whilst he was nodding I took his cake off the griddle.
+It was fair filching by night, as the Major will tell you. But come,
+lads, here is no time for dallying, we mustn't have the grass growing to
+our horses' heels, when we have a whole pack of King George's hounds on
+our trail. So move, boys!" and saying these words, John led the party
+forward at a rapid gallop.
+
+They had not gone far before they found themselves upon a road which led
+through a piece of thin wood that covered a small tract of marshy
+ground, the nature of which brought the party into a more compact body
+as they approached the narrowest point of the defile. At a short
+distance beyond this impediment the track became broader, where it
+ascended a hill thickly covered with an undergrowth of bushes.
+
+Our friends had scarcely arrived in the narrow pass before they
+perceived on the hill in front of them, a company of some ten or fifteen
+horse, rapidly advancing towards them. In a moment all conversation was
+checked, and Harry Winter turning to his companions, had barely time to
+remark,
+
+"I answer all questions: be silent, and if asked, swear to the truth of
+every word I say--steady: these fellows are Tories."
+
+As he ceased speaking, the foremost of the strangers had already come up
+to them.
+
+"Where from, and whither do you go?" asked Harry Winter, with a stern
+accent.
+
+"From below Ninety-Six, and on our road to Fort Granby," replied a
+clownish voice.
+
+"Peace, you knave!" interrupted one who appeared to be the leader of the
+party, and whose carriage and demeanor announced him to be an officer;
+"by what authority do you undertake to answer a challenge on the
+highway? Back, to your place, sir."
+
+The rebuked rustic hung his head, as he reined his horse back into the
+crowd that now thronged the road.
+
+"As we are of the larger party," said the same person, addressing
+himself to Winter, "we have the right to the word. Who are you and
+whence come you?"
+
+"We belong to Floyd's new draft," replied Winter with great coolness,
+"and left Winnsborough yesterday morning."
+
+"And where bound?"
+
+"To Augusta, on business with Brown."
+
+"Ah ha!" exclaimed the officer, "Brown is pinched by the rebels. It is
+well you have thought of him. What have you to say to him? Do you bear
+despatches?"
+
+"Your pardon, sir--that's a secret."
+
+"You need not be afraid, good fellow, we are friends."
+
+"I can hardly tell you the exact business," replied Winter. "You will
+meet Floyd himself with a hundred men, before you ride five miles. I
+believe we are going to reinforce the garrison."
+
+"You will be very welcome," said the Tory officer, "Brown will give you
+a hearty reception, but devilish slim fare; he is surrounded with
+hornets."
+
+"So much the better," replied Winter, "we have a knack at taking the
+sting out of the hornets, now-a-days. Good morning, sir. Report us, if
+you please, to Colonel Floyd, when you come across him, and tell him the
+hour of the day when you met us."
+
+During this short parley the two parties had become united into a common
+throng, completely filling up the road; and the proximity into which
+they were severally brought, gave rise to various inquiries after news
+amongst the subordinates on either side. In this press, Butler was
+startled to observe the eyes of an individual scanning him with a
+somewhat pointed scrutiny, and it was with an emotion that had well nigh
+betrayed him, that he recognised in this person one of Macdonald's
+soldiers. It was the man whom the lieutenant had despatched, a few days
+previous, with an errand to the post at Ninety-Six, and who was now
+returning with this detachment of militia. The soldier was evidently at
+fault, for in a moment afterwards Butler could perceive, from his
+expression of face, that whatever might have been his first suspicion,
+it was quieted by another glance. The disguise was so far effectual. But
+another cause of alarm arose, that for an instant brought Butler into
+greater jeopardy. The horse on which the messenger was mounted, was the
+yoke-fellow of the lean Wall-Eye, and the two beasts had been long
+accustomed to work side by side in the same wagon. Their mutual
+recognition, at this critical moment, became distressingly conspicuous.
+Their noses were brought in contact, and they began to whinny and paw
+the ground in that intelligible manner which constitutes one of the
+forms of expression by which this portion of the brute creation
+acknowledge their attachments. The presence of mind of John Ramsay saved
+the explosion which must soon have followed. He spurred his horse
+between the two noisy and restless animals, and immediately addressed a
+conversation to the soldier, which for the moment turned his thoughts
+into another channel.
+
+By this time the conference had terminated, and the two leaders
+respectively directing their men to move forward, the defile was passed
+and each party extricated from the other. But no sooner was the
+separation completed than Butler's brutish steed, Wall-Eye, began to
+neigh with the most clamorous vociferation, whilst a response was heard
+in the same tones as pertinaciously reiterated from the retreating
+companion on the other side of the defile.
+
+"We were in great danger from yonder Tories," said Ramsay, addressing
+Butler, "did you see that one of these fellows rode the mate of the
+beast you are on? Who could he be?"
+
+"It was one of Macdonald's men," replied Butler, "I knew the fellow the
+moment we met; but, thank Heaven, this humble dress concealed me."
+
+"Faster, Major!" cried John, "these cursed horses are calling after each
+other now. Pray, push forward until we get out of hearing. How unlucky
+that Christopher Shaw should have given you one of the wagon cattle!"
+
+"Look back, lads!" exclaimed Winter with great earnestness, "there is
+something wrong, these fellows are returning. Whip and spur, or we are
+overtaken!"
+
+Macdonald's soldier, it seems, having his attention drawn to the
+singular motions of his horse, had become suddenly confirmed in the
+suspicion which at the late meeting for a moment rested upon his mind,
+as to the identity of Butler; and having communicated his thought to the
+commanding officer, the whole party of the Tory militia had wheeled
+about to demand a further investigation: they were now some hundred
+paces in the rear of the fugitives, and were pressing forward at high
+speed, the officer in the front calling out at the same time,
+
+"Hold!--Rein up and return! We have questions to ask. Halt, or we shall
+fire!"
+
+"To it, boys!" cried Harry Winter. "Your safety is in your legs!"
+
+And the party pricked onward as fast as they could urge their cavalry
+along the road. The chase continued for some half hour or more; the
+little escort of Butler leaving the road and plunging into the recesses
+of the forest. An occasional pistol-shot was fired during this retreat,
+but without effect on either side. The tangled character of the ground
+over which they passed, greatly retarded the pursuit, and before the
+half hour was spent none but a few of the boldest horsemen of the
+assailants were found persevering in the chase. Seeing their number
+diminished, and finding also that the horses of his own comrades were
+beginning to flag, John Ramsay assumed the command, and directed his
+party to turn about and offer battle to the pursuers. The immediate
+effect of this movement was to bring the assailants to a halt, which
+was no sooner witnessed by John, than he shouted, "Charge, lads, charge
+and the day is ours! Hack and hew, good fellows: down with the
+bloodhounds!"
+
+This animated exhortation was followed up by a prompt onset, in which
+the brave trooper led the way; and such was the impetuosity of the
+assault that the enemy, although consisting of twice the number of those
+who attacked them, were forced to give ground. A sharp skirmish ensued,
+during which several pistol-shots were discharged on both sides, and
+some encounters, hand to hand, were sustained with a sturdy resolution;
+but, at last, our friends succeeded in turning their opponents to
+flight. The combat had been maintained in that pell-mell form of attack
+and defence, which defied compact or organized resistance; and the
+individuals of each party had been scattered over the wood for a
+considerable distance, so that when the late pursuers were compelled to
+retreat, each man urged his horse in such a direction as was most
+favorable to his escape. By degrees, Butler's few companions began to
+reassemble at that part of the wood where they had made their first
+stand.
+
+"There is nothing like striking the first blow at the right time," said
+Harry Winter, as, with his hat in his hand to allow the air to cool his
+brow, he rode up to Butler, and halted to gain breath. "Give me a hot
+charge on a slow enemy, and I don't care much about two to one of odds.
+Thank God that business is cleanly done, and here we are all safe I
+hope. Where is John Ramsay?" he inquired, looking around him, and
+observing that their comrade was not amongst the number assembled.
+
+"I saw him close at the heels of the runaways," said one of the men.
+"John has a trick of seeing a scrimmage to the end; and it is an even
+bet that he is now upon the trail like a fresh hound. The last I noticed
+of him was at the crupper of a couple of the rascals that, I'll engage,
+before now he has set his mark upon."
+
+"Then we must to his assistance!" exclaimed Butler, eagerly; and without
+waiting for further consultation he set off at full speed, in the
+supposed direction of John Ramsay's pursuit. The rest followed. They had
+ridden some distance without being able to perceive any traces of their
+missing companion. Butler called aloud upon Ramsay, but there was no
+answer; and, for some moments, there was an anxious suspense as the
+party halted to listen for the sound of the footsteps of the trooper's
+approach. At length, a horse was seen far off in the wood, bounding over
+the turf at a wild and frightened pace; the saddle was empty, and the
+bridle-rein hung about his feet. On seeing his companions, the excited
+steed set up a frequent neigh, and, with head and tail erect, coursed
+immediately up to the group of horsemen. Here he came to a sudden halt,
+snorting with the terror of his late alarm. There were drops of blood
+upon the saddle.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" cried Butler, "some evil has befallen Ramsay. Scatter
+and search the wood."
+
+It was with confused and melancholy earnestness that they all now
+continued the quest. After a painful suspense, one of the men was heard
+to shout to the rest that their lost comrade was found. The summons soon
+brought the party together. Ramsay, pale and faint, was stretched upon
+the grass of the forest, his bosom streaming forth a current of blood.
+In an instant Butler was seen stooping over him.
+
+"Oh, this is a heavy ransom, for my deliverance!" he said with the
+deepest anguish, as he raised the trooper's head and laid it on his lap,
+whilst the blood flowed from the wound. "Speak, dear friend, speak!
+Great God, I fear this blow is mortal! Some water, if it can be
+found--look for it, Winter; he has fainted from loss of blood."
+
+Whilst Harry Winter went in search of the necessary refreshment, Butler
+tore his cravat from his neck and applied it to staunch the wound. The
+administration of a slight draught of water, after a short interval,
+sufficiently revived the disabled soldier to enable him to speak. He
+turned his sickly and almost quenched eye to Butler, as he said:
+
+"I was foolish to follow so far. I have it here--here," he added in a
+feeble voice, as he put his hand upon his breast, "and it has done my
+work. I fought for you, major, because I was proud to fight for a
+friend; and because"--here his voice failed him, as for a moment he
+closed his eyes and faintly uttered--"it is all over--I am dying."
+
+"Nay, good John," said Butler, whilst the tears ran down his cheeks; "it
+is not so bad as that--you are weak from bleeding--you will be better
+presently. Oh God! oh God!" he muttered to himself, "I would not have
+had this to save my own life, much less as the price of my liberty!"
+
+"I fought for you," said the wounded man, again reviving, "because Mary
+wished it. This will kill Mary," he added after a pause. "She warned me
+not to be rash, but I could not help it. Be kind to her, Major Butler,
+and take care of her. Tell her I did not fear to die; but for her sake,
+and for the sake of my poor mother. Go to my parents; let them know I
+thought of them in my last thoughts."
+
+"John! John!" exclaimed Butler, unable to give further utterance to his
+feelings.
+
+The dying trooper lay for some moments silent, and his comrades stood
+around him in mute grief, and hung their heads to conceal their emotions
+from each other.
+
+"In my pocket," said Ramsay, "is a Testament. Mary gave it to me for a
+keepsake. Take it out."
+
+Butler drew forth the small volume.
+
+"What shall I do with it?" he asked, in a mournful whisper.
+
+"Give it to Mary, back from me. And this plait of her hair upon my
+wrist, major, take it and wear it on your own; it will remind you of my
+Mary--you will guard her from harm."
+
+"Before God, John Ramsay," said Butler with solemn fervor, "I promise
+you, that, while I live, she shall not want. Your parents, too, shall be
+my special care."
+
+"Then I shall die with easier heart. Thanks, thanks--friends, farewell!"
+feebly ejaculated the stricken soldier, whose eye, already glazed with
+the pangs of death, now glanced upon the attending group, and after a
+brief but painful interval closed in darkness.
+
+John Ramsay spake no more, and his short breathing showed that life was
+fast ebbing in its channel. The audible sobs of Butler, for some
+moments, were alone heard in the circle, as he sat supporting the head
+and grasping the hand of his brave comrade. The struggle was at last
+over, and the gallant spirit of the generous soldier had fled. Butler
+took from the wrist the bracelet of Mary's hair, which was now stained
+with the blood of its late owner, and with an earnest vow to redeem his
+promise, drew it over his own hand.
+
+The scene that followed this melancholy adventure was one of solemn
+interest. The proximity of the enemy, although defeated, rendered a
+delay at this spot, in the present circumstances of Butler, exceedingly
+hazardous; yet he could not entertain the thought of continuing his
+journey until he had communicated to David Ramsay the distressing
+tidings of his son's death. The last request of John seemed also to
+impose this task upon him as a sacred obligation, due to the friendship
+which had terminated in so disastrous an end. Butler's resolution,
+therefore, was soon taken. He determined immediately, at all hazards, to
+make his way back to Ramsay's cottage, and to endeavor to console the
+afflicted parents under their severe bereavement. Disdaining, in his
+present state of feeling, the disguise that seemed to make him almost a
+stranger to himself, he threw aside the miller's dress and again
+appeared in his true character, resolved manfully to meet what he now
+believed to be the almost certain result--a recapture with all its
+probable consequences. Some of his party, who were acquainted with the
+localities of their present position, suggested to him that a Whig
+family of the name of Drummond resided at no great distance from the
+scene of the late encounter, and that, by bearing the body to this
+place, they might secure for it a decent burial. The remains of the
+trooper were accordingly laid upon a rude litter, and his mourning
+comrades slowly and sorrowfully wended their way through the forest to
+the designated habitation. Here they arrived about noon, having
+traversed a space of more than two miles to gain this asylum.
+
+Drummond was a woodman, and occupied a rude cabin, with a small clearing
+around it, in the depths of the wilderness, so remote from the highway
+as to promise as much security from the quest of the enemy, as might be
+expected from any portion of the region in which he lived. He received
+his guests with kindness; and as he was himself acquainted with the
+family of the deceased, he exhibited a lively sympathy with the mourners
+around the body.
+
+When Butler now made known his purpose to set out immediately for the
+habitation of David Ramsay, Winter asked permission to accompany him,
+but the woodman interposed, and recommended that he alone should be
+permitted to perform that errand, leaving the others to remain with the
+corpse until his return.
+
+"It is, before all others, my duty," said Butler; "and come what may, I
+will perform it."
+
+"Then we will go together," added the proprietor of the cabin. "It will
+be wise to wait until the day is a little more spent, and return in the
+darkness of the night. David Ramsay will come back with us. He would
+like to see his son before we put him in the ground."
+
+"That shall be as you please, friend," said Butler. "I will be under
+your guidance."
+
+An hour or two before sundown, Butler and his new companion left the
+cabin, and took their route across the woods towards Ramsay's dwelling,
+leaving the dead body in charge of the woodman's family and the three
+soldiers. The distance they had to travel did not exceed eight miles.
+The repulse of the Tory party in the skirmish of the morning seemed to
+have induced a belief, on the part of the enemy, that the fugitives had
+made a successful retreat which was now beyond pursuit, and there were,
+in consequence, no parties on the road to molest the travellers. Under
+these circumstances, it was still daylight when they came in view of
+David Ramsay's homestead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Great agitation prevailed at Macdonald's post, when the morning
+disclosed the escape of Butler. The lieutenant was conscious that this
+mischance had exposed him to the risk of heavy censure, and as was
+natural to a man who could not entirely acquit himself of some neglect
+in the performance of his duty, his first measures were taken in a
+spirit of peevish and angry severity. Small parties were sent out to
+explore the neighborhood, with a view to gain intelligence of the
+direction taken by the fugitive, with orders to bring him in dead or
+alive. The sentinels who were on duty during the night were arrested,
+and subjected to a rigid examination on the events of their watch; the
+several members of Musgrove's family were also interrogated as to
+matters touching their own connexion with the prisoner. Nothing,
+however, was gathered from these investigations that was calculated to
+cast a suspicion of connivance in Butler's liberation, upon any
+individual either of the garrison or of the family. It was only apparent
+that the prisoner had availed himself of the remissness of the guard and
+the darkness of the night, to make a bold descent from the window; and
+had succeeded by one of those lucky accidents which sometimes baffle the
+most cautious foresight. The nature of the attempt did not necessarily
+suppose the aid of an accomplice, and a faint hope was, therefore,
+entertained that Butler would be found still lurking in the vicinity of
+the post.
+
+In the course of a few hours, the first parties that had been dispatched
+in the morning, returned. They could give no account of the prisoner;
+nor was there any light thrown upon the escape until about the dinner
+hour, when a portion of the detachment which had intercepted Butler and
+his comrades in the morning, arrived at the mill, under the conduct of
+the soldier whose suspicions had led to the pursuit and skirmish which
+we have already described. The report of these men left Macdonald no
+room to doubt the identity of Butler with the person described. A
+further examination, at the suggestion of the soldier, showed that
+Wall-Eye, the wagon-horse, was missing; and it now became certain that
+Butler had been aided by a party of the enemy with whom he must have
+been in correspondence. The conclusion was, that with his means of
+flight there could be little doubt of his being, long before the present
+period of the day, out of the reach of successful pursuit. The scheme
+was laid to the account of Horse Shoe Robinson, whose name and
+adventures were already famous in this district; and it was conjectured
+that Sumpter was secretly posted in some neighboring fastness to give
+his assistance to the enterprise.
+
+With these reflections, Macdonald felt himself obliged to submit to the
+exigencies of the case; a point of philosophy which he did not practise
+without a very visible chagrin and mortification. His men were called
+together, and after a short, fretful lecture on their neglect, and an
+injunction to a more soldier-like vigilance in future, which savored of
+the caution of locking the stable after the steed was stolen, they were
+dismissed.
+
+About an hour before sundown, Allen Musgrove and Mary, availing
+themselves of the confusion and relaxed discipline of the post,
+occasioned by the events of the morning, set out on horseback for David
+Ramsay's dwelling, whither they were led by a natural anxiety to learn
+something of the movements of the fugitives.
+
+"It's a pleasure and a happiness, Allen Musgrove," said Mistress Ramsay,
+as the miller and his daughter sat down in the cabin, "to see you and
+Mary over here with us at any time, but it is specially so now when we
+have good news to tell. John and his friend are safe out of reach of
+Macdonald's men, and--God be praised!--I hope out of the way of all
+other harms. We have had soldiers dodging in and out through the day,
+but not one of them has made any guess what's gone with the major; and
+as for John, they don't seem to suspect him to be on the country-side.
+It's all Horse Shoe Robinson with them. They say that none but he could
+have helped to get the major away, and that General Sumpter was the
+instigator. Well, I'm sure they were welcome to that opinion, for it set
+them all to looking over towards Broad river, which is as good a
+direction as we could wish them to travel."
+
+"The less you seem to know about it, with any of these inquiring
+parties, the better, Mistress Ramsay," said Allen Musgrove, "and I would
+advise you, even here amongst ourselves, to speak lower, David, what do
+you hear this evening?"
+
+"Nothing concerning our runaways since they left us at daylight this
+morning," replied Ramsay. "I should guess them to be somewhere near upon
+Fair Forest by this time. You know Williams is out-lying upon the upper
+branches of the river? It is more like hunted deer, Allen, than
+Christian men, that our poor fellows take to the woods now. God knows
+what will come of it!"
+
+"He knows and has appointed it," said Musgrove, gravely, "and will in
+His own good time and with such instruments as shall faithfully work His
+purpose, give the victory to them that have the right. Man, woman, and
+child may perish, and house and home may be burnt over our heads, and
+the blood of brave men may make the dust of the road red; yes, and the
+pastures rich as if new laid with manure; but the will of God shall be
+done and His providence be accomplished. The cause of the just shall
+prevail against the unjust."
+
+"There were no soldiers," inquired Mary, addressing David Ramsay, "that
+you have heard of, who followed towards Fair Forest? I should be sorry
+if John was to be troubled with persons going after him; because,"--the
+maiden hesitated an instant,--"because it's unpleasant and disagreeable
+to be obliged to be riding off the road, through bushes and briers, to
+keep out of the way."
+
+"If they were not greatly an overmatch, girl," interrupted Ramsay, "John
+wouldn't give himself much trouble upon that account."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Ramsay," said Mary earnestly, "I was thinking of that. It's
+hard to say what John would call an overmatch: men are so headstrong and
+venturesome."
+
+"That's God's own truth, Mary," interposed Mrs. Ramsay; "and what I have
+always been telling David and John both. But they never heed me, no more
+than if I was talking to the child in that cradle."
+
+"I've told John as much myself," said Mary, blushing.
+
+"And he would not heed you either," interrupted her father, "A soldier
+would have a holiday life of it, if he followed the advice of his
+mother or his sweetheart. Daughter, amongst friends here, you needn't
+blush; we know more of the secrets betwixt you and the trooper lad than
+you count upon. John's a clever boy, Mistress Ramsay, and I think you
+have reason to brag of him somewhat; and as there's particular good-will
+between him and my Mary, I'll not stand in the way when the war is over,
+if God spares us all, and Mary and the lad keep in the same mind; I'll
+not stand in the way of a new settlement in the neighborhood. Mary is a
+good daughter, well nurtured, and--I don't care to say it to her
+face--will make a thriving wife."
+
+The mother smiled as she replied, "I don't pretend to know the young
+people's secrets, but I know this, you don't think better of Mary than
+John does--nor than me neither, perhaps."
+
+The conversation was interrupted by a knocking at the door, and, in a
+moment afterwards, Arthur Butler and the woodman entered the apartment.
+
+"Major Butler, as I am a living woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Ramsay.
+
+"Our good friend himself!" ejaculated Musgrove, with surprise. "What has
+turned you back? And Gabriel Drummond here too! What has happened?"
+
+"Where is my son John?" demanded Ramsay. "Are you followed?"
+
+Butler walked up to Mrs. Ramsay, and, as a tear started to his eye, took
+her by the hand, and stood for a moment unable to speak.
+
+"Oh, heaven have mercy on me!" screamed Mary Musgrove, as she threw
+herself upon a bed, "something dreadful has happened."
+
+"For God's sake, speak what you have to tell!" said David Ramsay,
+instantly turning pale.
+
+"John Ramsay is hurt," faintly articulated the mother, and Mary, rising
+from the bed, stood beside Butler with a countenance on which was seated
+the most agonizing attention. Andy, the hero of the exploit we have
+heretofore related, also pressed into the presence of the same group,
+and a death-like silence pervaded the whole party.
+
+Butler, with an ineffectual effort to recover himself, turned to
+Drummond, making a sign to him to tell the object of their melancholy
+errand, and then flung himself into a chair.
+
+"John Ramsay is dead," said the woodman, in a mournful tone. "Your son,
+mistress Ramsay, was shot in a fray with the bloody, villanous Tories.
+The heartiest curses upon them!"
+
+"Killed, dear madam," said Butler, scarce able to articulate, "killed in
+my defence. Would to God the blow had fallen upon my own head!"
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" exclaimed the matron, as a flood of tears rolled down
+her cheeks, and she endeavored to wipe them away with her apron. "It
+isn't true. It can't be true. My poor, dear, brave boy!"
+
+At the same instant Mary Musgrove fell insensible into the arms of her
+father, where it was some moments before she gave signs of animation. At
+length, being laid upon the bed, a deep groan escaped her, which was
+followed by the most piteous wailing.
+
+The scene wrought upon the younger members of the family, who, as well
+as the domestics, were heard pouring forth deep and loud lamentations,
+accompanied with reiterated announcements of the death of the soldier.
+
+When this first burst of the general grief was over, David Ramsay arose
+from his seat and walked across the room to a window, where he stood
+endeavoring to compose and master his feelings. At length, facing
+Butler, he said in a low and tranquil tone,
+
+"John Ramsay, my son, killed, killed in a skirmish? God is my witness, I
+expected it! It was his failing to follow his enemy with too hot a hand;
+and I am to blame, perhaps, that I never checked him in that temper. But
+he died like a man and a soldier, Major Butler," he added, firmly.
+
+"He died in my arms," replied Butler, "as bravely as ever soldier closed
+his life, his last thoughts were fixed upon his parents, and--"
+
+"Dead!" interrupted Ramsay, as if communing with himself, and regardless
+of Butler's words--"Dead! He fell doing his duty to his country, that's
+a consolation. A man cannot die better. If it please God, I hope my end
+may be like his. Andrew, my boy, come here. You are now my oldest living
+son," he said, taking the lad's hand and looking him full in the face,
+as he spoke with a bitter compression of his lips; "I am willing, much
+as I love you, that the country should have you."
+
+"No, David, David," interrupted the mother, rousing herself from her
+silent grief, "we have given enough; no other child of mine shall
+venture in the war. John! John! John! my dear boy, my brave son! How
+good and kind he was to us all! And how glad he was to get home to see
+us; and how much we made of him!"
+
+"Silence, wife," said David Ramsay, "this is no time to hold back from
+our duty. Andrew, listen to me: remember your brother has met his death
+fighting against these monsters, who hate the very earth that nurses
+liberty. You are young, boy, but you can handle a musket; we will not
+forget your brother's death."
+
+"Nor the burning of a good house over your head, and a full barn,
+father; nor the frights they have given my poor mother."
+
+"Nor the thousands of brave men," added the father, "who have poured out
+their blood to give us a land and laws of our own. My boy, we will
+remember these, for vengeance."
+
+"Not for vengeance," said Allen Musgrove, "for justice, David. Your
+enemy should be remembered only to prevent him from doing mischief. The
+Lord will give him sword and buckler, spear and shield, who stands up
+for the true cause: and when it pleases Him to require the sacrifice of
+life from the faithful servant who fights the battle, he grants patience
+and courage to meet the trial. Your son was not the man, David, to turn
+his face away from the work that was before him; may God receive him and
+comfort his distressed family! He was an honest and brave son, David
+Ramsay."
+
+"A braver soldier never buckled on broadsword, Allen Musgrove," replied
+the father. "Yes, I looked for this; ever since my dwelling was levelled
+to the ground by these firebrands, I looked for it. John's passion was
+up then, and I knew the thoughts that ran through his mind. Ever since
+that day his feelings have been most bitter; and he has flung himself
+amongst the Tories, making as little account of them as the mower when
+he puts his scythe into the grass of the meadows."
+
+"God forgive him, David!" said Musgrove, "and strengthen you and the
+boy's good mother in this sharp hour of trial. They who draw the sword
+in passion may stand in fear of the judgment of the sword: it is a
+fearful thing for sinful man to shed blood for any end but that of
+lawful war, and at the bidding of his country. God alone is the
+avenger."
+
+Mary had again raised herself from the bed, and at this moment gave vent
+to her feelings in a loud and bitter lamentation "John Ramsay is dead,
+is dead!" she exclaimed. "I cannot believe it. He that was so true and
+so warm-hearted, and that everybody loved! They could not kill him! Oh,
+I begged him to keep his foot from danger, and he promised me, for my
+sake, to be careful. I loved him, father; I never told you so much
+before, but I am not ashamed to tell it now before everybody; I loved
+him better than all the world. And we had promised each other. It is so
+hard to lose them that we love!" she continued, sobbing violently. "He
+was so brave and so good, and he was so handsome, Mrs. Ramsay, and so
+dutiful to you and his father, coming home to see you whenever the war
+would let him. And he walked, and rode, and ran, and fought for his
+friends, and them that he cared for. He was so thoughtful for your
+comfort too," she added, as she threw herself on her knees and rested
+her head in the lap of the mother, and there paused through a long
+interval, during which nothing was heard but her own moans mingled with
+the sighs of the party, "we were to be married after this war was at an
+end, and thought we should live so happily: but they have murdered him!
+Oh they have murdered him," and with her hair thrown in disorder over
+her face, she again gave vent to a flood of tears.
+
+"Mary, daughter! Shame on you, girl!" said her father. "Do you forget,
+in the hour of your affliction, that you have a friend who is able to
+comfort? There is one who can heal up your sorrows and speak peace to
+your troubled spirit, if you be not too proud to ask it. I have taught
+you, daughter, in all time of tribulation to look to Him for patience
+and for strength to bear adversity. Why do you neglect this refuge now?"
+
+"Our Father," said the maiden, fervently clasping her hands and lifting
+up her eyes, now dim with weeping, as she appealed to God in prayer,
+"who art in heaven--teach us all to say thy will be done. Take--take--my
+dear John--Oh my heart will burst and I shall die!" she uttered, almost
+overwhelmed with her emotions, as she again buried her face in Mistress
+Ramsay's lap--"I cannot speak!"
+
+A silence of inexpressible agony prevailed for some moments. This was at
+length interrupted by the uprising of the full, clear, and firm voice of
+Allen Musgrove, who now broke forth from the opposite side of a room
+where he had kneeled before a chair, in an earnest and impressive
+supplication to the Deity, urged with all that eloquence which naturally
+flows from deeply-excited feeling. From the solemnity of the occasion,
+as well as from the habitually religious temper of the family assembled
+in the little cabin, the words of the prayer fell upon the hearts of
+those present with a singularly welcome effect, and, for the moment,
+brought tranquillity to their feelings.
+
+When the prayer was ended, the grief of the mourners rolled back in its
+former flood, and burst from Mary Musgrove in the most heart-rending
+bitterness. Paroxysm followed paroxysm with fearful violence, and these
+outbreaks were responded to by the mother with scarcely less intensity.
+All attempts at consolation, on the part of the men, were unavailing;
+and it was apparent that nothing remained but to let the tide of anguish
+take its own course.
+
+It was now some time after night-fall, when Butler and Drummond beckoned
+Allen Musgrove to leave the room. They retired into the open air in
+front of the house, where they were immediately joined by David Ramsay.
+Here Butler communicated to them the necessity of making immediate
+arrangements for their return to the woodman's cottage, and for the
+burial of the deceased trooper. His advice was adopted, and it was
+resolved that Musgrove and Ramsay should accompany the other two to the
+spot. Before the consultation was closed, Andy had come into the group,
+and he was now directed, with all haste, to throw a saddle upon his
+father's horse.
+
+"You, Andrew, my son," said David Ramsay, "will stay at home and comfort
+your poor mother, and Mary. Speak to them, boy, and persuade them to
+give up their useless lamentations. It is the will of God, and we ought
+not to murmur at it."
+
+"The burning, father," replied the boy, with a sorrowful earnestness,
+"and the fighting, and the frights we have had, was all nothing to this.
+I never felt before how terrible the war was."
+
+Andy had now gone to equip the horse, and the men returned to the inside
+of the cabin, where they sat in profound silence. Butler, at length,
+rose from the door-sill where he had taken his seat, and crossing the
+room, took a position by the bed on which Mary Musgrove had thrown
+herself, and where she now lay uttering faint and half-smothered moans.
+
+"I have a remembrance for you," he said, stooping down and speaking
+scarce above a whisper in the maiden's ear; "I promised to deliver it
+into your hand. God knows with what pain I perform my office! John
+enjoined upon me to give you this," he continued, as he presented to her
+the little copy of the Testament, "and to say to you that his last
+thoughts were given to you and his mother. He loved you, Mary, better
+than he loved any living creature in this world."
+
+"He did, he did," sobbed forth the girl; "and I loved him far above
+family, friends, kinsfolk and all--I wish I were dead by his side."
+
+"Take the book," said Butler, hardly able to articulate. "God for ever
+bless you," he added, after a pause of weeping, "and bring you comfort!
+I have promised John Ramsay, that neither you, nor any of his family,
+shall ever want the service of a friend, while I have life or means to
+render it. Before Heaven, that pledge shall be redeemed! Farewell,
+farewell! God bless you!"
+
+As Butler uttered these words he grasped the maiden's hand and pressed
+it fervently to his lips; then turning to the mother, he addressed some
+phrase of comfort to her, and hastily left the room. Scarcely a sound
+was heard from any one, except the low sobbing of the exhausted weepers,
+and the almost convulsive kisses which Mary imprinted upon the little
+book that Butler had put into her hand.
+
+Musgrove, Ramsay, and the woodman, retired from the apartment at the
+same moment; and the horses being ready at the door, the retreating beat
+of the hoofs upon the turf gave notice to the in-dwellers that the four
+men had set forward on their journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+A RUSTIC FUNERAL.
+
+    How glumly sounds yon dirgy song;
+    Night ravens flap the wing.--_Burger's Leonora._
+
+
+By eleven o'clock at night, Butler and the party from Ramsay's arrived
+at the woodman's cabin. Winter and his comrades had been busy in making
+preparations for the funeral. The body had been laid out upon a table, a
+sheet thrown over it, and a pine torch blazed from the chimney wall
+close by, and flung its broad, red glare over the apartment. An elderly
+female, the wife of the woodman, and two or three children, sat quietly
+in the room. The small detachment of troopers loitered around the
+corpse, walking with stealthy pace across the floor, and now and then
+adjusting such matters of detail in the arrangements for the interment
+as required their attention. A rude coffin, hastily constructed of such
+materials as were at hand, was deposited near the table. A solemn
+silence prevailed, which no less consisted with the gloom of the
+occasion than with the late hour of the night.
+
+When the newly arrived party had dismounted and entered the apartment, a
+short salutation, in suppressed tones, was exchanged, and without
+further delay, the whole company set themselves to the melancholy duty
+that was before them. David Ramsay approached the body, and, turning the
+sheet down from the face, stood gazing on the features of his son. There
+was a settled frown upon his brow that contrasted signally with the
+composed and tranquil lineaments of the deceased. The father and son
+presented a strange and remarkable type of life and death--the
+countenance of the mourner stamped by the agitation of keen, living
+emotion, and the object mourned bearing the impress of a serene, placid,
+and passionless repose:--the one a vivid picture of misery, the other a
+quiet image of happy sleep. David Ramsay bent his looks upon the body
+for some minutes, without an endeavor to speak, and at last retreated
+towards the door, striking his hand upon his forehead as he breathed out
+the ejaculation, "My son, my son, how willingly would I change places
+with you this night!"
+
+Allen Musgrove was less agitated by the spectacle, and whilst he
+surveyed the features of the deceased, his lips were moved with the
+utterance of a short and almost inaudible prayer. Then turning to
+Drummond, he inquired: "Has the grave been thought of? Who has attended
+to the preparations?"
+
+"It has been thought of," replied the woodman; "I sent two of my people
+off to dig it before I went with Major Butler to see David. We have a
+grave-yard across in the woods, nigh a mile from this, and I thought it
+best that John Ramsay should be buried there."
+
+"It was kindly thought on by you, Gabriel," replied Musgrove. "You have
+your father and others of your family in that spot. David Ramsay will
+thank you for it."
+
+"I do, heartily," said Ramsay, "and will remember it, Gabriel, at
+another time."
+
+"Let the body be lifted into the coffin," said Musgrove.
+
+The order was promptly executed by Harry Winter and the other troopers.
+In a few minutes afterwards, the rough boards which had been provided to
+close up the box or coffin, were laid in their appropriate places, and
+Winter had just begun to hammer the nails into them, when from the
+outside of the cabin was heard a wild and piercing scream, that fell so
+suddenly upon the ears of those within as to cause the trooper to drop
+the hammer from his hand. In one moment more, Mary Musgrove rushed into
+the room and fell prostrate upon the floor. She was instantly followed
+by Andrew.
+
+"God of heaven!" exclaimed Butler, "here is misery upon misery. This
+poor girl's brain is crazed by her misfortune. This is worst of all!"
+
+"Mary, Mary, my child!" ejaculated Musgrove, as he raised his daughter
+into his arms. "What madness has come upon you, that you should have
+wandered here to-night!"
+
+"How has this happened, Andrew?" said David Ramsay, all speaking in the
+same breath.
+
+"When Mary heard," replied Andrew, in answer to his father's question,
+"that you had all come to Gabriel Drummond's to bury my brother, she
+couldn't rest content; and she prayed so pitifully to come after you,
+and see him before they put him in the ground, that I thought it right
+to tell her that I would come with her. And if I hadn't, she would have
+come by herself; for she had got upon her horse before any of us were
+aware."
+
+"I couldn't stay at home, father," said Mary, reviving and speaking in a
+firm voice. "I should have died with a broken heart. I couldn't let you
+come to put him in the earth without following after you. Where is he? I
+heard them nailing the coffin; it must be broken open for me to see
+him!"
+
+These words, uttered with a bitter vehemence, were followed by a quick
+movement towards the coffin, which was yet unclosed; and the maiden,
+with more composure than her previous gestures seemed to render it
+possible for her to acquire, paused before the body with a look of
+intense sorrow, as the tears fell fast from her eyes.
+
+"It is true--it is too true--he is dead! Oh, John, John!" she exclaimed,
+as she stooped down and kissed the cold lips, "I did not dream of this
+when we parted last night near the willows. You did not look as you do
+now, when I found you asleep under the rock, and when you promised me,
+John, that you would be careful and keep yourself from danger, if it was
+only to please me. We were doing our best for you then, Major
+Butler--and here is what it has come to. No longer than last night he
+made me the promise. Oh me, oh me! how wretched--how miserable I am!"
+
+"Daughter, dear," said Allen Musgrove, "rise up and behave like a brave
+girl as, you know, I have often told you you were. We are born to
+afflictions, and young as you are, you cannot hope to be free from the
+common lot. You do yourself harm by this ungoverned grief. There's a
+good and a kind girl--sit yourself down and calm your feelings."
+
+Musgrove took his daughter by the hand, and gently conducted her to a
+seat, where he continued to address her in soothing language, secretly
+afraid that the agony of her feelings might work some serious misfortune
+upon her senses.
+
+"You are not angry with me, father, for following you to-night?" said
+Mary, for a moment moderating the wildness of her sorrow.
+
+"No, child, no. I cannot be angry with you; but I fear this long
+night-ride may do you harm."
+
+"I can but die, father; and I would not step aside from that."
+
+"Recollect yourself, Mary; your Bible does not teach you to wish for
+death. It is sinful to rebel under the chastisements of God. Daughter, I
+have taught you in your day of prosperity, the lessons that were to be
+practised in your time of suffering and trial. Do not now turn me and my
+precepts to shame."
+
+"Oh, father, forgive me. It is so hard to lose the best, the dearest!"
+Here Mary again gave way to emotions which could only relieve themselves
+in profuse tears.
+
+In the meantime the body was removed to the outside of the cabin, and
+the coffin was speedily shut up and deposited upon a light wagon-frame,
+to which two lean horses were already harnessed, and which waited to
+convey its burden to the grave-yard.
+
+"All is ready," said Winter, stepping quietly into the house, and
+speaking in a low tone to Musgrove. "We are waiting only for you."
+
+"Father," said Mary, who, on hearing this communication, had sprung to
+her feet, "I must go with you."
+
+"My child!"
+
+"I came all this way through the dark woods on purpose, father--and it
+is my right to go with him to his grave. Pray, dear father, do not
+forbid me. We belonged to each other, and he would be glad to think I
+was the last that left him--the very last."
+
+"The poor child takes on so," said the wife of Drummond, now for the
+first time interposing in the scene; "and it seems natural, Mr.
+Musgrove, that you shouldn't hinder her. I will go along, and maybe it
+will be a comfort to her, to have some woman-kind beside her. I will
+take her hand."
+
+"You shall go, Mary," said her father; "but on the condition that you
+govern your feelings, and behave with the moderation of a Christian
+woman. Take courage, my child, and show your nurture."
+
+"I will, father--I will; the worst is past, and I can walk quietly to
+John's grave," replied Mary, as the tears again flowed fast, and her
+voice was stifled with her sobs.
+
+"It is a heavy trouble for such a young creature to bear," said Mistress
+Drummond, as she stood beside the maiden, waiting for this burst of
+grief to subside; "but this world is full of such sorrows."
+
+Musgrove now quitted the apartment. He was followed by his daughter and
+the rest of the inmates, all of whom repaired to the front of the cabin,
+where they awaited the removal of the body.
+
+A bundle of pine faggots had been provided, and each one of the party
+was supplied from them with a lighted torch. Some little delay occurred
+whilst Harry Winter was concluding his arrangements for the funeral.
+
+"Take your weapons along, boys," said the trooper to his comrades, in a
+whisper. "John Ramsay shall have the honors of war--and mark, you are to
+bring up the rear--let the women walk next the wagon. Gabriel Drummond,
+bring your rifle along--we shall give a volley over the grave."
+
+The woodman stepped into the cabin and returned with his fire lock. All
+things being ready, the wagon, under the guidance of a negro who walked
+at the horses' heads, now moved forward. The whole party formed a
+procession in couples--the woodman's wife and Mary being first in the
+train, the children succeeding them, and the rest following in regular
+order.
+
+It was an hour after midnight. The road, scarcely discernible, wound
+through a thick forest, and the procession moved with a slow and heavy
+step towards its destination. The torches lit up the darkness of the
+wood with a strong flame, that penetrated the mass of sombre foliage to
+the extent of some fifty paces around, and glared with a wild and
+romantic effect upon the rude coffin, the homely vehicle on which it was
+borne, and upon the sorrowing faces of the train that followed it. The
+seclusion of the region, the unwonted hour, and the strange mixture of
+domestic and military mourning, half rustic and half warlike, that
+entered into the composition of the group; and, above all, the
+manifestations of sincere and intense grief that were seen in every
+member of the train, communicated to the incident a singularly
+imaginative and unusual character. No words were spoken, except the few
+orders of the march announced by Harry Winter in a whisper; and the ear
+recognised, with a painful precision, the unceasing sobs of Mary
+Musgrove, and the deep groan that seemed, unawares, to escape now and
+then from some of the males of the party. The dull tramp of feet, and
+the rusty creak of the wagon-wheels, or the crackling of brushwood
+beneath them, and the monotonous clank of the chains employed in the
+gearing of the horses, all broke upon the stillness of the night with a
+more abrupt and observed distinctness, from the peculiar tone of feeling
+which pervaded those who were engaged in the sad offices of the scene.
+
+In the space of half an hour, the train had emerged from the wood upon a
+small tract of open ground, that seemed to have been formerly cleared
+from the forest for the purpose of cultivation. Whatever tillage might
+have once existed there was now abandoned, and the space was overgrown
+with brambles, through which the blind road still struggled by a track
+that even in daylight it would have been difficult to pursue. Towards
+the centre of this opening grew a cluster of low cherry and peach trees,
+around whose roots a plentiful stock of wild scions had shot up in the
+absence of culture. Close in the shade of this cluster, a ragged and
+half-decayed paling formed a square inclosure of some ten or twelve
+paces broad, and a few rude posts set up within, indicated the spot to
+be the rustic grave-yard. Here two negroes were seen resting over a
+newly-dug grave.
+
+The wagon halted within some short distance of the paling, and the
+coffin was now committed to the shoulders of the troopers. Following
+these, the whole train of mourners entered the burial-place.
+
+My reader will readily imagine with what fresh fervor the grief of poor
+Mary broke forth, whilst standing on the verge of the pit in which were
+to be entombed the remains of one so dear to her. The solemn interval or
+pause which intervened between the arrival of the corpse at this spot,
+and its being lowered into the ground, was one that was not signalized
+only by the loud sorrow of her who here bore the part of chief mourner;
+but all, even to the negroes who stood musing over their spades, gave
+vent to feelings which, at such a moment, it neither belongs to
+humanity, nor becomes it, to resist.
+
+The funeral service was performed by Allen Musgrove. The character of
+the miller, both physical and moral, impressed his present employment
+with singular efficacy. Though his frame bore the traces of age, it was
+still robust and muscular; and his bearing, erect and steadfast, denoted
+firmness of mind. His head, partially bald, was now uncovered; and his
+loose, whitened locks played in the breeze. The torches were raised
+above the group; and as they flared in the wind and flung their heavy
+volumes of smoke into the air, they threw also a blaze of light upon the
+venerable figure of the miller, as he poured forth an impassioned
+supplication to the Deity; which, according to the habit of thinking of
+that period, and conformably also to the tenets of the religious sect to
+which the speaker belonged, might be said to have expressed, in an equal
+degree, resignation to the will of Heaven and defiance of the power of
+man. Though the office at the grave was thus prolonged, it did not seem
+to be unexpected or wearisome to the auditory, who remained with
+unabated interest until they had chanted a hymn, which was given out by
+the miller, and sung in successive couplets. The religious observances
+of the place seemed to have taken a profitable hold upon the hearts of
+the mourners; and before the hymn was concluded, even the voice of Mary
+Musgrove rose with a clear cadence upon the air, and showed that the
+inspirations of piety had already supplanted some of the more violent
+paroxysms of grief.
+
+This exercise of devotion being finished, the greater part of the
+company began their retreat to the woodman's cabin. Winter and his
+comrades remained to perform the useless and idle ceremony of
+discharging their pistols over the grave, and when this was accomplished
+they hurried forward to overtake the party in advance.
+
+They had scarcely rejoined their companions, before the horses of the
+wagon were seized by an unknown hand; and the glare of the torches
+presented to the view of the company some fifteen or twenty files of
+British troopers.
+
+"Stand, I charge you all, in the name of the king!" called out an
+authoritative voice from the contiguous thicket; and before another
+word could be uttered, the funeral train found themselves surrounded by
+enemies.
+
+"Hands off!" exclaimed Butler, as a soldier had seized him by the coat.
+A pistol shot was heard, and Butler was seen plunging into the wood,
+followed by Winter and one or two others.
+
+The fugitives were pursued by numbers of the hostile party, and in a few
+moments were dragged back to the lights.
+
+"Who are you, sir?" demanded an officer, who now rode up to Butler,
+"that you dare to disobey a command in the name of the king? Friend or
+foe, you must submit to be questioned."
+
+"We have been engaged," said Allen Musgrove, "in the peaceful and
+Christian duty of burying the dead. What right have you to interrupt
+us?"
+
+"You take a strange hour for such a work," replied the officer, "and, by
+the volley fired over the grave, I doubt whether your service be so
+peaceful as you pretend, old man. What is he that you have laid beneath
+the turf to-night?"
+
+"A soldier," replied Butler, "worthy of all the rites that belong to the
+sepulture of a brave man."
+
+"And you are a comrade, I suppose?"
+
+"I do not deny it."
+
+"What colors do you serve?"
+
+"Who is he that asks?"
+
+"Captain McAlpine of the new levies," replied the officer. "Now, sir,
+your name and character? you must be convinced of my right to know it."
+
+"I have no motive for concealment," said Butler, "since I am already in
+your power. Myself and four comrades are strictly your prisoners; the
+rest of this party are inhabitants of the neighboring country, having no
+connexion with the war, but led hither by a simple wish to perform an
+office of humanity to a deceased friend. In surrendering myself and
+those under my command, I bespeak for the others an immunity from all
+vexatious detention. I am an officer of the Continental service: Butler
+is my name, my rank, a major of infantry."
+
+After a few words more of explanation, the party were directed by the
+British officer to continue their march to Drummond's cabin, whither,
+in a brief space, they arrived under the escort of their captors.
+
+A wakeful night was passed under the woodman's roof; and when morning
+came the circumstances of the recapture of Butler were more fully
+disclosed. The detachment under Captain McAlpine were on their way to
+join Ferguson, who was now posted in the upper district; and being
+attracted by the sound of voices engaged in chanting the psalm at the
+funeral of John Ramsay, and still more by the discharge of the volley
+over the grave, they had directed their march to the spot, which they
+had no difficulty in reaching by the help of the torches borne by the
+mourners.
+
+The detachment consisted of a company of horse numbering some fifty men,
+who had no scruple in seizing upon Butler and his companions as
+prisoners of war. It was some relief to Butler when he ascertained that
+his present captors were ignorant of his previous history, and were
+unconnected with those who had formerly held him in custody. He was also
+gratified with the assurance that no design was entertained to molest
+any others of the party, except those whom Butler himself indicated as
+belligerents.
+
+Captain McAlpine halted with his men at the woodman's cabin, until after
+sunrise. During this interval, Butler was enabled to prepare himself for
+the journey he was about to commence, and to take an affectionate leave
+of Musgrove and his daughter, David Ramsay, and the woodman's family.
+
+Allen Musgrove and Mary, and their friend Ramsay, deemed it prudent to
+retreat with the first permission given them by the British officer;
+and, not long afterwards, Butler and his comrades found themselves in
+the escort of the Tory cavalry, bound for Ferguson's camp.
+
+Thus, once more, was Butler doomed to feel the vexations of captivity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+A COUNCIL OF WAR AT MRS. MARKHAM'S. THE SERGEANT SETS FORTH ON AN
+ADVENTURE.
+
+
+We return to Mildred Lindsay, who, comfortably sheltered under the roof
+of Mrs. Markham, had found herself, after the repose of forty-eight
+hours, almost entirely reinstated in her former strength; her thoughts
+were now consequently directed to the resumption of her journey. The
+gentle and assiduous attentions of the family whose hospitality she
+enjoyed, were, however, not confined to the mere restoration of her
+health. The peculiarity of her condition, thus thrown as she was amongst
+strangers, in the prosecution of an enterprise, which, though its
+purpose was not disclosed to her entertainer, was one manifestly of
+great peril, and such only as could have been induced by some urgent and
+imperious necessity, awakened in Mrs. Markham a lively interest towards
+Mildred's future progress. This interest was increased by the deportment
+of our heroine herself, whose mild and graceful courtesy, feminine
+delicacy, and gentleness of nurture, were so signally contrasted with
+the romantic hardihood of her present expedition. General Marion's
+letter, also, in the estimation of the hostess, put her under a special
+obligation to look after the welfare of her guest. Accordingly, now when
+the third morning of our travellers' sojourn had arrived, and Mildred
+thought of taking leave of the friendly family, the first announcement
+of this purpose was met by an almost positive prohibition.
+
+"You are young, my dear," said the matron, "in your experience of the
+horrors of this civil war, and make a sad mistake if you think that your
+sex, or any sufficient reason you may have to justify you in going on,
+will protect you against insult, in case you should be so unfortunate as
+to meet parties of the enemy."
+
+"My object, madam," replied Mildred, "is to go into the very heart of
+the enemy's ranks. My business is to see Lord Cornwallis himself. I
+shall, therefore, proceed directly to his head-quarters. That being my
+purpose, I shall not regret the opportunity to throw myself upon the
+protection of the first band of loyal troops I may meet."
+
+"Into Lord Cornwallis's presence!" said Mrs. Markham, with an expression
+of wonder. "You have some very near friend who has suffered in the late
+battle--a prisoner, perhaps?" As this question escaped the lips of the
+lady, who had hitherto purposely forborne to inquire into the private
+history of Mildred's journey, she shook her head distrustfully, and,
+after some deliberation, added, "You will pardon me, my child, for what
+may seem to be an idle curiosity--I seek to know nothing that you may
+desire to keep secret--but your journey is so full of hazard to one so
+young and helpless as yourself, that I fear you have not wisely
+considered the evil chances to which you may be exposed."
+
+"I have spent no thought upon the hazard, madam," replied Mildred.
+"There is no degree of danger that should outweigh my resolution. You
+guess truly--I have a friend who is a prisoner, and in sad jeopardy--and
+more than that, dear madam, I have persuaded myself that I have power to
+save him." A tear started in her eye as she added, "That is all I have
+thought of."
+
+"Then may a kind and merciful Heaven shield you! They little know the
+heart-rending trials of war, who have not felt them as I have. These
+rude soldiers, Miss Lindsay--I shudder at the thought of your trusting
+your safety to them."
+
+"My name, madam," replied Mildred, "I am ashamed to tell you, has all
+its associations on their side--I must trust to its power to bear me
+through."
+
+"Not all, sister," interrupted Henry. "From the beginning up to this
+day, I can answer for myself, I have never had a thought that didn't
+take sides against the red-coats."
+
+A faint smile played upon Mrs. Markham's features, as she turned to
+Henry and said, "You are a young rebel, and a warm one, I perceive. Such
+troubles as ours require grave advisers."
+
+"My brother and myself must not be misapprehended," continued Mildred;
+"I alluded only to my father's influence. I have heard that he enjoys
+some consideration in the esteem of Lord Cornwallis, and it is upon the
+strength of that I have ventured. Besides, I am well attended by a
+careful and wise soldier, who rides as my companion and guide--one who
+would not quietly see me harmed."
+
+"Let him be brought into our consultation," said Mrs. Markham. "I would
+not act without his advice. With your leave, I will send for him."
+
+Henry and Alfred Markham, immediately upon this hint, went in pursuit of
+Horse Shoe.
+
+When that important and trusty personage arrived in the parlor, a
+regular conference was opened, which, after a few discourses on the
+general aspect of affairs--wherein the sergeant showed an abundance of
+soldierly sagacity and knowledge, and a still greater share of warm and
+faithful concern for the welfare of the sister and brother whom he had
+in ward--resulted in the conclusion that measures should be taken to
+ascertain the state of the country around, in reference to the
+impression made by the late movements of Marion and his adversary; and,
+especially, what character of troops occupied the region over which the
+sergeant would be required to conduct his charge. This duty the sergeant
+very appropriately considered as belonging to himself, and he therefore
+determined forthwith to set out on a reconnoitring expedition. As we
+propose to bear him company, we will, for the present, leave the family
+in the parlor to the enjoyment of the kind communion that had already
+nursed up a mutual affection between the hostess and her guests.
+
+The sergeant took his departure alone, notwithstanding the urgent
+importunities of Henry and his new companion, Alfred Markham, for
+permission to accompany him--a request that was utterly denied by the
+sturdy and cautious soldier.
+
+"You are apt to talk too much, Mister Lindsay," he said, in answer to
+the petition of the young men, "for such a piece of business as I have
+in hand: for although, consarning your good sense, and valor both,
+considering your years, I would not be thought to speak rashly of
+them--but, on the contrary, to give you full praise and
+recommendation--yet you know you want experience and use to these
+duble-dealings and dodgings that the war puts us to; whereupon, you
+mought fall to talking when it was best to be silent, and, in case of
+our meeting a body, to be letting out somewhat too much, which is a
+thing that discommodes in war more than you would believe. And besides
+this, Master Henry, there might be, mayhap, a scrimmage, a chase, and
+what not--in which consideration you would be only in my way, seeing
+that I should be obliged to be thinking of you when all my wits would be
+wanting for myself. No, no; upon no account is it reasonable that you
+should be along. It is your business to sarve as a body-guard to our
+young lady, who, I say, may God bless and take care of in this world and
+the next! And so, Mister Henry, you have my orders to stick to your
+post."
+
+"Well, sergeant," replied Henry, "I must obey orders, and if you command
+me to stay behind, why I cannot choose about it. But, sergeant, let me
+give you a word of advice. Ride cautiously--keep your eyes to the right
+and left, as well as straight before you--and don't let them catch you
+napping."
+
+"You studied that speech, Mr. Henry!" said Horse Shoe, laughing. "To
+hear you, one mought almost think you had shaved a beard from your chin
+before this. Look out, or your hair will turn grey from too hard
+thinking! and now, my long-headed fellow-soldier, good bye t'ye!"
+
+"You are not going without your rifle, Mr. Horse Shoe?" said Henry,
+calling out to the sergeant, who had already trotted off some twenty
+paces.
+
+"That's another consarn for you to ruminate over," replied Horse Shoe,
+in the same jocular mood. "Mine is a business of legs, not arms,
+to-day."
+
+The sergeant was immediately after this upon the highway, moving forward
+with nothing, seemingly, to employ him but cheerful thoughts.
+
+After riding for an hour upon the road that led towards Camden, he was
+enabled to collect from the country people a rumor that some detachments
+of horse were, at this time, traversing the country towards Pedee, but
+whether friends or enemies was not known to his informants. In following
+up this trail of common report, his vigilance quickened by the
+uncertainty of the tidings, he arrived about mid-day at a brook which,
+running between low but sharp hills, was crossed by the road at a point
+where a bold mass of rock, some twenty feet in height, jutted down with
+a perpendicular abruptness into the water. Here, as he stopped to survey
+the narrow and winding course of the stream, his eye was attracted by
+the projecting crag that thrust its bulk almost into the middle of the
+channel; and, for a moment, he indulged the speculation of a soldier, as
+he pondered upon the military advantages of such a post, either as a
+point from which to reconnoitre an enemy, or as a vantage-ground on
+which to dispute his passage of the ford. It not long afterwards fell to
+his lot to turn this observation to some account.
+
+A mile beyond this spot, and where the road, as it yet crept through the
+bosom of the hills, was so obscured by forest as to afford not more than
+fifty paces of uninterrupted view, his quick ear was struck with sounds
+resembling the tramp of horses. Upon this conviction, it was but the
+action of an instant for him to turn aside into the woods and to take a
+station which might enable him to investigate the cause of his surmise,
+without exposing himself to the risk of detection. The noise grew
+louder, and what was vague conjecture soon became the certain report of
+his senses. At the nearest turn in the road, whilst protected by a
+screen of thicket, he could descry the leading platoons of a column of
+horse advancing at a slow gait; and upon examining his own position he
+became aware that, although the thicket might guard him from present
+observation, it would cease to do so as soon as the squadron should
+approach nearer to his ground. His thoughts recurred to the rock at the
+ford, and, with a view to avail himself of it, he forthwith commenced
+his retreat through the underwood that guarded the road side, as fast as
+Captain Peter could get over the ground. It was not long before he was
+removed beyond all risk of being seen by the advancing party, and he
+thus found himself at liberty to take the road again and retire without
+apprehension.
+
+In Horse Shoe's reckoning, it was a matter of great importance that he
+should obtain the most accurate information regarding the troop that he
+had just encountered; and his present purpose was, accordingly, to post
+himself in a secure position upon the rock and there maintain a close
+watch upon the party as they rode beneath it. The brook was gained, the
+ford passed, and the sergeant, after riding a short circuit towards the
+rear of the little promontory, dismounted from his horse, which he
+secured in the depths of the wood, and then clambered to the top of the
+precipice, where he had barely time to conceal himself amongst the crags
+and the thick shrubbery that shot up above them, before the headmost
+files of the cavalry appeared descending the opposite hill.
+
+As the column came gradually into his view upon the road which wound
+down into the valley, it disclosed a troop of some twenty men, whose
+green uniform sufficiently indicated the presence of a part of
+Tarleton's command. He heard them call a halt upon the bank, and after a
+few moments' rest, he saw them ride into the stream, and pass in files
+around the base of the rock.
+
+The passage of the brook occupied some time; for the thirsty horses were
+successively given a slack rein as they entered the ford, and were
+allowed to drink. This delay separated the platoons, and those who first
+passed over had advanced a considerable distance before the stragglers
+of the rear had quitted the stream. For some minutes that stir and noise
+prevailed which, in a military party, generally attends the attempt to
+restore order amongst confused or broken ranks. The frequent commands of
+officers summoning the loiterers and chiding their delay, were given
+from front to rear in loud tones, and the swift gallop of those who had
+lingered in the stream, as they obeyed the order and hastened forward to
+their places, sent forth a quick and spirited evidence of bustle, that
+broke sharply upon the silence of the surrounding forest. These
+indications of activity unfortunately pricked with a sudden astonishment
+the ear of one who has heretofore figured, not without renown, in this
+history--the lusty and faithful Captain Peter; who, not sufficiently
+alive to the distinction between friend and foe, now began to snuff, and
+paw the ground, and then with a long and clear note of recognition, to
+express his feelings of good fellowship towards the unseen strangers.
+Another moment, and the gay and thoughtless steed reared, plunged broke
+his bridle, and bounded through the woods, with a frolicsome speed that
+brought him into the midst of the troop, where he wheeled up and took
+his place, like a disciplined charger, on the flank of one of the
+platoons.
+
+This incident caused the officer in command of the party to come again
+to a halt, and to despatch a portion of his men to seek the owner of the
+horse. An eager search commenced, which was almost immediately
+terminated by the wary sergeant presenting himself to the view of the
+troop, on a prominent and exposed point of the rock, where he seemed to
+be busily and unconcernedly engaged with his jack-knife, in stripping
+the bark from the roots of a sassafras tree that grew out of one of the
+fissures of the cliff. Apparently, he gave no attention to the clamor
+around him, nor seemed to show a wish to conceal himself from notice.
+
+"Who in the devil are you--and what are you about?" exclaimed the
+leading soldier, as he mounted the rock and came up immediately behind
+Robinson, who was still fixed with one knee upon the ground, plying his
+labor at the root of the tree.
+
+"Good day, friend," said Robinson, looking up over his shoulder, "Good
+day! From your looks you belong to the army, and, if that's true,
+perhaps you mought be able to tell me how far it is from here to the
+river?"
+
+"Get up on your feet," said the other, "and follow me quickly! I will
+take you to one who will oil the joints of your tongue for you, and put
+you to studying your catechism. Quick, fellow, move your heavy carcass,
+or, I promise you, I will prick your fat sides with my sword point."
+
+"Anywhere you wish, sir, if you will only give me time to gather up this
+here bark," said the sergeant, who, hereupon, heedless of the
+objurgation of the trooper, deliberately untied the handkerchief from
+his neck, and spreading it out upon the ground, threw into it the pieces
+of bark he had been cutting, and then, taking it in his hand, rose and
+walked after the soldier.
+
+He was conducted to the troop, who were waiting in the road the return
+of the men that had been despatched on this piece of service.
+
+"Quick, quick, move yourselves! we have no time to lose," cried out the
+officer in command of the detachment, as Horse Shoe and his guide came
+in view: and then, after an interval of silence, during which the
+sergeant walked heavily to the spot where the troop waited for him, he
+added with an impatient abruptness, "Make few words of it, sir. Your
+name, where from, and where are you going?"
+
+"My name, captain--if your honor is a captain, and if I miscall you, I
+ax your honor's pardon: my name is--is--Stephen Foster, Steve most
+commonly."
+
+"Well, whence do you come?"
+
+"From Virginny."
+
+"Fool! why do you stop?"
+
+"You axed, I think, where I was going? I was going to get on my horse
+that's broke his bridle, which I see you have cotched for me: and then
+back to my young mistress, sir, that was taken sick over here at a
+gentlewoman's house on Pedee. She thought a little sassafras tea might
+help her along, and I was sent out to try and get a few scrapings of the
+bark to take to her. I suppose I must have rode out of my way a matter
+of some eight or ten miles to find it, though I told her that I thought
+a little balm out of the garden would have done just as well. But women
+are women, sir, and a sick woman in particular."
+
+"This fellow is more knave than fool, I take it, cornet," said the
+officer to a companion near him.
+
+"His horse seems to have been trained to other duties than gathering
+herbs for ladies of delicate stomachs," replied the other.
+
+"My horse," interrupted the sergeant, "would have broken clean off if it
+hadn't a been for your honor: they say he belonged to a muster in
+Verginny, and I was warned that he was apt to get rampagious when there
+was anything like a set of sodgers nigh him, and that is about the
+reason, I expect, why he took it into his head to fall into your
+company."
+
+"Get on your beast," said the officer impatiently, "you must go with us.
+If upon further acquaintance I form a better opinion of you, you may go
+about your business."
+
+"I am somewhat in a hurry to get back to the lady."
+
+"Silence! Mount your horse, fall to the rear. Gilbert, attend to this
+fellow, he musn't leave us," said the officer, as he delivered Horse
+Shoe into the charge of one of the leaders of a platoon, and then put
+spurs to his steed and moved to the head of the column.
+
+It was in the afternoon when this incident occurred; and Robinson found
+himself, during the remainder of the day, compelled to follow the troop
+through a series of by-ways across the country, in a direction of which
+he was wholly ignorant,--being also in the same degree unacquainted with
+the object of the march. When the day closed they arrived at a
+farm-house, where it seemed to be their purpose to pass the night; and
+here the sergeant, towards whom no unnecessary rigor had been exercised,
+was freely allowed to participate in the cheer provided for the party.
+This rest was of short duration; for, before the coming of the allotted
+bed-hour, a courier arrived, bringing a despatch to the leader of the
+detachment, which produced an instant order to saddle and resume the
+march.
+
+Once more upon the road, the sergeant became aware, as well as he was
+able to determine in the dark, that the party during the night were
+retracing their steps, and returning upon the same route which they had
+before travelled.
+
+A half hour before the dawn found the troop ascending a long hill, the
+summit of which, as Robinson perceived from the rustling of the blades
+in the morning wind, was covered by a field of standing corn; and he was
+enabled to descry, moving athwart the starlit sky, the figures of men on
+horseback approaching the column. The customary challenge was given; a
+momentary halt ensued, and he could hear the patrole--for such they
+described themselves,--informing the officer of the detachment that
+Colonel Tarleton was close at hand expecting their arrival. This
+intelligence induced an increase of speed which, after a short interval,
+brought the night-worn squadron into the presence of nearly a whole
+regiment of cavalry.
+
+The troops, thus encountered, were stationed upon the high-road where it
+crossed an open and uncultivated plain, the nearer extremity of which
+was bordered by the cornfield of which I have spoken. It was apparent
+that the regiment had passed the night at this place, as a number of
+horses were yet attached to the fence that guarded the field, and were
+feeding on the blades of corn that had been gathered and thrown before
+them. The greater part, however, were now drawn up in column of march,
+as if but recently arrayed to prepare for the toil of the coming day.
+
+Robinson was conducted along the flank of the column, and thence to a
+spot in the neighborhood, where a party of officers assembled by a
+sylvan tent, constructed of the boughs of trees, showed him that he was
+at the head-quarters of the commander of the corps. This tent was
+pitched upon a piece of high ground that afforded a view of the distant
+horizon in the east, where a faint streak of daylight lay like the
+traces of a far-off town in flames, against which the forms of men and
+horses were relieved, in bold profile, as they now moved about in the
+early preparations for their march.
+
+A single faggot gleamed within the tent, and, by its ray, Horse Shoe was
+enabled to discern the well known figure of Tarleton, as he conferred
+with a company of officers around him. After the sergeant had waited a
+few moments, he was ordered into the presence of the group within:
+
+"You were found yesterday," said Tarleton, "in suspicious
+circumstances--what is your name, fellow?"
+
+"I am called Stephen Foster by name," replied the sergeant, "being a
+stranger in these parts. At home I'm a kind of a gardener to a gentleman
+in Virginia; and it isn't long since I set out with his daughter to come
+here into Carolina. She fell sick by the way, and yesterday, whilst I
+was hunting up a little physic for her in the woods, a gang of your
+people came across me and fotch me here--and that's about all that I
+have got to say."
+
+A series of questions followed, by which the sergeant was compelled to
+give some further account of himself, which he contrived to do with an
+address that left his questioners but little the wiser as to his real
+character; and which strongly impressed them with the conviction that
+the man they had to deal with was but a simple and rude clown.
+
+"You say you don't know the name of the person at whose house you
+stopped?" inquired the commander.
+
+"I disremember," replied Horse Shoe; "being, as I said, a stranger in
+the parts, and not liking to make too free with axing after people's
+names."
+
+"A precious lout, this, you have brought me, Lieutenant Munroe," said
+Tarleton, addressing the officer who had hitherto had the custody of the
+sergeant. "You don't _disremember_ the part of Virginia you lived in?"
+he added, pursuing his examination.
+
+"They have given it the name of Amherst," replied Horse Shoe.
+
+"And the father of Miss Lindsay, you say, resided there?"
+
+"Sartainly, sir."
+
+"There is a gentleman of that name somewhere in Virginia," said
+Tarleton, apart to one of his attendants, "and known as a friend to our
+cause, I think."
+
+"I have heard of the family," replied the person addressed.
+
+"What has brought the lady to Carolina?"
+
+"Consarning some business of a friend, as I have been told," answered
+Horse Shoe.
+
+"It is a strange errand for such a time, and a marvellous shrewd
+conductor she has chosen! I can make nothing out of this fellow. You
+might have saved yourself the trouble of taking charge of such a clod,
+lieutenant."
+
+"My orders," replied the lieutenant, "were to arrest all suspicious
+persons; and I had two reasons to suspect this man. First, he was found
+upon a spot that couldn't have been better chosen for a look-out if he
+had been sent to reconnoitre us; and second, his horse showed some
+military training."
+
+"But the booby himself was stupid enough," rejoined the commander, "to
+carry his passport in his face."
+
+"I have a paper, sir, to that purpose," said Horse Shoe, putting his
+hands into his pockets, "it signifies, I was told,--for I can't read of
+my own accord--that I mought pass free without molestification from the
+sodgers of the king--this is it, I believe, sir."
+
+"_To three suppers at the Rising Sun, four and six pence_," said
+Tarleton, reading. "Tush, this is a tavern bill!"
+
+"Ha, ha, so it is," exclaimed Robinson. "Well, I have been keeping that
+there paper for a week past, thinking it was my certificate--and, like a
+fool, I have gone and tore up the t'other."
+
+"We are wasting time, gentlemen," said the commander. "Turn this fellow
+loose, and let him go his ways. But hark you, did you hear of a fight
+lately on Pedee, between some of our people and Marion--three days ago?"
+
+"They talked of such a thing on the river," replied Horse Shoe.
+
+"Well, and what was said?"
+
+"Nothing in particular that I can bear in mind."
+
+"Like all the rest we have tried to get out of him! You don't even know
+which party got the better?"
+
+"Oh, I have hearn that, sir."
+
+"What did you hear? speak out!"
+
+"Shall I give you the circumlocutory account of the matter?" asked Horse
+Shoe, "or did you wish me to go into the particulars?"
+
+"Any account, so that it be short."
+
+"Then I have hearn that Marion gave the t'other side a bit of a
+beating."
+
+"Aye, aye, so I suppose! Another tale of this Jack the Giant Killer! And
+what has become of Marion?"
+
+"That's onbeknownst to me," replied Horse Shoe.
+
+"Do you remember the fool we met at the Waxhaws last May?" asked one of
+the officers present, of another. "This fellow might pass for a full
+brother in blood--only I think this clown has the less wit of the two."
+
+"As heavy a lump, certainly," replied the officer. "This, you say, is
+the first time you have been in Carolina?"
+
+"To my knowledge," replied the sergeant.
+
+"It is broad day, gentlemen," said Tarleton; "we have been squandering
+precious time upon an empty simpleton. Give him his beast and let him be
+gone. Sirrah, you are free to depart. But, look you, if I hear any
+reports along the road of your having seen me, or a word about my
+coming, I'll ferret you out and have you trussed upon a stake twenty
+feet long."
+
+"Thank your honor," said Horse Shoe, as he left the tent. "I never
+troubles my head with things out of my line."
+
+Then seeking his horse he leisurely rode back by the way he had come;
+and as soon as he found himself beyond the outposts of the corps, he
+urged Captain Peter to as much speed as the late arduous duties of the
+good beast left him power to exert.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR NOT UNFAMILIAR TO THE TIME.
+
+
+Breakfast was just over when Robinson was seen, from the windows of Mrs.
+Markham's parlor, pricking along the avenue that conducted to the front
+of the mansion; and when he drew up his horse at the door, the family
+were already assembled there to greet him. The plight, both of himself
+and of his steed, was such as to tell the best part of his story--they
+had travelled far and seen rough service. The rest was supplied by the
+sergeant himself, who, before he moved from the spot where he had
+dismounted, gave a narrative of his adventures, which was listened to
+with great anxiety by the household.
+
+By the sergeant's reckoning, Mrs. Markham's residence could not be more
+than twenty miles from the place where, at daybreak, he had encountered
+the British partisan, whom he had left with a full conviction that the
+expedition then on foot was to be directed against the country lying
+upon the river. These tidings spread consternation throughout the
+mansion, and the morning was passed in all the confusion which such an
+alarm might be supposed to produce. The fright of the females rendered
+them irresolute, and incapable of attending to the most obvious
+precautions necessary to meet the emergency.
+
+In this conjuncture, Robinson felt himself bound to assume the direction
+of affairs. At his suggestion, the plate and such other valuables as
+were likely to attract the cupidity of a licentious soldiery, were
+secreted in hiding-places sufficiently secure to defy a hasty search.
+The family was advised to assume the appearance of as much composure as
+they could command; and the last and most emphatic injunction of the
+sergeant was, to provide an ample and various repast, in the hope that
+the ill-will of the visitants might be conciliated by the display of
+good cheer. All this was accordingly put into a train of
+accomplishment.
+
+In the midst of these precautions, the fears of the inhabitants of the
+mansion were but too truly realized. It was scarcely noon when the long
+column of Tarleton's cavalry was descried descending the high hills that
+lay in the distance, and, soon afterwards, taking the road that led into
+the plantation.
+
+Whilst the panic produced by this sight was still fresh the sound of
+bugles and trumpets showed that the invaders had already turned their
+steps towards the dwelling, and the next view disclosed them deploying
+from a wood and advancing at a full trot. The quick beat of hoofs upon
+the soil, and the jangling sounds of sabres shaken against the flanks of
+the horses, struck upon the terrified ear of the proprietress of the
+estate like the harsh portents of impending ruin; and in the despair and
+agony of her distress, she retreated hastily to her chamber, whither she
+summoned her female domestics, and gave way to a flood of tears. She was
+followed by Mildred, who, touched by the pervading disquiet of the
+family, participated in the alarm, and found herself overcome by a
+terror which she had never before experienced in all the scenes which
+she had lately gone through. Obeying the instinct of her present fears,
+our heroine cowered beside her weeping friend, in the midst of the group
+of clamorous servants, and awaited in mute solicitude the coming events.
+
+The cavalry had turned aside and halted in front of a barn some distance
+from the dwelling-house, and a small party, consisting principally of
+officers attended by a sergeant's guard, were immediately afterwards
+seen galloping up to the door. The air of exultation exhibited in their
+movement, their loud jocularity and frequent laughter, resembled the
+burst of gladsome riot with which a party of fox-hunters are wont to
+announce the first springing of their game, and gave evidence of the
+feelings of men who set little account upon the annoyance they
+threatened to a peaceful and unoffending household.
+
+When the officers of the party had dismounted and entered the hall, the
+first person they encountered was Sergeant Robinson, who had
+thoughtfully posted himself in view of the door; and now, with some
+awkward and ungainly bows and scraping of his feet across the floor,
+bade them welcome.
+
+"What," said Tarleton, who was at the head of the intruders, "have we
+stumbled so soon again upon our shrewd and sensible ox! Wise Master
+Stephen Foster, well met! So you are the gentleman-usher to your good
+friend, Mrs. Markham! By my faith, the old lady is likely to have the
+honors of her house well administered!"
+
+"Your sarvant, sir," said Horse Shoe, again bowing and scraping his foot
+with a look of imperturbable gravity. "Mought I ax your honor to stomp
+as lightly upon the floor as you can? My young lady is sick up
+stairs--and much noise is apt to flurry her narves."
+
+"Tread daintily, gentlemen," said Tarleton, laughing, "for your
+gallantry's sake! A lady's nerves are as delicate as the strings of a
+harp, and must not be rudely struck. The damsel's page here (pointing to
+Horse Shoe), puts down his foot like a most considerate elephant--soft
+as a feather, you perceive; and I would by no means have you give so
+worshipful a master of courtesy cause to complain of you. As your
+wisdom," he added, again addressing the sergeant, "has found out, by
+this time, that you are in the house of Mrs. Markham, although you
+_disremembered_ that this morning, I suppose you can tell whether she is
+at home?"
+
+"I can answer you that she is at home, sir--that is, onless she has went
+out sence I saw her, which is not likely, sir."
+
+"Then, present her Colonel Tarleton's respects, and say that he has come
+to offer his duty to her."
+
+"I suppose by that, you are wishing to see the lady," replied the
+sergeant; "I'll let her know, sir."
+
+Robinson retired for a few moments, and when he returned he announced to
+the commander that Mrs Markham was not willing to come from her chamber.
+"But whatsomever your honor pleases to ax after, the lady promises you
+shall have," continued the sergeant.
+
+"Well, that's a condescension!--a good, comfortable lady! So, gentlemen,
+you see we are in luck; a broad roof over head--a larder well stored, I
+hope--and a cellar not altogether empty, I think I may undertake to
+promise. Where are your waiting-men, my nimble Ganymede? You are a
+sluggish oaf, fellow, not to see that soldiers must have drink!"
+
+Alfred and Henry now entered the hall, and the former approaching
+Tarleton, said, with a firm but respectful tone:
+
+"My mother has before been visited by British troops, and she had so
+little then to thank them for, except their departure, that the fear of
+meeting them again has greatly alarmed her. Our family, sir, has no
+older man in it than myself--and out of regard to helpless women--"
+
+"That's enough, my pert lad," interrupted Tarleton; "I have heard of
+your good mother before; she is somewhat over ready in her zeal in
+behalf of Marion's ragamuffins: and truly I think she is more squeamish
+than she should be at the sight of a soldier, when she could look upon
+such hang-gallows knaves without shuddering. You have another man in
+your house, I see (directing his eye towards Henry Lindsay, who had
+seated himself in the hall)--and full as old, I take it, as yourself."
+
+"I wish I were a man of full age," said Henry, looking fearlessly at the
+British officer, and remaining fixed in his chair.
+
+"Why so, my gay sparrow-hawk?"
+
+"I would have disputed with you your right to enter this door."
+
+"These young cocks are all trained to show their game," said the Colonel
+to one of his companions. "Well, you are a fine fellow, and I should be
+happy to be better acquainted with you. A little too stiff, perhaps: but
+you will learn better as you grow older. You should thank me for making
+holiday in your school to-day."
+
+Here Robinson interposed before Henry could make the saucy reply he
+meditated, by announcing that the company would find some cool water and
+a supply of spirits in the adjoining room. "Besides," he added, "I have
+told the house-folks to make ready somewhat in the way of victuals, as I
+judged you mought be a little hungry."
+
+"Not badly thought of, Mr. Ajax!" said one of the officers, as the party
+now crowded into the room.
+
+"Don't forget Stephen Foster," whispered Robinson, by way of admonition
+in regard to his assumed character, as he passed by the chair where
+Henry was sitting. "And keep a civil tongue in your head."
+
+Henry nodded compliance, and then, with Alfred, left the hall, whilst
+the sergeant repaired to the refreshment room to offer his officious
+attentions to the quests.
+
+Meanwhile, the ladies still kept to their chamber, ever and anon gazing
+out at the window with a solicitous and unhappy interest, and
+occasionally receiving the highly-colored reports of the servants, who,
+as often as any new subject of wonder or fear occurred to them, were
+plying backwards and forwards between the apartment and the head of the
+stair-case.
+
+After an interval of half an hour, during which the uncouth din of
+laughter, of loud oaths, and of the careless swaggering of the party
+below, rose with a harsh note to the ear of the hostess and her
+companion, these sounds abruptly ceased, and it was evident that the
+visitors had quitted the house. It was with an emotion of delight that
+Mrs. Markham, from the window, beheld Colonel Tarleton and his comrades
+galloping towards the main body of his troops that awaited him near the
+barn; but, on repairing to the hall, this sudden gleam of satisfaction
+was as suddenly clouded, when the matron perceived a sentinel posted at
+the front door. As soon as she came within speech of this functionary,
+he threw up his hand to his brow, as he said: "The colonel commanded me
+to make his compliments to the ladies, and asks the honor of their
+company at dinner."
+
+"Colonel Tarleton forgets himself," said Mrs. Markham, with a stately
+reserve that showed she had now dismissed her fears; "a brave soldier
+would hardly think it a triumph to insult unprotected females."
+
+"He is here to speak for himself, madam," replied the sentinel, as
+Tarleton at this moment returned to the door.
+
+The lady of the house, thus taken by surprise, firmly stood her ground,
+and awaited in silence the accost of the officer. Tarleton was somewhat
+disconcerted by this unexpected encounter. He had entered with a hurried
+step, but the moment he was aware of the presence of the dame, he halted
+and removed his cap from his head, as he made a low obeisance.
+
+"I am too happy, madam," he said, "in the persuasion that you have
+overcome your unnecessary alarm at this visit; and feel pleased to be
+afforded an opportunity of making my respects in person."
+
+"I can conceive no sufficient reason, Colonel Tarleton, why a
+defenceless house like mine should provoke the visit of such a host of
+armed men."
+
+"Your house, madam, has some fame upon this border for good
+entertainment. It fell in my way, and you will excuse me for the freedom
+of saying, that I boast myself too much of a cavalier to pass it by
+unmarked by some token of my regard. Besides, I may add without meaning
+to be rude, our necessities in the article of forage, madam, are quite
+as great as General Marion's, who, I understand, does not scruple
+sometimes to take his contribution from you."
+
+"I should more readily excuse your visit," replied the lady, "if you
+would time it when General Marion was levying his contribution. You
+might then adjust your right to the share you claim. This house is
+yours, sir; and it is not fit that I should remain to debate with you
+your claim to dispose of whatever you may find in it."
+
+"Why, what a musty and wrinkled piece of insolence is here!" muttered
+the angry soldier, clenching his teeth under this rebuke as the matron
+withdrew. "Well, let the crones rail and the maidens weep their fill!
+the border is mine, and merrily will I hold it, and blithely will I
+light up the river, too, before I leave it! Curse on these free-spoken
+women! Who says they are defenceless with that supple weapon that God
+has given them? What ho, you bag of chaff--booby--Foster--I say! Look
+you; have you all the provisions in the house set out upon the
+tables--and don't spare your peach brandy, which we have already
+tasted--you have more of it. So let us have the best; I shall feast with
+a good will to-day, and I will do it plentifully, or your ears shall be
+cropped."
+
+"Everything in the kitchen, sir, is going on at a gallop," said Horse
+Shoe; "and as for the drinkables, your honor shall command the house to
+the last jug."
+
+"Then bestir yourself, for I am in no mood to tarry."
+
+In a brief lapse of time an abundant board was spread, and the leaders
+of the corps, consisting of some twenty or thirty officers of all ranks,
+were gathered around it. A scene of uproar succeeded that resounded to
+the roof with the unfeeling and licentious mirth of those engaged in the
+carouse.
+
+When they had eaten and drunk their fill, the greater portion of the
+guests were assembled at the front door. From this position there was
+to be seen, at no great distance, a small inclosure of not above ten
+feet square, constructed with a dark paling, above which a venerable
+willow drooped its branches. Towards this inclosure some five or six of
+the revellers repaired, to gratify an idle and, at present, a maudlin
+curiosity. When they arrived here, they leaned across the paling to read
+the inscription upon a stone that seemed but recently to have been
+placed there. It was a simple memorial of the death of Colonel Markham,
+of the Carolina militia, which was recorded to have taken place but
+eighteen months before on the Savannah river in an engagement with the
+troops under General Prevost. To this was added, in the spirit of the
+times and in accordance with the sentiments of the Whig leaders in the
+war of independence, a bitter expression of censure upon the barbarous
+disposition of the enemy, couched in homely but earnest phrase, and
+speaking the hate of the survivors in the same sentence that commended
+the virtues of the dead.
+
+It was an unpropitious moment for such a tablet to meet the eye of those
+who gazed upon it; and when it was read aloud by the captain of a troop,
+whose natural temper, rendered savage by the rudeness of the war, was
+also at this moment exasperated almost to intoxication by the freedom of
+the table, he vented his curses in loud and coarse rage against the
+memory of him to whom the stone was dedicated. This fire of passion
+spread through the group around the tomb, and each man responded to the
+first execration by others still deeper and more fierce. Proclaiming the
+inscription to be an insult, they made an attack upon the paling, which
+was instantly demolished, and, seizing upon the largest stones at hand,
+they assailed the tablet with such effect as soon to break it in pieces;
+and then, with a useless malice, applied themselves to obliterating the
+inscription upon the fragments. Whilst engrossed with the perpetration
+of this sacrilege, their attention was suddenly aroused by the near
+report of a pistol, the ball of which, it was discovered, had struck
+into the trunk of the willow.
+
+"I will kill some of the scoundrels, if I die for it!" was the
+exclamation heard immediately after the shot, and Alfred Markham was
+seen struggling with an officer who had seized him. The young man had
+been observed and followed, as he madly rushed from a wing of the
+mansion towards the burial-place, and arrested at the moment that he
+was levelling a second pistol.
+
+"Henry, shoot him down!" he screamed to his companion, who was now
+approaching armed with his carbine.
+
+"Let me go, sir! I will not see my father's tomb disturbed by ruffians."
+
+"Loose your hands!" cried Henry, directing his passionate defiance to
+the individual who wrestled with Alfred, "loose your hands, I say, or I
+will fire upon you!"
+
+"Fire at the drunken villains around my father's grave!" shouted Alfred.
+
+"They shall have it," returned Henry, eagerly, "if it is the last shot I
+ever make." And with these words the youth levelled his piece at the
+same group which had before escaped Alfred's aim, but, luckily, the
+carbine snapped and missed fire. In the next instant Horse Shoe's broad
+hand was laid upon Henry's shoulder, as he exclaimed, "Why, Master
+Henry, have you lost your wits? Do you want to bring perdition and
+combustion both, down upon the heads of the whole house?"
+
+"Galbraith Robinson, stand back!" ejaculated Henry. "I am not in the
+humor to be baulked."
+
+"Hush--for God's sake, hush!--foolish boy," returned Robinson with real
+anger. "You are as fierce as a young panther--I am ashamed of you!"
+
+By this time the whole company were assembled around the two young men,
+and the violent outbreak of wrath from those at whom the shot was aimed,
+as well as from others present, rose to a pitch which the authority of
+Tarleton in vain sought to control. Already, in this paroxysm of rage,
+one of the party, whose motions had escaped notice in the confusion of
+the scene, had hurried to the kitchen fire, where he had snatched up a
+burning brand, and hurled it into the midst of some combustibles in a
+narrow apartment on the ground floor.
+
+The clamor had drawn Mrs. Markham and Mildred to the chamber window, and
+whilst they looked down with a frightened gaze upon the confused scene
+below, it was some moments before they became aware of the participation
+of Henry and Alfred in this sudden and angry broil. Mildred was the
+first to discern the two young men as they were dragged violently
+across the open space in front of the mansion by the crowd, and to hear
+the threats with which this movement was accompanied.
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" she exclaimed, "they have laid hands upon Henry and
+Alfred--they will kill my brother, my dear brother!" Almost frantic at
+the danger that threatened Henry and his companion, she fled
+precipitately down the stair-case, and in a moment stood confronted with
+Colonel Tarleton and his soldiers.
+
+"Never fear, sister," cried out Henry, who was already brought into the
+hall, as he saw Mildred descending the stairs. "Don't be alarmed for
+either Alfred or me. We are ready to confess what we did and why we did
+it--and Colonel Tarleton, if he is a true man, will not dare to say we
+did wrong."
+
+"I charge you, Colonel Tarleton," said Mildred with a firm but excited
+voice, "as the soldier of a Christian nation, to save the people of this
+house from an inhuman and most wicked outrage. I implore you as an
+officer who would be esteemed valiant--and as a gentleman who would fly
+from dishonor--to rescue your name from the disgrace of this barbarous
+violence. For the sake of mercy--spare us--spare us!"
+
+As she uttered this last ejaculation her spirit yielded to the vehemence
+of her feelings, and she flung herself upon her knee at the feet of the
+commander. "Oh, sir, do not let harm fall upon my brother. I know not
+what he has done, but he is thoughtless and rash."
+
+"Mildred," said Henry, immediately rushing to his sister, and lifting
+her from the floor, "why should you kneel before him, or any man here?
+This is no place for you--get back to your room." Then turning to
+Tarleton, he continued, "Alfred Markham and I tried to shoot down your
+men, because we saw them breaking the tomb. If it was to do over again
+our hands are ready."
+
+"They have insulted the memory of my father," exclaimed Alfred,
+"trampled upon his grave, and broken the stone that covers him--I aimed
+to kill the drunken coward who did it. That I say, sir, to your face."
+
+Tarleton, for a space, seemed to be bewildered by the scene. He looked
+around him, as if hesitating what course to pursue, and once or twice
+made an effort to obtain silence in the hall; but the tumult of many
+voices in angry contention still continued. At last he presented his
+hand to Mildred, and with a courteous action conducted her to a chair,
+then begged her to calm her fears, as he promised her that no evil
+should befal either of the young men whose indiscreet tempers had
+occasioned the present uproar.
+
+"In God's name! have they fired the dwelling?" he exclaimed, as at this
+moment a volume of smoke rolled into the hall. "What ho, there! O'Neal,
+McPherson. Look where this smoke comes from, and instantly extinguish
+the fire! Stir yourselves, gentlemen. By my hilt, if any follower of
+mine has been so wild as to put a torch to this house, I will hang him
+up to the ridge-pole of the roof! Look to it--every man! Quick,
+quick--there is danger that the flames may get ahead."
+
+In an instant nearly every soldier in the hall departed in obedience to
+this order.
+
+"I beg, madam," Tarleton continued, "that you will dismiss your alarm,
+and rest upon my pledge that no inmate of this house shall be harmed. I
+conjecture that I have the honor to speak to Miss Lindsay--I have been
+informed that that lady has lately found shelter under this roof."
+
+"It is my name, sir--and as the daughter of a friend to your quarrel,
+let me conjure you to see that this house is safe; I cannot speak with
+you until I am assured of that."
+
+At this juncture, Mrs. Markham was observed at the head of the first
+flight of stairs, pale with affright, wringing her hands, and uttering
+loud ejaculations of terror and grief as she made her way down to the
+hall:
+
+"Oh, sir," she said, as she approached the commander, "we are harmless
+women, and have done nothing to call down this vengeance upon us. Take
+what you will--but spare my roof and save my family! God will reward you
+even for that act of humanity to a desolate widow."
+
+Before Tarleton could reply to the matron, a party of officers came
+hastily into his presence, at the head of whom was Captain O'Neal, who
+reported that the fire was extinguished.
+
+"One of the mess, to-day," he said, "heated with drink and roused by the
+foolish temper of these hot-headed boys, threw a blazing billet into a
+closet. Luckily, we reached the spot before any great harm was done. The
+chaps should be switched, and taught better manners. It was a silly
+affair and might have made mischief."
+
+"See that the offender be arrested," replied Tarleton, "I will take
+measures to curb this license. These meddling youngsters, too--however,
+I can't blame them, they had provocation, I confess--and this war gives
+an edge to all the metal of the country. Instead of pop-guns now every
+baby has his powder and ball--dismiss the boys. To your post, captain,
+and order every man to join his company. Now, madam," he added in a tone
+of conciliation to Mrs. Markham, as soon as the hall was cleared, "I am
+sure you will not accuse me of incivility. My people have withdrawn--the
+fire is extinguished--these inconsiderate lads at liberty: have I
+answered your wish?"
+
+"You have won the gratitude of a mother," replied the dame, "and the
+respect of an enemy. I am bound to say to you, in return, that I
+cheerfully surrender to you whatever you may choose to take from my
+estate for the supply of your soldiers. Alfred, my son, give me your
+arm, and help me to my chamber--I am feeble and faint. I must ask your
+permission to withdraw," she continued, as she courtesied to Tarleton,
+and ascended the stairs.
+
+"And I, too, must take my leave," said Tarleton. "But before I go I may
+claim the privilege of a word with Miss Lindsay. You spoke of your
+father, madam? and, especially, as a friend of our arms. I have been
+told he lives in Virginia, Philip Lindsay, the proprietor of a seat
+called 'The Dove Cote,' a royalist too--am I right?"
+
+"So, my father is known, sir."
+
+"That name has stood you in stead to-day, madam. And this is your
+brother? I should think he is hardly of your father's mind in regard to
+our quarrel. This way, my thoughtless young gallant! It was a wild,
+bold, and very conceited thing of you to be challenging my unruly
+dragoons--and would have been no less so, if you had had twenty score of
+tall fellows at your back. But it is past now, and you need not
+apologize for it--it showed mettle at least, and we never quarrel with a
+man for that. May I inquire, Miss Lindsay, in what direction you
+travel? for I learn you are but a sojourner here. It may be in my power
+to insure your safe-conduct."
+
+"I seek your general, Lord Cornwallis, on matters of private concern,"
+replied Mildred, "and if I might venture to ask it of Colonel Tarleton,
+his service in affording me an unquestioned passage, would be a favor
+that I should gratefully acknowledge."
+
+"The obligation will be on my side, madam. It will be a pleasure to me
+to believe that I can serve a lady, much more the daughter of an
+honorable subject of the king. Permit me, without further parley, for
+time presses at this moment, to say that I will leave an escort behind
+me under the command of a trusty officer, who will wait your pleasure to
+conduct you, by the safest and easiest journey to head-quarters. Your
+commands, madam, shall in all respects regulate his motions. My
+communications with his lordship shall announce your coming. Now, Miss
+Lindsay, with my best wishes for your safety and success, I take my
+leave; and, as a parting request, I venture to hope you will do me the
+justice to say, that Tarleton is not such a graceless sinner as his
+enemies have sometimes been pleased to represent him."
+
+These last words were accompanied by a laugh, and a somewhat bluff
+courtesy, as the speaker swayed his rigid and ungainly figure into a
+succession of awkward bows by which he retreated to the door.
+
+"I shall be happy on all occasions," replied Mildred, whilst the soldier
+was thus strenuously playing off the graces of a gallant, "to do justice
+to the kindness which I have experienced at Colonel Tarleton's hands."
+
+"There, Mildred," said Henry, when Tarleton had disappeared, "you see
+things have gone very pat for us. That comes of letting these fellows
+see who they have to deal with. A little powder and ball is a good
+letter of recommendation to the best of their gang. If my carbine hadn't
+missed fire to-day, Tarleton would have been short by one bottle-holder,
+at least, when he set out to steal liquor from the country cupboards."
+
+"It has ended well, brother," replied Mildred, "but it does not become
+you to boast of what you have done. It was a rash and dangerous deed,
+and had nearly brought ruin upon this friendly family."
+
+"Tut, sister! you are only a woman. You wouldn't have found the colonel
+so civil if we hadn't taught him to look after his men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+MILDRED ARRIVES AT THE TERM OF HER JOURNEY.----THE READER IS FAVORED
+WITH A GLIMPSE OF A DISTINGUISHED PERSONAGE.
+
+
+Cornwallis, after the battle of Camden, turned his thoughts to the
+diligent prosecution of his conquests. The invasion of North Carolina
+and Virginia was a purpose to which he had looked, from the commencement
+of this campaign, and he now, accordingly, made every preparation for
+the speedy advance of his army. The sickness of a portion of his troops
+and the want of supplies rendered some delay inevitable, and this
+interval was employed in more fully organizing the civil government of
+the conquered province, and in strengthening his frontier defences; by
+detaching considerable parties of men towards the mountains. The largest
+of these detachments was sent to reinforce Ferguson, to whom had been
+confided the operations upon the north-western border.
+
+The chronicles of the time inform us that the British general lay at
+Camden until the 8th of September, at which date he set forward towards
+North Carolina. His movement was slow and cautious, and for some time,
+his head-quarters were established at the Waxhaws, a position directly
+upon the border of the province about to be invaded. At this post our
+story now finds him, the period being somewhere about the commencement
+of the last quarter of the month.
+
+A melancholy train of circumstances had followed the fight at Camden,
+and had embittered the feelings of the contending parties against each
+other to an unusual degree of exasperation. The most prominent of these
+topics of anger was the unjust and severe construction which the British
+authorities had given to the obligations which were supposed to affect
+such of the inhabitants of South Carolina, as had, after the
+capitulation of Charleston, surrendered themselves as prisoners on
+parole, or received protections from the new government. A
+proclamation, issued by Sir Henry Clinton in June, annulled the paroles,
+and ordered all who had obtained them to render military service, as
+subjects of the king. This order, which the prisoners, as well as those
+who had obtained protections, held to be a dissolution of their contract
+with the new government, was disobeyed by a large number of the
+inhabitants, many of whom had, immediately after the proclamation,
+joined the American army.
+
+Cornwallis permitted himself, on this occasion, to be swayed by
+sentiments unworthy of the character generally imputed to him. Many of
+the liberated inhabitants were found in the ranks of Gates at Camden,
+and several were made prisoners on the field. These latter, by the
+orders of the British general, were hung almost without the form of an
+inquiry: and it may well be supposed that in the heat of war and ferment
+of passion, such acts of rigor, defended on such light grounds, were met
+on the opposite side by a severe retribution.
+
+Almost every day, during the British commander's advance, some of the
+luckless citizens of the province whom this harsh construction of duty
+affected, were brought into the camp of the invaders, and the soldiery
+had grown horribly familiar with the frequent military executions that
+ensued.
+
+It was in the engrossment of the occupations and cares presented in this
+brief reference to the history of the time, that I have now to introduce
+my reader to Cornwallis.
+
+He had resolved to move forward on his campaign. Orders were issued to
+prepare for the march, and the general had announced his determination
+to review the troops before they broke ground. A beautiful, bright, and
+cool autumnal morning shone upon the wide plain, where an army of
+between two and three thousand men was drawn out in line. The tents of
+the recent encampment had already been struck, and a long array of
+baggage-wagons were now upon the high-road, slowly moving to a point
+assigned them in the route of the march. Cornwallis, attended by a score
+of officers, still occupied a small farm-house which had lately been his
+quarters. A number of saddle-horses in the charge of their grooms, and
+fully equipped for service, were to be seen in the neighborhood of the
+door; and the principal apartment of the house showed that some of the
+loiterers of the company were yet engaged in despatching the morning
+meal. The aides-de-camp were seen speeding between the army and the
+general, with that important and neck-endangering haste which
+characterizes the tribe of these functionaries; and almost momentarily a
+courier arrived, bearing some message of interest to the
+commander-in-chief.
+
+Cornwallis himself sat in an inner room, busily engaged with one of his
+principal officers in inspecting some documents regarding the detail of
+his force. Apart from them, stood, with hat in hand and in humble
+silence, a young ensign of infantry.
+
+"Your name, sir?" said Cornwallis, as he threw aside the papers which he
+had been perusing, and now addressed himself to the young officer.
+
+"Ensign Talbot, of the thirty-third Foot," replied the young man: "I
+have come by the order of the adjutant-general to inform your lordship
+that I have just returned to my regiment, having lately been captured by
+the enemy while marching with the third convoy of the Camden prisoners
+to Charleston."
+
+"Ha! you were of that party! What was the number of prisoners you had in
+charge?"
+
+"One hundred and fifty, so please your lordship."
+
+"They were captured"--
+
+"On Santee, by the rebels Marion and Horry," interrupted the ensign. "I
+have been in the custody of the rebels for a week, but contrived, a few
+days since, to make my escape."
+
+"Where found the rebels men to master you?"
+
+"Even from the country through which we journeyed," replied the ensign.
+
+"The beggarly runagates! Who can blame us, Major M'Arthur," said the
+general, appealing to the officer by his side, with an interest that
+obviously spoke the contest in his own mind in regard to the justice of
+the daily executions which he had sanctioned: "who can blame us for
+hanging up these recreants for their violated faith, with such thick
+perfidy before our eyes? This Santee district, to a man, had given their
+paroles and taken my protection: and, now, the first chance they have to
+play me a trick, they are up and at work, attacking our feeble escorts
+that should, in their sickly state, have rather looked to them for aid.
+I will carry out the work; by my sword, it shall go on sternly. Enough,
+Ensign, back to your company," he said, bowing to the young officer, who
+at once left the room.
+
+"What is your lordship's pleasure regarding this Adam Cusack?" inquired
+M'Arthur.
+
+"Oh, aye! I had well nigh forgotten that man. He was taken, I think, in
+the act of firing on a ferry-boat at Cheraw?"
+
+"The ball passed through the hat of my Lord Dunglas," said M'Arthur.
+
+"The lurking hound! A liege subject turning truant to his duty; e'en let
+him bide the fate of his brethren."
+
+M'Arthur merely nodded his head, and Cornwallis, rising from his chair,
+strode a few paces backwards and forwards through the room. "I would
+tune my bosom to mercy," he said, at length, "and win these dog-headed
+rebels back to their duty to their king by kindness; but good-will and
+charity towards them fall upon their breasts like water on a heated
+stone, which is thrown back in hisses. No, no, that day is past, and
+they shall feel the rod. We walk in danger whilst we leave these
+serpents in the grass. Order the gentlemen to horse, Major M'Arthur; we
+must be stirring. Let this fellow, Cusack, be dealt with like the rest.
+Gentlemen," added the chief, as he appeared at the door amidst the group
+who awaited his coming, "to your several commands!"
+
+Captain Brodrick, the principal aide, at this moment arrested the
+preparations to depart, by placing in Cornwallis's hand a letter which
+had just been brought by a dragoon to head-quarters.
+
+The general broke the seal, and, running his eye over the contents,
+said, as he handed the letter to the aide, "This is something out of the
+course of the campaign; a letter from a lady, now at the picquet-guard,
+and it seems she desires to speak with me. Who brought the billet,
+captain?"
+
+"This dragoon, one of a special escort from the legion. They have in
+charge a party of travellers, who have journeyed hither under Tarleton's
+own pledge of passport."
+
+"Captain," replied Cornwallis, "mount and seek the party. Conduct them
+to me without delay. What toy is this that brings a lady to my camp?"
+
+The aide-de-camp mounted his horse, and galloped off with the dragoon.
+He was conducted far beyond the utmost limit of the line of soldiers,
+and at length arrived at a small outpost, where some fifty men were
+drawn up, under the command of an officer of the picquet-guard, which
+was about returning to join the main body of the army. Here he found
+Mildred and Henry Lindsay, and their two companions, Horse Shoe and old
+Isaac, attended by the small escort furnished by Tarleton. This party
+had been two days on the road from Mrs. Markham's, and had arrived the
+preceding night at a cottage in the neighborhood, where they had found
+tolerable quarters. They had advanced this morning, at an early hour, to
+the _corps de garde_ of the picquet, where Mildred preferred remaining
+until Henry could despatch a note to Lord Cornwallis apprising him of
+their visit.
+
+When Captain Brodrick rode up, the travellers were already on horseback
+and prepared to move. The aide-de-camp respectfully saluted Miss Lindsay
+and her brother, and after a short parley with the officer of the
+escort, tendered his services to the strangers to conduct them to
+head-quarters.
+
+"The general, madam," he said, "would have done himself the honor to
+wait on you, but presuming that you were already on your route to his
+quarters, where you might be better received than in the bivouac of an
+outpost, he is led to hope that he consults your wish and your comfort
+both, by inviting you to partake of such accommodation as he is able to
+afford you."
+
+"My mission would idly stand on ceremony, sir," replied Mildred. "I
+thank Lord Cornwallis for the promptness with which he has answered my
+brother's message."
+
+"We will follow you, sir," said Henry.
+
+The party now rode on.
+
+Their path lay along the skirts of the late encampment upon the border
+of an extensive plain, on the opposite side of which the army was drawn
+out; and it was with the exultation of a boy, that Henry, as they moved
+forward, looked upon the long line of troops glittering in the bright
+sunshine, and heard the drums rolling their spirited notes upon the air.
+
+When they arrived at a point where the road emerged from a narrow strip
+of forest, they could discern, at the distance of a few hundred paces,
+the quarters of the commander-in-chief. Immediately on the edge of this
+wood, a small party of soldiers attracted the attention of the visitors
+by the earnest interest with which they stood around a withered tree,
+and gazed aloft at its sapless and huge boughs. Before anything was
+said, Mildred had already ridden within a few feet of the circle, where
+turning her eyes upwards she saw the body of a man swung in the air by a
+cord attached to one of the widest-spreading branches. The unfortunate
+being was just struggling in the paroxysms of death, as his person was
+swayed backwards and forwards, with a slow motion, by the breeze.
+
+"Oh, God! what a sight is here!" exclaimed the lady. "I cannot, will not
+go by this spot. Henry--brother--I cannot pass."
+
+The aide-de-camp checked his horse, and grasped her arm, before her
+brother could reach her, and Horse Shoe, at the same moment, sprang to
+the ground and seized her bridle.
+
+"I should think it but a decent point of war to keep such sights from
+women's eyes," said Robinson, somewhat angrily.
+
+"Peace, sirrah," returned the aide, "you are saucy. I trust, madam, you
+are not seriously ill? I knew not of this execution, or I should have
+spared you this unwelcome spectacle. Pray, compose yourself, and
+believe, madam, it was my ignorance that brought you into this
+difficulty."
+
+"I will not pass it," cried Mildred wildly, as she sprang from her horse
+and ran some paces back towards the wood, with her hands covering her
+face. In a moment Henry was by her side.
+
+"Nay, sister--dear sister," he said, "do not take it so grievously. The
+officer did not know of this. There now, you are better; we will mount
+again, and ride around this frightful place."
+
+Mildred gradually regained her self-possession, and after a few minutes
+was again mounted and making a circuit through the wood to avoid this
+appalling spectacle.
+
+"Who is this man?" asked Henry of the aide-de-camp, in a half whisper;
+"and what has he done, that they have hung him?"
+
+"It is an every-day tale," replied the officer; "a rebel traitor, who
+has broken his allegiance, by taking arms against the king in his own
+conquered province. I keep no count of these fellows; but I believe
+this is a bold rebel by the name of Adam Cusack, that was caught lately
+at the Cheraw ferry; and our boobies must be packing him off to
+head-quarters for us to do their hangman's work."
+
+"If we were to hang all of your men that we catch," replied Henry, "hemp
+is an article that would rise in price."
+
+"What, sir," returned the officer, with a look of surprise, "do you
+class yourself with the rebels? What makes you here under Tarleton's
+safeguard? I thought you must needs be friends, at least, from the
+manner of your coming."
+
+"We ride, sir, where we have occasion," said Henry, "and if we ride
+wrong now, let his lordship decide that for us, and we will return."
+
+By this time the company had reached head-quarters, where Mildred found
+herself in the presence of Lord Cornwallis.
+
+"Though on the wing, Miss Lindsay," said his lordship, as he
+respectfully met the lady and her brother upon the porch of the
+dwelling-house, "I have made it a point of duty to postpone weighty
+matters of business to receive your commands."
+
+Mildred bowed her head, and after a few words of courtesy on either
+side, and a formal introduction of herself and her brother to the
+general as the children of Philip Lindsay, "a gentleman presumed to be
+well known to his lordship," and some expressions of surprise and
+concern on the part of the chief at this unexpected announcement, she
+begged to be permitted to converse with him in private. When, in
+accordance with this wish, she found herself and her brother alone with
+the general, in the small parlor of the house, she began, with a
+trembling accent and blanched cheek--
+
+"I said, my lord, that we were the children of Philip Lindsey, of the
+Dove Cote, in Amherst, in the province of Virginia; and being taught to
+believe that my father has some interest with your lordship--"
+
+"He is a worthy, thoughtful, and wise gentleman, of the best
+consideration amongst the friends of the royal cause," interrupted the
+earl, "so speak on, madam, and speak calmly. Take your time, your
+father's daughter shall not find me an unwilling listener."
+
+"My father was away from home," interposed Henry, "and tidings came to
+us that a friend of ours was most wickedly defamed and belied, by a
+charge carried to the ears of your lordship; as we were told, that Major
+Arthur Butler of the Continental army who had been made a prisoner by
+your red-coats somehow or other--for I forget how--but the charge was
+that he had contrived a plan to carry off my father from the Dove
+Cote--if not to kill him, which was said, besides--and upon that charge,
+it was reported that your people were going to hang or shoot him--hang,
+I suppose, from what we just now saw over here in the woods--and that
+your lordship had given orders to have the thing put off until the major
+could prove the real facts of the case."
+
+"The tale is partly true, young sir," said Cornwallis. "We have a
+prisoner of that name and rank."
+
+"My sister Mildred and myself, thinking no time was to be lost, have
+come to say to your lordship that the whole story is a most sinful lie,
+hatched on purpose to make mischief, and most probably by a fellow by
+the name of----"
+
+"My brother speaks too fast," interrupted Mildred. "It deeply concerned
+us to do justice to a friend in this matter. If my father had been at
+home a letter to your lordship would have removed all doubts; but, alas!
+he was absent, and I knew not what to do, but to come personally before
+your lordship, to assure you that to the perfect knowledge of our whole
+family, the tale from beginning to end is a malicious fabrication. Major
+Butler loves my father, and would be accounted one of his nearest and
+dearest friends."
+
+Cornwallis listened to this disclosure with a perplexed and bewildered
+conjecture, to unravel the strange riddle which it presented to his
+mind.
+
+"How may I understand you, Miss Lindsay?" he said; "this Major Butler is
+in the service of Congress?"
+
+"Even so. Your lordship speaks truly."
+
+"Your father--my friend, Philip Lindsay, is a faithful and persevering
+loyalist."
+
+"To the peril of his life and fortune," replied Mildred.
+
+"And yet Butler is his friend?"
+
+"He would be esteemed so, if it please your lordship--and, in heart and
+feeling, is so."
+
+"He is related to your family, perhaps?"
+
+"Related in affection, my lord, and plighted love," said Mildred,
+blushing and casting her eyes upon the ground.
+
+"So!--Now I apprehend. And there are bonds between you?"
+
+"I may not answer your lordship," returned the lady. "It only imports
+our present business to tell your lordship, that Arthur Butler never
+came to the Dove Cote but with the purest purpose of good to all who
+lodged beneath its roof. He has never come there but that I was apprised
+of his intent; and never thought rose in his heart that did not breathe
+blessings upon all that inhabit near my father. Oh, my lord, it is a
+base trick of an enemy to do him harm; and they have contrived this plot
+to impose upon your lordship's generous zeal in my father's behalf."
+
+"It is a strange story," said Cornwallis. "And does your father know
+nothing of this visit? Have you, Miss Lindsay, committed yourself to all
+the chances of this rude war, and undertaken this long and toilsome
+journey, to vindicate a rebel charged with a most heinous device of
+perfidy? It is a deep and painful interest that could move you to this
+enterprise."
+
+"My lord, my mission requires a frank confidence. I have heard my father
+say you had a generous and feeling heart--that you were a man to whom
+the king had most wisely committed his cause in this most trying war:
+that your soul was gifted with moderation, wisdom, forecast,
+firmness--and that such a spirit as yours was fit to master and command
+the rude natures of soldiers, and to compel them to walk in the paths of
+justice and mercy. All this and more have I heard my father say, and
+this encouraged me to seek you in your camp, and to tell you the plain
+and undisguised truth touching those charges against Major Butler. As
+Heaven above hears me, I have said nothing but the simple truth. Arthur
+Butler never dreamt of harm to my dear father."
+
+"He is a brave soldier," said Henry, "and if your lordship would give
+him a chance, and put him before the man who invented the lie, he would
+make the scoundrel eat his words, and they should be handed to him on
+the major's sword-point."
+
+"The gentleman is happy" said the chief, "in two such zealous friends.
+You have not answered me--is your father aware of this visit, Miss
+Lindsay?"
+
+"He is ignorant even of the nature of the charge against Arthur Butler,"
+replied the lady. "He was absent from the Dove Cote when the news
+arrived; and, fearing that delay might be disastrous, we took the matter
+in hand ourselves."
+
+"You might have written."
+
+"The subject, so please your lordship, was too near to our hearts to put
+it to the hazard of a letter."
+
+"It is a warm zeal, and deserves to be requited with a life's devotion,"
+said Cornwallis. "You insinuated, young sir, just now, that you
+suspected the author of this imputed slander."
+
+"My brother is rash, and speaks hastily," interrupted Mildred.
+
+"Whom were you about to name?" asked the general, of Henry.
+
+"There was a man named Tyrrel," replied the youth, "that has been
+whispering in my father's ear somewhat concerning a proposal for my
+sister" (here Mildred cast a keen glance at her brother and bit her lip)
+"and they say, love sometimes makes men desperate, and I took a passing
+notion that, may be, he might have been at the bottom of it; I know
+nothing positively to make me think so, but only speak from what I have
+read in books."
+
+Cornwallis smiled as he replied playfully: "Tush, my young philosopher,
+you must not take your wisdom from romances. I have heard of Tyrrel, and
+will stand his surety that love has raised no devil to conjure such
+mischief in his breast. What will satisfy your errand hither, Miss
+Lindsay?"
+
+"A word from your lordship, that no harm shall befall Arthur Butler
+beyond the necessary durance of a prisoner of war."
+
+"That is granted you at once," replied the general, "granted for your
+sake, madam, in the spirit of a cavalier who would deny no lady's
+request. And I rather grant it to you, because certain threats have been
+sent me from some of the major's partisans, holding out a determination
+to retaliate blood for blood. These had almost persuaded me to run,
+against my own will, to an extreme. I would have you let it be known,
+that as a free grace to a lady, I have done that which I would refuse to
+the broad sword bullies of the mountains. What next would you have?"
+
+"Simply, an unmolested passage hence, beyond your lordship's posts."
+
+"That too shall be cared for. And thus the business being done, with
+your leave, I will go to more unmannerly employments."
+
+"A letter for your lordship," said an officer, who at this moment
+entered the door, and putting a packet into the general's hand, retired.
+
+Cornwallis opened the letter and read it.
+
+"Ha! by my faith, but this is a rare coincidence! This brings matter of
+interest to you, Miss Lindsay. My officer, Macdonald, who had Butler in
+custody, writes me that, two days since, his prisoner had escaped."
+
+"Escaped!" exclaimed Mildred, forgetting in whose presence she spoke,
+"unhurt--uninjured. Thank Heaven for that!"
+
+Cornwallis sat for a moment silent, as a frown grew upon his brow, and
+he played his foot against the floor, abstracted in thought. "These
+devils have allies," he muttered, "in every cabin in the country. We
+have treachery and deceit lurking behind every bush. We shall be
+poisoned in our pottage by these false and hollow knaves. If it gives
+you content, madam," he said, raising his voice, "that this Major Butler
+should abuse the kindness or clemency of his guard and fly from us at
+the moment we were extending a boon of mercy to him through your
+supplications, you may hereafter hold your honorable soldier in higher
+esteem for his dexterity and cunning."
+
+"I pray your lordship to believe," said Mildred, with a deep emotion,
+which showed itself in the rich, full tones of her voice, "that Major
+Butler knows nothing of my coming hither. I speak not in his name, nor
+make any pledge for him. If he has escaped, it has only been from the
+common instinct which teaches a bird to fly abroad when it finds the
+door of his cage left open by the negligence of his keepers. I knew it
+not--nor, alas! have I heard aught of his captivity, but as I have
+already told your lordship. He is an honorable soldier, rich in all the
+virtues that may commend a man: I would your lordship knew him better
+and in more peaceful times."
+
+"Well, it is but a peevish and silly boy," said Cornwallis, "who whines
+when his pie is stolen. The war has many reckonings to settle, and we
+contrive to make one day's profit pay another's loss. The account for
+the present is balanced; and so, Miss Lindsay, without discourtesy, I
+may leave you, with a fair wish for a happy and prosperous journey back
+to your father's roof. To the good gentleman himself, I desire to be
+well remembered. And to show you that this briery path of war has not
+quite torn away all the habiliments of gentleness from us, I think it
+dutiful to tell you that, as I have become the confidant of a precious
+love-tale, wherein I can guess some secret passage of mystery is laid
+which should not be divulged, I promise you to keep it faithfully
+between ourselves. And when I reach the Dove Cote, which, God willing,
+under the banners of St. George, I do propose within three months to do,
+we may renew our confidence, and you shall have my advice touching the
+management of this dainty and delicate affair. And now, God speed you
+with a fair ride, and good spirits to back it!"
+
+"I am much beholden to your lordship's generosity," said Mildred, as
+Cornwallis rose with a sportive gallantry and betook himself to his
+horse.
+
+"Come hither, Mr. Henry," he said after he had mounted, "farewell, my
+young cavalier. You will find a few files of men to conduct you and your
+party beyond our posts: and here, take this," he added, as now on
+horseback, he scrawled off a few lines with a pencil, upon a leaf of his
+pocket-book, which he delivered to the youth, "there is a passport which
+shall carry you safe against all intrusion from my people. Adieu!"
+
+With this last speech the commander-in-chief put spurs to his horse, and
+galloped to the plain, to review his troops and commence the march by
+which he hoped to make good his boast of reaching the Dove Cote.
+
+How fortune seconded his hopes may be read in the story of the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+A BRITISH PARTISAN.
+
+
+As the events of this history are confined to the duration of the Tory
+Ascendency in South Carolina, it becomes me to prepare my reader for the
+conclusion to which, doubtless much to his content, he will hear that we
+are now hastening. We have reached a period which brings us to take
+notice of certain important operations that were in progress upon the
+frontier, and touching the details of which, to avoid prolixity, I must
+refer to the graver chronicles of the times. It answers my present
+purpose merely to apprise my reader that Colonel Clarke had lately
+assembled his followers and marched to Augusta, where he had made an
+attack upon Brown, but that almost at the moment when his dexterous and
+valiant adversary had fallen within his grasp, a timely succor from Fort
+Ninety-Six, under the command of Cruger, had forced him to abandon his
+ground, and retreat towards the mountain districts of North Carolina. To
+this, it is important to add that Ferguson had now recruited a
+considerable army amongst the native Tories, and had moved to the small
+frontier village of Gilbert-town, with a purpose to intercept Clarke,
+and thus place him under the disadvantage of having a foe both in front
+and rear.
+
+The midnight seizure of Arthur Butler and his friends, whilst returning
+from Ramsay's funeral, was effected by McAlpine, who happened at that
+moment to be hastening, by a forced march, with a detachment of
+newly-recruited cavalry from Ninety-Six, to strengthen Ferguson, and to
+aid in what was expected to be the certain capture of the troublesome
+Whig partisan.
+
+As M'Alpine's purpose required despatch, he made but a short delay after
+sunrise at Drummond's cabin, and then pushed forward with his prisoners
+with all possible expedition. The route of his journey diverged, almost
+at the spot of the capture, from the roads leading towards Musgrove's
+Mill, and he consequently had but little chance to fall in with parties
+who might communicate to him the nature of the accident which threw the
+prisoners into his possession; whilst the prisoners themselves were
+sufficiently discreet to conceal from him everything that might afford a
+hint of Butler's previous condition.
+
+The road lay through a rugged wilderness, and the distance to be
+travelled, before the party could reach Gilbert-town, was something more
+than sixty miles. It was, accordingly, about the middle of the second
+day after leaving Drummond's habitation, before the troop arrived at the
+term of their journey, a period that coincided with that of Cornwallis's
+breaking ground from his late encampment at the Waxhaws, which we have
+seen in the last chapter.
+
+Ferguson was a stout, fearless, and bluff soldier, and instigated
+by the most unsparing hatred against all who took up the Whig cause.
+He had been promoted by Earl Cornwallis to the brevet rank of
+lieutenant-colonel, a short time before the battle of Camden, and
+despatched towards this wild and mountainous border to collect together
+and organize the Tory inhabitants of the district. His zeal and
+activity, no less than his peremptory bearing, had particularly
+recommended him to the duty to be performed; and he is, at least,
+entitled to the commendation of having acquitted himself with great
+promptitude and efficiency in the principal objects of his appointment.
+He was now at the head of between eleven and twelve hundred men, of
+which about one hundred and fifty were regulars of the British line, the
+remainder consisting of the disorderly and untamed population of the
+frontier.
+
+Gilbert-town was a small village, composed of a number of rather
+well-built and comfortable log-houses. It was situated in a mountainous
+but fertile district of North Carolina, about the centre of Rutherford
+country. And I may venture to add (which I do upon report only), that
+although its former name has faded from the maps of the present day,
+under that reprehensible indifference to ancient associations, and that
+pernicious love of change which have obliterated so many of the
+landmarks of our revolutionary history, yet this village is still a
+prosperous and pleasant community, known as the seat of justice to the
+county to which it belongs.
+
+When the troop having charge of Butler and his companions arrived, they
+halted immediately in front of one of the largest buildings of the
+village, and in a short time the prisoners were marched into the
+presence of Ferguson. They were received in a common room of ample
+dimensions, furnished with a table upon which was seen a confused array
+of drinking vessels, and a number of half-emptied bottles of spirit
+surrounding a wooden bucket filled with water. Immediately against one
+of the posts of the door of the apartment, the carcass of a buck,
+recently shot and now stripped of its skin, hung by the tendons of the
+hinder feet; and a soldier was at this moment employed with his knife in
+the butcher-craft necessary to its preparation for the spit. Ferguson
+himself, conspicuous for his robust, athletic, and weather-beaten
+exterior, stood by apparently directing the operation. Around the room
+were hung the hide and antlers of former victims of the chase,
+intermingled with various weapons of war, military cloaks,
+cartridge-boxes, bridles, saddles, and other furniture denoting the
+habitation of a party of soldiers. There was a general air of disorder
+and untidiness throughout the apartment, which seemed to bespeak early
+and late revels, and no great observance of the thrift of even military
+housekeeping. This impression was heightened to the eye of the beholder,
+by the unchecked liberty with which men of all ranks, privates as well
+as officers, flung themselves, as their occasions served, into the room
+and made free with the contents of the flasks that were scattered over
+the table.
+
+The irregular and ill-disciplined host under Ferguson's command lay in
+and around the village, and presented a scene of which the predominating
+features bore a sufficient resemblance to the economy of their leader's
+own quarters, to raise but an unfavorable opinion of their subordination
+and soldier-like demeanor: it was wild, noisy, and confused.
+
+When M'Alpine entered the apartment, the words that fell from Ferguson
+showed that his mind, at the moment, was disturbed by a double
+solicitude--alternating between the operations performed upon the
+carcass of venison, and certain symptoms of uproar and disorder that
+manifested themselves amongst the militia without.
+
+"Curse on these swaggering, upland bullies!" he said, whilst M'Alpine
+and the prisoners stood inside the room, as yet unnoticed. "I would as
+soon undertake to train as many wolves from the mountain, as bring these
+fellows into habits of discipline. Thady, you cut that haunch too
+low--go deep, man--a long sweep from the pommel to the cantle--it is a
+saddle worth riding on! By the infernal gods! if these yelping savages
+do not learn to keep quiet in camp, I'll make a school for them with my
+regulars, where they shall have good taste of the cat! nine hours' drill
+and all the camp duty besides! Ha, M'Alpine, is it you who have been
+standing here all this while? I didn't observe it, man--my quarters are
+like a bar-room, and have been full of comers and goers all day. I
+thought you were but some of my usual free-and-easy customers. Damn
+them, I am sick of these gawky, long-legged, half-civilized recruits!
+but I shall take a course with them yet. What news, old boy? What have
+you to tell of the rebels? Where is my pretty fellow, Clarke?"
+
+"Clarke is still in the woods," replied M'Alpine. "It would take good
+hounds to track him."
+
+"And Cruger, I hope, has nose enough to follow. So, the cunning Indian
+hunter will be caught at last! We have him safe now, M'Alpine. There is
+but one path for the fox to come out of the bush, and upon that path
+Patrick Ferguson has about as pretty a handful of mischievous imps as
+ever lapped blood. The slinking runaway never reaches the other side of
+the mountains while I am awake. With Cruger behind him--our line of
+posts upon his right--the wild mountains, as full of Cherokees as
+squirrels, upon his left--and these devils of mine right before him--we
+have him in a pretty net. Who have you here, captain?"
+
+"Some stray rebel game, that I picked up on my road, as I came from
+Ninety-Six. This gentleman, I learn, is Major Butler of the Continental
+army, and these others, some of his party."
+
+"So, ho, more rebels! damn it, man," exclaimed the commandant, "why do
+you bring them to me? What can I do with them"--then dropping his voice
+into a tone of confidential conference, he added, "but follow the
+fashion and hang them? I have got some score of prisoners already--and
+have been wishing that they would cut some devilish caper, that I might
+have an excuse for stringing them up, to get clear of them. A major in
+the regular Continental line, sir?" he asked, addressing himself to
+Butler.
+
+Butler bowed his head.
+
+"I thought the cuffs your people got at Camden had driven everything
+like a daylight soldier out of the province. We have some skulking
+bush-fighters left--some jack-o'-lantern devils, that live in the swamps
+and feed on frogs and water-snakes--Marion and Sumpter, and a few of
+their kidney: but you, sir, are the first regular Continental officer I
+have met with. What brought you so far out of your latitude?"
+
+"I was on my way to join one," replied Butler, "that but now you seemed
+to think in severe straits."
+
+"Ha! to visit Clarke, eh? Well, sir, may I be bold to ask, do you know
+where that worshipful gentleman is to be found?"
+
+"I am free to answer you," said Butler, "that his position, at this
+moment, is entirely unknown to me. On my journey I heard the report that
+he had been constrained to abandon Augusta."
+
+"Yes, and in haste, let me tell you. And marches in this direction,
+Major Butler, as he needs must. I shall make his acquaintance: and
+inasmuch as you went to seek him, you may count it a lucky accident that
+brought you here--you will find him all the sooner by it."
+
+"Doubtless, sir, Colonel Clarke will feel proud to see you," returned
+Butler.
+
+"Well, M'Alpine," said Ferguson, "I have my hands full of business; for
+I certainly have the wildest crew of devil's babies that ever stole
+cattle, or fired a haystack. I am obliged to coax them into discipline
+by a somewhat free use of this mother's milk"--(pointing to the
+bottles)--"to which I now and then add a gentle castigation at the
+drum-head, and, when that doesn't serve, a dose of powder and lead,
+administered at ten paces from a few files of grenadiers. I have shot a
+brace of them, since you left me, only for impertinence to their
+officers! This waiting for Clarke plays the devil with us. I must be
+moving, and have some thought of crossing the mountains westward, and
+burning out the settlements. Faith! I would do it, just to keep my lads
+in spirits, if I thought Clarke would give me another week. How, now,
+Thady?--that buck should have been half roasted by this time. We shall
+never have dinner with your slow work. Look at that, M'Alpine, there is
+something to make your mouth water--an inch and a half of fat on the
+very ridge of the back. Give over your prisoners to the camp major--he
+will take care of them: and, hark you, captain," he added, beckoning his
+comrade aside, "if you choose, as you seem to think well of this Major
+Butler, you may bring him in to dinner presently, with my compliments.
+Now, away--I must to business."
+
+The prisoners were conducted to a separate building, where they were put
+in charge of an officer, who performed the duties of provost-marshal
+over some twenty or more Whigs that had been captured in the late
+excursions of the Tories, and brought into camp for safe keeping. The
+place of their confinement was narrow and uncomfortable, and Butler was
+soon made aware that in the exchange of his prison at Musgrove's mill
+for his present one, he had made an unprofitable venture. His condition
+with Ferguson, however, was alleviated by the constantly-exciting hope
+that the events which were immediately in prospect might, by the chances
+of war, redound to his advantage.
+
+In this situation Butler remained for several days. For although
+Ferguson found it necessary to keep in almost constant motion, with a
+view to hover about the supposed direction of Clarke's retreat, and,
+conformably to this purpose, to advance into South Carolina, and again
+to fall back towards his present position, yet he had established a
+guard at Gilbert-town which, during all these operations, remained
+stationary with the prisoners, apparently waiting some fit opportunity
+to march them off to Cornwallis's army, that was now making its way
+northwards. That opportunity did not present itself. The communications
+between this post and the commander-in-chief were, by a fatal error,
+neglected; and in a short time from the date of the present events, as
+will be seen in the sequel, a web was woven which was strong enough to
+ensnare and bind up the limbs of the giant who had, during the last five
+months, erected and maintained the Tory Ascendency in Carolina.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+MILDRED TURNS HER STEPS HOMEWARDS.
+
+
+I have seen a generous and brave boy defied to some enterprise of
+terror,--such as, peradventure, to clamber in the dark night, alone, up
+many a winding bout of stair-case to the garret,--and he has undertaken
+the achievement, although sore afraid of goblins, and gone forth upon
+his adventure with a lusty step and with a bold tardiness, whistling or
+singing on his way--his eyes and ears all the time fearfully open to all
+household sights and sounds, now magnified out of their natural
+proportions; and when he had reached the furthest term of his travel, I
+have known him to turn quickly about and come down three steps at a
+leap, feeling all the way as if some spectre tracked his flight and hung
+upon his rear. Calling up such a venture to my mind, I am enabled, by
+comparison with the speed and anxiety of the boy, to show my reader with
+what emotions Mildred, her mission being done, now turned herself upon
+her homeward route. The excitement occasioned by her knowledge of the
+critical circumstances of Butler, and the pain she had suffered in the
+belief that upon the courageous performance of her duty depended even
+his life, had nerved her resolution to the perilous and hardy exploit in
+which we have seen her. But now, when matters had taken such a suddenly
+auspicious turn, and she was assured of her lover's safety, not even the
+abrupt joy which poured in upon her heart was sufficient to stifle her
+sense of uneasiness at her present exposed condition, and she eagerly
+prepared to betake herself back to the Dove Cote.
+
+The scenes around her had wrought upon her nerves; and, although she was
+singularly fortunate in the courtesy which she had experienced from all
+into whose hands she had fallen, yet the rude licentiousness of the
+camp, and the revolting acts of barbarity which were ever present to her
+observation, appalled and distressed her. Besides, she now saw the
+fixed purpose with which Cornwallis was preparing to march forward in
+his course of invasion, and thought with alarm upon the probable event
+of soon having the theatre of war transferred to the neighborhood of her
+native woods.
+
+Robinson's advice seconded her own alacrity. It was to hasten, with all
+despatch, in advance of the invading army; and as this body was now
+about taking up its line of march, no time was to be lost. Accordingly,
+but a brief delay took place after Cornwallis and his suite had departed
+from head-quarters, before our party set forward, accompanied by the
+small guard of cavalry that had been ordered to attend them. The troops
+were just wheeling into column on the ground where they had been lately
+reviewed, when Mildred and her attendants galloped past, and took the
+high road leading to the town of Charlotte, in North Carolina, towards
+which it was understood the invaders were about to direct their journey.
+In less than an hour afterwards they had left behind them the line of
+baggage wagons and the small military parties of the vanguard, and found
+themselves rapidly hastening towards a district occupied by the friends
+of independence.
+
+The sergeant had now occasion for his utmost circumspection. In pursuing
+the destined route of the invasion, he had reason to expect an early
+encounter with some of the many corps of observation, which the opposite
+party were certain to put upon the duty of reporting the approach of
+their enemy. And so it fell out; for, towards the middle of the day,
+whilst the travellers were quietly plying their journey through the
+forest, the discharge of a pistol announced the presence of a hostile
+body of men; and almost instantly afterwards a small handful of Whig
+cavalry were seen hovering upon the road, at the distance of some three
+or four hundred paces in front. Robinson no sooner recognised this squad
+than he took the lady's handkerchief and hoisted it on a rod, as a flag
+of truce, and, at the same moment, directed the escort to retreat,
+apprising them that their presence was no longer necessary, as he had
+now an opportunity to deliver his charge into the hands of friends. The
+British horsemen, accordingly, took their leave; and, in the next
+moment, Horse Shoe surrendered to a patrole, who announced themselves to
+be a part of the command of Colonel Davie, of the North Carolina
+militia--a gallant partisan, then well known to fame, and whose after
+exploits fill up no inconsiderable page of American history.
+
+It does not enter into the purpose of my story to detain my reader with
+a minute account of Mildred's homeward journey; but having now
+transferred her to the protection of a friendly banner, it will suffice
+to say that she arrived the same evening at Charlotte, where she spent
+the night in the midst of the active, warlike preparations which were in
+progress to receive Cornwallis.
+
+It was towards sunset on the following day, when, wearied with the toil
+of a long and rapid journey, our travellers arrived in front of a
+retired farm-house, on the road leading through the upper districts of
+North Carolina. The cultivation around this dwelling showed both good
+husbandry and a good soil, and there was an appearance of comfort and
+repose which was an unusual sight in a country so much alarmed and
+ravaged by war, as that over which the wayfarers had lately journeyed.
+The house stood some short distance apart from the road, and in the
+porch was seated an elderly man of a respectable appearance, to whom a
+young girl was, at this moment, administering a draught of water from a
+small, hooped, wooden vessel which she held in her hand.
+
+"I am parched with thirst," said Mildred, "pray get me some of that
+water."
+
+"The place looks so well, ma'am," replied the sergeant, "that I think we
+could not do better than make a stop here for the night. Good day,
+neighbor! What is the name of the river I see across yon field, and
+where mought we be, just at this time?"
+
+"It is the Yadkin," answered the man, "and this county, I believe, is
+Iredell--though I speak only by guess, for I am but a stranger in these
+parts."
+
+"The lady would be obligated," said Horse Shoe, "for a drop of that
+water; and, if it was agreeable, she mought likewise be pleased to put
+up here for the night."
+
+"The people of the house are kind and worthy," replied the old man, "and
+not likely to refuse a favor. Mary, take a cup to the lady."
+
+The girl obeyed; and, coming up to the party with the vessel in her
+hand, she suddenly started as her eye fell upon Horse Shoe, and her pale
+and wan countenance was seen bathed in tears.
+
+"Mr. Robinson!" she exclaimed, with a faltering voice; "you don't know
+me?--me, Mary Musgrove. Father, it is our friend, Horse Shoe Robinson!"
+Then placing the vessel upon the ground, she ran to the sergeant's side,
+as he sat upon his horse, and leaning her head against his saddle, she
+wept bitterly, sobbing out: "It is me, Mary Musgrove. John--our
+John--that you loved--he is dead--he is dead!"
+
+In an instant Allen Musgrove was at the gate, where he greeted the
+sergeant with the affection of an old friend.
+
+This recognition of the miller and his daughter at once confirmed the
+sergeant in his determination to end his day's journey at this spot. In
+a few moments Mildred and her companions were introduced into the
+farm-house, where they were heartily welcomed by the in-dwellers,
+consisting of a sturdy, cheerful tiller of the soil, and a motherly
+dame, whose brood of children around her showed her to be the mistress
+of the family.
+
+The scene that ensued after the party were seated in the house was, for
+some time, painfully affecting. Poor Mary, overcome by the associations
+called up to her mind at the sight of the sergeant, took a seat near
+him, and silently gazed in his face, visibly laboring under a strong
+desire to express her feelings in words, but at the same time stricken
+mute by the intensity of her emotions.
+
+After a long suspense, which was broken only by her sobs, she was
+enabled to utter a few disjointed sentences, in which she recalled to
+the sergeant the friendship that had existed between him and John
+Ramsay; and there was something peculiarly touching in the melancholy
+tone with which, in accordance with the habits inculcated by her
+religious education, and most probably in the words of her father's
+frequent admonitions, she attributed the calamity that had befallen her
+to the kindly chastisement of heaven, to endure which she devoutly, and
+with a sigh that showed the bitterness of her suffering, prayed for
+patience and submission. Allen Musgrove, at this juncture, interposed
+with some topics of consolation suitable to the complexion of the
+maiden's mind, and soon succeeded in drying up her tears, and restoring
+her, at least, to the possession of a tranquil and apparently a resigned
+spirit.
+
+When this was done, he gave a narrative of the events relating to the
+escape of Butler and his subsequent recapture at the funeral of John
+Ramsay, to which, it may be imagined, Mildred and Henry listened with
+the most absorbed attention.
+
+This tale of the recapture of Butler, so unexpected, and communicated at
+a moment when Mildred's heart beat high with the joyful hopes of
+speedily seeing her lover again in safety, now struck upon her ear with
+the alarm that seizes upon a voyager who, fearing no hidden reef or
+unknown shoal, hears the keel of his ship in mid ocean crash against a
+solid rock. It seemed at once to break down the illusion which she had
+cherished with such fond affection. For the remainder of the evening the
+intercourse of the party was anxious and thoughtful, and betrayed the
+unhappy impression which the intelligence just communicated had made
+upon the feelings of Mildred and her brother. Musgrove, after the
+travellers had been refreshed by food, and invigorated by the kind and
+hearty hospitality of the good man under whose roof they were sheltered,
+proceeded to give the sergeant a history of what had lately befallen in
+the neighborhood of the Ennoree. Some days after the escape of Butler,
+the miller's own family had drawn upon themselves the odium of the
+ruling authority. His mill and his habitation had been reduced to ashes
+by a party of Tories who had made an incursion into this district, with
+no other view than to wreak their vengeance against suspected persons.
+In the same inroad, the family of David Ramsay had once more been
+assailed, and all that was spared from the first conflagration was
+destroyed in the second. Many other houses through this region had met
+the same fate. The expedition had been conducted by Wemyss, who, it is
+said, carried in his pocket a list of dwellings to which the torch was
+to be applied, and who, on accomplishing each item of his diabolical
+mission--so still runs the tradition--would note the consummated work by
+striking out the memorandum from his tablets.
+
+In this general ravage, the desolated families fled like hunted game
+through the woods, and betook themselves with a disordered haste to the
+more friendly provinces northward. Musgrove had sent his wife and
+younger children, almost immediately after the assault upon him, to the
+care of a relative in Virginia, whither they had been conducted some
+days previous to the date of his present meeting with Horse Shoe by
+Christopher Shaw; whilst he and Mary had remained behind, for a short
+space, to render assistance to the family of Ramsay, to whom they felt
+themselves affined almost as closely as if the expected alliance by
+marriage had taken place. When this duty was discharged, and Ramsay's
+family were provided with a place of refuge, Musgrove had set forward
+with his daughter to rejoin his wife and children in their new asylum.
+It was upon this journey that they had now been accidentally overtaken
+by our travellers.
+
+The disclosure of the motives of Mildred's expedition to Mary and her
+father, as may be supposed, warmed up their feelings to a most
+affectionate sympathy in her troubles. They had often heard of Butler's
+attachment to a lady in Virginia, and were aware of her name, from the
+incidents that had occurred at the trial of Butler, and from the nature
+of Horse Shoe's mission to Virginia. Mary had nursed in her mind a
+fanciful and zealous interest in behalf of the lady who was supposed to
+have engrossed Butler's affections, from the earnest devotion which she
+had witnessed in his demeanor, first at Adair's, and often afterwards
+during his captivity. The effect of this preconceived favor now showed
+itself in her behavior to Mildred; and, in the gentle play which it gave
+to her kindly sentiments, a most happy change was wrought in her present
+feelings. She at once warmly and fervently attached herself to Mildred,
+and won her way into our lady's esteem by the most amiable assiduities.
+In these offices of love, the poignancy of her own grief began to give
+way to the natural sweetness of her temper, and they were observed, in
+the same degree, to enliven Mildred's feelings. Mary hung fondly about
+her new acquaintance, proffered her most minute attentions of comfort,
+spoke often of the generous qualities of Butler, and breathed many a
+sincere prayer for future happiness to him and those he loved.
+
+As Mildred pondered over the new aspect which the tidings of this
+evening had given to her condition, her inclination and duty both
+prompted her to the resolve to make an effort to join Butler, instead of
+returning to the Dove Cote. She was apprised by Musgrove that the
+prisoner had been conducted to Ferguson, who, she was told, was at this
+time stationed in the neighborhood of Gilbert-town, not a hundred miles
+from her present position. She had ventured far in his services, and she
+could not, now that she had so nearly approached him, consent to
+abandon the effort of reaching the spot of his captivity. She thought
+with alarm over the dangers that might await him in consequence of his
+previous escape, and this alarm was increased by her remembrance of the
+tone of bitter resentment with which Cornwallis, in a moment of
+unguarded feeling, had referred to the event in her late conference with
+that officer. Above all, it was her duty--such was her view of the
+matter--and whatever might befal, he was the lord of her heart, and all
+dangers and difficulties, now as heretofore, should be cast aside in her
+determination to administer to his safety or comfort. Her decision was
+made, and she so announced it to her companions.
+
+Neither the sergeant nor Henry made the opposition to this resolve that
+might have been expected. To Horse Shoe it was a matter of indifference
+upon what service he might be ordered; his thoughts ran in no other
+current than to obey the order, and make the most thrifty and careful
+provision for its safe execution. To Henry that was always a pleasant
+suggestion which was calculated to bring him more into the field of
+adventure. Allen Musgrove, on this occasion, added an opinion which
+rather favored the enterprise.
+
+"It was not much out of the way," he said, "to go as far as Burk Court
+House, where, at least, the lady was likely to learn something of the
+plans of Ferguson, and she might either wait there, or take such
+direction afterwards as her friends should advise."
+
+Mary begged that whatever route Mildred thought proper to pursue, she
+might be allowed to accompany her; and this request was so much to the
+liking of Mildred, that she earnestly implored the miller's consent to
+the plan. With some reluctance Musgrove acquiesced; and, feeling thus
+doubly interested in the fortunes of the party, he finally determined
+himself to attend them in their present enterprise.
+
+These matters being settled, the wearied travellers parted for the
+night, happy, at least, in having found the weight of their personal
+afflictions relieved by the cheerfulness with which the burden was
+divided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+SIGNS OF A GATHERING STORM.--MUSTER OF THE BACKWOODSMEN.
+
+    In arms the huts and hamlets rise,
+    From winding glen, from upland brown,
+    They poured each hardy tenant down.--LADY OF THE LAKE.
+
+
+In gathering up the ends of our story, as we draw towards a conclusion,
+we are forced, after the fashion of a stirring drama, to a frequent
+change of scene. Accordingly, leaving Mildred and her friends to pursue
+their own way until we shall find leisure to look after their footsteps,
+we must introduce our reader to some new acquaintances, whose motions,
+it will be seen, are destined greatly to influence the interests of this
+history.
+
+The time was about the second of October, when a considerable body of
+troops were seen marching through that district which is situated
+between the Allegany mountain and the head waters of Catawba, in North
+Carolina. This force might have numbered perhaps something over one
+thousand men. Its organization and general aspect were sufficiently
+striking to entitle it to a particular description. It consisted almost
+entirely of cavalry; and a spectator might have seen in the rude,
+weather-beaten faces, and muscular forms of the soldiers, as well as in
+the simplicity of their equipments, a hastily-levied band of
+mountaineers, whose ordinary pursuits had been familiar with the arduous
+toils of Indian warfare and the active labors of the chase. They were,
+almost without exception, arrayed in the hunting shirt--a dress so dear
+to the recollections of the revolution, and which, it is much to be
+regretted, the foppery of modern times has been allowed to displace.
+Their weapons in but few instances were other than the long rifle and
+its accompanying hunting-knife.
+
+It was to be observed that this little army consisted of various corps,
+which were in general designated either by the color of the
+hunting-shirt, or by that of the fringe with which this cheap and
+simple uniform was somewhat ostentatiously garnished. Some few were clad
+in the plain, homespun working-dress of the time; and here and there, an
+officer might be recognised in the blue and buff cloth of the regular
+Continental army. The buck-tail, also, was an almost indispensable
+ornament of the cap, or usual round hat of the soldiers; and where this
+was wanting, its place was not unfrequently supplied by sprigs of green
+pine or holly, or other specimens of the common foliage of the country.
+
+The men were mounted on lean, shaggy, and travel-worn horses of every
+variety of size, shape, and color; and their baggage consisted of
+nothing more cumbersome than a light wallet attached to the rear of
+their saddles, or of a meagrely supplied pair of saddle-bags. The small
+party on foot were in no wise to be distinguished from the mounted men,
+except in the absence of horses, and in the mode of carrying their
+baggage, which was contained in knapsacks of deer-skin strapped to their
+shoulders. These moved over the ground with, perhaps, even more facility
+than the cavalry, and appeared in no degree to regret the toil of the
+march, which was so far the lighter to them, as they were exempt from
+the solicitude which their companions suffered of providing forage for
+their beasts.
+
+The officers in command of this party were young men, in whose general
+demeanor and bearing was to be seen that bold, enterprising, and hardy
+character, which at that period, even more than at present,
+distinguished the frontier population. The frequent expeditions against
+the savages, which the times had rendered familiar to them, as well as
+the service of the common war, in which they had all partaken, had
+impressed upon their exteriors the rugged lines of thoughtful
+soldiership.
+
+The troops now associated, consisted of distinct bodies of volunteers,
+who had each assembled under their own leaders, without the requisition
+of the government, entirely independent of each other, and more
+resembling the promiscuous meeting of hunters than a regularly-organized
+military corps.
+
+They had convened, about a week before the period at which I have
+presented them to my reader, at Wattauga, on the border of Tennessee, in
+pursuance of an invitation from Shelby, who was now one of the principal
+officers in command. He had himself embodied a force of between two and
+three hundred men, in his own district of the mountains; and Colonel
+Campbell, now also present, had repaired to the rendezvous with four
+hundred soldiers from the adjoining county in Virginia. These two had
+soon afterwards formed a junction with Colonels M'Dowell and Sevier, of
+North Carolina, who had thus augmented the joint force to the number
+which I have already mentioned as constituting the whole array. They had
+marched slowly and wearily from the mountains into the district of
+country which lay between the forks of Catawba, somewhere near to the
+present village of Morgantown--and might now be said to be rather
+hovering in the neighborhood of Ferguson, then advancing directly
+towards him. The force of the British partisan was, as yet, too
+formidable for the attack of these allies, and he was still in a
+position to make his way in safety to the main army under Cornwallis--at
+this time stationed at Charlotte, some seventy or eighty miles distant.
+It was both to gain increase of force, from certain auxiliaries who were
+yet expected to join them, as also, without exciting suspicion of their
+purpose, to attain a position from which Ferguson might more certainly
+be cut off from Cornwallis, that the mountain leaders lingered with such
+wily delay upon their march.
+
+Ferguson was all intent upon Clarke--little suspecting the power which
+could summon up, with such incredible alacrity, an army from the woods
+fit to dispute his passage through any path of the country; and,
+profiting by this confidence of the enemy, Shelby and his associates
+were preparing, by secret movements, to put themselves in readiness to
+spring upon their quarry at the most auspicious moment. In accordance
+with this plan, Colonel Williams, who yet preserved his encampment on
+the Fair Forest, was on the alert to act against the British leader, who
+still marched further south--at every step lengthening the distance
+between himself and his commander-in-chief, and so far favoring the
+views of his enemy. Shelby and his comrades only tarried until their
+numbers should be complete, designing as speedily as possible after that
+to form a junction with Williams, and at once enter upon an open and hot
+pursuit of their adversary.
+
+Their uncertainty in regard to the present condition of Clarke added
+greatly to their desire to strike, as early as possible, their
+meditated blow. This officer had, a few weeks before, commenced his
+retreat from Augusta through Ninety-Six, with some five hundred men,
+closely followed by Brown and Cruger, and threatened by the Indian
+tribes who inhabited the wilderness through which he journeyed. The
+perils and hardships of this retreat arose not only from the necessity
+Clarke was under to plunge into the inhospitable and almost unexplored
+wilderness of the Allegany, by a path which would effectually baffle his
+pursuers as well as escape the toils of Ferguson; but they were
+painfully enhanced by the incumbrance of a troop of women and children,
+who, having already felt the vengeance of the savages, and fearing its
+further cruelties, and the scarcely less ruthless hatred of the Tories,
+preferred to tempt the rigors of the mountain rather than remain in
+their own dwellings. It is said that these terrified and helpless
+fugitives amounted to somewhat above three hundred individuals.
+
+There were no incidents of the war of independence that more strikingly
+illustrated the heroism which grappled with the difficulties of that
+struggle at its gloomiest moment, than the patient and persevering
+gallantry of these brave wanderers and their confederates, whom we have
+seen lately assembled in arms. History has not yet conferred upon Clarke
+and his companions their merited tribute of renown. Some future
+chronicler will find in their exploits a captivating theme for his pen,
+when he tells the tale of their constancy, even in the midst of the
+nation's despair; until fortune, at length successfully wooed, rewarded
+their vigilance, bravery, and skill, by enabling them to subdue and
+destroy the Tory Ascendency in the south.
+
+The enemy, swarming in all the strong places, elate with recent victory,
+well provided with the muniments of war, high in hope and proud of
+heart, hunted these scattered, destitute, and slender bands, with a
+keenness of scent, swiftness of foot, and exasperation of temper, that
+can only be compared to the avidity of the bloodhound. This eagerness of
+pursuit was, for the present, directed against Clarke; and it is one of
+the most fortunate circumstances that belong to the events I have been
+relating, that this purpose of waylaying our gallant partisan so
+completely absorbed the attention of Ferguson, as to cause him to
+neglect the most ordinary precautions for securing himself against the
+reverses of the war.
+
+In this state of things, Shelby and his compatriots waited for the
+moment when they might direct their march immediately to the attack of
+the British soldier--their anxiety stimulated to a painful acuteness by
+the apprehension that Clarke might be overpowered by his enemies, or
+that Cornwallis might receive information of the gathering bands, and
+make a timely movement to reinforce or protect his outpost. It was in
+this moment of doubt and concern that we have chosen to present them in
+the course of our narrative.
+
+The troops had halted about the middle of the day, to take some
+refreshment. The ground they had chosen for this purpose was a narrow
+valley or glen, encompassed by steep hills, between which a transparent
+rivulet wound its way over a rough, stony bed. The margin of the stream
+was clothed with grass of the liveliest verdure, and a natural grove of
+huge forest trees covered the whole level space of the valley. The
+season was the most pleasant of the year, being at that period when, in
+the southern highlands, the hoar frost is first seen to sparkle on the
+spray at early dawn. The noon-tide sun, though not oppressively warm,
+was still sufficiently fervid to render the shade of the grove, and the
+cool mountain brook in the deep ravine, no unpleasant objects to wearied
+travellers. Here the whole of our little army were scattered through the
+wood; some intent upon refreshing their steeds in the running water,
+many seated beneath the trees discussing their own slender means, and
+not a few carelessly and idly loitering about the grounds in the
+enjoyment of the mere exemption from the constraint of discipline. The
+march of the troops on this day had not exceeded ten or twelve
+miles:--they might have been said to creep through the woods. Still,
+however, they had been in motion ever since the dawn of day; and as they
+measured the ground with their slow but ceaseless footfall, there was a
+silent disquiet and an eagerness of expectation, that were scarcely less
+fatiguing than more rapid and laborious operations.
+
+"Cleveland will certainly join us?" said Shelby, as, in the vacancy of
+the hour, he had fallen into company with his brother officers, who were
+now assembled on the margin of the brook. "It is time he were here. I am
+sick of this slow work. If we do not make our leap within the next two
+or three days, the game is lost."
+
+"Keep your temper, Isaac," replied Campbell, who, being somewhat older
+than his comrade, assumed the freedom indicated in this reply, and now
+laughed as he admonished the fretful soldier. "Keep your temper!
+Williams is below, and on the look-out; and most usefully employed in
+enticing Ferguson as far out of reach of my lord Buzzard, there at
+Charlotte, as we could wish him. Ben Cleveland will be with us all in
+good time: take my word for that. You forget that he had to muster his
+lads from Wilkes and Surry both."
+
+"And Brandon and Lacy are yet to join us," said M'Dowell.
+
+"Damn it, they should be here, man!" interrupted Shelby again; "I hate
+this creaking of my boots upon the soft grass, as if we had come to fish
+for gudgeons. I am for greasing our horses' heels and putting them to
+service."
+
+"You were always a hot-headed devil," interrupted Campbell again, "and
+have wasted more shoe-leather than discretion in this world, by at least
+ten to one. You are huntsman enough to know, Isaac, that it is sometimes
+well to steal round the game to get the wind of them. Your headlong
+haste would only do us harm."
+
+"You!" rejoined Shelby, with a laugh, excited by Campbell's face of good
+humor. "Verily, you are a pattern of sobriety and moderation yourself,
+to be preaching caution to us youngsters! All wisdom, forecast, and
+discretion, I suppose, have taken up their quarters in your wiry-haired
+noddle! How in the devil it came to pass, William, that yonder green and
+grey shirts should have trusted themselves with such a piece of prudence
+at their head, is more than I can guess."
+
+At this moment a soldier pressed forward into the circle of officers:
+
+"A letter for Colonel Shelby," he said, "brought by a trooper from
+Cleveland."
+
+"Ah, ha! This looks well," exclaimed Shelby, as he ran his eyes over the
+lines. "Cleveland is but ten miles behind, and desires us to wait his
+coming."
+
+"With how many men?" asked one of the party.
+
+"The rogue has forgotten to tell. I'll warrant, with all he could
+find."
+
+"With a good party, no doubt," interrupted Sevier. "I know the Whigs of
+Wilkes and Surry will not be backward."
+
+"From this despatch, gentlemen, I suppose we shall rest here for the
+night--what say you?" was the interrogatory proposed to the group by
+Shelby.
+
+The proposition was agreed to, and the several officers repaired to
+their commands. As soon as this order was communicated to the troops,
+everything assumed the bustle incident to the preparation of a temporary
+camp. Fires were kindled, the horses tethered, guards detailed, and
+shelters erected of green wood cut from the surrounding forest. In
+addition to this, a few cattle had been slaughtered from a small herd
+that had been driven in the rear of the march; and long before night
+came on, the scene presented a tolerably comfortable bivouac of
+light-hearted, laughing woodsmen, whose familiar habits at home had
+seasoned them to this forest-life, and gave to their present enterprise
+something of the zest of a pastime.
+
+In the first intervals of leisure, parties were seen setting out into
+the neighboring hills in pursuit of game; and when the hour of the
+evening meal arrived, good store of fat bucks and wild turkeys were not
+wanting to flavor a repast, to which a sauce better than the wit of man
+ever invented, was brought by every lusty feeder of the camp.
+
+At sundown, a long line of woodland cavalry, in all respects armed and
+equipped in the same fashion with those who already occupied the valley,
+were seen winding down the rugged road which led from the high grounds
+to the camp. At the first intimation of the approach of this body, the
+troops below were ordered out on parade, and the new-comers were
+received with all the military demonstrations of respect and joy usual
+at the meeting of friendly bodies of soldiers. Some dozen horns of the
+harshest tones, and with the most ear-piercing discord, kept up an
+incessant braying, until the alarmed echoes were startled from a
+thousand points amongst the hills. In spite of the commands of officers,
+straggling shots of salutation were fired, and loud greetings of
+individual acquaintances were exchanged from either ranks, as the
+approaching body filed across the whole front of the drawn-up line. When
+this ceremony was over, Colonel Cleveland rode up to the little group
+of officers who awaited his report, and, after a long and hearty
+welcome, announced his command to consist of three hundred and fifty
+stout hearts, ready and tried friends to the issues of the war.
+
+The force of the confederates, by this accession, now amounted to about
+fourteen hundred men. It became necessary, at this juncture, to give to
+these separate bands a more compact character, and with that view it was
+indispensable that the command of the whole should be committed to one
+of the present leaders. In the difficulty and delicacy of selecting an
+individual for this duty, the common opinion inclined to the propriety
+of submitting the appointment to General Gates. A messenger was
+accordingly despatched on that night, to repair to the American
+head-quarters at Hillsborough, to present this subject to the attention
+of the General. In the meantime, Shelby, whose claim, perhaps, to the
+honor of leading the expedition was most worthy of consideration, with
+that patriotic and noble postponement of self which occurs so frequently
+in the history of the men of the Revolution, himself suggested the
+expediency of conferring the command upon his friend Campbell, until the
+pleasure of Gates should be known. The suggestion was heartily adopted,
+and Colonel William Campbell was accordingly, from this moment, the
+chosen leader of our gallant and efficient little army.
+
+On the following day the troops were in motion at an early
+hour--designing to advance, with a steady pace, towards Gilbert-town,
+and thence on the track of the enemy across the border into South
+Carolina. In the course of the forenoon, the vanguard were met by a
+small body of horsemen, whose travel-worn plight and haggard aspects
+showed that they had lately been engaged in severe service. They were
+now in quest of the very party whom they had thus fortunately
+encountered upon the march; and it was with a lively demonstration of
+joy that they now rode with the officer of the guard into the presence
+of Campbell and his staff. Their report announced them to be Major
+Chandler and Captain Johnson, of Clarke's party, who, with thirty
+followers, had been despatched from the western side of the Allegany, to
+announce to the confederated troops the complete success of that
+officer's endeavor to reach the settlements on the Nolachuckie and
+Wattauga rivers. Their tidings were immediately communicated to the
+army; and the deep and earnest interest which officers and men took in
+this agreeable intelligence, was evinced in a spontaneous acclamation
+and cheering from one extremity of the column to the other. The
+messengers proceeded to narrate the particulars of their late hazardous
+expedition, and fully confirmed the most painful anticipations which the
+listeners had previously entertained of the difficulties, toils, and
+sufferings incident to the enterprise. Clarke's soldiers, they further
+reported, were too much disabled to be in condition immediately to
+recross the mountain and unite in the present movement against Ferguson;
+but that, as soon as they should find themselves recruited by needful
+rest, they would lose no time in repairing to the scene of action.
+
+Towards sunset of the succeeding day, our sturdy adventurers entered
+Gilbert-town. This post had been abandoned by Ferguson, and was now in
+the occupation of the two staunch Whig leaders, Brandon and Lacy, at the
+head of about three hundred men, who had repaired thither from the
+adjacent mountains of Rutherford, to await the arrival of Campbell and
+his friends. It was manifest that affairs were rapidly tending towards a
+crisis. Ferguson had hitherto appeared indifferent to the dangers that
+threatened him and his movements indicated either a fatal contempt for
+his adversary, or an ignorance of the extent of his embarrassments--each
+equally discreditable to the high renown which has been attributed to
+him for careful and bold soldiership.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+MILDRED MEETS AN AGREEABLE ADVENTURE.
+
+
+We left Mildred securely lodged with her new and kind-hearted friends,
+under the hospitable roof of the farmer, hard by the Yadkin. The reader
+has, doubtless, found reason in the course of this narrative to marvel
+much that a lady so delicately nurtured should, with so stout a spirit
+and with such singular devotion, have tempted so many dangers, and
+exposed herself to such unwonted hardships, for the sake of the man she
+loved. Perhaps, I might be able to clear up this matter, by referring to
+the extraordinary conjuncture of circumstances that surrounded her. It
+was no secret that she fervently, and with her whole heart,--yea even
+with a fanatical worship,--loved the man she sought. Her affection had
+been nursed in solitude, and, like a central fire, glowed with a fervid
+heat, unobserved at first, silent and steady: and by degrees her
+enthusiasm spread its coloring over the passion, and raised it into a
+fanciful but solemn self-dedication. This warmth of feeling might still
+have been witnessed only within her family precinct, had it not been
+that, at a most critical moment, when her father's absence from the Dove
+Cote left her without other resource than her own unaided counsel, she
+was made acquainted that her lover's life was in imminent peril, and
+that a word from her might perhaps avert his doom. We have seen with
+what anxious alacrity she set forth in that emergency upon her
+pilgrimage of duty; and how, as she became familiar with hardship and
+danger, her constancy and resolution still took a higher tone, growing
+more vigorous even with the impediments that lay across her path. This
+may seem strange to our peace-bred dames,--and little congruous with
+that feminine reserve and shrinkingness which we are wont to praise: but
+war, distress, and disaster work miracles in the female bosom, and
+render that virtuous and seemly, which ease and safety might repel.
+Nature is a wise and cunning charmer, and, in affliction, makes that
+forwardness not unlovely, which in tranquil and happy times she would
+visit with her censure. If these considerations do not suffice to
+explain the present movements of my heroine, I must beg my reader to
+have patience to the end, when, peradventure, he will find a still
+better reason.
+
+When morning came, Mildred was up with the first blush of light. Her
+thoughts had dwelt with a busy restlessness upon the late intelligence,
+and she had slept only in short and disturbed intervals. She was
+impatient to be again upon the road.
+
+Accordingly, as soon as the preparations for their journey could be
+made, our party, now increased by the addition of Musgrove and his
+daughter, set forward on their travel towards Burk Court House.
+
+This journey was protracted through several days. The disturbed state of
+the country, produced by the active hostilities which were now renewed,
+made it prudent for our wayfarers frequently to halt amongst the
+friendly inhabitants of the region through which they travelled, in
+order to obtain information, or wait for the passage of troops whose
+presence might have caused embarrassment.
+
+The considerate kindness of Allen Musgrove, and the unwearied attentions
+of Mary, who, softened by her own griefs, evinced a more touching
+sympathy for the sufferings of Mildred, every day increased the
+friendship which their present companionship had engendered, and greatly
+beguiled the road of its tediousness and discomfort.
+
+The journey, however, was not without its difficulties, nor altogether
+destitute of occurrences of interest to this history. The upper
+districts of North Carolina present to the eye a very beautiful country,
+diversified by mountain and valley, and gifted in general with a rich
+soil. Considerable portions of this region were consequently occupied
+and put into cultivation at an early period of the history of the
+province; and, at the era of the revolution, were noted as the most
+desirable positions for the support of the southern armies. This
+circumstance had drawn the war to that quarter, and had induced a
+frequent struggle to retain a footing there, by each party who came into
+possession of it. Such a state of things had now, as we have before
+remarked, embarrassed the progress of our friends, and had even
+compelled them to diverge largely from the direct route of their
+journey.
+
+It happened, a few days after leaving the Yadkin, that the hour of
+sunset found our little troop pursuing a road through the deep and
+gloomy forest, which, for several miles past, had been unrelieved by any
+appearance of human habitation. Neither Horse Shoe nor Allen Musgrove
+possessed any acquaintance with the region, beyond the knowledge that
+they were upon what was called the upper or mountain road that extended
+from Virginia entirely through this section of North Carolina; and that
+they could not be much more than fifteen or twenty miles north of Burk
+Court House. Where they should rest during the night that was now at
+hand, was a matter that depended entirely upon chance; and stimulated by
+the hope of encountering some woodland cabin, they persevered in riding
+forward, even when the fading twilight had so obscured their path as to
+make it a matter of some circumspection to pick their way. Thus the
+night stole upon them almost unawares.
+
+There is nothing so melancholy as the deep and lonely forest at night;
+and why it should be so I will not stop to inquire, but that melancholy,
+it seems to me, is enhanced by the chilliness of the autumnal evening.
+The imagination peoples the impenetrable depths of the wood with
+spectres, which the gibbering and shrill reptiles that inhabit these
+recesses seem to invest with a voice; the earth beneath the feet,
+carpeted with "the raven down of darkness," has an indefinite surface
+that causes the traveller to think of pitfalls and sudden banks, and
+fearful quagmires; and the grey light of the glow-worm, or the cold
+gleam of the rotten timber, shine up through the gloom, like some
+witch-taper from a haunted ground. Then, high above the head, the sombre
+forms of the trees nod in the night-wind, and the stars,--ineffectual to
+guide us on our way--are seen only in short and rapid glimpses through
+the foliage; all these things affect the mind with sadness, but the
+chattering of the teeth and the cold creep of the blood, rendered
+sluggish by a frosty atmosphere, make it still more sad.
+
+Mildred and Mary Musgrove experienced a full share of these imaginings,
+as they now rode in the dark, side by side; and, peradventure, an
+occasional expression of impatience might have been heard, in whispers,
+between them. By degrees this feeling extended to Henry, and, in due
+course of time, seemed also to have reached the sergeant and the miller;
+for these two, as if suddenly struck with the necessity of making some
+provision for the night, now came to a halt, with a view to inquire into
+the comfort of the weaker members of the troop, and to deliberate on
+what was best to be done. To make a fire, erect a tent, and resort to
+the contents of their havresacks for supper, were the only expedients
+which their situation afforded; and as these arrangements were but the
+customary incidents of travel, in the times to which we refer, they were
+now resolved upon with but little sense of inconvenience or hardship. It
+was proper, however, that the party should encamp in some position where
+they might have water, and, with that object, they continued to move
+forward until they should find themselves in the neighborhood of a
+running stream--an event that, from the nature of the country, was soon
+likely to occur.
+
+"There can be no moon to-night," said the sergeant, as they rode along
+in quest of their lodging-place, "yet yonder light would look as if she
+was rising. No, it can't be, for it is westward, as I judge, Allen."
+
+"It is westward," replied Musgrove, looking towards a faint light which
+brought the profile of the tree-tops into relief against the horizon.
+"There must be fire in the woods."
+
+The party rode on, all eyes being directed to the phenomenon pointed out
+by Horse Shoe. The light grew broader, and flung a lurid beam towards
+the zenith; and, as the travellers still came nearer, the radiance
+increased, and illuminated the summit of a hill, which, it was now
+apparent, lay between them and the light.
+
+"We must rest here for a while," said the sergeant, reining up his horse
+in a dark and narrow ravine; "the fire is just across this hill in
+front. It would be wise to reconnoitre a little; there may be travellers
+camping on the t'other side, or troops for aught we know; or it may be
+an old fire left by the last persons who passed. You, Allen Musgrove,
+stay here with the women, and I will ride forward to look into the
+matter."
+
+Henry accompanied the sergeant, and they both galloped up the hill. When
+they came to the top, a rich and strange prospect broke upon their
+sight. Some three or four hundred yards in advance, at the foot of the
+long slope of the hill, a huge volume of flame was discovered enveloping
+the entire trunk of a tall pine, and blazing forth with sudden flashes
+amongst the withered foliage. The radiance cast around from this
+gigantic torch penetrated the neighboring forest, and lit up the trees
+with a lustre more dazzling than that of day; whilst the strong shades
+brought into such immediate proximity with the sharp, red light, as it
+glanced upon every upright stem or trunk, gave a new and grotesque
+outline to the familiar objects of the wood. The glare fell upon the
+sward of the forest, and towards the rear upon a sheet of water, which
+showed the conflagration to have been kindled on the bank of some river.
+Not less conspicuous than the local features of the scene were the
+figures of a considerable party of soldiers passing to and fro in idle
+disarray through the region of the light, and a short distance from them
+a number of horses attached to the branches of the neighboring trees.
+Horse Shoe and his young companion stood gazing for some moments upon
+the spectacle, the sergeant in silent conjecture and perplexed
+thoughtfulness as to the character of the persons below, Henry intent
+only upon the novel and picturesque beauty of the view.
+
+The light shone directly up the road, and fell upon the persons of our
+two friends, a circumstance to which the sergeant seemed to give no
+heed, until Henry pointed out to him a horseman, from the direction of
+the fire, who was now advancing towards them.
+
+"Sergeant, turn back into the shade," cried Henry; "that man is coming
+after us."
+
+"Keep your ground," replied Horse Shoe; "he has no ill-will to us. He
+wears the dress of an honest man and a good soldier."
+
+"Who goes there?" called out the horseman, as he now came within
+speaking distance. "Stand and tell me who you are!"
+
+"Friends to the hunting-shirt and buck-tail," replied Robinson.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," rejoined the scout, as he advanced still
+nearer. "Where from, and in what direction do you travel?"
+
+"That should be William Scoresby's voice of the Amherst Rangers,"
+shouted Henry, with animation; "as I live, it is the very man!"
+
+"Who have we here!" returned the horseman. "Henry Lindsay! our deputy
+corporal! Why, man, where did you spring from?" he added, in a tone of
+joyful surprise, as he offered Henry his hand.
+
+"Ho, sister Mildred--Mr. Musgrove!" exclaimed Henry, calling out at the
+top of his voice to his friends, who were waiting behind for
+intelligence. "Come up--come up! Here's good luck!"
+
+And with a continued vociferation, he galloped back until he met his
+sister, and conducted her to the top of the hill, whence, following the
+guidance of William Scoresby, the party descended to the bivouac of the
+Amherst Rangers.
+
+Henry eagerly sought out Stephen Foster, and, having brought him into
+the presence of Mildred, received from him a narrative of the course of
+events which had led to this fortunate meeting.
+
+The Rangers had marched from Virginia a few days after Mildred had left
+the Dove Cote. They had fallen in with Gates's shattered army at
+Hillsborough, where, after tarrying almost a fortnight, they were
+furnished an opportunity to take some active share in the operations of
+the day by the enterprise of Shelby against Ferguson, the knowledge of
+which had reached them at Gates's head-quarters, whither a messenger
+from Shelby had come to ask for aid. The Rangers had accordingly
+volunteered for this service, and, with the permission of the general,
+were now on their way towards Burk Court House, there hoping to receive
+intelligence that would enable them to join the allies.
+
+They had for some miles been marching along the same road taken by our
+travellers, not more than two hours ahead of them; and having reached
+the Catawba near sundown, had determined to encamp there for the night.
+The soldiers, unaccustomed to exact discipline, had, in sport, set fire
+to a tall pine which some accident of the storm had killed, and produced
+the conflagration that had lighted Horse Shoe and his charge to the
+scene of the present meeting.
+
+It may be imagined that this incident afforded great satisfaction to
+Mildred and her party, who were thus brought into connexion with a
+numerous body of friends, with whom they determined henceforth to pursue
+their journey. The first good result of this encounter was immediately
+experienced in the comfortable though rude accommodation which the
+prompt and united efforts of the Rangers supplied to Mildred and her
+friend, Mary Musgrove, in enabling them to pass a night of sound and
+healthful sleep.
+
+On the following day, the Rangers and their new companions arrived at
+Burk Court House. They were here made acquainted with the fact that the
+mountain troops were at this time moving towards Gilbert-town. They
+accordingly, after a night's rest, resumed their march, and by a
+toilsome journey through a rugged mountain district, succeeded on the
+third evening in reaching the little village which had but a short time
+since been the head-quarters of Ferguson and the spot of Arthur Butler's
+captivity.
+
+They were now in advance of Campbell and his mountaineers; and, in
+waiting for these troops, they were afforded leisure to recruit
+themselves from the effects of their late fatigues. Good quarters were
+obtained for Mildred and her companions. She required repose, and
+profited by the present opportunity to enjoy it.
+
+The village at this moment was full of troops. Brandon and Lacy, with
+their followers, whom we have referred to in the last chapter, were
+already there, in daily expectation of the arrival of the confederates;
+and amongst these men, Sergeant Robinson and his companion, the miller,
+found the means of relieving the tediousness of delay, to say nothing of
+Henry, who had now become so decidedly martial in his inclinations, that
+the camp was to him a scene of never-fading interest.
+
+In two days Campbell's army entered the village, after a march of which
+we have already given a sketch to our reader. It was a duty of early
+concern, on the part of Allen Musgrove and the sergeant, to apprise him
+of the presence of Mildred and her brother, and to communicate to him
+the singular purpose of her mission. The effect of this was a visit by
+Campbell, Shelby, and Williams, to the lady on the evening of their
+arrival. The two latter of these officers had already been personally
+active in the behalf of Arthur Butler, and all felt the liveliest
+interest in his fortunes. The singular relation in which Mildred seemed
+to stand to the captive officer and the extraordinary zeal which her
+present mission betrayed in his cause, drew forth a warm sympathy from
+the generous soldiers around her, and there was even a tincture of the
+romance of chivalry in the fervor with which, on the present visit, they
+pledged themselves to her service. With the delicacy that always belongs
+to honorable and brave hearts, they refrained from inquiry into the
+special inducements which could so earnestly enlist the lady in the
+service of their fellow-soldier, and sedulously strove to raise her
+spirits into a cheerful and happy tone by the hopes they were able to
+inspire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+FERGUSON ADVANCES SOUTH.--HE HAS REASON TO BECOME CIRCUMSPECT.--ARTHUR
+BUTLER FINDS HIMSELF RETREATING FROM HIS FRIENDS.
+
+
+We return for a moment to look after Butler. As near as my information
+enables me to speak--for I wish to be accurate in dates--it was about
+the 23d of September when our hero arrived at Gilbert-town, and found
+himself committed to the custody of Ferguson. His situation, in many
+respects uncomfortable, was not altogether without circumstances to
+alleviate the rigor of captivity. Ferguson, though a rough soldier, and
+animated by a zealous partisanship in the royal cause which imbued his
+feelings with a deep hatred of the Whigs, was also a man of education,
+and of a disposition to respect the claims of a gentleman fully equal to
+himself in rank and consideration--even when these qualities were found
+in an enemy. His intercourse, of late, had been almost entirely confined
+to the wild spirits who inhabited the frontier, and who, impelled by
+untamed passions, were accustomed to plunge into every excess which the
+license of war enabled them to practise. He had, accordingly, adapted
+his behavior to the complexion of this population, and maintained his
+authority, both over his own recruits and such of the opposite party as
+had fallen into his hands, by a severe, and not unfrequently by even a
+cruel bearing. Following the example set him by Cornwallis himself, he
+had more than once executed summary vengeance upon the Whigs whom the
+chances of war had brought into his power; or, what was equally
+reprehensible, had allowed the Tory bands who had enlisted under his
+banner, to gratify their own thirst of blood in the most revolting
+barbarities. Towards Butler, however, he demeaned himself with more
+consideration--and sometimes even extended to him such little courtesies
+as might be indulged without risk to the principal purpose of his safe
+custody. A separate room was provided for the prisoner, and he was
+allowed the occasional services of Harry Winter and the other companions
+of his late misfortune. Still, the familiar scenes of suffering and
+death which Butler was constrained to witness amongst his compatriots,
+and the consciousness of his own inability to avert these calamities,
+greatly weighed upon his spirits. His persuasion, too, that Ferguson was
+now aiding, by what seemed to be a most effectual participation, in the
+plan for the capture of Clarke, and his belief that this blow would
+sadly afflict, if not altogether dishearten the friends of independence
+in the South, added to his private grief. He knew nothing of the
+mustering of the mountaineers, and saw no hope of extrication from the
+difficulties that threatened to overwhelm his cause.
+
+Such was the condition of Butler during the first four or five days of
+his captivity at Gilbert-town. At the end of this period, circumstances
+occurred to raise in his bosom the most lively excitement. Suddenly, an
+order was issued for the immediate movement of the army southwards--and
+the prisoners were directed to accompany the march. It was apparent that
+information of importance had been received, and that some decisive
+event was at hand. When, in pursuance of this command, the troops were
+marshalled for their journey, and Butler was stationed in the column,
+along with all the other prisoners of the post, he was startled to
+observe the dragoon, James Curry, appear in the ranks, as one regularly
+attached to the corps. Butler had seen nor heard nothing of this man
+since he had parted from him at Blackstock's after the battle of
+Musgrove's mill; and his conviction, that, acting under the control of
+some higher authority, this individual had been the principal agent in
+his present misfortunes, gave him a painful anxiety in regard to the
+future. This anxiety was far from being diminished, when he now
+discovered that the same person, with a party of dragoons, was specially
+intrusted with his guardianship. Winter and the other troopers who had,
+until this moment, been allowed to keep him company, were now directed
+to take a station amongst the common prisoners, and Butler was furnished
+with his horse, and commanded to submit to the particular supervision
+of the dragoon. These arrangements being made, the march of Ferguson
+commenced.
+
+The army moved cautiously towards the upper sections of the district of
+Ninety-Six. It was evident to Butler, from the frequent hints dropped in
+conversation by the royalist officers, that Ferguson supposed himself to
+be getting every moment nearer to Clarke. In this state of suspense and
+weariness the first day's march was concluded.
+
+The second was like the first. Ferguson still moved south, slowly, but
+steadily. Every man that was met upon the road was questioned by the
+commanding officer, to ascertain whether there was any report of troops
+westward. "Had any crossed Saluda--or been heard of towards the
+mountains!"--was an invariable interrogatory.
+
+None, that the person questioned knew of--was the common reply.
+
+"Tush! the devil's in it, that we can hear nothing of the fellow!"
+exclaimed Ferguson, after the fifth or sixth wayfarer had been examined.
+"Clarke and his beggars are flesh and blood--they travel by land, and
+not through the air! Faith, I begin to think Cruger has saved us
+trouble, and has got his hand on the runaway's croup! James Curry."
+
+The dragoon rode to the front and bowed.
+
+"You left Fort Ninety-Six only on Wednesday?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Where was Cruger then?"
+
+"Marching towards Saluda, with Brown--following Clarke, as it was
+supposed--but on rather a cold scent as one of the couriers reported."
+
+"Humph! I must get still nearer to the mountains," said Ferguson, as he
+clenched his teeth and seemed absorbed in thought.
+
+In a short time after this, the column diverged from their former course
+by a road that led westward.
+
+Thus ended the second day.
+
+During the next two days, Ferguson had become manifestly more
+circumspect in his movement, and spent the greater portion of this
+interval upon a road which was said to extend from Ninety-Six, to the
+Allegany mountain. Here he remained, with the wariness of the tiger
+that prepares to spring upon his prey; and it was with a petulant temper
+that, after this anxious watch for forty-eight hours, he turned upon his
+heel and summoned his officers around him, and announced his
+determination to penetrate still further into the forest. Like a man
+perplexed and peevish with crosses, he soon changed his mind, and
+ordered a lieutenant of cavalry into his presence.
+
+"Take six of your best appointed men," he said, "and send one half of
+them up this road towards the mountains--the other half southwards--and
+command them not to stop until they bring me some news of this
+night-hawk, Clarke. Let them be trusty men that you can depend upon. I
+will wait but twenty-four hours for them. Meantime," he added, turning
+to another officer present, "I will send a courier after Cruger, who
+shall find him if he is above ground."
+
+The following day--which brings us to the third of October--a decisive
+change took place in the aspect of affairs. Before either of the scouts
+that had been lately despatched had returned, a countryman was brought
+into Ferguson's camp, who, being submitted to the usual minute
+examination, informed the questioners, that some thirty miles, in the
+direction of Fort Ninety-Six, he had met upon the road a large party of
+cavalry under the command of Colonel Williams--and that that officer had
+shown great anxiety to learn whether certain Whig troops had been seen
+near Gilbert-town. The informant added, that "Williams appeared to him
+to be strangely particular in his inquiries about Ferguson."
+
+This intelligence seemed suddenly to awaken the British partisan from a
+dream. He was now one hundred miles south of Cornwallis; and, both east
+and west of the line of communication between them, it was apparent that
+hostile parties were assembling, with a view to some united action
+against him. It struck him now, for the first time, that an enemy might
+be thrown between the main army at Charlotte and his detachment, and
+thus cause him some embarrassment in his retreat--but it was still with
+the scorn of a presumptuous soldier that he recurred to the possibility
+of his being forced to fight his way.
+
+"They are for turning the tables on me," he said, in a tone of
+derision, "and hope to pounce upon my back while I am taken up with this
+half-starved and long-legged fellow of the mountains, But I will show
+them who is master yet!"
+
+In this temper he commenced his retreat, which was conducted slowly and
+obstinately; and it may be supposed that Butler, as he involuntarily
+followed the fortunes of his enemy, contemplated these movements with an
+anxious interest. The common report of the camp made him acquainted with
+the circumstances which had recommended the retreat, and he, therefore,
+watched the course of events in momentary expectation of some incident
+of great importance to himself.
+
+At night Ferguson arrived at the Cowpens, just twenty-four hours in
+advance of his enemies. Whilst resting here he received intelligence of
+the stout array that had lately assembled at Gilbert-town, and which, he
+was now told, were in full pursuit of him. It was, at first, with an
+incredulous ear that he heard the report of the numbers of this
+suddenly-levied mountain-army. It seemed incredible that such a host
+could have been convened in such brief space and with such secret
+expedition; and even more unworthy of belief, that they could have been
+found in the wild and thinly-peopled regions of the Allegany. His doubt,
+however, yielded to his fear, and induced him to accelerate his pace.
+
+His first care was to despatch, on that night, a courier to Cornwallis,
+to inform the general of his situation and ask for reinforcements. The
+letter which bore this request is still extant, and will show that even
+in the difficult juncture in which we have presented the writer of it,
+his boastful confidence had not abandoned him.
+
+Before the succeeding dawn he was again in motion, directing his hasty
+march towards the Cherokee Ford of Broad river. This point he reached at
+sundown. His journey had been pursued, thus far, with unremitting
+industry. If his motions had corresponded to his affected disesteem of
+his enemy, he would here have halted for rest; but, like one who flies
+with the superstitious dread of a goblin follower, the retreating
+partisan looked over his shoulder with an unquiet spirit, and made a
+sign to his companions still to press forward. They crossed the river at
+night, and did not halt again until they had traversed some six or eight
+miles beyond the further bank.
+
+The anxiety, suspense, and eager expectation of Butler increased with
+these thickening demonstrations of the approach of a period which he
+foresaw must be decisive, not only of his own hopes, but, in a great
+degree, of the hopes of his country. The retreat of Ferguson towards
+King's Mountain, which now lay but a few miles in advance, was a visible
+and most striking type of the vanishing power which for a brief
+half-year had maintained its domination over the free spirits of the
+south, and which had aimed, by a cruel and bloody rule, to extinguish
+all that was generous and manly in these afflicted provinces.
+
+Contenting myself with this rapid survey of events which, of themselves,
+possess an interest that would, if time and space permitted me, have
+justified the detail of a volume, I go back to the regular current of my
+story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+THE WHIGS CONTINUE THEIR MARCH.--MILDRED IS LEFT BEHIND.
+
+
+The army of mountaineers halted at Gilbert-town only until a vidette
+from Williams brought tidings of Ferguson's late movements. These
+reached Campbell early in the day succeeding his arrival at the village,
+and apprised him that Williams followed on the footsteps of the British
+partisan, and would expect to unite his force with that of the allied
+volunteers at the Cowpens--(a field not yet distinguished in
+story)--whither he expected to arrive on the following day. Campbell
+determined, in consequence, to hasten to this quarter.
+
+The present position of Mildred, notwithstanding the kind sympathy with
+which every one regarded her, was one that wrought severely upon her
+feelings. She had heretofore encountered the hardships of her journey,
+and borne herself through the trials, so unaccustomed to her sex, with a
+spirit that had quailed before no obstacle. But now, finding herself in
+the train of an army just moving forth to meet its enemy, with all the
+vicissitudes and peril of battle in prospect, it was with a sinking of
+the heart she had not hitherto known, that she felt herself called upon
+to choose between the alternative of accompanying them in their march,
+or being left behind. To adopt the first resolve, she was painfully
+conscious would bring her to witness scenes, and perhaps endure
+privations, the very thought of which made her shudder; whilst, to
+remain at a distance from the theatre of events in which she was so
+deeply concerned, was a thought that suggested many anxious fears, not
+less intolerable than the untried sufferings of the campaign. She had,
+thus far, braved all dangers for the sake of being near to Butler; and
+now to hesitate or stay her step, when she had almost reached the very
+spot of his captivity, and when the fortunes of war might soon throw her
+into his actual presence, seemed to her like abandoning her duty at the
+most critical moment of trial. She was aware that he was in the camp of
+the enemy; that this enemy was likely to be overtaken and brought to
+combat; and it was with a magnified terror that she summoned up to her
+imagination the possible mischances which might befal Arthur Butler in
+the infliction of some summary act of vengeance provoked by the
+exasperation of conflict. "I have tempted the dangers of flood and storm
+for him--of forest and field--noon-day battle and midnight assault," she
+said, with an earnestness that showed she had shaken all doubts from her
+mind; "I have taken my vow of devotion to his safety--to be performed
+with such fidelity as befits the sacred bond between us. I will not
+blench now, in the last struggle, though perils thicken around me. I'm
+prepared for the worst."
+
+Allen Musgrove, Robinson, and Henry combated this resolve with joint
+expostulation, urging upon Mildred the propriety of her tarrying in the
+village, at least until the active operations of the army were
+terminated--an event that might be expected in a few days. But it was
+not until Campbell himself remonstrated with her against the
+indiscretion of her purpose, and promised to afford her the means of
+repairing to the scene of action at any moment she might think her
+presence there useful, that she relinquished her determination to
+accompany the army on its present expedition. It was, in consequence,
+ultimately arranged that she should remain in the quarters provided for
+her in Gilbert-town, attended by the miller and his daughter, whilst a
+few soldiers were to be detailed as a guard for her person. With this
+train of attendants, she was to be left at liberty to draw as near to
+the centre of events as her considerate and faithful counsellor, Allen
+Musgrove, might deem safe.
+
+Another source of uneasiness to her arose out of the separation which
+she was about to endure from the sergeant and her brother Henry. Horse
+Shoe, swayed by an irresistible and affectionate longing to be present
+at the expected passage of arms, which might so materially affect the
+fortunes of his captive fellow-soldier, Butler, had represented to
+Mildred the value of the services he might be able to render; and as
+the friendly solicitude of the miller and his daughter left nothing
+within their power to be supplied, towards the comfort and protection
+of the lady, she did not refuse her consent to this temporary
+desertion--although it naturally awakened some painful sense of
+bereavement, at a moment when her excited feelings most required the
+consolation of friends.
+
+Henry, captivated with the prospect of military adventure, and magnified
+in his own esteem by the importance which Stephen Foster and the Rangers
+playfully assigned to his position in the ranks, had so far lost sight
+of the special duty he had assumed, as his sister's companion, that he
+now resolutely rebelled against all attempts to persuade him to remain
+in the village; and Mildred, at last, upon the pledge of the sergeant to
+keep the cadet under his own eye, reluctantly yielded to a demand which
+she found it almost impossible to resist.
+
+These matters being settled, it was not long before Mildred and Mary
+Musgrove, seated at the window of the house which had been selected as
+their present abode, saw the long array of the army glide by at a brisk
+pace, and watched the careless and laughing faces of the soldiers, as
+they filed off through the only street in the village, and took the high
+road leading south.
+
+The troops had been gone for several hours, and Allen Musgrove and the
+few soldiers who had been left behind, had scattered themselves over the
+village, to get rid of the tedium of idleness in the gossip of the scant
+population which the place afforded. Mildred had retired to a chamber,
+and Mary loitered from place to place like one disturbed with care. All
+the party felt that deep sense of loneliness which is so acutely
+perceptible to those who suddenly change a life of toil and incident for
+one of rest, while events of busy interest are in expectation.
+
+"They are gone, ma'am," said Mary, as she now crept into Mildred's
+presence, after having travelled over nearly the whole village, in the
+state of disquietude I have described; "they are gone at least twenty
+miles, I should think, by this time; and I never would have believed
+that I could have cared so much about people I never saw before. But we
+are so lonesome, ma'am. And young Mister Henry Lindsay, I should say,
+must be getting tired by this time of day. As for the matter of that,
+people may get tireder by standing still than by going on."
+
+"How far do they march to-day?" inquired Mildred; "have you heard your
+father say, Mary?"
+
+"I heard him and the troopers who are here allow," replied the maiden,
+"that Colonel Campbell wouldn't reach Colonel Williams before to-morrow
+afternoon. They said it was good fifty miles' travel. They look like
+brave men--them that marched this morning, ma'am; for they went out with
+good heart. The Lord send that through Him they may be the means of
+deliverance to Major Butler!"
+
+At the mention of this name, Mildred covered her face with her hands,
+and the tears trickled through her fingers. "The Lord send it!" she
+repeated, after a moment's pause. "May He, in his mercy, come to our
+aid!" Then uncovering her face, and dropping on her knees beside her
+chair, she whispered a prayer for the success of those who had lately
+marched forth against the enemy.
+
+When she arose from this posture, she went to the window, and there
+stood gazing out upon the quiet and unfrequented street, running over in
+her mind the perils to which her brother as well as Butler might be
+exposed, and summoning to her imagination the thousand subjects of
+solicitude, which her present state of painful expectation might be
+supposed to create or recall.
+
+"We will set forth early to-morrow," she said, addressing herself to her
+companion, "so tell your father, Mary. We will follow the brave friends
+who have left us: I cannot be content to linger behind them. I will
+sleep in the lowliest hovel, or in the common shelter of the woods, and
+share all the dangers of the march, rather than linger here in this
+dreadful state of doubt and silence. Tell your father to make his
+preparations for our departure to-morrow: tell him I cannot abide
+another day in this place."
+
+"I should think we might creep near them, ma'am," replied Mary, "near
+enough to see and hear what was going on--which is always a great
+satisfaction, and not get ourselves into trouble neither. I am sure my
+father would be very careful of us, and keep us out of harm's way, come
+what would. And it is distressing to be so far off, when you don't know
+what's going to turn up. I will seek my father--who I believe is over
+yonder with the troopers at the shop, talking to the blacksmith--I will
+go there and try to coax him to do your bidding. I know the troopers
+want it more than we do, and they'll say a word to help it along."
+
+"Say I desire to have it so, Mary. I can take no refusal. Here I will
+not stay longer."
+
+Mary left the apartment, and as she descended the steps, she fell into a
+rumination which arrested her progress full five minutes, during which
+she remained mute upon the stair-case. "No wonder the poor dear lady
+wishes to go!" was the ejaculation which came at last sorrowfully from
+her heart, with a long sigh, and at the same time tears began to flow:
+"no wonder she wants to be near Major Butler, who loves her past the
+telling of it. If John Ramsay was there," she added, sobbing, "I would
+have followed him--followed him--yes, if I died for it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+AFFAIRS BEGIN TO DRAW TO A HEAD. PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE. A PICTURE OF
+THE TWO ARMIES.
+
+
+After leaving Gilbert-town, Campbell moved steadily toward the point at
+which he proposed to meet Williams, and by night-fall had accomplished
+about one half of the journey. The march furnished Henry Lindsay
+unalloyed pleasure. Every incident belonging to it awakened the fancies
+which he had indulged in reference to military life, and he was
+delighted in the contemplation of this actual accomplishment of some of
+the many dreams of glory which his boyish romance had engendered at
+home. Besides, being a favorite of those in command, he was allowed to
+ride in the ranks whenever it suited his pleasure, and to amuse himself
+with what subject of interest the journey afforded; whilst, at the same
+time, he found his personal ease so much attended to as to leave him but
+little room to complain of the discomfort or toil of the campaign.
+
+The night was spent in the woods, and it was scarcely daybreak, when the
+exhilarating though harsh clamor of the horns summoned the troops to the
+renewal of their journey, which was pursued until the afternoon, when,
+about four o'clock, they reached the border of the tract of country
+known as the Cowpens. Afar off, occupying a piece of elevated ground,
+Campbell was enabled to descry a considerable body of cavalry, whose
+standard, dress, and equipment, even at this distance, sufficiently made
+known to him their friendly character,--a fact that was immediately
+afterwards confirmed by the report of some videttes, who had been
+stationed upon the road by which Campbell advanced. A brief interval
+brought the two parties together, and the force of the allied bands was
+thus augmented by the addition of our gallant friend Williams, at the
+head of four hundred sturdy companions.
+
+"Make a short speech of it," said Shelby, addressing Williams, after
+that officer had ridden into the circle of his comrades, and had
+exchanged with them a friendly greeting, "you have been busy,
+fellow-soldier, whilst we were waiting to see the grass grow. What has
+become of the runaway?"
+
+"He left this spot but yesterday," replied Williams; "Ferguson has
+something of the bull-dog in him: his retreat, now that he is forced to
+it, is surly and slow; he stops to snarl and growl as if he defied us to
+follow him. If he had but stood his ground here, we should have had him
+in as pretty a field as one might desire. Devil thank him for his
+prudence! But he is now at the Cherokee Ford of Broad river--so I
+conjecture, by the report of my scouts--hard upon thirty miles from
+here, on his way towards Charlotte."
+
+"Say you so?" exclaimed Campbell; "then, by my faith, we have no time to
+lose! Gentlemen, we will rest but an hour, and then to it, for a night
+march. Pick me out your best men and stoutest horses; leave the footmen
+behind, and the weakest of the cavalry. This fellow may take it into his
+head to show his heels. If I can but tread upon the tail of the
+copperhead with one foot, he will throw himself into his coil for
+fight,--that's the nature of the beast,--and after that, if need be, we
+can threaten him until all our force arrives. Shelby, look to the
+immediate execution of this order."
+
+"That's glorious, sergeant," said Henry, who, with his companion,
+Robinson, had stolen up to the skirts of the circle of officers during
+this conference, and had heard Campbell's order. "I am of this party,
+whoever goes. Colonel Campbell," he added, with the familiarity of his
+privilege, "the Rangers are ready for you, at any rate."
+
+"There's a mettlesome colt," said Campbell, laughing and speaking to the
+officers around him, "that bird shows fight before his spurs are grown.
+Pray, sir," he continued, addressing Henry, "what command have you?"
+
+"I consider myself answerable for the second platoon of the Amherst
+Rangers," replied Henry, with a waggish sauciness, "and they march this
+night, whatever happens."
+
+"You shall serve with me in the staff, master," said Campbell,
+playfully, "such fiery young blades must be looked after. Get your men
+ready; you shall go, I promise you."
+
+Henry, delighted at the notice he had received, rode off with alacrity
+to spread the news.
+
+The council broke up, and the earliest arrangements were set on foot to
+make the draught required by the general orders.
+
+Before the day had departed, nine hundred picked men, well mounted and
+equipped, were seen spurring forward from the line, and taking a
+position in the column of march, which was now prepared to move. All the
+principal officers of the army accompanied this detachment, in which
+were to be seen the Amherst Rangers with their redoubtable recruits,
+Henry Lindsay and the sergeant.
+
+It rained during the night, a circumstance that, however it increased
+the toils of the soldiers, but little abated their speed--and, an hour
+before daybreak, they had reached the destined point on Broad river: but
+the game had disappeared. Ferguson, as we have seen, had pushed his
+march on the preceding evening beyond this spot, and had taken the road,
+as it was reported, towards King's mountain, which was not above twelve
+miles distant.
+
+A few hours were given by Campbell to the refreshment of his troops, who
+halted upon the bank of the river, where, having kindled their fires and
+opened their wallets, they soon found themselves in a condition that
+pleasantly contrasted with the discomforts of their ride during the
+night. The enemy consisted principally of infantry--and Campbell, having
+gained so closely upon their footsteps, felt no doubt of overtaking them
+in the course of the day. He, therefore, determined to allow his men
+full time to recruit their strength for the approaching conflict.
+
+The rain had ceased before the dawn. The clouds had fled from the
+firmament before a brisk and enlivening autumnal breeze, and the sun
+rose with unusual splendor. It was one of those days which belong to
+October, clear, cool, and exhilarating--when all animal nature seems to
+be invigorated by breathing an atmosphere of buoyant health. For more
+than an hour after the sun had cast his broad beams over the landscape,
+the wearied encampment was seen stretched in slumber--the camp-guards
+only, and some occasional parties on fatigue service, were to be
+observed in motion. By degrees, the drowsy soldiers woke up, refreshed
+by the change of weather, no less than by the repose which they had
+snatched in the short moments of the halt. A general summons, at last,
+brought every one into motion. By nine o'clock of the morning, the army
+were in condition to prosecute their march, as little wanting in
+alacrity or vigor as when they first commenced their labors; and, at the
+hour designated, they were seen to prick forth upon their way with an
+elastic movement that had in it the vivacity of a holiday sport. Even
+our young martialist, Henry, had become so inured to the toils of the
+road, that now, with the aid of a sleep which Horse Shoe had
+affectionately guarded until the last moment--to say nothing of a good
+luncheon of broiled venison, which the boy discussed after he had
+mounted into his saddle--he might be considered the most light-hearted
+of the host.
+
+Towards noon, the army reached the neighborhood of King's mountain. The
+scouts and parties of the advance had brought information that Ferguson
+had turned aside from his direct road, and taken post upon this
+eminence, where, it was evident, he meant to await the attack of his
+enemy. Campbell, therefore, lost no time in pushing forward, and was
+soon rewarded with a view of the object of his pursuit. Some two or
+three miles distant, where an opening through the forest first gave him
+a sight of the mass of highland, he could indistinctly discern the array
+of the adverse army perched on the very summit of the hill.
+
+The mountain consists of an elongated ridge, rising out of the bosom of
+an uneven country, to the height of perhaps five hundred feet, and
+presenting a level line of summit or crest, from which the earth slopes
+down, at its southward termination and on each side, by an easy descent;
+whilst northward, it is detached from highlands of inferior elevation by
+a rugged valley--thus giving it the character of an insulated
+promontory, not exceeding half a mile in length. At the period to which
+our story refers, it was covered, except in a few patches of barren
+field or broken ground, with a growth of heavy timber, which was so far
+free from underwood as in no great degree to embarrass the passage of
+horsemen; and through this growth the eye might distinguish, at a
+considerable distance, the occasional masses of grey rock that were
+scattered in huge boulders over its summit and sides.
+
+The adjacent region, lying south from the mountain, was partially
+cleared and in cultivation, presenting a limited range of open ground,
+over which the march of Campbell might have been revealed in frequent
+glimpses to the British partisan, for some three or four miles. We may
+suppose, therefore, that the two antagonists watched each other, during
+the advance of the approaching army across this district, with emotions
+of various and deep interest. Campbell drew at length into a ravine
+which, bounded by low and short hills, and shaded by detached portions
+of the forest, partly concealed his troops from the view of the enemy,
+who was now not more than half a mile distant. The gorge of this dell or
+narrow valley opened immediately towards the southern termination of the
+mountain; and the column halted a short distance within, where a bare
+knoll, or round, low hill, crowned with rock, jutted abruptly over the
+road, and constituted the only impediment that prevented each party from
+inspecting the array of his opponent.
+
+It was an hour after noon, and the present halt was improved by the men
+in making ready for battle. Meanwhile, the chief officers met together
+in front, and employed their time in surveying the localities of the
+ground upon which they were soon to be brought to action. The knoll, I
+have described, furnished a favorable position for this observation, and
+thither they had already repaired.
+
+I turn from the graver and more important matters which may be supposed
+to have occupied the thoughts of the leaders, as they were grouped
+together on the broad rock, to a subject which was, at this moment,
+brought to their notice by the unexpected appearance of two females on
+horseback, on the road, a full half mile in the rear of the army, and
+who were now approaching at a steady pace. They were attended by a man
+who, even thus far off, showed the sedateness of age; and, a short space
+behind them, rode a few files of troopers in military array.
+
+It was with mingled feelings of surprise and admiration at the courage
+which could have prompted her, at such a time, to visit the army, that
+the party recognised Mildred Lindsay and her attendants, in the
+approaching cavalcade. These emotions were expressed by them in the
+rough and hearty phrase of their habitual and familiar intercourse.
+
+"Let me beg, gentlemen," said Campbell, interrupting them, "that you
+speak kindly and considerately of yonder lady. By my honor, I have never
+seen man or woman with a more devoted or braver heart. Poor girl!--she
+has nobly followed Butler through his afflictions, and taken her share
+of suffering with a spirit that should bring us all to shame. Horse Shoe
+Robinson, who has squired her to our camp, even from her father's house,
+speaks of a secret between her and our captive friend, that tells
+plainly enough to my mind of sworn faith and long-tried love. As men and
+soldiers, we should reverence it. Williams, look carefully to her
+comfort and safety. Go, man, at once, and meet her on the road. God
+grant that this day may bring an end to her grief!"
+
+Williams departed on his mission, and when he met the lady her brother
+and the sergeant were already in her train.
+
+Allen Musgrove explained the cause of this unlooked-for apparition. The
+party, in obedience to Mildred's urgent wish, and scarcely less to the
+content of all the others, had quitted their secluded position at
+Gilbert-town on the preceding morning; and learning in the course of the
+day from persons on the road, that Ferguson had moved northwards, the
+miller had taken a direction across the country which enabled him to
+intercept the army at its present post, with little more than half the
+travel which the circuitous route of the march had required. They had
+passed the night under a friendly roof some ten or twelve miles distant,
+and had overtaken their companions at the critical moment at which they
+have been introduced to view.
+
+At Mildred's request she was conducted into the presence of Campbell,
+who still retained his station on the knoll. A thoughtful and amiable
+deference was manifested towards her by the assembled soldiers, who
+received her with many kind and encouraging greetings. That air of
+perturbation and timidity which, in spite of all efforts at
+self-control, the novelty of her position and the consciousness of the
+dreadful scene at hand had thrown over her demeanor, gradually began to
+give way before the assurances and sympathy of her friends; and, at
+length, she became sufficiently self-possessed to look around her and
+mark the events that were in progress.
+
+The important moment of battle drew nigh, and the several leaders
+respectively took their leave of her, with an exhortation to be of good
+cheer, and to remain at her present post under the charge of her trusty
+companion, the miller, who was fully instructed by Campbell as to the
+course he should take for the lady's safety, in whatever emergency might
+arise.
+
+Here we leave her for a moment, whilst we cast a glance at the
+preparations for battle.
+
+It was three o'clock before these arrangements were completed. I have
+informed my reader that the mountain terminated immediately in front of
+the outlet from the narrow dell in which Campbell's army had halted, its
+breast protruding into the plain only some few hundred paces from the
+head of the column, whilst the valley, that forked both right and left,
+afforded an easy passage along the base on either side. Ferguson
+occupied the very summit, and now frowned upon his foe from the midst of
+a host confident in the strength of their position, and exasperated by
+the pursuit which had driven them into this fastness.
+
+Campbell resolved to assail this post by a spirited attack, at the same
+moment, in front and on the two flanks. With this intent his army was
+divided into three equal parts. The centre was reserved to himself and
+Shelby; the right was assigned to Sevier and M'Dowell; the left to
+Cleveland and Williams. These two latter parties were to repair to their
+respective sides of the mountain, and the whole were to make the onset
+by scaling the heights as nearly as possible at the same instant.
+
+The men, before they marched out of the ravine, had dismounted and
+picqueted their horses under the winding shelter of the hills; and,
+being now separated into detached columns formed in solid order, they
+were put in motion to reach their allotted posts. The Amherst Rangers
+were retained on horseback for such duty as might require speed, and
+were stationed close in the rear of Campbell's own division, which now
+merely marched from behind the shelter of the knoll and halted in the
+view of the enemy, until sufficient delay should be afforded to the
+flanking divisions to attain their ground.
+
+Mildred, attended by Allen Musgrove and his daughter, still maintained
+her position on the knoll, and from this height surveyed the
+preparations for combat with a beating heart. The scene within her view
+was one of intense occupation. The air of stern resolve that sat upon
+every brow; the silent but onward movement of the masses of men
+advancing to conflict; the few brief and quick words of command that
+fell from the distance upon her ear; the sullen beat of the hoof upon
+the sod, as an occasional horseman sped to and fro between the more
+remote bodies and the centre division, which yet stood in compact
+phalanx immediately below her at the foot of the hill; then the
+breathless anxiety of her companions near at hand, and the short note of
+dread, and almost terror, that now and then escaped from the lips of
+Mary Musgrove, as the maiden looked eagerly and fearfully abroad over
+the plain; all these incidents wrought upon her feelings and caused her
+to tremble. Yet, amidst these novel emotions, she was not insensible to
+a certain lively and even pleasant interest, arising out of the
+picturesque character of the spectacle. The gay sunshine striking aslant
+these moving battalions, lighting up their fringed and many-colored
+hunting-shirts, and casting a golden hue upon their brown and
+weather-beaten faces, brought out into warm relief the chief
+characteristics of this peculiar woodland army. And Mildred sometimes
+forgot her fears in the fleeting inspiration of the sight, as she
+watched the progress of an advancing column--at one time moving in close
+ranks, with the serried thicket of rifles above their heads, and at
+another deploying into files to pass some narrow path, along which, with
+trailed arms and bodies bent, they sped with the pace of hunters beating
+the hill-side for game. The tattered and service-stricken banner that
+shook its folds in the wind above these detached bodies, likewise lent
+its charm of association to the field the silence and steadfastness of
+the array in which it was borne, and its constant onward motion; showing
+it to be encircled by strong arms and stout hearts.
+
+Turning from these, the lady's eye was raised, with a less joyous
+glance, towards the position of the enemy. On the most prominent point
+of the mountain's crest she could descry the standard of England
+fluttering above a concentrated body, whose scarlet uniforms, as the sun
+glanced upon them through the forest, showed that here Ferguson had
+posted his corps of regulars, and held them ready to meet the attack of
+the centre division of the assailants; whilst the glittering of bayonets
+amidst the dark foliage, at intervals, rearward along the line of the
+summit, indicated that heavy detachments were stationed in this quarter
+to guard the flanks. The marching and countermarching of the frequent
+corps, from various positions on the summit; the speeding of officers on
+horseback, and the occasional movement of small squadrons of dragoons,
+who were at one moment seen struggling along the sides of the mountain,
+and, at another, descending towards the base or returning to the summit,
+disclosed the earnestness and activity of the preparation with which a
+courageous soldier may be supposed to make ready for his foe.
+
+It was with a look of sorrowful concern which brought tears into her
+eyes, that Mildred gazed upon this host, and strained her vision in the
+vain endeavor to catch some evidences of the presence of Arthur Butler.
+
+"We both look, perchance," she said to herself, "at this very instant,
+upon yon hateful banner--and with the same aversion: but oh, with what
+more painful apprehension it is my fortune to behold it! Little does he
+think that Mildred's eyes are turned upon it. 'Tis well he does not--his
+noble heart would chafe itself with ten-fold anguish at the cruel
+thraldom that separates us. Yes, 'tis well he does not dream that his
+Mildred is here to witness this dreadful struggle," she continued,
+musing over the subject of her grief, "it might tempt him to some rash
+endeavor to break his bondage. It is better as it is; the misery of the
+thought of our afflictions should be mine only; the brave patience of a
+manly soldier is his, and should not be embittered with sorrows that
+belong not to the perils of war."
+
+"Sister," said Henry, who had stolen up the hill unobserved, and now
+stood beside Mildred, "take courage and keep a good heart! The very day
+I often prayed to see has come--and it has come sooner than you promised
+it should. Here I am in the field, amongst men, and no play-game is it,
+either, to keep us busy, but downright earnest battle. And then, dear
+sister, you are here to look on--isn't that a piece of good luck?"
+
+"Ah, brother, I could talk to you with a boastful tongue when all
+around us was peace and security. I cannot exhort you now. If I dare, I
+would beg you to stay by my side. I have need of your comfort, and
+shudder with a chilly fear. Henry, that small hand of yours can do no
+service to-day--and in truth, I cannot bear to see you exposed to
+danger."
+
+"In tears, sister! Come now, this is not like you. Hasn't Arthur fought
+many a day and often? And didn't you set him on, with good brave words
+for it?"
+
+"I was not there to see him," interrupted Mildred.
+
+"Well, sister, I must get to my post," said Henry. "I serve as
+aide-de-camp, and Horse Shoe is to help me. By-the-by, Mildred, the
+sergeant is uncommonly silent and busy to-day. He smells this battle
+like an old soldier, and I heard him give a few hints to Campbell,
+concerning the marching up yonder hill:--he told him the column should
+not display until they got near the top, as Ferguson has no cannon; and
+the Colonel took it very gladly. Horse Shoe, moreover, thinks we will
+beat them--and the men have great dependence on what he says. I shall
+not lose sight of him to-day."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, Henry," exclaimed Mildred, "my dear brother, do not
+think of following the sergeant! I cannot part with you," she added,
+with great earnestness; "it is an awful time for brother and sister to
+separate--stay with me."
+
+The cadet turned a look upon his sister of surprise, at the new light in
+which her present fears represented her.
+
+"I thought, Mildred," he said, "you were brave. Hav'n't we come all this
+way from home to assist Butler? And are you now, for the first
+time--just when we are going to pluck him from the midst of the wolves
+upon that mountain--are you now to weep and play the coward, sister?"
+
+"Go, go!" said Mildred, as she covered her eyes with her hand, "but,
+dear Henry, remember you have a weak arm and a slender frame, and are
+not expected to take upon you the duties of a man."
+
+"Besides," said Mary Musgrove, who had been a silent and perplexed
+witness of this scene, and who now put in her word of counsel, out of
+the fulness of her heart, "besides, Mister Henry Lindsay, what trouble
+would it give to Sergeant Robinson, and all the rest of them, if you
+should get lost scampering about the hills, and they shouldn't know
+where to find you? It would take up so much of their precious time in
+looking for you: and, I am sure, they hav'n't much to spare!"
+
+"You are as valiant as a mouse," replied Henry, laughing, "and monstrous
+wise, Mary Musgrove. Do you take care of my sister, and speak a word now
+and then to keep up her spirits--that is, if your tongue doesn't grow
+too thick with fright. Your teeth chatter now. A kiss, Mildred. There:
+God bless you! I must get to my post."
+
+With these words, Henry bounded off towards the valley to rejoin his
+comrades. Half way, he met Allen Musgrove, who was now on his return to
+the top of the hill, whence he had withdrawn for a brief space to hold
+some converse with Robinson.
+
+"A word," said Allen to Henry, as they met; "you are but a stripling.
+Remember that this day's work is to be wrought by men of might--those
+who are keen of eye and steady of foot. In the tempest of battle your
+weight, Mister Henry, would be but as a feather in the gale. Yet in this
+fight none might be crushed whose fall would bring more anguish than
+yours. Let me beg you, as a rash and thoughtless youth, to think of
+that. The good lady, your sister--"
+
+"I cannot stay to hear you," interrupted Henry; "the column is beginning
+to move."
+
+And in a moment he was at the foot of the hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.
+
+THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.
+
+    They closed full fast on every side,
+    No slackness there was found
+    And many a gallant gentleman
+    Lay gasping on the ground.
+
+    O dread! it was a grief to see,
+    And likewise for to hear
+    The cries of men lying in their gore
+    And scattered here and there.--_Chevy Chase._
+
+
+Every corps was now in motion, and the two flanking divisions were soon
+lost to view in the intervening forest. An incident of some interest to
+our story makes it necessary that we should, for a moment, follow the
+track of Cleveland in his march upon the left side of the mountain.
+
+The principal road of travel northwards extended along the valley on
+this side; and upon this road Cleveland and Williams conducted their
+men, until they arrived at a point sufficiently remote to enable them,
+by ascending the height, to place themselves in Ferguson's rear. They
+had just reached this point when they encountered a picquet of the
+enemy, which, after a few shots, retired hastily up the mountain.
+
+The little outpost had scarcely begun to give ground, before the leading
+companies of the Whigs had their attention drawn to the movements of a
+small party of horsemen who at that moment appeared in sight upon the
+road, some distance in advance. They were approaching the American
+column; and, as if taken by surprise at the appearance of this force,
+set spurs to their horses and made an effort to ride beyond the reach of
+Cleveland's fire, whilst they took a direction up the mountain towards
+Ferguson's stronghold. From the equipment of these individuals, it might
+have been inferred that they were two gentlemen of some distinction
+connected with the royal army, attended by their servants, and now about
+arriving, after a long journey, at the British camp. The first was
+habited in the uniform of an officer, was well mounted, and displayed a
+light and active figure, which appeared to advantage in the dexterous
+management of his horse. The second was a gentleman in a plain riding
+costume, of slender and well-knit proportions, and manifestly older than
+his companion. He rode a powerful and spirited horse, with a confidence
+and command not inferior to those of his associates. The others in
+attendance, from their position in the rear, and from the heavy
+portmanteaus that encumbered their saddles, we might have no difficulty
+in conjecturing to be menials in the service of the two first.
+
+The course taken by this party brought them obliquely across the range
+of the fire of the Whigs.
+
+"It is a general officer and his aide," exclaimed one of the subalterns
+in the advance. "Ho there! Stand. You are my prisoners!"
+
+"Spur, spur, and away! For God's sake, fly!" shouted the younger of the
+two horsemen to his companion, as he dashed the rowels into his steed
+and fled up the mountain. "Push for the top--one moment more and we are
+out of reach!"
+
+"Stop them, at all hazards!" vociferated Cleveland, the instant his eye
+fell upon them. "Quick, lads--level your pieces--they are messengers
+from Cornwallis. Rein up, or I fire!" he called aloud after the flying
+cavalcade.
+
+The appeal and the threat were unheeded. A score of men left the ranks
+and ran some distance up the mountain side, and their shots whistled
+through the forest after the fugitives. One of the attendants was seen
+to fall, and his horse to wheel round and run back, with a frightened
+pace, to the valley. The scarlet uniform of the younger horseman,
+conspicuous through the foliage some distance up the mountain, showed
+that he had escaped. His elder comrade, when the smoke cleared away, was
+seen also beyond the reach of Cleveland's fire; but his altered pace and
+his relaxed seat in his saddle, made it apparent that he had received
+some hurt. This was confirmed when, still nearer to the summit, the
+stranger was seen to fall upon his horse's neck, and thence to be lifted
+to the ground by three or four soldiers who had hastened to his relief.
+
+These incidents scarcely occupied more time in their performance than I
+have taken in the narrative; and all reflection upon them, for the
+present, was lost in the uproar and commotion of the bloody scene that
+succeeded.
+
+Meanwhile, Campbell and Shelby, each at the head of his men in the
+centre division of the army, steadily commenced the ascent of the
+mountain. A long interval ensued, in which nothing was heard but the
+tramp of the soldiers and a few words of almost whispered command, as
+they scaled the height; and it was not until they had nearly reached the
+summit that the first peal of battle broke upon the sleeping echoes of
+the mountain.
+
+Campbell here deployed into line, and his men strode briskly upwards
+until they had come within musket-shot of the British regulars, whose
+sharp and prolonged volleys, at this instant, suddenly burst forth from
+the crest of the hill. Peal after peal rattled along the mountain side,
+and volumes of smoke, silvered by the light of the sun, rolled over and
+enveloped the combatants.
+
+When the breeze had partially swept away this cloud, and opened glimpses
+of the battle behind it, the troops of Campbell were seen recoiling
+before an impetuous charge of the bayonet, in which Ferguson himself led
+the way. A sudden halt by the retreating Whigs, and a stern front
+steadfastly opposed to the foe, checked the ardor of his pursuit at an
+early moment, and, in turn, he was discovered retiring towards his
+original ground, hotly followed by the mountaineers. Again, the same
+vigorous onset from the royalists was repeated, and again the shaken
+bands of Campbell rallied and turned back the rush of battle towards the
+summit. At last, panting and spent with the severe encounter, both
+parties stood for a space eyeing each other with deadly rage, and
+waiting only to gather breath for the renewal of the strife.
+
+At this juncture, the distant firing heard from either flank furnished
+evidence that Sevier and Cleveland had both come in contact with the
+enemy. The uprising of smoke above the trees showed the seat of the
+combat to be below the summit on the mountain sides, and that the enemy
+had there half-way met his foe; whilst the shouts of the soldiers,
+alternating between the parties of either army, no less distinctly
+proclaimed the fact that, at these remote points, the field was
+disputed with bloody resolution and various success.
+
+It would overtask my poor faculty of description, to give my reader even
+a faint picture of this rugged battle-field. During the pause of the
+combatants of the centre, Campbell and Shelby were seen riding along the
+line, and by speech and gesture encouraging their soldiers to still more
+determined efforts. Little need was there for exhortation; rage seemed
+to have refreshed the strength of the men, who, with loud and fierce
+huzzas, rushed again to the encounter. They were met with a defiance not
+less eager than their own; and, for a time, the battle was again
+obscured under the thick haze engendered by the incessant discharges of
+fire-arms. From this gloom, a yell of triumph was sometimes heard, as
+momentary success inspired those who struggled within; and the frequent
+twinkle of polished steel glimmering through the murky atmosphere, and
+the occasional apparition of a speeding horseman, seen for an instant as
+he came into the clear light, told of the dreadful earnestness and zeal
+with which the unseen hosts had now joined in conflict. The impression
+of this contact was various. Parts of each force broke before their
+antagonists; and in those spots where the array of the fight might be
+discerned through the shade of the forest or the smoke of battle, both
+royalists and Whigs were found, at the same instant, to have driven back
+detached fragments of their opponents. Foemen were mingled hand to hand,
+through and among their adverse ranks; and for a time no conjecture
+might be indulged as to the side to which victory would turn.
+
+The flanking detachments seemed to have fallen into the same confusion,
+and might have been seen retreating and advancing upon the rough slopes
+of the mountain, in partisan bodies, separated from their lines; thus
+giving to the scene an air of bloody riot, more resembling the sudden
+insurrection of mutineers from the same ranks, than the orderly war of
+trained soldiers.
+
+Through the din and disorder of this fight, it is fit that I should take
+time to mark the wanderings of Galbraith Robinson, whose exploits this
+day would not ill deserve the pen of Froissart. The doughty sergeant
+had, for a time, retained his post in the ranks of the Amherst Rangers,
+and with them had travelled towards the mountain top, close in the rear
+of Campbell's line. But when the troops had recoiled before the frequent
+charges of the royalists, finding his station, at best, but that of an
+inactive spectator, he made no scruple of deserting his companions and
+trying his fortune on the field in such form of adventure as best suited
+his temper. With no other weapon than his customary rifle, he stood his
+ground when others retreated; and saw the ebb and flow of "flight and
+chase" swell round him, according to the varying destiny of the day. In
+these difficulties, it was his good fortune to escape unhurt; a piece of
+luck that may, perhaps, be attributed to the coolness with which he
+either galloped over an adversary or around him, as the emergency
+rendered most advisable.
+
+In the midst of this busy occupation, at a moment when one of the
+refluxes of battle brought him almost to the summit, he descried a small
+party of British dragoons, stationed some distance in the rear of
+Ferguson's line, whose detached position seemed to infer some duty
+unconnected with the general fight. In the midst of these, he thought he
+recognised the figure and dress of one familiar to his eye. The person
+thus singled out by the sergeant's glance stood bare-headed upon a
+projecting mass of rock, apparently looking with an eager gaze towards
+the distant combat. No sooner did the conjecture that this might be
+Arthur Butler flash across his thought, than he turned his steed back
+upon the path by which he had ascended, and rode with haste towards the
+Rangers.
+
+"Stephen Foster," he said, as he galloped up to the lieutenant, and drew
+his attention by a tap of the hand upon his shoulder, "I have business
+for you, man--you are but wasting your time here--pick me out a
+half-dozen of your best fellows and bring them with you after me.
+Quick--Stephen--quick!"
+
+The lieutenant of the Rangers collected the desired party and rode after
+the sergeant, who now conducted this handful of men with as much
+rapidity as the broken character of the ground allowed, by a circuit for
+a considerable distance along the right side of the mountain, until they
+reached the top. The point at which they gained the summit brought them
+between Ferguson's line and the dragoons, who, it was soon perceived,
+were the party charged with the custody of Butler, and who had been thus
+detached in the rear for the more safe guardianship of the prisoner.
+Horse Shoe's manoeuvre had completely cut them off from their friends
+in front, and they had no resource but to defend themselves against the
+threatened assault, or fly towards the parties who were at this moment
+engaged with the flanking divisions of the Whigs. They were taken by
+surprise--and Horse Shoe, perceiving the importance of an immediate
+attack, dashed onwards along the ridge of the mountain with precipitate
+speed, calling out to his companions to follow. In a moment the dragoons
+were engaged in a desperate pell-mell with the Rangers.
+
+"Upon them, Stephen! Upon them bravely, my lads! Huzza for Major Butler!
+Fling the major across your saddle--the first that reaches him," shouted
+the sergeant with a voice that was heard above all the uproar of battle.
+"What ho--James Curry!" he cried out, as soon as he detected the
+presence of his old acquaintance in this throng; "stand your ground, if
+you are a man!"
+
+The person to whom this challenge was directed had made an effort to
+escape towards a party of his friends, whom he was about summoning to
+his aid; and in the attempt had already ridden some distance into the
+wood, whither the sergeant had eagerly followed him.
+
+"Ah ha, old Truepenny, are you there?" exclaimed Curry, turning short
+upon his pursuer, and affecting to laugh as if in scorn. "Horse Shoe
+Robinson, well met!" he added sternly, "I have not seen a better sight
+to-day than that fool's head of yours upon this hill. No, not even when
+just now Patrick Ferguson sent your yelping curs back to hide themselves
+behind the trees."
+
+"Come on, James!" cried Horse Shoe, "I have no time to talk. We have an
+old reckoning to settle, which, perhaps, you mought remember. I am a man
+of my word; and, besides, I have set my eye upon Major Butler," he
+added, with a tone and look that were both impressed with the fierce
+passion of the scene around him.
+
+"The devil blast you, and Major Butler to boot!" exclaimed Curry, roused
+by Horse Shoe's air of defiance. "To it, bully! It shall be short work
+between us, and bloody," he shouted, as he discharged a pistol-shot at
+the sergeant's breast; which failing to take effect, he flung the weapon
+upon the ground, brandished his sword, and spurred immediately against
+his challenger. The sweep of the broadsword fell upon the barrel of
+Horse Shoe's uplifted rifle, and in the next instant the broad hand of
+our lusty yeoman had seized the trooper by the collar and dragged him
+from his horse. The two soldiers came to the ground, locked in a mutual
+embrace; and, for a brief moment, a desperate trial of strength was
+exhibited in the effort to gain their feet.
+
+"I have you there," said Robinson, as at length, with a flushed cheek,
+quick breath, and blood-shot eye, he rose from the earth and shook the
+dragoon from him, who fell backwards on his knee. "Curse you, James
+Curry, for a fool and villain! You almost drive me, against my will, to
+the taking of your life. I don't want your blood. You are beaten, man,
+and must say so. I grant you quarter upon condition--"
+
+"Look to yourself! I ask no terms from you," interrupted Curry, as
+suddenly springing to his feet, he now made a second pass, which was
+swung with such unexpected vigor at the head of his adversary, that
+Horse Shoe had barely time to catch the blow, as before, upon his rifle.
+The broadsword was broken by the stroke, and one of the fragments of the
+blade struck the sergeant upon the forehead, inflicting a wound that
+covered his face with blood. Horse Shoe reeled a step or two from his
+ground, and clubbing the rifle, as it is called, by grasping the barrel
+towards the muzzle, he paused but an instant to dash the blood from his
+brow with his hand, and then, with one lusty sweep, to which his sudden
+anger gave both precision and energy, he brought the piece full upon the
+head of his foe, with such fatal effect as to bury the lock in the
+trooper's brain, whilst the stock was shattered into splinters. Curry,
+almost without a groan, fell dead across a ledge of rock at his feet.
+
+"The grudge is done, and the fool has met his desarvings," was Horse
+Shoe's brief comment upon the event, as he gazed sullenly, for an
+instant, upon the dead corpse. He had no time to tarry. The rest of his
+party were still engaged with the troopers of the guard, who now
+struggled to preserve the custody of their prisoner. The bridle-rein of
+Captain Peter had been caught by one of the Rangers, and the good steed
+was now quickly delivered up to his master, who, flinging himself again
+into his saddle, rushed into the throng of combatants. The few
+dragoons, dispirited by the loss of their leader, and stricken with
+panic at this strenuous onset, turned to flight, leaving Butler in the
+midst of his friends.
+
+"God bless you, major!" shouted Robinson, as he rode up to his old
+comrade, who, unarmed, had looked upon the struggle with an interest
+corresponding to the stake he had in the event. "Up, man--here, spring
+across the pommel. Now, boys, down the mountain, for your lives! Huzza,
+huzza! we have won him back!" he exclaimed, as seizing Butler's arm, he
+lifted him upon the neck of Captain Peter, and bounded away at full
+speed towards the base of the mountain, followed by Foster and his
+party.
+
+The reader may imagine the poignancy of Mildred's emotions as she sat
+beside Allen Musgrove and his daughter on the knoll, and watched the
+busy and stirring scene before her. The centre division of the assailing
+army was immediately in her view, on the opposite face of the mountain,
+and no incident of the battle in this quarter escaped her notice. She
+could distinctly perceive the motions of the Amherst Rangers, to whom
+she turned her eyes with a frequent and eager glance, as the corps with
+which her brother Henry was associated; and when the various fortune of
+the fight disclosed to her the occasional retreat of her friends before
+the vigorous sallies of the enemy, or brought to her ear the renewed and
+angry volleys of musketry, she clenched Mary Musgrove's arm with a
+nervous grasp, and uttered short and anxious ejaculations that showed
+the terror of her mind.
+
+"I see Mister Henry, yet," said Mary, as Campbell's troops rallied from
+the last shock, and again moved towards the summit. "I see him plainly,
+ma'am--for I know his green dress, and caught the glitter of his brass
+bugle in the sun. And there now--all is smoke again. Mercy, how stubborn
+are these men! And there is Mister Henry once more--near the top. He is
+safe, ma'am."
+
+"How earnestly," said Mildred, unconsciously speaking aloud as she
+surveyed the scene, "Oh, how earnestly do I wish this battle was done! I
+would rather, Mr. Musgrove, be in the midst of yonder crowd of angry
+men, could I but have their recklessness, than here in safety, to be
+tortured with my present feelings."
+
+"In God is our trust, madam," replied the miller. "His arm is abroad
+over the dangerous paths, for a shield and buckler to them that put
+their trust in him. Ha! there is Ferguson's white horse, rushing, with a
+dangling rein and empty saddle, down the mountain, through Campbell's
+ranks: the rider has fallen; and there, madam--there, look on it!--is a
+white flag waving in the hands of a British officer. The fight is done.
+Hark, our friends are cheering with a loud voice!"
+
+"Thank Heaven--thank Heaven!" exclaimed Mildred as she sprang upon her
+feet; "It is even so!"
+
+The loud huzzas of the troops rose upon the air; the firing ceased; the
+flag of truce fluttered in the breeze, and the confederated bands of the
+mountaineers, from every quarter of the late battle, were seen hurrying
+towards the crest of the mountain, and mingling amongst the ranks of the
+conquered foe. Again and again, the clamorous cheering of the victors
+broke forth from the mountain-top, and echoed along the neighboring
+valleys.
+
+During this wild clamor and busy movement, a party of horsemen were
+seen, through the occasional intervals of the low wood that skirted the
+valley on the right, hastening from the field with an eager swiftness
+towards the spot where Mildred and her companions were stationed.
+
+As they swept along the base of the mountain, and approached the knoll,
+they were lost to view behind the projecting angles of the low hills
+that formed the ravine, through which, my reader is aware, the road held
+its course. When they re-appeared it was in ascending the abrupt
+acclivity of the knoll, and within fifty paces of the party on the top
+of it.
+
+It was now apparent that the approaching party consisted of Stephen
+Foster and three or four of the Rangers led by Horse Shoe Robinson, with
+Butler still seated before him, as when the sergeant first caught him up
+in the fight. These were at the same moment overtaken by Henry Lindsay,
+who had turned back from the mountain at the first announcement of
+victory, to bring the tidings to his sister.
+
+Mildred's cheek grew deadly pale, and her frame shook, as the cavalcade
+rushed into her presence.
+
+"There--take him!" cried Horse Shoe, with an effort to laugh, but which
+seemed to be half converted into a quaver by the agitation of his
+feelings, as, springing to the ground, he swung Butler from the horse,
+with scarce more effort than he would have used in handling a child;
+"take him, ma'am. I promised myself to-day, that I'd give him to you.
+And, now, you've got him. That's a good reward for all your troubles.
+God bless us--but I'm happy to-day!"
+
+"MY HUSBAND!--MY DEAR HUSBAND!" were the only articulate words that
+escaped Mildred's lips, as she fell senseless into the arms of Arthur
+Butler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+THE CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The victory was won. In the last assault, Campbell had reached the crest
+of the mountain, and the loyalists had given ground with decisive
+indications of defeat. Ferguson, in the hopeless effort to rally his
+soldiers, had flung himself into their van, but a bullet at this instant
+reached his heart; he fell from his seat, and his white horse, which had
+been conspicuous in the crowd of battle, bounded wildly through the
+ranks of the Whigs, and made his way down the mountain side.
+
+Campbell passed onward, driving the royalists before him. For a moment
+the discomfited bands hoped to join their comrades in the rear, and, by
+a united effort, to effect a retreat: but the parties led by Sevier and
+Cleveland, cheered by the shouts of their victorious companions, urged
+their attacks with new vigor, and won the hill in time to intercept the
+fugitives. All hopes of escape being thus at an end, a white flag was
+displayed in token of submission; and the remnant of Ferguson's late
+proud and boastful army, now amounting to between eight and nine hundred
+men, surrendered to the assailants.
+
+It has scarcely ever happened that a battle has been fought, in which
+the combatants met with keener individual exasperation than in this. The
+mortal hatred which embittered the feelings of Whig and Tory along this
+border, here vented itself in the eagerness of conflict, and gave the
+impulse to every blow that was struck--rendering the fight, from
+beginning to end, relentless, vindictive, and bloody. The remembrance of
+the thousand cruelties practised by the royalists during the brief Tory
+dominion to which my narrative has been confined, was fresh in the minds
+of the stern and hardy men of the mountains, who had pursued their foe
+with such fierce animosity to this his last stage. Every one had some
+wrong to tell, and burned with an unquenchable rage of revenge. It was,
+therefore, with a yell of triumph that they saw the symbol of submission
+raised aloft by the enemy; and for a space, the forest rang with their
+loud and reiterated huzzas.
+
+Many brave men fell on either side. Upon the slopes of the mountain and
+on its summit, the bodies of the dead and dying lay scattered amongst
+the rocks, and the feeble groans of the wounded mingled with the fierce
+tones of exultation from the living. The Whigs sustained a grievous loss
+in Colonel Williams, who had been struck down in the moment of victory.
+He was young, ardent, and brave; and his many soldier-like virtues,
+combined with a generous and amiable temper, had rendered him a
+cherished favorite with the army. His death served still more to
+increase the exacerbation of the conquerors against the conquered.
+
+The sun was yet an hour high when the battle was done. The Whigs were
+formed in two lines on the ridge of the mountain; and the prisoners,
+more numerous than their captors, having laid down their arms, were
+drawn up in detached columns on the intervening ground. There were many
+sullen and angry glances exchanged, during this period of suspense,
+between victors and vanquished; and it was with a fearful rankling of
+inward wrath, that many of the Whigs detected, in the columns of the
+prisoners, some of their bitterest persecutors.
+
+This spirit was partially suppressed in the busy occupation that
+followed. Preparations were directed to be made for the night-quarters
+of the army; and the whole host was, accordingly, ordered to march to
+the valley. The surgeons of each party were already fully employed in
+their vocation. The bodies of the wounded were strewed around; and, for
+the protection of such as were not in a condition to be moved, shelters
+were made of the boughs of trees, and fires kindled to guard them from
+the early frost of the season. All the rest retired slowly to the
+appointed encampment.
+
+Whilst Campbell was intent upon these cares, a messenger came to summon
+him to a scene of unexpected interest. He was informed that a gentleman,
+not attached to the army, had been dangerously wounded in the fight, and
+now lay at the further extremity of the mountain ridge. It was added
+that he earnestly desired an interview with the commanding officer.
+Campbell lost no time in attending to the request.
+
+Upon repairing to the spot, his attention was drawn to a stranger who
+lay upon the ground. His wan and haggard cheek, and restless eye, showed
+that he suffered acute pain; and the blood upon his cloak, which had
+been spread beneath him, indicated the wound to have been received in
+the side. A private soldier of the British army was his only attendant.
+To Campbell's solicitous and kind inquiry, he announced himself, in a
+voice that was almost over-mastered by his bodily anguish, to be Philip
+Lindsay, of Virginia.
+
+"You behold," he said, "an unhappy father in pursuit of his children."
+Then, after a pause, he continued, "My daughter Mildred, I have been
+told, is near me: I would see her, and quickly."
+
+"God have mercy on us!" exclaimed Campbell, "is this the father of the
+lady who has sought my protection? Wounded too, and badly, I fear! Where
+is Major Butler, who was lately prisoner with Ferguson?" he said,
+addressing the attendant--"Go, go, sir," he added, speaking to the same
+person, "bring me the first surgeon you can find, and direct some three
+or four men from the ranks to come to your aid. Lose no time."
+
+The soldier went instantly upon the errand, and soon returned with the
+desired assistance. Lindsay's wound had been already staunched, and all
+that remained to be done was to put him in some place of shelter and
+comfort. A cottage at the foot of the mountain was pointed out by
+Campbell; a litter was constructed, and the sick man was borne upon the
+shoulders of four attendants to the designated spot. Meantime, Campbell
+rode off to communicate the discovery he had made to Mildred and her
+brother.
+
+Lindsay's story, since we last parted from him, may be briefly told. He
+and Tyrrel had journeyed into the low country of Virginia, to meet the
+friends of the royal government. These had wavered, and were not to be
+brought together. A delay ensued, during which Tyrrel had prevailed upon
+Lindsay to extend his journey into North Carolina; whence, after an
+ineffectual effort to bring the Tory party to some decisive step, they
+both returned to the Dove Cote, having been nearly three weeks absent.
+
+Upon their arrival, the afflicting intelligence met Lindsay of the
+departure of Mildred and her brother for the seat of war, Mildred's
+letter was delivered to him; and its contents almost struck him dumb. It
+related the story of Arthur Butler's misfortunes, and announced, that,
+for nearly a year past, Mildred had been the wedded wife of the captive
+officer. The marriage had been solemnized in the preceding autumn, in a
+hasty moment, as Butler travelled south to join the army. The only
+witnesses were Mistress Dimock, under whose roof it had occurred, Henry
+Lindsay, and the clergyman. The motives that induced this marriage were
+explained: both Mildred and Arthur hoped, by this irremediable step, to
+reconcile Lindsay to the event, and to turn his mind from its unhappy
+broodings: the increased exasperation of his feelings, during the
+succeeding period, prevented the disclosure which Mildred had again and
+again essayed to make. The recent dangers which had beset Arthur Butler,
+had determined her to fly to his rescue. AS HIS WIFE she felt it to be
+her duty, and she had, accordingly, resolved to encounter the peril of
+the journey.
+
+For a day or two after the perusal of this letter, Lindsay fell into a
+deep melancholy. His presentiments seemed to have been fatally realized,
+and his hopes suddenly destroyed. From this despondency, Tyrrel's
+assiduous artifice aroused him. He proposed to Lindsay the pursuit of
+his children, in the hope of thus luring him into Cornwallis's camp, and
+connecting him with the fortunes of the war. The chances of life, he
+reasoned, were against Butler, if indeed, as Tyrrel had ground to hope,
+that officer were not already the victim of the snares that had been
+laid for him.
+
+Upon this advice, Lindsay had set out for Cornwallis's head-quarters,
+where he arrived within a week after the interview of Mildred and Henry
+with the British chief.
+
+Whilst he delayed here, he received the tidings that his daughter had
+abandoned her homeward journey, and turned aside in quest of Butler.
+This determined him to continue his pursuit. Tyrrel still accompanied
+him; and the two travellers having arrived at the moment of the attack
+upon King's mountain, Lindsay was persuaded by his companion to make the
+rash adventure which, we have already seen, had been the cause of his
+present misfortune.
+
+It is not my purpose to attempt a description of the scene in the
+cottage, where Arthur Butler and his wife, and Henry, first saw Lindsay
+stretched upon a rude pallet, and suffering the anguish of a dangerous
+wound. It is sufficient to say that, in the midst of the deep grief of
+the bystanders, Lindsay was composed and tranquil, like one who thought
+it vain to struggle with fate. "I have foreseen this day, and felt its
+coming," he muttered, in a low and broken voice; "it has happened as it
+was ordained. I have unwisely struggled against my doom. There, take
+it," he added, as he stretched forth his hand to Butler, and in tones
+scarcely audible breathed out, "God bless you, my children! I forgive
+you."
+
+During the night fever ensued, and with it came delirium. The patient
+acquired strength from his disease, and raved wildly, in a strain
+familiar to his waking superstition. The same vision of fate and destiny
+haunted his imagination; and he almost frightened his daughter from
+beside his couch, with the fervid eloquence of his madness.
+
+The cottage was situated near half a mile from the encampment of the
+army. Towards daylight, Lindsay had sunk into a slumber, and the
+attendant surgeon began to entertain hopes that the patient might
+successfully struggle with his malady. Mildred and Mary Musgrove kept
+watch in the apartment, whilst Butler, with Horse Shoe Robinson and
+Allen Musgrove, remained anxiously awake in the adjoining room. Henry
+Lindsay, wearied with the toils of the preceding day, and old Isaac the
+negro, not so much from the provocation of previous labor as from
+constitutional torpor, lay stretched in deep sleep upon the floor.
+
+Such was the state of things when, near sunrise, a distant murmur
+reached the ears of those who were awake in the cottage. These sounds
+attracted the notice of Horse Shoe, who immediately afterwards stole out
+of the apartment and repaired to the camp. During his walk thither the
+uproar became more distinct, and shouts were heard from a crowd of
+soldiers who were discovered in a confused and agitated mass in the
+valley, at some distance from the encampment. The sergeant hastened to
+this spot, and, upon his arrival, was struck with the shocking sight of
+the bodies of some eight or ten of the Tory prisoners suspended to the
+limbs of a large tree.
+
+The repose of the night had not allayed the thirst of revenge amongst
+the Whigs. On the contrary, the opportunity of conference and
+deliberation had only given a more fatal certainty to their purpose. The
+recent executions which had been permitted in Cornwallis's camp, after
+the battle of Camden, no less than the atrocities lately practised by
+some of the Tories who were now amongst the captured, suggested the idea
+of a signal retribution. The obnoxious individuals were dragged forth
+from their ranks at early dawn, and summary punishment was inflicted by
+the excited soldiery in the manner which we have described, in spite of
+all remonstrance or command.
+
+This dreadful work was still in progress when Horse Shoe arrived. The
+crowd were, at that moment, forcing along to the spot of execution a
+trembling wretch, whose gaunt form, crouching beneath the hands that
+held him, and pitiful supplications for mercy, announced him to the
+sergeant as an old acquaintance. The unfortunate man had caught a glance
+of Robinson, and, almost frantic with despair, sprang with a tiger's
+leap from the grasp of those who held him, and, in an instant, threw his
+arms around the sergeant's neck, where he clung with the hold of a
+drowning man.
+
+"Oh save me, save me, Horse Shoe Robinson!" he exclaimed wildly. "Friend
+Horse Shoe, save me!"
+
+"I am no friend of yours, Wat Adair," said Robinson, sternly.
+
+"Speak for me--Galbraith--speak, for old acquaintance sake!"
+
+"Hold!" said Robinson to the crowd who had gathered round to pluck the
+fugitive from his present refuge. "One word, friends! stand back, I have
+somewhat to say in this matter."
+
+"He gave Butler into Hugh Habershaw's hands," cried out some of the
+crowd.
+
+"He took the price of blood, and sold Butler's life for money--he shall
+die!" shouted others.
+
+"No words!" exclaimed many, "but up with him!"
+
+"Mr. Robinson," screamed Adair, with tears starting from his eyes, "only
+hear me! I was forced to take sides against Major Butler. The Tories
+would have burnt down my house; they suspected me,--I was obliged,--Mike
+Lynch was witness,--mercy, mercy!" and here the frightened culprit cried
+loud and bitterly.
+
+"Friends," said Horse Shoe calmly to the multitude, "there is better
+game to hunt than this mountain-cat. Let me have my way."
+
+"None has a better right than Horse Shoe Robinson," said a speaker from
+the group, "to say what ought to be done to Wat Adair. Speak out, Horse
+Shoe!"
+
+"Speak! We leave it to you," shouted some of the leaders: and instantly
+the crowd fell back and formed a circle round Horse Shoe and Adair.
+
+"I give you your choice," said the sergeant, addressing the captive,
+"for though your iniquities, Wat Adair, desarve that you should have
+been the first that was strung up to yonder tree, yet you shall have
+your choice, to tell us fully and truly, without holding back name of
+high or low, who put you on to ambush Major Arthur Butler's life at
+Grindall's Ford. Tell us that, to our satisfaction, and answer all other
+questions besides that we may ax you, and you shall have your life,
+taking, howsever, one hundred lashes to the back of it."
+
+"I will confess all, before God, truly," cried Adair with eagerness.
+"James Curry told me of your coming, and gave me and Mike Lynch money to
+help Hugh Habershaw."
+
+"James Curry had a master in the business," said Robinson: "His name?"
+
+Adair hesitated for an instant and stammered out "Captain St. Jermyn."
+
+"He was at your house? Speak it, man, or think of the rope!"
+
+"He was there," said Adair.
+
+"By my soul! Wat Adair, if you do not come out with the whole truth,"
+said Robinson, with angry earnestness, "I take back my promise. Tell me
+all you know."
+
+"Curry acted by the captain's directions," continued the woodsman, "he
+was well paid for it, as he told me, and would have got more, if a
+quarrel amongst Habershaw's people hadn't stopped them from taking Major
+Butler's life. So I have heard from the men myself."
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"That's all," replied Adair.
+
+"Do you know nothing about the court-martial?" asked Robinson.
+
+"Nothing, except that as the Major wasn't killed at the Ford, it was
+thought best to have a trial, wherein James Curry and Hugh Habershaw, as
+I was told, had agreed to swear against the Major's life."
+
+"And were paid for it?"
+
+"It was upon a consideration, in course," replied Adair.
+
+"And Captain St. Jermyn contrived this?"
+
+"It was said," answered Adair, "that the captain left it all to Curry,
+and rather seemed to take Major Butler's side himself at the trial. He
+didn't want to be known in the business!"
+
+"Where is this Captain St. Jermyn?" demanded many voices.
+
+This interrogatory was followed by the rush of the party towards the
+quarter in which the prisoners were assembled, and, after a lapse of
+time which seemed incredibly short for the performance of the deed, the
+unhappy victim of this tumultuary wrath was seen struggling in the
+agonies of death, as he hung from one of the boughs of the same tree
+which had supplied the means of the other executions.
+
+By this time Butler and Henry Lindsay, attracted by the shouts that
+reached them at the cottage, had arrived at the scene of these dreadful
+events. Wat Adair was, at this moment, undergoing the punishment for
+which his first sentence was commuted. The lashes were inflicted by a
+sturdy arm upon his uncovered back; and it was remarkable that the
+wretch who but lately had sunk, with the most slavish fear, under the
+threat of death, now bore his stripes with a fortitude that seemed to
+disdain complaint or even the confession of pain. Butler and Henry
+hurried with a natural disgust from this spectacle, and soon found
+themselves near the spot where the lifeless forms of the victims of
+military vengeance were suspended from the tree.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed Butler, "is not that St. Jermyn? What has
+he done to provoke this doom?"
+
+"It is Tyrrel!" ejaculated Henry. "Major Butler, it is Tyrrel! That
+face, black and horrible as it is to look at, I would know it among a
+thousand!"
+
+"Indeed!" said Butler, gazing with a melancholy earnestness upon the
+scene, and speaking scarce above his breath, "is it so? Tyrrel and St.
+Jermyn the same person! This is a strange mystery."
+
+Robinson, at this moment, approached, and, in answer to Butler's
+questions, told the whole story of the commotions that had just agitated
+the camp.
+
+"St. Jermyn was not with Ferguson," said Butler, when the sergeant had
+finished his narrative. "How came he here to-day?"
+
+"First or last," replied Robinson, "it is my observation, Major, that
+these schemers and contrivers against others' lives are sure to come to
+account. The devil put it into this St. Jermyn's head to make Ferguson a
+visit. He came yesterday with Mr. Lindsay, and got the poor gentleman
+his hurt. James Curry has done working for him now, Major. Master and
+man have travelled one road."
+
+The scene was now closed. The business of the day called the troops to
+other labors. Campbell felt the necessity of an immediate retreat with
+his prisoners to the mountains, and his earliest orders directed the
+army to prepare for the march.
+
+When Butler returned to the cottage, he found himself surrounded by a
+mournful group. The malady of Lindsay had unexpectedly taken a fatal
+turn. Mildred and Henry were seated by the couch of their father,
+watching in mute anguish the last ebbings of life. The dying man was
+composed and apparently free from pain, and the few words he spoke were
+of forgiveness and resignation.
+
+In the midst of their sorrow and silence, the inmates of the dwelling
+had their attention awakened by the military music of the retiring army.
+These cheerful sounds vividly contrasted with the grief of the mourners,
+and told of the professional indifference of soldiers to the calamities
+of war. By degrees, the martial tones became more faint, as the troops
+receded up the valley; and before they were quite lost to the ear,
+Campbell and Shelby appeared at the door of the cottage to explain the
+urgency of their present departure, and to take a sad farewell of their
+friends.
+
+Stephen Foster, with Harry Winter and a party of the Rangers, remained
+behind to await the movements of Butler. Horse Shoe Robinson, Allen
+Musgrove, and his daughter, were in constant attendance.
+
+Here ends my story.
+
+In a lonely thicket, close upon the margin of the little brook which
+waters the valley on the eastern side of King's mountain, the traveller
+of the present day may be shown an almost obliterated mound, and hard by
+he will see the fragment of a rude tombstone, on which is carved the
+letters P. L. This vestige marks the spot where the remains of Philip
+Lindsay were laid, until the restoration of peace allowed them to be
+transported to the Dove Cote.
+
+There, also, in a happier day, Arthur Butler and Mildred took up their
+abode; and notwithstanding the fatal presentiment in regard to the
+fortunes of his house which had thrown so dark a color upon the life of
+Philip Lindsay, lived long enough after the revolution to see grow up
+around them a prosperous and estimable family.
+
+Mary Musgrove, too, attended Mildred, and attained an advanced, and I
+hope a happy old age, at the Dove Cote.
+
+Wat Adair, I have heard it said in Carolina, died a year after the
+battle of King's mountain, of a horrible distemper, supposed to have
+been produced by the bite of a rabid wolf. I would fain believe, for the
+sake of poetical justice, that this was true.
+
+Another item of intelligence, to be found in the history of the war, may
+have some reference to our tale. I find that, in the summer of 1781,
+Colonel Butler was engaged in the pursuit of Cornwallis in his retreat
+from Albemarle towards Williamsburgh: my inquiries do not enable me to
+say, with precision, whether it was our friend Arthur Butler who had met
+this promotion. His sufferings in the cause certainly deserved such a
+reward.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: This stricture, true in 1835, the date of the first edition
+of these volumes has, I am happy to notice, lost much of its point in
+the lapse of sixteen years.]
+
+
+
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