[figure description] Page 132.[end figure description]

The party under Captain Lawton had watched
the retiring foe to his boats with the most unremitting
vigilance, without finding any fit opening for
a charge. The experienced successor to Colonel
Wellmere in command, knew too well the
power of his enemy to leave the uneven surface
of the heights, until compelled to descend to the
level of the water. Before he attempted this
hazardous movement, he threw his men into a
compact square, with its outer edges bristling with
bayonets. In this position, the impatient trooper
well understood, that brave men could never be
assailed by cavalry with success, and he was reluctantly
obliged to hover near them without seeing
any opportunity of stopping their slow but
steady march to the beach. A small schooner
had been their convoy from the city, and lay
with her guns bearing on the place of embarkation.
Against this combination of force and discipline,
Lawton had sufficient prudence to see
it would be folly to contend, and the English
were suffered to embark without further molestation.
The dragoons lingered on the shore until

[figure description] Page 133.[end figure description]

the last moment, and then reluctantly commenced
their own retreat back to the main body of the corps.

The gathering mists of the evening had begun
to darken the valley, as the detachment of
Lawton made its re-appearance at the southern
extremity. The march of the troops was slow,
and their line extended for the benefit of ease in
their progress. In the front rode the captain,
side by side with his senior subaltern, apparently
engaged together in close conference, while the
rear was brought up by a young cornet, humming
an air, and thinking of the sweets of a straw bed
after the fatigues of a hard day's duty.

“Then it struck you too,” said the captain;
“the instant I placed my eyes on her, I remembered
the face—it is one not easily forgotten—
by my faith, Tom, the girl does no discredit to
the major's taste.”

“She would do honour to the corps,” replied
the lieutenant with great warmth; “those blue
eyes might easily win a man to gentler employments
than this trade of ours. In sober truth, I
can easily imagine that such a maid might tempt
even me to quit the broadsword and saddle for a
darning-needle and pillion.”

“Mutiny, sir, mutiny,” cried the other laughing;
“what you, Tom Mason, dare to rival the
gay, admired, and withal, rich, Major Dunwoodie
in his love! You, a lieutenant of cavalry, with
but one horse, and he none of the best! whose
captain is as tough as a peperage log, and has as
many lives as a cat.”

“Faith,” said the subaltern smiling in his turn,
“the log may yet be split, and Grimalkin lose his
lives, if you often charge as madly as you did this
morning. What think you of many raps from such
a beetle as laid you on your back to day?”

“Ah! don't mention it, my good Tom, the

[figure description] Page 134.[end figure description]

thought makes my head ache,” replied the other,
shrugging up his shoulders; “it is what I call forestalling
night.”

“The night of death.”

“No, sir, the night that follows day. I saw
myriads of stars, things which should hide their
faces in the presence of the lordly sun. I do think
nothing but this thick cap saved me to you a little
longer, maugre the cat's lives.”

“I have much reason to be obliged to the cap,”
said Mason drily, “that or the skull must have
had a comfortable portion of thickness, I admit.”

“Come, come, Tom, you are a licensed joker,
so I'll not feign anger with you,” returned the
captain good humouredly; “but Singleton's lieutenant,
I am fearful, will fare better than yourself
for this day's service.”

“I believe both of us will be spared the pain of
receiving promotion purchased by the death of a
comrade and friend,” observed Mason kindly;
“it was reported that Sitgreaves said he would
live.”

“From my soul I hope so,” exclaimed Lawton
fervently; “for a beardless face, that boy carries
the stoutest heart I have ever met with. It surprises
me, however, that, as we both fell at the same
instant, the men behaved so well.”

“For the compliment, I might thank you,” cried
the lieutenant with a laugh; “but my modesty
forbids—I did my best to stop them, but without
success.”

“Stop them,” roared the captain, “would you
stop men in the middle of a charge?”

“I thought they were going the wrong way,”
answered the subaltern drily.

“Ah!” said the other more mildly, “our fall
drove them to the right about.”

“It was either your fall, or apprehensions of

[figure description] Page 135.[end figure description]

their own,” returned the waggish subaltern gravely,
“until the major rallied us, we were in admirable
disorder.”

“Dunwoodie!” exclaimed the astonished Lawton,
“why the major was on the crupper of the
Dutchman.”

“Ay! but he managed to get off the crupper of
the Dutchman,” continued Mason coolly. “He
came in at half speed with the other two troops,
and riding between us and the enemy, with that
imperative way he has when roused, brought us in
line in the twinkling of an eye. Then it was,”
added the lieutenant, with animation, “that we
sent John Bull to the bushes. Oh! it was a sweet
charge—heads and tails, until we were upon
them.”

“The devil!” cried the captain with vexation,
“what a sight I missed.”

“You slept through it all,” said Mason laconically.

“Yes,” returned the other with a sigh, “it was
all lost to me and poor George Singleton. But,
Tom, what will George's sister say to this fair
haired maiden, in younder white building?”

“Hang herself in her garters,” said the subaltern.
“I owe a proper respect to my superiors,
but two such angels are more than falls to the
share of one man, unless he be a Turk or a Hindoo.”

“Yes, yes,” said the captain quickly, “the
major is ever preaching morality to the youngsters,
but he is a sly fellow in the main. Do you observe
how fond he is of the cross roads above this
valley? Now, if I were to halt the troops twice in
the same place, you would all swear there was a
petticoat in the wind.”

“You are well known to the corps,” returned
the sententious subaltern.

[figure description] Page 136.[end figure description]

“Well, Tom, your slanderous propensity is incurable,
but” stretching forward his body in the
direction he was gazing, as if to aid him in distinguishing
objects through the darkness, “what
animal is moving through the field on our right.”

“'Tis a man,” said Mason, looking intently at
the suspicious object.

“By his hump 'tis a dromedary,” added the
captain, still eyeing it keenly—wheeling his horse
suddenly from the highway, he exclaimed, “Harvey
Birch, take him dead or alive.”

Mason and a few of the leading dragoons only
understood the sudden cry, but it was heard
throughout the line. A dozen of the men, with
the lieutenant at their head, followed the impetuous
Lawton, and their speed threatened the pursued
with a speedy termination to the race.

Birch had prudently kept his position on the
rock, where he had been seen by the passing
glance of Henry Wharton, until evening had begun
to shroud the surrounding objects in darkness.
From his height he had seen all the events of the
day as they had occurred. He had watched, with
a beating heart, the departure of the troops under
Dunwoodie, and with difficulty had curbed his impatience
until the obscurity of night should render
his moving free from danger. He had not, however,
completed a fourth of his way to his own residence,
when his quick ear distinguished the
tread of the approaching horse. Trusting to the
increasing darkness, he, notwithstanding, determined
to persevere. By crouching and moving
quickly along the surface of the ground, he hoped
yet to escape unnoticed. Captain Lawton had
been too much engrossed with the foregoing conversation
to suffer his eyes to indulge in their
usual wandering; and the pedlar, perceiving by
the voices that the enemy he most feared had

[figure description] Page 137.[end figure description]

passed him, yielded to his impatience and stood
erect in order to make greater progress. The
moment his body rose above the shadow of the
ground, it was seen, and the chace commenced.
For a single instant Birch remained helpless,
with his blood curdling in his veins at the imminence
of his danger, and his legs refusing
their natural and so necessary office. But it was
for a moment only. Casting his pack where he
stood, and instinctively tightening the belt he
wore, the pedlar betook himself to flight. He
knew that by bringing himself in a line with his
pursuers and the wood, his form would be lost to
the sight. This he soon effected, and he was
straining every nerve to gain the wood itself,
when several horsemen rode by him but a short
distance on his left, and cut him off from this place
of refuge. The pedlar had thrown himself on the
ground as they came near him, and was in this
manner passed unseen. But delay now became
too dangerous for him to remain in that position.
He accordingly rose, and still keeping in the shadow
of the wood, along the skirts of which he
heard voices crying to each other to be watchful,
he ran with incredible speed in a parallel line,
but an opposite direction to the march of the dragoons.

The confusion of the chace had been heard
by the whole of the men, though none had distinctly
understood the order of the hasty Lawton
but those that followed. The remainder were
lost in doubt as to what was required of them;
and the aforesaid cornet was making eager inquiries
of the trooper near him, when a man,
at a short distance in his rear, crossed the road at
a single bound. At the same instant, the stentorian
voice of Captain Lawton rang through the

[figure description] Page 138.[end figure description]

valley, shouting in a manner that told the truth at
once to his men.

“Harvey Birch, take him, dead or alive.”

Fifty pistols lighted the scene instantly, and the
bullets whistled in every direction around the
head of the devoted pedlar. A feeling of despair
seized his heart as he exclaimed bitterly—

“Hunted like a beast of the forest.” He felt
life and its accompaniments to be a burden, and
was about to yield himself to his enemies. Nature,
however, prevailed; he feared, that if taken,
his life would not be honoured with the forms of a
trial, but that most probably the morning sun would
witness his ignominious execution; for he had
already been condemned to, and only escaped that
fate by stratagem. These considerations, with
the approaching footsteps of his pursuers, roused
him to new exertions; and he again fled before
them. A fragment of a wall, that had withstood
the ravages made by war in the adjoining fences
of wood, fortunately crossed his path. He hardly
had time to throw his exausted limbs over this
barrier before twenty of his enemies reached its
opposite side. Their horses refused to take the
leap in the dark, and amid the confusion of the
rearing chargers and the execrations of their
riders, Birch was enabled to gain a sight of the
base of the hill, on whose summit was a place of
perfect security against the approach of any foe.
The heart of the pedlar now beat high with the
confidence of his revived hopes, when the voice
of Captain Lawton again rung in his ears, shouting
to his men to give him room. The order was
promptly obeyed, and the fearless trooper came
at the wall at the top of his horse's speed, plunged
the rowels in his charger, and flew over the
obstacle like lightning, and in safety. The triumphant
hurrahs of the men, and the thundering

[figure description] Page 139.[end figure description]

tread of the horse, now too plainly assured the
pedlar of the emergency of his danger. He was
nearly exhausted, and his fate no longer seemed
doubtful.

“Stop, or die,” said the trooper in the suppressed
tones of inveterate determination.

Harvey stole a fearful glance over his shoulder,
and saw within a bound of him the man he most
dreaded. By the light of the stars he saw the
uplifted arm and threatening sabre. Fear, exhaustion,
and despair, seized on his heart, and the
intended victim suddenly fell at the feet of the
dragoon. The horse of Lawton struck the prostrate
pedlar, and both steed and rider came together
violently to the earth.

As quick as thought Birch was on his feet again,
and with the sword of the discomfited dragoon in
his hand. Vengeance seems but too natural to
human passions. There are but few who have
not felt the seductive pleasure of making our injuries
recoil on their supposed authors; and yet
there are some who know how much sweeter it is
to return good for evil. All the wrongs of the
pedlar shone on his brain with a dazzling brightness.
For a moment the demon within him prevailed,
and Birch brandished the powerful weapon
in the air, in the next it fell harmless on the reviving
but helpless trooper; and the pedlar vanished
up the side of the friendly rock.

“Help Captain Lawton there,” cried Mason, as
he rode up followed by a dozen of his men, “and
some of you dismount with me and search these
rocks; the villain lies here concealed.”

“Hold,” roared the discomfited captain, raising
himself with difficulty on his feet, “If one of you
dismount he dies; Tom, my good fellow, you will
help me to straddle Roanoke again.”

The astonished subaltern complied in silence,

[figure description] Page 140.[end figure description]

while the wondering dragoons remained as fixed
in their saddles as if they composed part of the
animals they rode.

“You are much hurt I fear,” said Mason with
something of condolence in his manner, as they
re-entered the highway, and biting off the end of
a segar for the want of a better quality of tobacco.

“Something so, I do believe,” replied the captain
catching his breath and speaking with difficulty,
“I wish our bone-setter was at hand, to examine
into the state of my ribs.”

“Sitgreaves is left in attendance on Captain
Singleton, at the house of Mr. Wharton,” said
Mason in reply.

“Then there I halt for the night, Tom,” returned
the other quickly, “these rude times must
abridge ceremony; besides you may remember the
old gentleman professed a great regard for the
corps. Oh! I can never think of passing so good
a friend without calling.”

“And I will lead the troop to the four corners,”
said the lieutenant, “if we all halt there,
we shall breed a famine in the land.”

“A condition I never desire to be placed in,”
added Lawton. “The idea of that graceful spinster's
buck-wheat cakes is highly comfortable in
the perspective.”

“Oh! you won't die if you can think of eating,”
cried Mason with a laugh.

“I should surely die if I could not,” observed
the captain gravely.

“Captain Lawton,” said the orderly of his
troop, riding to the side of his commanding officer,
“we are now passing the house of the pedlar
spy, is it your pleasure that we burn it?”

“No!” roared the captain in a voice that startled
the disappointed sergeant; “are you an

[figure description] Page 141.[end figure description]

incendiary—would you burn the house in cold blood—
let but a spark approach it, and the hand that carries
it will never light another.”

“Zounds!” exclaimed the sleepy cornet in the
rear as he was nodding on his horse, “there is life
in the captain, notwithstanding his tumble.”

Lawton and Mason rode on in silence, the latter
ruminating on the wonderful benefit of being
thrown from a horse, when they arrived opposite
to the gate which was before the residence of
Mr. Wharton. The troop continued its march,
but the captain and his lieutenant dismounted,
and followed by the servant of the former, proceeded
slowly to the door of the cottage.

Colonel Wellmere had already sought a retreat
for his mortified feelings in his own room; Mr.
Wharton and his son were closeted by themselves;
and the ladies were administering the refreshments
of the tea-table to the surgeon of the dragoons,
who had seen one of his patients in his bed, and
the other happily enjoying the comforts of a sweet
sleep. A few natural inquiries from Miss Peyton
had opened the soul of the doctor, who knew every
individual of her extensive family connexion in
Virginia, and who even thought it impossible that
he had not seen the lady herself. The amiable
spinster smiled as she inwardly felt it improbable
that she should ever have met her new acquaintance
before, and not remember his singularities.
It, however, greatly relieved the embarrassment
of their situation, and something like a discourse
was maintained between them; the nieces were
only listeners, nor could the aunt be said to be
much more.

“As I was observing, Miss Peyton, it was nothing
but the noxious vapours of the low lands
that made the plantation of your brother an unfit
residence for man; but quadrupeds were”—

[figure description] Page 142.[end figure description]

“Bless me, what's that,” said Miss Peyton,
turning pale at the report of the pistols fired at
Birch.

“It sounds prodigiously like the concussion on
the atmosphere made by the explosion of fire-arms,”
said the precise surgeon very coolly, and
sipping his tea with great indifference, “I should
imagine it to be the troop of Captain Lawton returning,
did I not know the captain never uses
the pistol, and that he dreadfully abuses the sabre.”

“Merciful providence!” exclaimed the agitated
maiden, “he would not injure one with it certainly.”

“Injure!” repeated the other quickly, “it is
certain death, madam; the most random blows
imaginable—all that I can say to him will have no
effect.”

“But Captain Lawton is the officer we saw this
morning, and is surely your friend,” said Frances
hastily, observing her aunt to be dreadfully alarmed.

“I find no fault with his want of friendship,”
returned the doctor, “the man is well enough if
he would learn to cut scientifically, and give me
some chance with the wounded; all trades, madam,
ought to be allowed to live—but what becomes
of a surgeon, if his patients are dead before
he sees them?”

The doctor continued haranguing on the probability
and improbability of its being the returning
troop, until a loud knock at the front door
gave new alarm to the ladies. Instinctively laying
his hand on a small saw that had been his companion
for the whole day in the vain expectation
of an amputation, the surgeon coolly assuring the
ladies that he would avert any danger, proceeded
in person to answer to the summons.

[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]

“Captain Lawton!” exclaimed the surgeon, as
he beheld the trooper leaning on the arm of his
subaltern, and with difficulty crossing the threshold.

“Ah! my dear bone-setter, is it you?” returned
the other good-humouredly, “you are here
very fortunately to inspect my carcass, but do lay
aside that rascally saw.”

A few words from Mason explained to the surgeon
the nature and manner of his Captain's hurts,
and Miss Peyton cheerfully accorded the required
accommodations. While the room intended for the
trooper was getting in a state of preparation, and
the doctor was giving certain portentous orders,
the captain was invited to rest himself in parlour.
On the table was a dish of more substantial
food than ordinarily adorned the afternoon's
repast, and it soon caught the attention of the dragoons.
Miss Peyton recollecting that they had
probably made their only meal that day at her own
table, kindly invited them to close it with another.
The offer required no pressing, and in a few minutes
the two were comfortably seated, and engaged
in an employment that was only interrupted
by an occasional wry face from the captain as he
moved his body in evident pain. These interruptions,
however, interfered but little with the principal
business in hand; and the captain had got
happily through with this important duty before the
surgeon returned to announce all things ready for
his accomodation in the room above stairs.

“What, eating!” cried the astonished physician,
“Captain Lawton, do you wish to die?”

“I have no particular wish that way,” said the
trooper rising, and bowing a polite good night to
the ladies, “and, therefore, have been providing
the materials necessary to preserve life within
me.”

[figure description] Page 144.[end figure description]

The surgeon muttered his dissatisfaction as he
followed Mason and his captain from the apartment.

Every house in America had at that day what
was emphatically called its best room, and this
had been allotted by the unseen influence of Sarah
to Colonel Wellmere. The down counterpane,
which a clear frosty night would render extremely
grateful over bruised limbs, decked the
English officer's bed. A massive silver tankard,
richly embossed with the Wharton arms, held the
beverage he was to drink during the night; while
beautiful vessels of china performed the same
office for the two American captains. Sarah was
certainly unconscious of the silent preference she
had been giving to the English officer, and it is
equally certain, that but for his hurts, bed, tankard,
and every thing but the beverage would have
been matters of indifference to Captain Lawton—
half of whose nights were spent in his clothes,
and not a few of them in the saddle. After taking
possession, however, of what was a small but
very comfortable room, Dr. Sitgreaves proceeded
to inquire into the state of his injuries. He had
begun to pass his hand over the body of his patient,
when the latter cried impatiently—

“Sitgreaves, do lay that rascally saw aside, the
sight of it makes my blood cold.”

“Captain Lawton,” rejoined the surgeon, “I
think, for a man who has so often exposed life and
limb, you are unaccountably afraid of what is a
very useful instrument.”

“Heaven keep me from its use,” said the trooper
with a shrug.

“Surely you would not despise the lights of
science, nor refuse surgical aid because this saw
might be necessary?” asked the incorrigible operator.

[figure description] Page 145.[end figure description]