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The indefatigable Bart, after seeing the object of his greatest
solicitude in safety for the night, that of his next, his loved
Lightfoot, well stabled and fed, and, lastly, his own wants supplied,
determined, with his usual caution and forethought, on making a
little tour of observation to Fort Edward, now some miles in the
rear, for the purpose of gathering what new intelligence could
be gained respecting the movements of the enemy, which might
both enhance the value of his budget of news to carry home,
and enable him to shape his course more understandingly and
safely on the morrow. Accordingly, in the new disguise of a
barefooted, bareheaded, coatless farmer's boy, with a basket of
green corn to sell for roasting slung on his arm, he proceeded
on foot to the recently-established rendezvous of the enemy at
the place above named, and boldly entered their encampment.
Here he soon made discoveries that filled him with uneasiness,
and, finally, those which thoroughly alarmed him for his own
and the safety of his charge. The whole camp was in a state
of bustle and commotion. Colonel Baum, in anticipation of the
time fixed for his march, had just arrived with his appointed
force, and was intending, after allowing his troops a short
respite, to press immediately forward that night on the contemplated
expedition. Bands of painted Indians, who had also arrived
from the main army since dark, were feasting and drinking
in grim revelry, or enacting the frightful war-dance, on the outskirts
of the encampment. Parties of tories were constantly
coming in from the surrounding towns, receiving arms, and departing
to their different allotted stations, to act as pickets to the
force about to advance, or as scouts to scour the country along
the road to the south. And at last, to crown all, Peters and
Haviland, with a small number of attendants, all bearing, on
their bespattered persons, evidence of hard and rapid travelling,
rode hurriedly into camp, and announced that a dangerous spy

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had, that afternoon, been at the head-quarters of the main army,
audaciously abducted a young lady, and with her escaped in
this direction, for the arrest of whom a handsome reward should
be paid.

“It is time you and I was jogging, Bart,” muttered the unsuspected
personage within hearing, who deemed himself not the
least interested in this unexpected announcement, as he gradually
edged himself out of the camp, and made his way, with unusual
haste, back to his quarters for the night.

Scarcely had the first faint suffusions of morning light begun
to be distinguishable in the chambers of the east, before the well-recruited
Lightfoot stood pawing at the door, as if impatient to
receive and bear off her precious burden from the scene of
danger. In a few minutes, the fair fugitive, in answer to the
summons of her vigilant attendant, came forth, evidently refreshed
by her repose, and, in a good measure, recovered from the
shock occasioned by the sad and fearful spectacles of yesterday.
Without any allusions to the startling discoveries he had made
since they parted for the night, other than the quiet remark that
he had ascertained that it might not be wholly safe for them to
proceed any longer in the main road, Bart assisted the lady to
mount, and led the way on their now doubly difficult and hazardous
flight. Striking off obliquely to the left, into a partially
cleared pine plain, and then, after thus proceeding a while, again
turning to the right, they directed their course forward in a line
parallel to the great thoroughfare to the south, but at a sufficient
distance from it to insure them against the observation of all who
might be passing therein, or scouting along its borders. And on,
on, now through open fields, and now through dense forests, now
through splashy pools, or rapid rivers, and now over sharp pitches
or deep ravines, now in cross-roads or cow-paths, and now in
trackless thickets, now over fenny moors, and now along the
rocky declivities of mountains, — on, on, did they pursue their
toilsome and weary way through the seemingly interminable hours
of all the first half of that eventful day.

At length, however, believing themselves many miles beyond
the rendezvous of Peters's corps, who were understood to have
been selected as the pioneers of the expedition, they emerged
from the woods, and fell into the main road leading up the
winding Walloomscoik to the village of Bennington. Greatly
rejoiced that, at last, she could be permitted to travel in a smooth
road with some assurance of safety, and encouraged by the
prospect of soon reaching the friends and acquaintance of her

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old neighborhood, from whom she was confident of a cordial
welcome, our heroine now rode on with lightened feelings and
renewed spirits. But she soon perceived, by the manner of her
guide, as he examined the appearances of the road, as he went
on, and occasionally cast uneasy glances before and behind him,
that he did not consider it yet time to rejoice. And soon he
stopped short, and observed, —

“There are too many tracks in this road for my liking, and not
of the right kind to read well, either.”

“I hope you will indulge in no unnecessary alarms, Bart,”
said the other, reluctant to leave the road, as she supposed he
was about to advise. “You, who yesterday manifested little
uneasiness, to-day, when we are farther removed from danger,
have appeared extremely cautious and apprehensive, I have
thought. Why such a change, while the reverse would seem so
much more rational?”

“Well, miss, the question is not so onnatural as it might be, I
reckon,” replied the former; “and I have been expecting you'd
wonder some why I led you on such a jaunt as we've had. But
the fact was, your chance of getting off has been a little scaly,
to day, to say nothing of the shadow of a rope that's been round
my own neck in the mean time.”

“I cannot comprehend you, Bart,” said the maiden, with a
look of surprise and concern.

“Spose so; for I have held in, cause I thought I wouldn't
worry your mind till needful, which it may be now; so I'll tell
you the whole kink,” replied Bart, proceeding to relate his last
night's discoveries, and then adding, —

“Now a party of the enemy — for I saw a moccason track
just now, and none on our side would be in such company as
that means — a party of 'em have gone on before us; and my
notion is, that we strike off through this bushy pasture to the
left.”

“Let us do so, then, if such is our situation, and that without
a moment's delay,” cried Sabrey, in alarm at the unexpected
disclosure.

“Well, perhaps it an't best to fret about it, jest at this minute,”
responded the imperturbable guide — “I kinder want to make an
observation or two, before we start,” he added, ascending an
elevation near by, which commanded a view of the road both
ways for a considerable distance.

After glancing along the road in front, a moment, he turned
and bent his searching gaze in the other direction, where he

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soon appeared to discover something that both interested and
disturbed him.

“It is, by Herod! it is the whole main body, Germans and
all, at their rations, within a mile of us, and their pickets on the
move in this direction!” he at length exclaimed, hastily quitting
his post of observation.

Hurrying down to the side of the startled maiden, he sprang to
the nearest length of the fence, here enclosing the road, and
grappling, with main strength, the topmost of the heavy poles
of which it was composed, soon effected a breach sufficiently
low to allow the horse to leap over without endangering the seat
of the rider.

“Here, go it, Lightfoot! gently! there you are! Now off
with ye, as if the divil was at your heels!” cried Bart, as the
horse, with her fair burden, dashed lightly through the breach,
and cantered off in the direction indicated by the finger of her
master.

Pausing to replace the fence, lest the opening should attract
the notice of those coming on behind, Bart rapidly followed, and, in
another minute, the fugitives were safely screened from observation
by the thick foliage of the different clumps of bushes, which they
managed to keep between them and the road they had just quitted.

“There is a house,” said Bart, musingly, after they had proceeded
a while in silence — “there is a house about half a mile
ahead, and nearly the same distance from the great road, with
woods between, which is a place I called at when I came down,
and which I had been all along calculating to turn off to, for a
short stop, as we might shape our course to do now, if not somewhat
risky.”

“A little rest and refreshment would certainly be very acceptable,”
said the other, “if it could be safely obtained. Who
lives there?”

“Well, some folks.”

“Loyalists?”

“Tories, d'ye mean? No, not by a jug full.”

“Who are they, then, sir?”

“The man,” said Bart, glancing up to his wondering companion,
with an odd air of shyness, as he provokingly persisted
in his evasions — “the man is one of Warner's sergeants, and a
sort of relation to somebody that I thought likely would be
visiting at his house by this time. And — and I guess we'll
venture there, considering,” he added, suddenly dashing some
distance ahead, under pretence of pointing out the way.

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After winding their course a while among the variously grouped
little thickets that studded the old pasture, they at length entered
a tall forest of maple, which the incisions in the trees, together
with the marks of an old boiling-place, that they soon reached, proclaimed
to be the sugar orchard, belonging, probably, to the establishment
they were seeking. And, now falling into a beaten path,
they soon perceived, by the glimpses of an opening which they
occasionally caught through the trees, that they were drawing near
to the object of their search. The serpentine course of the path,
however, and the undergrowth, so thick as to be nearly impervious
to the sight, prevented any direct view of the opening; and
they passed on without any very exact notions of its propinquity,
till a sudden turn of the path brought them unexpectedly to the
edge of the wood, and in full view of the house, not a hundred
yards distant; when, to their astonishment and dismay, they beheld
the place in possession of a large party of the enemy.
Bart instantly caught the bridle, and was turning the horse for
the purpose of fleeing back into the forest, when five or six armed
men sprang out from the bushes behind and around them, cutting
off their retreat in every direction. And the next moment they
were prisoners to the minions of the vindictive Peters.

Bart's quick eye had told him, at a glance, that there was no
chance for him to escape; and, before his natural looks could be
noted, he had become transformed into a lout of so stolid and
inoffensive an appearance, that his captors seemed greatly disappointed,
and evidently entertained doubts whether he could be
the one they supposed they were about to secure. And it was
not till his pale and trembling fellow-prisoner had been conducted
off on her horse some rods, that they could make him seem to
comprehend that he was a prisoner, and must go with them. He
then burst out into a piteous fit of weeping, and, passively receiving
the kicks and cuffs of his keepers to get him in motion, went
bawling along, like a whipped schoolboy, towards the house.

“I thought 'twould be jes so!” he exclaimed, between his sobs
and outcries. “I most knowed when that man hired father to have
me go to show the woman the way — I most knowed she was
running away, and would get me into some scrape. Then the
man, like enough, had done something, so he darsent go any
furder with her. And now they'll lay it all to me — boo-hoo!
oo-oo-oo!”

“Conduct the lady into the house!” said the officer in command,
as the prisoners were led into the yard — “conduct her
into the house, and set a guard round it, till orders can be got

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from the colonel. And as to this bawling devil,” he continued,
turning with a scrutinizing, but somewhat staggered look, to the
blubbering Bart, “take him to the barn, where I just noticed
some good cords, bind him hand and foot, and guard him closely.
He will make less noise within an hour from now, I fancy.”

“But, your honor,” began one of the scouts who had brought
in the prisoners —

“Yes, yes,” interrupted the other, “I have just been informed
of his pretences; but there's an even chance that he is shamming,
and the fellow we want, after all. Do as I have ordered.”

Bart was now led into the open barn, which stood facing the
yard, and projecting in the rear over a steep bank, making from
the floor, on the back side, that was also open, a perpendicular
fall of nearly a dozen feet. He was then ordered to sit down in
the middle of the floor, when two of the half dozen keepers who
had him in charge, with many a half taunting, half pitying joke
at his doleful whimpering, carelessly proceeded to prepare the
cords for binding him, while the rest laid aside their guns, and
went searching about the barn for eggs, all, notwithstanding the
caution of their commander, being evidently so much impressed
with the idea of his innocence as to disarm them of the vigilance
usually exercised on such occasions. At this juncture, just as
the two men, one standing before and the other behind him,
were in the act of stooping to take his legs and arms, Bart started
to his feet with the suddenness of thought, and giving the one in
his rear a paralyzing kick in the pit of his stomach, grappled
round the legs of the other, and, bearing him, in spite of all his
struggles, across the floor, leaped with him from the verge to the
earth below. Managing to keep uppermost in the descent, Bart,
as the man struck heavily on the ground, leaped unhurt from the
senseless body, and, with the speed of a wild deer, made his way
to the nearest point of woods, which he fortunately reached just in
time to avoid the volley of bullets that was sent after him by the
rallying guard from whom he had so strangely escaped. While
the balked tories, in the general commotion that now ensued, were
giving vent to their rage and mortification, in cursing one another
and the more particular object of their wrath, whom they concluded
it was useless to pursue, a long, shrill whistle was heard
issuing from another point of the forest, to which it was thought the
escaped prisoner could not have had time to pass round. Scarcely
had the sound died away, when a movement, accompanied by
a low snorting, was heard in the high-fenced cow-yard, into which
Lightfoot had been turned for safe keeping. The whistle was

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soon repeated, and the next moment the sagacious animal was
seen rearing herself nearly upright in the air, and then, with a
prodigious leap, throwing herself over the fence into the field
beyond. Although the tories, for a while, as little comprehended
this movement of the pony, as they did, at first, that of her master,
yet they raised the alarm that the horse had broken away;
and a dozen men threw down their guns, and ran out into the
field to head her; but, dashing at and through them, like a mad
Fury, she bounded off at full speed, and soon disappeared in the
woods in the direction in which the whistling had been heard,
leaving the baffled pursuers and their associates now fully to
perceive how completely they had all been outwitted and outdone
by both horse and master.

Much of our happiness is the result of contrast. A slight alleviation,
unexpectedly springing out of a disheartening misfortune,
not unfrequently affords a comparative pleasure more keenly
appreciated than unalloyed blessings arising out of the ordinary
circumstances of life. The pleasure of Miss Haviland was
equalled only by her surprise, when, on entering the house, she
found her former fellow-prisoner, the sprightly and fearless Vine
Howard, a transient but favored inmate, whose presence here
now fully explained the enigmatical language of Bart, on the
way, while it soon raised a shrewd suspicion of the cause of the
awkward shyness he had exhibited in making his partial and
roundabout revelations. Their mutual salutations, inquiries, and
explanations, had scarcely been exchanged, before they were
called to the window by an outcry and commotion among the
tories without; when they had the unspeakable satisfaction of
witnessing the escape of Bart, for whose situation and fate they
had both, from different causes, felt the deepest commiseration
and the most gloomy apprehensions.

“Now,” said the animated Vine, as she turned exultingly away
from the gratifying scene that had opened by the escape of Bart,
and closed by that of his pony — “now, Sabrey, if they will let
you remain here till dark, I will see what I can do towards effecting
your escape, which, to be candid about it, I mainly came
here to favor. But whether you escape, remain, or are dragged
back to the British camp, I will not this time be separated from
you.”

The proffered assistance of the spirited girl, however, at least
so far as related to the contemplated attempt to escape by night,
was not destined to be called in requisition. In a short time, a
messenger was seen to arrive; upon which the whole party of

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tories commenced preparations for an immediate departure.
Presently a closely covered vehicle, drawn by one horse, appeared
coming from the main road, and approaching the door.
The next moment, the officer, whom we have already noted, entered
the house, and told Miss Haviland she was required to
depart.

“This young lady attends me, if I am compelled to go, sir,”
said Sabrey, firmly, pointing to Vine, who instantly advanced
and locked her arm within that of the former, by way of confirming
the assertion.

“Such are not my orders,” responded the officer, with an air
of slight perplexity.

“Then I go not with you alive, sir,” said Miss Haviland, with
calm determination.

“Nor will I be separated from her, by you, while I am living,”
added Vine, with no less spirit.

“Well, well, ladies, you must have your own way, I suppose.
But be prompt; the carriage waits for you,” replied the officer,
stepping back to the door.

In a few minutes more, the ladies presented themselves at the
door, and, without accepting the offered assistance of their summoner,
entered the unoccupied vehicle, which was now immediately
put in motion, and conducted on in the rear of the main
column of the tories, who had already commenced their march
towards the great road. As they emerged from the short piece
of forest through which their way now led, the exciting spectacle
of a large body of troops, moving in military array along
the road, accompanied by the hum of mingling voices, the steady
tramp of men and horses, the rattling of tumbrels, and the heavy
rumbling of artillery, unexpectedly burst upon the senses of the
startled maidens. Baum's select and finely-equipped regiment
of Germans and British occupied the front, and Peter's motley
corps of tories and Indians the rear of the long-extended column.
As the head of the detachment in possession of the fair
prisoners reached the road, they came to a halt; when, after
waiting till the corps to which they belonged had mostly passed
by, they, to the agreeable disappointment of the girls, turned in,
and moved on with the rest towards that little anticipated scene
of defeat and death from which so few of them were destined to
return.

“By this time,” observed Vine to her thoughtful companion,
after they had concluded the remarks which the novelty of their
situation naturally elicited — “by this time, Bart, at the rate he

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will be likely to ride, has nearly reached Bennington, now less
than ten miles distant; and in another hour after, if the news he
carries has the effect on our army there that I anticipate from what
I learned when I came down, these fellows will be met on the
way by a force which they cannot be expecting to see. Can
they, do you suppose?”

“I think not,” replied Sabrey, “or we should have been sent
back, at once, to the British camp, as we expected; but, believing
he shall meet with no serious opposition, and probably fearing I
should find some means to escape, if sent back, my magnanimous
persecutor concludes to drag me round with him and his
minions, that I may be watched more closely, till, having completed
his anticipated triumphs, he is ready to return.”

“But where is Peters?” asked the other; “where is that
remarkable gentleman now, that he don't present himself here,
to pay his respects, or make his apologies, or assure you of your
safety, or frame some story by the way of accounting for his
conduct, or, at least, of smoothing the matter? One would suppose
the fellow would want to say something on the occasion.”

“Yes,” replied the former; “but he wishes to see me as little
as I do him, I presume. Should he find it impossible to avoid
me, however, he would probably come up boldly, and say my
detention was a mistake of his subaltern; or that he only directed
it to afford me a safe escort to my friends in the Grants.”

“There would be a deal of love in such doings.”

“He entertains none; not one particle now, if he ever did, for
me, Vine.”

“What the deuse, then, does he want with you?”

“Indeed, I hardly know myself.”

“Marry you?”

“If he does still aim at that, it is with no honorable motives.
I have had some strange suspicions, lately, and I feel but too
thankful at this prospect of a battle, for I shall cheerfully meet
all dangers I may encounter from the flying bullets of our people,
for my chance of a release.”

“Chance, Sabrey? Why, I know our side will get the victory,
when we shall be made prisoners to — well, to about the
right sort of fellows, probably,” added the girl, with a merry
laugh.

The conversation was here interrupted by the scattering reports
of musketry somewhere in front, which instantly threw the whole
line into commotion. An immediate halt was commanded, and
the troops hastily formed in order of battle, as well as the ground

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would permit. Glancing over the line in front, from the small
elevation on which they chanced to have stopped, the girls perceived
that the head of the column had reached the banks of the
stream that here crossed the road, and were rapidly deploying
into the fields, to the right and left, to be prepared to receive
their yet invisible foe. The bridge over the stream had just been
torn up, and its scattered wrecks were seen floating down the
stream below. While Baum was hurrying forward his artillery to
the front, a body of about two hundred Americans emerged from
their coverts in the bushes, some distance from the opposite bank,
and, with an ominous shout of defiance, discharged their guns,
and disappeared over the hill beyond, before the slow Germans,
who alone were yet near enough to do any execution with muskets,
were ready to return a single shot. A strong guard of
pickets, consisting of tories and Indians, were now sent forward
to ford the stream, and keep watch of their retreating assailants,
while the few wounded and dying wretches who had experienced
the effects of American marksmanship were carried back on
hastily-constructed litters to a house in the rear, affording the
shocked maidens, as they were borne by groaning and writhing
in their agony, a sad and sickening foretaste of the fearful scene
of blood and carnage they were destined soon to witness. As
soon as the bridge was repaired by the engineers, who were
occupied nearly two hours in rendering it passable, the column
was put in motion, and again moved forward, but much slower
and more cautiously than before; for there was something in the
manner of this attack, as unimportant as it was, and even in the
shouts of their assailants, that had disturbed the minds, and cast
a visible shade of thoughtfulness over the countenances, of these
hitherto self-confident and boastful invaders of the Green Mountains.
For the next three or four miles, however, they moved on
unmolested; when, coming to a hamlet of log-houses scattered
along the highway on both sides of the stream, that, here again
crossing the road, wound through a smooth meadow of considerable
extent, the word Halt! halt! rang loudly, and from company
to company, through the line, with an emphasis and significance
that instantly apprised all that trouble was at hand.
The next moment all were in commotion, hurry, and alarm.
Amidst the furious beating of the rallying drums, and the mingling
clamor of dictating voices, the cannon were detached from
the horses, run forward, and unlimbered; the fences on each side
of the road were levelled to the ground, and the whole force rapidly
thrown into battle array, the tories taking position in the

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meadow on the right, and the regulars on the more elevated
grounds to the left of the road, there to await the foe, understood to
be approaching in unexpected strength just beyond the thick copse
which terminated the opening on the east. While this was transpiring,
the officer who had before taken charge of Miss Haviland and
her friend came forward, and, summoning them from their carriage,
hurried them to a large, strongly-built log-house, around
which a company of tories had been posted, when, bidding them
enter and take care of themselves, he hastened back to his post,
to take part in repelling the menaced onset. Neither that day nor
the next, however, was destined to be the one which was to cover
the untrained freemen of New England with the deathless laurels
of Bennington. Stark, after marching out into the open field,
offering battle, and vainly manœuvring to draw the enemy from
their advantageous ground, retired about a mile, and encamped
for the night, leaving Baum to intrench himself in his chosen
position, and despatch expresses to Burgoyne to apprise him of
his unexpectedly perilous situation, and ask for reënforcement.

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