iotia-1
 
 THE 
 
 SWAMP STEED; 
 
 THE DAYS OF 
 
 MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 
 
 Romance of 
 
 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 DEWTTT & DAVENPORT, PUBLISHERS, 
 TRIBUNE BUILDINGS.
 
 I 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year J 852, by 
 
 D'EWITT & DAVENPORT, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 Stereotyped by BELL & RUSSKLL, 13 Spruce StrtvC
 
 THE SWAMP STEED; 
 
 OR 
 
 THE DAYS OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 In the middle of the afternoon of a fine, sunny day in the early part of 
 April, in the year of grace one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, a 
 young man dressed in the rough garb of a hunter, with a rifle thrown care- 
 lesslyover his right shoulder, might have been seen making his way, with a 
 calm, thoughtful air, through a thick wood which rose gradually till it reach- 
 ed the top of a high hill that overlooked the surrounding country, and whose 
 brow jutted over the winding waters of South Carolina's noblest river the 
 Santee. 
 
 The pensive air of the young hunter, whose age could not have been more 
 than four or five and twenty, precluded the idea fiat he was in quest of 
 game, for, the feathered inhabitants of the wood, as if conscious of se- 
 curity, piped on their songs of gladness, and the various denizens of the under- 
 -brush darted at intervals across his path, without in any degree disturbing his 
 thoughts or attracting his attention. 
 
 The appearance of the young man was at once striking and picturesque. 
 His figure was somewhat above the ordinary height, and, although inclining 
 rather to slenderness than otherwise, straight as an arrow, and of a most. per- 
 fect and commanding symmetry. He was habited in a cap of dark cloth, a 
 loose deer skin frock reaching midway between the thigh and knee, buck- 
 skin leggins fringed with red and blue stuff, and russet colored boots whose 
 high, broad, open tops hung carelessly around his knees. From a belt, slung 
 around his waist, depended a small buff pouch, together with a long, double- 
 edged blade, whose top was surmounted by a stout elk-horn handle. His 
 peakless cap gave a bold and saucy air to his otherwise manly and impressive 
 features. His brow slightly tinted with the bronze peculiar to the denizens 
 of the sunny South, was high and massive, and possessed an air of calm re- 
 flectiveness not common to men of his years. His eyes were large and of a 
 bright, clear gray, their irises glittering like belts of light around two pupils 
 iof liquidiousblue; his nose was straight, the nostrils small but boldly denned, 
 and impressing a beholder with the idea of deep passions in repose : his lips, 
 moderately small, were chiselled like a bow ; his chin was slightly promi- 
 nent, and garnished with a small, sharp-pointed beard ; his long, handsomely 
 shaped neck was slender, but firm and muscular, and, ever exposed to the 
 sun and air, bronzed like his cheeks and brow. 
 
 One could not look at his countenance without becoming impressed with 
 the conviction that the hunter was a young man of an unusual mental cali- 
 bre ; intelligence, coolness, strength and self-reliance shone in every feature, 
 and stamped him as one not likely to be daunted by ordinary perils, nor 
 turned from his purpose by any common event. But the most striking char- 
 acteristic of his features was that air of calm reflectiveness to which we have 
 
 2034559
 
 4 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 already alluded, and which gave to his countenance a majesty, nobleness 
 and strength, that stamped him of a superior order in the ranks of men 
 
 The young man pursued his way thoughtfully through the wood ; and, so 
 apparently earnest were his meditations, without once lifting his eyes from 
 the ground, guiding his steps through the devious trees and unbroken brush- 
 wood with that calm, unerring accuracy which appears so much like instinct, 
 and yet is the strongest and most indubitable evidence of the keen and e 
 perienced woodsman. 
 
 On reaching the top of the hill, the hunter turned to the left and continu- 
 ed his way, by a narrow and somewhat trodden path, till he came to a large 
 open clearing, some nine or ten acres in extent, in one corner of which rose 
 a cabin built of green, unhewn logs, and thrown together in that primitive 
 manner which was the distinguishing feature of the early settlements of our 
 country when the necessity of some kind of shelter took precedence of its 
 appearance. 
 
 The clearing was cut up into small patches for the raising of corn, potatoes 
 and other vegetables, which now began to present a thrifty and handsome 
 appearance, and to promise largely to the husbandman for his trust in the 
 providence of mother earth. 
 
 The hunter paused a few momenta on reaching the edge of the clearing, 
 flung a calm yet rapid glance over the promising field, during which hia quick 
 eye took in a thorough survey of the condition of the various patches, and 
 then, striking into a side path which skirted the clearing, resumed his slow, 
 measured step till he came to a beaten track leading to the cabin. 
 
 As he approached, there emerged from the log house, as if to meet him, a 
 tall, lusty, manly personage, whose figure was encased in the wild and singu- 
 lar costume of the backwoodsmen of that era. His gigantic frame reminded 
 one of the stalwart giants of the early ages, and seemed as if made by na- 
 ture to penetrate the mysterious depths of the wilderness, rid it of all the 
 obstacles and dangers which stand in the way of the settler, and thus pio- 
 neer the advance guard of civilization to comfort, security and strength. He 
 wore a long, loose, green hunting shirt, which was fastened at the waist by a 
 deep, stout black girdle, in which hung a long, sharp pointed knife, whose 
 highly tempered blade glittered in the sunlight like a flashing mirror ; at his 
 side, suspended by a belt slung over his right shoulder, depended a large 
 powder horn, and directly underneath it, an ample pouch of deer skin, tolera- 
 bly well lined with bullets, wads and scraps of linen to serve as bandages in 
 case of need ; his limbs were attired in doe-skin leggins fringed at the sides 
 and extremities with scarlet yarn ; his large, wide feet were covered with 
 buff moccasins, whose tops presented a showy array of white, green, blue, 
 and red bead work, of which their owner, judging by their clean, aud almost 
 spotless condition, and the care he evinced in preserving them from discolor- 
 ment, was not a little proud. He wore a coarse, gray felt hat, of a sugar loaf 
 shape rising above a deep and slouching rim. Beneath his broad, high and sun- 
 tanned brow gleamed two large dare-devil eyes of a deep brown hue, which 
 sparkled with a mingled expression of cunning, intrepidity and good nature. 
 A large, Roman nose, a mouth of moderate dimensions, small, thick lips, and 
 a protruding chin, finished a face whose boldly marked outlines were em- 
 blematic of the shrewd, fearless and happy tempered disposition of their 
 ovrner. 
 
 "Bless my old aunt Sally!" exclaimed the woodsman, as the young hunter 
 advanced and stretched out his hand, " if it aint Neil Somers ! Why Neil !" 
 he continued, wringing in his broad palm the proffered hand of the young 
 hunter, " what on airth brings yew to the log house of Nat Akarman ; is it 
 red skin? The varmint hev been seed, they say, on the borders, .on the look 
 out for scalps. Hev yew heerd on 'em ?" 
 
 The young man slowly and smilingly shook his head.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 
 
 "Can you spare me half an hour, Nat?" said he, bending his thoughtful 
 eyes meaningly on the woodsman. 
 
 " Sartain !' answered the latter good humoredly, " half a year if yew like ! 
 Wait a moment till I get old Sal ; I make it a pint never to take a step with- 
 out her. She's the only rale ginooine critter to be found in these parts. Old 
 Sal will drop a red skin at three hundred yar tb quicker 'n chain lightnin ! 
 Jest hold on a minit, till I git her, and then we'll go down to the old tree on 
 the ledge." 
 
 So saying, the woodsman turned and entered the log house, from which he 
 
 , 
 
 presently emerged, wifh a long rifle thrown over his shoulder, the stock of 
 which he grasped in his la 
 that was all but ludicrous. 
 
 , , 
 
 which he grasped in his large brawny hand vrith an expression of tenderness 
 
 "Here she is, Neil!" he cried in a tone of enthusiasm, as he took the 
 weapon from his shoulder and held it up to the gaze of his visitor. " Isn't 
 she a beauty ?" 
 
 " I am well acquainted with her merits, Nat," answered the young hunter. 
 " Have I not heard her bark among the hills of the Cherokees ; did I not see 
 her flash at the battle of Etchoee, where her gray teeth made many a red 
 skin bite the dust without giving him time to sing his death song?" 
 
 "Ha! ha! ha!" cried the woodsman, his eyes sparkling with pride, "she 
 did make the red devils play at leap frog a leetle on that day, didn't she ? 
 But, come let's tramp over to the old tree on the ledge !" 
 
 So saying, he turned off to the left, and quitting the clearing, struck into a 
 small wood, and passed on in silence some two hundred yards, when they 
 oame to a large open, sterile spot, in the shape of a crescent, on the edge of 
 the mountain, from which they could look forth on the surrounding country, 
 with its small sparse villages, and scattered plantations, and beneath which 
 ran the crystal waters of the lovely and majestic Santee. In the centre of 
 this small sterile patch, its long straight limbs leaning over the rocky ledge. 
 rose a huge cypress, whose leafy branches, stretching wide around, shielded 
 them from the sun, and invited them to partake of the quiet and coolness of 
 its shade. 
 
 " Here let us rest here let us converse," observed the young hunter, seat- 
 ing himself at the base of the tree, and laying his rifle carefully across his 
 
 " Yes," said the woodsman, imitating his companion. " This old tree is a 
 nice place for a talk. There aint another spot like it in the province. I 
 allers cum here when my 'fairs want thinkin' on, and when I'm meditatin' on 
 a tramp after red skins. Here I fix my traps, regillate the edges of my knife, 
 grease up and fix the jints of old Sal there," nodding at his rifle, " when she 
 wants doctorin', and see that every thing is chuck up afore I start for the 
 trail. It is a nice old tree ! But, Neil, my boy, where on airth hev yew 
 kep' yourself? I've been down to your plantation in Kingstree, more'n a 
 dozen times within the last three months, and the niggers told me that yew 
 were not to hum ; they didn't seem to know where yew'd gone, but they 
 'peared to be pretty sartain you were not around." 
 
 "They were not uncivil, Nat?" demanded the young planter, raising his 
 .thoughtful, eyes and fixing them somewhat strongly on the woodsman. 
 
 "Oh, Jerusha! no," answered Nat Akarman, with a good humored smile, 
 " nuthin of the kind. Your niggers are the civilest woolly heads in the hull 
 province. They were as perlite and good natured as an old maid when she 
 receives a proposal ! But where on airth hev you been, and when did yew 
 git hum ?" 
 
 "I've been down to Charleston," answered the planter, "and I got home 
 yesterday." 
 
 " Down to Charleston makin' purchases, p'raps ?" said the woodsman. 
 
 The planter smiled, and answered :
 
 6 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DA.Y8 
 
 " Yes, that amng other things." 
 
 " Dew tell! and how are all the folks comin' on down there I 
 
 "From bad to worse!" answered the planter, with an air of melancholy. 
 The breach between the people and and the crown widens more and more 
 every day. It is nothing but taxes taxes taxes, and the people murmur. 
 
 " The old story !" observed the woodsman impatiently. 
 
 "But the people are in earnest now !" said the planter calmly. And, be 
 tween ourselves, they are concerting how to throw off the yoke that now 
 oppresses them; and depend upon it, my friend, they will bring matters 
 around to please themselves. They feel that they hav% too long submitted 
 to the unjust encroachments of the crown !" 
 
 " And do you believe, Neil, there is grit enough in 'em to shake their fists 
 under the nose of old King George ?" 
 
 "Yes," answered the planter, unhesitatingly ; "I believe they are in earn- 
 est now. Listen, while I prove it. But first tell me have you been down 
 among the settlements of late ?" 
 
 "No," replied the woodsman ; " I make it a pint not to 'sociate with people 
 any more'n I kin help. I aiiit to hum much to do it, ef I had the inclination. 
 I've got some small bills remainin' on hand to settle with them blasted yaller 
 bellies ; they haven't paid up the scalps they owe me : and old Sal here won't 
 rest quiet till she's given 'em a receipt in full." 
 
 " I understand you," said the young planter. " You've told me the story. 
 'Tis twenty years since the red skins surprised your home at midnight, while 
 in the arms of sleep wantonly set "it on fire, and 
 
 t your father, mother, brother, sister and wife, as they tried to escape 
 from the flames!" 
 
 "Yes," answered the woodsman, in a voice slightly broken with emotion, 
 while from his face every particle of blood slowly receded, leaving his swar- 
 thy features livid as those of a corse, " 'tis twenty years since the varmint 
 fired the old house which stood where my own log hut stands now ; 'tis 
 twenty years since I swore to pay them back with interest for,that night of 
 blood ; and the scalps in my log cabin will bear me witness that I hev kept 
 my oath!" 
 
 " And you have never wearied of your work of vengeance?" 
 
 " Never !" answered the woodsman with a swarthy smile. " It has be- 
 come a second natur' with me. I could not live ef I had to give it up. A 
 red skin cannot come in sight of me or old Sal without smellin' powder and 
 losin' his scalp ; and when they aint in sight, I make it a pint to go and hunt 
 ^em up. I had a glorious time of it when they used to come down upon the 
 frontier, and the settlers, under Prank Marion, went out to drive 'em off and 
 and make 'em taste lead ; then old Sal and I fairly rioted in scalps, from 
 which carcumstance every body called me ' Nat, the Scalp Hunter.' When 
 the varmint ceased to provoke the settlers to start out and punish 'em, and 
 there was no more legitimate work for old Sal, I found it necessary for her 
 peace and comfort, to carry on the war against 'em alone, and I've done it 1 
 Sal turns up her nose at painters, wolves, and such common varmint, and 
 wunt tetch nuthin' but the genooine meat red skin ! This gives her and 
 me plenty to do, for the Oherokees and Catawbas kin be found ef yew look 
 'em up. I know then- trail, and it keeps me busy to attend to 'em. This is 
 the reason, Neil, why I don't go down much among the settlements, and 
 "why I know so little of what is goin' on among the people. But yew say 
 the boys down there in Charleston, have got the rale stuff in 'era, and that 
 they wun't put up with the yoke any longer ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered the planter. 
 
 " Well!" observed the woodsman, "all that sounds to me like an old story. 
 Ever since I came to old Sou' Carliny, I've heerd nuthin' but grumblin' agin 
 .the King and his oudacious taxes ; the people dekleered they wouldn't staud
 
 OF MARIO\ AND HIS MERRY MEN. 7 
 
 it then that was a good many years ago, when this tax business wasn't 
 nuthin' to what it has been since, let alone to what it is now and yet they 
 stood it then, have stood it ever since, and air just as likely to stand it now. 
 I don't like grumblers, who growl at everything and don't do nuthin'." 
 
 " But they are in earnest now, Nat !" observed the planter, in his deep, 
 impressive voice. 
 
 " So they've been sayin' a good while," returned the scalp hunter, with a 
 smile of incredulity. " They've been talkin' about their arnestness, like all the 
 other colonists, ever since I was knee high ; and while they've been talkin' 
 the monster has grown big enough to strangle 'em. Why in the name of 
 human natur' don't the critters do somethin' ?" 
 
 " They have, at last !" said the planter. 
 
 " Got up a petition, or an indignation meetin', I s'pose," observed the scalp 
 hunter, with a slight sneer. 
 
 " No," returned the planter, calmly. " Better than that!" 
 
 " They hev gone in a body to the Governor and told him they had no 
 more money to pay, and he'd have to 'get the taxes by selling their prop- 
 erty?" 
 
 " No ; better than that" 
 
 " They have clubbed together, got the collector into their midst by a strata- 
 gem, and putting a pistol to bis head threatened to blow out his brains ef he 
 didn't sign their receipts in full, and swear he had lost the money ?" con- 
 tinued the scalp hunter, in the 'same sneering tone. 
 
 " Better than that !" 
 
 "They hev gone in a body to the Governor and told him if he wouldn't - 
 pick up his traps and quit the province, they would !" 
 
 " Better than that 1" 
 
 " Neil," said the scalp hunter, dropping his vein of irony, and addressing 
 the planter in a tone of unusual tenderness mingled with reproach, " I begin 
 to think yew are fooling me in this matter, or else air yourself deceived. It 
 is unpossible, it 'pears to me, for yew to go agin your character and turn jester 
 even on a pint like this ; and equally as unpossible, 'cording to my idees, for 
 these critters, who hev endured their heavy yoke so long, to have grit enough 
 left to rise up agin it now !" 
 
 " I am not one to trifle with the credulity of any man or men, let alone 
 my friends," answered Neil Somers, in his usual calm voice ; " nor do I think 
 I am deceived in the matter of which we have been speaking. I have heard 
 with my own ears, I have seen with my own eyes, Nat ; and it is from what 
 I have heard and what I have seen that I have come to the conclusion the 
 people are in earnest, now !" 
 
 " Tell me, Neil, what it is you hev heerd," said the scalp hunter, drawing 
 closer to his companion, and preparing every sense to catch each expression 
 of voice, feature and movement of the planter. 
 
 " I have heard the people," said Neil Somers, in his calm, impressive 
 voice, " in^ruct their representatives, publicly, to take some measures to 
 warn the crown of their determination to put up no longer with its oppres- 
 sive exactions, and of their unalterable resolution to unite with the inhabitants 
 of the other colonies in resisting its insolent and arbitrary encroachments on 
 their rights as citizens, and on their feelings as men." 
 
 " Yes," said the scalp hunter, " that now is some'n like 1 Go on I" 
 
 " I have heard their representatives, that is to say, the provincial congress, 
 declaim aloud, in honorable and justly indignant terms, against the baseness 
 of the crown in conceiving its atrocities and against the baser souls of its 
 minions, who sought to carry those atrocities into execution by inflicting 
 them upon the people." 
 
 " Good agin I" exclaimed the scalp hunter, with a slight smile of irony. 
 " And that was the end of their patriotism ?"
 
 g THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 "No/" answered Neil Somers, bending his calm eyes somewhat reproach- 
 fully, upon his companion. " You have not heard enough to form a judg- 
 ment; you have heard what /have heard, but you have not yet heard what 
 I have seen /" 
 
 " True. Well, to justify your idee that the people are in aniest upon these 
 matters, what hev yew seen?" 
 
 " I have seen them," resumed Neil Somers, calmly, " pledge themselves 
 by word and signature, to refuse to use, and to prevent the importation of, 
 goods and merchandise from the mother country ; and in keeping with this 
 pledge, I have seen them go at midnight, masked and disguised, on board the 
 shipping in Cooper Bay, and, like their brethren of Boston, take the tea, and 
 other merchandise and tumble it into the river. I have seen them in the 
 still dark hours of night, break open the public armory, abstract its muskets, 
 cutlasses, cartouches, flints, matches and other materials of war. I have seen, 
 them forcibly enter the public powder magazines, seize all the ammunition, 
 and convey it away to a secret spot known only to themselves, so as to have 
 it ready in the hour of need. I have seen and heard the provincial congress 
 of our province respond with heart and hand to the recommendation of the 
 continental congress to oppose, by every means in their power, every meas- 
 ure of the home government bearing upon the colonies, and to destroy every 
 vestige of trade between them, until the crown shall relieve them of their 
 present sufferings and redress the outrages it has committed upon them in 
 the past !" 
 
 " All this is good, all this looks well, all this shows like the rale grit !" ob- 
 served Nat, after a brief pause. " And it will lead to sum'n serious for the 
 colonists," he added thoughtfully ; "for King George is vain, and will not 
 quietly put up with such an insult to his pride ; he is rich and sassy, too, and 
 rich and sassy men wunt 'low enny body t be sassy but themselves ; and 
 he is strong also, with soldiers and men-of-war enough to blow the colonies 
 to powder by the cord. Yes, Neil it'll be a serious matter 1" 
 
 " There can be no doubt of that, Nat But however serious it may prove, 
 they will find a friend in you will they not ?" said Neil Somers, bending his 
 eyes with a nervous, yet confident glance on the scalp hunter. 
 
 " Why, as to that, Neil," returned the latter, " there kin be but onS 'pin- 
 ion. My natur don't jibe with Kings nor red skins, for they both prey upon 
 the people. The citizens in Charleston could git along bravely, ef it wus'nt 
 for the King, who taxes 'em to death ; and the yeomanry in lie settlements 
 conld swim along handsomely if it warn't for the yaller bellies. Take away 
 both these varmint, and this province would be one of the happiest and most 
 prosperous in all creation." 
 
 " You reason well, Nat !" 
 
 " The crown is strong, Neil, and so air the yaller bellies ; but I have fout 
 them varmint for hard on to twenty years, and though I've dropped a good 
 menny on 'em in that time, they haven't succeeded as yet in spilling me, and 
 I kalkilate on sweatin' a few more on 'em afore I lay by for good. ; And so I 
 hold the 'pinion that the provinces, kin give old King G-eorge a small sprink- 
 lin' of powder and lead in exchange for his'n, for a good long time to come, 
 if they make up their minds to do so, jest as I hev done to the Ingins. And 
 when they undertake that bisness, old Sal and I will jine and give em a lift !" 
 I didn't expect anything less of you, Nat I" exclaimed the planter, ex- 
 tending his hand, which the scalp hunter grasped warmly in his large, vice- 
 like palm. " As for me," continued Neil Somers, taking off his cap, and lift- 
 ing up his eyes reverently, "I have already pledged myself, in sight of the 
 trreat Supreme, to give my thoughts, my heart, my hand, my every energy, 
 to my country in her struggle with this proud, bad man this unfeeling and op- 
 pressive King!"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "That is like yew. Neil!" said the scalp hunter, in admiration. "I hev 
 known yew ever since you were knee high, and yew was allers the same 
 pure-minded and high-soiled creeter. Let what will turn up, you will all' era 
 be found on the right side. I know yew Neil, and I like yew, because I hev 
 all'ers found yew of the right stripe and of the rale ginooine grit in every- 
 thing. I hev remarked you for a good menny years, and at all times with 
 pleasure. Every family all'ers has sum one in it who is better than all the 
 others put together. Sumtimes it is the oldest, at others the youngest and 
 then agin it ain't in the father nor the children, but in the mother ; but every 
 family has its angel, whose modest, quiet, noble, uncomplaining spirit redeems 
 partially all that is bad and ignoble in the rest. In your family, Neil, yew 
 hev ever been the angel. Nay, blush not yew know Nat Akarman is no 
 flatterer, and that what he says he means. Trew worth never travels along 
 the highroad of life, without having a certain amount of moral weight and 
 influence hangin' to its coat, which all men are willin' tp acknowledge the 
 strength of, and a few ready to hold up. Now I regard yew as a truth tellin 1 
 man, and your word is 'titled to respect ; and when yew say yew believe the 
 people air in 'arnest, and that you intend to follow 'em in their struggle I 
 feel .that I am bound to believe yew, and to follow yew tu, when and 
 wherever yew may go!" 
 
 " Thank you thank you, Nat thank you !" said the planter, pressing his 
 hand with a slight degree of emotion. " 'Tis thus, with confidence like 
 yours, that men should enlist in the sacred cause of humanity !" 
 
 " But yew hev not told me all, Neil," said the scalp hunter regarding him 
 earnestly. "There's a suthin' in your eye which is as yet unuttered; a 
 suthin' that strikes home. Suthin' has gone wrong with yew. What is it? 
 I kin read a sutiiin' in your manner, which tells me your heart is bleedin.' 
 What is it ? Kin I du enny thing for you if so, say it ! Yew are at that 
 age when men take a sartain fever yew know what I mean, don't yew? 
 the heart's disease. Is't that? Has your sweetheart, Amy Winter, quar- 
 relled with you ?" 
 
 He paused, and the smile which accompanied his last observation, disap- 
 peared, and its place was instantly taken by an expression of intense anxiety. 
 
 "Why, Neil!" he continued, "what's the matter yew don't blush when 
 I pronounce Amy's name, but turn pale ! What's the matter ? Hev yew 
 met her brother Dick in some nice, solitary spot, and made the varmint pay 
 for layin 'poor Alice in her airly grave ?" 
 
 The young planter, with a violent effort drove back a spasm which this al- 
 lusion to his lost sister called up, and mournfully shook his head. 
 
 "Oh, blast my old scalp!" exclaimed the woodsman, "here I've ben gittin' 
 on the wrong trail, and in so doin' draggin' up old memories which must 
 make your heart ache wuss 'n pizin ! I'm a big brute wuss than a yal- 
 ler befly! Kick me cuss me shoot me, Neil! I deserve it, wuss 'n a 
 red skin !" 
 
 The cloud passed away from the planter's brow ; the agony vanished in a 
 great measure from his eye ; and his face though still pale, became lighted 
 up with a majestic and heavenly smile. He stretched forth his arm, and 
 taking the scalp hunter's hand, pressed it, saying 
 
 "Between us, Nat, no secrets. The arrows you threw were friendly ones, 
 and left no poison where they struck. I have had no quarrel with Amy 
 Winter, no meeting with her brother. I have no fear of the first, and now 
 that the country has need of my life, I have no wish for the latter. Had we 
 met previous to my visit to Charleston, one or both of us must have fallen." 
 2
 
 10 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 Still yew hev a grief," said the scalp hunter, in a tone of affectionate so- 
 licitude. " Your mother nuthin' has befallen her ?' 
 
 Nev Somers was silent a moment: his eyes lowered thoughtfully on his 
 rifle. At length, 
 
 " Nat," said he, with a tranquil smile, ' as I have already said, no secrets 
 between us. You have known me from my childhood up till now, and are 
 somewhat aware of the main outlines of my family's history, but not wholly. 
 Let me now familiarize you with the details, and you can then judge fairly 
 of my position." 
 
 " My father was a young and very handsome English officer ; of a pleas- 
 ing address, winning manners, and highly accomplished in all those little arts 
 which render unscrupulous men successful with women. A younger son, he 
 had nothing to hope from his parents, who, in educating and securing him a 
 commission in the army, washed their hands of him and left him to shift for 
 himself. 
 
 " He was at that time a heartless and unprincipled adventurer ; greatly in 
 debt, in continual fear of imprisonment, and saw no loophole of escape 
 except through a mercenary marriage. There were however too many of 
 his kind in London for him to expect to accomplish any thing there, and he 
 found himself under the necessity of looking somewhere else for a victim. 
 
 " After a season he selected Somersetshire for the scene of his matrimonial 
 adventure, and accordingly posted thither. He put up at the best inn in the 
 village at which he stopped, made love to and seduced the landlord's daugh- 
 ter, and during his liason with her, spared nothing to make himself familiar 
 with the character and pecuniary condition of the inhabitants. 
 
 "Not satisfied with one victim, he pursued his libertine career in almost 
 every family in which his engaging appearance, winning manners and fasci- 
 nating conversational powers had gained him a footing. At length, his char- 
 acter began to be understood, and one door after another was closed upon 
 him, till none remained open to him but those of his victims, each of whom 
 his specious tongue had persuaded was the favored one. la, time, however, 
 even these were shut, and legal proceedings were about to be instituted 
 against him. 
 
 " He was cut off from every chance of escape, and universally execrated. 
 
 " To crown his critical position, warrants were out against him for debt, 
 and he was liable every moment to arrest. 
 
 "In this situation his confidence deserted him, and he scarcely knew 
 what to think or do. 
 
 " Where he had the least right to look for help, there it appeared. 
 
 " He was sitting one evening in his room at the inn, when his first victim 
 hurriedly opened the door, and in a voice of deep agitation exclaimed 
 
 "Oh, Lionel! take this purse it contains fifty guineas and fly! My 
 father Has discovered my relations with you, and has gone to the magistrate s 
 at the next town to have you arrested. He will be back at daylight and then 
 you will be lost. Worse than that two officers have just arrived from Lon- 
 don with writs against you for debt They are now in the house, and con- 
 certing to take you by surprise in the morning. Fly, or you are lost!" 
 ' ' How can I fly ?' said he : 
 
 '"I have ordered Tom the ostler to lead a horse and wagon to the cross 
 road. You will find it there. Oh, fly ! not a moment is to be lost !' 
 
 " He took the purse unblushingly, thrust it into his pocket, and giving her a 
 hasty embrace, slipped out of the inn, flew up the avenue to the cross roads, 
 where he found the horse and wagon, threw the ostler a shilling, and seizing 
 the whip and rein, took the road leading, as he supposed, to Ijondon. 
 
 He drove all night, and entered a small village just as dawn was break- 
 ing. But his horse was ruined. The animal had been driven so hard, that 
 it foundered and fell dead opposite a handsome cottage, where dwelt a re-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. ll 
 
 tired merchant and his only daughter, who had witnessed the incident from 
 their windows. 
 
 " He was invited into the house, where he soon made himself at home, and 
 by a romantic story about losing his way on his route to London, created in 
 them an interest in his favor which was equally shared by father and daugh- 
 ter, who, fascinated by his air and conversation, urged him to spend a few 
 weeks with them, an invitation he did not permit them to repeat. 
 
 " In a few days, he learned enough of their position to convince him that 
 here was the golden egg he had so long been seeking ; and he forthwith set 
 all of his powers in play to win the young lady's heart. 
 
 " Unaccustomed to the society of such men, ignorant of the world and the 
 arts of its adventurers, she regarded Lionel as the most fascinating and ac- 
 complished man in the world, and yielded her love to him who sought it not 
 for its own richness, but for the wealth that followed it. 
 
 " His romantic story of being an orphan, without kindred or friends, was 
 readily believed, and the merchant, living only for his daughter's, happiness, 
 rashly gave his consent to their hasty union, and they were married without 
 any farther ceremony than that which the church imposed. 
 
 "But scarcely had their honey-moon begun, when his, London creditors 
 discovered his whereabouts and position, and pounced upon him. The mer- 
 chant however, calmly settled their claims, and manifested no surprise on 
 learning through them the real history of his son-in-law ; and although he was 
 somewhat staggered by the discovery, he kept the secret to himself and al- 
 lowed the honey-moon to pass over without acquainting his daughter with 
 it 
 
 " In a few months, the details of Lionel's career at the village in Somer- 
 setshire reached his ears, and so horrified him, that it brought on a paralysis 
 which eventually killed him. 
 
 " At her father's death, Alice, his daughter, took possession of his proper- 
 ty, and having by that time learned enough relative to her husband to retain 
 the control of the property in her own hands, she did so : allowing him 
 enough however to live handsomely, -provided he indulged in no heavy ex- 
 travagances. 
 
 ." But the poor creature's heart was crushed ; the caresses which she 
 showered upon her infant boy were always accompanied with tears. Silent 
 and uncomplaining, she bore his indifference, desertion and neglect without a 
 murmur ; and to set her cup of misery running over, reports of his libertine 
 career in the village in which they lived were continually pouring in upon 
 her, and adding fresh agonies to her heart. 
 
 " By the advice of her friends, she cut off a large share of his income, and 
 then settled the whole of her property and wealth upon her child. This at 
 first led to fierce and violent reproaches on his part, and subsequently even 
 to blows ! This she could not endure, and a separation was the consequence. 
 
 " In a few months the libertine's outward conduct changed ; he even car- 
 ried his hypocrisy so far as to send her a letter affecting sorrow and contrition 
 for his past life, begging her forgiveness of his errdrs, stating that he was on 
 the point of leaving England forever, as his shame would not permit him to 
 remain in a land where dwelt one whom he had so foully outraged and so 
 violently wronged, and entreating as a favor, not a right, the privilege of cal- 
 ling on her and bidding her and his boy a parting adieu. 
 
 " Innocent and guileless, she fell into the snare, and sent him a note con- 
 senting to the interview. The consequences were natural, when, of the two 
 parties t that meeting, the one was an artful, designing and smooth-lipped 
 hypocrite, and the other a weak, credulous, inexperienced and forgiving 
 woman. The pretended journey to another clime was abandoned the past, 
 forgiven and forgotten the husband and wife reunited and happiness re- 
 stored to at least one heart.
 
 12 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DATS 
 
 " From that hour all was apparently well ; the libertine appeared to have 
 discovered and appreciated the villainy of his career, repented and reformed;. 
 the darkness of the past had vanished, and light was once more restored to 
 the household. Weeks passed away thus into months, the months into a 
 year and at the end of that time misery returned again to the husband and 
 the wife, but without dividing them their boy died, and they were childless. 
 
 "The 'days of mourning passed away, and the bereaved mother consoled 
 herself for the loss of her little one with the tenderness and caresses of her 
 Lionel, whose affection appeared to grow stronger and deeper with each suc- 
 ceeding day. 
 
 " At length, when there could no longer be any lingering doubts of the 
 genuineness of his reformation, his affection, or his caresses, he said to her : 
 
 " ' My Alice, let us quit these scenes made sad to us by my errors, and the 
 death of our child, and go in search of fresh happiness on the shores of the 
 New World that land of loveliness and romance. There let us build us a 
 cot on the banks of one of its silver lakes, and there, beneath the green vine 
 and the sweet scented air, let us glide down the stream of time happy and 
 joyous as two loving hearts who have no thoughts but for each other ! ' 
 
 " The credulous wife, never dreaming of the black treachery hidden beneath 
 this request, and desiring nothing but the happiness of him who appeared to 
 love her so fondly, acceded to his desire, and they made preparations to leave 
 England. 
 
 " A few weeks only were necessary to complete then- arrangements, and 
 when every thing was in readiness they took ship, set sail, and ere long stood 
 on the shores of America. 
 
 " They landed at Charleston, where they remained for a short season till 
 they had completed the purchase of a plantation near Kingstree. where I was 
 born. 
 
 " Here they lived happily, till in an evil hour, my mother, who till that 
 time had retained the major part of her property in her own right, turned it 
 over to my father. Then he dropped the mask the fruits of his hypocrisy 
 were in his hand, and from that hour he was a brute, and she a weak, appal- 
 led and affrighted slave. True, there were occasional moments when his 
 brutal nature slept, and his better angel awoke, and in these fits he was all 
 love, gentleness and kindness ; but such instances were rare, and when they 
 came, but faintly atoned for his harsh and ignoble treatment in the long in- 
 tervals between them. 
 
 " When I was about five years old, my mother gave birth to two twin 
 babes ; they were boys, and it was hoped that the singular similarity of their 
 features, their innocent caresses, and the close resemblance they bore to the 
 author of their being would be enough to win back the gentle nature of their 
 father. 
 
 " This hope was not wholly disappointed. He abandoned in a measure his 
 libertine habits, spent more of his time at home and less of it abroad, and in 
 fine became less of a devil, and more of a man. He treated my mother some- 
 what more generously, and appeared to a certain degree reformed. 
 
 " All this brought once more a partial happiness to our household ; the 
 bloom that had vanished from my mother's cheek returned ; her eye that had 
 so long been dimmed with sorrow, brightened again, under the genial sun- 
 shine that hovered around her home. 
 
 "When I was about eight years old, my sister Alice was born. You re- 
 member her, Nat don't you, she was the picture of her mother. The twins, 
 Frederick and George, were about three years old at the time, and were re- 
 markable for their precocious intellects and matchless beauty and my father 
 was accustomed to take them with him in his rides and iaunts around the 
 province. 
 
 " One morning, about a fortnight after the birth of my sister, he took a
 
 * 
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY KEN. 13 
 
 large amount of money from the house, and, saying that he intended to go a 
 little ways up the province to complete the purchase of a plantation of which 
 we had frequently heard him speak, ordered the twins to be got ready, as he 
 intended to take them with him. While this was being done, he command- 
 ed a slave to harness his favorite mare to the family gig, and lead her round 
 gate. 
 
 '' As his was an imperious nature, he was speedily obeyed in both cases ; 
 when taking the twins into the vehicle, he seated himself between them, and 
 without even a simple adieu, drove off. 
 
 " That day passed away, and the next, and the day following that, but 
 brought no tidings of them. 
 
 " On the morning of the fourth day, my mother, whose distress you per- 
 haps can fancy, went to her escrutoir, from whence my father had taken the 
 money, and there to her amazement discovered a small note addressed to 
 herself, and written in a hand that she recognized in an instant. She opened 
 it, and read as follows : 
 
 " ' I have purposely deceived you. I am not going to buy another planta- 
 tion, but to visit England, where I shall remain. Frederick and George, who 
 in all things resemble their father, will go with me you have seen them for 
 the last time. Neil and Alice, who in all things remind one of their mother, 
 you can keep. I leave you the plantation, the slaves, and three thousand 
 pounds in cash ; they are enough to support three persons. The remaining 
 seventeen thousand pounds I shall carry with me.' Adieu I 
 
 LIONEL SOMERS.' 
 
 " My motbv -was appalled, bewildered, stunned, on reading this cruel letter, 
 and fell to the floor like one struck by a shaft of lightning. 
 
 " Her attendants, in alarm, called in two or three of the neighbors, who 
 on perceiving the crumpled note in her clenched hand, and supposing it would 
 prove a key to her swoon, strove to withdraw it ; but in vain she clasped 
 it with the tenacity of steel : it was not till the third day of her inert state 
 that her%enses returned, her feelings melted, and her hand unlocked. 
 
 "But it was too late to hope to come up with the deserter, who was six 
 days in advance of his pursuers, who, on reaching Charleston discovered that 
 my father, with his twin sons, had sailed three days before for England, and 
 was then upon the sea. 
 
 " My mother's gentle nature yielded for a season to this rude blow ; and 
 then her spirit rose to encounter the cares of conducting her estate. But 
 nature had not endowed her with business attributes. The plantation, in her 
 hands, as well in those whom she had successively engaged to manage it, 
 was a losing property. In a few years it was covered with debts and mort- 
 gages, the latter held by Abel Winter, a neighboring planter, who took, one 
 after another of our slaves to satisfy his claims till scarcely a negro was left 
 to cultivate our fields. 
 
 " On reaching my seventeenth year, my mother entrusted the management 
 of the entire estate to my hands. Brought up in a household of trials and 
 yrivations, my mind was active, energetic, observing and reflective. 
 
 " My first step was to discover the actual position of the estate. I found 
 wae mortgage and a few small debts. To take up the first, I persuaded my 
 mother to convey to Mr. Winter, the holder of the claim, one-third of our 
 Vinds ; the sale of another eighth liquidated the second, and the plantation 
 was thus reduced to one half its original size and value : but thai half was free 
 ad unencumbered. 
 
 "We had now only twenty negroes, butrthat number was quite enough to 
 work our fields, which, soon began to tell favorably, and our plantation ere 
 oug wore a thrifty and profitable aspect. 
 
 " In a few years, we were easy and comfortable ; our rice fields, thorough-
 
 14 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS. 
 
 ly cultivated made us noble returns ; our negroes, carefully attended and 
 kindly treated, loved us and repaid our kindness by making our interests their 
 own ; our exchequer was well lined, and, except in our domestic calamities, 
 we had nothing to disturb us. 
 
 " It was at this time that Richard Winter paid his addresses to my sister. 
 She was young, artless, credulous and " 
 
 The planter paused ; a mist passed over his eyes ; his voice became thick 
 and dry the muscles of his countenance twitched with an internal spasm ; 
 a tremor passed over his whole frame, and then again all was calm. His eyes 
 became clear and dry ; his voice distinct and moist; the muscles of his face 
 lay tranquil; and his breast was calm as though it had never known aught 
 to disturb its repose. 
 
 " She became his victim, as many another had become the victim of her 
 father. She reposes in a quiet corner of the village, churchyard, with no stone 
 or other sign to mark her resting place, or tell the world of the shame that 
 paled her cheek, of the grief that consumed her heart, of the woe which, like 
 a serpent's tongue, in the brief period of three months made her first a victim, 
 then a crushed end tottering skeleton, and then a corse. 
 
 " She kept the secret of her grief from all till she felt she was about to die ; 
 then committing it to paper, which she hid beneath her pillow, she laid her- 
 self down, and her meek, bruised spirit passed quietly away to the land of 
 shadows. 
 
 " After her death, the paper and its secret were discovered. My mother, 
 of all our household, alone was calm. A slight spasm coursed for a moment 
 through her frame ; another and a deeper shade of paleness settled upon her 
 features, and then all was tranquil as before. 
 
 " As for me, I sprang upon my horse, and flew to the house of her seducer, 
 forgetting in my frenzy that he had left it, on a visit to another part of the 
 province some two weeks before. 
 
 " I saw his father, who affected astonishment and sympathy. I saw Amy, 
 who affected nothing ; but who wrung her hands in anguish at her brother's 
 villainy ; in shame, for the dishonor his treachery had brought .upon* the family 
 name ; and in sympathy for me, for her heart had long beat in harmonious 
 response to every throb of mine. 
 
 " I would have pursued and slain him ; but my mother, laying her small, 
 pale hand on my arm, looked at me with her calm, impressive eye, and said 
 ' Leave him, my son, in the hands of God ; it is my wish !' 
 
 " I got off my horse, and obeyed her, as I had ever been accustomed to 
 from my earliest infancy till then, although it nearly broke my heart. ' Pa- 
 tience, my son,' she added, with a smile, which was sublime in its tranquility 
 and sweetness, ' vengeance is not ours, but His /' 
 
 " I could not dispute with, nor say an angry word to, my mother. She 
 gave me her love, her heart, her affection ; I owed her in return at least 
 obedience ! 
 
 " Some weeks ago, business called me to Charleston. There I found every 
 body in a state of agitation relative to the tyrannic proceedings of the King. 
 The city was in a ferment Young men were gloomy, old men threatening, 
 brows ; eyes flashed here, there and every where, like rapiers leaping from 
 their scabbards in the sunlight I did not understand it ; and asked the mat- 
 ter. ' The King says he'll tax us as much as he pleases,' was the reply, and 
 will not even let us choose our own provincial officer^. We are henceforth 
 to hav e no voice in public affairs, no elections, no representatives. The King 
 wW force upon us for rulers just such creatures as he pleases ; we are to have 
 no say in any thing; we are toubmit to the condition and position of vas- 
 sals, and to bow our necks and submit to be kicked, cuffed and robbed as 
 often as it shall please King George. We are to be taxed and trampled upon 
 according to his majesty's good will and pleasure, and if we murmur we are
 
 * 
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERILY MEN. 15 
 
 U> be arrested and thrown into the provost, and be left there to rot tifl we 
 learn to bow in servile submission to every decree that may spring from the 
 royal noddle.' 
 
 " My blood became agitated as I heard this ; and I remembered the mur- 
 murs of discontent which I had heard for long months in Kingstree, and other 
 parts of the district of Williamsburgh. ' Blood will grow out of this,' I mut- 
 tered ; for the Carolinians are proud, intelligent and brave, and not of a breed 
 accustomed to lick the hand that smites ' em !' 
 
 " Nor was I wrong in my conjecture. The people hold private meetings, 
 to one of which my known liberal opinions secured me an invitation ; and I 
 learned that they had determined to upset as much as possible the grasping 
 calculations of the government by doing mischief for the public weal de- 
 stroying goods belonging to that great monopoly patronized and sustained by 
 the ministry, namely, the East India Company ; destroying teas and dry 
 goods, throwing overboard every thing which the government have been in 
 the habit of oppressing the people by laying high taxes upon. 
 
 " Engaged commonly in this work, I found all ranks ; and prominent in it, 
 the noblest, purest, bravest, and most intelligent men of the province ; and I 
 resolved, come what would, that in the hour, which I foresaw must come, 
 when the people rose up in the name of suffering humanity to shake off the 
 grasp of the tyrant and punish the insolence of his minions, Neil Somers 
 would, BO help him Grod ! march in their ranks, with his sword on his thigh, 
 his war-belt on his shoulder, and his good rifle in his hand. 
 
 " One day I encountered a gentleman whose political opinions jarred on 
 coming in contact with mine ; we discussed the recent acts of the King, he 
 taking the side of the tyran*-. T that of the people. We were warm, but not 
 abusive in the discussion, and when we parted, it was with feelings of mutual 
 respect for each others honor as men, if not of admiration for each other's 
 controversial -powers. 
 
 " The day following, he sent me an invitation to a ball to be held that 
 evening at his house ; and as the note accompanying it was couched in the 
 most courteous terms, and coupled with a playful allusion to our discussion, 
 I felt that it was imperative upon me not to slight or reject it. 
 
 " I made my appearance at his house about ten o'clock, and found the 
 rooms filled with the elite of the city. The governor and his suite were there, 
 togother with the leading civil and military officers and citizens. Everything 
 was gorgeous, brilliant and beautiful 
 
 " The evening wore on towards midnight. I was a looker-on, not a par- 
 ticipant in the festivities : for such things have but little charm for me. 
 
 " About midnight, then, the cloth was laid, and the guests invited to the 
 table. The ball room was in a short time almost wholly deserted. The 
 musicians had also vanished by a private door to indulge in the delights of a 
 repast 
 
 " I was among the first to quit the table ; for, having taken no exercise I 
 had no appetite, and as for drink I never had any fondness for anything but 
 water. The toasts were mainly political, and the company principally kings- 
 men. I could not consistently with my views and principles listen to the 
 first, and I had no sympathy with the second. I therefore, watched my op- 
 portunity, and when all eyes were turned in another direction, I rose quietly 
 tand returned to the ball room, which was, as I have said, nearly though not 
 quite deserted. 
 " Without meaning it, I had placed myself in such a position that I could 
 not fail to have a good view of the guests as they returned from the supper 
 room. 
 
 " It was while in this situation that I saw what I am now about to de- 
 scribe ; what startled me as though an earthquake had rent the flooring be-
 
 16 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THK DAYS 
 
 neath me ; and what, in part, brought me here, Nat, for your counsel and as- 
 sistance : for it will show you my position. 
 
 " The door of the supper room opened, and the guests began slowly to re- 
 turn Among the first were some seven or eight merchants who, on reach- 
 ing the ball room, came over and seated themselves in front of me upon a 
 settee which was even with the floor, while the one I occupied was some in- 
 ches above it. 
 
 " The conspicuousness of my position was thus somewhat neutralized, 
 while it in nowise interfered with the uninterrupted view I had of the guest? 
 as, in twos and threes, they entered. 
 
 " The commonalty having passed in, then followed the host arm-in-arm 
 with his most conspicuous guest, the governor. 
 
 " Behind the govermor, and in his suite, followed three young beauties, 
 daughters of the host, each escorted by a young officer, glittering in gold and 
 scarlet, whose countenances, as they advanced one after the other, struck 
 me first with amazement and then with confusion. 
 
 " In the first I recognized Richard Winter, the destroyer of my sister. 
 
 " In the other two, the form and expression of feature, nay, the very fea- 
 tures themselves, of my brutal and unprincipled father, whose clear, bold, 
 handsome lineaments once seen could never be forgotten. 
 
 "I could not be mistaken. Age, appearance, expression every thing 
 corresponded. They were my twin brothers, Frederick and George ! 
 
 " They had left the province, children ; they had come back to it, men. 
 
 " Strikingly similar, majestic, magnificently hand"some, there was yet a , 
 something in their features which made me recoil in horror. 
 
 " The same wild, heartless, libertine expression which marked the father's 
 countenance, was to me, who note such things carefully, visible in theirs. 
 
 " In the governor's suite, they were necessarily in the royal service ; and, 
 educated in England, their political sympathies were of course with the King, 
 and in case of a war between the provinces and George, they my brothers, 
 the oflspring of the same womb that had given me life, who had drawn suste- 
 nance from the same breast which had nursed my infancy, would be found 
 on the side of the tyrant, and their swords, talents, energies and intellects 
 drawn against their country ! 
 
 " All these thoughts passed through my brain with the rapidity of light- 
 ning ; and for a few moments I was stunned, bewildered, blind. 
 
 " Meanwhile, they had entered the ball-room, and following the governor 
 posted themselves at .some distance from me ; so that, when I recovered 
 they were surrounded by a number of young guests, of ftoth sexes ; the one 
 to do homage to the lovely brunettes whom they were fascinating by their 
 attentions, the other to attract the notice of the twins, who were in form 
 and feature superb types of Saxon masculine beauty. 
 
 " Neither Richard Winter nor the twin brothers had noticed my presence 
 in the ball-room ; a fact which was highly gratifying, particularly as an idea 
 had struck me the instant that the cloud, which their unexpected appearance 
 had thrown over my faculties, had lifted and passed away. 
 
 " I resolved to take my departure ; but previously to that, it was essential 
 to learn the address of the twins. 
 
 " At this instant our host, catching the eve of one of the merchants on the 
 settee in front of mine, approached ; and while advancing, a slight motion of 
 my hanfl attracted his attention, and our eyes exchanged the first greeting 
 they had passed for the night 
 
 " In a few moments he had, with that happy tact peculiar to educated 
 gentlemen, interchanged civilities with those whose glances had called him 
 to the spot, and then flung a quiet expression at me which plainly said. ' I 
 am at your service.' 
 
 " I motioned him to a seat beside me, which he at once comprehended
 
 OF MARION AND ILLS MERRY MEN. 17 
 
 and followed, and I then asked him in a whisper the names and positions or 
 the twins 
 
 " With that gentlemanly delicacy which answers every question without 
 the impertinence of demanding wherefore it is put, he replied that they 
 were twin brothers who had arrived in Charleston only a few months before; 
 tluit, though attached to the army, the governor, who was struck with their 
 superior talents, had taken them to himself, and was to a certain extent their 
 principal protector, that there was also a report that his excellency had 
 some thoughts of allying them to his family by giving his two daughters to 
 them in marriage. 
 
 " ' And their father?' said I. 
 
 " ' Oh, they have none,' was the reply. ' He died at home, that is to say 
 in England, some three years ago.' 
 
 ' ; From this it was evident my host had not the slightest suspicion I de- 
 sired this information for any other reason than to gratify a common curiosi- 
 ty. Taking heart from this, I pursued my inquiries. 
 
 " ' They are fatherless then ?' 
 
 " Yes, and motherless, too. Their mother died while they were in their 
 infancy ; and her death so afflicted the father that he sold out his estate for 
 it appears the brothers were born in one of our provinces and taking his 
 two only children with him, returned to England. There he educated his 
 sons for the army ; but dying before they were of age, the remainder of their 
 education fell upon a guardian, who was a gentleman of position and influ- 
 ence, and who obtainecftfor them all the opportunities and advantages essen- 
 'tial to success. In case of a war between the provinces and the Ki n & the 
 Governor will give them every opportunity to distinguish themselves. Their 
 prospects are very brilliant, I assure you." 
 
 " Doubtless,' I answered. ' what did you say their names were ?' 
 
 " ' Frederick and George.' 
 
 " ' And their family name ?' 
 
 <; ' Somers. By the bye, that reminds me you are namesakes. Shall I in- 
 troduce you ?' 
 
 " ' No, I thank you,' I answered carelessly. ' I have no desire for an ac- 
 quaintance.' 
 
 " At this moment, the eye of the Governor caught that of the host, and 
 the latter gracefully moved away from beside me, and passed down to wait 
 upon his noble guest. 
 
 " A few minutes afterward I took my departure from the house, and 
 bent my steps homeward with a gloomy and thoughtful brow. 
 
 " It was very evident that the stoiy of the twins as related by the host, 
 was the current one in the city, and was perhaps believed by the twin 
 brothers, themselves : but how nearly it approached the truth, you, Nat, who 
 are familiar with the real facts, can readily judge. 
 
 I called, the next day, upon the Governor, and obtained a private inter- 
 view. Without compromising my own secret, or position, I obtained from 
 him the history of the twins as he had obtained it from their guardian, who 
 obtained it from their father ; as he had obtained it from the brothers them- 
 selves, who had obtained it from their father in the first place, and their guar- 
 dian in the second. 
 
 " The account of the governor was merely a repetition of the outlines re- 
 lated to me th'preceding night at the ball. 
 
 " It was selfevident, then, that the fabrication of the death of my mother, 
 the disposal of the estate, and 'the cause of his return to England, was only 
 another black leaf in the history of my father. 
 
 " It was also equally as plain that he had trained up the twin brothers in 
 utter ignorance of the existence of their mother, sister and myself, and died 
 without making any revelation which would convict him of the fraud he had 
 3
 
 jg THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 imposed upon their young minds, or of the baseness and cruelty he had in- 
 flicted upon their mother. 
 
 " I retired from the cabinet of the Governor overwhelmed with grief, and 
 trembling with despair. 
 
 " On reaching my lodgings, I reconsidered, and as calmly as my feelings 
 would permit, reviewed the whole matter beginning with my parent's his- 
 tory and ending with the discovery and story of my brothers. 
 
 " Then I formed three resolutions ; the first based upon political, the sec- 
 ond and third upon private reasons. 
 
 " The first was, that in the storm arising between the coloijjes and the 
 crown, my brothers should not be found with their swords drawn against 
 their country ; the second, to reform their wicked dispositons, prevent them 
 from following the heartless and libidinous career of their father, and gradual- 
 ly prepare them for a meeting and re-union with their noble mother when 
 they should have made themselves worthy of that high honor ; the third, to 
 keep the fact of their existence and arrival, as well as my father's death from 
 my parent." 
 
 The young planter paused. He was pale, but evinced no other sign of 
 emotion. Every feature was resting tranquilly, but lit with that halo of re- 
 flectiveness which is visible on the countenances of all great minds, and 
 which tells that the fires of their intellectual genius are never permitted to 
 die, because they are subdued to a calm, steady and ever-burning glow. 
 
 " How du yew propose to du that, Neil ?" said %3 scalp hunter, who had 
 oeen surveying his companion for the last half hour with undisguised aston- 
 ishment and admiration. 
 
 " Listen," replied Neil. " You remember the old log house in the centre 
 of the cypress wood ?" 
 
 The scalp hunter inclined his head affimatively, and the planter continued. 
 
 "I propose taking my brothers by stratagem, and conveying them 
 thither. There they will be secluded from the world, its passions, its fas- 
 cinations, its excitements ; there they will part one by one with their vices 
 and errors, which lead to misery and destruction ; there they will take up 
 virtue, industry and justice, which lead to happiness and immortality." 
 
 The planter's voice trembled as he spoke ; the muscles of his countenance 
 twitched sharply with the violence of his emotions : and a soft dew moist- 
 ened the long, dark lashes of his eyes. 
 
 " Yew love 'em, then, Neil, after all !" exclaimed the scalp hunter, in a 
 burst of surprise, mingled with admiration. 
 
 " Ah ! are they not, for all their vjpes, my brothers still ? Are they not, 
 for all their father did, the same bright-eyed ones that played with me in my 
 childhood, and for whom from the hour of their flight till that of their re- 
 turn, my mother's lips and mine have nightly prayed to God !" 
 
 " Your hand, Neil !" said the scalp hunter, in a voice that came up from 
 the lowest depths of his soul, " your hand nay, both ; and your heart !" 
 
 And they fell on each other's breast, dropping their heads each on the 
 other's shoulder, and men though they were, were not ashamed of their 
 
 " Yew'll du it,, Neil!" cried the scalp hunter, as he partially recovered his 
 self possession ; " yew'll du it, for the rale grit is in yew. Yew've got 
 the geenis to trap 'em, and the will to carry it out yew Ifcv, and may my 
 old Sal never drop anuther yaller belly ! ef I don't take the^calp off of any 
 critter that attempts to step in between yew and the execution of your 
 will!" 
 
 " You will aid me then, Nat ; you approve of my idea, and will help me to 
 carry it into effect ?" 
 
 " Approve of it Neil ? It's one of them ere idees that reconcile me to 
 hewman natur ; as to 'sistin' on yew in kerryin it thru, jest as long as I've
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 19 
 
 got breath and can lift old Sal -jest heft on her, will ye ; the critter ain't 
 much to kerry .'jest so long yew'll find her and me at your orders ! But 
 tell>is, when du yew perpose to make a move in the matter ?" 
 
 : ' Within a fortnight. Now that I have your consent, Nat, I will at once 
 to Charleston and lay the train for their capture." 
 
 - But the old log house, Neil ? Wunt it take a little time to get it ready? 
 The house itself ain't exactly in condition. I hain't been there in a year or 
 more, and then it warnt enny tu kumfortable, I tell yew !" 
 
 The planter smiled. 
 
 " I had %eady thought of that, Nat A friend spent the day up there 
 yesterday, with my negroes : and they changed the appearance of it very 
 much before they left, I assure you. And even while we speak, seven of 
 them are engaged in completing what was left undone yesterday, and giving 
 to the house a habitable appearance, and to the clearing around it an aspect 
 of cultivation. Anxious to witness how Mowizou was progressing, I put on 
 my hunting dress this morning, as if going forth in quest of game, and pro- 
 ceeded thither. Everything had met and even exceeded my expectations. 
 It was only by a great effort of my will that I succeeded in restraining an 
 expression of joy. When I left the spot, the negroes had not the remotest 
 idea that I had not stumbled there, in the course of my jaunt, by purest 
 accident." 
 
 " The niggers are in the secret then ?" said the scalp hunter, with an ex- 
 pression of surprise. 
 
 " No," answered the planter ; " no one is aware of it except ourselves." 
 
 The scalp hunter appeared confounded, and in reply to his look of inquiry, 
 the planter said : 
 
 " 'Twas thus I managed it. I went to a friend in the village, young Ned 
 Mowizon, and told him that a couple of friends of mine wished to seclude 
 themselves for a time from the world : that they had dhosen for that purpose 
 the old log hut in the cypress grove, and wished it cleared away and made 
 ready for occupation ; that I did not desire to be known in the matter, and 
 that I wished him to come to my plantation the following day and pretend 
 in the hearing of those around me to employ my negroes for a day or two to 
 clear up some ground ; that I wished him to do this to oblige myself, and 
 to do it without asking me to explain anything further, and thus save me the 
 mortification of betraying a secret which it was highly necessary to keep. 
 Mowizon had confidence enough in my honor to feel convinced that the 
 affair, though a secret, was not a dishonorable one, and sufficient desire to 
 accommodate me to at once undertake the task. He agreed, without any 
 further questioning ; and thus, without compromising my secret, everything 
 is arranged for the reception of the brothers. 
 
 " I understand, Neil. But they will want help fellers who, while they 
 know how to make themselves useful, will take keer that the critters don t 
 escape." 
 
 " All that is provided for," said the planter, with a quiet, yet melancholy 
 smile. " All things essential for their comfort, all things befitting men in the 
 new life they are to ' enter, are already at or on their way to the log house. 
 Mowizon is provided with money and a letter of instructions ; and he is a man 
 on whom I can rely, I feel satisfied, that, should it even be necessary to 
 take the brothers there to-night, everything would be in readiness for their 
 reception." ' 
 
 " Yew hev geenis for every thing," said the scalp hunter, admiringly. 
 Taint every man can du what he has the geenis to conceive; but yew, 
 Neil, yew air one of the critters that can du as well talk. But what on airth 
 is that feller down on the road up tu ? May my old Sal never drop another 
 yaller belly! ef he aint tearin' the meat off the sides of his nag, as ef his 
 spurs was made for scalpin' knives ! Look thar' ! see how the darn'd critters
 
 20 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 reel and toss up their caps as he pulls in the rein and speaks to 'em ! There's 
 some'n in it, or my name aint Nat Akarman. Look ! the people are runnin 1 
 out of their houses, affrighted and stupified as ef the day of judgment Jiad 
 come !" 
 
 The planter strained his eyes down upon the road on the opposite side of 
 the shore. It was as the scalp hunter had, in his quaint manner, described 
 it. 
 
 A carrier was dashing along the road on a bay courser with the fleet- 
 ness of a whirlwind, as if life were the price of his speed, death the cost of 
 .delay ; halting, every now and then, as he passed a house or fieldwhere faces 
 were seen, and after pronouncing a few words, which seemed^? throw his 
 auditors into the wildest commotion, then again speeding ousvard with the 
 rapidity of light. 
 
 " You are right, Nat," said the planter, with, a mournful smile, as he drew 
 his eyes from the scene, "there is something in it; something that appeals to 
 you and to me, as searchingly as to those down yonder. As for me, though 
 I suspect, I yet would hear what are the tidings yon courier brings. It may 
 be fancy only ; and yet I think I know that messenger's face." 
 
 The sharp, clear, glittering orbs of the woodsman were upon him in an in- 
 stant. 
 
 " Yew are right, Neil," he said ; ' " and yet I hadn't an idee there was 
 another pair of peepers besides mine in Sou' Car liny that could carry across the 
 Santee. I knowed the varmint at a glance, but didn't want to say nuthin, 
 cause I knowed his name was wuss than red skin to your ear, and I didn't 
 keer to see yew disturbed. But now you du know it, the mischief's up and 
 can't be helped." 
 
 " Tis no matter," said the planter. " Our day of reckoning is not now, un- 
 'less he throws himself across my path; I will not go in search of him." 
 
 The scalp hunter surveyed his companion as if he had not comprehended 
 him. 
 
 " Understand me, Nat," said the planter, with a majestic and impressive 
 air. " No man knows better than myself what is due to my honor. I have 
 duly weighed the account that stands 'twixt Richard Winter and myself, 
 and this is my decision : He is safe from hand of mine till my country's cause 
 shall have no further need of Neil Somers or his sword. Then, and not till 
 then, shall I go in quest of him. Then, and not till then, shall vengeance 
 awake from her repose. Then, and not till then shall I demand atonement 
 for the outrage our house has .suffered at his hands. Then, and not till then, 
 shall I say to him 'Richard Winter^ life will have life, blood will have blood, 
 death will have death : I have come to sit in judgment upon you for destroy- 
 ing the honor, the peace and the life of my sister !' " 
 
 With these words, the planter turned .from the ledge and the tree ; and 
 throwing his rifle across his shoulder as before, he bent his way once again 
 through the wood, accompanied by the scalp hunter, whose bowed head, pale 
 cheeks, quivering lips and humid eyes, told how much he was affected by 
 the mournful air of his friend, and how truly he appreciated that pure and up- 
 right spirit whose every sentiment was based upon pure justice and clothed 
 in such supreme grandeur. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THEY did not exchange a word till they had reached the woodsman's lodce 
 when the latter said: 
 
 " A moment, Neil. I want to take up some'n." 
 
 The planter paused, merely making a slight bow in reply ; and the woods- 
 man entered the lodge.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 21 
 
 He returned ere long with a bunch of stout thongs formed from the un- 
 dressed ?Vin of a buck. 
 
 "You have been making a bridle?" said the planter, glancing at the 
 thongs. 
 
 " Yes," returned the scalp hunter. " Only I hev two here. One on 'em 
 I made, and I s'pose I kin say I ' made' the other ; but not in the usufl 
 way." 
 
 He paused, a^if he had something more to say, but would not utter it 
 then. 
 
 Neil Somers noticing this, forbore, with the delicacy peculiar to an exalted 
 mind, to ask an explanation which the scalp hunter, for some private reason r 
 appeared to have no disposition to volunteer. 
 
 Neither had as yet spoken to the other of the place of his destination. 
 Nor was it necessary. They felt that they were companions, travelling the 
 same road for the same object, each intuitively comprehending the other's 
 thoughts of what they were going to hear and what most likely to see ; and 
 both knowing and feeling that what they were about to hear and see would 
 turn into a rivet which would bind them closer still together and unite them 
 like a chain of steel for many a long day. 
 
 They struck out of the clearing facing the lodge into the same piece of 
 wood which the planter had traversed on his route to the scalp hunter's, and 
 began slowly to descend the hill. 
 
 They had not proceeded more than eighty or ninety paces, when the 
 woodsman, quietly signing to his companion to follow, turned off to the left, 
 towards a high, moss-covered rock, which was faintly visible through the 
 trees. 
 
 A few moments brought them to the spot, when a peculiar odor in the air 
 warned the planter that he was standing in the neighborhood of a concealed 
 stable. 
 
 The woodsman looked all around him cautiously for a few moments to see 
 if he was perceived ; when satisfied upon this point, he quietly stooped down 
 and bent his ear to the earth. But, as nothing in the shape of a human form 
 had previously met his eye ; so now, on listening, his ear detected no foot- 
 steps. "With a smile of satisfaction, he then rose, and proceeded towards a 
 corner of the rock where lay, as though it had been wrenched by a tornado 
 from its native tree and thrown down where it stood, the long-branching 
 
 arm of a scyamore, its leaves yellow and warped by the sun and decay. 
 
 This the woodsman drew sh'ghtly aside ; then removing a long, wide bark 
 which it covered, exposed to the somewhat astonished eyes of the planter, 
 the mouth of a dark cave, with a natural and gradual sloping descent ter- 
 minating at a depth of about five feet below tmP level of the earth around 
 the rock, and leading to the planter could not guess where. 
 
 "This, Neil," said the scalp hunter, with a quiet smile, "is my stable and 
 the hidin' place of my ch'ice things. 
 
 Here I keep the powder and lead which I gather up from the yaller bellies 
 wnenever a bark from old Sal sends 'em skootin' up to glory. Here I keep 
 my horses, and all the other spiles which I take from the red skins. They're 
 parfectly safe from the horse thieves ; and. ceptin' us two, the place aint 
 known to a livin' soul Wait a minit I didn't bring yew here for nuthin' ! w 
 
 So saying, the woodsman slowly entered the cave, and disappeared. 
 
 In a few minutes the planter heard his voice ringing in the cave, and utter- 
 ing, at intervals 
 
 " Be still, will yew, now ! That's it that's it, now ! Is the critter glad to 
 see her old Natty back agin! Ha! ha! ha! thats' right, old gal, put your 
 head thar' ! Hold still a leetle, for Natty's come to take her out on a rip I 
 Ho ! ho I she likes it, does she ? I thought so, old gal I thought, so ! Now,
 
 
 
 22 THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 come along that's it so, so here we are aint she a bewtee now! Now, 
 then gently old gal, gently; there's no knowin' who may be about ! 
 
 The next moment there appeared at the mouth of the cave, with a thong 
 bridle hanging from its neck, a long, lank, dingy, cream-colored mare, whose 
 general appearance was so wretched and wo-begone. that it seemed as if 
 she suspected her owner had discovered her old, worn-out and valueless, and 
 turned her out to die. 
 
 The animal was, however, neither wretched in her movements nor berei 
 of intelligence. In compliance with the order of her master, she crept up 
 the sloping path with the quietness of a fox : and on reaching the level of 
 the brushwood, moved off quietly towards the farther side of the rock, when 
 she as quietly turned, and standing stock still, threw her eyes intelligently 
 around as if to take in a clear view of everything and every body about 
 her, dropped them quietly an instant or two upon the planter, and then fixed 
 them expectantly upon the entrance of the cave, where stood the woodsman 
 smiling his approbation at the correctness with which she had followed his 
 order. 
 
 The intelligent animal seemed to understand that her effort was appre- 
 ciated : and was so pleased with her master's applause, that she displayed her 
 teeth, tossed up her head, drew herself up. and raising one of her fore feet 
 quietly pawed the air, and then let it drop, without making as much noise as 
 would alarm a mosquito. 
 
 The woodsman shrugged his shoulders admiringly, and making her a sign 
 to be motionless till his return, retreated again into the cave. 
 
 He had been gone but a few minutes, when he re-appeared, holding 
 by the bridle a young, coal-black charger, whose fierce, restless spirit, as it 
 came rushing up the slope, seemed to disdain the meddling bit, which it 
 champed indignantly ; and to regard 'with scorn the strength and towering 
 form of the woodsman, whom it threatened every moment to break from, 
 and then dash in pieces. 
 
 The planter could scarcely restrain a burst of admiration at sight of the 
 magnificent animal. 
 
 The restless movements of the noble steed, as it reared and plunged, 
 in its efforts to shake off the powerful hold of the woodsman, would not 
 permit the planter to take a deliberate view of its points. He could only 
 catch momentary glimpses of its two small ears, shaped like spear points , of 
 its large, clear black eyes flashing indignant lightnings ; of its bold, broad 
 nostrils, red as blood, and throwing forth a fierce, hot breath glowing like 
 the light rays of the sun as it streams through the windows of a building ; 
 of its high, arching neck, fringed with a deep, flowing mane, that tossed with 
 its every movement like at slight rolling billow ; of its deep, broad chest, that 
 seemed as if about to burst with indignant "wrath ; of its small, .tapering 
 limbs, on which the full charged veins shone like rods of steel ; and of its 
 long, switch tail that swept the air like a fan. Its skin of a glossy, spot- 
 less black, shone with every rear and plunge, like a flash of light, and spoke 
 of youth, vigor and health, as well as of pure and noble blood. 
 
 " Aint he a proud critter, Neil?" cried the scalp hunter, with a light laugh, 
 as he strove to bring the animal to a stand ; " wouldn't 'yew think now, by 
 his leapin' and tearin,' and his capers, to crush me under his hoofs, that he 
 was King G-eorge himself strugglin' to trample down the people ? And yet 
 the varmint was raised among the cussed yaller bellies, and aint got no 
 more right 'to treat a decent 'feller in this way than a rattle snake has to 
 throw his pizen at a white man !" 
 
 " Where did you obtain him. Nat ?" said the planter. 
 
 " Out on the borders, one day, when huntin' scalps. I'd got into a swamp 
 and was lookin' out for a fresh trail, when I suddenly stumbled on about a 
 a dozen of the varmint, camped in the grass. 'Fore they knowed where
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 23 
 
 they was, old Sal guv a bark, and one of the varmint made a spring as 
 ef he intended to jump right thru to heving ; then clubbin' the old critter 
 I pitched right in among 'em, and sogged em so, that they hadn't time to 
 ketch their wits. Only five on 'em showed . grit, but old Sal's butt end 
 crunched 'em quicker 'n chain lightnin', and they caved in like so many rotten 
 sheep. There warn't then only one varmint left, but he was mounted on 
 'bout the 'tarnalest piece of horse meat yew ever heerd on. Ef old Sal had 
 been charged and rammed down, I wouldn't a keerd ; but she warn't ; and 
 the first glimpse I had of the sarpint was, as he was standin' on the hoss's 
 back, and takin' a deliberate aim with his rifle at my head. I was kind a 
 skeery jest at that minit ; but bein' as I didn't feel as ef I wanted to shallow 
 lead, I dropped quicker 'n chain lightnin', and jest at that ms'nt I heerd the 
 bullet a whizzen past as ef it thought it had hit somebody. The cunnin var- 
 mint hadn't no idee of- givin' a feller time to load, but findin' his lead hadn't 
 done no harm, drove right up with the notion of tramplin and clubbin' me on 
 the head, afore I had time to git up. But I'd been raised 'mong folks who'd 
 font Ingen afore then ; and so, on droppin', I crawled quicker 'n a painter 
 thru the grass, and when the varmint had got to the spot where he'd seen 
 me fall, I wasn't thar ! Old Sal was greased and rammed down in no time, 
 and then I lifted myself up a little sly, and cuss me, ef the yaller belly 
 wasn't a dodgin' round in a circle, on that 'tarnal boss of his'n, his eyes ruu- 
 nin' every where, and his rifle clubbed and ready to split at a moment's 
 warnin'. He didn't see me till I yelled, but as his eyes fell on me, old Sal 
 barked, and he dropped from the back of his steed as ef lightnin' had touched 
 him. And then I heerd a screech it warn't nuthin' like a nat'ral whinney, 
 from the hoss, as ef the death of the varmint had touched its vitals. I said 
 nuthin' ! but out with my knife and whittled off the scalps ; but when I 
 went up to take that of the hoss's rider, yew oughter seed it. The critter 
 yelled wuss 'n a painter ; it reared and plunged around the body, and 
 wouldn't let a feller come near it at any price. I didn't want to kill, the ani- 
 mal, and I did want the scalp ; and as matters looked, to git the one I should 
 hev to du the other. The case puzzled me. Thinks I, 111 wait So I pre- 
 tends to move away, but on goin' a little distance I dropped down in the 
 grass, and laid still, tu see what the critter would du. In a little while I 
 crawled keerfully towards the red skin, and there I seed the animal sprawlin' 
 down by his body, kissin' the face, and moanin' as ef its heart was broke. 
 Thinks I, I wunt hurt that critter's feelins by takin his master's scalp, but I'll 
 jest snake him, and take him hum. By and bye, the critter's dreadful suffer- 
 ins threw him into a sleep : and then I crept along on all fours till one spring 
 brought the bridle in my hand and me upon his back In a moment, the 
 critter woke,i as ef he couldn't believe himself ; then starting up, he raised 
 on his hind legs as ef he thought he could land me ; then he pitched forward 
 on a flyin' run for nigh on to about thirty yards, and then dropped sudden 
 as lightnin' : but he didn't du it, and findin that trick warn't likely to 
 answer, he tried all sorts of rairin' and plungin' to 'complish it. But it warn't 
 no mortil use ! I was as perfectly to hum on his back, as ef I had been 
 asleep on bar skins ; and when the critter seed that, he guv in, and pickin up 
 the spiles from the varmint I had scalped, I rlruv him hum and put him in 
 the stable here. I aint had him out more'n once or twice since : but he 
 und'stands me well enough, for all his airs now, to know that he couldn't tosg 
 me, ef he is a tairer." 
 
 This sketch of the gallant steed was told by fits and jerks, as the scalp 
 hunter strove to bring him to a stand ; and not in the rapid and connected 
 manner we have related it, 
 
 It was only when the woodsman had brought the anecdote to a close, that 
 the horse ceased Jo struggle, and to champ his bits calmly. 
 
 " Neil," continued the scalp hunter. " I want yew to take this critter and
 
 24 ~H" SWAMP STEED : OK THE DAYS 
 
 keep him and I don't want yew to refuse nuthcr ef you du I shall feel 
 hurt 'Taint every man 'that I'd give such an animal to : but you are to 
 me like a brother, and I know yew'll take keer of the critter for the sake of 
 
 . 
 
 This was one of those situations in which it would have been cruel to de- 
 cline, and Neil, with a bow expressive of his feelings, sprang upon the back 
 of the gallant steed, and taking the rein in one hand, patted the animal gentiy 
 on the neck with the other, and in a few moments the pair appeared to be 
 the best friends in the world. 
 
 The woodsman re-covered the mouth of the cave with the bark screen ; 
 returned the sycamore arm to its former position ; and then advanced to- 
 wards ( his cream colored mare, whose sleepy looking eyes expanded and 
 beamed with pleasure as he approached, and who crouched down so as to 
 permit him to mount without the slightest inconvenience. 
 
 The woodsman patted her fondly on the neck : 
 
 " Ah, yew are a fine old gal, Nell ! Now, gently, Nell gently, old gal, 
 and teach that young swamp steed a lesson how to take his rider through 
 the brush without teUin' tales." 
 
 The old lady thus flattered, felt herself upon her metal ; and, as if com- 
 prehending every word of her master, glided through the wood with a ra- 
 pidity and quietness that would have astonished any one but an experienced 
 denizen of the wild woods. 
 
 But, if Nell was an adept at this business, the gallant young swamp steed 
 was not exactly an amateur. His steps were quicker, but his footfalls not less 
 light than the old lady's ; and he carried himself and rider through the tor- 
 tuous windings of the wood with a speed and cautiousness that told nobly for 
 his Indian education. 
 
 When they had reached the bottom of the hill and entered upon the level 
 highway leading to the river side, the young steed carried himself with a 
 swaggering independence which informed the cream-colored lady that he 
 didn t think she had taught him such a great deal, after all 
 
 Here the parties took the ferry boat which plied at this point between the 
 two shores, and were transported, after some delay, to the other side of the 
 river. 
 
 It was late when they reached the opposite shore, and the two friends found 
 it necessary to give then- animals a free rein, if they desired to reach the 
 house of the planter in anything like season for repose. 
 
 The mare was slender, long^limbed and fleet as a racer. Her movements 
 were light, easy and supple, and she sped over the road with a grace, confi- 
 dence and swiftness which caused the eye of her rider to sparkle with admi- 
 ration and pride. The animal evidently felt that her reputation, as a courser 
 was at stake, and threw herself out as if conscious of her ability to main- 
 tain it 
 
 The swamp steed appeared to be conscious that his reputation as a gallant 
 animal was yet to be achieved, but felt equally as confident that he possessed 
 the bottom to obtain it He tossed his small, princely head with a proud, 
 defiant air ; threw a scornful glance at the cream-colored lady at his side, 
 opened his mouth and nostrils as if to imbibe a long draught of air ; stretched 
 his limbs an instant as if to call up all his elasticity and nerve, then sprang 
 forward and shot along the road like an arrow. 
 
 _ From that moment, the farm houses, fences and trees skirting the way 
 sides appeared to the riders like a moving panorama. The coursers did not 
 run they flew. The uneven high road was no longer an undulating path- 
 way, but a rolling sea. and the coursers, ships skimming over the breakers ; 
 now lost for an instant in the hollow, oscillating cradles, the next appearing 
 upon the summits of the billows, and then speeding onward with a rapidity 
 that threatened death to everything that might be in their path.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 26 
 
 Riding in this manner, they reached the planter's house in a few hours, 
 when weary and exhausted, they threw themselves from their horses and 
 sought in slumber to recruit their energies to encounter the dangers and ex- 
 citements which their hearts forewarned them would confront them on the 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE morning of the following day opened with a thick impenetrable mist, 
 which hung like a gray shroud over the hills and valleys fit emblem of the 
 gloom that overshadowed the hearts of the people : and a type of the destiny 
 of the colonies, which was at that period vague, mournful, and threatening. 
 
 By eight o'clock, however, the fog rose slowly from the earth till it was 
 high above the hills ; the sun launched its golden streams through the rapidly 
 melting clouds, clothing them with its glittering light, and bathing the woods 
 and fields in the bright yellow of its radiant glow. 
 
 The emerald fields, the slopes far up the Hill sides, sparkled with the glit- 
 tering dew drops that lingered upon their blades ; the bubbling brooks, the 
 creeping rivulets, and the running streams, shone like lakes of molten silver ; 
 the air was perfumed with the balmy odors of clover, sweet-brier, wild flow- 
 ers and thyme ; from copse and wood the feathered songsters chanted an- 
 thems of praise and joy in voices of rich melody : all nature was clothed in 
 the bright garments of a bride. 
 
 Man alone wore a brow of gloom. With him the sunlight was not a stream 
 of gold, but a lake of iron, forging itself into chains ; with him the green 
 fields were not objects of beauty to which he was to look for bread, but 
 cemeteries in one of which he was soon to find a grave ; with him, the laugh- 
 ing brooks, the murmuring rivulets and dashing streams were but tears that 
 he and his had shed ; the songs of birds were not hymns of praise, but dirges 
 of mourning. 
 
 The roads that branched off from Kingstree, the county town of the Dis- 
 trict of Williamsburgh, presented on the morning in question a picturesque 
 and stirring sight. 
 
 Men on horseback and on foot, variously armed with rifles, guns, pitch- 
 forks and axes, were seen hurrying along towards Kingstree ; scarcely utter- 
 ing a word as they proceeded, and all with scowling brows, pale cheeks, 
 clenched hands, and quivering nostrils ; all bent upon some errand, judging 
 by their excited air and manner, which liad for each and all a terrible in- 
 terest. 
 
 By nine o'clock, the town of Kingstree was alive with men like these. 
 Every brow, whatever its rank in the social scale, whatever its age on the 
 scroll of time, wore a fierce and thoughtful look ; men congregated here and 
 there in knots of twos and threes and tens, and listened with varied feelings 
 to some one in their midst from whose lips could every now and then be 
 heard the words "Lexington, 19th April without warning people in 
 arms cold blood!" And these words were cabalistic; and cheeks around 
 the speaker paled ; lips were closed and drawn back against the teeth, till 
 they all but forced the latter in ; nostrils quivered ; breathings grew hot and 
 quick; eyes flashed lightnings; brows waxed blacker; and hands grasped 
 firmer such weapons as they held. 
 
 They were in all guises, too, these men ; the broadcloth of the planter, the 
 
 homespun of the farmer, the make shift of the laborer, and the buckskin of 
 
 the borderer ; all mingling together, yet scarcely speakuag ; each retaining his 
 
 own purpose and opinion, while he asked without obtaining those of his neigh- 
 
 4
 
 26 THE. SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 bor ; all laboring under a most intense excitement, and ever and anon turn- 
 ing a glance up towards the town hall, in front of which were drawn up, in 
 lines facing each other, twenty-four mounted troops, who had that morning 
 escorted into town three royal officers, who were then in earnest conference 
 within the building. 
 
 The crowd continued to receive fresh accessions as the morning wore along, 
 and the large green facing the town hall began to present a somewhat threa- 
 tening aspect. 
 
 As yet, however, everything was vague and unsatisfactory. Although it 
 was a generally understood fact that every body had heard the rumor, yet no 
 one could trace it to any reliable source. True, the arrival of the three royal 
 officers and their twenty-four troops on that morning, and that of Richard 
 "Winter the night before, were significant ; but the latter had not shown them- 
 selves to the people ; the sheriff had made no proclamation ; and as to Richard 
 Winter, his character was bad and the crowd knew not what amount of 
 credit to place in his statements. 
 
 And yet it was easy to perceive, by the restless, gloomy and threatening 
 brows of the concourse that they believed, indefinite and thus far unsupport- 
 ed as was the report, implicitly in the startling rumor they had heard, and 
 were prepared to act upon it the moment it assumed the shape of certainty. 
 
 Still they would wait, and do nothing prematurely, till the intelligence 
 came to them in such a manner that there could no longer lie any room on which 
 to hang a doubt ; thus spoke the prudent. It was dangerous to take a step 
 which might, after all, be based upon a false rumor rumor does so much to 
 mislead men, and bring them to ruin and sorrow ; thus spoke the very 
 cautious. It could not be possible that the crown would care so little for the 
 people as to hew them down as reported ; there was no use in rushing on to 
 danger without knowing what for ; thus spoke the timid. If the King has 
 dared to do this thing, WO^D him wo! oh, if we could but learn something 
 reliable ! Thus spoke the true and brave. And all united in waiting for in- 
 telligence from a trustworthy channel. 
 
 At length a horseman was seen in full gallop on the Georgetown road, and 
 approaching the village at full speed. He had scarcely made his appearance, 
 when another came in sight. Both were well mounted, and rode their horses 
 like men familiar with the saddle. 
 
 As they neared the town, they raised their hats as a signal that they were 
 armed with news of a serious import, on perceiving which, such of the throng 
 as were on horseback, dashed off from the green to meet them. 
 
 Among the latter, were our two friends, Neil Somers and the hardy woods- 
 man. 
 
 As the planter came up with the advancing horseman, he recognized in 
 him a gentleman with whom he had formed an intimate acquaintance in 
 Charleston. 
 
 The recognition was mutual ; and after a warm but hasty salutation on both 
 sides, Neil Somers reined up his horse beside that of the new comer, with 
 whom he entered into a terse and rapid conversation. 
 
 The effect of the stranger's discourse upon the planter was magical The 
 blood slowly receded from his countenance : his brow gathered into a gloomy 
 frown ; his eyes became half closed and flashed sparks of indignant fire ; 
 his nostrils swelled and quivered ; the muscles around his mouth twitched as 
 if contending with some electric power ; his lips closed in against his teeth 
 as if striving ''to drive them from their gums; his whole frame shook with a 
 convulsive tremor. 
 
 But this was only temporary. In a few minutes, by a violent effort of his 
 will, the planter threw off these visible signs of agitation. His face became 
 flushed, his brow unruffled, his eyes expanded, his nostrils calm, his muscles 
 tranquil, and his frame composed.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 27 
 
 "Now," said the stranger to him in a low voice, "now, Somers, that you 
 know all, tell it to these men upon the green, in your own peculiar style. 
 Speak to them, as you alone know how to speak ; appeal to their heads and 
 hearts and leave the rest to Him !" 
 
 The voice of the stranger was calm but impressive ; and his general air 
 that of one who understood mankind and himself. As he finished speaking, 
 the planter grasped his hand, pressed it, and exclaimed 
 
 " I will, Marion, I will. I'll speak to them in the name of God and hu- 
 manity !" 
 
 The stranger returned the pressure, and they rode forward in silence to the 
 green. 
 
 As they approached, all eyes were bent upon them ; and 
 
 "'Tis Marion, the Hero of the Forlorn Hope at the batttle of Btchoel" 
 whispered one, flinging a quiet glance at the stranger. 
 
 " 'Tis Marion, the Friend of the People," said another. 
 
 "Tis Marion, the rice planter of St. John's," cried a third. 
 
 ' 'Tis Marion, the Protector of the Borders," added a fifth. 
 
 ''Tis Marion, the Thinker," said a sixth. 
 
 ' 'Tis Marion, the Fearless," said another. 
 
 ' 'Tis Marion, the True," added an eighth. 
 
 ' Wherever he goes, there I will go," said one. 
 
 ' If he sides with the king, then the king must be right, and I will side 
 with him also," murmured another. 
 
 "Marion sides only with the cause of right and truth," returned his neigh- 
 bor ; " and the side he takes, that side will be mine." 
 
 " Hush !" whispered all. " We are going to hear it, now. Marion and 
 young Somers are on the stand." 
 
 " Somers and Marion, are two of the bpst men in the colony," whispered 
 a middle aged farmer to another at his elbow ; "hat they say, we can rely 
 on." 
 
 " There's big Nat, the scalp hunter !" muttered one. " You might be sure 
 he'd be on hand when there's blows to be had and given. He's a 
 trump !" 
 
 "Who's that with him?" asked a settler at his side. 
 
 " That's Pete Horry, who fout the red skins so stout at the battle of 
 Etchoe. There's grit in him, I tell you!" 
 
 "Hush Marion and young Somers are whispering!" 
 
 " We'll have it soon !" 
 
 " Yes, it's comin' now. Young Somers is goin' to speak !" 
 
 The platform was a hastily constructed affair, consisting of a few rough 
 boards laid across the tops of a couple of market wagons resting in the 
 shadow of a large tree which rose in the middle of the green. 
 
 In the centre of this staging Somers now appeared, standing beside 
 the personage who was so readily recognized by the crowd. The sides, and 
 in fact every part of the platform, was crowded with young and full grown 
 individuals, who had hastily clambered up and seated themselves the moment 
 it was known that it was to be occupied as a rostrum from which to address 
 the multitude. 
 
 On the right of the stand, on the back of his favorite mare, with his long 
 rifle lying across the saddle before him, rose the gigantic form of Nat the 
 woodsman ; his bronzed face turned with eager attention towards the centre 
 of the platform, and his large dare-devil eyes wandering alternately from the 
 face of the planter to that of the gentleman from St. John's, with nervous 
 anxiety. Beside him, and on horseback, was the second horseman, whom 
 many of the crowd had already recognized as a good man and true, and 
 called by the name of Horry 
 
 Around the platform, and nearly covering the entire face of the green,
 
 28 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 stood a vast multitude, consisting of backwoodsmen, farmers, planters, plough- 
 men, laborers, storekeepers, and craftsmen of every kind ; all more or less 
 armed with offensive weapons, and all presenting one of those heterogenous 
 crowds visible only on critical occasions, or when States are in danger. 
 
 Prom the windows of almost every huse surrounding the green, female 
 heads of all ages and colors, might be seen looking forth ; some glancing 
 ing over the multitude : others straining their eyes in the direction of the 
 platform, and striving with all their might to catch the outlines of the two 
 countenances on whom the gaze of the vast throng was fixed. 
 
 The limbs of the large tree in the centre of the green were filled with a 
 score or more of men and lads, looking down with anxious interest at the 
 parties on the platform ; while, grasping the slightly leaning trunk, might be 
 seen numbers of others, eagerly and actively working their way up to perch 
 themselves upon the branches ; from whence they could look down and 
 hear all that was said, and observe all that was going on. 
 
 At length the gentleman from St. John's waved his hand as a signal that 
 his companion was about to speak. In a moment the loud murmur formed 
 by the united whisperings and mutterings of the throng ceased, and all eyes 
 were directed at the planter. 
 
 " Men of Carolina," he began, in a voice that fell on then- ears like the 
 clear, bold voice of a clarion, " the hour has come when we must shake off 
 forever the cloud which has been hovering over our colonies, and look for a 
 purer sky ; the hour when we must throw off the garments of bondage, and 
 put on the robes of freemen ; the hour when we must cease to kiss the hand 
 that smites us, and holding up our heads, return the blow ; the hour when 
 we must no longer speak to tyranny by soft petitions and cold words, but by 
 loud cries and hot blood ; the hour when we must no longer welcome the 
 minions Of oppression, bu^-epel and drive them back ; the hour when we 
 must rise, as one man, in me name of that God in whom alone we can trust, 
 and hi the name of that suffering humanity of which we are a part, and re- 
 nounce forever the name of Englishmen, and take up that of Americans for 
 0, men of Carolina, the royal cannon has been loaded and discharged, 
 the royal muskets have been levelled and their triggers pulled, the royal 
 sword has been lifted and brought down, and hundreds of our brethren 
 butchered in blood ! 
 
 " Do you hear it, men of the borders and the wilderness, and not grasp 
 your rifles and your knives ? Do you hear it, tillers of the field, and not 
 catch up your sickles and your scythes ? Do you hear it, smiths and howers 
 and not seize your axes and your bars ? Do you hear it, dealers in merchan- 
 dize, and not exchange your wares for muskets and for pikes ? Do you hear 
 it, men of law, and flee not from your fields of words to fields of gallant 
 deeds ? Do you hear it, men of the pulpit, and will ye preach to men of 
 peace ? Do you hear it, men of Carolina, and will ye hearken to it tamely ? 
 The king has shot your brethren clown blood has been shed ! 
 
 " This man upon the throne whose heart shrinks at nothing, however in- 
 famous or black ; this wearer of the ermin who sees in the sceptre merely 
 a rod with which to scourge the people ; this heartless king whose soul 
 delights in cruelty, and who washes his hands in tears wrung from a suffer- 
 ing nation ; this possessor of the crown great only in tyranny, wise only 
 m wickedness, accomplished only in barbarity, industrious only in edicts 
 which beggar while they madden the masses, and generous only to parasites 
 who applaud and minister to his vices, and to tools who alone uphold his 
 brutal fcone; this bad man, I hereby arraign at the bar of public opinion 
 denounce him as a brute, a tyrant and a murderer, and call upon you me 
 of Carolina, to join with me in sundering forever the chains he has flune 
 around us, in renouncing forever the name of Englishmen which he has 
 covered with disgrace, m answering with defiance his mandate which bids us
 
 
 OF MARION AND HIS M52KRY MEN. 29 
 
 .grovel in the earth or be hunted like beasts for 0, men of Carolina, he has 
 hurled his troops upon our brethren of the North, has rained powder and 
 lead and iron on their persons and their homes, till their fields have smoked 
 with flame and carnage, and their valleys become crimsoned with blood ! 
 
 ;: Rise, men of Carolina ! if ye would not share their fate ! Rise, men of 
 the borders if ye would preserve your lodges from the flame ! Rise, men 
 of the wilderness, if ye would not be driven to consort with the savage, and 
 be hunted like the wolf! Rise, men of the fields, if ye would not lose your 
 plantations and your farms ! Rise, men of the workshop, if ye would not 
 for your handiwork receive the bondsman's hire, and the bondsman's bread ! 
 Rise, men of the law, and plead for God, Humanity, and Freedom ! Rise, 
 men of the pulpit, and preach woe to the tyrant and the murderer ! Rise, 
 men of trade, and save your wares from the spoiler ! To arms, men of 
 Carolina ! the foot of the tyrant is on our shores, and will soon be on our 
 necks ! To arms, men of the South ! the oppressor comes with torch and 
 carnage the land is red with blood ! 
 
 " As for me, men of Carolina ! I will resist this despot and his minions to 
 the death ! As for me, I will shoulder my rifle and with all who will follow, 
 march forth to meet and battle with his hosts ! As for me, I do hereby con- 
 secrate my life, my fortunes and my honor to the cause of Freedom and Hu- 
 manity ! As for me, come weal, come woe I do here, in the presence of 
 God and this multitude, make an offering of my head and heart, my hand 
 and my possessions, to my country ! 
 
 " Join with me, men of Carolina ! in this my offering to Freedom. Join 
 with me, men of the borders and the wilderness ; join with me, cultivators 
 of plantations, and tillers of farms ; join with me, men of the workshop, and 
 men of the fields ; join with me, dealers in merchandize ; join with me men 
 of the pulpit and of the bar join with me in driving back the cohorts of 
 tyranny, in uprearing the standard of Freedom, in proclaiming the reign of 
 the despot over, in avenging the fall of our brethren, in shouting from hill 
 and from valley, from the wilderness down to the sea, the great battle cry of 
 our colonies God and Liberty !" 
 
 And from the multitude which, laboring under the eloquence of the speaker, 
 had for some moments been tossing to and fro with suppressed excitement^ 
 as a field of grain is sometimes shaken by the wind, there now uprose a wild 
 and stormy cry, which fell like a crash of thunder on the air, and was heard 
 for many a mile around. 
 
 " Woe, woe !" continued the planter, solemnly, as the deafening din waa 
 borne away on the aerial waves, " woe to the despot who, in reddening our 
 plains with the blood of our people, has brought us to this ! 
 
 " Woe to the tyrant who has made light of our sufferings, -who has lashed 
 us to madness, who has aroused us to wrath ! 
 
 "Woe, woe to the monarch who has called up our anger, who has pro- 
 voked us to blood, by his slaughter and flame !" 
 
 " Woe, woe !" shouted the multitude, brandishing their weapons, like men 
 ready and eager for battle. 
 
 " Woe, woe to the ingrate who has grown strong, haughty and rich on 
 our substance, and returns it with fire, returns it with blood ! 
 
 " Woe, woe 1" repeated the throng. 
 
 " Woe, woe to the monarch, woe to his minions, should they come on our 
 borders, should they tread on our valleys, should they appear on our 
 hills !" 
 
 " Woe, woe 1" yelled the multitude, frantic with rage. 
 
 " For they have slaughtered our brethren, have chased them with bullet 
 and cannon and steel, and fired their homesteads and laid waste their fields. 
 Woe, woe to them, woe !"
 
 30 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 And again, with countenances darkened with rage, the throng flourished 
 their weapons and yelled aloud, 
 
 " Woe, woe !" 
 
 " For the blood they have spilled, they shall give blood in return !" 
 
 " Aye aye blood in return !" 
 
 " For every life they have taken, they shall pay it with five 1" 
 
 " With five !" 
 
 " For every hearthstone they have broken, they shall do penance in 
 blood !" 
 
 " Do penance in blood !" 
 
 " Till the last legion is broken and prostrate and slain ; till the last vessel 
 that brought them lies a wreck on the ocean, without captain or crew ; till 
 the last vestige of kingcraft lies smouldering in ashes, reposing in death !" 
 
 " Smouldering in ashes, reposing in death !" 
 
 ^vThus shall we destroy the despot : s power to do us harm, thus dash aside 
 for ever the bitter chalice from which he would compel us drink ; thus shall 
 we pass from danger unto safety ; thus climb from bondage up to freedom ; 
 thus stride from misery to happiness ; thus stalk from weakness and decay 
 to strength, security and progress ; thus pass from the vassalage of bondsmen 
 to the independence of freemen ; thus climb from poverty and darkness, to 
 prosperity and light ; thus pass from slavery j danger and misrule, to freedom, 
 security and order !" 
 
 " Freedom, security and order !" 
 
 And with these words, there rose up from the multitude on the green, a 
 shout that made the welkin ring and reverberate like echoes of thunder amid 
 wild and cavernous hills. 
 
 i! Thus," continued the planter, his countenance beaming with a radiance 
 and grandeur which gave him an air of such sublime majesty that the majo- 
 rity of his hearers never frrgot it to their dying day, and which impressed 
 many of them with the conviction that the words which followed were the 
 offspring of prophetic inspiration, " thus on the ruins of a cruel, selfish and 
 ungrateful despotism, shall we erect the structure of a free, liberal and flour- 
 ishing republic ; thus shall we teach a lesson to kings they will remember to 
 their latest hour ; thus shall we make of these colonies and this whole conti- 
 nent a gigantic republic which shall open its broad arms to the weak and 
 oppressed of all climes, and by the force of its moral and physical strength 
 
 " Thus, men of Carolina, shall we serve ourselves, humanity and God ! 
 Thus, by one brave effort, shall we shake off the fangs of a monster who re- 
 gards us but as vassals whom he is privileged to abuse, ruin and destroy ac- 
 cording to his humor ! Let all who love freedom and abhor tyranny, follow 
 me ; let all who would emerge from misery to happiness strike a freeman's 
 blow with me ; let all who shudder at this brutal murder of our brethren at 
 the North all who have in their breasts true and gallant hearts, enlist with 
 me in the cause of freedom and humanity ! 
 
 " Beside me," pointing to the gentleman from St. Johns, " stands one 
 whom many of you know. You have seen him in the roar and smoke and 
 brunt of battle, and know him for a soldier. You have 'been familiar for 
 years with his fame as a calm and upright citizen, and know him for a man. 
 
 " He is now fresh from Charleston, with authority from the patriot leaders 
 to raise men for a campaign against the royal cohorts who have shed Ame. - 
 ican blood. 
 
 " In this glorious cause are enlisted the best and bravest of Carolina's sons- 
 men and arms are waiting men of Carolina, will ye join our ranks ? 
 
 " Here in sight of God and this multitude of witnesses, I write my name 
 the first upon this scroll ; here do I consecrate my name, my fortunes and
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 31 
 
 my arm to freedom thus pledge myself and mine, come weal come woe, to 
 the bright mistress of my soul my country !" 
 
 He ceased. For a moment the throng, spell-bound by his words, was 
 silent and motionless. Then drawing a long breath, the mass uttered a low 
 murmur as^f striving to find a vent for the feeling that oppressed it. A mo- 
 ment more, and it rocked to and fro like a moving sea ; then, as if it had 
 succeeded in shaking off the trance in which it had been wrapt, the murmur 
 was followed by a loud roar which shook the air like a discharge of thunder. 
 
 This had scarcely passed away when a confused and eager rush was made 
 for the stand. 
 
 " Mr. Somers ! put my name down thar', jest onderneath yourn !" cried a 
 voice, which was at once recognized by the crowd. 
 
 " Hurrah for Nat, the scalp hunter !" cried the multitude, with enthusiasm. 
 
 " And here's a name will follow that !" cried a tall, gaunt young fellow, 
 with a rollicking eye and hair of a fiery^ red, who now sprang upon the plat- 
 form, arid seizing the pen dashed off, in a clear bold hand, a name afterwards 
 rendered immortal. It was that of John Maodonald. 
 
 " Hold on, Jack !" cried a young farmer with a pale complexion, an eye 
 black and piercing as an eagle's, short black hair, and a frame slender as a 
 woman's, but supple and muscular as steel ; " you can write, and I can't 
 Just put my name down there, will you ?" 
 
 "All right, Bill," answered Macdonald, "there it is, in as saucy a hand as 
 a schoolmaster could make it." And he wrote in large, bold characters a 
 name that was subsequently destined to attain a high place on the scroll of 
 American fame. That name was William Jasper. 
 
 "Hello, capting!" shouted in a loud nasal twang, a personage, dressed in a 
 rough minting shirt, and a slouched beaver, whose gigantic height, bold pro- 
 file, and lean, gaunt figure, pronounced him one of the " dangerous custom- 
 ers" so common among the colonists of that day, " I've an idea my pot hooks 
 wouldn't look any wuss 'en anybody's else, an 'so I'll skretch 'em down !" 
 And elbowing his way through the throng by whom he was surrounded, and 
 who readily yielded a passage to the sharp elbows of the colossus, the speaker 
 worked his way to the side of the platform up which he at once clambered 
 with all the agility of a squirrel. 
 
 Taking the pen, he, after numerous contortions, both of body and face, at 
 length succeeded in writing off, in letters gaunt and lean as his own power- 
 ful frame, the name of Peter Snipes. 
 
 The work went on, till the roll of the gentleman from St. Johns was rilled, 
 and he declared there were as many upon the paper as were necessary to 
 form his company. 
 
 The throng looked sad and disappointed. Scores stood around the plat- 
 form anxious to enrol their names, whom the pressure had till then kept back. 
 
 " I have a friend here," said Marion, readily comprehending their feelings, 
 " upon the same errand as myself. We are both attached to the same regi- 
 ment. It will be all the same, if you enlist under him. Captain Horry," he 
 added, turning to that gentleman, " you are wanted here I" 
 
 The announcement of the gentleman from St. Johns was received with 
 loud acclamations, amid which captain Horry dismounted from his horse, 
 sprang upon the platform, and opening his enlistment roll, declared himself 
 ready to receive the names of those desirous of responding to the call of their 
 country. The bystanders stepped up with an alacrity that was cheering ; 
 and while the good work was going on, the gentleman from St. Johns and 
 the young planter occupied one corner of the platform ; the former deliber- 
 ately inspecting one by one the names upon his list, and ever and anon ques- 
 tioning his companion relative to their characters for probity, intelligence and 
 courage ; and the latter answering wilh a readiness which evinced a thorough 

 
 32 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 knowledge of the habits, attributes and positions of the men of that district, 
 together with an enlarged and correct view of human nature. 
 
 While they were thus engaged, Nat the woodsman glided quietly from hi* 
 horse, and throwing his arm through the rein, bunched his hands over the 
 mouth of his rifle, on which he rested his chin, and then flung his eyes, 
 thoughtfully at the gentleman from St. Johns, to take a good lou% look at his 
 future commander. 
 
 The appearance of Captain Marion was, to the eyes of t_ae scalp hunter, 
 who was accustomed in a great measure to read men's characters by their 
 external aspect, a fit subject for study. 
 
 In person, he was short and slender ; rather below, than on a level with, 
 the common height. His limbs were small, well set, muscular and wiry, and 
 evidently inured to, and as capable of enduring, the most severe fatigues. 
 
 In manner, the gentleman from St. Johns was frank, easy, graceful and 
 ubdued. 
 
 His complexion was of that bronzed hue peculiar to the hardy sons of th3 
 wilderness and the borders. rt 
 
 His brows were shaded by masses of thick, jet-black hair ; his forehead 
 was broad, high and smooth; his nose small and aquiline ; his lips diminutive, 
 but expressive of great strength of will ; his chin bold, but softly and deli- ' 
 cately rounded at the point. 
 
 But it was in liis eyes that the character of the man was most distinctly 
 visible. They were large, the pupils unusually clear and liquidious, and 
 piercing as an eagle's; evincive of a free and unclouded intellect, great depth 
 of brain, extraordinary powers of penetration, a tranquil spirit, and an un- 
 bending will. These were their prevailing aspect; but at present, while 
 wandering from the enlistment roll to the planter, in quest of intelligence, 
 they presented another phase, viz : that of obtaining information and quietly 
 storing it away ; and they appeared as if perpetually engaged in thus collect- 
 ing and laying by items of value which they could call up for use and refer- 
 ence at a future day. 
 
 " He'll du !" muttered the scalp hunter to himself, as he completed his sur- 
 vey of his future commander. " The metal 's in him ; the geenyus is in his 
 head, the grit is in his muscles. How quietly he draws everything from 
 Neil ; sounds him to the bottom without disturbin' himself, or lettin' a crit- 
 ter know what he's up tu ! He'll du ! Ef he lives he'll give the Britishers 
 some tetches of thunder, with a small sprinklin' of lightnin'. The geenyus is 
 in his head, and the grit in his muscles. He's got a nice set of boys tu, tu 
 work with. There's that Jack Macdonald, a critter that could take the hide 
 off a painter in a fair fight in less time than a yaller belly could whittle off a 
 scalp. And then there's Bill Jasper, who, ef he aint got much larnin', knows 
 an awful lot of hewman natur, and ken whip his weight in wild cats. As to 
 Pete Snipe, I've seen him tackle a dozen redskins at a lick, without a finger 
 of powder or a single lead drop, and cave 'em as ef they'd bin corn shucks. 
 As fur Tom Newton, and the rest of the cumpauy, I don't know sech a darn 
 sight about 'em, but they look as ef they wouldn't turn tail for any Britisher 
 or yaller belly in the col'ny, and I've a notion that in that respeck they don't 
 look fur out 'er the way!" 
 
 At this moment, the attention of the scalp hunter was drawn from the 
 platform to the crowd, which was now making demonstrations of a turbulent 
 character. In another instant he heard a cry 
 
 "Look out! the sheriff is comin' down on us!" 
 
 This was speedily followed by another 
 
 " The varmint is in the middle of the troops. Look to your locks, boys 
 the troops are comin' I" 
 
 " Shoot the villains I fire boys, fire!" 
 
 " Stay !" cried a calm, authoritative voice from the stand. It was that ol
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 
 
 t 33 
 
 Marion, on whom all eyes were in an instant turned. " Stay, if ye are men ! 
 Let's not sully the sacred cause in which we are engaged by a single coward*- 
 ry act. Until these men proclaim themselves foes, it is our duty to regard 
 them as friends. Let the sheriff speak it is his right as a public officer ! 
 touch not his supporters they are but fulfilling a duty in guarding him. 
 Should they lead the way in violence, their blood be on their own heads !" 
 
 The throng became sullenly silent, and fell back their countenances how- 
 ever exhibiting a rebellious spirit, and their eyes glaring maliciously at the 
 royal officers and troops. 
 
 The sheriff and his posse advanced down the high road skirting the green ; 
 upon reaching the centre of which they turned their horses' heads and 
 guided them in the direction of the tree, between which and themselves 
 rose a compact mass of armed, stern-browed men, grasping their arms firm- 
 ly and hurling at them glances sullen and flashing with indignant fire. 
 
 The troops paid but little attention to those threatening demonstrations, 
 and at a "Forward!" from one of their officers, gently spurred up their 
 steeds, a supercilious smile lighting up their features the while, expecting the 
 crowd to fall back and give them a free passage, out of that instinctive fear 
 and respect for the king s troops which they had so long been accustomed 
 to witness among the people. 
 
 But .pot a man moved, not a brow unlocked its threatening frown, not an 
 eye relaxed its fierceness. 
 
 " Forward !" cried the leading officer, in a loud, determined voice, and 
 throwing at the same time an angry glance at his men. " Forward !" he re- 
 peated, jerking his rein, and plunging his spurs violently into the sides of 
 his steed. 
 
 The animal bounded forward suddenly toward the crowd, followed by the 
 remaining officers and troops. 
 
 At this moment, a hundred rifles were raised and sighted, the sudden 
 movement of which frightened the animals, and threw them on their 
 haunches. 
 
 " Charge !" cried the officer, rising in his stirrups, and hurling a fierce 
 glance upon the crowd. 
 
 ''Fallback!" exclaimed a loud, ringing voice, which was recognised by 
 nearly every ear as that of. the most intrepid dare-devil of all Wilh'amsburgh, 
 viz : Jack Macdonald. " Fall back, I warn you ! Another step another 
 movement, and a hundred rifles shall empty your saddles in an instant! 
 Do you think to ride us down, as if we were cattle ?" 
 
 The officer trembled, and turned his eye appealingly to the sheriff, who 
 now appeared in the centre of the two lines of troopers, and between two 
 young officers, whose handsome features and striking resemblance to one an- 
 other were matters of profound astonishment and remark. 
 
 At this moment, Nat. the woodsman, turned his head in the direction of 
 the platform, and his eyes met those of the young planter, who was pale 
 and trembling. 
 
 " He has recognised 'em !" murmured the scalp hunter. ~^~, 
 
 The sheriff now rode forward, and raising himself in his stirrups, ex- 
 claimed 
 
 " In the name of the king, I charge ye to open a passage for the royal 
 troops. Do you hear ?" he added, angrily, as he noticed the indifference with 
 which his order was received, " in the name of the king !" 
 
 The crowd remained firm ; not a movement was visible, except in the 
 ranks of the .troops, which now, at a signal from the officer, calmly drew 
 their weapons from their sheaths. 
 
 " Stay !" said the sheriff, with an agitation he tried in vain to repress. 
 "Let me once more appeal to these misguided men, who surely cannot 
 dream of opposing the servants of His Majesty ! Citizens," he added, turn- 
 
 5
 
 34 THE SWAMP STEED ] OR THE DATS 
 
 ing to the multitude, "I command ye, in the name of the king, to disperse, 
 and return to your homes. He who refuses to obey this order, I, by virtue 
 of my office as sheriff of the county, hereby pronounce a traitor and an out- 
 law. Citizens, disperse, in the name of the king !" 
 
 The throng remained stationary ; not a man moved. 
 
 Big beads of sweat gathered upon the brow of the sheriff. 
 
 " Citizens," he cried, " you do not, it appears, comprehend me. I have 
 ordered you to disperse, and you do not seem disposed to obey. I fear there 
 are traitors among you ; men of bad hearts and evil minds, whose serpent 
 tongues have beguiled you of your better judgments, and are leading you 
 astray. But beware how you trifle with the servants of the king ; be cau- 
 tious how you tamper with the crown ! I feel disposed to pity your weak 
 minds, and to overlook your great crime in refusing to obey my order, but 
 only on one condition." 
 
 He paused, as if expecting some reply; but receiving none, he resumed, 
 in a voice thick with emotion 
 
 "But it is only on one condition that, in the name of the king, I will over- 
 look your great act of treason, in refusing to comply with the order which, 
 as a servant of the crown, I have given." 
 
 He paused again, and threw his eyes over the multitude, with an expres- 
 sion of great sympathy. 
 
 " And this condition is, that every g9od and loyal subject of his majesty, 
 King George, shall instantly leave this green and walk out into the high 
 road. This will enable me to distinguish who are for open and avowed trea- 
 son, and who for the King !" 
 
 And with these words, the sheriff resumed his seat in the saddle, and 
 smiled complacently as if in expectation of beholding the mass br5ak in a 
 thousand fragments, and scatter and re-collect out upon the road. 
 
 What then, was his amazement, after the lapse of nearly half a minute, to 
 discover that of the throng not a man had moved, and that the highway was 
 as void of their presence as before ! He rubbed his eyes, and looked around 
 him wildly, like a man who feared to place credit in the evidence of his 
 
 Finding tnen, that his eyes had not betrayed him, that the multitude re- 
 garded his offer in the same light with which they had treated his order, that 
 is, with indifference and contempt, the sheriff threw off the mock expression 
 of sympathy he had assumed, and turned, with a countenance blazing with 
 wrath, to the captain of horse. 
 
 " Disperse the knaves !" he cried, " ride, trample, cut them down, sir, in 
 the name of the king !" 
 
 "Form inline!" said the officer, turning to his men. "Unsling your 
 carbines make ready, present ." 
 
 Before he could complete his sentence, half a dozen sharp rifle reports 
 cracked on the air : the officer and sheriff reeled to and fro for an instant, 
 and then dropped from their saddles, without a sigh, without a groan ! 
 
 This significant demonstration operated on the troops like a charm. Their 
 carbines dropped from their hands as if they had been bars of fiery iron. 
 
 The two young officers alone, of all the troupe, retained their courage and 
 self-possession. They exchanged a few hasty words, and then rode up in 
 front of their comrades, divided them into two divisions of twelve men each, 
 and then filed off into the high road, for the purpose, as the throng supposed, 
 of taking leave of the town altogether. 
 
 But in this the multitude on the green were mistaken. The young offi- 
 cers entertained no such idea. On the contrary, they looked upon this as 
 one of those chances in the life of a soldier, when fame, fortune and immor- 
 tality, are won by a single bright thought, a single gallant deed ; and* they 
 determined to take advantage of the opportunity.
 
 or MARION AXD 35 
 
 On reaching the high road, then, each ordered hi? division into line, and 
 prepared for battle. 
 
 " My God !" cried a voice upon the platform, which summoned Marion to 
 the side of the speaker. 
 
 " Somers Somers !" said he in a tone of commiseration, "are you ill !" 
 
 " Look there !" answered the planter, with a groan, and he pointed to the 
 officers. " They are preparing to attack us !" 
 
 But you surely do not fear them T' said Marion, not comprehending him. 
 
 Fear? Yes I tremble, not for myself, but my mother. Her heart will 
 break, should she learn it!" 
 
 And the young man appeared as if about to die. 
 
 " My friend," said Marion, with an air of perplexity, " I fear you have 
 taken leave of your senses." 
 
 '' No, no ; not that not that !" exclaimed the planter, in a voice of such 
 agony that it seemed as if his heart were being wrenched from him by some 
 invisible demon. " You do not understand* me, and this is not a tune for 
 explanation !" 
 
 As he spoke, his eyes fell upon his horse, which stood between the scaffold 
 and the tree. 
 
 " Ha !" he cried, a sudden ray, as if of inspiration lighting up his features, 
 " I am saved she is saved ! God of heaven, I thank thee !" 
 
 In an instant he was upon his horse, and driving through the crowd, who, 
 deeming him mad, rapidly opened for him a passage, through which he sped 
 like lightning. 
 
 The planter's cry was heard and his movements witnessed by the scalp 
 hunter, who no sooner beheld him spring into the saddle, and plunge through 
 the multitude, than he at once comprehended his idea, and his object as well. 
 
 " He cannot du it alone " he murmured. " It takes two to kerry thru a 
 scheme like that ! Give way, friends," he cried aloud. ' T want a passage 
 tu!" 
 
 So saying, he bent down and whispered in the ear of his mare, " Now 
 Nell now, old gal!" 
 
 The next instant he was flying through the crowd as if a legion of Indians 
 were on his trail. 
 
 In a moment more he was on the road, and beside the planter. 
 
 " I und'stand yer plan, Neil," he said hurrriedly, " which one air yew goin' 
 to ketch?" . 
 
 "The one on the left," answered the other. 
 
 " I und'stand." answered the woodsman, and he careened over to the di- 
 Tision on the right. 
 
 "Take care, your honor," said a trooper to his commander, "here's one of 
 the traitors coming up." 
 
 He had scarcely uttered the warning, when the woodsman glided up, and 
 passing his long, powerful arm around the officer's waist, lifted him from his 
 saddle, and placed him before himself on his horse. 
 
 " Now. Nell now old gal !" and away flew the mare with her double 
 burden back to the green. 
 
 " Give way friends, give way !" cried the woodsman. 
 
 And his gallant mare dashed through the amazed crowd, never halting till 
 she reached the stand, where she was joined, a few moments later, by the 
 swamp steed, whose back was also freighted by a double burden. 
 
 So sudden and daring had been the whole movement, the soldiers could 
 scarcely credit it as real As to the two young officers, they were bewilder- 
 ed ; as to the gentleman from St. John's, he was stupified. And the multi- 
 tude upon the green, taking it simply for a brilliant stroke of genius, rent the 
 air Avith deafening hurrahs of admiration and delight. 
 
 " You are my prisoner." said the planter, in as calm a voice as he could
 
 -36 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 assume to the officer he had captured. "Blood has been shed, and you will 
 consider it as an evidence that I am sincere, when I tell you, your life is not 
 worth a pin's fee, if you make an effort to escape. Your sword !" 
 
 "You have the courage of a soldier, and the air of a gentleman," replied 
 the officer, " and I feel confident that my blade, which has never yet been, 
 tainted by dishonor, will, with its master, find honorable treatment at your 
 liands." 
 
 As he finished, he drew the weapon from its sheath, and taking it by the 
 blade he presented the handle to the planter, who received it with an air of 
 grace and dignity which called forth a murmur of admiration from the crowd. 
 
 " Yours," he continued, turning to the other officer ; " nay," he added, as 
 Ite prisoner turned inquiringly to the scalp hunter, who replied to his glance 
 by a nod of approval, " I ask it of you in his name, and that of your brother 
 from whom you would, doubtless, not desire to be separated ?" 
 
 " Oh, no !" answered the prisoner, taking his kinsman by the hand. 
 
 " Mr. Akarman," continued' the planter, " you will give me your prisoner, 
 will you not, in order that they may not be parted ?" 
 
 " He was yourn from the moment he was taken," answered the woodsman. 
 
 " I knew it, or I had had not spoken," said the planter, with a smile of 
 gratitude. " You will therefore perceive, sir," he added, to the officer, " the 
 propriety of yielding up your sword to me to me, who, as your conqueror, 
 cannot permit you to retain it." 
 
 The officer no longer hesitated. 
 
 " Your words of honor now, gentlemen, as soldiers," continued the plant- 
 er, " that neither of you will attempt to escape." 
 
 The officer drew themselves up. 
 
 "I ask it of you, as gentlemen," continued the planter, with an air of such 
 supreme dignity and grandeur, that the officers intuitively recognized in him 
 a being far superior to themselves, " that I may not be compelled to wound 
 your delicacy, by treating you like men who would violate their honor !" 
 
 " I give it to you, sir," said the first. 
 
 " And I," added the second. 
 
 And in the voice and air of the planter, so replete with all the elements 
 of true gentility, the brothers felt an innate influence, magnetic in its tone and 
 effect, gliding like drops of mercury through their organizations, and subdu- 
 ing them to a sense of their inferiority, which they could neither define nor 
 
 "One thing more, gentlemen," said the planter. "Your troops must lay 
 down their arms, and retire from this county. Oblige me by returning to the 
 road, and giving them the order." 
 
 " Nay," said the first officer, " you are now asking too much. I cannot do 
 that. It would cover them and myself with dishonor. They do not regatd 
 themselves as your prisoners !" 
 
 " But they soon will be ; or what is worse, dead ! Reflect. They are in a 
 hostile attitude to five hundred men, three hundred of whom have rifles in 
 their hands, each charged with a messenger that kills wherever it strikes. 
 These men are unerring marksmen, too, and impatient to test their skill upon 
 your troops, whom they regard as foes. Reflect, sir reflect !" 
 
 "I have reflected, sir!" answered the young man, haughtily. 
 
 " Reflect again ! The passions of this multitude are aroused ; their hearts 
 incensed against a monarch who has shed the blood of their brethren : and 
 your troops wear the livery of that king I" 
 
 " You have had my answer, sir !" 
 
 " And I ask you to reconsider it. It is to spare the lives of your troops 
 that I ask you to do this. Reflect twenty-four soldiers cannot battle with 
 ;4hree hundred keen-eyed marksmen, and live to relate the feat ! They may
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 37 
 
 make the attempt, but they will fall as the sheriff fell, drop as their leader 
 dropped, in the effort." 
 
 : ' My men understand their danger, sir, and are willing to face it !" 
 
 " But do they desire to do so ? Tour own good sense must tell you, judg- 
 ing from what you have seen, they cannot live three minutes from the mo- 
 ment our men raise their rifles. The destiny of these troops is in your hands, 
 not in their own. Though soldiers, they are yet men, and as such cling Kfa* 
 men to life. If you refuse to comply with my request, so they can march 
 off alive, they will remain, but it will be to kiss the earth, to take their eter- 
 nal slumber." ' 
 
 " Enough, sir !" returned the officer, " I am ready to accede to your wish." 
 
 " 'Tis well, sir. I will not insult your honor as a gentleman by accompany- 
 ing you. Take my horse. I will await here with your brother, till your 
 return !" 
 
 The young officer bowed, and sprang lightly into the saddle. 
 
 "A passage there, friends!" cried the planter to the crowd; "and let no 
 man insult this gentleman. He is my friend !" 
 
 The packed mass divided, and the officer passed slowly off the green, and 
 approached the troops. 
 
 " Comrades !" he cried, " resistance is useless. We are in the hands of 
 men who know their power and are prepared to use it My brother and I 
 are prisoners, but you are free to return to Charleston when you have laid 
 down your guns. Spare me the pain of giving you that order, but believe 
 me when I tell you that it is necessary if you would not lose your lives !" 
 
 In a moment every man had unslung his carbine and dropped it upon the 
 earth. 
 
 " I thank you gentlemen," continued the officer, "for this manifestation of 
 your confidence. And now comrades, farewell ! I need not tell you what 
 report you had best make on reaching Charleston. Farewell !" 
 
 The troops raised their caps in token of adieu ; then forming into four line* 
 of six men each, they dashed off, and were in a few minutes out of sight. 
 
 The officer looked after them till they had disappeared ; then wheeling his 
 horse about, and uttering a deep sigh, he rode slowly back to the platform, 
 'on the green. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AT one of the two white curtained windows of a small parlor on the 
 second floor of the Palmetto, an inn of some pretensions to respectability, 
 standing on the roadside, and commanding a fine view of the village of 
 Kingstree, as well as of the surrounding country, were two young men, 
 whose eyes were watching, with an expression of deep interest, the proceed- 
 ings upon the green. 
 
 They were neatly and tastily dressed in the quaint costume of that period, 
 and their general air pronounced them members of the petty aristocracy 
 which had risen even in that day among the inhabitants of the borders. 
 
 The one was rather foppish and effeminate in his manner ; the other, 
 though evidently not less proud, was yet more manly in his appearance. 
 Both had the Saxon blue eye, light hair and fair complexion which marked 
 the English families of the province ; as the black hair, dark eyes and olive 
 tinge designated those of the French ; and as the sandy locks, gray eyes and 
 fresh cheeks announced those of the Scotch ; all of winch races were very 
 Mberally represented among the borderers of that section of the colony.
 
 t ' 
 
 38 THE SWAMP STEED ; OK. THE DAYS 
 
 " They are carrying matters with a high hand, Crampton," observed the 
 plainest of the two to his companion, as the sheriff and officer fell from their 
 horses ; " but there will be an hour of reckoning for all this : and when it 
 comes, yon hero of to-day," and he pointed to Neil Somers, " will swing for 
 his frothy bravado, and take his last look of earth in the court-yard of the 
 provost ! ' 
 
 "It certainly is horwible, Wintah," answered the other drawlingly. 
 " Hadn't wo bettar go away from heeah ? It is pausitively dangerous !" 
 
 " Nonsense !" said the other, contemptuously. "What have we to fear ?" 
 
 "Everything. If those fellows should fire a little too high, and a ball 
 should come this way, the consequences would be horwible ! And then what 
 would my mother say ?" 
 
 " Time enough to fear when there is a prospect of danger. Why do you 
 tremble so ? For shame, man ! Bring back the blood to your cheeks, and 
 calm your nerves, or I shall be compelled to think you are a coward !" 
 
 " 0, come now, Wintah, none of your dem'd horwible jokes I can't see 
 the force of them. They are pausitively personal and excruciatingly out- 
 ridgeous. What would my mother say ?" 
 
 " Nonsense, Crampton !" answered the other in a milder tone, " I have no 
 intention of offending you. I speak as a brother would to a brother, and 
 not as a man to a stranger. But you are really too much of a woman in 
 your ways, and too little of a man. Drop your effeminacy, as you love me. 
 Think you my sister can admire in you what she detests in another ? If so, 
 undeceive yourself. Consider whom you have for a rival !" 
 
 And he pointed, as he spoke, to the tall, manly, dignified form of the plan- 
 ter upon the platform on the green. 
 
 "Pausitively, Wintah, you have a dem'd, horwible way of expwessing 
 yourself!' exclaimed the exquisite. "I shall be compelled to get angwy 
 with you !" 
 
 " Nonsense, Crampton ! I am a plain spoken man ; and I speak plainly, 
 because the case demands it. But I warn you, I can never do anything for 
 you with Amy, unless you throw off your foppery. Women are fond of men 
 of masculine temperaments, because they are in such powerful contrast with 
 their own effeminate natures. Look at Neil Somers, now; there is hardly a 
 woman in all Williamsburg who would no* give her chances of Heaven to win 
 him. And yet he is not handsomer than you, nor a twentieth part so rich. 
 Imitate him, Crampton, if you would succeed with my sister: for I warn 
 you, you will have to bring oth(^ qualifications than those of an accom- 
 plished ladies' man, into requisition, to win the heart of Amy, whom this 
 planter has already fascinated." 
 
 The exquisite drew back, and turning to a mirror that was suspended 
 from the wall between the windows, examined himself with an air of super- 
 cilious satisfaction. 
 
 " I am vewy much obliged to you, Wintah," he said, running his jewelled 
 fingers through his curled locks, " but I am vewy well satisfied with myself, 
 and have no ideeah of copying anybody." 
 
 " As you please," answered the other, with a quiet sneer, " but if you fail 
 in winning Amy, forget not that I pointed out to you in the beginning the 
 only way in which you could succeed." 
 
 " But such a widiculous model as you give me, Wichard a petty plantah, a 
 fellow who associates with common people, and is seldom seen in wespecta- 
 ble society. What would my mother say ?" 
 
 " Your mother has spoiled you, Crampton ; or you would appreciate the 
 qualifications of a man like Somers, who is not more of a favorite with wo- 
 men, than he is popular among men. I tell you, Crampton, he is a rival 
 worthy of your highest consideration. Look at him now, as he dashes from
 
 .\.\D Hid MEK.B.Y MEN. 39 
 
 on his spirited charger, followed by yon gigantic woodsman. To 
 the window, man quick ! \Vhat has he in view now ? As I live look !" 
 
 He caught his companion suddenly by the wrist with his left hand, and 
 with the other pointed energetically to the planter, who had at that instant 
 lifted the young officer from hiS horse, and transferred him to bis own, as we 
 have already described it in the preceding chapter. 
 
 - Look, Crampton, look ! By the living (rod ! they have captured the 
 twin brothers, in the very face of the troops, and are actually bearing them 
 ofij prisoners ! And there the varlets sit h'ke dumb statues on their steeds, 
 and make no effort to save them ! Ho, there ! knaves !" he cried aloud to 
 the troops, " are ye mad ! Forward to the rescue !" 
 
 But the window- was closed, a fact which his sudden frenzy had caused 
 him to overlook, and by the time he had made the discovery, the captured 
 officers were on the platform, and beyond the reach of the soldiery. 
 
 There !" continued Winter, turning to his companion, " there is another 
 of his feats, and one which will make his name ring with tenfold popularity 
 throughout Williamsburgh. Is he a common rival, think you ? Undeceive 
 yourself! I tell you, Crampton, he will shine from this hour with greater 
 brilliancy than ever in Amy's heart. Wake up, man. Throw off your draw- 
 ing-room habits and put on the energies of a man ; or, after all, this ' petty 
 planter' will walk off with my sister !" 
 
 " No fear of that, Wichard ; the fellow will soon be out of the way. Don't 
 you wemembah what you said a li ttle while ago ? The pwovost ?" 
 
 "But what if they catch him not?" 
 
 " Oh, Wichard, but they will. The officers of the cwown are vewy stout 
 vewy !" 
 
 " Not so stout as you think, Cramptop." 
 
 " Oh, yes they are, my deah fellow. You cannot conceive what confi- 
 dence I have in them ! They are as stwong as ev-ah." 
 
 "Does the scene we have just witnessed, look like it?" 
 
 " Oh, that was merely a tempo wawy bwiumph of the mob ! I am perfect- 
 ly satisfied with the power of the cwown, and of my own abilities to 
 readah myself pleasing to Miss Wintah: Besides, Wichard, you perfectly 
 surpwise me, to hear you talk ui this mannaw of that thingamy what's his 
 name ? the plantah ! I weallywentertained the idee-ah that you hated him 
 most outridgeously. I did pausitively !" 
 
 ''And you thought right!" answered Richard Winter. "Hate him 
 that's the word ; and yet you can see Bban do him justice : for all the bitfcer, 
 burning hatred that lies seething in my heart, cannot take away one jot of 
 his popularity, nor cause his acknowledged merits to diminish a single grain. 
 If it could, think you I would spare him ? No ; I would plunge him into 
 such ignominy as would make his proud heart break and wither by slow and 
 torturing inches. I would hurl him into such misery as would make the 
 frightfulesi. of human agony seem comparative buss. I would make him lie 
 on a couch of such exquisite anguish, that a bed of slimy, crawling asps 
 would be an Eden to it !" 
 
 " You surprise me, Wichard ! Why this intense enmity ?" 
 
 " That is fny secret ! When I have him in my grasp when he lies broken, 
 bleeding, crushed and ruined when calamity after calamity shall have driven 
 him to the verge of despair, and but one other woe is wanting to 
 make his cup full and plunge him riven in hope, withered in heart, crushed 
 in soul, over the brink of eternity, then I will stoop and breathe that word in 
 his ear. Till then, the secret remains here, in this heart, locked up hi the 
 same chamber with my hatred, and there it will remain till the hour shall 
 have come when, in all its fierce and bristling malignity, it can step forth and 
 sweep him from existence." 
 
 " You are a dweadful fellow, Wichard ! I wouldn't have you for an anemy
 
 40 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 on any account. What would my mother say ? But, now I think of it 
 didn't you seduce Miss Somers ? Pausitively that was a shocking affair ; she 
 was such a chawming cweature. I had sewious intentions at one tame of 
 trying to captivate her myself." 
 
 " Yes " answered Richard Winter, " that was my first step m vengeance. 
 I won her soft heart broke it rent it in twain, coolly, calculatingly, pre- 
 meditatedly, as if it were a thread ! And when she died, so carefully had I 
 taken my measures, there was not a family in the village, scarcely in the Dis- 
 trict, but knew with her death the taint also which like a chaplet of infamy 
 clung to her name!" 
 
 " You fwighten me, Wichard. You are so dem d cool in the revelation of 
 your enormities. It is pausitively shocking ! I tremble -while I look at yon. 
 What would my mother say ?" 
 
 " What care I ? I am no boy, to fret and fume and froth with passion be- 
 cause my feelings have been outraged, or my pride wounded. No ; I can 
 think calmly on my my injuries, and as calmly avenge them ! But see the 
 mob is breaking up and dispersing ; and he he comes this way with his 
 friends and prisoners !" 
 
 " Hadn't we better go, Wichard ? I feel vewy uneasy !" 
 
 " No : let us remain. I have a thought that needs maturing. Those offi- 
 cers are friends of mine ; perhaps I can do them a service, and myself a 
 'gratification. Who knows?" 
 
 And quietly dropping the curtains, he retired from the window to ring up 
 the landlord ; but in moving the drapery, an eye in the advancing group had 
 caught his person : that eye was the planters. 
 
 " Landlord," said Richard Winter, as that personage, appeared, " dice and 
 a bottle of Moselle. And a word in your ear," he added, " when Somers 
 and his party have made their arrangements about the disposal of the priso- 
 ners, come and let me know, will you ?" 
 
 And he slipped a piece of gold into the hand of mine host, who returned 
 a significant wink, and then withdrew. 
 
 "What, my deah fellow," said the exquisite, "shall we play? I'm de- 
 lighted!" 
 
 " For the wine, nothing more," answered Richard Winter, carelessly, "I'm 
 as dry as a panther." 
 
 " Oh no, Wichard let's make it intewesting. My purse is vewy heavy."* 
 
 " And mine light Besides, you have too many due bills of mine already ; 
 and I cannot consent to borrow any more till I have means to pay what I 
 already owe you !" 
 
 At this moment the door opened, and the landlord appeared with the wine 
 and dice, which he placed upon a small table in the centre of the room ; then 
 making an expressive wint in reply to a quiet glance from Winter, he turned 
 and quitted the apartment. 
 
 " Break the bottle," said Richard Winter, thoughtfully, to his companion. 
 
 " There !" returned the exquisite, as he complied with the order and filled 
 up the glasses. " Toss it off, Wichard, and dwop your weflections. I never 
 Eke to see a man too thoughtful ; it makes one uneasy. I never weflectl" 
 
 " Twere well if you did !" muttered Winter to himself. " You would not 
 then be the tool and simpleton I have always found you !" 
 
 He tossed off his glass, and taking up the dice box, affected to be exhili- 
 rated by the wine. 
 
 " Come, Crampton," he exclaimed, " now then who pays for the Moselle ?" 
 
 And shaking the box, he threw the dice upon the table. 
 
 " Ten ! only ten !" he cried, " I shall be put in for it at this rate !" 
 
 And he 'threw again ; making an eight count. 
 
 " What else could I expect !" he cried, with a light laugh. " Fortune 
 delights in making me step lower and lower, each succeeding day !"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 41 
 
 And he threw a third time ; and fifteen rose to the surface. 
 "Ah!" he added, "the jade is not so bad, after all. Thirty-three would 
 not be bad with any other antagonist ; but with yon, Crampton, with you 
 who are fortune's choicest pet,' such a number is only equivalent to a de- 
 feat!" 
 
 " You flattah me !" returned the exquisite, with a condescending smile, as 
 he rattled the box, and threw. 
 
 " Did I not say so," said Richard Winter, quietly. " Twelve !" 
 
 " Twelve is a vewy good number," remarked Crampton, with a sparkKng 
 eye. " I have evewy confidence in a twelve when it is opposed to a ten F 
 What's this ? Fourteen! Why, this is extwemely delightful!" 
 
 And rattling the dice a third time, ten made its appearance. 
 
 " That isn't so vewy bad, Wichard ; do you think it is ? Pausitively, it 
 would give me most excruciating pleashah, to play that way all day. Let's 
 have another !" 
 
 Richard Winter shook his head. 
 
 " No," he said, with affected tipsyness, " my noddle won't stand it ; whereas 
 you, Crampton, you are as cool as an autumn breeze." 
 
 This was not exactly the case ; in fact, a spectator would have pronounced 
 it exactly the reverse : but the wealthy exquisite, upon whom the Moselle 
 was operating like a charm, to the infinite secret satisfaction of his companion, 
 did not perceive it, and patronizingly exclaimed : 
 
 " Come now, Wichard, don't wefuse in that mannah. My purse is heavy, 
 and nothing would give me more pleashah than a little quiet play. Be ac- 
 commodating now I won't entirely fleece you !" 
 
 " Well, go on," said Richard Winter, with affected hesitation. " I have 
 but twenty guineas about me, and might as well lose them !" 
 
 As he spoke, he threw his purse before him on the table. 
 
 " You are a good soul, Wichard !" murmured the exquisite, following his 
 example. " Shall we make it interesting, Wichard ? Twenty guineas isn't 
 such a very gweat stake !" 
 
 " As you please," answered Richard Winter, noticing with his usual quiet 
 smile, the effect of the wine upon lus companion, who fortified himself every 
 few momente with a fresh sip of hiPMoselle. " Rattle away !" 
 
 "Ei-eight!" cried the exquisite, throwing down the dice. " Eight is-is 
 not so vewy bad !" 
 
 " Very clever !" muttered Winter. 
 
 " Seven ! That ma^es fifteen. I haven't such a gweat deal of con-fi- 
 confidence in fifteen iBLh what's that ?" 
 
 " Ten !" said Richard Winter, taking up the dice and rattling the box. 
 
 " Which makes twenty-five. I nevah had a vewy pwodigious wespect 
 for twenty-fives. I've seen 'em beat !" 
 
 " No doubt," observed the other as he rattled the box and threw the dice 
 upon the table. " Twelve !" 
 
 " Twelve is a vewy fine nuinbah, Wichard. I've heard of figures winning 
 tibat were much lower than a twelve. What's that?" 
 
 "Sixteen!" 
 
 " Take up the stakes, Wichard. Sixteen is good. But an idee-ah stwikes 
 me. Suppose we double the pile ?" 
 
 "If you desire it, certainly. Go on; anything to accommodate." 
 
 So saying he pushed the box across the table. 
 
 They resumed their play, and continued it for abont an hour, at the end of 
 which time, there was a gentle knock at the door, and the landlord made his 
 appearance. 
 
 Richard Winter was at that moment clearing up his winnings, having drain- 
 of' hie companion of his last guinea.
 
 42 THP SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 "The parties are going to remain here all night," whispered the land- 
 lord. 
 
 " And the officers?" said Richard Winter. 
 
 "Will sleep in the same chamber with Mr. Somers, Marion and the back- 
 woodsman." 
 
 " Enough ! Detain them as long as possible in the morning. I will use 
 every nerve to be here by daybreak with a posse of regulars. That for your 
 fidelity !" 
 
 And he threw the man a guinea. 
 
 " Is the way clear, and our horses ready ?" 
 
 The innkeeper nodded a quiet affirmative. 
 
 " Thanks. Follow me, Crampton !" 
 
 And taking the exquisite by the arm, who appeared to lose with the same 
 pleasure that he won, Richard Winter and his companion passed quietly from 
 the small parlor and out of the inn, to the stable, where they found their 
 horses in waiting. 
 
 " There's a crown for you, you rascal!" exclaimed Richard Winter, to the 
 black hostler. " And remember, not a word to any one of my appearance 
 here, or departure !" 
 
 " I is up, massa!" returned the negro, with a sly leer. 
 
 The riders glided quietly out of the yard and turned down the Georgetown 
 road. 
 
 " Where now, Wichard ?" asked the exquisite, with his usual drawl 
 
 " You had best home !" answered the other. " As for me, I have some 
 hours of hard riding to get through. Further than that I cannot inform you. 
 Farewell!" 
 
 And waving his hand, he dashed down the road. 
 
 " A vewy clever fellow is Wichard !" murmured the exquisite, looking 
 after him with a mingled stare of astonishment and admiratisn ; " vewy 
 clevah indeed : but exwtemely cwuel in his wesentments. If I were such a 
 wicked devil, what would my mother say I" 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE twin brothers, as the reader is already aware^ad fallen into the handa 
 of the planter. Fortune had unexpectedly favored {A desires of that gentle- 
 man, and granted the prayer which had for some d^s been rising from his 
 heart to his lips, and from his lips to the throne of grace. 
 
 Wholly ignorant of the relationship which existed between themselves and 
 the planter, the twin brothers merely regarded their capturer as & gentleman 
 of a noble and superior mind, and as one who would, out of that high respect 
 which he entertained for his own honor, treat them with the consideration 
 due to their standing as gentlemen, and the gentle rigor due to their position 
 as officers. And as they had seen sufficient in his air and conduct to war- 
 rant the highest confidence in his honor, they felt satisfied to follow him, 
 without any fears as to the result, whithersoever he saw fit to convey them. 
 They had also a firm reliance in certain influential friends at Charleston, and 
 felt confident something would be done which would, in a few days, termi- 
 nate their detention and restore them to liberty. With these thoughts, and 
 buoyed up by lively spirits which ever cluster around the heart of young 
 manhood, they resigned themselves tranquilly to their position, which they 
 individually regarded as one of the unpleasant, but not uninteresting episodes 
 ia the life of a soldier.
 
 OF MARION AM) HIS MERRY MEN. 43 
 
 On reaching the inn, the planter took Captain Marion aside, and summarily 
 explained the cause of his interest in the young officers ; which exposition 
 was so perfectly satisfactory to the gentleman from St. Johns, that he at 
 once proffered his assistance to convey them to theft destination, which offer 
 was readfly and gratefully accepted. 
 
 '' When do you propose starting ?" asked Marion, in the same low tone in 
 which the previous exposition had been discussed ; " to-morrow morning ?' 
 
 " That was my intention," returned the planter ; " but I have since made a 
 discovery which will render it necessary to proceed almost immediately." 
 
 At this moment the landlord entered the room. 
 
 "A lunch, host," said the planter ; " and get it ready soon as possible we 
 are famished." 
 
 " Will you honor me with your company for the night, gentlemen ? I ask 
 that, in case such should be your desire, I may order the beds ready." 
 
 " You may get them in readiness, then," returned Somers, who saw in a 
 moment by the hesitating air of the man that something was brewing. 
 
 "Thank you thank you!" returned the landlord, bowing almost to the 
 floor. " The lunch will be here in a few minutes." 
 
 " The man is too obsequious !" muttered the planter, more and more con- 
 vinced that his suspicions were well founded. "Nat," he added, turning to 
 the scalp hunter, in a whisper. 
 
 "Well, Neil?" 
 
 " He is here." 
 
 " Who ?" 
 
 " Richard Winter ! Don't start the twins are observing us. Be calm, 
 and believe. I saw him retiring from a window as we approached the inn. 
 He is their friend, and in the king's interest He must be watched." 
 
 " I kin un' stand the necessity of that" 
 
 " And therefore, my friend, while you all lunch, I will keep an eye on the 
 lane from the window. If my suspicions are correct, he will soon quit the 
 house ; if he does, it will be to return with a force of royalists, to attempt a 
 rescue." 
 
 " I un'stand," returned the scalp hunter, with a significant wink ; " and the 
 unly objection I have tu the hull arrangement is that it will look better fiir 
 me tu be at the winder than yew." 
 
 "If you think so, Nat " 
 
 " Wall, I du ; and with all respeck to yew, Niel, it must be so." 
 
 " Lunch, gentlemen." said the landlord, who, at this, instant, entered the 
 apartment. y 
 
 " You have a number of guests here, friend !" said the planter approach- 
 ing him and speaking in a low confidential voice ; "is Richard Winter among 
 them ?" 
 
 " N-no," stammered the man, who scarcely knew how he ought to reply. 
 
 " 'Tis well I" observed the planter. " This man has been tampered with 
 he even lies !" he added to himself. " I felt convinced something .was at 
 work !" 
 
 The wine and edibles made an excellent repast, to which all parties did 
 ample justice. 
 
 During its discussion, the scalp hunter kept watch at the window, and per- 
 mitted nothing to escape him. 
 
 " I will change places with you now, Nat," said the planter approaching 
 him. 
 
 " As you please, Neil. But hadn't somebody better be posted at that 
 winder ?" and he pointed to the other end of the apartment " From there 
 yew ken see intu the stable yard. If the critter has got his horse, which it is 
 more'n likely he has, he'll hev tu go down thar'. " 
 
 " A good idea, Nat. Captain Marion will you step this way?"
 
 44 THE WAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 That gentleman approached; and upon matters being explained to him, he 
 consented to watch at the rear window. 
 
 Meanwhile the woodsman seated himself at table, and attacked the edibles 
 with a speed which evinced his anxiety to get through with it as quickly as 
 possible and a gusto which satisfied the officers he was laying in provisions 
 for many days. He had scarcely finished, when his quick ear detected the 
 sound of footsteps lightly descending the staircase, and he cautiously joined ' 
 Marion at the rear window. 
 
 In a few moments, he perceived Winter and his companion cross the court 
 yard, the gate of which was at the same instant quietly opened by the land- 
 
 "All right!" murmured the scalp hunter. "They're putty cunnin', but 
 not quite so much so as they might be !" 
 
 The horses with their riders now moved slowly from the yard ; and the 
 scalp hunter, tapping the gentleman from St. John's significantly on the 
 arm, moved across the apartment to where the planter was stationed. 
 
 Their eyes met, significantly, and Somers whispered 
 
 " He is off for assistance. We'll give him twenty minutes' start, and then 
 be in our saddles. I'll down and see the- landlord ; you, Nat, look to the 
 horses, and you, my friend," turning to Marion, "attend to the officers, and 
 notify them of our sudden intention to proceed." 
 
 In a few minutes everything was prepared, and at the time appointed they 
 took leave of the inn and the village, leaving the landlord in a state of stu- 
 pifaction. 
 
 "Cuss 'em!" he exclaimed. "Winter will swear I knew of their intended 
 departure, and purposely deceived him!" 
 
 The planter rode ahead ; the twin brothers followed ; Marion and the scalp 
 hunter brought up. the rear. They rode hard, for night was at hand, and it 
 was necessary to reach their destination before darkness should set in. 
 
 They took a by-road skirting the Black River, and, keeping out of obser- 
 vation as much as possible, plied whip and spur till they were entirely out of 
 Bight of the village. Then taking the beach, they swam their horses across 
 the stream, and reached the opposite shore. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said the planter, turning to the officers, who began to dis- 
 play signs of impatience and fatigue, " don't retard our journey by murmur- 
 ing or holding back. We have yet a long ride before us ; and unless you 
 prefer the dangers of a night in the woods and swamps, to an early bed and 
 a pleasant repast, you had better follow our example and give your horses 
 a free rein !" 
 
 This' was sufficient to silence the discontented mutterings of the twin broth- 
 ers, who uttered not another word till they reached their destination. 
 
 The planter took the shortest route with which he was familiar, and in due 
 time they reached the banks of the San tee. 
 
 Here, taking a flat boat, they were ferried across to the opposite shore, and 
 the planter cautiously led the way up a gradually rising hill, for twilight had 
 now fallen, and the timber and brushwood around them shut out to a consid- 
 erable degree the little light that was left, rendering the ascent annoying and 
 their progress very slow. 
 
 They reached at length the top of the hill, and then slowly journeyed on 
 through the timber for about a hundred yards, when they suddenly entered 
 a small clearing, about thirty acres in extent, at the extremity of which, sur- 
 rounded by a paling of rough saplings, stood a small, neat lodge, to which a 
 rich stream of silver, hurled on it by the moon, gave the appearance of a 
 palace in the wilderness. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said the planter, " we have reached our destination." 
 
 And he struck into a path leading to the lodge, followed by his compan-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 45 
 
 ions, who, it muat be confessed, were sufficiently fatigued to thank their stars 
 for bringing them to their journey's end. 
 
 The planter dismounted on reaching the paling, and knocked loudly at the 
 cottage door. A few moments afterward, a voice was heard within. 
 
 "Who's there?" 
 
 "Friends !" 
 
 " What friends ?" 
 
 " Friends from Charleston," answered the planter, in what appeared to his 
 companions preconcerted words. 
 
 "In a moment," was the reply in a hurried tone ; and the 'next instant 
 the door of the lodge was thrown open, and a young man half dressed ap- 
 peared upon the threshold. 
 
 " You are here, then," said he, in a tone of respectful surprise ; " I did 
 not look for you so soon. Are they with you?" he added in a low whisper. 
 
 " Yes. Is everything prepared ? " 
 
 " Everything." 
 
 " You are sure of that ?" 
 
 " I am, and 1 11 stand to it" 
 
 " Get lights, then, and a "repast. We have ridden a long distance, and are 
 well nigh famished. Wake Mingo, and bid him look to the horses." 
 
 The young man bowed respectfully, then turned on his heel and disap- 
 peared in the darkness of the cottage. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said the planter to his companions, " dismount. A servant 
 will attend to your animals." 
 
 All parties were, shortly, seated at a rude, but well furnished table, from 
 which, their meal once despatched, they arose considerably refreshed. 
 
 " The hour now?" asked the planter. 
 
 " It is on the point of twelve," answered the gentleman from St. John's, 
 consulting a pocket chronometer. 
 
 " So late? How time flies ! Thanking you for your assistance in the mat- 
 ter which brought us hither, I commend you to your beds. Ned," he added 
 turning to the young man who had charge of the cottage, " show these gen- 
 tlemen to their resting place. Good night, sirs !" he added in response to the 
 adieus of the woodsman and captain Marion, who, now, preceded by Ned, 
 retired from the apartment. 
 
 "Gentlemen," continued the planter, turning to the officers, "if you are 
 sufficiently refreshed by your repast, and not over desirous as yet of sleep, I 
 would like a few minutes of your society in the open air." 
 
 " We are ready to follow you, sir." 
 
 " Thank you thank you. This way, then !'' 
 
 And the planter led the way out of the lodge to a small green pateh in the 
 clearing, situated some thirty or forty yards from the cottage. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the planter, " sit down here with me, on the sward, 
 and give me your attention ; what I have to tell you affects you nearly, 
 more so than you now think, and yet not you more than myself. I have 
 to make my apologies for the rude manner in which I prevented you to-dav 
 from the commission of a crime !" 
 
 The twin-brothers looked at one another in surprise. 
 
 " A crime !" murmured Frederick. 
 
 " A crime, sir !" exclaimed George. 
 
 " Yes, gectlemen, a crime. For it is a crime, is it not, to raise our hands 
 and voices against the land that gave us birth !" 
 
 " We were but discharging a duty," said Frederick, haughtily ; " what is 
 there criminal in that ?" 
 
 "What duty were you discharging?'' 
 
 " That which we owed to the king."
 
 46 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 " Tel me, sirs, the nature of that duty. I must confess I do not under- 
 " The duty of all good and loyal subjects : to protect the interests of the 
 
 " Against those of the people ? Or is it that the people have no interests ? 
 To serve one man the king is but a man you would destroy hundreds, 
 yea thousands ! Is this your creed, ! sons of humanity ? Humanity ar- 
 rayed against humanity, to feed the pride and avarice of one who would 
 crush humanity to exalt himself! Where learned you this strange and un- 
 natural doctrine ?" 
 
 " In England." 
 
 " That England to which you were taken when infants that England 
 which taught you to forget the ties of kindred and country that England 
 which holds the ashes of your father that England which tramples upon the 
 clime of your birth, and by her selfish and oppressive exactions first irritates 
 and then plunges it into madness, suffering and blood that England which 
 you have just left to revisit your native land, not to save it, but to help a 
 tyrant to still further enslave it! And this you call .DUTY !" 
 
 "What mean you, sir !" exclaimed Frederick, in a tone of agitation. i! You 
 transgress the laws of chivalry by thus insulting us. We are your prisoners, 
 but you have no right to take advantage of our position by endeavoring to 
 persuade us from our fealty to the king !" 
 
 " The king the king always the king !" said the planter, shaking his 
 head mournfully. " Can your lips utter no higher word than that ! Must 
 you always return to the Icing ! Persuade yop from the fealty you owe him ? 
 Man's first fealty is to his God the only King ; the next, to his country ! 
 What is it you owe the king and what do you not owe your country?" 
 
 " You talk strangely, sir. The country is the king." 
 
 " If so would the king oppress it, and wrap it in fire and smoke and carn- 
 age what wise king would do that ? Say he's a fool, then, would you allow 
 a fool to guide the affairs of a nation to ruin and destruction ? It is because 
 he is at war with the interests of the country, that the country has risen 
 against him. You, who owe allegiance to that country, because it gave you 
 birth, should not be found on the side of its chiefest enemy. It is treason to 
 nature, to humanity, to God !" 
 
 " How know you we are of this country ?" demanded the twins, who were 
 visibly agitated. 
 
 " How know I that the name of one of you is Frederick, the name of the 
 other George ? How know I that you both saw the light of heaven at one 
 and the same hour ? How know I that you were born in Carolina, and 
 quitted it with your father for England when you were scarcely old enough 
 to prattle the names of father, mother, brother, sister ? How was it I re- 
 cognized you both as the sons of Lionel Somers, whose features, air, voice 
 and figure live again in you as they once lived in him !" 
 
 The young officers trembled as if shaken by an ague ; but not more so 
 than the planter, whose powerful will alone prevented him from allowing it 
 to be visible. 
 
 " 0!" he continued, "I could tell you, sirs, of evidences greater even than 
 these. I could tell you of names you were accustomed to prattle fondly ere 
 you quitted Carolina for England that England to which you went as 
 strangers, and which taught you so soon to forget the land in which you 
 were born, the names that you prattled, the forms that you loved. I could 
 tell you of a mother whose heart broke when she lost you of a brother 
 whose cheek paled when you went away and returned not, of a sister who 
 grew up without remembering she had seen you !" 
 
 "Merciful God!" cried Frederick, in a voice of frightful agony. ' what 
 mad tale is this !"
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MKRRY MEN. 47 
 
 " Man man !" cried George hoarsely, " what wild fantasy is this with 
 which you are appalling us !" 
 
 " I could tell you," resumed the planter as if they had not spoken, " of a 
 wild, unprincipled adventurer's mercenary marriage with one of G-od's purest 
 creatures ; of his infidelities, his frauds, his hypocrisies, his cruelties, and his 
 brutalities, times without number, on her his victim-wife ; of his robbery of 
 her property, and of his dastardly flight to England with his two pet young- 
 lings, leaving her, his victim, and the other two little ones, to breast and 
 struggle as they might with the f stern misery in which his brutality had 
 plunged them ! I could tell you of their hard, trying fate for many a long 
 year, while he, the author of their sufferings, the causer of their wes, was 
 rioting in debauchery in another land in England ! with her money, and 
 training her children and their brothers up in forgetfulness of her, of them, 
 and of their country !" 
 
 " Great God !" cried the twins, moaning with anguish. " what frightful 
 tale, what inhuman man, is this ? 
 
 " I could tell you," continued the planter, " of the misery which day by day 
 inscribed its woe-prints on the brow of that poor mother, that suffering vic- 
 tim-wife. I could tell you how the rose upon her cheek faded day by day, 
 till it disappeared to return no more. I could tell you how her form lessened 
 gradually away, till it became so frail and slender that a breath appeared 
 potent enough to waft it to its eternal home. I could tell you of her prayers 
 for the bad man who had deserted her, and for the two loved ones who had 
 forgotten her, in their home far away ; of her sighs in her walks by day and 
 in her dreams by night, as she thought of her Frederick, of her George I" 
 
 "Man man!" cried Frpdorick, with an emotion that was frightful, and 
 with tears that were scalding, "are these things so that you are telling 
 us!' 
 
 " Or I had not spoken them," answered the planter, with a calmness that 
 was forced. 
 
 " And they apply to us, and to our father ?" 
 
 " To your father and to you." 
 
 "In every particular?" 
 
 "Or I had not uttered a solitary word!" 
 
 " It is terrible it is frightful ! Who, then are you who tell us this, 
 which tears my brother's heart and mine ?" 
 
 " I am a living witness of your father's perfidies, your mother's woes. I 
 am at once the accuser of your father, the sole staff and defender of you? 
 mother. lam " 
 
 " Our hearts have guessed it !" cried the twins, in a breath, and springing 
 to their feet, as at the same instant the planter also sprang to his. "You 
 are, yes, you are the first born our brother!" 
 
 And they rushed towards to embrace him. 
 
 " Stand back !" cried the planter, repelling with a calm grandeur which 
 was at once heroic and sublime. " Devoted to my country, I cannot em- 
 brace its enemies ; devoted Jo my mother, I cannot take to my breast those 
 who have forgotten her !" 
 
 "Great God! great God!" cried the twins, recoiling as if stricken by a 
 thunderbolt. 
 
 And yet their anguish, though indescribably frightful, was not a jot more 
 excruciating than the planter's, whose heart burned to take them to nis arms, 
 and who yet dared not yield to the desire lest it should mar the great pur- 
 pose he had in view. 
 
 " You wear the livery of a king who outrages your country, as your father 
 outraged your mother!" he continued mournfully. "You glory in sustain- 
 ing a cowardly and unprincipled monarch, whose hands are reeking with the 
 blood of a brave and high-principled people ; a people who have suffered and
 
 48 THE SWAMP STEED , OR THE DAYS 
 
 endured till suffering and endurance ceased to be, a virtue, and became a 
 festering reproach. In the ranks of these sufferers are the mother who bore 
 you and the brother who gambolled with you m the halcyon days of 
 your childhood. They have remained true to the country which you have 
 deserted to the humanity for which you have ceased to feel, and to the God 
 whom you have ceased to love. Have you the heart, then, to ask their love, 
 against whom you have come as enemies ?" 
 
 "Oh, brother brother!" cried Frederick, stretching forth his arms im- 
 ploringly "forgive us forgive us! We sinned unknowingly !" 
 
 " Oh, brother brother!" cried George, with a countenance distorted with 
 anguish and pale with despair, "be merciful, and not inflexible!" 
 
 " And therefore," said the planter, in a voice that trembled with an emotion 
 which even his powerful will could not wholly control, " the solemn need of 
 your repentance !" 
 
 " We do repent !" cried Frederick, falling on his knees, and bending his 
 head on his clasped hands. " Forgive forgive !" 
 
 " Lowly and suppliant." cried George, following bis example, " we implore 
 you to pardon the great error we fell into without giving a thought to its 
 enormity. Forgive forgive!" 
 
 "Not to me, but to Him!" said the planter, pointing upward reverently, 
 " kneel for pardon and for grace !" 
 
 " We ask them of him we implore them of you 1" cried the twins, and 
 hot tears trickled down their cheeks and moistened their trembling hands. 
 " 0, call us brothers !" 
 
 " Do you renounce your allegiance to the tyrant who oppresses and deso- 
 lates your country!" 
 
 " We do we do. Will you not now call us brothers?" 
 
 "Do you renounce his livery and his wages ?" 
 
 " We renounce them we renounce them 1 0, call us brothers now !" 
 
 " Do you renounce all ties and all relations with all who wear bis livery, all 
 who live upon his bounty ? Ah ! you are silent ! Is your repentance then 
 but feigned ?" 
 
 " We have friends among them dear friends!" 
 
 "I understand you!" said the planter, mournfully. "Your hearts are 
 gone the daughters of the governor hold them!" 
 
 The twins were silent ; but their features were eloquent with a mingled 
 expression of anguish and surprise. 
 
 II "I know all," said Neil Somers, in answer to then: look. "But even them 
 you must renounce !" 
 
 The brothers groaned at this announcement : and their countenances indi- 
 cated the most hopeless despair. 
 
 " In this your hour of repentance," said the planter,, solemnly, " insult 
 not the Supreme One, by a regret based on guile !" 
 
 " Oh ! this is terrible !" cried the twins reroac 
 
 " Eeflect!" returned the planter. " Is this love ye bear or think ye bear 
 the fair daughters of the governor, HOLY? Is it not the same love, and 
 founded on the same lustful desire which marked your amours in the land from 
 which ye came, as well as those in which ye have indulged since your arri- 
 val in Carolina? Pause, ere you answer; pause reflect!" 
 
 The twin brothers groaned, and bowed down their heads in misery. 
 
 "It is notflove!" said the planter, interpreting their silence. "The pas- 
 sion ye entertain is not love ; for love is a holy thing which emanates from 
 heaven, and purifies the hearts on which it falls from every vestige of gross- 
 ness and sensual desire. Such is not the feeling with which you regard the 
 fair daughters of the Governor ! Banish it, then, as you would a leprosy : it 
 is a passion which makes man a leper, woman a victim." 
 
 "We banish it!" murmured the brothers.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 49 
 
 " And wisely. For it \yas such a passion which led one of your friends 
 a certain Richard Winter, he is a friend of yours, is he not ? to beguile to 
 ruin, shame and death your only sister ! Ha ! you start and clench your 
 hands anger, shame, despair and vengeance blaze in your eyes ! You feel 
 the leprosy of it now, because it strikes home because it has reached your 
 own family I In her name hers, one of its victims ! I implore you to ban- 
 ish it from your hearts forever. Her broken, betrayed and stricken spirit 
 is hovering around us now. and her voice joins with mine in the cry Banish 
 desire, which is lust lust which makes victims!" 
 
 " We banish it!" cried the twins. " call us brothers call us brothers !" 
 
 "Listen," said the planter, and a shade of agony passed over his brow in 
 his struggle to resist their appeal "My mother is one of those pure, deli- 
 cate beings who shudder at the thought of taint, whose souls tremble at 
 the mere shadow of vice. Your reputation in Charleston is that of men of 
 the world, experienced in its vices and familiar with its infamies. Were I to 
 take you to our house, with this reputation hanging to your backs, which 
 was also that of your father, the first knowledge of it would not only 
 plunge that tender being into misery : it would kill her ! Gentlemen," added 
 the planter, with an expression at once mournful and sublime, "I have no 
 wish to see my mother die !" 
 
 The twins fell on each other's bosom, and groaned as if their hearts were 
 breaking. This last blow had crushed them. 
 
 " And yet," said the planter, in a milder voice, as he witnessed their suf- 
 fering, which was also the picture of his own, " if you are sincere in your 
 repentance, there yet is hope for her, whose first prayer in the morning and 
 whose last orison at night is for her twin-born sons for you, if ye indeed 
 desire to meet in a pure re-union for me, whose heart yearns to clasp ye in 
 a fraternal embrace, though it break in the struggle to refuse you !" 
 
 The twins raised their heads, but not their eyes : for a consciousness of 
 their utter unworthiness prevented them from encountering the glance of 
 their considerate and noble-minded brother. 
 
 " Ah ! Hope !" they murmured. 
 
 " Yes," returned the planter, with emotion. <; Hope !" 
 
 " Oh, name it name it, and save us from despair !" 
 
 " Labor !" answered the planter. " Abandon for a season the world and 
 its vices. Wash out, in tears of a true repentance, every vestige of your baser 
 natures : and erect, out of the sweat of a virtuous and ennobling labor, a 
 new reputation that of useful and honorable men. Thus, and thus only, 
 can you render yourselves worthy to meet that pure and noble being, my 
 mother ; thus, and thus only can you be prepared for and made deserving of 
 her blessing ; thus and thus only can you earn the privilege of calling her 
 mother ; thus and thus only can you obtain from her the words 'My son!' 
 and from me, ' My brothers !' '' 
 
 His auditors hung on every word that issued from his lips with the eager- 
 ness and tenacity of drowning men clinging to straws. 
 
 " Ye have heard my proposal," said the planter ; i; and I now await your 
 reply." 
 
 " I accept it," said Frederick. 
 
 " And I," added George, " on two conditions." 
 
 " Name them,'' said the planter. 
 
 " That we may once in a while see our mother, as she sleeps," answered 
 George, in a voice broken with emotion. 
 
 " Oh, my brother my brother !" cried Frederick, falling on his neck. 
 
 " And the other ?" demanded the planter, hoarsely. 
 
 " That you will sometimes visit us ; and on such occasions, if you are 
 pleased with our efforts, allow us to call you by that endearing name, 
 Brother /" 
 
 7
 
 50 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 I promise!" answered the planter, who could scarcely -prevent himself 
 from falling. " Are you content ?'' 
 
 " Yes," cried Frederick. 
 
 Yes " added his brother. " Where will be*ur home? 
 
 " Here " answered the planter. " Yon lodge your cot these acres your 
 working ground. The man Ned, whom ye saw at table, will be at once your 
 instructor and assistant ; a negro, named Mmgo, will be your valet and pur- 
 veyor. You can rely on the faithfulness of both !" 
 
 The twin brothers turned on him a look beaming with gratitude and joy 
 
 "Are you satisfied ?" asked the planter. 
 
 They bowed ; their hearts were too full for utterance. 
 
 " Enough. Kneel then, here, with me." 
 
 All dropped revererentiy upon their knees. 
 
 " To Thee !" said the planter, with an air of grandeur and impressiveness 
 which would have become a king, "to Thee, we look for strength to do away 
 with the False, and assume the garments of the True. Hear us ! Here in 
 the solemn midnight beneath yon glorious dome bright with stars of silver 
 in the light of yon noble orb whose pure radiance reflects Thy supreme 
 power and serene majesty in the calm silence of this field, clothed with the 
 rich mantle of earth's mother, Nature on this spot shut out from a turbu- 
 lent and impure world by towering trees, whose leafy murmurs instead of 
 disturbing, add to the tranquility of the soul, we devote ourselves, from this 
 hour, to a new life that will, we trust, prove acceptable to Thee ! In thy 
 name we relinquish the vices we have clung to, in Thy name take hold of 
 the good and true. Be with us in our new labors, Thou ! Shield us from 
 temptation, Thou ! Spare us, to a re-union with her, from whom had we 
 never strayed we had not been the erring ones we are. Spare us, Thou ! Be 
 with us, Thou ! Shield us, Thou ! And the glory of our salvation shall be 
 ascribed to Thee !" 
 
 They rose, trembling in every joint ; the planter with agitation arising 
 from this interview with two beings whom he desired so much to take to his 
 heart : the twins from the mingled emotions of surprise at what they had 
 learned, admiration of the noble heart which reposed in the breast of their 
 brother, and the emotions naturally following his consecration of themselves 
 to their new career. 
 
 " Allow me, gentlemen," said the planter, " to offer you my arm to the 
 house. "We are, individually, too weak to proceed thither alone." 
 
 There was a delicacy in the deli very of this invitation which impressed the 
 twins with a still deeper sense of the natural nobleness of the planter's soul 
 
 Each took an arm, gently, lovingly, pressing it with all the fondness of a 
 young bride leaning on her beloved : and they proceeded slowly to the lodge, 
 amid a silence which was broken only by heart aching sighs. 
 
 " Ere we part," said Frederick, in a faltering voice, " bless u. bless as, 
 once only once ! with one word one word ! 
 
 " Cheer 'us," added George. " in this the dawn-hour of our repentance. 
 Our hearts our hearts are bleeding !" 
 
 And on the pale and quivering faces of the twins there was a shade of 
 frightful agony. 
 
 " Brothers! Brothers?' cried the planter, rushing from the apartment, 
 unable longer to endure it. 
 
 " Bless you bless you God bless you I" cried the twins. 
 
 And thus passed the deeply solemn night into the small still hours of 
 morning.
 
 Or MARION AND IIIS MERRY MEN. 51 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Early the following morning, the planter and his two friends, arose, and 
 made their appearance in the main room of the lodge, where they found the 
 man Ned and his assistant Mingo already preparing breakfast 
 
 "Where are they?" asked the planter, who was somewhat pale. 
 
 "They have not risen yet," replied Ned. "I went to their room to call 
 them, but they looked so pale and woe- worn that I had not the heart to 
 wake them ! When do you wish to start, sir ?" 
 
 " Immediately," answered the planter with a slight degree of emotion. 
 
 The morning meal was soon ready. When it was despatched, the planter 
 went to a small closet, and taking out a blank volume, tore out a leaf, and 
 wrote the following note 
 
 " I am about to depart, and as you are not up. I am deprived of the pleas- 
 ure of bidding you adieu. Perhaps it is better, for our mutual sakes that it 
 should be so, as a parting interview could not be otherwise than painful. 
 Oblige me by keeping a journal of your progress in the good work on which 
 you have now entered, the appliances for which you will find ready at your 
 hand. I will call upon you 'at least once a month during the term of your 
 probation. Should I fail in these visits in any one instance, it will be be- 
 cause I am not in a position to appear before you, in which case I will write. 
 Beware of the seducer and destroyer of your sister : you know to whom I 
 allude. It is not impossible that he may discover your whereabouts, in 
 which case you might be tempted to avenge your sister; but touch him not: 
 leave him to me. When the destiny of our unhappy country is settled, I. by 
 virtue of my right as the head of our family will caU him to an account. Till 
 then, unless he come wilfully across my path, he is safe, from hand of mine. 
 Persevere in your noble resolution, and I shall love you ; and when I am 
 assured of the completeness of your penitence, that hour I will lead you to 
 my beloved parent, and say to her : Mother, behold the twin-born ones for 
 whose presence you have so long yearned ; they are worthy of your embrace 
 and your love : take them to your heart, as I have already taken them to 
 jnine. That re-union, my friends, you cannot desire with more impatience 
 than 
 
 NEIL SOMERS." 
 
 Having folded and delivered this letter, together with some trifling instruc- 
 tions to Ned. the planter, the gentleman from St. Johns, and the scalp hunter 
 mounted their horses, and took leave of the forest lodge. 
 
 As they descended the hill, the planter related the whole of the scene of 
 the preceding night, with the exception of that part of it relating to Richard 
 Winter. 
 
 " Have you no fears that they will break through their resolution ?" asked 
 Marion. 
 
 " None, sir," returned the planter. " They have passed their word, and I 
 have every confidence in the promise of a Somers." 
 
 " I trust that, everything will meet your expectations, my friend. But this 
 Richard Winter; what if he should discover their retreat?" 
 
 " It would not be attended with any danger. I have prepared them for 
 even that emergency." 
 
 " Upon my word ! my gallant friend, I know not what to make of you. 
 But of one thing I am confident your country will find in you one of its 
 most noble champions ; and I congratulate myself on my good fortune in get- 
 ting you for one of my aids. As for you, Nat," he continued, turning to the 
 woodsman, " your fame as a marksman and a man of an acute mind is fa-
 
 52 THE s'.vAMr STEED; OK THE DAYS 
 
 miliar to me I shall take such measures as will call into action both of your 
 good qualities, with profit to the country and honor to yourselves. But here 
 we are at the foot of the mountain ; and as I am now in my own district of 
 St Johns I shall at once proceed home. You had both better make imme- 
 diate preparations for the storm that is coming, and report yourselves to me, 
 on Wednesday next, at Charleston. Good day, gentlemen." 
 
 And waving them an adieu, Marion gave rein to his horse, and was soon 
 
 U " May my old Sal never drop anuther yaller belly !" exclaimed the scalp 
 hunter looking after him, "ef I don't like our cap'n! The- grit is in his 
 muscles and the geneyus in his head. He's got the quietest ways with him ; 
 don't say a word more'n is ness'ry, and then slips off as ef he hadn't a minit 
 to spar.' Wut du yew think on him, Neil ?" 
 
 " I think," returned the planter, " that he is the man for the times. He 
 carries it in his features, and in his movements. But I must to Kingstree : 
 for I have much to think of, and to do." 
 
 " And I must up tu my lodge, and git ready fur the campaign. ' Good bye, 
 Neil I'll see yew at Charleston." 
 
 They shook hands, and parted ; and, each rilled with his own thoughts, 
 proceeded on their several destinations. 
 
 In a few hours, Neil Somers rode thoughtfully into Kingstree. The village 
 presented an animated appearance. Numbers of both sexes were out, the 
 men looking thoughtful and stern the fair, suspicious and pale ; the majority 
 of the former wore hangers at their sides, and in many instances had rifles 
 over their shoulders or in their hands. On the green were numbers of chil- 
 dren, armed with pieces of wood, toy-guns, and various other implements, 
 drilling, marching and countermarching, like grown-up soldiery. A martial 
 air was everywhere and around everything. 
 
 Another fact struck the planter, as he passed through the village. It was 
 the sudden change in the social habits of the people. Men, who were but 
 yesterday friends and companions, passed each other like strangers to-day ; 
 and their wives, sharing in the sympathies of their husbands and lovers, fol- 
 lowed in this respect the example they had set 
 
 " Ah !" murmured the planter, with a mournful sigh, " it begins to work ! 
 Brothers begin already to look coldly on then* brothers, fathers upon their 
 sons, sons upon their fathers, and friends upon their friends ! By and byep 
 when the work of the Revolution has fairly begun, brother will be divided 
 against brother, father against son, friend against friend, by a wall of blood, 
 of which each will contribute his share ! 'Tis frightful to ponder on, and yet 
 to that it must come. Oh, my country ! my country ! is this to be the price 
 of thy freedom, this to be the cost of thy glory !" 
 
 And he rode on, his brain aching and swelling with the painful picture his 
 fancy had thus conjured up before him, while his presence and appearance 
 were calling forth the attention and remarks of numbers of the promenaders. 
 
 " There goes the gallant hero of yesterday," said a young farmer, to his 
 companion, as the planter passed up the street. 
 
 " Look there, wife, there's that rascally rebel, Neil Somers. How thought- 
 ful he looks!" 
 
 " Yes, and you'd look thoughtful too, old man, if God had given you a head 
 like his, instead of the empty noddle you carry upon your shoulders!" an- 
 swered his spouse, in a tone which silenced at once the observations of the 
 old tory. 
 
 " There's young Somers !" observed the daughter of a wealthy lawyer, to 
 her mother. " I do wish he'd turn this way. Don't you think he's hand- 
 some, ma' ?" 
 
 " Certainly, my dear ; there can be no question about that. Mr. Somera 
 is a very charming young man ; and very winning, as well Do you remem-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 53 
 
 her what your pa', who was quite carried away by his speech on the green, 
 said about him at, tea last evening ?" 
 
 "I've such a bad memory, ma' ! What was it?" 
 
 " That he should have been bred to the bar ! That was the highest com- 
 pliment he thought could be paid him ; and certainly nothing could have been 
 finer from the lips of a lawyer !" 
 
 " I do wonder where he is going?" said the young lady, looking after the 
 planter. 
 
 " He appears to be going in the direction of Mrs. Brunton's, my dear." 
 "That odious young widow ! Oh, ma' !" 
 
 " She may be odious to you, my dear ; but she is certainly handsome, and 
 very rich." 
 
 " Oh, ma', how can you say so ?" 
 "What! that she is rich T 
 
 " No handsome ! Why, she is twenty-eight, at least !" 
 " Nevertheless, she is very handsome. Besides, you are a little too spite- 
 ful in your remarks. Mrs. Brunton is but twenty-four, and is generally ad- 
 mitted to be very beautiful." 
 
 " Do you think she will get him, ma' ?" 
 
 " I do believe you are je^alo'us, my dear. You certainly can have no claim 
 upon Mr. Somers!" 
 
 " I I don't know, ma' !" answered the little beauty, with a blush as deep 
 as crimson. " Stranger things than that have happened !" 
 " You make me smile, my dear !" 
 
 " But you havn't answered my question !" persisted the pert beauty. " Do 
 you think she will get him ?" 
 
 " I cannot say, my dear. I have heard that Mr. Somers' affections were 
 placed upon Miss Winter, and that her brother made some pretensions to the 
 widow, who however would not accept him for a suitor." 
 
 " But, ma', Mrs. Brunton, does love Mr. Somers ; she would scratch her 
 eyes out for him !" 
 
 " I have no doubt of it And she will doubtless use every legitimate means 
 to achieve his conquest But I hope, my dear, you have no serious intention 
 of entering the lists with her." 
 
 "Why not, ma'?" demanded the little beauty, with an assurance that 
 brought a smile to her mother's lips. 
 
 " Because, she is too experienced. Widows are superior rivals in such 
 matters, my dear ; they know all the weak points of a lover, and when they 
 attack him, do it with a confidence that generally ensures success. Until 
 you have been married and lost your husband, my dear, you must not enter 
 the lists with so accomplished a widow aS Mrs. Brunton. But see ; I was 
 right Mr. Somers has really reined in at the widow's!" 
 
 It was as she said. The planter had pulled up at the gate of a large and 
 tastily laid out garden, in the centre of which rose a large three story cottage, 
 with one of those wide fronts and large piazzas so common in the dwellings 
 of the opulent of that day. Giving his horse in charge of a young well-dress- 
 ed negro, belonging to the mansion, the planter passed through the gate, and 
 tapping gently at the door, was shortly after ushered into the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 He had scarcely been seated, when a light quick step was heard in the hall ; 
 and in another moment, Mrs. Brunton, her countenance radiant with a smile 
 of genial happiness, made her appearance. 
 
 She was a gorgeous fascinating creature. In form she was of a medium 
 height, and slightly inclining to embonpoint. Her features were straight and 
 small, her eyes of a ripe, rich, clear blue : her complexion of a dazzling white, 
 and her thick, glossy, ringlet ty tresses of that singular fairness peculiar to 
 those of Saxon origin. She was dressed in a close-fitting shape of purple
 
 54 THE itt'AMP SFKED ,' OK. THE DAYS 
 
 velvet whose surface glistened at her every movement like a flash of goldea 
 light, and whose beautiful setting developed the faultless symmetry and pas- 
 sion-inspiring outlines of her voluptuous form. 
 
 She was, evidently, a creature of high feeling, and of a liberal and capa- 
 cious intellect ; artful it might be, but at the same time of a generous, though 
 passionate nature. Her movements were easy and graceful, and, while full 
 of dignity,' free as a proud belle's conscious of her- purity and beauty. 
 
 As she entered, her eye caught that of her visitor, and running up to him 
 and holding out both of* her hands, with a genial heartiness of manner, she 
 exclaimed 
 
 : My dear Neil, how charmed I am to see you ! This visit is a pleasure 
 and honor causing me inexpressible delight! How have you been, truant ?" 
 
 " Well, well, my dear friend !" replied the planter, imprinting a kiss on her 
 small, delicate hand. 
 
 " And my dear Mrs. Somers ?" 
 
 "Happy and tranquil, as usual," returned the planter, drawing her gently 
 down beside him on the sofa. " And you, with whom I used to gambol in 
 my boyhood I need not ask after your health ; for the rose that ever blush- 
 ed, blushes still upon your cheeks ; the fairy air and bounding step, and the 
 sparkling eye which graced your romping days,'chjig to you still!' 
 
 "Out, flatterer!" cried the widow, archly. "How long is it since my gal- 
 lant play fellow turned a whisperer of loving periods ? What ! do you still 
 remember our strolls amid the fields, our rides far up the hills, and our 
 romps in the murmuring woods ?" 
 
 " And our sails upon the lake !" said the planter. 
 
 "Ah! you do remember them! And then our bird-nesting in the 
 
 'And our rambles through the dells," continued Somers, in the same 
 genial tone. 
 
 "And our flower-hunts in the wilds!" cried the lovely widow, as the 
 drawing-room rang with the music of her laughter. 
 
 "Ah, lady!" said the planter, "you are one of nature's choicest pets 
 always merry, gentle, happy, and must I say it fascinating !" 
 
 "Thank you for nothing!" exclaimed Mrs. Brunton, with a charming 
 pout ; " how long is it since I became ' lady ?' In our younger days, you 
 used to call me ' Laura !' " 
 
 " Ah ! you chide cruelly, now ! Will you not let your old play fellow 
 fall back on the only entrenchment left to shield him from the murderous 
 fire of those blue eyes ? Think of the hazard to this heart of my calling 
 you by a name familiar ! Have you no mercy ?" 
 
 " Have done, hypocrite do !" 'cried the bewitching creature, -who would 
 at that moment have pawned her very soul could she have believed he spoke 
 as a lover, and not as a gallant friend. " Do you know, Neil," she added, 
 " you have been the town talk since yesterday ?" 
 
 " Ah !" returned the planter, shaking his head, playfully ; " the town is 
 famous for its prattle ; and my name must, like everybody's else, be mixed 
 up in the scandal, and handled in its turn ! What does the town say?" 
 
 " Oh," cried the widow with a mischievous air, " I shall not tell you with- 
 out a fee." 
 
 " Bravo ! Tell me then, pretty trafficker, your price." 
 
 " Will you pay?" 
 
 " Promptly as an honest debtor, when he has the means !" 
 
 " Very good ; then my fee is call me in future by my name, and not by 
 my position !" 
 
 "Mrs. Brun " 
 
 "No," cried the lively creature, interrupting him, "Laura!" 
 
 " Here it is, then," said the planter, lifting her hand to his lips, " Laura I"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MEERY MEN. 55 
 
 " See that you don't get in debt in future 1" returned the widow, shaking 
 ner finger at him playfully. 
 
 " I'll look out for that ! Now, then, tell me, enchantress, what they say 
 of me in the town." 
 
 " They bay," said the fail- syren, " that you are the man of Carolina " 
 
 The planter blushed ; and his eyes fell before those of his companion. 
 
 ' That in the storm now rising, you will be the eagle whose bold pinions 
 will lift your country's banner triumphantly above the smoke and din of 
 battle " 
 
 The planter shook his head, without raising it. 
 
 " That yours is the voice will raise hearts that may droop, yours the lipg 
 will shed light through their darkness, joy through their gloom '' 
 
 " Stay," said Somers, imploringly, " stay, la 
 
 The widow lifted her fmger, archly. 
 
 " Laura, I care not for the opinions of the town," he continued, recover- 
 ing himself. "The truth is, it attaches too much importance to one who is. 
 in the face of all its praises, but a mere unit in the family of patriots. Tell 
 me, Laura, has Richard Winter been seen in town to day ?" 
 
 " Yes ; he appeared, very early this morning, at the head of a troop of 
 horse, at the Palmetto. You can guess why ?" 
 
 " To retake my two prisoners ?" 
 
 1; Yes. They say that he nearly tore the inn to pieces, on discovering 
 that he was anticipated. He accused the landlord of collusion, felled him to 
 the floor, and injured him so severely that his life was at first despaired of 
 
 " I am sorry for him. But, unfortunately, we live hi times when broken 
 heads and bruised bones appear to be man's natural heritage. And on this 
 score, Laura, I wish to converse with you, as a gentleman may converse 
 with a lady whom he esteems, as a friend may converse with a friend in. 
 whom he has confidence. But, I warn you it is a delicate subject, and one 
 whose very nature is significant of the very high regard I entertain for 
 you !" 
 
 Mrs Brunton's heart throbbed violently, and a pleasure she could not stifle, 
 made her naturally bright eyes sparkle with unusual brilliancy. 
 
 " Am I then to be so happy ?" she murmured, to herself. " Is it his hand 
 he is about to offer me ? oh, happinesss unspeakable ! 'Tis an Eden I am 
 to enter j 'tis the confession of his love I am about to hear ! ! happiness 
 happiness !" 
 
 So great, so nearly overpowering, was the picture her passionate fancy had 
 created, she could scarcely retain her self-possession. 
 
 " Hear me, Laura," began the planter, who attributed her joyous air to the 
 happiness it gave her as his friend to be worthy of his confidence, and to 
 have the ability to serve him. ' The storm now gathering will be a fearful 
 one, and one which will sweep many a stout and sturdy man from compe- 
 tence to beggary, from safety down to peril, from peril down to death." 
 
 "I can readily comprehend that, Neil," said Mrs. Brunton, who was puz- 
 zled to understand how such a prologue could possibly precede the comedy 
 of a declaration. 
 
 " Men," continued the planter, with the air, though unwittingly, of a man 
 who had come to his conclusions by deep searchings and long ponderings 
 upon his subject, " will array themselves one against the other, in the coun- 
 cils of state as in the conflict on the field ; and of the two parties thus form- 
 ed, the one will be in power to-day : the other, on the morrow. It appears, 
 then, clearly evident to me that many a private hatred now existing among the 
 men composing these two parties, will be carried into this contest, and euch 
 is human nature there gratified by such weapons as power will throw into 
 their hands. The tory of to-day will be in possession of the government to- 
 morrow, and, carrying his private animosity with him, will use the political
 
 56 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 sword in his hand, to cut off the private fortunes of his rebel enemy's,, by get- 
 tine his estate confiscated for his treason. So, on the other hand, when in 
 his turn the rebel mounts to power, he will make his private tory foe suffer 
 doubly in his defeat, by declaring his property forfeited to tho common weal 
 for his adherence to the king." 
 
 " I think I understand now, Neil, the point at which you are driving," 
 said Mrs. Brunton, with a sigh. 
 
 And the sparkle fled slowly from her eye, and the color from her cheek, 
 and her heart grew chilly, desolate and hard, for the thought which had 
 made her for a few brief moments happy, had glided off, and was succeeded 
 by a black ugly, cloud. 
 
 She listened, with the smile still on her lips, but with an inexpressive eye 
 which was the index of her soul. 
 
 " Go on, Neil," she said ; and she was conscious that, as on her heart, a 
 change had come over the cadences of her voice. 
 
 "And therefore," continued Somers, "I have thought I owed it to a dear 
 and tender mother, to provide for an emergency which might, for all that I 
 could say or do, throw her helpless and a beggar on the world. Every man 
 has more or less enemies ; I have mine, and the course I have marked out 
 for the contest that is coming will make me many more. I am willing to pay 
 suoh penalties as my own conduct may provoke ; but I am not willing that 
 my dear and only parent should suffer for any act of mine." 
 " That is commendable, Neil ; that is noble !" 
 Somers bowed, and went on. 
 
 "It is this, Laura, which brings me here to-day ; it is this which inspires 
 me to open my heart in confidence to you, and to ask of you a favor." 
 
 Colder and colder, harder and harder waxed the heart of the impetuous 
 widow. It was not to her charms that she was indebted for his visit ; it was 
 not even to courtesy, nay, nor to common friendship it was business, which 
 brought him to her house : cold, stern, unfeeling business. Her heart was not 
 only cold and hard it began even to grow black ! 
 "Go on, Neil," she said. 
 
 Her voice was clear and musical as ever, but not tinged with the slightest 
 accent of feeling. 
 
 "Men who take an active part in this contest, and I will be one of them," 
 continued the planter, not noticing, because not looking for nor understand- 
 ing the cause of any change in his companion's manner, " will be marked the 
 first, punished the earliest. Persons in your position, Laura, will of course 
 be exempt from all troubles and annoyances of this kind, and therefore 
 it is I have come to you to shield my mother's property from danger, by 
 transferring it over to you, and making it appear yours, till the storm is over 
 and all fears of further danger at an end." 
 
 " How do you wish this done ?" asked Mrs. Brunton, calmly. " Unless 
 there be a sale of the estate drawn up and conveyed in due form, the fraud 
 would be detected." 
 
 The planter looked up at her in surprise. He did not understand how 
 she could have used the offensive word we have italicised, unless through 
 premeditated malice, which he could not for a moment credit, or else through 
 a want of knowledge of terms, an idea which he felt satisfied must be 
 correct as the calm and innocent glance of his companion met his own. Not 
 willing that she should comprehend his first suspicion, he replied : 
 " That, Laura, is the favor I have come to ask at your hands." 
 " To purchase your mother's property ?" 
 
 "Yes, and to make it perfectly safe, in case death should overtake her and 
 me, to buy it at one-half its actual worth." 
 
 The widcw saw in an instant, in the delicacy of this blow, that she was 
 understood ; and, as, notwithstanding her struggle to repress it. a tell-tale
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 57 
 
 blush mounted slowly to her brow, she made an effort *o lead him to the 
 conviction that his suspicion was wholly based on error. 
 
 " That would indeed blind them," she said, with a forced smile, " and make 
 everything safe for your mother. But I will not consent to it ! ' 
 
 " No ?" said the planter, in a tone of surprise. 
 
 ' No, Neil, not for a moment. You appear to have made provision fir 
 everything but one and that you have entirely neglected !" 
 
 "Your refusal, Laura?" he said. 
 
 " Yes," she answered, with a calmness that staggered him, " and one thing 
 else!" 
 
 " And that is " 
 
 "That something might happen to me ! I might die!" 
 
 "You, Laura you die!" 
 
 "I! Would there be anything strange in that?" 
 
 " There would ! You are endowed with attributes which give health to 
 their possessor and lead her to a green old age your buoyant spirits, happy 
 heart and guileless nature!" 
 
 This was a second blow, and quite as artfully interwoven in his reply, as 
 the ' fraud ' was in her question. 
 
 "I might die," she replied, without evincing the slightest consciousness of 
 his double meaning ; " and my heirs might not feel disposed to do you justice ; 
 in which case, Neil," she added with a tenderness that was not all assumed, 
 " could I rest quietly in my grave ?" 
 
 " True," observed Somers, whose suspicion was fast vanishing ; " that 
 was an emergency which, it must be confessed, I never took into considera- 
 tion. And it is no marvel either: for who, looking at you, the ideal of youth 
 and loveliness and health, would dream that any other future was before you 
 than one of unalloyed happiness a vista of bright flowers on a plain where 
 reigns perpetual spring." 
 
 " Ah, Neil, it is not age alone that sweeps us from these shores to those of 
 the Beyond. Hearts sometimes fall and wither, even while their trunks are 
 full of youth and vigor !" 
 
 "That is easily true !" said the planter, now awakened for the first time to 
 the fact that his companion was the victim of an unreturned attachment, but 
 not dreaming for one moment that himself was its object 
 
 " 'Tis said that Winter visits her," he murmured. " Can it be she loves 
 him, and without hope ? Or does he dally with her, as he did with my 
 sister playing at one and the same time the two characters of trifler and 
 seducer ?" 
 
 It was a delicate subject, one in which he could not, as a gentlemen, take 
 any other part than that of a listener. If she felt disposed to make him a 
 confidant, he could not, he thought, do less than listen, and if she asked it, 
 advise. But it would thus he argued with himself be indelicate to ask an 
 explanation of her meaning, or appear to understand that anything further 
 was implied in her words than that of a passing observation. He therefore 
 remained mute, while he gave to his features an air of the most profound im- 
 passibility. 
 
 " Is it possible that he does not understand me !" thought the widow. 
 " Or is it that he will not ? Oh, the curse of custom ! which will not permit 
 a woman to lay open her heart except by rude hints which may not be un- 
 derstood, and glances which may not be interpreted aright !" 
 
 She saw however the necessity of banishing the last vestige of suspicion 
 from his mind, and of convincing him that nothing meanly selfish was in her 
 thoughts or disposition at the moment of her refusal. 
 
 "But I have thought of a plan, Neil," she resumed, with one of her most 
 fascinating smiles, and in a tone replete with tenderness, " by which you can 
 be saved From the danger you so justly fear from your tory enemies, from all' 
 
 8
 
 58 TH2 SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 peril that might possibly arise from my heirs in case I should die, as well as 
 exclude from the eyes of the law the possibility of an idea of a collusion?" 
 
 "Ah?" said the planter, inquiringly. " It must be a stroke of genius then, 
 Laura." 
 
 " And yet a very simple one, Neil," said Mrs. Brunton. " It is this let 
 me buy your plantation at its full value ! Let what will happen then, no 
 danger can come to you or yours. Should I live, you know you can regain 
 it at a moment's warning ; should I die, my heirs would be glad to dispose 
 of it at its value. Meanwhile, you have the use of the purchase money, with- 
 out interest, or any claim of mine or those who may follow me !" 
 
 "You are a glorious girl, Laura!" cried the planter with an outburst of 
 feeling which proclaimed that not a shadow of suspicion rested longer in his 
 mind. " You should have been born to a throne, for you are the royalest of 
 queens in heart and soul ! Now I understand the cause of your refusal. It 
 was to crush me with a generosity as unlocked for as it is noble !" 
 
 "Ah!" murmured the fair widow, "would that I could but overwhelm 
 him with love I What bliss, then, what Eden would compare with mine !" 
 
 " I will not insult your feelings, Laura, by declining your generous offer. 
 Yes, I will accept it for my mother's sake and yours !" 
 
 He might have added for his country's ; for it was in reality for it that he 
 wished the money : there being at home quite enough to amply provide for 
 the household, let what might arise. 
 
 " 'Tis well, Neil. And now let me assure you that I regard it as one of the 
 happiest moments in my existence to possess the ability to do you even so 
 slight a favor." 
 
 " I believe it, Laura, I believe it ! I shall henceforth pray for you as my 
 mother's guardian angel !" 
 
 " Would I were yours !" murmured his companion. " When do you wish 
 this affair ratified, Neil ?" she added, aloud. 
 
 " As soon as you can make it convenient : for in truth, Laura, I have much 
 to do, and but little time to do it in." 
 
 "Say to-morrow, then?" 
 
 " I will. At what hour ?" 
 
 "Name it yourself, Neil." 
 
 " What if I make it ten?" 
 
 " It will please me very weL" 
 
 " So be it then. I'll bring my mother down, and be in Kingstree with 
 her at that hour." 
 
 " Where shall we meet ?" 
 
 " Here, if it please you." 
 
 "Nothing would please me better. I will send a messenger for Mr. 
 Sprague, my lawyer, and bid him be in readiness.' 
 
 " Thank you, Laura, my more than friend my sister !" said the planter, 
 raising her hand to his lips. 
 
 " Your sister !" murmured the widow. " I will be nearer yet than that 
 your wife ! if this brain can bring it about !" 
 
 " Adieu, Laura ! I must be on my way," said the planter, rising. 
 
 " What, Neil so soon ?" said Mrs. Brunton, with a smile of ineffable 
 
 " Pardon me, Laura, but every moment is precious for my time now is 
 not my own, but my country's !" 
 
 " Go, then Neil ! returned the lady, with a gush of admiration. " Let 
 me not detain you a moment from a cause so holy. Go, Neil ; and bear this 
 ever in your memory : daily and nightly Laura Brunton wiH pray fervently 
 for your welfare !" 
 
 She dropped her eyes and a graceful courtesy ; and the planter, with a dig- 
 nified reverence, quitted the drawing-room, murmuring :
 
 OF MARION AND U:S MERKV MEN. 59 ' 
 
 " A moment more in her fascinating presence, and I were lost ! A moment 
 more, and Amy, myself, and all the world were forgot !" 
 
 Mrs. Brunton witnessed his departure from a window, aad never turned 
 .away from the blinds till he had disappeared. 
 
 "I will yet be yours, Neil!" she murmured; "yours yours only I Not 
 siM the world shall stop it. Yours or death's !" 
 
 She paced the room, deeply agitated ; her heart beating wildly, and her 
 temples throbbing as if they would burst. 
 
 " Is it then, after all, so difficult a task to win him ? I have triumphed in 
 banishing the last particle of suspicion from his mind ; why should I not 
 hope, at least, for a similar success in driving Amy Winter from his bosom 
 and planting my image there ? What though Amy be my friend ? Friend ? 
 In love, as in war, there's no such thing as friendship, unless it be on our side, 
 which Amy is not. Love knows no friends, save those who aid it in its con- 
 quest of the heart for which it bleeds. Amy is my rival, and therefore not 
 my friend, but my foe. We are in the field, one against the other, and each 
 contending for the same prize. Her heart is fixed on him, yearns for him, 
 but not with half the intensity of mine. Mine therefore is the greater claim : 
 and if it be within human scope to win him, mine shall be the heart he'll 
 press against his own, mine the hand he'll hold in his at the altar ! All's fair 
 in love. Let her who can achieve the victor's laurel !" 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On quitting Mrs. Brunton's Neil Somers turned off from the village, and 
 struck homeward. His plantation was situated about two miles from Kings- 
 tree, a distance which his gallant steed soon accomplished. 
 
 At the gate of the lawn facing the cottage, stood Mrs. Somers, anxiously 
 waiting her son's arrival. She was a lady of about three and forty, with a 
 very matronly appearance. Her features were small and delicate, and her 
 general air that of a gentle-hearted and pure-minded being. She was dressed 
 in a neat dark frock, and a cap, whose snowy folds seemed scarcely whiter 
 than her own calm brow and pale cheeks. 
 
 " Neil, my love," said she, in a tone of great affection, as he dismounted 
 and entered the lawn, " I have been so uneasy. What news have you ?" 
 
 " The best, mother. Mrs. Brunton has agreed to take the plantation at its 
 full value." 
 
 " I don't mean that, my dear. Has no one attempted to use violence I 
 I really, Neil, I am so nervous that I can scarcely speak." 
 
 " Take my arm, mother," said the planter, with air of deep respect and 
 strong filial love, " and let us proceed to the house. What has happened ?" 
 he added, as they seated themselves on the piazza. 
 
 " Mr. Abel* Winter was here, but a little while since, and he quite alarmed 
 me." 
 
 " Did he dare to insult you, mother ?" 
 
 " No, my dear. He told me that warrants were out against you, for your 
 conduct yesterday t at the village, and that you could not avoid arrest He 
 mentioned it to me as a friend." 
 
 " Fear not, mother. The rebels are too strong in this district f>r the royal 
 officers to lay hands on any of their number." 
 
 " I told him so : but he persisted in stating that there was no safety for you 
 except in immediate flight He added that, in case you were taken, nothing 
 an eartii could save you."
 
 gQ THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 "I am very much obliged to Mr. Winter for his anxiety in my welfare! 
 When did he say I was likely to be taken ?" 
 
 " Immediately. The officers, he said, were now m search of you. 
 
 " I passed some on the road ; but they made no attempt to take me. The 
 fact is my dear mother, the country is at present too unsettled for the crown 
 to show its power. Be tranquil ; they will not arrest me. But you have 
 other news for me, mother have you not ? I can read it in your manner." 
 
 " Yes '' answered Mrs. Somers, sorrowfully. " But do not way give to it ! 
 Here it is," and she drew a letter from her bosom. " Mr. Winter gave it to 
 me verbally ; but I told him I had not the heart to do deli ver it, and he then 
 sat down and penned it." 
 
 Neil opened the letter calmly, and read as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Somers. Tour conduct at Kingstree, by which you placed yourself 
 in opposition to the crown, has cut you off from the friendship and sympathy 
 of all true subjects of the king. It is perhaps unnecessary for me to add that 
 I cannot, as a good and loyal citizen, permit any further intimacy between 
 my family and yours, and especially between my daughter Amy and your- 
 self. Tour own good sense will teach you that I cannot allow my reputation 
 as a sound loyalist to be brought into suspicion by encouraging the visits of 
 one who is in the position of a rebel. With sentiments of the highest respect, 
 I remain, sir, Tours, &c.> 
 
 ABEL WINTER." 
 
 After having read this letter a second time, Neil tore it carefully into a 
 thousand fragments, which he threw to the winds. 
 
 " Why do you use his note in that way, my love ?" asked his mother in a 
 tone of tender reproach. " Mr. Winter has always treated us with the high- 
 est consideration." 
 
 "Very true, mother. I use it thus to prevent it from ever appearing 
 against him, in case anything should happen to me. Reflect ! it might in- 
 jure him should it ever be known he had corresponded with a rebel, no 
 matter what the pretext" 
 
 " Tou are always nobly considerate, my dear Neil," said his mother, fondly. 
 " But you are pale, my dear !" 
 
 " 'Tis nothing, mother. These things should be looked for ! Have you 
 seen her of late ?" 
 
 " Tes, my dear. She was here this morning." 
 
 " In smiles ?" continued the planter, in a voice half made up of bitterness. 
 
 " No, in tears. Her father had said to her ' See him no more forget 
 him !' " 
 
 "And she?" 
 
 " Amy is a good and dutiful daughter, my son, and worthy of your highest 
 esteem !" answered Mrs. Somers, with an air of great tenderness. 
 
 " I understand you, mother. She will obey him ?" 
 
 " To the best of her ability yes !" 
 
 " She will see me no more ?" 
 
 " No more. Her father has commanded her !" 
 
 The planter covered his face with his hands. 
 
 " Oh, my son ! my son !" cried his parent, drawing towards him, tenderly, 
 " I can appreciate and sympathize with you in your agony. But, ! don't 
 let it tear you thus silently. Weep, weep, Neil let your heart relieve ita 
 anguish in tears, or it will break. Weep, weep, Neil, weep !" 
 
 But the planter was silent ; not even a sigh escaped him. A few vibra- 
 tions of the muscles alone told of the frightful agony wrenching his power- 
 ful spirit. 
 
 Mrs. Somers trembled as she beheld her sou's deep grief. She was in the 
 utmost distress.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 01 
 
 ''Be tranquil, my son!" she exclaimed. "Amy loves you; her heart is 
 yours. She cannot take it away, she cannot forget you, and would not if 
 she could. She loves you ; and if her hand be not yours, it will never be 
 another's. She bade me tell you that, to soften the cruelty of her father's 
 blow. Don't let it affect you so terribly, my dear. Neil ! Neil ! your agony 
 wrings my heart !" 
 
 As she spoke, she fell, with a shower of tears upon his neck ; and there 
 
 At length, the young man took his hands from his face, and looking up- 
 ward, for a moment, said, with a voice that came up from the lowest depths 
 of his soul 
 
 " His will be done !" 
 
 And he bowed bis head, reverently. 
 
 These few moments of love's anguish had altered him frightfully. TTig 
 pale countenance \^& at least ten years older than before. 
 
 Mr. Somers became seriously alarmed for her sou. 
 
 "Oh, Neil Neill" she cried, wringing her hands, "my heart bleeds for 
 you !" 
 
 The planter looked up and took her hand, mournfully. 
 
 " Mother !" he said, in a voice which she scarcely recognized, '' let us 
 apeak of this of her no more !" 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AT the time appointed, Neil Somers made his appearance at the rendez- 
 vous in Charleston. He found the city in a state of great commotion. The 
 royal officers were nowhere to be seen ; whereas the rebels were visible 
 everywhere. 
 
 The planter had scarcely arrived,, when Nat the woodsman joined him. 
 
 " Hello ! Neil, how air yew ? When did yew cum down tu town ?" 
 
 " But now. I have not been here ten minutes." 
 
 " Du tell ! I've been here fur an hour or more, and been looking raound. 
 They du say things look as ef the Britishers had an idee of tryin' our mettle. 
 They're in sight ! 
 
 " Who ?" 
 
 " The red coats, 'way out thar' !" And he pointed seaward. " A hull 
 fleet on 'em. They've been tryin 1 to get in for a good many days, but they 
 aint able to git cross the bar ! Calms, contrary winds, and sech things wunt 
 let 'em in !" 
 
 " That then accounts for the agitation of the people. But where can our 
 man be ?" 
 
 " Over tfiere, most like," answered the woodsman, pointing to a rough for- 
 tification on a small island at the mouth of the harbor. 
 
 " Beg pardon, sir I" said a fisherman, approaching them, and touching his 
 hat respectfully ; "ar n't your name Somers?" 
 
 " Yes, friend. What then ?" 
 
 "And yours, "continued the fisherman, turning to the scalp hunter, "is 
 Akerman, arn't it?" 
 
 "Wot dews that argify?" demanded the woodsman. 
 
 " This !" answered the fisherman. " You 've come here for Captain Marion, 
 who is, unexpectedly, over there in Fort Sullivan, and where he bade me 
 conduct you." 
 
 " We are at your disposal," said the planters
 
 62 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 " Then follow me," said the mail, who led the way to the river side, where 
 a ton" narrow barge, with six stout rowers, was in waiting. 
 
 The planter and woodsman stepped aboard and seated themselves astern ; 
 and in another moment, they were pulling away from the city, which, as 
 they drew out into the stream, appeared to be laboring under a spirit of un- 
 usual restlessness and activity. 
 
 They reached Sullivan's Island in the course of an hour, and springing 
 ashore, followed the fisherman up to the fort, which they found preparing 
 eagerly for battle. 
 
 The fort was a large square, with a bastion at each angle. It was built of 
 logs laid one upon another, the spaces between being filled with sand. The 
 logs were of palmetto wood, a very spungy tree, which receives and retains 
 a buEet or cannon ball without making an extended fracture or injuring the 
 adjacent parts. The utmost activity prevailed ; the men were engaged in 
 arranging the guns and extending the fort, which was scarcely half finished. 
 
 " Whar is Captain Marion ?" asked the planter of the fisherman. 
 
 "There," said the latter, pointing to a group of officers near the flag-staff. 
 " The smallest man in that party of -four. Follow me." 
 
 And he led the way toward the grou-p, one of whom advanced to meet 
 them as they approached. It was Marion. 
 
 i; I am happy to see you, sirs," he said, extending his hand to each with a 
 pleasant air. "Are you ready for service? If so, I can give you a post 
 where honor follows hand in hand with danger." 
 
 " We are here for duty, sir," returned the planter ; " and desire to be placed 
 where we can be of most service to our country." 
 
 "I'll look out for that," said Marion, with a friendly air. "Do you see 
 that gun?" And he pointed as he spoke to a thirty-two pounder which 
 stood before an embrasure facing the flag-staff. 
 
 The planter bowed. 
 
 " Very well. I give it to your charge. It is the largest gun in the fort, 
 and ought to tell the best story. See that it sustains itself with honor." 
 
 He left them, and the planter and woodsman entered at once on duty. 
 Thrown upon their own resources, they had to be their own teachers in 
 gunnery ; an art, however, for which they were in some degree prepared by 
 their perfect mastery of small arms. 
 
 In the course of the day, a young man approached, whose face was fami- 
 liar to them both. 
 
 " Mr. Jasper ?" said the planter, inquiringly. 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered the young man ; " sergeant at your service." 
 
 " Who is in command of the fort, sergeant? 
 
 " Colonel Moultrie. that tall man you see over therewith captain Marion." 
 
 "There appear to be two regiments here," said the planter. 
 
 " It is so, sir. The one is under Moultrie himself, and the other under 
 captain Marion, and each is extremely solicitous for the conduct and honor 
 of his men." 
 
 " A natural desire," observed the planter. 
 
 " Yes ; and one which the Williamsburg boys share in common with their 
 commander. Marion's men will do their duty." 
 
 " No fear of that. When do they expect the enemy ?" 
 
 " The fleet has been telegraphed and may be along to-night ; perhaps not 
 till to-morrow. If we only have powder enough to hold out, we'll give 'em 
 a little Sou' Car'lina juice. Do you think you can manage that gun ?" 
 
 " I've an idee we'll get along," said the woodsman. 
 
 "Most likely," said Jasper, good humoredly. " We're all inexperienced in 
 this cannon business ; but when it comes to the rifle, we're at home 1" 
 
 " At present," said the planter, " we must do as well as we know how." 
 
 " The eyes of the city are on us," observed Jasper.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS JBEREY MEN. 63 
 
 " Ya'as, an the eyes of the kentry, tu !" cried a tall, slender, singular per- 
 sonage, whom they all recognized, approaching them. 
 
 He was warmly welcomed by the party, each of whom was familiar with 
 his merits as one of the boldest and shrewdest men of the borders. 
 
 He was a tall, slender, wiry personage, and dressed in the yellow hunting 
 shirt, leggins and buskins of the frontier. In appearance, he was all angles 
 and edges. His long, hooked nose, his sharply jutting brow and bold, pointed 
 chin gave to his features an angular ensemble in perfect keeping with his sharp 
 shoulders, sharp elbows, and long sharp fingers ; and these again were in 
 perfect harmony with the broad rim of his slouched hat which fell off in every 
 direction like so many points with sharp borders ; the fringes of his hunting 
 shirt were worn down to perfect edges ; as were the fringes on the sides of 
 his leggins ; as were also' even the tops of his buskins. 
 
 This man who had already rendered himself famous on the frontiers, as a 
 destroyer of " red meat," was destined to cut a similar figure upon the broad 
 field on which he had now entered. 
 
 ."Haow ar' ye?" he added, with a long, nasal twang. "Aint bin here 
 long, I spose ? Nor I nuther. They du say, we're goin to hev it pesky 
 sharp, when the' red-coats an blew-jackits come up ! What du you think ? 
 My pinion ar', they wunt find it so natrally easy after all When I wus 
 ashore, in the city, this mornin', a tory feller ses to me, ses he, ' the fleet that's 
 comin' up will bring yew rebels to yer senses.' Ses I, Mister, if they don't 
 take our senses away, we shan't complain ! Ha ! ha! 'twantso bad, was it ?" 
 
 " Very clever !" answered Jasper. " But, tell us Snipe, what do you think 
 of that T 
 
 And as he spoke, ho pointed out to sea, where, riding up the horizon, now 
 appeared the tapering masts of a large frigate. 
 
 The black, far-reaching eyes of the frontiersman, together with those of 
 the party around him, as well as those of every man in the fort, were sud- 
 denly fixed in mute astonishment on the object which had so suddenly ar- 
 rested their attention. 
 
 The frigate had scarcely cleared the line of the horizon, when another leapt 
 fc sight ; this was followed by a third, which was succeeded by a fourth, and 
 that by a sixth, and these by three others, till the offing appeared like a for- 
 est of black masts. 
 
 "Thar's nine on 'em!" cried the scalp hunter. 
 
 " We shall have warm work !" observed the planter. 
 
 " They'll find it equally as warm," said Jasper. 
 
 " An a leetle warmer, tu, if I reckon right !" said Snipe, coolly. " Wait 
 till the tarnal critters cum up !" 
 
 " If they succeed in coming in to-night," said the planter, " our chances of 
 standing a siege are slim. The fort is scarcely half finished !" 
 
 This appeared to be the impression of the officers around the flag staff; for 
 as Somers spoke, word was given ordering all hands to the unfinished 
 walls. 
 
 In a few hours, the fortress was pronounced tenable, and capable of stand- 
 ing a siege. The guns in the embrasures were charged and rammed home, 
 and the gunners stood ready to salute the enemy at a moment's warning. 
 
 But the fleet which ere while threatened to ride so gallantly into port, now 
 lay tossing in the offing, unable to get over the bar. By and bye it was evi- 
 dent the vessels would not be able to come to anchorage that day, if indeed 
 they should succeed in making it at all 
 
 . As hour after hour passed away, and the fleet lay helpless in the offing, the 
 confidence of the soldiers in the fortress, and of the inhabitants in the city, 
 who had been watching its movements with unflagging interest, returned : 
 and all felt satisfied that ample time would be had to prepare for the struggle 
 ere it came.
 
 g4 THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 They will not be up.before to-morrow, if they should then," said colonel 
 
 " U Meanwhile," observed captain Marion, " we shall have time to get every- 
 thing in readiness to receive them." 
 
 " Nieht is falling, gentlemen," continued Moultrie, turning to his offi6ers ; 
 bid your men to rest, for the probability is they will have a trying time of 
 
 The officers bowed, and set off, each in the direction of his men. In 
 another hour, the sentries were keeping their lonely watch ; the fortress was 
 silent, and the four hundred soldiers within its walls were wrapt in calm re- 
 
 ** The night passed away, morning came, and the fort was again alive with 
 the tread of armed men: ;md again, as on the preceding day, the embrasures 
 in the battlements were black with bristling cannon. 
 
 " The fleet has gained ground during the night," sai| the planter to Nat 
 the woodsman. 
 
 " Trew," observed the latter ; " an' ef I know anything of the weather, 
 they'll he'v wind enuff bimeby to work 'em in ; an' they wunt hev tu wait ' 
 long nuther." 
 
 As if to prove the truth of the woodsman's observation, the wind within a 
 few minutes freshened, the sails began to fill, and the fleet moved slowly into 
 port ; and in less than two hours there appeared moving up the channel, two 
 frigates of fifty guns each ; five of twenty-eight each, one of twenty-six guns, 
 and a bomb vessel. 
 
 The men in the fort were eager to begin the combat; every face was flush- 
 ed with a desire to convince the red coats and blue jackets that the courage, 
 at least, was not all one side. 
 
 The excitement in the city was intense. All the rebel troops that could 
 be mustered were under -arms, and prepared for battle. Numerous specta- 
 tors lined the shores and streets and covered the tops of the buildings. Not a 
 spot was unoccupied where could be had a view of the combat which all fore- 
 saw was now about to open. 
 
 At length, the fleet drew up abreast of the fort, and made preparations for 
 battle. 
 
 " Captain Marion," said Moultrie, " bid your gunners direct their pieces at 
 the commodore's ship let the fifty gun frigates be attended to first we can 
 settle the smaller ones afterward." 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir!" answered the other, turning off to where his command 
 was stationed, and giving the necessary order. 
 
 At this moment a line of flashing light broke from the side of the commo- 
 dore's ship, then a lengthened range of white curling smoke, and this was 
 followed by a loud, deafening crash, which seemed to shake the very ele- 
 ments. 
 
 "Now, then, Somers, now then, sweep that rascal's deck, in return. Fire !" 
 cried Marion. 
 
 Neil paused a moment, adjusted his gun to a proper level, and then step- 
 ping back applied the match. Scarcely had the smoke died away, when a 
 frightful scattering of limbs and planking on board the commodore's ship 
 told how accurate and deadly had been the planter's aim. 
 
 " Well done !" cried Marion, applaudingly. "Now then, Macdonald," he 
 added, running to another gunner, at the next embrasure, " remember our 
 powder and ball are short. Every shot must tell ! Is your gun in range 
 aim accurate ? Then, in God's name, fire ! Bravo ! Their goes their main- 
 mast! Well done, Macdonald, my boy well done!" 
 
 Down went the commodore's mainmast with a frightful orash, and the 
 commodore with it
 
 OF MARION A:;:> ins .v.;:;j.i:v M:;.Y 65 
 
 <% ff.o, there !" cried a tall, angular figure springing boldly on top of the 
 parapet, in sight and range of the whole fleet, '' I'm goin' to give one of yew 
 fellers a rich lick ?" 
 
 And in another moment he had brought his rifle to his shoulder, and with 
 that quick and apparently natural motion peculiar to riflemen of the frontiers, 
 took a deliberate aim, and fired ; then pausing a moment to watch the effect 
 of his shot^ he sprang back among the gunners, on the platform, apparently 
 very well satisfied with the result of his performance. 
 
 " I knew sum of 'em would smell pisen when Peter barked !" cried the 
 frontiersman, with a quiet chuckle, as he coolly set to work to recharge his 
 rifle. 
 
 "Once is enough for that kind of work, Snipe!" cried Marion, applaud- 
 ingly. " I cannot afford to lose so brave a soldier thus early in the action. 
 Hark ! the murderous devils are hurling all their guns against us. Let 
 them blaze away ; our palmetto logs receive their balls, but throw no splint- 
 ers ! Now, then, Somers, my gallant friend, is that aim you are taking 
 true be careful, we cannot afford to lose a single ounce of powder ! Ha ! 
 Bravo ! that was an aim, indeed. With such shots as that, we'll hardly leave 
 enough of the blue jackets and red coats to carry back the news of their de- 
 
 " Hallo, thar'!" cried Snipe, the frontiersman, to a gunner, "while you're 
 loadin' that feller for another bark, jes' let me pepper one on the varmint 
 with my Peter!" 
 
 And deliberately stooping down, he put his head and shoulders through 
 the embrasure, raised and sighted his rifle, and then pulled its trigger. 
 
 " I dropped an ossifer that time !" he exclaimed, coolly drawing back, to 
 make room for the gun which was at that instant wheeled into its place, and 
 a few moments afterward successfully discharged. 
 
 At this period of the combat, the air shook with the deafening peals echo- 
 ing from the fleet as well as from the fort ; and there being but little or 
 no wind, the smoke was so thick and suffocating as to become a very serious 
 annoyance. Nevertheless, both parties felt the necessity of continuing the 
 action, though from different causes ; the fleet from that bull-dog motive 
 which insists upon forcing its enemy to submission, the fort from that pecu- 
 liar obstinacy which will knuckle to nothing short of utter annihilation. 
 
 Thus far the dead and wounded on the decks of the fleet were frightfully 
 numerous, while in the fort hardly a man was wounded. 
 
 The firing gradually fell off, so as to give the smoke an opportunity to 
 partially pass off, and was then resumed with unflagging severity by both 
 parties. 
 
 " Don't fire a shot that is not bound to tell!" cried Marion, running from 
 gunner to gunner, and everywhere arousing them to eagerness, coolnesg and 
 caution. '"Let them fire away their ammunition ours is too precious ! Re- 
 member that on every shot hangs the destiny of our country ! Are your 
 aims true ? Fire, then !" 
 
 And thus, he flew from gun to gun, cheering, warning and encouraging his 
 men. A man on the top of the parapet attracted his attention. It was 
 Snipe, the frontiersman, coolly picking up, one after another, a number of 
 rifles which he had collected, and firing them at the enemy. 
 
 " Come down," cried Marion. " Come down, sir, at once. Are you mad? 
 Come down, sir !'.' 
 
 " Can't du it, capting !" cried the frontiersman, " this is the only place 
 where I kin see!" 
 
 " Come down, sir, at once !" cried the officer, authoritatively. 
 
 " In a minit, capting!" cried Snipe, coolly. -'I've only got a couple of 
 more left. I'd like to make 'em all tell !" 
 
 Nor did he descend to the platform till he had fired off every gun. 
 
 9
 
 66 THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE CAYS 
 
 Then going up to the officer, who could scarcely preserve his gravity, he 
 
 " I hope, capting, yer aint agoin' to chizzle a feller out of his chances. 
 There aint 'such a nutter spot to fire from in the hull fort Come up, an' 
 
 "Nonsense, sir !" answered Marion, with assumed anger,. " 'Tis a reck- 
 less and useless disregard of human life to which I will not consent!" 
 
 "But consider, capting " 
 
 " Silence, sir !" returned Marion. " Your conduct deserves to be reported 
 to the colonel, sir, and " 
 
 "Look, capting, look!" cried Snipes, interrupting him. 
 
 Marion turned his eyes in the direction pointed out by the frontiersman, 
 and beheld the flag, which a chance shot from the fleet had wrested from 
 the staff, falling over the fortress. 
 
 A loud shout from the fleet followed its descent. 
 
 "The rebels have struck!" was the cry, passing from lip to lip, on board 
 the vessels. 
 
 A groan went up from the multitude in the city. 
 
 " The flag is struck ! Our brave defenders have ceased to struggle. All 
 is lost!" was murmured on every hand. 
 
 Both parties were, happily, mistaken. Marion turned from gunner to gun- 
 ner, with an imploring look; at length his eye met that of Jasper, who was 
 in the act of drawing back previous to firing his piece. 
 
 The sergeant, wrapt up in the management of his gun, had heard nothing 
 of the fate of the flag, and was therefore somewhat astonished at the loud 
 rejoicing of the vessel's crews. 
 
 " Perhaps they are cheering at the arrival of a reinforcement, and counting 
 on our capture now as certain. But they won't find that quite so easy. The 
 old fort will swallow without flinching all the iron pills they can send it !" 
 
 It was at this moment his eye encountered that of Marion. The latter 
 seeing the sergeant did not understand the position of matters, pointed 
 slowly and significantly to the shattered flag staff. 
 
 An instant was all the young man required to comprehend everything ; 
 in another his mind was made up as to what course to pursue. 
 
 " Take my place at the gun,'' he said to Marion, " and give those red coat 
 rascals a settler for their insolence. I'll be back in a moment!" 
 
 So saying, he sprang with the agility of a cat up on the ramparts, where 
 he paused an instant to notice where the flag had fallen ; then throwing hir$- 
 self from the wall, he landed safely on the sandy beach, within a step of 
 where it lay fluttering in the wind. 
 
 At this instant, a ball, levelled at him from the admiral's frigate, passed 
 between him and the banner 1 , 
 
 With a laugh and gesture of defiance at the foe, he picked up the ensign, 
 and waving it thrice in the face of the enemy, who could not restrain a cry 
 of admiration at his intrepidity, he sprang up to an embrasure -in the wall ; 
 and shortly afterwards was seen climbing the flag-staff, holding in one hand 
 the ensign, which he coolly re-fastened to the pole, while a perfect shower of 
 bullets whistled past^ without touching either himself or the flag, which 
 
 r'n waved gallantly in the breeze, and as before flaunted its defiance to 
 foe. 
 
 The gallant sergeant now descended to the platform, amid the enthusiastic 
 acclamations of all within the fortress who had witnessed the gallant feat, 
 and returned to his commander, saying modestly 
 " I will now relieve you, sir, and return to my gun." 
 "You are the hero of to-day !" exclaimed Marion, seizing and pressing his 
 hand warmly. <; And your country will not forget' you '"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MKN. 67 
 
 The sergeant blushed modestly, and silently resumed the management of 
 his gun. 
 
 The red coats and blue jackets on board the fleet were amazed at the ob- 
 stinacy of the fort ; nor did they comprehend how its defenders could hope 
 for aught but defeat and destruction against a force so large and dispropor- 
 tioned as their own. Fortunately this idea did not pervade the gallant party 
 in the fortress, who felt perfectly satisfied, that if their ammunition held out, 
 triumph must, at the close of the battle, be theirs. 
 
 One gun in particular, had, from the beginning of the combat, caused a 
 great deal of annoyance to the frigates of the fleet. It was the thirty-two 
 pounder under the management of the planter. This gun appeared to divide 
 its favors equally between the two leading vessels, and seemed determined 
 that neither should have any well grounded right to complain of partiality. 
 It tore and raked both with a precision and fatality of aim which spoke well 
 for the genius of its workers. Now its rage appeared fixed on one, then it 
 suddenly changed to the other ; and each of its well directed messengers was 
 a sure death-usher to all at whom it was directed. It appeared to have no 
 particular place of aim ; but wandered about wherever a group was congre- 
 gated. Its especial wrath seemed fixed upon the officers ; no two of whom 
 could be seen together for a moment, without one or both paying the next 
 moment the penalty of their rashness. All on board the two frigates felt 
 the necessity of silencing a gun which made such frightful havoc, and every 
 energy was thrown out for that purpose. But it was of no avail The big 
 thirty-two blazed away, with the same regularity in time, the same accuracy 
 of aim, and the same fatality in effect. An officer who had been watching it 
 for some minutes, and noting the havoc it made among his men and the des- 
 truction it caused to his vessel, determined at length to silence it. Stepping 
 up to a gunner he pushed him aside, saying 
 
 " Away, and let me put an end to that fellow !" 
 
 He stooped to poise the piece, aud at that instant a flash of light appeared 
 at the nozzle of the big thirty two ; a small cloud of' smoke careened up, a 
 report followed and the head of the officer rolled from his shoulders as 
 cleanly as if it had been severed by an axe ! 
 
 Fear seized upon the spectators of this frightful incident ; and from that 
 moment all hope of quieting the big thirty-two, or of reducing the fort, was 
 abandoned by the crew of the ill-fated frigate. 
 
 " Heaven is with them, and against us! ' they murmured ; and thenceforth 
 their guns were worked mechanically, and without the enthusiasm of battle 
 to sustain them. 
 
 Meanwhile the big thirty-two played away as if bent upon the utter des- 
 truction of the frigates, leaving to the other guns of the fort the task of at- 
 tending tt the smaller vessels of the fleet. 
 
 " You work well, 1 ' said Marion, approaching the planter. "The enemy 
 are evidently staggered at your thirty-two pounder. See how wildly they 
 fire !" 
 
 " Let them show their heels, then," said Somers, as he deliberately 
 sighted his gun at a group of five officers, and fired. 
 
 " They'll be glad to do it ere long !" oberved Marion, with a quiet smile, 
 "if that is to be the price of their stay!" 
 
 As he spoke, there was a momentary confusion on that part of the 
 frigate's deck at which the thirty-two had been set ; this was followed by a 
 scattering of limbs and fragments of wood; and then all was still. Of the 
 five officers, but one remained to tell the story of his companions' fate ! The 
 rest lay broken, mangled and severed in a hundred pieces. 
 
 " But what is the matter now?" demanded Marion, with a moody brow, 
 as he noticed that the guns of the fortress were not so active in their dis- 
 charges as before.
 
 
 68 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 " The powder is gin out, I reckon !" observed the woodsman. 
 
 "Perhaps!" returned the captain, uneasily ; and he passed with a quick 
 step to the centre of the platform, where stood the commandant of the fort, 
 sweeping the bay with his spy-glass. 
 
 " We are on the eve of a victory, colonel," said Marion, hastily, " and yet 
 the guns work as if the men were half asleep !" 
 
 "Our powder is very low," answered the commandant, with a sigh. " We 
 have left scarcely half a dozen charges to a gun !" 
 
 " Heaven ! What is to be done ?" 
 
 " I have despatched a messenger to Charleston for a fresh supply." 
 
 "And before it comes," said Marion, who could scarcely restrain his vex- 
 ation, " our last charge will perhaps have been fired, and the fortress be in the 
 hands 0f the enemy !" 
 
 " We must hope for the best, sir !" said the commandant, with an air of 
 resignation. " I have an idea though that something might be done to avert 
 the danger you speak of. Do you see that schooner lying off there by the 
 creek ?" 
 
 ' Distinctly." 
 
 " She is one of the royal transports, and no doubt well provided with 
 powder. Thirty brave fellows might board her successfully, and " 
 
 " I understand you," interrupted Marion. " It shall be done. Not a 
 moment is to be lost. I will collect the men and start at once." 
 
 The commandant replied to him by a look replete with gratitude and 
 thanks, and Marion moved away to make his preparations. 
 
 He first ordered three boats to be held in readiness, then selected his men, 
 and then calling sergeants Jasper and Macdonald from their guns, he led the 
 way to where Neil Somers and Nat the woodsman were doing such terrible 
 execution with their big thirty-two. 
 
 ' Gentlemen," said Marion, " I desire your company in an expedition on 
 which I am about to enter, and wish you to yield your gun to these two 
 officers, who will attend to it during your absence." 
 
 The planter and woodsman bowed and stepped aside, while Jasper and 
 Macdonald took their places at the gun. 
 
 " I need not tell you, sirs," said Marion, to the sergeants, " that this gun 
 must neither falter nor lose one jot of the position it has occupied during the 
 action. You shall be supplied with powder, even if the rest of the pieces 
 have to lie idle. I will speak to the colonel to that effect, and I shall loek on 
 my return for a good report of your conduct in my absence !" 
 
 " The character of the gun shall not suffer in our hands, sir !" said Mac- 
 donald proudly. 
 
 " You may rest easy on that score, sir !" added Jasper. 
 
 " I have every confidence in you, gentlemen," said Marion, flatteringly. 
 " Come, sirs," he added, addressing the planter and woodsman, "we must be 
 on .our way !" 
 
 They left the spot and passed to the commandant, to whom Marion briefly 
 recommended the propriety of furnishing the thirty-two pounder with a suffi- 
 ciency of ammunition and then descended from the platform to the beach, 
 where they found the boats and men in waiting. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Marion, " the object of this expedition is to obtain a 
 supply of powder ; and that schooner you see lying yonder near the creek 
 must furnish it. There are thirty of you ; divide off in sets of ten each, and 
 then embark Do you understand me, gentlemen ?" 
 
 The men made no reply, but did as he instructed them, and that with a 
 cheerfulness' and alacrity which showed how eager they were to enter upon 
 the^ enterprise for which their commander had selected them. 
 
 " Jest as I 'spected !" murmured the observant woodsman. " They obey 
 'the cap'n without stoppin' to think or talk, 'cause they've got confidence in
 
 OF MARION AM) HIS MERRV MEN. 69 
 
 him. ' J.r talks to 'em as ef they were men, an 1 not as ef they were mere 
 macirr A. .tfo wonder he's pop'lar, an' kin make his sogers go tu the devil 
 fur hrni l" 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Marion, turning to the planter and woodsman, " I wish 
 van to take charge of two of these boats, I will manage the third. Now for 
 <sy plan !" 
 
 And he unfolded it to them in a whisper. When he had finished, he said : 
 
 " Now, then, sirs, get aboard. We have not a moment to lose !" 
 
 In a few minutes they were three hundred yards from the island, and with- 
 a fifty of the schooner. They then divided off, one making for the stern of 
 Jbe vessel, another for the side, and a third for the bow. 
 
 Fortunately, for the success of the expedition, the parties on board the 
 schooner were all assembled on the port side, watching with eager interest 
 the progress of the action between the fortress and the fleet ; while the boats 
 approached the vessel on its starboard side. 
 
 Marion's pinnace shot towards the bow, the planter's towards the side, the 
 woodsman's towards the stern. 
 
 The captain's passed around the bow to the port side, and came in sight 
 of the parties on board the schooner who were somewhat staggered at the 
 suddenness of their appearance. 
 
 " Good day, sirs," said Marion, doffing his chapeau with a quiet smile. 
 " They are having quite a warm time of it, down there ! Why don't you go- 
 and join 'em ?" 
 
 " Who are you, sir ?" said the commander of the schooner, with a con- 
 temptuous glance. 
 
 " I am, sir," returned Marion, calmly, " the monarch of these waters, as 
 George is monarch of all above the shore ; and I am come to demand the 
 tribute which you owe me for invading and occupying this part of my realm." 
 
 This was said in a tone and accompanied with a look which fully persuaded, 
 the commandant of the schooner, as well as his men, that the master of the 
 pinnace was either a madman or a fool. 
 
 " Friend," said the commandant, "you had better carry yourself and jests 
 to another market" 
 
 " What ! without my tribute ? I couldn' think of it, sir ! I am not in 
 the habit of allowing strangers to occupy my grounds without paying for the 
 privilege. You really must cash up !" 
 
 "And pray, most potent monarch of the sea !" said the commandant with 
 a derisive smile, " what is the amount of your exaction? Shall I pay it in 
 guineas or in stripes ? Will your majesty have it now, or wait till it suits 
 your debtor to pay it?" 
 
 " Sir," returned the other, with an air of mock deference, " I will have 
 it now I" 
 
 " Dorft you wish you may get it ?" asked the commandant. 
 
 " I certainly do !" 
 
 " Then," continued the commandant, " will your majesty have the good- 
 ness to come aboard and obtain it ?" 
 
 " Most certainly 1" answered Marion. " Comrades," he added, "we must 
 humor this gentleman, since he will not humor us. He will not hand over 
 the tribute ; we must therefore go aboard and take it !" 
 
 " But your majesty," continued the commandant, in the same strain of 
 mockery, " will first throw your arms overboard, and order your followers to 
 do the same !" 
 
 " Not at all, sir !" was the reply. 
 
 " Then, your majesty," resumed the commandant, " I shall be under the 
 necessity of sinking you !" 
 
 " Oh 1" cried the other, with an air of affected alarm, " you are jesting, 
 
 TWOT I"
 
 70 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 " Not at all," answered the commandant ; " and I give your majesty thirty 
 seconds to either throw your weapons into the sea, or move off altogether." 
 
 " You are positively cruel !" observed the captain, with an air of astonish- 
 ment and fear. 
 
 " Come, your majesty decide !" said the commandant, in a tone that made 
 his already laughing followers nearly shake themselves to pieces. 
 
 < ; But" stammered the captain, with an affected cry, " you will not mur- 
 der a man for calling for his own ! What will you do at the end of the thirty 
 seconds?" 
 
 "Order my men to bring their guns to bear upon you." 
 
 " Oh, don't don't do that /" said the captain, with an affectation of alarm 
 which was perfectly ludicrous. 
 
 " Come, come time flies !" 
 
 "But," cried the captain, whiningly, "where are your guns? I don't see 
 'em!" 
 
 " Til show you !" answered the commandant, turning to his men, and giv- 
 ing them a sign. 
 
 The latter ceased their mirth, and wheeled around to seize their guns. As 
 they turned they suddenly uttered a loud cry. 
 
 "What's the matter mow?" demanded the commandant, wheeling about 
 in surprise. As he did so, he started, and became pale. 
 
 And with reason; for before him, ranged in a line, with muskets raised 
 and levelled, were twenty men, awaiting their commander's order to fire ! 
 
 It was the two boat's crews, who, while Marion so adroitly rounded the 
 bow and arrested the attention of the commandant and his men, had scaled 
 the vessel's side and stern, and, unperceived, made themselves masters of the 
 arm-chest, containing the weapons of the schooner. 
 
 This was a tableau for which the commandant was scarcely prepared, and 
 for a few moments his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, and his cheeks 
 assumed the paleness of marble. He was a brave man, however, and his 
 self-possession speedily returned. An instant was sufficient to enable him to 
 comprehend the details of the stratagem, as well as to satisfy him that "he had 
 been playing a game of sharps with one who was his master. 
 
 By this time Marion and his crew had sprung from their boat to the 
 schooner's deck, and drawn up in a line behind that formed by the joint crews 
 of the planter and backwoodsman. 
 
 " Well, sir," said Marion to the commandant. " you look as if you had 
 thought better of it ! You will now give us a little longer time to move off, 
 will you not ?" 
 
 The commandant was speechless, but collected. 
 
 " Come, sir," continued Marion, somewhat impatiently, " find your tongue 
 s speedily as possible. I am in haste. Where is your powder ?" 
 
 " Yoa have succeeded in surprising, but you have not yet conquered me !" 
 
 answered the commandant " If you want my powder, find it, !' 
 
 " Young man," said Marion, sternly, " I respect your courage, but not your 
 obstinacy. It was your obstinacy that spoke then, and it is mine which an- 
 swers it now. I must know where your powder is !" 
 
 "Find it, then!" answered the other, 'fiercely. 
 
 " Beware, sir,'' said Marion, his brow darkening as he spoke ; " It will not 
 be well for you, if you drive me to extremities. I am in no humor to put up 
 with either your insolence or your bravado. Where is your powder ?" 
 
 " Find it !" returned the young commandant, haughtily. 
 
 Unless you tell it me, sir, and that instantly, I shall be compelled to resort 
 to measures of a character destructive to yourself and men, and unpleasant 
 tome!" 
 
 "Do your worst!" 
 
 "Then, sir "
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 7 L 
 
 'A moment!" cried the planter, interrupting the storm which he saw 
 gathering and almost ready to burst. " A moment, captain ! Perhaps the 
 gentleman will not refuse to hearken to me !'' 
 
 " I give you two minutes, to try him,' 1 said Marion, turning away towards 
 the after part of the vessel. 
 
 "Is that your answer, sir?" asked Somers, bending his eyes on the com- 
 mandant in his calm, impressive way. 
 
 "It is!" replied the latter, drawing himself up. 
 
 " Pause, sir reflect!" continued the planter, solemnly. "You are prison- 
 ers, you and your men. The vessel and all it, contains are no longer yours, 
 nor under your control ; on the contrary, they belong to us, their capturers. 
 You are our prisoners; in our hands, and at our mercy. Why aggravate 
 your position, when a slight show of common politeness will soften it and 
 restore you to liberty?" 
 
 " You talk extravagantly, sir ! Your prisoners, indeed !" And the young 
 man laughed mockingly, although it was very evident a true sense of his po- 
 sition was gradually stealing over and forcing its due weight upon him. 
 
 ''Yes, sir, our prisoners. Can you deny it? Do you wish evidence of ity 
 other than what your eyes now furnish you ? You are silent ! "Tis well ; 
 but why then by your haughtiness attempt to play a part so foreign to that 
 of a prisoner ? What is there prevents us, your conquerors, from using the 
 rights of capturers. We are enemies; you the weaker, we the stronger 
 power; you haughty and defiant, we equally a.s proud and daring; you 
 unarmed, we with the weapons of death at our shoulders, our eyes upon the 
 sights, our fingers on the triggers ! And yet we are forbearing ! Pause, sir 
 -reflect !" 
 
 "I have spoken, sir!" said the young man, haughtily. 
 
 " For yourself, yes for your men, no I It is not your own fate alone you 
 pronounce, but that of your crew ! As you speak, so must they abide. 
 Your fate is theirs if you die, so do they ! Have you the right, in this your 
 position, to sacrifice their lives, even if determined to throw away your own ? 
 I will not insult you, sir. nor tempt them, by offering to treat with your 
 men!" 
 
 This last appeal touched the commandant ; a momentary struggle with his 
 pride, and all was over : he yielded. 
 
 "Sir!" he replied, in a voice, tinctured with emotion, "you are right. I 
 admit your premises and your conclusions. I am your prisoner. What is 
 your wish ?" 
 
 " That you deliver up your ammunition." 
 
 " Mr. Whitehurst," said the commandant, turning to his first lieutenant. 
 " take a gang of men with you to the magazine, and bring up the powder I 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered the lieutenant, touching his hat. Then selecting four 
 or five of the crew, he passed through the lines, to the cabin, down the steps 
 of which he disappeared. 
 
 In a few minutes, the lieutenant and his gang returned, the latter bear- 
 ing between them the powder, which, at a signal from their commander, they 
 transferred to .Marion's troupe, who at once passed it into the boats. 
 
 " All is right, sir," observed Somers. " Having accomplished the object of 
 our visit, we shall now restore you to liberty, and then take our leave. 
 Aboard, comrades, aboard !" he added, turning to his men. " Our presence 
 is needed at the Island." 
 
 He sprang into his boat, as did the woodsman into his, as did Marion into 
 bis, each followed safely and quickly by his men. 
 
 " But yon' are carrying off our arms !" cried the commandant, leaning over 
 the schooner's side. 
 
 " We have need of them !" replied Marion, rising, politely taking off hiahat 
 and making a very graceful bow. " We gave you your vessel and your lires;
 
 72 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 be grateful for them. As for the muskets, we have not seen fit to present 
 YOU with them. Good day!" 
 
 " Curse you !" muttered the commandant, turning back passionately. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Marion, " they are crying for us at the Island. Do you 
 not hear them ? Their cries are frightful !" 
 
 All parties listened ; and then they understood the captain. 
 
 Every gun in the fortress was silent, except one the big thirty-two I 
 
 The powder then had. at length, given out the last round been discharged. 
 One gun alone answered the fire of a whole fleet! 
 
 Their souls were in labor. They looked at each other, and then at their 
 leaders, whose brows were working with agony. 
 
 " Give way!" cried the woodsman. 
 
 " Give way !" continued the planter. 
 
 " Give way !" concluded Marion. 
 
 And yet no man could have recognized in either voice the natural tones of 
 the speaker. 
 
 The rowers fell to their oars with the energy of men whose hearts were in 
 their hands ; and the boats glided over the surface of the water with a speed 
 which threatened to bring them quickly to the Island. 
 
 Meanwhile the discharges of the big thirty-two became slower and more 
 dow ; and by the time the boats were within thirty yards of the shore, they 
 at length ceased altogether. 
 
 " Oh, men men !" cried the planter, half reproachfully. 
 
 " The country the country ! exclaimed Marion, with an imploring glance 
 at his crew. 
 
 " A strong pull, boys, if yew love liberty," groaned the woodsman, on 
 whose bronzed brow cold sweat hung in large beads. 
 
 The men answered by throwing every muscle into action ; the oar-blades 
 fairly quivered as they rose and fell in the current'; and the boats shot 
 towards the beach as if propelled by electricity. 
 
 As it became understood through the fleet that the big thirty-two, which 
 had created more annoyance and done more destruction than all the rest of 
 the fortress's guns put together, had at length, either from injury or want ot 
 ammunition, ceased its work, there uprose from the royal decks a sponta- 
 neous shout of rejoicing which was heard far above the roar of battle. The 
 prevailing supposition was that the defenders of the fortress were nearly if 
 not wholly destroyed ; a supposition which was strengthened by the silence 
 that answered the discharges of their guns, and the apparent loneliness of the 
 embrasures, at none of which could the glasses of the enemy discover a sin- 
 gle man ; and many of the smaller vessels immediately bore in closer to the 
 Island, and threw themselves abreast of the fortress, for the purpose of de- 
 molishing it, and of burying its survivors, if there were any, in its ruins. 
 Thus they were, in their own opinion, about to crush in its very bud the 
 stronghold of rebellion, and, by making an example of the leading and most 
 daring traitors, teach a lesson in the name of God and the Icing, that 
 the people would not very soon forget 
 
 What then was their terror and confusion, as they were about to open a 
 destroying fire, and what the pleasure of the inhabitants of the city, who had 
 given up all for lost, to see the embrasures of the fortress once more flashing 
 with flame, its walls once again half obscured by white curling clouds, and 
 to hear the whole atmospheric vault trembling with its ' simultaneous and 
 deafning discharges ! 
 
 For a brief season, they were spell-bound with astonishment;, meanwhile 
 the grape and ball of the fortress were tearing them in pieces. Officers and 
 men were falling on every hand, and the vessels themselves rapidly yielding 
 to the destructive fire of the fort. It was evident this could not last for
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 73 
 
 any length of time without a most frightful loss to the fleet, and in the end, 
 to its total destruction. 
 
 The rebels, it was very plain, had no intention of yielding; and the pecu- 
 liarity of the palmetto wood out of which the fortress was constructed, pre- 
 served them, in a great degree, from the fire of the foe. Meanwhile, the 
 big thirty-two was sending its souvenirs to the two frigates alternately, each 
 ball considerately lessening the numerical force of their officers and men, and 
 making such havoc on their decks as to render it highly probable nothing 
 would shortly be left of either. 
 
 By this time the ammunition looked for from the city, had also arrived, 
 and everybody in the fortress was in the highest spirits. 
 
 " All we want now, Mr. Somers," cried sergeant Macdonald, exultingly, 
 whose gun was next to the big thirty-two, "is a fair field, which we 
 have got, and no favors, which the enemy certainly are not inclined to give 
 us, and in two hours we'll riddle 'em so they won't know in what country 
 they're in!" 
 
 "That we will," answered the planter, laughingly. "By the time the ac- 
 tion is over, they'll be glad to learn the most direct course to London !" 
 
 ' My 'pinion ar'," said the scalp hunter, " the varmint '11 be willin 1 to go 
 mtu a nearer port!" 
 
 " Let them go where they will," observed sergeant Jasper, whose gun was 
 next to Macdonald's^" they'll never have it to say we did not do our best to 
 push 'em along !" 
 
 " Ah !" cried Macdonald, laughing, " if they will but remain where they 
 are for a few hours, it won't make any difference what we did for 'em !" 
 
 " Iron," observed the planter, with a meaning smile, " has a very quieting 
 influence !" 
 
 " It puts a feller asleep quicker 'n pisen or chain lightnin' !" said the 
 woodsman. 
 
 " It gives him the staggers, too!'' laughed Jasper. 
 
 " Yes, the blind staggers!" cried Macdonald, reeling. " Ah, boys, I've got 
 'em, certain !" 
 
 And he staggered back from his gun, with the smile alas ! how sickly, 
 ow ! accompanying his jest, still playing on his features. 
 
 In an instant, the planter was at his side, and his arms outstretched to 
 catch him as he fell. 
 
 "How is it?" he cried, in a voice of emtion; "how is it, Macdonald? 
 Cheer up, brave heart cheer up ! Ho, there," he cried to a soldier who 
 was approaching, "'brandy quick!" 
 
 The wounded sergeant shook his head, faintly. 
 
 "No use!" he murmured, with a faint smile. " I've got my passport 
 Water!" 
 
 A moist sponge was applied to his lips. 
 
 " Let me take you down to the surgeon, 1 ' said Somers, soothingly. 
 
 " No no !" cried the sergeant, faintly. "I'm beyond his aid. My breast 
 is shattered look ! Lay me down on the platform softly ! There that's 
 it thank you thank you !" 
 
 His face was frightfully pale ; and his eyes extraordinarily clear and brilliant, 
 produced by the intensity of his agony and the pangs of approaching death. 
 
 " Oh, Macdonald Macdonald ! cried a voice, near him. It was that of 
 Marion, who, having been notified of the sad event, now approached hastily 
 and took his hand. 
 
 "Don't weep for me, captain!" murmured the sergeant, faintly. "Don't 
 weep for me, comrades, till the battle 's over. Then take me home do you 
 hear? home, and tell my father and mother their boy their Jack died in 
 .the harness of battle, fighting for his country ! Tell them that will 
 you ?" 
 
 10
 
 74 THE SWAMP STEED 
 
 ' I will, Mac I will !" answered Marion, unable to stifle his tears. 
 " Good bye captain!" murmured the dying man, struggling, and reaching 
 ,t >,; v,ar,Hs whinh trembled sDasmodically. " I I'm going erood bye. 
 
 out his hands, which trembled spasmodically. 
 
 comrades. I'm on my long journey dying but don't let the cause 
 
 freedom die with me !" 
 
 At this moment, a loud shout from the fort rang on the air, and reached 
 his quick, vibrating ears. 
 
 " What's that ?" he cried, half raising himself, with a stern, superhuman 
 effort. 
 
 " The enemy are slipping their cables, and moving off. The victory is 
 ours!" whispered a voice in the ear of Marion. 
 
 The dying sergeant overheard it ; and in an instant a thrill of joy shot 
 through his frame. With a last convulsive movement he sprang to his feet, 
 and while his countenance shone with an indescribable extacy, he ex- 
 claimed 
 
 " Huzza huzza ! Freedom forever ! Huzza ! huzza ! huz ." 
 
 He did not complete the word ; an invisible power arrested it on his lips. 
 Marion and the planter lowered him gently on the floor of the platform, and 
 applied a sponge moistened with brandy to his lips. But there was no action 
 of nature in response. The spirit of the brave sergeant had taken its last 
 farewell of earth, and passed away forever ! 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE news of the patriots' victory ran through the colony like wildfire. 
 The loyalists were lost in astonishment. The republicans were thrown into 
 enthusiasm. Men, women and children partook of the general joy; fear of 
 the royal cohorts melted into a consciousness of their own strength. The 
 clouds were pierced, broken and scattered by the bright rays of Hope for 
 Young America. 
 
 The tories scarcely knew what to think or do ; and they wisely resolved 
 to wait and see how the king would bear the intelligence of his defeat 
 Eichard Winter was one of these ; and as his hopes of vengeance fell, he de- 
 termined while the tide of his political strength as a loyalist was ebbing and 
 returning, to make the best of his time and talents in other matters. One of 
 the latter was the advancement of his private fortunes ; and the means, mat- 
 rimony. 
 
 Accordingly, we find him, on the morning of a fine day in July, at the 
 door of the wealthy Mrs. Brunton's. He knocked, and was shown into the 
 drawing room. 
 
 The beauty of the fair widow had attracted him ; but her wealth had done 
 more it fascinated him. Let us, however, do ton the justice to say he 
 loved the lady for her own sake to an extent that would have induced him, 
 if she were poor, to woo her for his mistress ; but the case being reversed, 
 to make her his wife. 
 
 Richard Winter had been in the drawing room but a few minutes wheu 
 Mrs. Brunton made her appearance. She was dressed as she always was 
 for a conquest; but without any idea of taking any other advantage of her 
 triumph, than to enhance a reputation already famous for its victories. She 
 received him with her usual politeness ; that is to say, with the same con- 
 sideration she would have shown to any gentleman of her acquaintance 
 
 Mrs. Brunton understood the general motives which brought her visitor to 
 her house, and was gifted with sufficient penetration to guage the depths of 
 his sincerity. She understood her guest in this respect, better perhaps than
 
 OF MAttiOX AND HIS ME11RY MEN. 76 
 
 he understood himself . and ,v;is fully prepared to appreciate all he might 
 have to say relative to the object for. which he had honored her with his call 
 "You are really charming to-day, madam!" he said, as the initiatory sal- 
 utations on both sides passed away. 
 
 '' Indeed !" answered the widow, with one of her killing smiles. ;i That is 
 compliment, coming from you who are so seldom guilty of giving one to 
 
 And therefore the more sincere ! I never flatter except when it is de- 
 served !" 
 
 " Keally ! I deserve it, then ?" 
 
 " Most certainly. Are you not positively beautiful ?" 
 
 " I presume it must be so," answered Mrs. Brunton, with a low, clear 
 laugh, "for they all tell me so !'' 
 
 "You speak as if you rated me with the common flatterers, who ever haag 
 upon the footsteps of beauty." . 
 
 " Oh, dear, no ; far from it. I have never considered you as a common 
 flatterer. Quite the reverse, I assure you !" said the widow, with a torment- 
 ing smile, strongly blended with maliciousness. 
 
 " You mean something ?" 
 
 " Certainly. I wish to provoke you into an argument." 
 
 " With all my heart. With so fair an antagonist I'd argue point tul 
 doomsday. Come, begin!" 
 
 ''You say I'm chyming?' 1 
 
 " And I'll maintain it." 
 
 " Stop stop stop !" cried Mrs. Brunton, playfully raising her finger. 
 "You say I'm charming, and that therefore I deserve the compliment of being 
 told so." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Is that your position ?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " And do you dream of maintaining it ?" 
 
 " Against all the world !" 
 
 " Oh, shocking creature ! Why, I could bring a hundred men, collected in- 
 discriminately, each one of whom would laugh at you for taking it." 
 
 " He'd answer for his impudence, then !" 
 
 "Not at all !" observed the widow, maliciously. 
 
 " How ? You doubt my earnestness in advancing the sentiment, and my 
 ability to defend it?" 
 
 "Your earnestness, no ; your ability to defend it, yes !" 
 
 " Really, madam, you are very provoking. Show me wherein my position 
 is untenable." 
 
 " Listen, then. Beauty is not a merit, but an accidental qualification." 
 
 " Granted." 
 
 " Then why compliment it ? Nothing should be flattered, that is to say 
 commended, unless it be junerit, which beauty, being an accidental qualifi- 
 cation, is not" ^fe 
 
 " Nay, it is !" 
 
 "A merit?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "You shock me!" 
 
 " Still, I say a merit !" 
 
 "Your assurance amazes me!" 
 
 " It does ? Hear me then, in justification. Beauty is one of the attri- 
 butee of angels. God gave it them to make them perfect, as He did Truth 
 and Purity, of which it is the Twin Sister ; and it is the three united which 
 make them angels that is to say, inhabitants of heaven. Why, then should 
 we not applaud in woman that which allies her to the pure of the Purest
 
 76 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 Kingdom ? Why should we not commend in the fair of earth, that which 
 is at once an index of their purity, and a divine seal attesting their rela- 
 tionship to the favorites of God ?" 
 
 " Ah !" exclaimed Mrs. Brunton, with her usual vivacity, " that is a very 
 pretty idea ! Where did you pick it up ? It certainly cannot be original 
 with you!" 
 
 " Why not, madam ?" 
 
 " Simply because it is a charming sentiment, and not at all in keeping with 
 your plain, matter-of-fact character !" 
 
 Richard Winter's brow assumed a sombre expression. 
 
 The widow paid no attention to it however, but went on as if utterly un- 
 conscious of her rudeness. 
 
 " Oh, I'll wager now, I can tell the bush from which you plucked your sen- 
 timental flower." 
 
 " Q-o on, then, madam," said Richard Winter, with a gloomy smile. 
 
 " You have been to church of late, a rare thing for you who regard reli- 
 gion so lightly and retained in your memory one of the dreamy fancies of 
 the minister !" 
 
 Winter shook his head slowly. 
 
 " Wrong ? Then you have been down to Charleston since the battle." 
 
 " What would that prove ?" 
 
 " Say rather what would it not prove ? Sentiment is the prevailing com- 
 modity there, since the victory ; and every body is repotting quotations from 
 the numerous brilliant addresses of your old friend. How do I know your 
 speech is not one of them ? It is very much in his style !" 
 
 " Really, she is very provoking ! "muttered Winter, in an under tone. " To 
 whom do you allude, madam ?" he said, aloud. 
 
 " To whom but your old friend !" 
 
 " That leaves me in the dark as much as ever. I have many old friends. 
 To which of them do you refer ?" 
 
 "To him who is most eminent for his merits." 
 
 "Ah! I understand you, now you mean his excellency, the governor?" 
 
 " Not at all. He is eminent for his position only. I never heard that he 
 had any particular merit. Besides, he would not be likely to be engaged 
 in making gratulatory addresses. His party was defeated, I think!" 
 
 " Confound her !" muttered Winter, " she is in her tantrums to-day 1 
 Every word she utters is a premeditated insult. But, patience ! when herself 
 and property are mine, I'll make her wince for this !" He cleared up his 
 brow, and assuming one of his most suave smiles, said aloud : " Will you con- 
 tinue to torment me, fair lady, by baffling my every effort to learn whom you 
 hint at? Pray give me some generous clue." 
 
 " Psha ! You are very stupid ! Who can I mean but him whose name is 
 the synonime of honor, heroism and genius ; to whom but him, who when he 
 speaks, charms every ear by the music of his tones and the grandeur of his 
 sentiments ; to whom but him who when he speakfcdrives from the bosoms of 
 his auditors every baser feeling, and fills them with emotions grand and 
 noble as his own !" 
 
 "Ah ! madam," said Winter ironically, " it has not been my lot to come in 
 contact with one of such superior attainments I You speak as if among my 
 friends I counted a demi-god." 
 
 " I speak of one," said Mrs. Brunton, perfectly apprehending the jealous 
 character of her companion, " whose-fame as a soldier is on every lip ; whose 
 genius as an orator is the theme of every party ; whose virtues as a man have 
 elevated him above the reach of malice, which ever springs from envy ; I 
 speak of the orator of Kingstree green, and the hero of Fort Sullivan's- great 
 gun ; I speak of your old neighbor, and sometime friend : Neil Somers !" 
 
 Richard Winter's countenance was livid in an instant.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 77 
 
 " Curse her !" he muttered. ; < Could she not have called up any other 
 name than that a name my lips cannot pronounce without blistering a name 
 that summons from their caves all the black blood of my nature ! Oh, if I but 
 succeed in making this woman mine, what a long list of insults I'll make her 
 wash out in tears aye, scalding ones of misery !" Wreathing his features 
 into a smile, he said : " and you charge me with borrowing his style his !" 
 
 ' You deny it, then ?" said Mrs. Brunton, in a tone of surprise. " Really ! 
 Mr. Whiter, I didn't think it of ypu !" 
 
 This was said with an air of such mingled astonishment and ridicule that 
 her companion could scarcely contain himself. It appeared very evident to 
 him that it was the widow's intention to crush him ; but whether playfully 
 or in earnest, he could not decide. 
 
 " I deny nothing," answered Richard Winter, venturing on a smile. " It 
 would be the height of presumption in me to contradict a lady ! But be as- 
 sured of this; when I so far forget what is due to myself to borrow from one 
 whom I regard as a mere noisy panderer to the mob, it jvill be when my 
 senses have deserted me not sooner !" 
 
 Mrs. Brunton's eyes shone like a basilisk's. She could not hear the man 
 she idolized spoken of thus, without rising to defend him. 
 
 "You speak rather light of your sister's betrothed!" she said, freezingly. 
 " What would Amy say if she heard you talk thus ?" 
 
 " He is not her betrothed, madam," returned Richard Winter, " and, so help 
 me heaven ! never shall be ! I had rather see her in her shroud than the 
 wife of so bold and insolent a rebel 1" 
 
 " You speak rather warmly upon the matter, Mr. Winter. Are those your 
 father's sentiments?" asked the widow, with an expression of calmness which 
 was not at all in harmony with her feelings. 
 
 " They are, madam !" 
 
 Mrs. Brunton's heart nearly leapt from her breast with joy. 
 
 " There is hop* for me !" she murmured. " Amy lost to him, what shall 
 hinder his loving me! And Amy," she said aloud, "what will prevent her 
 from becoming his wife, if she desires it ?" 
 
 " Her father's curse, and mine !" 
 
 " Is that to be the price of her union with the man she loves ?" 
 
 Richard Winter bowed. 
 
 "Really, you men are very cruel!" observed Mrs. Brunton in a tone of 
 railery, for the purpose of drawing him out. " I don't know what I should 
 do if I were in love, and had such a cruel father and so ungenerous a brother ! 
 I think I should be tempted to run away with my lover, in spite of them!" 
 
 " And that, madam, is what Amy will never do ! Love will never induce 
 her to forget the filial duty she owes to the author of her being !" 
 
 " You are sure of that ?" 
 
 " I am so certain of it, madam, that I would stake my life upon it!" 
 
 This assurance sent a thrill of joy through Mrs. Brunton. 
 
 1" It was this I most desired to know !" she murmured. " Be not too sure," 
 she said, aloud, while a smile, which Winter took for playfulness, illumined 
 her features ; " we women are not so simple in our love affairs as you of the 
 sterner sex are apt to deem us ! For the man we love, we abandon father 
 and mother, brother and sister, and follow him to the end of the world. We 
 say to the owner of our heart as Ruth said to Naomi, ' Whither thou goest I 
 will go ; where thou lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and 
 thy God my God !' " 
 
 " As Ruth said to her mother Naomi," replied Richard Winter, " so saith 
 Amy to her father. Ruth was not more devoted in her filial love than my 
 
 "But," said Mrs. Brunton, determined on cornering him and discovering 
 if there were nothing hidden and untold, as well as of learning if there were
 
 78 THE SWAMP STEED | OR THE PATS 
 
 no coercive plan in view, and if not, of throwing out a hint for one, " there 
 are times in woman's life when love is stronger than duty. In such hours, 
 should the voice of the heart's idol be near, duty is forgot, love alone remem- 
 
 "I have thought of that," said Richard Winter, unsuspiciously, "and made 
 provision for it." 
 
 " He falls into the snare !" murmured Mrs. Brunton. " You astonish me !" 
 she said aloud. " I am afraid I shall have to give you credit for superior ge- 
 nius, too!" 
 
 Winter smiled, gloomily. 
 
 " It is our intention to wed her to another," he said. 
 
 " What whether she will or no ? That is cruel !" 
 
 " Nay, she shall have a chance to like him first 'Twill be an easy matter 
 then, to her, and no cruelty in us." 
 
 " That were a stroke of genius, indeed ! Pray who is the party ? He should 
 be a good and amiable fellow to take the place in her affections of such a 
 man as Somers. Who is he ?" 
 
 " Frederick Crampton." 
 
 " You make me laugh ! He drive from her heart the image of such a man 
 as Somers ! You are jesting !" 
 
 " Not at all." 
 
 " And does your father approve of such a proceeding ?" 
 
 " With your leave, yes !" 
 
 " With my leave, indeed ! what impudence ! When is the affair to come 
 off?" 
 
 " As soon as we can bring it about. It rests in the main with Crampton !" 
 
 " With him ! The faithless fellow ! I'm vexed ! Do you know the wretch 
 had the impudence to make love to me ?" 
 
 " Who, Crampton ?" 
 
 " Crampton ! If it were not for the trouble, I might take a lady's privi- 
 lege at this evidence of his faithlessness, and go off into hysterics!" 
 
 " How charmingly she pouts !'' murmured Winter. " You take an interest 
 in him, then ?" he said. 
 
 " Certainly ; the same I feel in any poodle. He is too tender to go into 
 rough company." 
 
 " Which you consider " 
 
 " Yourself!" returned Mrs. Brunton. " With you he will soon lose his 
 character." 
 
 " Thank you !" said Whiter, with a low ironic bow. " What character will 
 Mr. Crampton lose by associating with me ?" 
 
 " His puppyism ! You are too matter-of-fact a personage not to impart 
 enough of your manner to rub off his effeminacy. A little while in your so- 
 ciety, and he will become somewhat of a man." 
 
 " Ah! thank you, and this time in earnest !" said Winter, with a grateful 
 bow. " Ah, lady," he added, with an air of genuine feeling, " you have a rare 
 talent!" 
 
 "Indeed! I was not aware of it. For what?" 
 
 " For throwing men first on a bush of flowers, then on another of thorns." 
 
 "Flattering again!" said Mrs. Brunton, throwing up her forefinger archly. 
 
 "G-ood!" murmured Winter, "I have made a point. That compliment 
 makes her eyes sparkle. I must follow it up ! Surely," he said aloud, " you 
 would not object to one's uttering a truth simply because it might be pane- 
 gyrical?" 
 
 "Oh! no," answered the widow, comprehending his thought; "to do that 
 would be to close the lips of my friends, who appear to visit me for no other 
 purpose ! They take such liberties ; why should not you?" 
 
 1 I'm off again!" muttered her companion, gnawing his lip. "I thought 1
 
 OF- MARION AND HIS M1TRRY MEN. 79 
 
 had gained a point, but find I have lost one ! She eats like a butcher, and 
 will not let me advance a step. But, nil desperandum she is worthy of a 
 struggle that is to say, her property ! Is it set down in your code, madam," 
 he said aloud, " that a gentleman may not tell a lady what he thinks of her, 
 simply because his opinion is a flattering one ?" 
 
 " In words, yes; in actions, no. Flattery direct, though couched in ever 
 rfuch artful guise, is indelicate, because it seeks to captivate the senses. Ac- 
 tions on the contrary appeal to our intelligence, and are reliable, if consistent 
 Any gentleman may throw out a compliment ; but only one in ten is able or 
 willing to attest his sincerity by a consistent series of appeals to our judg- 
 ment" 
 
 " How is a gentleman to show that he is sincere ? Tell me by what course 
 of conduct: for I am anxious to evince mine!" 
 
 He blushed as he spoke ; for he was conscious that he had blundered into 
 what might be considered a declaration. 
 
 The widow saw his mis-step ; but had no disposition to allow him to per- 
 ceive it. 
 
 " If that really were the case," she observed, " you would soon find a plan 
 of action to enable you to demonstrate it!" 
 
 "Foiled again!" murmured Winter. "Every step I make, plunges me 
 deeper than ever into the mire. I must recede ! There is no getting along 
 with you," he said laughingly. "You are without mercy!" 
 
 " You have no right to say so," returned Mrs. Brunton ; " you have been 
 acting on the offensive, without pausing for an instant, or asking for quarter. 
 If you have not come off victor, attribute not the fault to me !'' 
 
 " Nay," returned her ror^iaiiion, " in a game of sharps with you, fair lady, 
 an antagonist is fortunate if he come off with even a show of life ? But let us 
 change the subject.' 1 
 
 "To what?" 
 
 " Amy's marriage with Crampton. You can assist us in bringing it about. 
 Say you will!" 
 
 "Why should I. say that?" 
 
 "Because it will advance her happiness." 
 
 "Do you believe so? 5 ' 
 
 " Ultimately, yes," replied Winter, without shrinking from her piercing 
 gaze. " You are friendly to us alL Amy has confidence in your friendship 
 as well as in your judgment. A timely word from you in Crampton's favor, 
 might do much in hastening a match fraught with so much interest I" 
 
 " To me, how much!" murmured Mrs. Brunton. " I thought you said it 
 depended altogether on Mr. Crampton," she observed. 
 
 " So far as the urging of his suit was concerned, only. He is vain enough 
 to suppose himself irresistible, and innocently fancies that whea he makes a 
 proposal, he will meet with no denial" 
 
 " But what if Amy were disposed to accept him ?" 
 
 " He would propose in an instant" 
 
 " Are you confident of that ?" 
 
 :i Quite. Will you assist us ?" 
 
 i: I'll think the matter over. I feel a deep interest in Amy's happiness, 
 and if I succeed in persuading myself that such a step would be for her wel- 
 fare, I shall most assuredly do my best to urge it I" 
 
 " Nay, it would," said Richard Winter earnestly. " Somers is a rebel, 
 and wifi, sooner or later, reach the rebel's award the scaffold ; for it is idle to 
 suppose that the king will brook this treasonable insolence of the people any 
 longer than he can send over a few squadrons to punish them. When that 
 day comes, and it must come, what will be the fate of this ranter of Kingstree 
 green ? and what the fate of the creature unfortunate enough to become his
 
 gO THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 wife ? It is to save Amy from such certain wretchedness that I would 
 ally her to one with whom she will have tranquility, if not happiness." 
 
 " Solemn hypocrite !" muttered Mrs. Brunton. " Your logic is very good," 
 she said, with an air of apparent conviction, " and I see no good reason for 
 not believing it to be correct." 
 
 " You will assist us, then ?" 
 
 " Yes," returned the widow, thoughtfully. " Amy's happiness is dear to 
 me ; and I suppose I must !" 
 
 " Thank you thank you ! I will now take my leave." 
 
 " So soon .?" 
 
 "Nay, I have broken in upon your time too much already. Adieu !" 
 
 And he passed from the apartment and the house, muttering : "I may not 
 succeed in making her my wife ; but I will in making her a tool of my re- 
 venge!" 
 
 Mrs. Brunton looked after him through the window curtains, with a 
 thoughtful air. 
 
 "Everything works favorably !" she murmured, her countenance radiant 
 with delight. " Will I assist him in coercing Amy's unioa with Crampton, 
 when it so materially affects my own purposes ? Say, rather, will I not ? 
 Kichard Winter Richard Winter, I will be your ally in this, or rather you 
 shall be mine : for it is me you are helping, it is me you are ridding of a rival, 
 silly wight that you are ! in bringing about this union ! I was looking for a 
 means to drive Amy from Neil's hopes, and it is here! I was looking for a 
 confederate with whom I could work without danger to myself, and lo ! here 
 he is ! And better than all ! one to whom I need impart no confidence, re- 
 veal no secret ; and, while I apparently aid him in his views, use him as an 
 instrument to ensure success to mine ! And the silly fool, too, would for- 
 sooth try to win this heart this heart which throbs for Somers, will throb 
 for him alone of all men in the world, or, failing to get him, will thenceforth 
 cease its throbs forever ! Winter and Somers what a contrast ! The one 
 a compound of all that is base, the other an embodiment of all that is noble ; 
 the one a creature of passion, the other a being of judgment; the one crafty 
 and unforgiving, the other thoughtful and magnanimous ; the one an ignoble 
 wolf, the other a majestic lion ! And the wolf dares aspire to a heart which 
 beats alone for the lion ! And shall he persist in his aspirations ? As a bait 
 to invite others forward he would be useful, had I any common man in view ; 
 but with one like Somers the case is altered : a bait there would be not only 
 superfluous but dangerous. It is evident therefore that Winter must not be 
 fed with hopes, as they might make him presumptuous at an improper season. 
 I'll keep him on, however, and dally with him till my stake is won, and 
 then send him adrift Somers, Somers !" she added after a brief pause, 
 " what thoughts and schemes, all unworthy of a woman, are the price of thy 
 conquest, thy love!" 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ABOUT three days subsequent to the incidents described in the preceding 
 chapter, a young man, of a slender but rather genteel figure, dressed with a 
 great deal of care and a fair share of taste, might have been seen, about four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, walking leisurly along the Georgetown Road. There 
 was that in his general deportment which pronounced him one of those who 
 entertain a very favorable opinion of themselves, and who innocently fancy 
 that no one can look upon them without being impressed with a conviction 
 of their greatness.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 81 
 
 It was, in fact, our old acquaintance, Frederick Crampton, on his way to 
 the Winter plantation, to pay his respects to Miss Amy. 
 
 " Some people," murmured the exquisite, conversing confidentially with 
 himself, as he passed along, " have a vewy poor ideah of the pre-requisites 
 for making an impwession. I flattah myself I am not one of that number. 
 The fact is, there is nothing like a natuwal' taste in such matters, which I 
 flattah myself I have. It stwikes me it will not be vewy difficult to make an 
 impwession on Miss Wintah, if I set about it. To be sure, I hav'nt made 
 any vewy gweat pwogwess as yet ; but that is because I have not laid my- 
 self out to do so. To-day, howevah, I shall make an effort, and of course 
 Miss Wintah will find it extwemely difficult to wesist me !" 
 
 With ideas like these, Mr. Frederick Crampton pursued his way towards 
 the Winter plantation. The atmosphere was very warm, and as the roadside 
 was but poorly shaded, the exquisite, to avoid the heat of thft sun, turned 
 off to the left and struck into a wood, leading, by a shorter route, to the 
 place of his destination. 
 
 Once in the wood, his progress was rather slower than before, in conse- 
 quence of a desire on his part to preserve his garments from the slightest 
 contact with the timber. 
 
 He had penetrated the sombre depths of the wood dbout three hundred 
 yards, when he suddenly found himself face to face with a magnificent coal 
 black steed, whose large clear eyes were fixed upon him with an expression 
 of surprise. 
 
 The gallant animal was both saddled and bridled. He was young and 
 spirited, superbly shaped, with a deep flowing mane, tapering legs and a 
 long switch tail. He carried his head with the air of an Arabian, and was 
 in fact among horses, what Crampton was among men an exquisite. 
 
 Frederick Crampton, a capital judge of horseflesh, was stupefied with ad- 
 miration at the appearance of this noble animal, whose intelligence was writ- 
 ten in its eye, and whose trustiness was evidenced in the fact that its owner 
 had left it without a halter. 
 
 The exquisite was for a time lost in astonishment at the animal's brilliant 
 points, the magnificence of which he had never before seen equalled. 
 
 His admiration soon gave way,. however, to uneasiness, as the idea uprose 
 in his mind that he had seen the animal on a previous occasion. There 
 would have been nothing very alarming in this, which was after all merely 
 an incident of memory, had it not been attended by another, viz : a remem- 
 brance of the person of its owner. 
 
 This was a phantom of the memory which the exquisite was far from pre- 
 pared to encounter ; for in that phantom he recognized Neil Somers, and in 
 him a rival. Therefore it was this which most troubled the exquisite if 
 his horse was here, saddled and bridled, it was more than likely the planter 
 himself could not be far off. 
 
 Worse still so reasoned the exquisite this road led to the Winter planta- 
 tion, was in fact a part of that property, and one through which no one 
 would be likely to pass unless for the purpose of reaching the house by a 
 shorter route than the road. What then could Somers, who was on such un- 
 friendly terms with the Winters, whose appearance on then- threshold would 
 be the signal of an insult, be doing in it ? The exquisite grew uneasy as he 
 asked himself this question ; for he felt satisfied there was but one member 
 of the Winter household whose brow would not blacken into a frown if the 
 planter was known to set foot upon their grounds : and that person, that 
 person (the exquisite's lips became livid as he murmured it) was the only 
 one whose frown was worth the heeding, the only one whose smile was worth 
 the having. 
 
 "Demnition!' muttered the exquisite, "my blood is getting ugly! If 
 after I have taken so much twouble to wender myself agweeable, I should
 
 82 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 discover that Miss Wintah is in the habit of meeting that vulgah fellow, the 
 nlantah, in the wood here, I think I should get vewy, vewy angwy ! It is 
 vewy stupid to do so, I admit, but there are situations when anger becomes 
 DwoDcr vcwy pwopcr ! 
 
 He passed through the devious windings of the wood, Mowed by the large 
 starin^ eyes of the horse, till he came to a spot where the underbrush began 
 to assume a rather dense character, through which, however, he was about to 
 penetrate, when his footsteps were suddenly arrested by the sound of voices, 
 which were familiar to his ear. 
 
 " Demnition !" he murmured, cautiously drawing back a step or two, and 
 seeking the friendly shelter of a huge palmetto. " They are here ! If I had 
 a wifle now, I think I should be tempted to blow the vulgah fellow's bwains 
 out ! But as I have no weapon, I pwesume I must make the best of it ! I'll 
 tell Wichard, though, about it, and see if his authority isn't stwong enough 
 fco put a stop to these stolen interviews ! Here I'm paying my addwesses to 
 Miss Wintah, and I detect her holding clandestine meetings with another. 
 It is enough to make one swear. Demnition ! if my mother heard of it, 
 what would she say !" 
 
 And throwing hie eyes cautiously through the underwood, hi the direction 
 of the voices, he beheld the planter and Miss Winter seated beside each other 
 on a mossy mound situated between two towering and broad-trunked trees. 
 What rendered the scene more aggravating to the exquisite was the fact 
 that the planter's right arm encircled his lovely companion's waist, the fingers 
 of his left hand were interlaced in those of her right, while his shoulder 
 served as a resting place for her brow. 
 
 The exquisite's cheek, already pale, at sight of this, became absolutely livid. 
 His fingers involuntarily rolled in towards the palms and buried themselves 
 in the flesh. 
 
 At the same moment a sense of his position came across him, and, fearful 
 of discovery, he moved slowly and noislessly around to the rear of the huge 
 palmetto, against which he leaned for support ; for in truth, the scene we 
 have just described had totally unnerved him. 
 
 "It is shocking," he murmured, while a shade of agony swept across his 
 forehead, " vewy shocking ! I didn't expect it of her ! As for the plan tab, 
 there is something gathering here against him !" 
 
 And he smote his breast with a clenched but trembling hand. 
 
 " I must leave this," he muttered, in a few moments, as his nerves became 
 some what more tranquil : "it is vewy ungentlemanly to play the part of an 
 eaves-dwopper. I should never forgive myself for such an outwage on pwo- 
 pwiety, nevah. It would nevah do, nevah. I weally must go away ! p 
 
 But to do this, without being seen was, at the present stage, a feat more 
 easily thought of than performed ; for the lovers had now so changed their 
 position as to have a full view of everything before them ; and to the ex- 
 quisite's horror, their faces were turned in the direction of the tree behind 
 which he was crouching for concealment. 
 
 He sighed, and came to the conclusion that there was now no hope for 
 him, and that he must, however much against his inclination, become a list- 
 ener to the conversation of the lovers. 
 
 To do him justice, the position in which he found himself was a source of 
 great distress to the exquisite, who could not reconcile it as in any way be- 
 coming a gentleman, a character for which he had a most exalted respect, 
 and one which he was very ambitious to sustain. 
 
 To crown his wretchedness in this respect, he beheld the large black orbs 
 of the intelligent swamp steed staring at him reproachfully throtigh the trees. 
 Had it been a human witness, the exquisite could not have felt the mortifying 
 stigma of his situation more plainly. 
 
 "I shall dwop diwectly !" he murmured, wiping from hi? brow .sweat that
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 83 
 
 cajne leaping to its surface in large beads, "I know I shall ; and then they 
 will discover me, and I shall be disgwaced forever ! If my mother were .to 
 see me, what would she say ? Her heart would break with shame !" 
 
 Perceiving then that an attempt to escape from his ernbarrasing position 
 would, by leading to his exposure, result in plunging him into one still more 
 humiliating, the exquisite resolved to remain where his ill stars had placed 
 him, and bide the issue of events, magnanimously determining at the same 
 time, as a compromise with his nice sense of honor, to let his knowledge of 
 this interview between the lovers, together with everything he might over- 
 hear, pass away into oblivion as though the one had never transpired, and 
 the other never been spoken. 
 
 As he came to this honorable decision, the exquisite felt stealing over 
 him a j^nsation of ease and tranquility which restored to him in a great meas- 
 . ure hnl former self respect. 
 
 " My mother," he murmured with a smile of unusal serenity, " would love 
 me more than evah for this resolution ! I can now listen to what my wival 
 has to say without endangering my honor!" 
 
 As if the spirit which had charge of his destiny was pleased with this in- 
 stance of his noble nature, his self-possession was restored to him, and this 
 was followed by a sense of security which, while it made him happy, he did 
 not attempt to define. 
 
 Let us now turn to the leavers, who, while they conversed, were perfectly 
 unconscious that other ears than their own were listening to what passed be- 
 tween them. 
 
 " Ah, Neil," these were the first words, uttered in a voice of mournful 
 music, that came to the ear of the exquisite, " there is naught in store for us 
 but misery!" 
 
 " Nay, beloved," returned the planter, " let us not despond. Heaven has 
 in its holy keeping hearts that truly love, and leads them in its own good 
 time out of darkness up to light !" 
 
 " But, my father, Neil. His brow clouds whenever I speak to him of you ! 
 
 " He hates me, then ?" 
 
 "Alas! yee." 
 
 " I never did him wrong 1" 
 
 <; 'Tis true. And yet he hates you !" 
 
 " Heaven pardon him for it as I do ! The cause ?" 
 
 " Are you not a rebel ?" 
 
 "And for that he hates me ?" 
 
 " For that in part !" 
 
 " The rest" 
 
 " Richard s representations !" 
 
 " I never gave him cause for enmity. And yet how much Oh ! heaven, 
 how much ! has he given to me !" 
 
 ' And you hate him, Neil, do you not? and with an enmity as fierce and 
 deadly as his own?" 
 
 "No, Amy, no. My heart is not large enongh to make room for animosity 
 against any living thing. I could not sleep with so base a spirit for my bed- 
 fellow ! It is my ambition so to live that when I lay me down at night my 
 soul could say ' all's well !' in case it were to take its judgment flight before 
 the morning !" 
 
 "I like this fellow !" murmured the exquisite. " His heart is noble, it is 
 gweat!" 
 
 " And has my brother no cause to fear you, Neil ? Answer me truly. He 
 did you a great wrong !" 
 
 " He did !" returned the planter, whose cheek became ashy, " and yet I 
 have not sought him !"
 
 84 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 "But you will" persisted Miss Winter, fixing her blue eyes on him jrith 
 an expression of intense anxiety. 
 
 " No," answered Somers, with an effort. My country has need of me. 
 I am hi her service now!" 
 
 " But that cannot last, Neil ! 
 
 ' What cannot last ?" returned Somers, absently. 
 
 "Your country's claims upon you!" 
 
 " 'Tis true," said the planter, solemnly, " for God is coo merciful to give 
 oppression the upper hand, eternally!" 
 
 " Ah, Neil, you are ungenerous! You evade the answer I would have !" 
 
 "Drive me not to it, Arny !" said the planter, with emotion. "But rest 
 assured of this. While the conflict wages between my 'country and the 
 crown, Richard is safe for me." ^ 
 
 " But you may meet in battle ?" 
 
 "Not by my seeking." 
 
 "But I repeat it, Neil, you may meet I" 
 
 " Tis true, Amy ; and /may fall !' ' 
 
 " Or he ?" 
 
 " It is the fate of war !" said the planter solemnly. 
 
 "Oh, Somers "Somers!" cried Miss Winter, wringing her hands in agony. 
 
 " Hear me, Amy ! What need of anticipating woe ? What grounds have 
 you for supposing there is a possibility of our meeting?" 
 
 " Because Richard has sworn it !" 
 
 "Heaven help him! We may meet, and yet neither of us die. Such 
 things, have happened, Amy !" said the planter with a quiet smile. 
 
 " You will not kill him then, Neil ; nor let him kill you ?" 
 
 " For your sake and my country's no !" 
 
 " Ah ! thank you thank you ! My heart is lighter now !" 
 
 The planter smiled. 
 
 " Listen," he said. " Richard is not so terrible as you think, nor as he 
 himself believes. He is on the side of passion, which blinds its followers, 
 and of error, which rarely ends in leading to their undoing all who trust in 
 it I were no man to let one who pursues so false a track, cheat me of my 
 happiness, or rob me of my life. Be assured, sweet one, that while I will 
 entrench on no one else's manor, I will most sacredly guard my own. I 
 owe this to those who love me as well as to myself; and trust me, I am 
 versed enough in what is due to myself, to judge by that of what is due my 
 friends. But tell me of this forced lover, sweet one " 
 
 The exquisite pricked up his ears, which tingled as if on fire. 
 
 " Does he persecute you," continued the planter. " Does he strive to win 
 affections he knows are fixed upon another ?" 
 
 "Let me do him justice," returned Amy, unconscious of the friend she was 
 making by her ingenious reply. " He has thus far conducted himself as be- 
 comes a gentleman. He has done his best to render himself agreeable with- 
 out insulting me by professions, which, if genuine, could not be returned. 
 He has never even spoken to me of love, never uttered a sentiment not 
 based upon the strictest sense of honor. 
 
 "And nevah will!" murmured the exquisite, blushing in spite of himself. 
 
 "I rejoice to hear it," said the planter, "for his mother's sake, who is a 
 very noble and worthy lady. I have known her for many years, both per- 
 sonally and by reputation, and ever regarded her as one of the purest-minded 
 and gentlest-hearted women on the list of my acquaintance, If she has a 
 failing, it is perhaps a too great fondness for her sou, whom she loves with. 
 all the energies of her soup Her's is one of those noble spirfts which, by 
 their sweetness and amiability, win the love and admiration of all with whom 
 they come in contact. Frederick could not be the son of such a lady, and 
 not inherit a portion of her generous nature !"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 85 
 
 "Weally!' 1 murmured the exquisite, from whom this panegyric on his 
 parent drew tears of gratitude and joy, " I like this fellow! He is a gentle- 
 man, even if he is a webel !" 
 
 " 'Tis said he loves his mother with an affection equal to her own," ob- 
 served Miss Winter. 
 
 " I am glad to hear it," said Somers, " for she deserves his warmest devo- 
 tion. Trust me, Amy, Mr. Crampton is worthy of our highest respect for all 
 his drawing-room airs, so long as he fails not in the duty and reverence he 
 owes to his noble mother ; and so persuaded am I that he will never be found 
 wanting in aught that is due to honor, that I dare trust him as the guardian 
 of the bright mistress of my soul, without a fear as to the result!" 
 
 " Have a care, Neil," said Miss Winter, archly. " The bright mistress of 
 your soul might perchance be tempted to freely tender him her heart!" 
 
 " And she could not offer it to a nobler, Amy. For, look you ; take away 
 .the artificial dross which he has imposed upon himself, and the natural wortii 
 of the man will show itself and command general admiration. And it could 
 not well be otherwise, for his mother his mother who nursed and trained 
 him is one of those pure spirits who refine, redeem and elevate humanity. 
 There are two sides to his character, as there are to every man's his natural 
 and his artificial ones : it is the latter only he presents to our view, reserving 
 his first and noblest for her from whom he inherited it." 
 
 The exquisite, naturally modest, blushed at this panegyric ; and as there 
 was nothing selfish in his disposition, he felt his heart gradually stealing 
 towards the planter, bound in the garments of good will. If he was natural- 
 ly pleased to hear himself thus spoken of, what must have been his delight 
 on listening to the eulogy passed upon a parent whom he loved with an af- 
 fection bordering on reverence? 
 
 "I never gave him credit for much worth !" observed Miss Winter. " To 
 tell the truth, I never considered him in any other light than that of a vain, 
 weak gentleman !" 
 
 The sensitive exquisite felt hurt at this remark, and his brow gathered 
 into a moody frown. 
 
 " I shall dwop my addwesses !" he muttered. " It is evident she does not 
 know how to appreciate me. I shall dislike her I know I shall!" 
 
 "You do him injustice, Amy, Trust me, beneath his assumed effeminacy, 
 there beats as true and noble a heart as any in Carolina !" 
 
 The exquisite's brow cleared up again. His eyes sparkled with pride and 
 pleasure. 
 
 " You shall find it so, Mr. Somers," he murmured, " should you evah stand 
 in need of a fwend ! I do not like to boast, but I do think my heart is not 
 so wiry bad!" 
 
 " And are you not afraid, Neil," asked Miss Winter, with an arch smile," to 
 speak thus of one who aspires to be your rival ?" 
 
 "No," returned the planter, pleasantly. "I would not underrate his 
 merits, if I could. Besides," he added, tenderly, " were he to succeed in 
 displacing me in your heart, loved one, it would be an evidence that your 
 love had not yet been won by me : for if it had, he could not be my rival 
 witi any prospect of defeating me, if he would !'' 
 
 "He could not, Neil!" said Miss Winter, feelingly. 
 
 "I believe it, Amy; and therefore am I easy. Confident that Mr. 
 Crampton will not employ dishonorable means to make you hi?. I have no 
 fear that he will supplant me." 
 
 " He wiH never succeed in doing that, Neil !" said Miss Winter. 
 
 " At least he will not twy !" murmured the exquisite, stealing a look of 
 admiration at Somers. 
 
 " I feel assured of that, loved one." said the planter. " I have too much 
 confidence in your truth and his honor, to think otherwise, even if he were
 
 86 THE SWAMP STED | OR THE DAYS 
 
 backed and urged on by ten thousand Richards. By the way, is it your 
 brother's intention to engage actively in this war between the people and 
 the king ?" 
 
 " Yes. Even now he is forming a small party of young men, wild, vindic- 
 tive and daring as himself, to harrass and persecute the patriots." 
 
 " There are too many such bands," said the planter, mournfully ; " and 
 worse than all, they are in the main composed of men born, like Richard, on 
 the soil which they redden with the blood of their nobler countrymen ! Ah ! 
 Amy. had we, that is the people, but half the arms and money the royalists 
 possess, we'd teach these marauders a lesson they would not soon forget. 
 As it is, with all their superior advantages, they have not the courage to 
 face us like brave men fighting in a just cause, but prowl upon our rear and 
 shoot us down, fire our dwellings in the still hours of night, watch when we 
 disperse, lay in ambush for us as we are returning alone to our homes, and 
 slaughter us, bloodily, savagely !" 
 
 "Demnition !" muttered the exquisite, indignantly. "A cause which tol- 
 erates such horwible cwimes as that, cannot be just! If I were to do sudh 
 tilings, what would my mother say !" 
 
 " And Richard," continued the planter, with an air of anguish impossible 
 to describe, " is about to enter jupon a career like this ! 'Tis frightful 1 
 These marauding gangs are chiefly composed of men whose natures and 
 habits are more brutal than human ; of men whose minds are perverted 
 by prejudice, not guided by intelligence ; of men in fine, who are so low in 
 the scale of humanity, that they have the heart, like born savages, whom 
 they resemble, to fire men's dwellings while they sleep, and shoot down and 
 force back into the flames, men, women and children, as they endeavor to 
 escape !" 
 
 "Horror!" exclaimed Miss Winter, bowing her head, sobbingly, upon his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " It is not only horwible," murmured Crampton, " it is infamous ! What 
 would my mother say if she heard it !" 
 
 " I can easily conceive," pursued Somers, " how men hah savage in their 
 natures can commit crimes, which men of a more elevated scale in humanity 
 would shudder at ; but I cannot conceive how a man, like Richard, blessed 
 with the lofty intelligence springing from education and habitual collision 
 with persons of intellect and refinement, could deliberately descend from his 
 present proud position, forego his standing as an educated and intelligent 
 being, and associate with men whose barbarities stamp them akin to the 
 brutal and the savage !" 
 
 "Oh, pity me, Neil!" cried Miss Winter, whose azure eyes were stream- 
 ing with tears, whose lute toned voice trembled with emotion, and whose 
 general air was evincive of the depth of her humiliation, " this bad man ia 
 my brother!" 
 
 " I appreciate your feelings, loved one," said her lover, pressing his lip to 
 her cheek, " and mourn for my country : for I can easily divine how fierce 
 and terrible an enemy she will find in one who can bring a high order of in- 
 telligence to assist him in his brutalities !" 
 
 " What a horwid wetch is Wichard !" muttered the exquisite. " I shall 
 certainly cut his acquaintance. And he wishes to borrow money of me, too 
 doubtless to equip and sustain himself in his outwidgeous caweer ! What 
 would my mother say, if I should lend it to him!" 
 
 " Is his troop engaged, Amy ?" 
 
 "Alas! yes!" 
 
 "Since when?" 
 
 " The last fortnight." 
 
 u Indeed ! How numerous are the friends of oppression, which ia the 
 cause of hell how few the friends of freedom, which is the cause of God P'
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 87 
 
 " God shall have one more, then, to incwease his forces !" aiurmured the 
 exquisite. 
 
 ' And," continued the. planter, "it is because oppression is the friend of 
 the rich, that it meets so many friends ; and because freedom is the friend 
 of the poor, that it meets with so few !" 
 
 " The poor shall find one fwend more !" muttered the exquisite, " and, 
 thank God ! that fwend has a wich father, who, though his feelings side with 
 the king, y'et shall part with a share of his money to help the people. His 
 son, Fwedewick, has said it, and he has a mother who will help him to keep 
 his word !" 
 
 " And do you see hope, Neil," asked Miss Winter, earnestly, "in this con- 
 test between the people and the king?" 
 
 "Yes, loved one, yes," replied the planter, with an air of solemn grandeur 
 which gave to his words a tone of prophecy, " for He is with us ! It may b 
 He will lead us, as He did the Israelites of old, through long years of stern 
 and bitter struggling, ere Victory shall perch upon our banner, and Defeat be 
 enscrolled upon the standard of the crown. But in the end our faith and 
 courage will prevail; and Freedom's flag shall wave in glad triumph upon our 
 mountains, and Freedom's hymn be sung throughout our vales!" 
 
 "God grant it!" murmured his betrothed, gazing with a mingled expres- 
 sion of love and pride upon her enthusiastic lover. 
 
 ' Trust in Him !" said the planter, raising his eyes upward solemnly, "and 
 He will carry us safely through the wilderness !" 
 
 " You are a noble fellow ! murmured the exquisite, " and have made a 
 fwend to-day of one who will pwove himself a fwend. Oh, if my mother 
 could but hear him speak !" 
 
 At this moment the near report of a rifle rang through the wood, and was 
 followed immediately after by a low groan. 
 
 The lovers started up, but without separating; Amy clinging in terror to 
 her betrothed ; the latter circling her waist with one arm and shading his 
 eyes with the other as he peered around to discover from whence the cry of 
 anguish proceeded. 
 
 " Oh, Neil !" cried the maiden, in accents of deep distress, " we are disco- 
 vered !" 
 
 " Hush !" returned Somers, in a whisper. " I thought I heard a groan, 
 and a sound as of something falling!" 
 
 " And I !" said his companion. 
 
 " Demnition !" murmured the exquisite, " that was a bullet's whistle. 
 Something horwible is going on, and not far off, either !" 
 
 " There is danger afoot !" said the planter, calmly, " and this, Amy, is not 
 the place for you. Come, let me see you home !" 
 
 " And you Neil ?" returned the maiden, in a tone of deep affliction, " you 
 must not return !" 
 
 " Nay, dearest," he answered hurriedly, as if he had not heard her, " we 
 have no time to lose. Gome I" 
 
 And without giving her time to reply, the planter took her by the hand, 
 and gently hurried her, despite of her feeble resistance, from the spot, and 
 past the exquisite, who hastily moved around the palmetto, as they approach- 
 ed, to avoid detection. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 "There are more parties in the wood than there should be!" muttered 
 Crampton, uneasily. " I am vewy much mistaken if tha . noise did not 
 mean something !
 
 88 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 As he spoke a moan fell on his ear, followed by a loud cry. 
 
 " Help help ! I am dying !" 
 
 The exquisite started, and turned pale. 
 
 " Who speaks ?" he demanded, in a troubled voice. 
 
 Help help !" repeated the unknown. 
 
 "Where are you?" cried the exquisite, striving, but in vain, to make out 
 from whence the voice proceeded. 
 
 Here help, help !" moaned the unknown, feebly, and Crampton at once 
 
 comprehended that it came from the lips of one whose earthly career was 
 rapidly drawing to a close. 
 
 " Something must be done!" he muttered, his natural generosity getting 
 the better of his caution. " Discovery or no discovery, I cannot leave the 
 poor wetch to die !" 
 
 So saying, he quitted the palmetto, made his way through the underwood, 
 passed over the mound which had previously been occupied by the lovers, 
 and after advancing some eight or ten yards beyond, suddenly came upon a 
 poor wretch distended upon the ground and writhing in great agony, in the 
 midst of a large pool of blood which the spungy soil was gradually absorbing* 
 In his right hand, the wounded man, whose face was turned towards the 
 earth, grasped with convulsive tenacity a rifle which, judging by the position 
 of its hammer, had been recently discharged. 
 
 The exquisite was for a few moments paralyzed with horror, at the sight. 
 
 As he recovered his self-possession, he glanced at the dying man, at the 
 weapon in his hand, and then at his proximity to the spot where, at the time 
 of the report which was sharp and quick like that of a rifle, sat the lovers 
 unconscious of their danger, and a faint idea of the facts in the case flashed 
 through his brain like a line of lightning. 
 
 He had scarcely arrived at his conclusion, when he heard footsteps, then 
 the rustling of cloth against dry and low-bending branches, and the next in- 
 stant the planter was beside him. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir," said Somers. " what know you of this ?" And he pointed 
 sternly to the wounded man, whose struggles, judging by their faintness, 
 were rapidly drawing to a close. 
 
 " Nothing, sir," replied Crampton, coloring, as he understood that he was 
 regarded with suspicion. " I was merely passing through the wood, for the 
 purpose of weachmg the Winters by a shorter woute than the woad, when 
 my attention was attwacted by the weport of a wifle, followed by a cry for 
 help. I pwoceeded in the diwection of the sound, and found this poor fellow 
 stwuggling as you see him !" 
 
 And you know nothing more, sir, of this affair ?" demanded the planter, 
 sternly. 
 
 "Nothing, on my honor!" responded the exquisite, laying his hand upon 
 his breast, with an air which carried conviction of its truth. 
 
 " Enough, Mr. Crampton," said the planter, changing his tone to one of 
 deep respect, " I believe you." 
 
 Then dropping his eyes upon the rifle in the grasp of the prostrate man, he 
 exclaimed 
 
 " Ha ! the piece is discharged. The poor wretch has been shot acciden- 
 tally by his own weapon !" 
 
 ' So I suspected !" observed Crampton. 
 
 " Assist me, sir," said the planter, stooping down and lifting the man out 
 of the crimson pool. " We may yet save him !" 
 
 So saying, and with the help of the exquisite, he drew the man gently to- 
 wards the base of a deep-trunked tree, around which the earth was compa- 
 ratively free from brush ; then dropping on one knee, he held the head in 
 one arm, while with the other he removed the rifle from the hand of the dy- 
 ing wretch, whose face was stained with blood, and whose eyes were turned
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 89 
 
 up with an expression of horror at the man who so generously 
 him. 
 
 The exquisite shuddered, for from the wounded man's side, the red tide of 
 life was slowly welling out. 
 
 " How is it with you, sir ?" asked the planter, with an air of deep sympa- 
 thy, as Crampton, taking his handkerchief, applied it to the wound to stop 
 its eSusion. 
 
 "Ha!" exclaimed the man, shuddering; "that voice! Mr. Somers? 
 Speak is it you, sir ?" 
 
 " Yes, my friend. 'Tis I ; but what then ?" 
 
 A convulsive tremor darted through the man's frame, accompanied by a 
 groan. 
 
 "Speak, my friend!" said the planter, tenderly. "Can I do anything for you?" 
 
 The man shook his head, and an expression of despair swept over his coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 " Nothing !" he ejaculated, faintly ; " nothing but pardon : for I was about 
 to murder you !" 
 
 " I thought so !" muttered Crampton, shuddering with horror. 
 
 " For what, my friend !" said the planter. " I never injured you !" 
 
 " True," said the man, speaking with difficulty ; " but he employed me to 
 creep in upon you, and shoot you down." 
 
 " ' He' ! Whom do you mean ?" 
 
 " Richard Winter !" gasped the man, growing fainter and fainter. 
 
 " But your gun went off ?" 
 
 " Yes, as I was raising it to my shoulder ; a twig of the brushwood touch- 
 ed the trigger, and the ball entered here !" 
 
 And he pointed with a motion of his finger to his side. 
 
 " God pardon you, my friend," said the planter, solemnly, " as I do ! 'Twas 
 Richard Winter, then, who set you on to this ?" 
 
 " Yes. He had seen you as you were entering the wood from the roadside , 
 and suspecting that the motive which brought you here was to have an in- 
 terview with his sister, he gave me twenty guineas and his rifle to watch and 
 shoot you." 
 
 " Unhappy man !" said the planter. " What -shed a fellow creature's 
 blood for twenty guineas!" 
 
 " I was poor," groaned the man, trembling with remorse and the approach 
 of death, " without money, without work, and my family starving !" 
 
 "Your name?" asked the planter. 
 
 " Tom Churchill," gasped the man. whose voice had now approached to a 
 faint murmur. " Par pardon 0, par " 
 
 " I do I do ! And if it will be any consolation to you, I will see that 
 your femily be relieved from their necessities." 
 
 A faint smile hovered for an instant at this announcement around the lips 
 of the dying man. 
 
 "You'll do that?" he inquired, with a low cry. 
 
 " I will, my friend, I will !" 
 
 A shade of remorseful agony passed over the man's features. 
 
 " And this," he muttered, with a frightful moan, " this is the man to kill 
 whom I took the gold of an assassin !" 
 
 "But I have said I pardon you, ray friend!" 
 
 "Yes," muttered the poor wreteh faintly, "but God " 
 
 And a deep sigh escaped him. 
 
 " He also will, I trust, forgive you !" said the planter. 
 
 But the man answered not made no sign. 
 
 For with that expression of remorse, with that sigh of repentance, the 
 spirit of the poor wretch had taken its departure for that other world where 
 the Just sits in juilememt upon crime. 
 
 12
 
 9Q THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 " He is gone!" observed the exqusite with a shudder. 
 
 " Yes " answered the planter. 
 
 And he lowered the head of the dead man gently to the earth. 
 
 There was now a long painful pause, during which the parties were each ab. 
 sorbed in thought. At length, 
 
 " This is an unhappy business, Mr. Crampton, said the planter, and one 
 that will breed trouble. What now is to be the fate of this man's wretched 
 family, thus left without a head ? They surely should not suffer !" 
 
 " They shall not." returned the generous exquiste ; " my purse shall save 
 them from want." 
 
 " In their name, I thank you, Mr. Crampton, said the planter, with a bow 
 which was full of dignity and respect. " I am not overburdened with money, 
 but in my little treasury I shall find enough to ensure the widow and her 
 little ones from distress." 
 
 "But Winter " said the exquisite. 
 
 "He will no doubt charge himself with the care of the woman he has wid- 
 owed and the children he has orphaned," said Somers. " As for himself, I 
 leave him to his destiny." 
 
 So saying, lie took a long, quiet look at the dead man's body, and then 
 made a movement as if to leave the spot 
 
 "A word, sir," said Crampton, who could scarcely restrain a cry of admi- 
 ration at the noble character of his companion. 
 
 The planter paused and threw on him a glance of inquiry and respect. 
 
 " You and I, sir," said Crampton, " have, in some measure, been in each 
 other's way, in our mutual efforts to win Miss Wintah's hand." 
 
 The planter made a low bow, while his cheeks became tinged with a slight 
 tell-tale blush. 
 
 "It is my desire," continued the exquisite, modestly, " to have the good 
 opinion of a gentleman for whom, believe me when I say it, I entertain the 
 most profound wespect ; and as a pwoof of my sincerity I here pledge my- 
 self to welinquish my pwetensions to Miss Wintah, whose affections I hare 
 weason to believe can never be mine, and to assist her by every means in my 
 power to a union -with the man she loves. It is not necessary," added the 
 exquisite, smilingly, " to mention him by name !" 
 
 "Mr. Crampton," said the planter, taking the extended hand of the other 
 and pressing it warmly. " I appreciate your magnanimous offer, and accept 
 it ; and I do it the more readily, as I believe you to be a noble and high- 
 minded gentleman, as you have already proven yourself an honorable rival. I 
 will not conceal from you, sir, that your pretensions to Miss Winter, backed as 
 they were by her brother and father, gave me some uneasiness ; not on ac- 
 count of the young lady's affections, for I knew them to be mine, but on ac- 
 count of her happiness which might have been disturbed by your persistence 
 in a suit that never could have had, for any of the parties engaged in it, a 
 pleasant termination." 
 
 " I feel satisfied of the truth of your observation," returned Crampton ; 
 " and for that weason I decline a contest in which my heart has, after all, had 
 but little intewest. When I wed, I desire a lady's affections as well as her 
 hand, which I most assuredly would not have with Miss Wintah. And now, 
 sir," continued the exquisite, " let me say to you in all sincerity that I would 
 rather be your fwend than your wival ; and if you will honor me with your 
 fwendship, I give you my word as a man of honor, that you will never have 
 cause to wepent it !" 
 
 " I feel assured of that, Mr. Crampton, and cordially tender you my high- 
 est regards. Should I require assistance in my suit with Miss Winter, I shaD 
 not fail to ask it at your hands." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Somers, thank you !" cried the exquisite, with a look of 
 profound gratitude. " I desire no gweater happiness than the honor of being
 
 Or MARION AND UiS MERRY MEN. 91 
 
 Called your fwend ! To have the ability to serve you or Miss Wintah would 
 be to me the acme of felicity." 
 
 " Accept my most fervid thanks in return," said the planter, pressing his 
 hand. " And now a word. Should you see Miss Winter, oblige me by 
 making no allusion to this unhappy affair," and he pointed to the body. "I 
 would not have her gentle nature shocked by the knowledge of the utter de- 
 pravity of her brother !" 
 
 " I understand you, sir, and will be silent as you wequesf." 
 
 " Thank you. One word more. I will, on reaching home, write a note to 
 Miss Winter, informing her of the friend we both have had the honor of 
 gaining in you, and of the confidence she may consequently repose in you 
 from this hour. Would it be asking too much at your hands, my friend, to 
 deliver that note to her ?" 
 
 " It would be a pleasure, Mr. Somers," returned the young man, with 
 emotion. 
 
 " I felt assured of that, Mr. Crampton," said the planter gratefully. " And 
 now for a time, adieu !" 
 
 " I will walk with you as far as the woa^" said the exquisite, '*' and there 
 bid you farewell !" 
 
 " No," returned the planter, taking his hand, " say it here !" 
 
 Crampton looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " Consider," said the planter, pointing to the body, " this affair is not yet 
 over. The bullet which made this poor wretch a corse was intended for me ; 
 and the man who employed it is doubtless waiting at the edge of the wood 
 for a report of its success. He may have companions, too, in which case I 
 might have to work my way through ; an easy task, since, as you see I have 
 my sword with me. But you, my friend, you are unarmed, and there might 
 be danger to you if seen in my company I 
 
 :< I understand you," said Crampton. 
 
 " Independent of these considerations," continued the planter with a pleas- 
 ant smile, " you had better rlbt let it appear to Richard Winter that you are 
 cognizant of this attempt upon my life ; it might endanger you ; for murder- 
 ers are apt to look for security by also assassinating the witnesses of their 
 crimes." 
 
 " You are right," said Crampton, upon whom this observation appeared to 
 make a serious impression. 
 
 "And therefore," resumed the planter, "you had better take the nearest 
 route homeward, to avoid discovery on the part of this man or his myrmi- 
 dons." 
 
 "But," said the generous exquisite, "if there is danger for you, it is my 
 duty as a fwend, to see you through it safely. I cannot consent to see you go 
 single-handed into peril ! ' 
 
 " I appreciate your nobleness, my friend," said the planter, touched at this 
 generosity, " and under other circumstances would not refuse your company. 
 jBut, be assured, all things considered, you had better not be known in this 
 matter, nor appear to have the slightest knowledge of the transaction or its 
 actors. As for myself, rest easy : I carry a good blade, and nature has given 
 me a quick eye, a stout arm, and a supple hand. Come, say farewell, at 
 
 " Farewell farewell!" cried Crampton, in a tone of deep distress. 
 
 " For the present," said the planter, with a calm smile. 
 
 "Yes, for the pwesent!" returned the exquisite, with emotion; "for God 
 will not permit so bwave a man to fall !" 
 
 And turning himself away, he dashed through the wood, utterly regard- 
 lees, for the first time in his life, of what became of his ruffles in his flight. 
 
 The planter watched his retreating form with an eye slightly moistened
 
 92 THE SWAMP STEED ; OK. THE DAYS 
 
 by emotion. The noble and generous sentiments of the exquisite had touched 
 him to his innermost soul. 
 
 " He has a gallant heart for all his foibles," he muttered mentally. " Who 
 takes him for a timid simpleton, because of his effeminate air, will greatly err 
 in judgment." 
 
 And he turned upon his heel, and moved off to where his well trained 
 horse patiently awaited him. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 As the planter approached, his gallant steed saluted him by proudly tossing 
 its head, pawing the air with its right fore foot> and uttering a low, joyful 
 neigh. 
 
 "My brave Arrow!" said the planter, tapping the intelligent animal fondly 
 on the neck, " are you then so gla& to see your master back again ? Tell me 
 without neighing, for there may be foes around ?" 
 
 The animal bowed its head and showed its white teeth, in reply. 
 
 " You are a faithful fellow !" returned the planter, caressing him with his 
 hand. 
 
 Arrow pawed his right fore foot, and looked at him with an expression 
 which said, "That's true as gospel, and I'm glad you know it" 
 
 " I want to travel," continued the planter, " and with as little noise as 
 
 The animal nodded, and threw into his eye an expression which implied, " I 
 understand that What then ?" 
 
 " Once on the road," said the planter, " I want you to act according to 
 circumstances. We may meet enemies, in which' case it would perhaps be 
 well for you to remember that you have good stout irons on your heels !" 
 
 Arrow winked one eye knowingly, and said as plainly as an eye could say, 
 " Leave me alone for that !" 
 
 " Then, my brave Arrow, I have nothing more to say," added the planter, 
 caressingly. " I'll mount now, if you please ?" 
 
 Arrow winked again, as much as to say, " Very good. Get on, sir I'' 
 
 And he bent down softly, not like any other horse, but very much like 
 Arrow, who was so well trained and so fond of his master that he felt dis- 
 posed to give him as little trouble as possible. 
 
 The planter threw himself into the saddle ; caught up the rein, and mut- 
 tered in a low, confidential tone : 
 
 "Now, Arrow now!" 
 
 The intelligent steed rose softly to his full height, and then commenced 
 making a display of his Indian education, by moving over the ground and 
 through the trees and underwood, with steps as light and noiseless as a 
 doe's. 
 
 " You are a gallant fellow!" murmured the planter, patting him encourag- 
 ingly on the neck. "There isn't another horse in Carolina that knows 
 how to conduct himself so well !" 
 
 Arrow shook himself gently, as much as to say, " He knew that, as well 
 as any one." 
 
 " I suppose you do," said the planter, conscious that he was perfectly un- 
 derstood. " And mind you don't lose your reputation." 
 
 Arrow pricked up and shook his ears, which his master comprehended to 
 raean, "I'll look out for that !" 
 
 They were soon on the borders of the wood, and consequently within a 
 ^ew paces of the road.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 93 
 
 At this moment, Arrow dropped suddenly on his knees. The next instant 
 Somers perceived a flash, then heard the whistle of a bullet, as it passed di- 
 rectly in a line over his head, and then the report of a pistol. 
 
 The gallant animal had seen the black tube leveled, and was on his knees 
 in the very nick of time ! 
 
 " A I expected," muttered the planter, drawing his sword, and rising in 
 his saddle. " Winter is waiting for his report. 1 11 have to give it him my- 
 self. Are you hurt, Arrow, my brave lad," he added, " that you remain so 
 long upon the earth?" 
 
 Arrow quivered and dropped one of his ears, a sign which his master at 
 once understood as a Avarning ; and the planter bent forward on his sad- 
 dle till his face touched the mane of the gallant steed. 
 
 As he stooped, a second bullet whistled over him, and a second report 
 rang on the air I 
 
 In another instant, Arrow was on his feet and dashing through the trees 
 towards the assassin. 
 
 H^ had scarcely taken five steps forward when three men, and not one, 
 as the planter, .judging from the two pistol shots, supposed, darted from be- 
 hind as many trees, and fled in the direction of the road. 
 
 Somers recognized in the first the person of Richard Winter ; the features 
 of the others were unknown to him. 
 
 Arrow darted after them, not like a horse, but like a mastiff on full run, 
 and came up with the third whom he landed with a terrible kick, which 
 drew from the miserable wretch a most agonizing shriek, as Winter, followed 
 by his second companion, emerged into the road. 
 
 Once out of the wood, Winter and his companion planted themselves in 
 the middle of the highway, and, nothing intimidated by the fate of their con- 
 federate, determined to take a bold stand. 
 
 Winter, having thrown away his discharged pistols, appeared armed with 
 a rapi er ) his companion with a rifle. 
 
 The first wore a countenance black with rage and hatred ; the second a 
 face pale but determined. 
 
 " A hundred guineas, in addition to the twenty I promised you," cried 
 Winter, hoarsely, " if you drop htm [" 
 
 " I'll win 'em !" returned the man, quickly, as he raised his gun to his 
 shoulder. 
 
 At this moment Arrow, with his master, the latter standing in his stir- 
 rups and with his sword drawn, sprang into the road. 
 
 The eye of the intelligent animal detected the motion of the ruffian as he 
 raised his finger to the trigger of his piece, and fell like a flash of light upon 
 his knees. The planter instantly bowed his head down to the animal's mane, 
 which his lips had scarcely touched, when the whistle of a bullet brushed 
 past him, almost singeing his head. 
 
 The next instant Somers rose, with his steed, calmly, in his saddle, and 
 dashing towards the rifleman, with one sweep of his sword, split the ruf- 
 fian's head down to the shoulder. 
 
 The poor wretch fell back, uttering a low moan which resembled a last 
 sigh, and was dead ere he touched the earth. 
 
 Arrow now turned towards Winter with blazing eyes, mane erect, and 
 launching forth a shrill, fierce neigh. Like the wolf, having once scented 
 blood, he was anxious for a feast. 
 
 Winter stood, sword in hand, ready to defend himself to the last extremi- 
 ty. With every fierce passion aroused, his appearance was at once wild, 
 ' devilish, resolute and sublime. Conscious that his black design upon the 
 life of the planter was wholly understood, and that concealment was conse- 
 quently impossible, he threw off all reserve, with the determination, now 
 that he was in for it beyond redemption, to go on to the death. And his
 
 94 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 attitude while standing a little aside on the road, with his weapon en guard, 
 and the expression of his features, which were pale but firm and breathing 
 forth defiance, would have conveyed to the eye of a spectator the figure of a 
 second Lucifer, conscious of the evil of his nature, yet whose proud spirit 
 nothing could appal, and whose sole desire was the ruin of his enemy even 
 though it might involve his own. 
 
 The planter, however, now tb.at he had punished the hired miscreants, con- 
 sidered it beneath him to bandy words or cross weapons with their infa- 
 mous employer. He was sensible also of the impolicy of shedding the 
 blood of one who, whatever his crimes, was still the brother of his betrothed ; 
 and though satisfied that Winter deserved death at his hands, he yet felt 
 that this was not the time nor the place to call him to account. Reining 
 in his steed, therefore. Somers wheeled the gallant animal around with the 
 intention of moving off and leaving the miserable wretch to chew the cud of 
 mortification over his bafHed scheme at his leisure. 
 
 Winter's quick eye discovered the movement, and his fertile brain ena- 
 bled him to comprehend its meaning. 
 
 " He treats me with utter SCOJKI," he murmured, half audibly, through his 
 set teeth. And as the thought flashed across him, his brow grew black. 
 "Death death!" he continued, "were preferable to contempt. He shall 
 not escape me. I have gone too far, to fall back. Both of us cannot live, 
 and he or /must die!" 
 
 Meanwhile, the planter was slowly moving off, with his back turned, in 
 calm, unmistakable disdain upon his enemy. 
 
 "His life or mine!" muttered the latter, springing forward with uplifted 
 sword to cut him from behind. 
 
 As he sprang forward, however, Arrow, whose Indian education adapted 
 him for every ' emergency, and whose ears had been instinctively erect, 
 watching every whistle of the atmosphere, caught the rustling sound of his 
 movement ; and darting ahead a few paces, thus evading whatever danger 
 there might be behind, the intelligent animal suddenly described a semi-cir- 
 cle, and launching lightnings at the treacherous tory, was about to plunge 
 forward and trample him in the dust, when a slight quick motion of the rein 
 restrained his eager steps and brought him to a stand. 
 
 Winter was now within three paces of the planter, who, with every muscle 
 at rest, and his sword reposing across his left arm, looked down upon him 
 from his saddle, with a countenance so calm and full of grandeur that the 
 young tory was for an instant staggered. 
 
 " What want you, sir ?" demanded Somers. tranquilly, as if addressing a 
 a stranger. 
 
 "Your life your blood!'' stammered Winter; "your life, your heart's 
 best blood. Down from your horse, if you are not a coward, and contest 
 with me the price of hatred !" 
 
 "I have no hatred to dispose of," returned the planter, calmly; "if you 
 possess any, I have no desire to purchase it. That I am no coward, you are 
 as well aware as myself. As to getting down from my horse, I am so well 
 pleased with my saddle, that nothing but coercive measures would induce 
 me to relinquish it. Are you answered ?" 
 
 " Craven no !" cried the tory, fiercely. " Down from your horse, if you 
 are a man ; your blade against mine, for one or both of us must die !" 
 
 And as he spoke, he raised his sword, and bringing it down with a sweep, 
 sought to plunge it into the planter's breast. The latter quietly touched the 
 flanks of Arrow with his spur, and as the intelligent animal sprang aside, th 
 tory's descending weapon became buried in the earth, 
 
 " You see," remarked Somers, tranquilly, " that my destiny hangs not in 
 your hands. Be wise, and give over your folly. As yet I have been able 
 to keep down the bad blood which you would startle from its repose ; but I
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 95 
 
 may not always be so successful Be warned, sir, for even now my fingers 
 tingle to teach you the absurdity of playing the part of an assassin." 
 
 As he spoke, the tones of the planter's voice gradually deepened ; his brow 
 gathered slowly into a threatening frown ; and his whole aspect was im- 
 pressively solemn. 
 
 It was evident that despite his best efforts to prevent it, his nature was 
 slowly, but not less surely, working its way to empire, and marshaling its 
 forces to unseat his judgment. 
 
 " Ha ! dare you threaten ?" demanded the tory, upon whom these signs of 
 anger's approaching outburst were not lost, and who, so fierce was his thirst 
 for a conflict which promised him an opportunity to gratify his deep-seated 
 venom, perceived them with a fiendish smile, " prove yourself a man, and do 
 it on foot !" 
 
 " Drive me not to it drive me not to it," said the planter, solemnly. " 1 
 would not shed your blood, nor imperil mine, now /" 
 
 " ' Now'!" repeated Winter, with a sneer. " You are too generous I Neither 
 now, r0r hereafter, nor at any time have you the ability. It is not in your 
 body ; do you hear, sirrah," he continued, mockingly. " the nerve and ability 
 to shed my blood are not in your body ; they^vere not in your father's loins, 
 and are not in you, his issue. I'll test your boasted metal, if you dare for 
 one minute to leap from your saddle ; and I'll brand craven on your brow, as 
 I did harlot on your sister's !" . 
 
 " My sister's!" responded the planter, in a hollow voice that came up from 
 the depths of his now thoroughly aroused soul. " My sister's!" he repeated, 
 and his countenance became livid and frightful. " My sister you dishonored 
 her, brought autumn and winter to her bruised heart ere yet she had entered 
 upon life's sweet summer and you boast of it ! Base, bad man," he added, 
 in a fearfully calm voice, as weapon in hand he descended from his horse and 
 advanced upon his adversary, " as you say, we must cross blades!" 
 
 " For an instant only," cried Winter, rushing on him furiously. " Take 
 that !" 
 
 And be aimed a blow*at the planter's breast. 
 
 The latter parried it, observing through his pent teeth, as he did so : 
 
 " I have said, poor, groveling worm ! that I would not kill you, and I will 
 not ; but I shall punish you I" 
 
 " You are too generous, by far !" returned Winter, tauntingly, as he turned 
 aside the pJanter's rapier, and, by a movement, quick as lightning, sprang 
 forward, and ran his weapon through his sword arm right above the elbow. 
 
 Now that he was in the midst of action, the tory's senses appeared to re- 
 turn to him with tenfold clearness and vigor. The foam quietly receded from 
 his lips ; his muscles ceased twitching, and seemed to brace themselves, like 
 wires of steel, for ^the encounter ; his furrowed brow cleared up ; his pale 
 cheeks assumed their accustomed hue ; his lips dropped their rigid pentness, 
 and opened to emit a taunting expression, closed again, with a firmness which, 
 was vigorous yet calm ; his eyes lost their passionate brilliancy and shone 
 with a clear, steady light ; the muscles of his wrist and fingers settled down 
 tranquilly, and he grasped the handle of his long, slender rapier, with a strong, 
 elastic and unmoistened hand. He watched the deep and aroused passion of 
 his adversary with a quiet, sneering smile, and being himself a most expert 
 swordsman, fancied that, by a little skilful manoeuvring, he could lead him 
 on step by step to the point of his weapon till at the proper moment, he 
 could with his sword, bury at one blow his long-nourished hatred in his 
 heart. As he drew back to make a second lunge, after successfully passing 
 his blade through the planter's arm, he exclaimed, in a voice of insulting 
 irony : 
 
 (< The first blood is mine ! Mine also the pleasure of scoring ' craven' on
 
 96 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 your rebel forehead, as I besmeared ' wanton' on your sister's ! Do you hear, 
 sirrah ?" 
 
 " My sister yes my sister ! she is not yet avenged !" cried the planter as 
 he felt the blood trickling down his sleeve, while the pupils of his eyes ex- 
 panded and gleamed with a fierce, unnatural light 
 
 And as he spoke, he drew back a single step, balanced his weapon firmly 
 and lithely in his hand, then springing forward, lunged at his antagonist. 
 
 As each had laid himself out for a death-dealing thrust, neither achieved 
 his object ; on the contrary, both rapiers met in fierce collision, forming a re- 
 versed letter V; for an instant they separated, but in another they were again 
 together, and wrapped in an indescribable intricacy, from which it was almost 
 impossible to part without breaking them. 
 
 This was a trick of rapier handling which satisfied each of the combatants 
 that in the other he had found an opponent worthy of his highest skill. 
 
 " You do not find it quite so easy a task as you proposed, to punish me !" 
 said the tory. mockingly, for the purpose if possible of distracting his adver- 
 sary's attention. 
 
 And as he spoke, he pressed forward, to back his antagonist, and at the 
 same time to give his own wrS greater play. 
 
 But his effort was abortive ; Somers maintained his ground, without giv - 
 ing way an inch : throwing at the same time what force he could muster into 
 the muscles of his hand, and in his turn pressing forward to drive his oppo- 
 nent from the strong position his admirable attitude enabled him to hold ; 
 and with success : for, in spite of all he could do, the tory was compelled to 
 give ground, forced backward by the superior muscular play of the planter. 
 
 "Your nerves are in better condition than I thought them," observed Win- 
 ter; "but for all that," he continued tauntingly, " I shall kill you do you 
 hear, insolent rebel ? I shall loll you !" 
 
 " My destiny," answered the planter calmly, " is in higher hands than 
 yours. Your heart is bad, your thoughts are evil ; you are skilful only in the 
 black work of an assassin. You should consort with thieves and felons, who 
 are your equals, and not with honest men, who are your superiors !" 
 
 " No matter what my heart, my thoughts, or skill," returned Winter, with 
 a sardonic laugh, " I am man enough for you I" 
 
 " We'll see that !" observed the planter, quietly. 
 
 "Right we'll see it, and shortly, too!" added the tory, with an insolent 
 laugh. " Look out, now, impudent rebel ! I am about to part company with 
 you, but only to resume it with four-fold alacrity !" 
 
 " Ha !" returned Somers, calmly, " you say that ?" 
 
 " I not only say it," rejoined Winter, " but I'll do it Look to yourself!" 
 
 "Nay," observed the planter, tranquilly, "that is for you to do. As for 
 me, I shall look to you." 
 
 " Look, then !" cried Winter, exultiugly. 
 
 And he made a quick, fierce effort to release his weapon from his adver- 
 sary's, in which he was successful, and then feU back a few steps to recover 
 strength and impetus for a fresh and if possible a decisive onset 
 
 The planter at the same time retreated a pace or two for a similar pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Ere one could count six the combatants were again face to face and thrust- 
 ing at each other with all the fierce calmness of men who had met to do or 
 die, who had the utmost respect for one another's skill, who were well aware 
 that a single false move was certain death, and conscious that victory was to 
 be obtained only by a thorough and accurate command of the temper, the 
 muscle, and the eye. 
 
 Every succeeding lunge was therefore made and parried on either side by 
 the utmost circumspection. 
 
 As yet, however, there had been but one sword tipped with blood Win-
 
 OF MAEION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 97 
 
 ter's ; but one of the combatants wounded Somers : and they had already 
 been engaged upwards of a quarter of an hour. 
 
 At length their rapiers again met and became interlaced to an indescriba- 
 ble degree. And now the lunging and parrying had become of a fine and 
 dexterous character. The fighting that had previously marked the combat 
 was mere child play compared with that which followed. The two weapons 
 were now so fiercely and intricately lashed that they appeared like a single 
 blade of steel with two handles, of which each of the adversaries held one. 
 Now this blade bent in the centre 1 , now it was elevated, and formed the let- 
 ter A ; now it pressed upon the breast of the planter, now it wandered over 
 to that of the tory ; now it described a circle, then it was drawn out to its 
 full length between the combatants ; now its two sharp points appeared about 
 to bury themselves, in their bosoms, and now they suddenly diverged up- 
 ward, while the two hilts came together with a shock which threatened to 
 shiver them in pieces. 
 
 The eyes of the combatants, as the battle progressed, became brighter and 
 clearer, and thefr pupils dilated till both orbs appeared to have become whol- 
 ly pupilized, and lit up with transparent liquids, in which their very thoughts 
 shone like imaged figures in a mirror. 
 
 The parties pressed on each other with increasing fierceness, their hands 
 guided to a certain extent by passion, but their heads calm and collected as 
 5" engaged in a work tasking only their intellects. Still they were individually 
 conscious of the necessity of putting forth all their energies for victory, as 
 nature was rapidly doing for them that which their mutual skill had thus far 
 prevented them from doing for themselves ; that is,, bringing the affair to a 
 close, by gradually depriving the combatants of their strength. 
 
 " Tour hand is yielding, rebel !'' exclaimed Winter, with a tormenting 
 laugh, for the purpose of distracting his adversary's attention. 
 
 " My hand may be, but my heart is not !" returned the planter. " Look, 
 now, I am about to return the thrust you gave me in my arm. Defend your- 
 self!" 
 
 "I will." answered the other, with a sneering laugh. ' That boast is like 
 the one with which you promised so generously to ' punish' me. You did 
 not keep that, nor can you this !" 
 
 " Nay, I shall keep them both," answered the planter, cabnly. 
 
 He had scarcely spoken, when making a feint to press forward on his 
 enemy, he as quickly disengaged his rapier, and fell back three paces ; and 
 this movement he executed so speedily, that he recovered, rushed forward, 
 and plunged his weapon between the neck and shoulder bone of his antago- 
 nist before the latter, half taken by surprise at the unexpectedness of the 
 coup, had had time to guess his intention. 
 
 Hastily withdrawing his sword, and retreating two steps, Somers ex- 
 claimed 
 
 ' I have returned your thrust; now for your punishment." 
 
 A stinging pain, for the planter's weapon had graced the bone, caused an 
 involuntary -groan on the part of Winter ; and throwing himself forward to 
 meet him. he rejoined: 
 
 " That you will not, rebel : for I, too, have a promise to fulfil." 
 
 They threw themselves at each other with a fierceness which threatened 
 to bring the protracted combat to a speedy close. In mutually lunging and 
 parrying, so close were they together, that their rapiers met at their handles, 
 and their hands came in contact for the first time. In another instant they 
 were wrapt in a struggle to disarm one another of-their weapons. 
 
 " They shall be mine,'' cried Winter, tauntingly ; " and I shall at length be 
 enabled to keep my promise to kill you 1" 
 
 "It is not your destiny," returned the planter, quietly, while he called up 
 
 13
 
 98 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 all his strength to wrench the rapiers from the other's grasp. " You are a 
 man of evil, and never keep your promise." 
 
 " And you " said Jhe other sneeringly. 
 
 "As for me," resumed the planter, in a calm, but firm voice, "I have pro- 
 mised to punish you, and God will furnish me with the means to make good 
 my word, which is with me a matter of conscience." 
 
 The tory laughed, satirically, in reply ; and then bent all his energies to the 
 task of wresting away the weapons and laying his antagonist defenceless. 
 
 In the struggle, not only their hands, but their breasts, thighs and knees 
 came in fierce collision. About evenly matched in strength, this close con- 
 test threatened to last as long as did the hot but skilful passage with their 
 blades. 
 
 At length, the tory, getting his adversary, by a turn in the struggle, with 
 his back to the side of the road, which rose slantingly upward, tried to work 
 him, by pressing his knees against those of the planter, backward till he 
 should strike against the rising earth, when it was his design to fall upon him, 
 and, in the suddenness of the movement, wrench away the weapons, and then 
 stab him to the heart. 
 
 Somers, however, having during the struggle, taken a hasty survey of the 
 field around him, at once comprehended the tory's plan, and quietly deter- 
 mined to cateh him in his own trap. He accordingly allowed himself to be 
 pressed backward, till he was within, as he thought, about three feet of the 
 rising slope, when, wheeling quickly around, he threw himself with all his 
 weight upon his adversary, who, perceiving too late to save himself the 
 object of the planter, lost his balance, and fell back, his wounded shoulder 
 striking against the rough, stony soil, and causing him to utter at the same 
 ime a mingled yell of disappointment and pain. 
 
 Following up the advantage he had thus gained, the planter, with every 
 sense alive, grasped the contested weapons firmly by their handles, and giv- 
 ing them a quick and violent wrench, at the same time bending his body and 
 throwing himself backward, in another instant stood erect with the rapiers 
 grasped firmly in his right hand. 
 
 " They are mine at last, you see," he observed, in the same calm voice 
 which he had used from the commencement of the combat. " Now what 
 hinders me from keeping my promise to punish you ?" 
 
 "Do it!'' returned the tory, rising, and folding his arms, sulkily. 
 
 " Confess," said the planter, with an air of solemn grandeur natural to him 
 on occasions of importance, " that your conduct towards my sister, who now 
 sleeps in the grave your falsehood dug for her, was base, brutal and un- 
 manly !" 
 
 "Never!" returned Winter, with a coarse laugh, while his features, for all 
 he could do, rose up in judgment against him in the shape of a confused 
 blush. 
 
 " Confess it," repeated the planter, solemnly, " for the sake of humanity !" 
 
 A brutal laugh was the only rejoinder to this appeal. 
 
 " Confess," said the planter, in the same solemn tone, " that your conduct 
 towards me since my sister's death, has been the offspring rather of a hasty 
 head than of a wilfully wrong heart. Say it, in the name of humanity!" 
 
 A sardonic smile alone was the only response. 
 
 " Confess," continued the planter, " that this attempted assassination of one 
 who had never, from his birth hour until now, wilfully injured you or 
 any of yours, either by word or act. was the emanation of a hasty and un- 
 generous thought, and not the offspring of a black, premeditated, long-pon- 
 dered plan. Say it, in the name of humanity !" 
 
 "Never!" was the brief reply. 
 
 The brow of the planter grew dark, and a mournful shade settled over his 
 features.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 99 
 
 " You force me to it, then," he said, in a hollow voice ; "you force me to 
 it You will not let me, however much I help you by struggling with my- 
 self against the desire, avoid the pain it gives me to lay hands upon you as a 
 man takes hold of and punishes a brute whose crimes have cut him off from 
 all ties with humanity ! Be it on your own head, then, for 'tis you who force 
 me to it I" 
 
 As he spoke, he. to the amazement of Winter, who knew not what to 
 make of it, threw the rapiers from him ; then stretching out his left arm, 
 seized the tory by the neckcloth", which he gave a sudden twist, dexterously 
 tripped him from off his feet, dealing him at the same time a stunning blow 
 with his fist on his left temple, which, while it all but deprived him of con- 
 sciousness, laid him sprawling upon the earth. 
 
 " Now," said the planter, pressing his knees upon the breast of the pros- 
 trate wretch, "ere I proceed to brand you ere T do that which will make 
 all men shun you ere I put upon you a mark which will ostracise* you from 
 society, and compel you to choose between herding with men of evil habits 
 and isolating yourself from the world forever, I demand of you again an ac- 
 knowledgement of your guilt as the seducer and murderer of my sister !" 
 
 The tory nnable to comprehend the character of the punishment alluded to, 
 instinctively fearing death, now that he found himself so close upon its mar- 
 gin, and reading in the calm but earnest eyes of his conqueror that his fate 
 hung upon a thread, which a single moment's delay might snap and thus pre- 
 cipitate him into the dark confines of eternity, he determined to release him- 
 self from his precarious and considering his wound, exceedingly painful posi- 
 tion, by a show of repentance, and, as he considered it, a trifling lie. Jn ac- 
 cordance with this resolve, he motioned the planter to relax in a measure his 
 hold upon his neckcloth, and signing to him to remove his knees from off his 
 chest, muttered slowly: 
 
 "I acknowledge the crime. Are you satisfied now F 
 
 " Not yet," said Somers. " Do you admit yourself an assassin, a liar, a 
 hypocrite, and a villain ? Answer 1" 
 
 " If it will suit you yes!" replied the tory. 
 
 "Enough!" said the planter, observing him silently for a few moments, 
 and then releasing him with a shudder of disgust "You are even baser than 
 I thought you : for you admit your brutal treacheries without a blush ! Rise 
 I give you back your life. You are unworthy of an honest man's notice !" 
 
 "I may go now ?" asked the tory, with an assumed air of humility, as he 
 crept slowly to his feet. t 
 
 " Yes," answered the planter, scornfully. ' ; And beware how you again 
 cross my path !" 
 
 " I can have my sword, I suppose?" added Winter, without lifting his 
 eyes from the ground. 
 
 "Who hinders you from taking it?" returned the planter, with an expres- 
 sion of deep loathing. " Think you I would pollute my fingers with its 
 touch r 
 
 The , ory made no reply ; with eyes downcast, to conceal a peculiar light 
 which flittered in their pupils, he slowly approached the two rapiers, closely 
 followed by Somers, and picking them up, examined for a moment their blood- 
 stained points ; then looking up and perceiving that the planter was regard- 
 ing him attentively, he blushed slightly, and with a motion not devoid of 
 a certain degree of grace, presented him his weapon, remarking 
 
 " There are situations, brought about perhaps by himself, when man pre- 
 sents to the view of his fellow man the dark side only of his nature. Let as 
 hope that the hour may come when I shall present to the eye of my conquer- 
 or the better side of mine !" 
 
 " No man, Mr. Winter, will pray more earnestly for the speedy coming of 
 that hour than I," said Somers, turning away,to mount bis horse. " Adieu 1"
 
 100 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 As he turned his back upon the tory, the countenance of the latter assum- 
 ed an expression of fiendish triumph. 
 
 "That hour shall be now!" he murmured exultmgly, "and the bright side 
 fce my revenge !" 
 
 And, with a light step he sprang forward, and with a movement quick as 
 light plunged his rapier through the planter's back. Fortunately for the lat- 
 ter he detected the tory's shadow on the sunny ground as he advanced upon 
 him, and sprang aside in time to prevent the blade from touching his spine, 
 but not speedily enough to save his side from being grazed as the steel passed 
 through his coat 
 
 Incensed at the treacherous act, he wheeled upon his heel to face its cow- 
 ardly author. 
 
 " This is the second time !" he exclaimed. " 'Twere a crime to longer show 
 you mercy!" 
 
 " Let him who asks it, lose it !" returned Winter, with a brazen laugh, as 
 their weapons crossed. " As for me I have a strong desire to keep my word 
 a matter of conscience as you call it ! It is my intention to show you, in- 
 solent rebel, the shortest road to the grave!" 
 
 "See that you keep it; I warn you it is necessary!" returned the planter, 
 parrying a lunge made at his breast, and returning it with a success which 
 tipped his rapier anew with blood. " As for me, I will not kill you, but I 
 shall leave a mark upon your forehead that will cause you to be shunned like 
 a second Cain !" 
 
 "Braggarts talk, men perform!" said Winter, tauntingly. 
 
 " I have drawn blood on your left breast, I shall now draw it on the right,' 
 returned the planter. " Is that merely boasting or performing?" 
 
 "Boasting, of course," sneered Winter, as he touched his adversary slight- 
 ly in the shoulder. 
 
 "No, it is performing," observed the latter, " for see," and he lunged sue* 
 cessfully, " I have kept my word !" 
 
 And a red stain upon Winter's right breast, the twin companion of another 
 on his left, as the planter drew back his rapier, attested the truth of his re- 
 mark. 
 
 " Bravo ! That was well done !" cried the tory, with a forced laugh, as his 
 features became set and livid through passion at his adversary's success, and 
 fear that he himself should, after all, be baffled in his thirst for revenge. " It 
 -was capital," he added, with a fierce, fiendish smile, " but not so good as 
 this!" 
 
 And throwing all his strength, which he felt was fast failing him, into his 
 wrist, and summoning every muscle into play, he made a few feint passes, 
 for the purpose of entangling the weapon of his adversary, when, by a strong 
 and hasty turning of his own blade, he succeeded in twisting that of the 
 planter out of his hand, and sending it whirlingly through the air for a dis- 
 tance of nearly twenty yards. 
 
 " Now," he cried, with an exultant smile, " now, rebel ! I have you at my 
 mercy. Now, I shall at once gratify my -hatred and redeem my promise. 
 Now, I shall show you my bright side, in triumph. Now, I shall plant my 
 rapier in your heart, and my foot upon your body!" 
 
 " Come on, then, and try it !" responded the planter, throwing himself 
 into an attitude of defence. " I have no sword, but I have hands ; and 
 armed, or unarmed, I shall yet brand you as a drover brands his cattle !" 
 
 "Curse you this for your insolence 1" cried Winter, rushing forward and 
 aiming for his breast. 
 
 Somers slipped aside, and throwing out his hand, caught the tory by the 
 wrist In an instant they were wrapped in a fierce struggle, each using his 
 best efforts to throw the other off his balance, but with about equal success. 
 'Winter, however, conscious that his strength' was not sufficient for a pro-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY SIEN. 101 
 
 tracted struggle, determined to make the most use of the little he had left. 
 Bringing up his knee, therefore, with a sudden movement, he planted it with, 
 what force he could command, in the abdomen of his adversary, and followed 
 this, a moment later, by tripping up his heels. In another instant, Somers, 
 pale and speechless with agony, lay prostrate in the sun. 
 
 " Did I not say it?" cried the tory, with an expression of fiendish triumph, 
 as he stood, with uplifted weapon over him. " Confess, now, in your turn, 
 that you are an insolent and ambitious rebel confess it," he added, with a 
 smile of mockery, 'for the sake of humanity !'" 
 
 The planter, despite his frightful agony, calmed his features and returned- 
 his enemy a look of bold defiance. 
 
 " Ha ! haughty rebel," resumed Winter, with a malignant smile, " you dare 
 me to proceed ? And yet my foot is, as I promised, on your breast. Con- 
 fess that in this, at least, I have kept my word. Say it, ' for the cause of 
 humanity !' " 
 
 " Do your worst, assassin !" rejoined the planter, calmly. 
 
 " I will!" responded Winter, with a countenance distorted by savage, un 1 - 
 relenting hatred. " It will be the fulfilment of my last promise to kill you. 
 Look ! I am now about to pierce your rebel heart to write ' craven' upon 
 your brow, as I did ' harlot' on your sister's. Listen, Neil Somers, to what 
 I am about to tell you , it will make your last sigh as horrible as I would 
 have it ; it will make your very bones rattle in your coffin ! Do you hear ?" 
 
 " I hear," observed Somers, calmly. 
 
 " Listen, then. With the blow I am now about to give you, I shall make 
 your mother childless ! Do you hear ?'' 
 
 " I hear," said Somers, with an involuntary shudder, as he thought of his 
 beloved parent 
 
 " Nay, more," continued the tory, with a frightful smile, " she shall be with' 
 you to-night. Do you hear ? To-night, the walls that shelter her shall be 
 fired, to-night, the red flame shall consume and usher her timid soul into 
 that eternity in which I am now about to plunge her son 1" 
 
 At this terrible intelligence, the planter's heart for the first time grew 
 faint, and a cold shudder passed over his frame. 
 
 " Do you hear ?" demanded Winter, " 'tis I who tell you this 'tis I who 
 shall lead the band 'tis I who shall give the order, first for her ravishment,, 
 then for her destruction. Ha ! do you tremble have I at last appalled your 
 proud soul ; have I, at length, made your haughty heart quiver ; have I given 
 you a foretaste of the hell to which you are now going ? Ha ! ha ! this, this : 
 is indeed joy. This, this pays me for the undying hatred I have carried 
 about me for many a long day ! I would not exchange it for the Indies. 
 Now, Somers ! do you hear now, for the crowning stroke. Now I am. 
 about to kill you, as I promised !" 
 
 And throwing back his arm, for the purpose of giving greater force to his 
 blow, he was 'in the act of again bringing it forward, when he suddenly felt 
 it grasped from behind as by a vice ; a moment later, a crunching sound 
 broke the stilhiess of the air ; the rapier fell from his hand, and uttering a 
 shrill, piercing scream, which awoke the echoes of the neighboring woods 
 and hills, the tory tottered four or five paces from his prostrate adversary, 
 and dropped, pale, ghastly, wild and quivering, upon the road. 
 
 The planter was saved !
 
 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 As that wild, alarming cry broke on the air, Somers, who had giveu up all 
 for lost, and resigned himself to the fate which apparently awaited him, opened 
 his eyes, which had been shudderingly closed to shut out the frightful picture 
 of his parent's woes, as conjured up by his unscrupulous and exultant enemy, 
 and looking up he perceived Winter staggering from his body, and a moment 
 or two later, falling, from the effects of a frightful wound on hia right arm, 
 which now hung bleeding and powerless at his side. 
 
 Relieved from the tory's weight upon his person, Somers at once compre- 
 hended that he was saved by the timely interposition of some unknowa 
 friend, and sprang to his feet to return thanks to his deliverer. 
 
 As he rose, he encountered a face familiar to him as hia own ; and thia face 
 belonged to a head which was bowing before him with all the grace and po- 
 liteness of an exquisite, as much as to say " Happy to see you sir, ; how do 
 you find yourself now ?" Attached to this head were two large, black spark- 
 ling eyes, which said as plainly as two such eyes could say " I did that pretty 
 well, and in the very nick of time, too, sir didn't I?" 
 
 The reader has already guessed it ; the planter's timely preserver waa his 
 brave and faithful swamp steed the matchless Arrow \ 
 
 As he recognized the person of his deliverer, Somers, glancing first at the 
 gallant animal, whose smiling lips and teeth were red with blood, and then at 
 the pale, quivering, prostrate Winter, comprehended the whole in an instant. 
 
 The swamp steed, having watched with interest the progress of the com- 
 bat, and seeing how matters were going towards the close, had quietly moved 
 up behind the tory as that worthy stood upon the breast of his master, and as 
 he threw back his elbow to give greater force to his blow, caught his arm be- 
 tween his lips, and buried his teeth in the bone. 
 
 "My brave Arrow!" exclaimed the planter, throwing himself caressingly 
 upon the neck of the intelligent animal, " you, then, are my preserver. Ah ! 
 what do I not owe you?" 
 
 Arrow turned his head and placing it fondly over the planter's shoulder, 
 appeared to say, " Pray don't mention it, my good fellow. Such things are 
 nothing among friends !" 
 
 " I shall never be able to repay you, my brave Arrow," said Somers, pat- 
 ting him affectionately, ." never !" 
 
 The gallant animal winked his left eye humorously, as much as to say, 
 " None of your gammon, sir. I have not done anything more than my duty. 
 You'd have done the same for me ; and so we're quits." 
 
 " You are the prince of good steeds," said the planter caressingly, conscious 
 that he was understood. "We'll part only with life." 
 
 Arrow licked his lips, arched his neck, pawed the air with his fore foot, and 
 wagged his tail very conceitedly, and appeared to ask with all the coolness in 
 the world, " Cream colored Nell couldn't have carried herself better than this 
 young gentleman, I presume !" 
 
 "You are matchless, Arrow, aye, priceless," observed the planter, fondly. 
 " But let us look at our enemy," he added, turning toward the prostrate tory, 
 who, although suffering the most frightful agony, was yet conscious, and glar- 
 ing up at the object of his hatred with an expression of fiendish malice. 
 
 " Pray, how do you find yourself, sir ?" asked Somers, advancing towards 
 him, with an air of genuine solicitude. " We are enemies, but I would not 
 be so unchristian or ungentlemanly as not to offer you assistance in a situation 
 so full of suffering as yours !" 
 
 " Go !'' returned Winter, whose physical agony gave to his voice a tone of 
 extraordinary harshness. " I would not look upon you I"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN 103 
 
 "3ut you are dying I" observed the planter, generously. "Permit me, at 
 least, to lift you out of reach of the scorching sun, lay you in the shade, and 
 ran for help !" 
 
 "Go!" repeated Winter, untouched even by this noble offer. "I would 
 owe nothing to you! You have not branded me, as you promised!" he 
 added exultantly. 
 
 "No," answered Soiners, ingenuously. "God has, in His mercy, post- 
 poned that unpleasant task. Should you die, your death will render it un- 
 necessary ; should you live, your destiny will yet force it upon me I Adieu ! 
 I will send some one tp look after you !" 
 
 "Stay!" gasped Winter, with a look of intense hatred. 
 
 " What would you ?" said the planter, calmly. 
 
 " Let this meeting between us, be remembered only by ourselves." 
 
 " Wherefore ?" demanded the planter. 
 
 "I wish it," returned the tory, who spoke with great difficulty. '' Some- 
 thing tells me I am not dying; that I shall become unconscious, but that I shall 
 yet live, and be enabled at a future day to resume this combat, which I regard 
 as not ended, but simply interrupted, and postponed. Promise me this I" 
 
 " Why should I promise it?" asked the planter, marveling at such endur- 
 ing hatred, and amazed at such unflinching courage in the midst of so much 
 physical anguish. 
 
 " Because, 1 ' returned the wounded tory, with an unfaltering eye, which 
 glittered like that of a basilisk, " this is not my dying hour ; because I do 
 not wish it known ; because I shall be silent to all in regard to it ; because 
 draw nearer to me, my strength and consciousness are giving out because, 
 in my last hour, or yours, it matters not which, I have a secret to whisper 
 in your ear : the secret key to my fixed and undying hate I" 
 
 The planter regarded him thoughtfully for a few moments. At length he 
 said 
 
 " I promise it, on one condition !" 
 
 "Name it!'' said Winter, eagerly. 
 
 "That you abandon, from this hour and forever, all attempts upon my 
 mother and her house, confining your hatred exclusively to my person and 
 my life !'' 
 
 "I agree." said the tory. 
 
 "Can I depend upon you !'' 
 
 :< I have given you my word in solemn hatred," returned Winter, with a 
 cold, settled glance ; " and you can rely upon it as firmly as upon your G-od I" 
 
 "Adieu, then. Shall I send you help ?" 
 
 "No," answered the tory; "it is unnecessary. I hear the sound of ap- 
 proaching footsteps, and shall be cared for. Take yourself off quickly, or 
 you will be seen. Eemember, I have your promise !" 
 
 " I shall not forget," returned the planter, picking up his rapior and mount- 
 ing his horse. " For the last time, Adieu !" 
 
 Touching Arrow in the flanks, the planter rode off in the direction of 
 Kin gs tree. 
 
 Winter's glaring eyes followed him till he disappeared at a bend in the 
 road. 
 
 " Go," he muttered, "and bear with you the maledictions of a disappoint- 
 ed man. But carry not with you the fancy that your triumph is eternal I 
 shall yet live, yet bend your brow to a level with mine, yet make your 
 proud heart shed tears aye, tears of blood !" 
 
 He paused awhile. The agony of his wounded arm, on which the blazing 
 STin poured its penetrating fire, was intense. 
 
 "Oh!" he murmured, striving to master the pain, "this is frightful It 
 will drive me mad, and madness will cheat me of my revenge ! No," he 
 added, with a heroic eSbrt of his will, " my coward body shall not triumph.
 
 104 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DATS 
 
 I shall not yield to suffering. Death, rather than that death. I must have 
 ft IiOT'R'haveit revenge! before I die. Oh! this cursed sun it is broil- 
 ing me !" 
 
 He paused again. His wounds, instead of declining, increased in virulence. 
 To add to his misery, his blood was quietly oozing away from the three small 
 incisions made by the planter's rapier. It was evident, taking these facts into 
 consideration, that he could act possibly hold out much longer. 
 
 As this conviction flashed across him, he became terrified. 
 
 "Oh!" he cried, mournfully, as if addressing the arbiter of his destifty, 
 " save me for a time for a time only. Let me not die till I have breathed 
 into his ear the word my dying mother whispered into mine." 
 
 The fierce streams of the burning sun upon his wound continued, and his 
 anguish was indescribable. As if to increase it still deeper, the fact uprose 
 before him that his physical torture was slowly but surely climbing to his 
 brain, taking possession of one after another of his faculties, and wrapping 
 them in darkness. 
 
 "Oh, G-od!" he murmured, 'beseechingly, "let not that fall on me. Permit 
 me to retain my senses, and do with my bodyas you wifl. I have a mission 
 to perform, an oath to fulfil. Spare, G-od ! spare to me my reason !" 
 
 Notwithstanding this appeal, his sufferings continued to increase till they 
 became appalling. 
 
 " Great G-od ! great G-od !" he cried, with a piercing, piteous wail, " spare 
 me, spare me. It is soul as well as body you are consuming ! Ah ! my 
 God my God !" 
 
 This exclamation was caused by a fresh and more violent sensation than 
 any that had yet afflicted him. It was as if a red hot iron had been laid sud- 
 denly upon his tenderest part The shock was so exquisite that he sprang 
 to his feet and capered about upon the road like a figure charged with quick- 
 slver. 
 
 At the same instant, he uttered a wild, quick laugh, and a pale glittering 
 light gleamed from his eyes which now coruscated in their distended sockets 
 like torches dancing in caves of gloom. 
 
 "Ha! ha! ha!" he yelled, with a savage glare, and pointing to a some- 
 thing which his fancy had raised before him, " they have put out the lights. 
 All is darkness. Ha! ha! ha!" 
 
 And throwing up his hand as if to ward off a stroke from an invisible ene- 
 my, he staggered a few paces ; then reeling, like one blinded by a rude, fierce 
 blow, he sank back, outstretched, upon the road. 
 
 His fears were at length realized. Light had vanished from his brain, and 
 darkness stolen in. 
 
 maniac. 
 
 _ At this stage, an elderly gentleman, on his way to Kingstree, whose atten- 
 tion was arrested by the young man's singular movements, advanced rapidly 
 from the side of the road ; dropping on one knee beside the body, he survey- 
 ed it for a few moments with a mingled expression of astonishment and dis- 
 tress ; thea clasping his hands, which trembled with emotion, he exclaimed, 
 while a shade of agony passed over his features 
 " Richard, Richard ! is it thus I find you!" 
 It was the tory's father. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ^ DATS passed by into weeks, and Richard Winter's mental alienation con- 
 tinued ; weeks sped on into months, and his malady was apparently incura-
 
 OP MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 105 
 
 We ; months rolled away into years, and at length his physician pronounced 
 him wholly recovered, and he left his chamber. . 
 
 " How long have I been thus ?" was his first question. 
 
 " Four years," was the reply of his attendant. 
 
 Richard Winter could scarcely credit this intelligence. From the moment 
 of his insensibility to that of his return to sanity was to him a dead blank. 
 He remembered distinctly every detail of his combat with the planter, but 
 nothing beyond it. And four years had glided by since then ! He could not 
 realize it. It was like a dream. Four years ! What might not have hap- 
 pened in that time ! 
 
 At the earliest practical moment he hurried to Kingstree, and made his 
 way to " the Palmetto," the resort of the wealthier young men of both par- 
 ties. On the occasion of his visit, however, there were but two or three per- 
 sons present ; but these were of the first families of the neighborhood. 
 
 Winter's appearance, after so long an absence, created a sensation. The 
 young men received him warmly, and one of them, the son of a wealthy 
 planter, complimented him with the remark, 
 
 " Now that you are on hand, we shall have jolly times once more ! For 
 raising the devil, you were always the leading spirit !" 
 
 Winter received this equivocal compliment with a quiet shrug, and after 
 satisfying the curiosity of each of the parties present relative to his health, 
 he seated himself at a table, and popularized his advent by ordering wine for 
 the company. 
 
 " Now, Clark," he said, when the noise and bustle attendant upon this 
 movement had somewhat subsided, " tell me the news." 
 
 " The British are again at Charleston," returned the young man thus ad- 
 dressed. 
 
 " Yes," said Richard Winter, querulously, " as prisoners ? The rebels al- 
 ways carry matters with a high hand !" 
 
 " No," said the other, laughingly. " The boot is on the other leg." 
 %" What do you mean ?" demanded Winter, while a peculiar light danced in 
 his threatening eyes. 
 
 " What I have said. The rebels' day is over. The king holds his own 
 qnce more in Carolina." 
 
 "Are you sure of that?" 
 
 " Quite," returned the other. " If you doubt it, ask Sprague, here. His 
 father is a lawyer, and likely to know all about it." 
 
 " It does appear to be so," said the individual thus referred to, in answer to 
 Winter's inquiring look. 
 
 Sprague was a young man of about twenty-five or eight, with a pale face, 
 and calm, thoughtful eyes. He sat behiad the table, in such a position as to 
 command a full view of the bar room and all that it contained. His general 
 appearance was manly and prepossessing. 
 
 " When did this take place ?" asked Richard Winter. 
 
 " Oh, months ago," replied Clark. " The vagabonds of the revolutionary 
 party have been very quiet ever since." 
 
 Sprague raised his eyes and calmly surveyed the speaker as he uttered 
 these words ; and a careful observer would have noticed a slight and almost 
 imperceptible curl playing upon his admirably chiseled lip. 
 
 '' How was it," continued Winter, ;< that the rebels were deprived of Char- 
 leston ?" 
 
 " Oh, very simply," returned Clark, with a quiet smile. " They were starved 
 out of it." 
 
 " They were regularly besieged, then ?" 
 
 " Certainly. To do them justice, however, two thousand of them contested 
 tte matter bravely for six weeks with ten thousand of the royal troops under 
 Sir Henry Clinton." 
 
 14
 
 |06 THB SWAMP 8TBBD j OR THE DAYS 
 
 " Two thousand against ten thousand," said Richard Winter, with an air 
 of astonishment. " And yet allow the siege to linger for six weeks ! With 
 fach odds in his favor, Sir Henry should have ended it in two hours. But 
 six weeks ! I never heard of such a thing ! Did he show fight at all ?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," answered the other. "He did what he could in that way. 
 But it didn't amount to much." 
 
 " I should imagine not," said Winter, satirically. " And so, after all, with 
 such astonishing odds on his side, he trusted to starving the rebels into sub- 
 mission, in preference to fighting them !" 
 
 " Exactly," returned Clark. 
 
 " He did not evince much anxiety for his laurels !" remarked Winter, con- 
 temptuously. 
 
 " Not a great deal," said Clark, laughingly. " Aa it was, the siege would 
 have lasted there is no telling how long, had not two very important things 
 turned up at the end of that time." 
 
 " Indeed. What were they ?" 
 
 " In the first place the rebels got out of food ; in the next, out of ammuni- 
 tion." 
 
 " And then they surrendered ?" 
 
 " Exactly. Men can't fight very long, when famine is at their heels, and 
 powder out of reach." 
 
 " True. What were the terms of capitulation ?" 
 
 " Rather liberal, considering everything. He took possession of the city, 
 and allowed the rebels to return to their private affairs on condition of their 
 dropping their arms." 
 
 " Sir Henry Clinton, then, is quartered at Charleston ?" asked Winter. 
 
 " No. He left some time since for the North. He has been succeeded by 
 Lord Cornwallis." 
 
 " What sort of a man is he ?" 
 
 "One of the right sort," returned Clark, laughingly; "just the fellow to 
 teach the rebels a lesson. His motto is that short accounts make Ion* 
 friends." 
 
 " He is, like his predecessor, lenient?" 
 
 "Not at all," replied Clark, with a quiet smile. " The very reverse." 
 
 The eyes of Richard Winter sparkled. 
 
 " So soon," resumed Clark, "as he assumed the reins of power, he arrested 
 the leading rebels, and such of them as he didn't hang or shoot, he threw into 
 prison, where they shortly after found a release from all of their inquietudes." 
 ' He starved them ?" said Winter, inquiringly. 
 
 "He /" returned Clark, with a shrug of affected astonishment. " Oh, no. 
 The jailors forgot occasionally to supply the poor devils with food !'" 
 
 ' I comprehend," observed Winter, significantly. 
 
 The eyes of Sprague flashed at this recital, and the muscles around his 
 mouth twitched spasmodically. Butf it was not noticed by his companions, 
 and in a few moments these signs of irritation passed quietly away. 
 
 " Are you familiar," asked Richard Winter, with an ah- of anxiety, " with 
 tiie names of those whom he executed?" 
 
 " Yes. They were published." And he mentioned several, unknown to 
 the other, winding up with 1 ' That is all, I believe !" 
 
 Winter felt and looked disappointed. 
 
 " Are you sure you have mentioned all of them ?" he asked. 
 
 " Quite," replied Clark. " At least that is all I can call to mind. But per- 
 haps Sprague is aware of some that I have forgotten ?" 
 
 " No," returned Sprague, calmly shaking his head, in reply to their in- 
 quiring looks. " You have mentioned them all." 
 
 "There were others," said Richard Winter, coloring slightly, "sufficiently 
 treasonable to have been included in the list. Marion, for example. Yoa
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MKRRY MKN. 
 
 are, of course, aware of his doings at Fort Sullivan. Then there was that 
 insolent, beggarly rebel, Neil Somers, and his old chum, Nat Akerman, the 
 scalp hunter ; together with that young dare-devil who made himself so con- 
 spicuous in the midst of the battle, by rescuing the colors which had fallen 
 over the ramparts and nailing them to the flag staff. It appears to me that 
 Cornwallis has committed a great mistake in not arresting these men. They 
 were the most daring rascals in the province. Were it not for them, the 
 rebels, whom they influence both by their inflammatory language and their 
 pernicious example, would long ago have abandoned their insane attempts to 
 upset the government of the king." 
 
 A careful observer might have discovered a slight quivering of the lip in 
 Sprague at these remarks. 
 
 " You forget one very important item in connection with that observa- 
 tion," said Clark, quietly. 
 ( "Ah! What, is that?" 
 
 " This. Before you hang men, it is first necessary to catch them." 
 
 " Very true," said Richard Winter, coloring to the temples. " Cornwallis, 
 then, has not been able to capture them ?" 
 
 " Not yet. One of them, however, had received his quietus previous to 
 the taking of Charleston." 
 
 " Indeed ! His name ?" demanded Winter, eagerly. 
 
 " Jasper." 
 
 " Ah ! Where did he fall ?" asked Winter, with an air of disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 " At the siege of Savannah. As to the others, they will doubtless be 
 taken sooner or later." 
 
 " Why do you think so?" 
 
 " Cornwallis has set a price upon their heads. That is sure to land out- 
 laws as quick as anything !" 
 
 Winter's eyes sparkled at this intelligence. 
 
 ." Where are they now ?" he asked. 
 
 " In the swamps, or the mountains there is no telling which." 
 
 " They are together, then ?" 
 
 " Certainly. Marion is now a general, and Somers and the scalp hunter 
 his leading oflicers. They are very harrassing and troublesome, and with their 
 little band give Cornwallis so much mortification and annoyance that he 
 swears like a trooper." 
 
 " Why don't he send out a party to take ihem?" 
 
 " He has fifty at least." 
 
 " With what success?" 
 
 " None ; or rather, the worst. Marion is too crafty to be caught napping. 
 He is here to-day; to-morrow he is thirty miles off; the day after, he is the 
 Lord knows where !" 
 
 " What! Is there no coming up with him ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, that sometimes occurs. When the party in pursuit is not more 
 than five to one, he '11 stand and fight. When the odds exceed that number, 
 he prefers retreat to an exposure of his men." 
 - " But surely he could be followed?" 
 
 "Certainly, that could be done, as it is sometimes. But then there's 
 the risk. 
 
 " What risk ?" 
 
 " The risk of not getting back again!" 
 
 " I do not understand you !" said Richard Winter. " It appears to me 
 that soldiers should never recognize such a word as ' danger !' " 
 
 "It appears they do, occasionally, notwithstanding; particularly, when on 
 the track of Marion and his men."
 
 108 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE 
 
 " Will you oblige me with an explanation, Mr. Clark ?" said Winter, some- 
 what nettled. 
 
 " Certainly/' returned the other, in his usual quiet way. " When Marion 
 retreats, he generally does so into swamps, where he knows every inch of 
 ground ; and once in them, he plants himself and men where the devil him- 
 self couldn't find them ; and thus concealed, they blaze away at their pur- 
 suers, whom they riddle to pieces, while they are looking about to see where 
 to fire. Of the fifty different parties sent out to take the ' Swamp Fox,' as 
 Cornwallis has facetiously christened Marion, twenty returned without hav- 
 ing obtained a sight of him, fifteen did not return at all, and the remainder, 
 though outnumbering him seven to one, remembered the fate of their prede- 
 cessors, and thought it best to decline following him into the swamps, from 
 whence it was pretty evident he would not permit them to return." 
 
 This intelligence was far from gratifying to Winter. He was still as bent 
 as ever upon the destruction of the planter, and the connexion of that per- 
 sonage with such a man as Marion, whose thorough familiarity with wood, 
 swamp and mountain fighting, set at naught tht best efforts of the royalists, 
 disturbed him. But another thought now flashed across him. 
 
 " How about the property of these knaves ?" said he, querulously. 
 
 " Oh, that is confiscated," answered Clark "Cornwallis made that one of 
 his first moves." 
 
 Richard Winter's features shone resplendent with savage joy at this 
 reply. 
 
 "Has the law in that respect been carried into effect?" he asked with 
 great eagerness. 
 
 " Oh, yes, long ago." 
 
 " Then that insolent orator, that panderer to the rebellious spirit of the 
 
 Clark regarded him with surprise. 
 
 " Whom do you mean ?" he said, interrupting him. 
 
 "Neil Somers!" answered Winter, harshly. 
 
 " Oh !" returned Clark, quietly. " What of him ?" 
 
 "He, then, is beggared among the rest?" 
 
 " No /" 
 
 "No? You astonish me !" said Winter, turning pale. 
 
 " Fortunately for himself," added Clark, astonished at his vehemence, " he 
 had disposed of his plantation a long time before." 
 
 Richard Winter's countenance became, at this reply, perfectly livid. 
 
 " A trick a trick !" he exclaimed hoarsely. " Nothing but a trick !" 
 
 " Nay," returned Clark, surveying him with surprise, " the transfer is on 
 record." 
 
 " A mere trick to blind the law!'' exclaimed Richard Winter, perceiving 
 the error he had committed in exposing his hatred to the planter, and stri- 
 ving to redeem it by recovering himself. " Who was the purchaser ?" 
 
 " The widow, up the street." 
 
 "Mrs. Brunton?" 
 
 "The same !" 
 
 Richard Winter smote his brow with his clenched hand, as if he had been 
 shot. 
 
 Sprague, unnoticed, surveyed him with a look of calm contempt 
 
 "Are you sure of that?" demanded Winter. 
 
 : 'It is^so recorded," replied Clark, quietly. 
 
 " But," said Winter, vehemently, " I tell you it is a recorded lie ! I know 
 this man am familiar with his cowardly tricks, and understand his move- 
 ments. He foresaw the possibility of the lung's triumph in this contest, per- 
 ceived the danger which would follow, and to avoid it, put his property out
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 109 
 
 .of his hands. The move was a good one, but it was also a fraudulent one. 
 1 will at once unmask it !" 
 
 Sprague's brow grew for a moment slightly threatening. 
 
 ' To whom?" asked Clark, quietly. 
 
 : To Cornwallis!" 
 
 ' Cornwallis is at Charleston."- 
 
 1 1 will at once to Charleston." 
 
 ' When ?" 
 
 " This instant," returned Winter, springing from his seat. 
 
 " Don't be in too great a hurry, and I'll save you the journey," said Clark, 
 touching him gently upon the arm. "Sit down." 
 
 " What is it you have to tell me ?" demanded Winter, resuming his seat. 
 
 " Listen," said the other, quietly. " The agents of Cornwallis made the 
 same charge relative to Somers' prpperty, that you have just broached!" 
 
 Winter bit his lips till they bled. 
 
 " Well, sir, what followed ?" he said, hoarsely. 
 
 " They compelled the purchaser, Mrs. Brunton, seeing that they could not 
 find the planter himself, to swear that the sale was legitimate, that she had 
 actually given the stated consideration for it." 
 
 " And she made an affidavit of that ?" said Winter, in a hollow voice. 
 
 " She did 1" 
 
 The tory trembled with rage. A shade of disappointment passed like a 
 black cloud over his features. 
 
 " So be it !" he exclaimed, tossing off a bumper of wine. " He's worse off 
 than I thought him ; for he has doubtless used the money in the felon cause 
 in which he has engaged." 
 
 " 'Twas for that, according to the statement of the widow, he disposed of 
 .the plantation," said Clark, quietly. 
 
 "And how stands his cause, or rather the rebels', now?" demanded 
 Winter. 
 
 " Black enough. Without money, without arms, without sympathy, with- 
 out homes, they are hunted from pillar .to post like outcasts their hand 
 against everybody, everybody's hand against them. Their case is bad 
 enough." 
 
 " They shall find it still worse ! ' exclaimed Winter, fiercely. " Traitors 
 and outlaws, they shall meet with traitors' handling and with outlaws' treat- 
 ment It is every honest man's duty to aid the government in a work like 
 this, and I'll take care my share is done. I have been rusting for years 
 against my will, and I long for exercise." 
 
 " You will find plenty of that, if you join in the hunt against Marion and 
 his men," remarked Sprague, calmly. 
 
 "Perhaps you would 4ike to join in it with me ?" said Winter. 
 
 "On the contrary," returned Sprague. 
 
 " What am I to understand by that?" demanded Winter. 
 
 " That I am above -man hunting !" returned Sprague, sarcastically. " 1 leave 
 such business to those who are made for it. I am not one of them.'' 
 
 " Perhaps you think it disgraceful to serve one's country ?" returned Win- 
 ter, eyeing him fiercely. 
 
 " On the contrary," returned Sprague, " I consider it the noblest work a 
 gentleman can take up !" 
 
 " What am I to understand by that, sir ?" said Winter sternly. " That 
 what I propose to do is not serving one's country ?" 
 
 " On the contrary,' 5 answered Sprague, who was evidently a man of very 
 few words. " It is personal animosity which prompts you !" 
 
 '' You lie, sir !" retorted Winter, springing to his feet. 
 
 "On tke contrary!" returned Sprague, calmly, without stirring from his 
 seat. " The lie is on your side !"
 
 HO THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DATS 
 
 D n ! * cried Winter, " this insolence is not to be borne. Follow me, 
 
 sir!" 
 
 And placing one hand upon toe pommel of his rapier, he pointed fiercely 
 with his other to the door. 
 
 "On the contrary!" replied the imperturbable Sprague, rising, and advanc- 
 ing outside of the table. " I will not follow you !" 
 
 " You will meet me, then ?" said Winter, his eyes glittering with passion. 
 
 "On the contrary !" rejoined Sprague, with a low, mocking bow. " I have 
 a sense of self-respect which will not permit it!" 
 
 "Explain that, sir!" demanded Winter. 
 
 " If you wish it, certainly. My self-respect compels me to meet only gen- 
 tlemen!" 
 
 "'What then," demanded Richard Winter, trembling with rage, " do you 
 consider me !" 
 
 " On the contrary !" returned Sprague, 'with a derisive bow. 
 
 " Curse you !" exclaimed Richard Winter, unsheathing his rapier, ' I shall 
 chastise you !'' 
 
 " On the contrary !" repeated Sprague, wi h a contemptuous movement of 
 his lip. 
 
 " Winter Winter !" cried Clark, laying his hand upon the arm of the 
 young tory, "you are carrying matters too far. Put up your sword, man!" 
 
 "Never!" cried the young man, struggling to throw him off. "Stand 
 aside. Do you think I am a craven to tamely submit to insolence like that !" 
 
 " But hear me " 
 
 " Stand aside, I say. No man shall give me the lie, and live !" 
 
 " You gave it to him first " 
 
 " Give way, I say. He shall swallow that word or die !" 
 
 " On the contrary !" calmly returned Sprague, in a tone of deliberate 
 mockery. 
 
 " Take off your hands, Clark let me at him. Take off your hands, I say !" 
 
 "Gentlemen, gentlemen!" cried Barker, the landlord, advancing with up- 
 lifted and imploring hands from behind the bar. " have some regard for the 
 character of my house. Do you wish to ruin me by your broils ?" 
 
 "Will you take off your hands, Clark?" cried Winter, menacingly. 
 
 " Mr. Winter Mr. Winter " cried the landlord appealingly, and stepping 
 between the combatants. 
 
 li Go, then, if you wish it," said Clark, releasing him with a shudder of dis- 
 gust. 
 
 " Out of the way, Barker !" cried Winter, rushing forward, roughly push- 
 ing aside the landlord, and falling on Sprague with blind impetuosity. " Take 
 that, wretch !" he cried, making a pass as he spoke, for the purpose of run- 
 ning him through. 
 
 "On the contrary," rejoined Sprague, quietly stepping aside to avoid the 
 Wow, and at the same time drawing his weapon. " I will take nothing of 
 you but your sword !" 
 
 " 'Tis one thing to say, another to do !'' cried Winter, foaming with pas- 
 sion. 
 
 " On the contrary," returned Sprague, with imperturbable calmness, as they 
 arossed weapons, " I do whatever I promise !" 
 
 Five passes, and Winter was disarmed. 
 
 The tory, baffled in his rage, ashamed of his braggadocia, rendered utterly 
 and ridiculously impotent by his defeat, turned pale with rage and despair. 
 
 " Strike !" he cried, throwing open his vest. 
 
 " That," returned Sprague, quietly, " would be taking away your blood and 
 life ; while I promised to take only your sword !" 
 
 So saying, he tendered the tory his weapon, and calmly sheathing his own, 
 resumed his seat as if nothing unusual had occurred.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MBRRT MEN. Ill 
 
 A momentary, sickening paleness, a twitching of the facial muscles, a spas- 
 modic tremor of the fingers, as he received and returned his rapier to its 
 sheath, and Richard Winter silently resumed his seat. 
 
 " Come," said Clark, who was of a frank, open nature, " let us drop these 
 matters. They don't become us, as men. Let us drown them in a bumper. 
 Wine, Barker, he added, turning to the landlord, "your best." 
 
 The host, glad to see the affair ended, bestirred himself, and three fresh 
 glasses, flanked by an equal number of wine flasks were deposited before the 
 trio. 
 
 " Pill, gentlemen, fill," cried Clark, raising his glass and glancing at his 
 companions, " and drink me this toast. Success to the king and confusion to 
 his enemies !" 
 
 His efforts to restore harmony were utterly futile. Winter drank, but it 
 was more to calm his disturbed nerves, than to the toast. As to Sprague, 
 he broke his bottle, and calmly filled his glass, but did not, for some inexpli- 
 cable reason, raise it to his lips. It might be that he was not in the humor for 
 further drinking, having previously indulged to as great an extent as was 
 habitual with him ; or perhaps the sentiment did not suit him. Whatever 
 the cause, his glass lay untouched before him, while he himself was appar- 
 ently immersed in thought 
 
 At this stage, a stranger entered the Palmetto, and nodding carelessly to 
 the trio at the table, made his way to the bar and called for refreshment. 
 
 His appearance pronounced him a traveler. And as he was proba- 
 bly from some of the troubled districts, the parties at the inn were feverish 
 with anxiety till he had emptied his glass, and thus given them an opportu- 
 nity to question him. 
 
 The stranger was a short, thick set personage ; clad in a coarse brown 
 opat, vest and breeches, gray hose and low shoes ; a low-crowned, broad- 
 rimmed hat of gray felt lay over a hard, weather-beaten brow, whose small, 
 rough features were at once expressive of strong sagacity and enduring self 
 reliance. 
 
 Having satisfied his thirst, the stranger drew a chair near the door, so as 
 to catch the air, while it at the same time enabled him to command a good 
 view of the passers-by on the steet 
 
 " Warm day, friend," said Clark, winking to his companions to allow him 
 uninterrupted play in his attempt to draw out the new comer. 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied the man, slowly, as if weighing every word. " As you 
 say, sir it is warm.'' 
 
 " Where from ?" continued Clark, pleasantly. "Down ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the new comer, in the same slow, cautious tone. " Fine 
 country up here!" 
 
 " Any news stirring down your way ?" continued Clark. 
 
 " No, sir. At least nothing new. A week or two ago, Marion made a 
 sortie upon Georgetown, but did not succed, The kingsmen were too many 
 for him. and he was compelled to draw off." Then running his eye over the 
 face of the country, as visible through the open door, he added, while tnrn- 
 ing a little on his chair, so as to face the trio at the table, "It is a fine coun- 
 try up here!" 
 
 " It is generally so considered," returned Clark. 
 
 " Much fighting down by Georgetown ?" asked the landlord. 
 
 " No, sir, answered the man slowly; "not much fighting. Some burning, 
 though, as usual." 
 
 i ' < By whom the burning?" enquired Clark. 
 
 The stranger surveyed his questioner with his small ferret-like eyes, for a 
 few moments, and then answered, cautiously : 
 
 "By both parties!" 
 
 Tt was quite plain the man was too shrewd to be entrapp.?:; ,::!o an ad-
 
 112 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 mission that might prove perilous to him. When it is remembered, that in 
 the days of which we write, it was not consistent with safety for men to re- 
 veal their political predilections to strangers, the caution displayed by the 
 new comer will be understood. 
 
 " Are the rebels numerous in that section ?" demanded Winter, speaking 
 for the first time since the finale of his/racas with Sprague, who was quietly 
 watching the features, movements and by -play of the stranger. 
 
 " That depends, sir," said the man , eyeing his interrogator closely, " on 
 what you would call numerous." 
 
 "Do they number scores, hundreds or thousands?" continued Winter. 
 
 "If I were to answer scores," said the man, slowly, ' I might be wrong 
 and I might be right. If I should say hundreds, I might be nearer right 
 than wrong!" 
 
 His auditors smiled. 
 
 " Perhaps," said Clark, " if I should tell you we were kingsmen up here, 
 you might be more at your ease!" 
 
 "Ah! sir," returned the man, scanning him closely, "you seem to doubt 
 me. You look upon me with suspicion." 
 
 " Not at all," said Clark, with an encouraging smile. " The fact is, we are 
 dying to hear the news. It is perfectly immaterial what may be ite charac- 
 ter, so long as it is news. As for us, we are royalists, as are nearly all the 
 inhabitants of this quarter ; and you may therefore color your tidings to suit 
 your auditors, without in any wise compromising yourself." 
 
 The stranger's ferret-like eyes lingered upon his questioner till he had 
 finished speaking, when slightly changing his manner, he said 
 
 " Confidence, air, begets confidence. I, too, am a kingsman, although I 
 would not like to confess it, as times go, in the presence of those who have 
 thrown up their allegiance to the king. As for me, I am on my way to 
 Charleston, with intelligence for Cornwallis. We have had a deal of trouble 
 down in Georgetown, with Marion and his men, who have taken from us 
 nearly all of our arms and ammunition, and left us nothing to defend our-* 
 selves with. We cannot hold out unless we have the means ; and it is to 
 obtain these I am now on. my way to the capitol." 
 
 " Have the rascals done much damage ?" Demanded Richard Winter. 
 
 "Ah! a deal sir, a deal!" returned the man, shaking his head, sadly. 
 " They've burned out hundreds of families and converted them into beggars. 
 The most frightful distress is raging down there, sir ; your heart would 
 break to witness it. I hope you may never be visited by them up this way 
 it is too fine a country to be laid desolate !" 
 
 This was the third tune he had complimented Kingstree and its environs 
 by the words we have italicized ; a fact, however, which none of his audi- 
 tors seemed to notice, save Sprague. The latter appeared, judging by a 
 peculiar light in his calm, thoughtful eyes, to behold in it a matter of signifi- 
 cance. Looking around and assuring himself that he was unobserved by all 
 save the stranger, he quietly raised his hand and busied himself by an ap- 
 parent examination of his nails. The new comer, on perceiving this, did the 
 same, and a quiet smile on the part of Sprague satisfied him that he was un- 
 derstood. 
 
 " Where is Marion, uow?" asked Winter. 
 
 <; I cannot say," replied the man. "But from what I understood at 
 Georgetown, I expected to find him up here. You now have the key to 
 aiy cautiousness and hesitation." 
 
 "Is he so near?" asked the landlord, in alarm. 
 
 " That was the supposition down there," said the stranger. " He Was 
 working his way in this direction." 
 
 " He will meet with a warm reception," said Winter. " I hope he may 
 some. I, for one, will extend him a welcome hand."
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MKN. 113 
 
 "You ?" said the stranger, rising in apparent alarm. " You extend 
 welcome hand ! I thought you were a kingsman !" 
 
 " Aye, sir, and you thought right," replied Winter. " I shall extend this 
 Swamp Fox a welcome hand bnt there will be a sword in it !" 
 
 The man appeared relieved at this reply, and laughingly resumed his 
 seat. 
 
 " Really, sir," he said, " I made no allowance for your wit. Excuse my 
 fright. I feared for a moment that I had got into a nest of rebels." 
 
 The company smiled. 
 
 " You talk of the Swamp Fox, sir," resumed the man, " but he has a 
 rival." 
 
 " Yes," said Clark, quietly. " You mean that other daring rebel, Sump- 
 ter, whom Tarleton christened the ' game-cock.' " 
 
 The stranger shook his head. 
 
 " No," he replied. " I mean that matchless animal which fords creeks and 
 rivers like a fish, scales mountains like a panther, darts down hills like a gray 
 wolf, dashes through swamps like a light-footed hind, slips over high roads 
 like an arrow, and flies over battle-fields like a spectre." 
 
 " You speak of Arrow, the Swamp Steed !" said Clark. " Oh, yes, we'va 
 heard of him. Who has not?' 1 
 
 " Speak for yourself, Clark," said Winter. " As to me, I know nothing of 
 this matchless steed ! Who is its owner, Marion ?" 
 
 " No, sir," said the man. " Marion would give his right hand for him, as 
 would every man in the province, if that would purchase him " 
 
 " Who is the happy owner ?" ' 
 
 " He is called Neil Somers," answered the man, slowly. 
 
 Winter bit his lip. 
 
 " You've heard of him f" said the man, eyeing the tory piercingly. 
 
 ' I've seen him," returned the latter, with an effort to recover his compo- 
 sure. 
 
 <( Lately ?" asked the man. 
 
 " No," said Winter, with something of confusion in his manner. 
 
 " Because if you had," resumed the man, " you'd have seen horse and 
 owner together. They are never apart. In fact, whenever Arrow appears 
 in sight, the planter is sure to be found upon his back." 
 
 " You seem to be pretty familiar with this planter, as you call him !" ob- 
 served Richard Winter, cynically. 
 
 " I ought to," answered the man calmly ; " I've followed him for some 
 time." 
 
 " What sir ?" demanded Winter, suspiciously. 
 
 Sprague, catching the man's eye, made him a peculiar sign. 
 
 " I have followed him for some time !" he repeated, without betraying any 
 alarm. " I am a poor man, sir, and Lord Cornwallis offers five hundred 
 pounds for his head, and Tarleton a similar amount for his horse !" 
 
 Winter eyed the man for a few moments, as if he would read his very 
 soul, and then turned away apparently satisfied of the injustice of his sus- 
 picion. 
 
 Sprague smiled, and making the stranger another sign, rose to take his 
 departure. 
 
 " When do you start for Charleston ?" he said. 
 
 " In a few minutes," returned the man. 
 
 " Would you object to earning a couple of guineas ?" 
 
 " Honestly, sir r 
 
 " Honestly," returned Sprague, haughtily. 
 
 " Of course not, providing there is no danger," said the man. 
 
 " The danger consists in the delivery of a letter to a certain young lady, 
 
 15
 
 1 14 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DATS 
 
 and the obtaining of a reply," returned Sprague, with an air of assumed con- 
 tempt. 
 
 " If that is all " 
 
 " That is all !" interrupted Sprague. 
 
 " Then, sir. I shall be happy to undertake your commission." 
 
 " Very well ; then follow me." 
 
 - Richard Winter, who during this brief colloquy had been pacing the floor 
 impatiently, now paused and fixed his eyes suspiciously upon them. 
 
 " There is more in this than meets the eye !" he murmured. " Jugglery is 
 a f 00 t I'll sift it out ; and if, as I suspect, these two men are rebels, wo unto 
 them wo !" 
 
 " Excuse me," said the man, catching the suspicious glance of Richard 
 Winter, and assuming an air of ludicrous alarm. " How do I know but this 
 is a trap ?" 
 
 "What do you mean, sirrah f returned Sprague, drawing himself up. 
 
 "I mean this, sir," said the man with well acted impudence. "Awhile 
 ago, I thought myself in the hands of good and loyal subjects of the king : 
 an accidental subsequent admission half frightened me into the belief that I 
 was in the midst of a handful of rebels, an opinion which I am still inclined 
 to retain. How know I, sir, that the statement made by one of your com- 
 panions that you are royalists be true, and that this is not a trap to lead me 
 into danger?" 
 
 ' I give you my word for it, sirrah !" returned Sprague, haughtily. 
 
 "I prefer taking your letter," retorted the man, perceiving that Winter's 
 eye was still fixed upon him, though not quite so suspiciously as before. 
 "You can bring it to me here, and I will wait for it. The reward, though 
 liberal, is not enough to induce me to trust myself in your hands." 
 
 " Do you dare, sir !" retorted Sprague, ".to insult me in this manner. I'll 
 pin your vile carcass to the floor." 
 
 "No you won't!" returned the man, falling back a step or two, plunging 
 his hand into his breast and drawing forth a moderately sized pistol which he 
 deliberately cocked. "I carry this," he added, leveling the dark tube, "to 
 defend myself. Come on, sir !" 
 
 Sprague, still keeping his eyes on the man, drew back. 
 
 " I did this man a wrong !" murmured Winter, surveying the affected hu- 
 miliation of his late antagonist with a smile of malignant joy. 
 
 ' I will answer for your safety with this gentleman," said Clark, rising. 
 
 "And who will answer for you, sir?" retorted the man sneeringly. 
 
 " That will I," said the landlord, advancing. 
 
 "Upon my word!" cried Clark, laughingly, "this is amusing. Landlord, 
 show the fellow to the door." 
 
 " Go out, sir !" said the host, who, whatever might be his own convictions 
 in the case, yet saw the policy of humoring one of his best customers. 
 
 " Who'll put me out?" demanded the man, fiercely. 
 
 " I will !" thundered Barker. 
 
 " And I," continued Clark, advancing. 
 
 "Stay!" said the man, lowering his pistol, and pointing with his jerked 
 thumb toward the door. " Here comes one who will hang ye higher than 
 yon tree upon the green, if ye dare lay hands upon a kingsman !" 
 
 The parties paused in astonishment ; for at that moment, breaking upon 
 the air, they heard distant strains of martial music. 
 
 " It is Tarleton," said the man with an air of exultation, '' on his march to 
 surprise and capture Marion, and exterminate his band." 
 
 " How know you that ?" demanded Winter, eagerly. 
 
 " A dispatch reached Georgetown to that effect, as I left, stating that he 
 was on his way !" 
 
 "Enough!" cried Winter, now thoroughly satisfied that his represents-
 
 OP MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 115 
 
 tions were correct. " I'll go and meet him. Barker," he added, turning to 
 the landlord, " a horse. Come, despatch !" 
 
 " And one for me also !" shouted Clark, as the host moved off to give the 
 order. On his return, the parties had left the inn, and were now out upon 
 the wayside, straining their eyes in the direction of the music. 
 
 The town was in a state of excitement. Hundreds were running, on 
 horseback and on foot, to the upper part of the main street, to obtain a view 
 of the soldiery as they appeared in sight upon the road. 
 
 The horses ordered were brought, and springing upon their backs, Winter 
 and his companion dashed off at full speed. 
 
 " Good!" muttered the innkeeper to himself, as he beheld the head of the 
 advancing column turning an angle, coming in full view and marching up- the 
 road leading to the town house. ' This will make a demand on my larder 
 and bar. I must go and prepare for them I" 
 
 As h ; e spoke, he turned upon his heels and hurried into the inn. 
 
 As he disappeared, Sprague, after looking around and perceiving that he 
 was not observed, turned to the self-styled messenger, and hurriedly ob- 
 served 
 
 " You did it well, Cotton ! But what news have you for me ? How is 
 Mftrion?" 
 
 The man looked round cautiously, as he replied: 
 
 " Well, sir, well. But let us not confer here." 
 
 " Follow me, then," said Sprague. And he hastily moved off and turned 
 into the Georgetown road, slowly but carefully followed by the scout. 
 
 They passed into a small wood on the wayside, and when they had ad- 
 vanced sufficiently far into its depths to ensure them against discovery, 
 Sprague began laughingly 
 
 " Cotton, my friend, you are a perfect Proteus. You not only deceived 
 Winter, and the others, but you were very near blinding me. You acted it 
 admirably ! What news from Marion ?" 
 
 " All goes well, sir," said the scout, his whole manner, now that he was 
 free from constraint, changing to an air of deep respect. " The general bade 
 me tell you, so that you might communicate it to the other friends of th 
 cause in Kingstree, that he is now encamped at Snow's Island, where he will 
 be happy to receive such assistance, in men, clothing, ammunition and pro- 
 visions, together with such intelligence relative to the movements of the en- 
 emy, as they may have it in their power to send him !" 
 
 " All right. But who is this man marching up with bis legion. Is it 
 really Tarleton ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir,-" replied the scout. 
 
 " How did you discover it?" 
 
 " Very simply," replied the man. "I was down on that road this morning 
 myself, to see my sweetheart, and as her brother is in the tory ranks, to pick 
 ap what I could of the enemy's movements. She told me Tarleton was on 
 his way to Georgetown, by order of Cornwallis, to track Marion who was 
 supposed to be in that neighborhood. While we were conversing, the sound 
 of music warned us the Englishman was approaching. In a few minutes 
 Tarleton appeared at the head of his legion, and taking leave of my sweet- 
 heart, I crossed the road, slipped through a wood, and came out by a cross 
 cut near the head of Ejngstree, thus entering the town an hour and a half in 
 advance of the Colonel." 
 
 " Then the Georgetown story was all a guy f 
 
 "Every particle of it, sir. Hark ! Tarleton is nearing the town. I must 
 be off." 
 
 " Which way ?" 
 
 " I have a letter to deliver to Miss Winter, down the road, and a service to 
 perform for myself, and then I must off to Snow's Island."
 
 I IQ THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 " A moment," said Sprague, plunging his hand into a breast pocket, and 
 drawing forth a well filled purse. " Here are two hundred guineas, which I 
 have collected from our friends for the cause. Give them to Marion, with 
 my best respects. Remember me also to my friend Somers, and tell him he 
 still has friends who love him in Kingstree." 
 
 " I will, sir," said the scout. " Farewell. Though clouded now, the sun 
 will yet shine on us and on our cause?" 
 
 " God grant it!" said Sprague, solemnly. 
 
 And they shook hands, and parted. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 WHEN alone, the scout proceeded deliberately to divest himself of his coat 
 and small clothes, which he turned, one after another, inside out, and then 
 resumed. This done, he drew from the capacious pockets of the larger gar- 
 ment a pair of dingy epaulettes, which he affixed to their proper places, and 
 then surveyed them for an instant with a quiet, mischievous glance. Then 
 renewing his search in the ample pockets, he drew forth a short, soiled 
 plume, some thick, yellow cord, a glazed stock, and, a pair of artificial whis- 
 kers. He put the plume in his hat, around the body of which he also fanci- 
 fully arranged the cord, fastened the stock to his neck, carefully drew on the 
 whiskers, buttoned the coat as high as his throat, and thus singularly trans- 
 formed, stepped lightly from the wood out upon the road. 
 
 " Many a man carries two faces in these days," murmured the scout, as he 
 strutted consequentially along, " and why should not I be permitted to car- 
 ry two coats, especially when they are like mine, in one piece ? The fact 
 is, in times like these, most men find it necessary to be a little of everything 
 at times, and nothing long. I am one of that unfortunate class. Fifteen 
 minutes ago I was a plain hard-headed looking citizen, and now I am a swag- 
 gering corporal, in the service of good King George, ready to fight or drink, 
 but vastly preferring the latter. But. soft ! What's my name ? It will never 
 do for a corporal to be without a name. Ah ! I have it. Corporal Doem ! 
 That's it, to a letter. So head up, Corporal Doem, and forward march !" 
 
 A few minutes' travel brought him to a large, neatly fenced garden, in the 
 centre of which stood a spacious, three story building, with a long deep piazza 
 whose over-arching roof served to shield its occupants from the sun, and 
 whose front was handsomely garnished by a series of fine Ionic columns. 
 
 Sitting on the piazza, engaged in reading, were two persons a gentleman 
 of about fifty, and a young lady of some two-and-twenty. 
 
 " This is the place," muttered the corporal, deliberately opening the gate 
 and passing up the gravelled walk. " I know it by the description." 
 
 With all the impudence of a genuine corporal, he calmly ascended the steps, 
 and approaching the old gentleman, raised his hand to his hat, with a mili- 
 tary salute, and, clearing his voice, began, in the rough, studied, monotonous 
 tone of a soldier 
 
 " How do you do, sir. Mr. Winter, I believe?" 
 
 " The same, sir," returned the old gentleman, raising his eyes, in half vacant 
 wonder, to his visitor. "Whom have I the honor of addressing ?" 
 
 " Corporal Doem, sir," returned the other, gruffly, "of his Britannic Majes- 
 ty's 91st. Colonel Tarleton has commissioned me to tender his best com- 
 pliments to you, sir, and to inform you that he will do himself the honor to 
 wait upon you early to-morrow morning." 
 
 An expression of astonishment passed over the old gentleman's face at thia 
 intelligence, followed an instant later by a flash of iQ concealed pride.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 117 
 
 "Colonel Tarleton!" he exclaimed, rising hastily from his seat, as if he 
 could scarcely credit the news. " Where is ne now ?" 
 
 "At the sign of the Palmetto, sir at Kingstree with your son, sir, who, 
 hearing of his approach, went out to meet him." 
 
 "Bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Winter, "this is indeed news. Take a 
 seat, sir." 
 
 " Thank you," said the corporal, " but not yours. If there were more than 
 one here, sir, I should not object. But I cannot take yours, sir." 
 
 "Poh! poh! my friend!" cried the delighted old gentleman, "don't let 
 that trouble you. There are plenty in the hall." 
 
 So saying, he hurried from the piazza. 
 
 " This is doubtless as good an opportunity as I shall have," muttered the 
 scout, fumbling in his coat pocket and drawing out a letter. Holding it up 
 before him, he hastily advanced towards Amy, and threw it into her lap. 
 
 " Quick, lady," he muttered, in a hurried whisper, " 'tis from Somers 
 hide it." 
 
 Amy regarded him for a moment with astonishment. The name of her 
 lover, however was a magic spell which restored her to self-possession. 
 Hearing her father's returning footsteps, she quietly dropped her handkerchief 
 upon the letter, and resumed her book, in the perusal of which she had been 
 interrupted by the appearance of the corporal. 
 
 Mr. Winter now returned to the piazza, followed by two servants, the one 
 bearing a small table, the other a salver on which were a mysterious black 
 bottle and two long necked glasses. 
 
 " Bravo !" muttered Cotton, on beholding these preparations, "the old gen- 
 tleman intends to do honor to Tarleton's messenger. Well, I have no objec- 
 tions." , 
 
 The table was set, an additional chair brought the servants vanished, and 
 the scout, in compliance with a motion of Mr. Winter's hand, seated himself 
 to open an engagement with the mysterious bottle. 
 
 Amy, perceiving how matters were going, rose, and quietly entering the 
 house, left the gentlemen to themselves. 
 , " Try some of my peach brandy, corporal what is it?" 
 
 " Doem !" suggested Cotton, modestly. 
 
 " Ah ; yes. Well, corporal Doem," said Mr. Winter, blandly, "oblige me 
 by tasting some of my peach brandy. It is very fine, I assure you. Made 
 under my own direction. Nay, don't be afraid, corporal," he added, seeing 
 that that worthy treated his glass rather modestly, " its' mild as oil, and 
 plenty of it" j^ 
 
 Thus adjured, Cotton filled his glass to the brim, and tossed it off like so 
 much water. 
 
 Mr. Winter gazed at him in smiling astonishment. 
 
 " Nothing like that in the army ?" he observed. 
 
 " Nothing, sir !" returned the scout, conscious that he was telling the na- 
 ked truth. For in his regiment there was not a particle of liquor. 
 
 " I thought so !" said Mr. Winter with smiling satisfaction. " It was made 
 under my own supervision. There is nothing like it within twenty miles." 
 
 " I should say not, sir," ventured Cotton, " nor anywhere else, either !" 
 
 " Fill again, sir !" suggested Mr. Winter, pleased at the flattery. " Fill, air. 
 Don't be afraid. There is plenty of it My cellar's full of it !" 
 
 " Is it? I'll remember that !" muttered the scout. 
 
 " Tell me about Tarleton," said Mr. Winter, who, Cotton observed, had 
 filled his own glass, but carefully refrained from touching it. 
 
 " Ah !" muttered the scout. " I see his drift. He fills me to drain me. 
 Very good! He shall have as much information as he desiree. Drinks noth- 
 ing himself, either ! Cunning old rascal. I'll punish him ! What shall I tell 
 you, sir ?" he said aloud.
 
 HQ THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 "All about him," said Mr. Winter, encouragingly. 
 
 " Long job, sir," replied the scout, imitating the rough manner and brusque 
 voice of his character. " Take too much time; have only a few minutes to 
 spare. Colonel expects me back by one o'clock; now half-past twelve. 
 Propound questions : I will answer." 
 
 "Very good, corporal what is it? My memory is so bad! Corporal " 
 
 "Doem !" said the scout, curtly. 
 
 " Ah! yes. Well, then, the colonel is rich, I suppose ?" 
 
 "Very. Hundred thousand a-year." 
 
 " Bless me !" exclaimed Mr. Winter, with sparkling eyes. "Married 1" 
 
 " Single !" returned the scout, brusquely. 
 
 " Young ?" 
 
 "Thirty-three!" . 
 
 "Dear me! And brave?" 
 
 " As a lion." 
 
 "Keen, too?" 
 
 "As his sword." 
 
 " Bless me ! Of a good memory ?" 
 
 " Perfect. Never forgets his friends," answered the scout, impressively. 
 
 w Dear me ! A wonderful man ! And my son, my Richard you say, cor- 
 poral " 
 
 " Doem !" suggested the scout. 
 
 " Ah ! yes. My son, you say, is familiar with him. He might be Able to 
 do something for him." 
 
 " Sure to !" volunteered the scout " Colonel never takes a man by the 
 hand, without doing him a friendly turn." 
 
 Mr. Winter could scarcely restrain himself. Visions floated before him. 
 Knowing his son's abilities and ambition, and his daughter's beauty the old 
 man paused the picture was too tempting ! 
 
 " And he will be here to-morrow !" he murmured. " Amy must be pre- 
 pared for this!" 
 
 He paused again. 
 
 The scout's ferret eye was fastened upon him, reading his thoughts with 
 the unerring precision of a keen and experienced mind. 
 
 "This is the moment to strike !" he muttered. "If I might suggest, sir," 
 he ventured, slowly, " it might be advantageous to your son, if you were to 
 present the colonel with a good horse, if you have one. His own he lost 
 yesterday in battle, and the one he has since used is a worn out hack. I 
 throw this out as a friend it would be thousands in your pocket, indepen- 
 dent of the influence it would exert in favor of your son. ^Think of. it sir! 
 
 "The very thing!" muttered Mr. Winter, greedily. 
 
 " He bites !" murmured the scout, stealing a sly glance at his host. 
 
 " You think the colonel would not take it as an insult, corporal ?" asked 
 Mr. Winter, with, an anxious brow. 
 
 "Certain of it!" answered the scout, brusquely. " But one thing must be 
 counted on." 
 
 "What's that, corporal?" 
 
 "The colonel will make you take something in return. He is very proud 
 in that respect. There was Sergeant Grantley's case, for example. Ever 
 hear of it?" 
 
 ."Never, corporal." 
 
 " The affair occurred about a month back, in the very heat of an engage- 
 ment. The colonel was fighting hand to hand with a rebel captain, when his 
 sword suddenly shivered to the hilt. His antagonist was in ecstasies, and was 
 in the act of raising his weapon to split the colonel's skull, when Sergeant 
 Grantley, seeing his danger, stepped up and, quick as thought, handed him 
 his own sword. It was a rough but serviceable piece of steel, as the rebel
 
 OJf MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 119 
 
 captain speedily found; for ere he could bring down his blade, Tarleton bent 
 forward and ran the sergeant's timely weapon through his breast. The fel- 
 low gave a glance of surprise, turned pale, quivered, and, slipping from his 
 saddle, fell to the earth dead." 
 
 " Shocking!" muttered Mr. Winter, with a shudder. 
 
 "Very, for the poor rebel captain," observed the scout, philosophically. 
 
 " What was the sequel ?'' inquired Mr. Winter, with an air of deep in- 
 terest. 
 
 " I'll tell you," answered the scout. " As the captain fell, Tarleton, turning 
 to G-rantley, said, ' Take this sword, sargeant, and use it till the battle is over. 
 When we reach the city, I'll give you another!' A few days afterward they 
 were in Charleston, and the colonel purchased a magnificant blade, the 
 mounting alone of which cost upward of a hundred pounds, and attaching to 
 it a sealed paper, sent it with his compliments to the sergeant. The latter 
 opened 'the document, and read it with humid eyes. Guess what it con- 
 tained." 
 
 " Nay ; ". said Mr. Winter, joyfully rubbing his hands, " my imaginative 
 powers are so poor.!" 
 
 " It was a commission for a captaincy from the grateful Tarleton to the 
 man, who, at a timely hour, merely loaned him his sword." 
 
 An expression of hope and joy passed over the bland features of his au- 
 ditor. 
 
 " The old shark bites!" muttered the scout, observing him. 
 
 "And this," said Mr. Winter, "is, you think, another timely hour?" 
 
 " I tell it to you as a friend," said the scout, in a maudlin, confidential 
 tone. 
 
 "He would feel grateful, you think, corporal what is it? my memory is 
 so bad? Corporal " 
 
 "Doem!" suggested the scout, with a mental chuckle. 
 
 " Ah ! yes. You think, then, Corporal Doem, the colonel would not forget 
 the interests of myself and son, if I were to send him, at this juncture, when, 
 as you say, he is so much in need of it, a fine, dashing horse ?" 
 
 " I'm sure of it," said the scout, confidentially. 
 
 " Thank you, thank you, corporal !" said the old gentleman, extending his 
 hand, which the other took and quietly pressed till the tears started into 
 its owner's eyes. "You are, indeed, a friend!" added Mr. Winter, wincing 
 under the pressure. , 
 
 "I am glad you think so," muttered the scout, " for I have some doubts of 
 it myself!" 
 
 " How shall I I^Btify my gratitude ?" 
 
 " Don't mention it," said the corporal, modestly. 
 
 " I have a time-piece here," continued Mr. Winter, drawing a stout, old- . 
 fashioned bull's eye from his fob and dropping into his hand ; " honor me 
 by accepting it !" 
 
 " Since you insist upon it, be it so !" returned the corporal, impudently ex- 
 amining it for a few moments with the air of one conferring a great kindness, 
 and then coolly depositing it into his pocket. 
 
 " I do, corporal, I do !" said the old gentleman, blandly. " Now, corporal, 
 might I request of you the performance of a favor ?" 
 
 " A thousand !" returned the corporal, generously. 
 
 "Nay, said Mr. Winter, smilingly, "I shall not be 
 
 so cruel. I shall ask 
 
 but one !" 
 
 ; ' Name it," said the corporal, heroically, " and it is done !" 
 
 " You are very good," said the old gentleman, with a flattering air. " What 
 
 I wish to ask of you is the favor to take my hrse Selim to Colonel Tarleton, 
 
 and present him to him with my compliments !" 
 " Is he spirited ?" asked the corporal.
 
 12Q THE SWAMP STEED | OR THE DAYS 
 
 "He is of pure blood," replied Mr. Winter, proudly. 
 
 "Swift?" 
 
 " As an eagle." 
 
 "Your fortune is made, sir!" cried the corporal, seizing his hand and 
 shaking it enthusiastically. "Your fortune is made, sir, as well as that of 
 your son. A more acceptable, and, permit me to add, sir, a more profitable 
 present, so far as yourself and family are concerned, could not be made to 
 Colonel Tarleton. He will go wild with rapture at such a gift, and feel him- 
 self under such obligations for it as to consider your interest his own, sir. 
 Permit me, Mr. Winter, to congratulate you !" 
 
 " Do you think so, corporal ?" said the latter, his thin, sharp, calculating 
 features radiant with happiness. 
 
 " Sure of it> Mr. Winter," said the corporal, enthusiastically. " But see, 
 there is a shower coming up. And really, I had almost forgotten it it 
 must be near one o'clock. ' 
 
 " Excuse me excuse me !" cried Mr. Winter, "the fault is mine for detain- 
 ing you. I'll go and hurry out Selim. I'll ' be with you in a minute, cor- 
 poral !" 
 
 As he spoke, he hurried from the piazza. 
 
 " The hook is in his gills the old tory is caught !" muttered the scout, 
 when alone. " He swallows bait and all ! So much the better for me. I 
 shall at last have a horse. I've wanted one long enough, as my poor legs, 
 wearied with many a long journey, will gladly testify. Too poor to buy one 
 myself, the general has none to give me, and the enemy must perforce supply 
 one ; and why not this old rogue, who they say is rich and crafty, and un- 
 scrupulous in his dealings with the rebels, as well as any one else ?" 
 
 As he reached this stage of his cogitations, a slight touch on his shoulder 
 caused him to start Turning he beheld Miss Winter, with a note in her 
 hand. 
 
 " Will you take this to Mr. Somers?" she said, in a clear but hurried whis- 
 per, while a roguish smile played around her mouth. 
 
 " By all means, miss," responded the scout, taking the proffered letter and 
 concealing it in his breast. Then, as he noticed the peculiar expression which 
 played upon her features, he colored, muttering to himself at the same time 
 " She is aware of the trick I am coming upon the old gentleman. It's all 
 up with me !" 
 
 Amy looked at him with a meaning eye for a few moments, and then 
 exclaimed with a low, silver laugh 
 
 " You are a very naughty man, sir, in thus duping my fattier. But I sup- 
 pose the cause requires it, and therefore I must say nothingjlabout it !" 
 
 " It's all right !" muttered the scout, his fear vanishing with her last words. 
 " That's it, miss," he said aloud, with his usual impudence, " it's for the sake 
 of ihe cause I'm doing it. I'm a poor devil, miss, in the service of my strug- 
 gling country, and I want a horse badly !" 
 
 " I presume so, sir," returned Amy, smiling at his deliberate effrontery ; 
 " and as I feel somewhat interested in the success of the cause in which you 
 are employed, I shall not betray you." 
 
 "I am very much obliged 'to you, miss," said the scout, with a profound 
 bow. 
 
 " But be careful," added the young lady, archly raising her fore finger as 
 she withdrew, "your dupe is my father; you must not bleed him too 
 freely!" 
 
 " Fear not, miss," replied the scout, placing his baud upon his breast, and 
 making another deep bow. " I shall touch him lightly for your sake 1" 
 
 Miss Winter, upon receiving this reply, hurried from the piazza, shaking 
 with restrained laughter at his impudence. 
 
 " Sensible young lady, that!" muttered the scout, as she disappeared. ' If
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 121 
 
 her lover were not interested in my return, which she knows well enough, 
 she would make no bones of exposing me. It's all right, however. I am 
 safe, and she is a devilish fine girl. Hark ! I'hear the tramp of Selim. His 
 tery master little dreams of the lift he is giving, with his horse, to the cause. 
 It would be a fine joke to let him know it when I'm in the saddle !" 
 
 As he concluded these mental observations, the scout threw his eyes in the 
 direction of the sound, and beheld a negro, leading by the bridle, up a wide 
 carriage path, a proud, stately horse, full sixteen hands high, whose brilliant 
 proportions and dashing appearance challenged his highest admiration. 
 
 " Ah I" he murmured, with difficulty restraining a burst of enthusiasm, 
 " who says the rebels cannot boast of respectable chargers to bear them into 
 battle ! It is really very good in the old gentleman to furnish us with such a 
 princely addition to our horse flesh ! He can't possibly conceive the im- 
 mense obligations he is placing us under !" 
 
 By this time the negro and the horse, together with Mr. Winter, had 
 reached the gate and passed through it to the road. 
 
 At a sign from the old man, the scout descended the piazza, crossed tJtie 
 gravelled pathway, and joined the group ; and this with all the calmness, dig- 
 nity and consequence befitting the character of a corporal. 
 
 " There," said the host, with an expression of triumphant pride, and point- 
 ing to the animal, " isn't he worthy of a monarch !" 
 
 The scout silently examined the horse with the eye of a connoisseur, and 
 then answered in a subdued voice "I have but one word to say, in reply. 
 Mr. Winter, your fortune is made !" 
 
 " I knew he'd surprise you !" exclaimed the old gentleman, exultingly. 
 " Stay!" he added, as he glanced at the animal. " The gift should be com- 
 plete. I have a pair of silver-mounted pistols. They shall go with him!" 
 
 " Mr. Winter," said the corporal, admonishingly, " the beginning of a heavy 
 shower is upon us. I shall be drenched !" 
 
 " Dick !" cried the old gentleman, turning to the black, " run to my room, 
 and bring down my new saddle, holsters and pistols, Fly. rascal, fly!" 
 
 The negro had scarcely taken five steps when a flash of golden fire illumi- 
 nad for an instant the black rolling masses of cloud above them ; this was 
 followed by a sharp, deafening thunder-clap, and the rain drops, which had 
 previously been light and of comparatively little consequence, fell thick and 
 fast. 
 
 "Mr. Winter, Mr. Winter!" exclaimed the scout, "how shall I dare, thus 
 soaked, to present myself to the colonel ?" 
 
 "Stay, a moment," said the latter, anxiously. "Hold Selim by the bridle, 
 and I'll run and get you my top coat You can bring or send it back to- 
 morrow, or next day !" 
 
 :< Very true !" observed the corporal, taking the bridle, while Mr. Whiter 
 hurried to the house. "All's fair in love and war!" continued Cotton, to 
 himself. " I am in want of a coat> because it rains, and I have no desire to 
 be wet to the skin, and this old tory can very easily spare me his and obtain 
 another in its place. I am in want of a horse, and this old fellow can very 
 well do without his. As for the saddle, holsters and pistols, they are his 
 own offer ; if I accept them, as I certainly shall, they will do good service to 
 the cause, and when the war is over, I may possibly return them to him, but 
 certainly not before! Upon my word! the old rascal ought to throw some 
 guineas in, to boot, for they are articles my pocket would eagerly welcome, 
 the poor thing not having seen anything more respectable than a half crown 
 for many a long day. I wonder how he would regard the matter, if I should 
 hint it to him ? Certainly it wouldn't be a bad idea on my part, in case I 
 got the money ! Money ! A magic word ! We sometimes hear of it in our 
 camp I" 
 
 Mr. Winter, bearing a large, comfortable drab overcoat, and the negro 
 16
 
 122 THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 Dick, carrying a magnificent saddle, with showy holsters, now made their 
 appearance, and the scout was compelled to bring his cogitations to a close. 
 
 " Wrap yourself in this, corpora^" said the old gentleman, tossing him the 
 coat " while I help Dick to buckle up the saddle." 
 
 "I'll do that without much urging !" muttered the scout "Bravo!" he 
 continued, as he threw on the garment, " when the cold nights come again, 
 I know of one rebel, at least, who'll sleep without complaining of the holes hi 
 his blanket !" 
 
 It took but a short time to get everything in readiness, and the scout 
 sprang into the saddle. 
 
 " A word, corporal," said Mr. Winter, approaching him ; " be particular 
 in calling Colonel Tarleton's attention to the pistols in the holsters. They are 
 silver mounted." 
 
 " The instant I meet him !" murmured the scout, as he winked confiden- 
 tially in reply. " When I meet him, I will most assuredly call his attention 
 to their contents !" 
 
 " You'll not forget to give him my best compliments ?" continued the old 
 gentleman. 
 
 " I'll forget nothing, Mr. Winter. When I see him, you shall not be for- 
 gotten. Ah ! sir," he added impressively, " you can't begin to estimate the 
 fortune you haye laid the foundation of to-day !" 
 
 He waived his hand to the old gentleman, and touching the flank of 
 Selim, was, in another moment, dashing off at a break-neck pace in the di- 
 rection of Kingstree, muttering 
 
 " And that is true enough ! If the calculating old sinner is ever able to 
 count upon the good fortune arising from this investment, it will be by an 
 entirely new rule of arithmetic !" 
 
 A bend in the road took him out of sight of Mr. Winter and the negro, 
 when he checked the speed of his horse, and slowly turned off to the right. 
 
 " Now, then, Selim," he said, patting the neck of the animal encouraging- 
 ly, " you mus'nt be vexed at this change of masters. The fact is, you are 
 too noble a fellow to serve in the ranks of the Britishers, who hav'nt soul 
 enough to appreciate your noble qualities ; and that is the reason why, when 
 I saw you the other day carrying the old tory sinner through to Kingstree, 
 that I resolved to take you, under my protection. Like mine, you restive 
 devil, you, your spirit rebels at tyranny, and therefore it is but right I should 
 enlist your services under the continental flag. So, young gentleman, now 
 that I have explained matters, I want you to show your blood by taking me 
 to the camp at Snow's Island in a little the tallest time ever seen in these 
 parts. Are you ready, sir ? You are, are you ? Travel, then !'' 
 
 And Selim, as if comprehending that he had a reputation to win, called up 
 his princeuest energies, gave one spring forward, and in compliance with his 
 rider's peculiarly expressive order, iravelkd. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 _ UPON coming up with Colonel Tarleton, Richard Winter found but little 
 difficulty in making his acquaintance. 
 
 The English colonel was a man of the world, and very approachable. 
 Skilful and chivalrous in the field, he commanded the admiration of his sol- 
 dieue ; free and open in his manner, profuse, generous and punctual in his 
 dealings, he won the esteem of tradesmen and civilians ; frank, graceful and 
 easy in his bearing, manly and magnificent in figure, handsome in feature 
 mnsical in voice, richly stored in mind, piquant and seductive in conversa-
 
 OF MAKIOM AND Ills MERRY MEN. 123 
 
 tion, he almost invariably succeeded in winning the admiration and very fre- 
 quently the honor of the gentler sex. His reputation for gallantry in the 
 boudoir, was co-extensive with his military fame ; and hence the turn-out 
 by both sexes to witness the entrance of one of whom all had heard so much 
 was both flattering and large. 
 
 Tarleton, however, was too accustomed to demonstrations of this charsw- 
 ter to permit it to engross him. He received the flatteries and attention* of 
 the tories, as they turned out to welcome him, with the smiling self-posses- 
 sion and easy deference peculiar to men of the world. 
 
 He drove up to the Palmetto, where, after a hurried whisper to one of his 
 lieutenants relative to the disposition of his troops, he alighted, to receive in 
 due form the leading officials and inhabitants ; after which, accompanied by 
 Richard Winter and some three or four officers, he retired to private apart- 
 ments, from which, some hours afterward, he despatched invitations to the 
 leading families of Kingstree and its environs to a ball he proposed giving on 
 the evening of the following day. 
 
 Richard Winter did not reach home till long after midnight. His father 
 and sister had retired some hours before. He had, therefore, much to his 
 mortification, no opportunity of laying before them either the invitation he 
 bore, or his plans and wishes relative to the ball. 
 
 Still pondering upon this subject, he threw himself into bed, where, agita- 
 ted by his thoughts, he tossed restlessly till daybreak, when he at length 
 fell into a deep but unquiet sleep. 
 
 It was noon when he awoke ; his nerves were disordered, his temper harsh 
 and petulent, and his features pale and haggard. 
 
 He descended to the breakfast room, and found Amy and a domestic im- 
 patiently awaiting him. He partook of the meal in surly silence. When he 
 tad finished, he bade Amy follow him, and led the way to the drawing room, 
 where he found his father, in all the dignity of full dress, impatiently await- 
 ing the arrival of Colonel Tarleton. 
 
 Mr. Winter was both pained and surprised at Richard's pale and nervous 
 appearance, but made no observations upon the subject ; for, if the truth 
 must be told, the old gentleman both understood and feared the irritable dis- 
 position of his son, and felt no desire to incur the risk of drawing it from ita 
 critical repose. 
 
 "You are unusually attentive to your appearance this morning, sir!" said 
 Richard, in surprise. 
 
 " Not more than the occasion demands. I believe." returned Mr. Winter, 
 blandly. 
 
 " What occasion do you allude to?" asked Richard. 
 
 "Have you not heard of it ?" replied the old gentleman, with an air of as- 
 tonishment " I should have supposed that you, above all others, would 
 have known it you who entered Kingstree in familiar converse with him. 
 Has not Colclkl Tarleton" 
 
 " Oh, youTFheard of that, sir ?" said Richard, interrupting him while an 
 .air of pride hovered round his haughty lips. " He gives a ball to night at the 
 town hall. You and Amy are invited." 
 
 "Ah!" murmured Mr. Winter to himself, "he gives a ball to-night, and 
 invites me ! That accounts for his not keeping his promise to call on me this 
 morning. I thought it was very odd." 
 
 " Colonel Tarleton," continued Richard, glancing at his sister, who was 
 pale and frightened, " has done me the honor Kb take me into his confi- 
 dence, and at my request, given me a roving commission to punish the 
 enemies of the king wherever I shall find them. I need not say, he added, 
 drawing himself np sternly, "that he is thenceforth entitled to receive from 
 me and mine the highest consideration and reepect" 
 
 Mr. Winter rubbed his hands gleefully.
 
 124 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 "Ah!" he murmured, "the corporal was right. Colonel Tarleton is 
 grateful; but in truth, I did'nfrlook for the proof of it so soon!" 
 
 ' The colonel," resumed Richard, again glancing at his sister, with an air 
 which would not brook interruption, " is rich, noble, influential, and " he 
 
 distinctly remembered by you, and be careful to rule your conduct accord- 
 ingly, at the ball !" Then turning to his father, who shrank from his fierce 
 glance, he added : " And to you, sir, I shall look to remind her of what she 
 owes to her family. I have spoken, and see to it, both of you, that my plans 
 for ennobling and enriching our family name, are not thwarted. Once be- 
 fore, I sought to strengthen it by an alliance with the Cramptons ; wo to 
 you," he added, approaching the door, and turning a fixed, pitiless glance 
 upon his sister, who sat trembling upon a chair near the window, " if by any 
 act of yours I am foiled now !" 
 
 Amy remained, for some moments after his departure, like one stunned. 
 Then murmuring, 
 
 "This is the essence of cruelty!" she fell from her chair in a swoon. 
 
 Mr. Winter, in much distress, summoned two or three of the domestics, 
 assisted them in bearing Amy to her room, and then bidding the women call 
 him in case anything alarming should happen, descended to the garden to 
 walk off his excitement 
 
 This exhibition of his determination to rule the household was by no means 
 new with Richard, and Mr. Winter had too long yielded to his son's imperi- 
 ous spirit to dream of resisting it now. 
 
 "It is very odd!" he muttered, as he paced up and down the gravelled 
 walk, " this change in Richard's temper. Before his mother died, which is 
 just five years ago, he was mild and generous as a lamb ; but since that hour 
 his whole nature has undergone a. revolution : he is wild, fierce, tyrannic and 
 vindictive. I cannot understand it ! It is plain there cannot be two rulers 
 in the house while he is in it He will have his way, and it won't do to cross 
 him. If he would only marry and settle down, I should be happy!" 
 
 He continued pacing the walk, with his eyes upon the ground thoughtfully, 
 and then resumed : 
 
 "But, after all, he. does everything for the best. Amy is head ovqpr heels 
 in love with Somers, who, though he may be, and doubtless is a very fine 
 young man, is still of little or no consequence in the matter of wealth. At 
 best he isn't worth over five thousand pounds, and what is that," he added 
 contemptuously, " when matched with what my daughter can show for her 
 marriage portion ? Richard understands these matters, and consequently it 
 was very wise in him to try to bring about a match with young Crampton, 
 who, although he is, compared with Somers, a mere fool, is vet of very re- 
 spectable connexions, who are both able and willing to set 4pipi up like an 
 earl. Amy however does not appear inclined to take up with him, and 
 Richard, cunning rogue ! (I see his aim, now !) is determined to drive her to 
 a decision between Tarleton, who is a stranger to her, and whom she must 
 pass through the mortification of courting, and Crampton, who is an old ac- 
 quaintance and has long courted her ! Cunning rogue cunning rogue ! 
 The idea is capital. I couldn't have devised a better one myself." 
 
 At this moment, Richard Winter, dressed with unusual care, descended the 
 steps leading from the house, and observing : 
 
 " I shall not return till dark. See the carriage got ready, and have every- 
 thing prepared by eight o'clock. The ball takes place at nine !" He passed 
 out into the road, and calmly proceeded towards Kings'tree. 
 
 He orders me as if I were his slave !" muttered Mr. Winter, looking after 
 mm with an eye flashing with indignant light. His anger was merely mo-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 125 
 
 mentary, however. " But lie means nothing by it," he added, as his passion 
 subsided ; " it is only his way !" As he spoke he turned on his heel, and slow- 
 ly ascended to the piazza, muttering as he threw himself upon a chair, " It is 
 very singular he didn't say anything about Selim. Perhaps the colonel, with 
 his usual delicacy, advised him not to, preferring to thank me himself in per- 
 son. How is your mistress ? Is she recovered ?" 
 
 This question was addressed to one of the female domestics, who at this 
 moment stepped from the hall upon the piazza. 
 
 " Yes, massa," answered the woman, with the lisp peculiar to mulattoes. 
 "But she very mis' able, and wish to see you. She say she no wish to go to 
 dis ball. Her heart be bery sad." 
 
 " Ah !" murmured the old gentleman to himself, " I see. She desires to 
 make an appeal to my feelings. I understand it ; but it will not do. Richard 
 would kill me. Tell your mistress," he said aloud, with an assumption of 
 stern authority, " that it is my wish she should go." 
 
 " Yes, massa," said the mulatto, and a tear of sympathy for her young mis- 
 tress, mounted to the long lashes of her dark, expressive eyes. 
 
 "Tell her," added Mr. Winter, blushing in despite of himself at his moral 
 cowardice, " that I do not wish to see her till tea-time, that I do not wish 
 her to speak one word upon the matter then, and that I shall expect her to 
 be dressed and ready for the ball precisely at eight o'clock Now begone, 
 And see that neither you nor any else disturb me again in the midst of my 
 meditations ! Begone !" 
 
 " Yes, massa!" The girl dropped him a curtesy, and, with trembling steps, 
 hastened from the piazza. Ascending to the chamber of Amy, she tearfully 
 delivered word for word the message of her master. 
 
 " Tell me, Nelly," said Amy, to her faithful and attached waiting-woman, 
 " was there no no appearance of sympathy in his voice, or in his eye, as he 
 spoke ?" 
 
 " None," replied Nelly, indignantly ; " and more shame for him to use you 
 so, my missee. He no man ! Ugh ! how I would like to tear him eyes out 1 
 He show no more heart than a tiger !" 
 
 " Then God help me!" cried Amy, with a burst of deep distress, "for I am 
 friendless. My last hope is gone !" 
 
 " Oh, say not so, missee !" said Nelly, consolingly. " Neber gib up. Who 
 knows what may come up ? Perhaps handsome massa Somers be at de balL 
 Who knows ?" 
 
 And the faithful creature used every art to comfort her distressed mistress, 
 but without avail. Amy's heart had received a bruise which time and kind- 
 ness alone could heal : and she spent the day in tears. 
 
 Colonel Tarleton was lavish in his orders, and equally as liberal with his 
 money, and the large hall and ante-chambers of the town house were fitted 
 up in a styWpf great magnificence. The company began to arrive about 
 nine o'cloo^Mid at ten the ball room was crowded with the wealth and 
 beauty of ^Hgstree and its neighborhood. The accommodations for the 
 guests were on an extensive scale, the music was inspiring and of a better 
 character than usually appeared in the town, and as everything displayed a 
 considerate and liberal hand, there was everything to call forth enthusiastic 
 encomiums, but nothing to pin a murmur on. 
 
 Tarleton did his best to make everybody happy and at ease, and succeeded 
 by appearing himself so. He was dressed in a suit of brilliant regimentals, 
 which set off his naturally commanding person to still greater advantage, and 
 forced the admission from every, however unwilling, lip, that his was the 
 finest figure, his the most elegant appearance, in the room. 
 
 The only individual present who could at all compete with him in these 
 respects, was our old acquaintance Frederick Crampton, whose mother in- 
 deoi whispered to her husband that so far as actual taste, grace, beauty and
 
 "[26 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 worth went, Frederick was by far the most preferable man of the two. An 
 opinion which Mr. Crampton the elder, being a man of considerable sound 
 sense, and as such averse to libertines no matter what their standing, both si- 
 lently and audibly endorsed ! 
 
 In dancing, there was no comparison between the exquisite and the roue. 
 The former was all grace and beauty, the latter very far from either. Cramp- 
 ton moved over the floor without an effort, like one to whom it was an en- 
 joyment ; Tarleton's steps were visibly heavy, and taken with a certain degree 
 of awkwardness and exertion. By general consent the exquisite was per- 
 mitted in this particular to outshine his rival. 
 
 Of the ladies, the wealthy widow, Mrs. Brunton, was the most brilliant, if 
 not the most lovely star of the night. Her appearance was at once queenly, 
 elegant and voluptuous, and elicited as much admiration from the masculine 
 portion of the guests, as it called up envy in the hearts of her own sex. 
 
 She was literally set in purple, pearls and gold. She wore a tight fitting 
 velvet bodice and flowing skirt of a rich, glossy purple, the neck and sleeves 
 edged with fine pointed Brussells lace ; a necklace of large plumb-shaped 
 pearls, set in gold, ornamented her ivory neck ; her small beautifully chisel- 
 led hands were encased in gloves of a rich flesh-colored silk, edged at their 
 tops, like her neck, with pointed Brussells ; her wrists were encircled by 
 bracelets of diamond-shaped pearls tastily inlaid in beds of gold ; around her 
 voluptuous waist hung a deep zone of large, glittering, spindle-formed pearls, 
 set in hollow cradles of polished gold ; from the lower edge of this gorgeous 
 belt, running over, and descending her superbly rounded hips, to the depth 
 of some nine or twelve inches, and completely encircling her form, depended 
 what might be termed a waist tunic, composed exclusively of light, tissuey 
 threads of the finest and glossiest silk, edged with a running series of large, 
 glistening plumb-shaped pearls. Her small, fairy feet as she moved through 
 the dance were just sufficiently visible to convince the spectators that she 
 was as perfect in that particular as storied Cinderella herself. 
 
 The palm of loveliness was by general consent divided between the charm- 
 ing widow and the beautiful Miss Winter. The latter was attired with great 
 simplicity. She wore merely a white, close-fitting bodice and a freely flow- 
 ing skirt. In her hair, which was parted in the middle, combed back and 
 thrown over her neck and shoulders in a perfect shower of ringlets, she hung 
 for its only ornament, a small scarlet rose. Her fair brow, straight, pensive 
 features, modest yet graceful air, and faultless figure, stamped her th truest 
 beauty of the two. To those who watched her closely, there was every now 
 and then in her dreamy, wandering eyes and lingering around her small and 
 .beautifully bowed lips, a slight expression of suffering, not at all in keeping 
 with the festive scene of which she was a participant. 
 
 Of the two, the widow achieved perhaps the greatest number of conquests, 
 but Amy won the most sympathy. Mrs. Brunton was the n^t gorgeous, 
 dashing and fascinating ; but Miss Winter was the most lo^p>le, amiable 
 and interesting. The one was voluptuously beautiful, and captivated the 
 senses ; the other was simply, purely, faultlessly lovely, and while slightly 
 appealing to the senses, quietly carried off the heart. The one reminded 
 you of some gorgeous, voluptuous queen; the other, of a guileless angel. 
 
 Tarleton paid great attention to both, and with his customary impudence 
 quietly determined to add their names to the already long list o%his victims. 
 Well acquainted with the weaknesses of women, Tarleton generally knew when 
 and where to strike, so as to bring them to his wishes. His previous suc- 
 cesses as a libertine naturally led him to the supposition that his usual good 
 fortune in this respect would attend him in his efforts to carry off the honor 
 of our two lady friends. His reasoning however was not bad, judging by 
 matters as they appeared upon the surface.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 127 
 
 "This widow," he muttered, "is a wild, dashing, intriguing creature, full 
 of passion, and will therefore give me but little trouble." 
 
 Of the soundness of this logic, some idea may be formed from Mrs. Brun- 
 ton's mental observation formed after her second minuet with the gallant 
 colonel. 
 
 . " He is a vain, lively fellow, very fond of conquests, and flatters himself that 
 he could, by the simplest effort, lead me the same ruinous dance he has already 
 led hundreds of my silly witted sex. The foolish puppy ! as if he could make 
 any impression upon a woman who had ever known that peerless paragon. 
 Neil Somers !" 
 
 Of the widow's earnestness in these remarks there can be no doubt, since it 
 was subsequently evidenced by the fact that she left orders with her servants 
 early the following day that she was not " at home" to Colonel Tarletpn. 
 nor to any one who should accompany him ; an order, by the way, which 
 was never rescinded ! 
 
 "As to Miss Winter," continued the libertine colonel, "she is not to be 
 won so easily. She is too pensive, and I never had much success with pen- 
 sive beauties. They think too much, and have too little passion. Once won, 
 however, they make the most charming mistresses for a time ; then they 
 take to sulking, then ib moaning, then to eternal weeping, prating stupidly 
 in the meanwhile of their lost honor, the necessity of marriage, and all that 
 sort of rubbish, till one could almost find it in his heart to silence their 
 groaning forever by a dose of poison. Still Miss Winter would make a be- 
 witching mistress for a month or two, and I shall of course take her in hand. 
 The sooner I make her the temporary bride of my heart not my hand by 
 any means, for liberty to roam from flower to flower is too sweet the better, 
 for I shall not linger long in this quarter of the country, and I shall pick up 
 enough others elsewhere." 
 
 Amy's simple heart entertained very opposite views of the brilliant roue. 
 "Ah!" she murmured, as Tarleton, after a brief conversation, left her, to 
 pay his court, for a few moments, to the fascinating widow. " what a contrast 
 between this insipid libertine and the noble-minded Somers. Is it possible 
 that a gross, superficial wretch like him can win the heart of a pure-minded 
 woman ? And yet it is to such a worthless, hollow-hearted being, Richard 
 would see me linked. 0, rather than that, the grave !" 
 
 The libertine's chances, then, with regard to the dashing widow and the 
 modest, retiring, pure-hearted maiden, were somewhat slim. 
 
 Tarleton, however, ^vas every where ; and many a quiet glance of the eye, 
 and many a soft, palmy pressure of the hand admonished him of conquests 
 he had made, and of meetings yet in store. He was in consequence in the 
 highest of spirits, and highly popular throughout the evening. 
 
 Richard Winter succeeded, about eleven o'clock, in obtaining Mrs. Brunton 
 for his partner in a minuet, and did his best to make an impression upon her 
 hard heart, b^&iled, as usual. She treated him politely, but with consider- 
 able coldnessr^The widow had heard, through young Clark, who was one 
 of her visitors, of the tory's vindictive display against Somers, at the Palmet- 
 to, and could scarcely restrain her indignation. She made no allusion to it. 
 however, and Richard Winter was puzzled to account for her hauteur. Un- 
 able to form a satisfactory solution of the matter, he imputed it to a some- 
 thing arising from the exquisite, Crampton, who, he remembered, had been 
 the lady's partner in the previous set, as well as in two or three others pre- 
 ceeding that. He then reflected that the exquisite had, as he had heard, 
 been a somewhat constant, visitor at Mrs. Brunton's for the four years that he, 
 by his aberration of intellect, had been confined to his room. As these 
 thoughts crossed him, the brow of the tory darkened. 
 
 " Crampton shall atone for this," he muttered. " Is it not enough that he
 
 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 visits my sister, but must he, slighting her, and thereby angering me, also 
 cross me in my crusade against this woman and her purse." 
 
 In an instant he thought of Tarleton, and his features assumed a severe 
 
 1 Ho ho !" he muttered, "has he been tampering with this woman ! Curse 
 him! I design Amy for his wife, and he must not attempt an intrigue wijh 
 another right under my very eyes, while paying his court to her." 
 
 His brow darkened still another shade, as he reflected, for the first time, 
 seriously, upon the libertine character of the colonel. 
 
 " Can it be," he murmured, as an uneasy thought crossed him, " that his 
 design is also upon the hoor and not on the affections of Amy ? If so, let 
 him beware ! There is a devil slumbering in my breast and devils some- 
 times kill." 
 
 As he made this mental observation, he turned his eyes towards his siters, 
 who was standing with the colonel, in another set, and awaiting her turn, 
 in the dance. Tarleton was at that moment making an observation to his 
 fair partner, the effect of which was to compel her to drop her eyes and to 
 call up a blush quick and deep as crimson. 
 
 It was, in fact, an elopement which the gallant colonel, who, with his usual 
 vanity, presumed that he had achieved a conquest, had, the impudence to pro- 
 pose to her. 
 
 " What in fury does that mean ?" muttered Richard, observing them. 
 " Has he dared to insult her with a dishonorable proposal?" 
 
 Mrs. Brunton had quietly followed the direction of her partner's eyes, and 
 witnessed the little incident which had ruffled him. A moment later, and 
 she whispered to him : 
 
 " Mr. Winter, something disturbs Amy. She blushes, and her eyelids are 
 moist with tears. She will fall, if she is not attended to." 
 
 Richard started at these words as if he had been stung by a basilisk. They 
 were spoken in that quiet, satirical tone which implies that more is concealed 
 than uttered. Did Mrs. Brunton then suspect him and his motives in for- 
 cing Amy as it were into Tarleton's notice ? If so, she must despise him. 
 In which case his hopes of her hand and wealth were at an end ! He shud- 
 dered at the thought 
 
 " 'Tis nothing," he said, in reply to her interrogating glance. " It is one 
 of her fits. She has them frequently." 
 
 " Oh, indeed !" said the widow, with an icy sarcasm. " I was not aware 
 of that! Poor girl! many such 'fits' would kill me. -She must have a con- 
 stitution like iron !" 
 
 Amy's position was very distressing. She could make no reply to the lib- 
 ertine's insulting proposal except to preserve an indignant silence. Her feel- 
 ings were wounded to a degree, and yet she had no one to whom she could 
 confide her sorrows or look for sympathy. Her father and brother com- 
 pelled her to endure her unhappy position unmurmuring!*' She felt that 
 she was without a friend in the world, and hardly knew, so much was she terri- 
 fied and confused by the libertine insolence of her partner, and the conscious- 
 ness of her utter loneliness, and the despotism of her cruel and ambitious 
 brother, what to think or do. It was as Mrs. Brunton expressed it she was 
 near falling. 
 
 The quiet sarcasm of his tormenting companion in the dance, was not 
 without its effect upon Richard Winter. The blood deserted his face, and a 
 yellow tinge of shame settled for a few moments upon either cheek 
 
 "You are severe, madam!" he said, making an effort to excuse himself. 
 " You forget that Amy is unaccustomed to scenes like this, and more es- 
 pecially to company like Colonel Tarleton's. The sphere in which he is 
 accustomed to move, is so far above that in which she mingles, that his supe- 
 rior convensational powers astonish, and, perhaps, humiliate her. She should
 
 OF KARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 129 
 
 go more into society, and accustom herself to these things. At present, she 
 is simply a green country girl, and the manners of polished circles astonish 
 her. She will get familiar with them, by and bye !" 
 
 "You hope so, no doubt!" returned Mrs. Brunton, with an air which no- 
 tified her companion that she wished the subject dropped. 
 
 Midnight drew near, the intermission came, and the guests moved from 
 the ball room to partake of refreshment. 
 
 Frederick Crampton had attended Mrs. Brunton to the fete, and he now 
 approached to conduct her to the supper room. 
 
 " Really, Mr. Crampton," she said, with an air it was impossible to resist, 
 " I should prefer to have you escort me home !" 
 
 " If you weally desire it, certainly !" replied the exquisite, without evincing 
 any surprise. " May I ask," he continued, while leading her to the dressing 
 room, " the weason why you have wesolved to depwive the company so early 
 of the two wosiest cheeks in the woom !" 
 
 " It is," replied the widow, smiling at the flattery, " because I wish to pre- 
 serve those roses for to-morrow !" 
 
 " You are a chawming cweature !'' observed the exquisite, with a graceful 
 bow, as Mrs. Brunton glided from his arm into the dressing room. " I could 
 almost love her!" he murmured, moving off to prepare himself for de- 
 parture. 
 
 Richard Winter, with Amy upon his arm, had already retired to the sup- 
 per room, whither the remaining guests were now slowly and quietly mov- 
 ing. 
 
 Mr. Winter had, early in the evening, been presented to Colonel Tarleton ; 
 but it was at a moment when that personage was surrounded by a number 
 of his officers, and other friends, whose presence precluded the possibility of 
 an exchange of even a few words. From that period to that of the intermis- 
 sion, Mr. Winter had been making the most strenuous efforts to catch the 
 colonel's eye, but without effect. The latter was so deeply occupied in at- 
 tentions to the fairer portion of the company, and in responding to formal 
 introductions to the other, that the old gentleman had been unable to obtain 
 even a passing recognition. 
 
 Determined, however, upon gaining his point, that is to say, an acknowl- 
 edgment of the reception of the matchless Selim, Mr. Winter, as the intermis- 
 sion drew near, planted himself at the door leading to the supper room, for 
 the purpose of catching Colonel Tarleton by the button as he passed from the 
 hall. 
 
 The old gentleman's patience was not tasked long. Ere he had taken up 
 his position at the door five minutes, Colonel Tarleton approached, followed 
 by a number of. friends. 
 
 As he neared the supper room, Colonel Tarleton observed a spruce, old 
 gentleman, standing in the doorway, and eyeing him with a peculiar expres- 
 sion. 
 
 " You wish to speak to me, sir ?" he said, with a gracious air. 
 
 " Yes, sir Colonel Tarleton, I mean " returned Mr. Winter, confusedly 
 delighted at the success thus far of his little scheme, and bowing almost to 
 the floor. " A momentary favor, colonel, if you please." 
 
 " Well, sir ?" said Tarleton, inquiringly. 
 
 " I wish to know, my dear colonel," said the old gentleman, blushing with 
 rapture at the honor of conversing with so illustrious a personage as the man 
 before him, " how you like Selim ?" 
 
 "Selim, sir?'' returned Tarleton, in surprise. "What do you mean, 
 sir?" 
 
 Mr. Winter looked at him for a moment, and then replied with a smile. 
 
 " Oh, I see. The corporal forgot to tell you his name ! That was very 
 wrong of him!" 
 
 17
 
 130 THE SWAMP STEED ] OR THE DAYS 
 
 "The corporal, sir? What corporal ?" demanded Tarleton, in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 " Corporal Doem," replied the old gentleman, expecting the mention of 
 that name would recall to Colonel Tarleton a'sense of his meaning. 
 
 " Corporal Doem !" repeated Tarleton, indignantly, " What do you mean ? 
 Do you wish to insult me ? Explain yourself! Who are you, sir ?" And 
 without giving him time to reply, the colonel turned to his companions, and 
 added : Do you know this old gentleman, sirs ! Who is he ? 
 
 "'Tis Mr. Winter," they replied, in a breath. 
 
 " Yes," said the old gentleman himself, hoping his name would, at all 
 events, set the affair in its true light before the colonel, " I am Mr. Winter, 
 colonel ; the gentleman who yesterday had the honor of sending for your 
 acceptance the finest horse in the province!" 
 
 " You did what, sir ?" said Tarleton, eyeing him as though he supposed he 
 had taken leave of his senses. 
 
 Mr. Winter repeated his statement. 
 
 Tarleton surveyed him for a few moments, in silence, and then said, signi- 
 ficantly : 
 
 " I am afraid, Mr. Winter, that either too much wine or late hours, I can- 
 not say which, do not agree with you. Please to stand aside, sir," he added, 
 somewhat sternly, " the guests are desirous of passing, and you are in their 
 way !" 
 
 Mr. Winter's hair uprose in terror. A horrible suspicion took possession 
 of his mind. 
 
 " You do not mean to say, Colonel Tarleton," he exclaimed, moving from 
 the doorway, "that you have not received my princely horse my Selim?" 
 
 " I do mean to say so, sir," returned the colonel, surveying him with a 
 cold, supercilious stare. 
 
 ' Nor my gorgeous crimson saddle ?" 
 
 'No more than the horse !" said the colonel, derisively. 
 
 ' Nor the morrocco holsters, edged with silver ?" continued Mr. Winter, 
 his features growing wilder, and his voice huskier with each question. 
 
 ' No more than the saddle !" . 
 
 ' Nor my silver mounted pistols ?" 
 
 'No more than the holsters!" 
 
 The countenance of Mr. Winter was now an index of the most ludicrous 
 despair. 
 
 " And you don't know the corporal Corporal Doem ?" he added, trem- 
 bling with terror. 
 
 " I only know," replied Tarleton, surveying him contemptuously, " that 
 you are either drunk or crazy, and that your best friend would be a straight 
 jacket !" 
 
 With these words, the colonel, followed by his companions, passed laugh- 
 ingly through the door of the supper room, leaving the old gentleman per- 
 fectly stupified. 
 
 In a few minutes he was sufficiently recovered to hasten from the ball 
 room, jump into his carriage, and order his coachmen to drive home. He 
 ascended to his chamber with trembling steps, and threw himself wildly upon 
 his bed, cursing his folly and breathing vengeance most dire upon Corporal 
 Doem. 
 
 Meanwhile all was mirth and excitement at the town house. Tarleton 
 and his companions jested and laughed over the corporal's exploit and his 
 victim's discomfiture. The joke spread from table to table with great rapidi- 
 ty ; from the supper room it extended to the ball room, from the ball room 
 to the dressing rooms, from thence to the loungers about the door, from 
 them to the stragglers in the street, and from these to the Palmetto. 
 
 Richard Winter's surprise and mortification, upon hearing it, were indes-
 
 OP MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 13] 
 
 cribable. He could scarcely restrain himself from instantly rising and hur 
 rying from the scene. Bending over the table at which they were sitting, 
 lie demanded of his sister if the story was correct 
 
 "I know nothing to the contrary," replied Amy, with a deep blush. i; A 
 man, in the dress of an officer, called yesterday upon 'pa ; stated that he had 
 been sent with a commission from Colonel Tarleton. though what it was I 
 do not know, for I retired to my room on his arrival ; on his departure, 
 however, he certainly did go away on Selim's back, and wrapped, for it was 
 raining, in papa's top coat I saw him from my window." 
 
 " Did father say anything to you about it, after the fellow had gone ?"' 
 asked Richard. 
 
 " Not a word," replied Amy. 
 
 Richard bit his lips and bent over his plate to coqceal his annoyance. His 
 first impulse was to re turn immediately to- the ball room, seek his father, and de- 
 mand an explanation ; but as such a course would have the effect of drawing 
 all eyes upon him, he determined to remain where he was, till the compa- 
 ny arose and made a general movement to retire from the room, when he 
 would mingle with the throng, and thus avoid exposing himself to observa- 
 tion and remark. 
 
 About one o'clock, the musicians returned to the orchestra, and a moment 
 later struck up a march to warn the company that the dance was about to- 
 be resumed. 
 
 As the guests moved slowly from the supper room, Richard Winter, with- 
 his sister upon his arm, mingled among them, and on entering the hall, pro- 
 ceeded with. Amy at once to the ladies' dressing room, at the door of which, 
 he left her, bidding her prepare for an immediate departure. 
 
 Not a word was exchanged between them on their journey home ; on 
 reaching which, Richard foaming with mortification and rage, darted up the 
 staircase, threw open the door of a small chamber, and the next instant, pale 
 and trembling with passion, he stood face to face with his father. 
 
 The latter, with his usual weakness, gave way before the impetuous man- 
 ner of his son. 
 
 " Do you know, sir," said Richard, fiercely, " that your folly has made us 
 the laughing stock of Kingstree ?" 
 
 " I cannot help it, Richard," answered Mr. Winter, whiningly. " I cannot 
 help it. I did it all for the best"- 
 
 " For the best? yes, 'doubtless !" said Richard, with an air of mockery. 
 " Come, sir, sit down, and explain this affair. I wish to understand it in all 
 its details. 
 
 His father complied, relating with great succinctness the whole of his in- 
 terview and its results with the self-styled Corporal Doem, and concluded by 
 repeating word for word his colloquy with Colonel Tarleton. 
 
 a So, sir," said Richard, as he finished, " with all your boasted sagacity 
 and experience, you were not sharp enough to detect the transparent trick 
 of this rebel rogue. And you did it all for the best, too ; poor, snivelling old 
 dotard ! In future, look to your own affairs, and let my advancement alone. 
 I'll look to that, and see that I get it, without help from a miserable old 
 driveller like you 1" 
 
 " Richard Richard !" cried his father, lifting up his claped hands, with an 
 imploring air, ' : don't talk to me in that way don't, you'll break my heart" 
 
 " Your heart ?" returned Richard, with an expression of mockery. " Harre 
 you such a thing ? If so, let it feel for me." 
 
 " For you, Richard, my son ?" 
 
 "Forme!" repeated the young man, impetuously; " for me, whom you 
 have shamed by your this night's folly; for me, whose plans you have 
 thwarted and covered with ridicule You were aware of my design upon 
 Tarieton. You knew I took Amy to the ball that her surpassing beauty
 
 132 THE SWAMP STEED | OR THE DAYS 
 
 might infatuate and subsequently beguile him into a marriage. You were 
 conscious of my motive, sensible of the art and delicacy necessary all around, 
 in order to bring it about ; and yet, in the earliest stage, when everything 
 was progressing swimmingly, your small vanity must imbue you with an 
 insane desire to be noticed, and prompt you to a needless and unnecessa- 
 ry display of your stupidity. Aye, bow your head, hoary headed driveller," 
 he added, as his father bent forward on his chair, and resting his elbows on 
 his knees, covered his eyee with his hands, " and groan over your folly !" 
 
 Tlie old man could endure these insulting reproaches no longer. Dropping 
 Ms hands from before his eyes, which were moist with tears, he rose to his 
 feet, and advancing towards the young man, said, sternly 
 
 " No more of this language, sir. I've endured it too long. I am your 
 father, but I am not your' dog; and you shall not treat me as such !" 
 
 " Shall not ?" returned Richard, sneeringly. 
 
 " SHALL not !" thundered Mr. Winter, with a firmness that made the young 
 man tremble. " Your despotic reign is over. You have ruled me and my 
 house with an iron hand ; forgetting, in your unbridled insolence, that / was 
 its owner, and your father. I yielded to it, because, for all your faults, I 
 loved you, and because you were my son !" 
 
 The sneer, which had disappeared from Richard's eye and lip at the be- 
 ginning of this speech, now returned, with increased force and expression. 
 
 " Ah !" he said, satirically, " ' because I was your son?' You yielded to me 
 for that ; for that, ' with all my faults, you loved me ?' " 
 
 The old man surveyed him, for; a few moments, with astonishment, then 
 with horror, and lastly with despair. 
 
 " Devil !" he said, trembling with rage, " what mean you by that sneer? 
 Are you so utterly lost to shame, as to impugn the honor of your dead mo- 
 ther ? Wretch devil answer me ! Nay," he added, hastily, throwing up 
 his hand and fleeing from him, as Richard was about to speak, " nay, answer 
 not ! I would not hear your ingrate heart pour forth its black venom in my 
 aged ear ! Gro fly get from me. Leave my presence. You are a demon 
 in the disguise of him who was once my son. Go I would not look upon, 
 I would not hear you ! You have dared to cast a doubt upon the virtue of 
 my departed wife, upon her who bore you. Your demon eye appals me 
 go, ingrate, go!" 
 
 The young man eyed him calmly ; the dark, implying sneer still glistening 
 in his orbs, still darkening his lip. 
 
 It was as his father expressed it. His appearance was that of a cool, cal- 
 culating, remorseless demon. 
 
 " You will not hear me ?" he said tranquilly, without removing his gaze 
 for an instant from off his father. " You will not hear me ? That is one of 
 your follies. You will not only hear me, but you shall feel me ! You say 
 my reign is over. I answer, it is but just begun. You charge me with ru- 
 ling you and the house with a hand of iron. That is another of your drivel- 
 ling absurdities. I have dealt with you mildly, compared with what I shall 
 deal with you henceforth, unless you are more tractable. Instead of ruling 
 you with an iron hand, I shall sway you with one of steel. If I am insolent, 
 'tis you who, by encouraging the waywardness of my youth, have made me 
 so, and 'tis you who shall answer it I have cast no imputation upon my 
 mother's memory, and you do you hear it, dotard ? you must not tell me 
 so> As to this house, I am its master and yours, and I shall continue so, so 
 long as we both shall live. And so, good sight !" 
 
 With these words, he moved slowly, haughtily, and defiantly to the door, 
 keeping his eyes fixed on those of his father, whom they appeared to fasci- 
 nate, by seme mysterious power, to the last. 
 
 : I am conquered !" murmured the old man, as Richard disappeared. 
 " While his mother lived, I was wife-ridden : she is dead, and I am son-rid-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 133 
 
 den. Oh, heaven !" he exclaimed, placing both hands upon his temples, 
 which were throbbing fiercely, "my brain will burst!" 
 
 He rose, fastened the door, and paced the chamber, uneasily. His steps 
 were quick and nervous. 
 
 " And this," he muttered, tears starting from his eyes and coursing down 
 his cheeks, " this is the result of all my hopes ; my anxieties and cares this, 
 
 God ! this .' Who would be a father !" 
 
 His feelings overpowered him ; he staggered to a chair, dropped upon it, 
 buried his head in his hands, and sobbed. The tears that bedewed his cheeks 
 were hot and scalding. 
 
 " For this," he groaned, " I have toiled, worried and fumed ; for this I pet- 
 ted, spoiled, and made him, from his earliest days till now, the favorite child ; 
 for this, that she might treat him kindly, she who never seemed to love him, 
 
 1 bore the ruling spirit of his mother without a murmur ; for this, I have 
 taken advantage of men's necessities, and steeled my heart against the cries 
 of woe, of pity, of humanity, that my coffers might never be empty to him ; 
 for this, that none other should divide my affections or the rule of the house 
 with him, I have, .since his mother's death, remained without a companion ; 
 for this, I have stood up for him, in defiance of the light of my better reason, 
 against complaining friends and neighbors, when they found him meddlesome, 
 insolent and vindictive ; for this, mine eyes have ached with watching, mine 
 ears wearied with hearkening, through the long, lone nights, when riot and 
 debauchery detained him abroad ; for this, I have cut off my daughter my 
 gentle, suffering, unassuming Amy from all interest in my heart, that none 
 but this bad, undeserving boy might engross my affections for this, I have 
 made my daughter nothing, myself nothing, that he might be all in all ! For 
 this Great God! for UiisT 
 
 Hot tears trickled down his cheeks and through his fingers ; his parental 
 heart shook with agony ; his thin, silver-tinted locks hung in streaks over 
 temples throbbing as if they would burst; his lean frame quivered with 
 emotion. 
 
 He rose, after a time, groped his way to bed, fell into a dreamy slumber, 
 and, the vision of his ungrateful son still haunting him, tossed and sobbed tifl 
 morning. 
 
 Ah ! bitterly did he realize the sentence : ' Sharper far than a serpent's 
 tooth to a parent's heart is the ingratitude of a child.' 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 RICHARD WINTER'S was an organization which, as the reader has already 
 observed, repelled the bare idea of defeat. Once resolved, he allowed noth- 
 ing to step between him and the fulfilment of his purpose. Though deeply- 
 mortified at the ludicrous scene between his father and colonel Tarletou, 
 he was not inclined to permit it to interfere for an instant with the relations 
 existing between the colonel and himself. 
 
 Early on the morning after the ball, he rode into Kingstree, gave his horse 
 in care of the ostler, and entered the Palmetto. Colonel Tarleton had not 
 yet risen, and it was thought he would not make his appearance till noon. 
 
 The British troops, quartered upon the people, were already assembled 
 upon the green, and discussing the incidents of the ball, which formed the 
 principal topic of conversation. 
 
 The town was literally alive with idlers, groups of whom might be seen at 
 almost every point, conversing upon the numberless nothings which the arri- 
 val and appearance of the regulars suggested to their generally unoccupied
 
 134 THE SWAMP STEED ] OR THE DAYS 
 
 minds. The multitude of these around the Palmetto, as the head-quarters of 
 the British officers, was very large ; while within the bar room, their number 
 was far from insignificant. 
 
 A group of officers held possession of one corner, one of whom, a lieute- 
 nant Bascomb, rose, as Eichard Winter entered, and taking him aside, whis- 
 pered confidentially : 
 
 " My dear Winter, I have a message for you from colonel Tarleton." 
 " Ah ! What is it ?" asked Richard. 
 
 " The colonel," said Bascomb, " desires me to request you to tender his 
 regards to your father, whom he wishes to overlook the trifling contretemps 
 which transpired last evening, to receive his humblest apologies for the part 
 te took in it, and to forget that it ever occurred. As for yourself, he wishes 
 to see you as soon as he rises relative to some commission, the character of 
 which he did not explain to me. He desired me also to state to you his re- 
 , grets for his share in the occurrence at the ball, with the request that you 
 would make no allusion to it when you present yourself before him." 
 
 " Colonel Tarleton's wishes shall be respected by me in every particular," 
 returned Richard, inexpressibly rejoiced at this turn of affairs. " When can 
 I have the honor of an interview ?" 
 
 " At one o'clock," said Bascomb. "By the way, how are you off for com- 
 panions ?" 
 
 " In what respect ?" 
 
 " The commission Tarleton has in view for you," returned the lieutenant, 
 " relates, I suspect, to the policy he designs to pursue with the rebels. If so, 
 you will want friends." 
 
 "I understand you," said Richard. " Colonel Tarleton gave me yesterday 
 a roving commission, with the privilege of selecting my own men. His plan 
 is, I presume " 
 
 "Hush!" said the lieutenant, softly, " there may be ears around-us other 
 than loyal ones." 
 
 "Right!" returned Richard, "I am too careless. In times like these, and 
 in a neighborhood like this, there is no telling whom to count on. I'll see 
 you again!" 
 
 " Do so!" said the lieutenant, upon whose features flitted a peculiar smile 
 as Winter passed from the inn. 
 
 "Well, Bascomb," said one of his companions, as the lieutenant resumed 
 his seat at the table, " does he nibble ?" 
 
 "Like a gudgeon," replied the lieutenant, with a quiet smile. "Father 
 and son are equally gullible. The one is caught by a rebel corporal, the 
 other by a loyal colonel." 
 
 " And with the same bait flattery !" laughed a third. 
 
 " And promises," added a fourth. " We'll have to re-christen "em." 
 
 " I did that last night at the supper," said the lieutenant. 
 
 "You only acted as nomenclator to the old one," said the last speaker. 
 
 "Nonsense! Griswold," returned the lieutenant. "It is easily seen that 
 if I hadn't started it, nobody else would have thought of it. I'll wager wine 
 for the regiment the colonel himself couldn't have given the old codger a bet- 
 : ter sobriqmt." 
 
 " A very safe bet," observed Q-riswold, " since it would never be decided. 
 But, attention, gentlemen, for the christening.' ' 
 
 "Bear in mind, sir," added the lieutenant, with assumed seriousness, " that 
 I did that last evening." 
 
 4i Aye?" said Griswold, inquiringly. " What was it you denominated the 
 old ( gentleman?" 
 
 "'The Antiquated Q-udgeon,'" returned the lieutenant, and a low laugh 
 went up from around the table. " And I now propose," he added, in the
 
 OF MARION A.VD HIS MERRY MEN 135 
 
 same strain, " by way of heading off this aspiring usurper of my laurels, to 
 immortalize the young one with the adhering title of The Young Gudgeon." 
 
 " Lester," said Griswold, turning to an officer beside him, " you must be 
 the ju!ge in this case."' 
 
 " I am willing," returned Lester, with an assumed air of graciousness, " to 
 take upon myself the duties of that high and responsible position, if it be the 
 wish of the noble company present. What say you, sirs ? You must an- 
 swer individually. Is it your desire, lieutenant Bascomb yours, lieutenant 
 Ormsby yours, sergeant Stanton yours, adjutant Jones ? Ah! it is? Very 
 well, then. I consent. Now, counsellor Griswold, propound my worship 
 is waiting. Propound propound." 
 
 " My lud," began Griswold, " has my enemy, the nomenclator over the 
 way," pointing to Bascomb at the other side of the table, " the right to anti- 
 cipate me the right, my lud, if I may so express myself, to take my words 
 out of my mowth.' 
 
 " Unquestionably !" answered the umpire. 
 
 " He has ?" 
 
 " Unquestionably !" repeated the umpire, with ludicrous gravity. 
 
 " My lud, your decision not only astonishes, it overwhelms me. ' 
 
 "Very good," observed the judge, phlegmatically. 
 
 " I would add, my lud, that it all but annihilates me." 
 
 " Ah !" gravely remarked the judge. 
 
 " But, I would ask your ludslup if I have not the right to recover myself 
 and make myself good at the expense of my enemy the nomenclator over the 
 way ?" 
 
 " Lawfully ?" asked the judge. 
 
 " Lawfully, my lud." 
 
 " Unquestionably!" returned the judge with marked gravity. 
 
 " Then, my lud, I claim that right, as well as your power to protect me in 
 it" 
 
 "Take the first, I promise you the second!" said the judge, graciously. 
 
 " Thank you, my noble lud. Thus then I recover myself at the expense of 
 my enemy the nomenclator over the way." 
 
 "Let us hear," said the judge. 
 
 " My enemy, the nomenclater over the way," began the other, has branded 
 the old one with the sobriquet of the Antiquated Gudgeon, and flatters him- 
 self with the insane idea that it will adhere to him forever." 
 
 " Insane ideas," remarked the judge, with great solemnity, " are common 
 in this court, as well as in the statutes !" 
 
 "Yes, as you say, my lud just so ! The Antiquated Gudgeon is good, 
 then, in the opinion of your lordship ?" 
 
 " Very good for want of a better !" replied his lordship. 
 
 " Yes, as you say, my lud just so ! for want of a better. I am about to 
 produce the better one." 
 
 " Produce it," said the judge, gravely. 
 
 " Produce it !" said the company, anxiously. 
 
 " Produce it !" said Bascomb, with an air of supercilious defiance. 
 
 " Here it is, my lud. I propose for your lordship's consideration, the hap- 
 pier title of The Corporal's Gudgeon ; for, if your lordship will please to re- 
 member, it was the corporal who landed him." 
 
 " ' The Corporal's Gudgeon,' is good, in fact very good !" observed the 
 judge, with an air of deep thoughtfulness. 
 
 "Better, by far, than the Antiquated Gudgeon?" 
 
 " Much better," answered the judge ; " in fact, a great deal better." 
 
 "Your lordship's judicial wisdom," said counsellor Griswold, "is exempli- 
 fied in this learned decision, as in everything else. I shall now proceed to 
 make myself good at the expense of my enemy the nomenclator over the
 
 136 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 way, who has, as he felicitously expresses it, immortalized the young one 
 with the adhering title of the Young Gudgeon. Is ' Young Gudgeon' good, 
 in the opinion of your lordship ?" 
 
 " Very good,/' decided his lordship, " for want of a better." 
 
 " And that I shall now produce for your lordship's consideration." 
 
 "Produce it," said the judge. 
 
 "Produce it," said the company. 
 
 " Produce it," said the lieutenant. " I stump him !" 
 
 " You hear him, my lord he stumps me ? I shall therefore demolish him. 
 Have I your lordship's permission to do so ?" 
 
 " You have," observed his lordship, graciously. 
 
 " Thank you, my lord. I then submit for your lordship's consideration, 
 the more euphonious nominative of The Colonel's Gudgeon ; for, if your lord- 
 ship will please to remember, it is the colonel who proposes to land him." 
 
 " 'The Colonel's Gudgeon' is good," said the learned judge, "very good 
 in fact," he added, with a decided air, "better much better than 'The 
 Young Gudgeon.' It is thus I decide. Now who is to pay for the wine 
 which is necessary to refresh us after this solemn and trying case ?" 
 
 " The loser, my enemy, the nomenclator over the way"- he is in for the 
 costs," laughed Griswold. 
 
 " A righteous decision !" exclaimed the others. 
 
 ' Gentlemen," said the lieutenant, throwing a glance of ludicrous grief 
 around the table, " as you justly observe I'm in for it !" 
 
 Seated at a table near them, was a young gentleman of Kingstree, who, 
 while acquainting himself with the merits of a small bottle of port, had been 
 quietly listening to the humorous colloquy of the officers. It was Sprague, 
 who had come to the Palmetto for the purpose of picking up such informa- 
 tion as he could of the movements and designs of the British. 
 
 " I'll have some fun with these red coats," he muttered, turning his chair 
 for the first time, so as to cateh the eye of Lieutenant Bascom, with whom 
 he was partially acquainted, having been introduced to him, as well as his 
 companions, at the ball of the evening before. His movement arrested the 
 attention of the lieutenant, who recognized him at a glance. 
 
 " Ha ! Sprague, how d'ye do ? Just in time for a fresh bottle. Join us !" 
 
 This exclamation drew upon the young man the glances of the other 
 parties at the table, who, remembering him, added then- voices to that of the 
 lieutenant, and Sprague accepted the invitation. 
 
 " We have a rich joke," began the lieutenant, rubbing his hands with great 
 glee. 
 
 "One that will make you roar yourself hoarse," said Griswold, laughingly. 
 
 " Yes, said Lester, " I have just decided it" 
 
 " Ah ?" observed Sprague, inquiringly. " Something rich, you say ?" 
 
 " Very rich !" returned Bascomb. " You've heard of the rebel corporal's 
 trick upon old Winter?" 
 
 " Certainly," returned Sprague. " Nothing else was talked of last night at 
 the ball." 
 
 "Exactly," said Bascomb. " Well, between ourselves, it won't go any 
 further, of course ? the colonel, with his usual impudence, is going to perform 
 an operation upon young Winter, and as we have been let into the secret of 
 the last, as every body has been into that of the first, we have been soubriquet- 
 ing the hapless pair." 
 
 "Ah?" said Sprague, inquiringly. 
 
 "Yes," interrupted Griswold, modestly; "but the joke of the affair em- 
 anates on this side of the table." 
 
 "True," said Lester, "I was the judge, and so decided it" 
 
 Sprague glanced at them alternately with his keen, piercing eye, now lit 
 up with an assumed expression of anticipative mirth.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEK. 137 
 
 " No one desires to rob that side of the table of the honor which belongs to 
 it" observed Bascomb, good naturedly. " But to the point In consideration 
 oi the corporal's trick upon the senior Winter, we have nick-named him the 
 Corporal's Q-udgeon. Capital isn't it?" 
 
 '' Very appropriate, indeed !" returned Sprague, with affected laughter, 
 " and as witty as appropriate ! And the other, you say " he added, art- 
 fully. 
 
 "The other," said Griswold, scarcely able to contain himself at the young 
 man's praise, "I have, to use Bascomb's phrase, immortalized with the ad- 
 
 ig his hands. " That will stick to 
 itionforit!" 
 
 " Oh ! the best of foundations !" cried Griswold, glancing around the table. 
 " What say you, gents we can let Sprague into it. It's safe with him ?" 
 
 " Perfectly safe," said Bascomb. " I'll be answerable for him!" 
 
 " You are braver than I would be, under the circumstances!'' muttered 
 Sprague to himself. " Wine wine ! thou art the key to unlock the secrets 
 of empires pray heaven ! this be one of them !" 
 
 " He can be trusted," remarked Lester. " Certainly, let him into it !" 
 
 The others nodded encouragingly, and Griswold went on. 
 
 " You see," he began, bending over the table, and bringing his lips close to 
 the young man's ear, " the colonel is going to send the fool off to harrass the 
 rebels, so as to get him out of the way." 
 
 " Ah ! so as to get him out of the way ?" repeated Sprague, with an as- 
 sumed smile. " And then " 
 
 :< Then, he is going with a half dozen of us to the house, when we shall get 
 the old ninny his father drunk as a blind toper, and then whip off Miss Winter 
 for his mistress. Capital isn't it?" 
 
 "Capital?" repeated Sprague, with assumed gaiety, "it's wonderful. 
 When is the affair to come off?' 3 
 
 " Dick Winter starts to-day perhaps, not till to-morrow; and at night of 
 the following day we visit the old gentleman. But, not a word !" 
 
 "Oh!" answered Sprague, calmly, now that he had discovered the details 
 of the plan, " you know you can trust in me ! But won't this be a rich 
 affair ?" Upon my word ! it all but makes me burst Instead of singling 
 them, you should have termed them the Gudgeon Family !" 
 
 " Ha! ha ! ha !" laughed the party, in chorus, "capital capital !" 
 
 " But," added Sprague, "'the wine is out, and jokes like these make one 
 dry. Landlord," he continued, seeing that personage hovering near, "there 
 are seven of us!" 
 
 returned the host, and seven bottles were speedily before 
 
 " The object of the colonel," resumed Sprague, as the wine sparkled on the 
 board, " is to flog the rebels in this neighborhood out of their fine senses ?" 
 
 " If he catches the rascals, yes," said Bascomb. 
 
 " They may rely upon it," volunteered Lester, " that the colonel will give 
 them some souvenirs worth remembering !" 
 
 " No doubt of it no doubt of it," observed Sprague. " But his object here 
 is not a general one, I presume ?" 
 
 "No," said Griswold, tossing off his glass, re-filling it, and slowly mutter- 
 ing at the same time, " far from it Something more specific. He intends 
 to remain here till Friday, when he shall have a reinforcement, and then it is 
 his intention to cross over to Snow's Island, beard Marion in his den, and 
 exterminate him and his men. He has received particular instructions from 
 Cornwallis to that effect" 
 
 " Marion is at Snow's Island, then?" asked Sprague, with an expression 
 of surprise. " How did the colonel learn that?" 
 
 18
 
 }38 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 " Somebody sent him word from Georgetown. Did you not know it ?" 
 
 " The fact is." he said, " Marion's whereabouts has long been a mystery to 
 us. Once in a while we hear of him; but it is only when he throws himseli 
 right under our very nose : and before we can collect men enough to take 
 him and his band, he is off Is this Tarleton's first effort to take him ?" 
 
 " Say rather the twentieth!" returned Griswold, with a shrug. 
 
 "And Marion has slipped through his fingers every time ?" 
 
 " Every time," replied Griswold. "The truth in the matter is, this Marion 
 has not been dubbed the Swamp Pox for nothing. Now he is here, now 
 there, and you think you've got him : but when you come to lay your hand 
 upon him, he isn't there !" 
 
 " In fact," said Bascomb, " this is Tarleton's latest attempt to take him. 
 He has undertaken it and failed so frequently, that Cornwallis begins to 
 taunt him with inability. It is therefore a point of honor, as well as pride, 
 with him, to make this trial a successful one." 
 
 "Which he will not!" muttered Sprague to himself. "No doubt," he 
 said aloud, " he will achieve Marion's capture, if he bends himself to it. His 
 present large force by the way, what is your number?" he added ab- 
 ruptly. 
 
 " Eight hundred," answered Bascomb. 
 
 " And Marion's ?" 
 
 "It is supposed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred," ' 
 answered Lester, to whom this question was addressed. 
 
 "And your expected reinforcements " 
 
 " Will amount to two hundred more." 
 
 " Which." said Sprague, " added to your present force, will make a total 
 of eleven hundred men. With such immense odds in his favor, Tarleton 
 cannot help capturing the rebel. When did you say the reinforcement 
 would arrive?" be added, carelessly. 
 
 "On Friday." 
 
 "Where from?" 
 
 " Georgetown." 
 
 " By the line of the Black River ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Under whom?" 
 
 "Colonel Watson." 
 
 "Can he be relied on?" 
 
 "Who? Colonel Watson ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Unquestionably." 
 
 " Then there is no chance for the Swamp Fox," said Sprague, laughingly. 
 "He'll lose his tail at last!" 
 
 "Oh, it won't be so very easy a matter to take him, as you think," ob- 
 served Bascomb. " Marion's position is in itself almost impregnable. It is a 
 sort of natural fortress. Two hundred well armed and properly posted men 
 could hold it against an army." 
 
 " In that case," returned Sprague, " what prospect of success has Tarleton 
 with eleven hundred troops against the four or five hundred of Marion, es- 
 pecially as the latter knows, no doubt, how to post his men judiciously ?" 
 
 "Ah!" replied Bascomb, knowingly, "that's the mystery!" 
 
 "Then," said Sprague, "Tarleton don't intend to storm the island, after 
 
 "No," returned all of the officers at once, in the tone of men possessing a 
 great secret. 
 
 !! ^k~ ne . don>t ? " said Sprague, imitating their manner. 
 
 ' No," said Bascomb. Then bringing his lips close to the young man's ear,
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRV MEN. 139 
 
 he added, " his plan is to divide his men, and attack the den of the Swamp 
 Fox in five different points at once !" 
 
 " Oh, ho !" exclaimed Sprague, with an expression of profound surprise. 
 "That's it, is it?" 
 
 Bascom and his companions nodded. 
 
 " Why," cried Sprague, with affected rapture, " the idea is grand, beauti- 
 ful, sublime !" 
 
 " Is it not?" exclaimed the officers, exultantly. "Won't that bother the 
 Swamp Fox, cunning as he is ?" 
 
 " It will not only bother, it will annihilate him !" exclaimed Sprague, ap- 
 plaudingly. " Upon my word ! I scarcely know which most to admire 
 Tarleton's courage, or the magnificence of his plans. He'll turn out a gene- 
 ral yet!" 
 
 '"Leave him alone for carving his way to greatness!" said Lester, know- 
 ingly- 
 
 "Now to frighten these drunken bucks out of their wits!" muttered 
 Sprague to himself. " By the way, gentlemen," he said aloud, " about this 
 nick-name of young Winter. Yoi&nust be cautious about letting it out just 
 yet, as well as of keeping silent in regard to its author." 
 
 " Ah !" observed Griswold, anxiously. 
 
 "Wherefore!" asked Bascom. 
 
 " Any danger in it ?" demanded Lester. 
 
 Sprague glanced at their anxious features alternately, and then answer- 
 ed, slowly : 
 
 " The fact is, Richard Winter is one of the greatest dare-devils in South 
 Carolina." 
 
 " What then ?" said Griswold, somewhatAervously. 
 
 "What do we care for him?" continuerl Bascom, with an air of de- 
 fiance. 
 
 " What of that ?" asked Lester, in a voice which trembled despite ite ef- 
 forts to appear firm. 
 
 As to die other three officers, they appeared perfectly indifferent 
 
 "He is also," added Sprague, in a slow, measured tone, " a most expert 
 swordsman." 
 
 Griswold changed color. Moisture gathered upon his brow. 
 
 Lester's fingers trembled convulsively, and his cheeks became pale. 
 
 Bascom alone was unmoved. 
 
 Sprague's calm, watchful eyes carefully observed each of these marked 
 changes. 
 
 " More than this," he added, " Winter is of a wild, fearless, unforgiving 
 spirit, dangerous even when unruffled, but fearful and implacable when 
 aroused. Ask his character of any man in this neighborhood, and he will 
 tell you he would rather have the ill will of a hundred men for twenty 
 years, than the anger of Richard Winter for a single hour." 
 
 Lester and Griswold now became absolutely livid. They could not speak ; 
 fear had struck them dumb. 
 
 " Do you tell this to frighten us ?" demanded Bascom, sternly. 
 
 " On the contrary," replied Sprague, calmly, " I tell it to you out of pure 
 good feeling, that you may not compromise yourselves. Should the names 
 of the authors of the sobriquet come to his ears, their lives would not be 
 worth the wine which is in this glass !'' 
 
 "For all that," said Bascom, without altering a muscle, " if he should ask 
 me if I were its author, I would answer him yes, and risk the consequences. 
 Well, fellow, what do you want?" 
 
 This question was put to the landlord, who now approached the table, and 
 -was standing beside him.
 
 140 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 " You desired me to let you know when Colonel Tarleton rose, so yon 
 could be the first to present yourself before him !" 
 " Well?" said Bascom, naughtily. 
 
 " Well, sir," added Barker, " Colonel Tarleton has risen, and is now making 
 his toilet." 
 
 " Very well," said Bascom, without thanking him. 
 
 The landlord moved away, muttering 
 
 " D n his haughty insolence ! I'll punish him for it yet ! Didn't I 
 
 overhear his ridicule of Dick Winter, and won't I tell him of it ? Oh, no 
 of course not !" 
 
 "Now, Sprague," said Bascom, tranquilly, "in case this affair should come 
 in its true light to Winter's ears, and he should take the trouble to inquire 
 into its author, you have my full permission to tell him that the name of the 
 individual is Lieutenant George Bascom, of his majesty's ninety-third. 
 Good morning, sir !" 
 
 So saying, he rose from the table, and, accompanied by his companions, 
 passed from the bar room. 
 
 "You are a brave fellow!" muttered Sprague, following him with his eyes, 
 " and worth forty Richard Winters. As for me, now that the coast is clear, 
 I must hurry home, write Marion the details of Tarleton's plan, and at the 
 same time despatch a note to Somers, warning him of the danger of his be- 
 frothed. It strikes me forcibly," he continued, as he quitted the inn, " that 
 Colonel Watson and his two hundred troops will not make their appearance 
 here on Friday. I may be wrong, but such is my opinion !" 
 
 Meanwhile, Richard Winter, with an energy quite in keeping with his 
 character, mingled among the numerous idlers congregated in the neighbor- 
 hood of the Palmetto, propos^the organization of a band under the name 
 and style of the Tory Rangers, drew up a code of laws, persuaded some five 
 and twenty young fellows of his own stamp to sign it, nominated himself for 
 their leader, and, his dare-devil merits being universally known, was elected 
 without a dissenting voice. 
 
 Ere noon arrived, he had completed the necessary details for the manage- 
 ment of his band. These accomplished, he proceeded to the Palmetto, where 
 he waited impatiently for the signal to present himself before Colonel Tarle- 
 ton. 
 
 An hour floated by ere he received the desired permission. At the end of 
 that period, a young adjutant appeareU before him, saying : 
 
 " Colonel Tarleton desires to see you, immediately." 
 
 Winter bowed his thanks, hastened up stairs, turned into a chamber facing 
 tke green the same in which we have previously seen him, in company 
 with Frederick Crampton and the next moment was face to face with 
 Colonel Tarleton. 
 
 The latter was alone, and saluted him cordially. 
 
 "Take a chair, Winter," he said, familiarly, at the same time throwing 
 himself upon a seat near a small table, which was covered with maps, papers 
 and writing implements of every description. "I gave you yesterday," he 
 began, "a roving commission to harrass and annoy, in the name of his ma- 
 jesty, the rebel? of *his section of the province. But I have since heard so 
 much of your superior abilities, that I have decided upon changing that com- 
 mission to on of a higher character ; that is to say, 1 have thought it best 
 to send you to Cornwallis, in order that he may have the immediate advan- 
 tage of such services as you can render him in his efforts to crush this bold 
 and insolent rebellion. This, it appears to me, will be of greater and more 
 instantaneous advantage to yon, than the other, as it will bring you at once 
 under the eye of the commander-in-chief, and throw you into familiar con- 
 tact with one who is both capable of appreciating and rewarding your abili- 
 ties, at their true worth."
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 141 
 
 "How can I express my gratitude for this noble generosity " stammered 
 Richard, half wild at this turn of his good fortune. 
 
 " By saying nothing about it," interrupted Tarleton, smilingly. " In ono 
 worddo you know that I prefer monosyllablic replies to my interrogato- 
 ries? how does my plan suit you ? Answer me in one word !'' 
 
 " Well," returned Richard. 
 
 " Then we will consider it settled," said Tarleton, taking a couple of sealed pa- 
 pers from 'the table and handing them to his auditor. " Here are two letters, 
 which you will present to Cornwallis ; one of them concerns yourself, the other is 
 a private despatch relative to my own affairs. You will present them both 
 to the commander-in-chief, with my compliments, and act according to his 
 instructions. I need not say that both favor and fortune are now in your 
 own hands." 
 
 Eichard bowed his thanks. 
 
 " By the way, how many followers can you count upon?" 
 
 " Twenty -five," answered Richard. 
 
 " All stout, bold, determined and firm adherents of the king?" 
 
 " Every man of them." 
 
 " Enough. That is all that is required. What are your arrangements 
 immediate ?" 
 
 " Immediate." 
 
 " You could start, then, at a moment's warning ?" 
 
 " If so ordered yes." 
 
 "Very well, indeed!" exclaimed Tarleton, with an air of satisfaction. "I 
 find I have not overrated your abilities. I shall not call upon you to-day. 
 But at the earliest of to-morrow's dawn you had better be on your way, ac- 
 companied by your troop. You will find tlf commander-in-chief near Beat- 
 tie's Ford, on the banks of the Pedee. The sooner you reach him, as the in- 
 telligence in my despatch is of considerable moment, the heartier will be 
 your reception." 
 
 "I will start at day break," said Richard. 
 
 " Enough. Now for other matters. I owe Mr. Winter, your respected 
 father, an apology for my last evening's rudeness nay, don t interrupt me. 
 I owe him an apology, and, like any other debt, ft must and shall be paid. 
 Unfortunately, my duties are numerous, and my leisure moments few. 
 Nevertheless, if I cannot pay Mr. Whiter my debt to-day, I can and will to- 
 morrow. Will you oblige me by stating to your father, that I will do my- 
 self the honor to wait upon him at eight to-morrow evening? Ah ! you will? 
 Thank you f Now, then, as I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you 
 again for some time, let us shake hands. Be assured, sir, that my interest 
 with the commander-in-chief shall ever be exerted in your favor. Adieu !" 
 
 He pressed the young tory's hand -warmly, then resuming his seat, busied 
 himself with the papers on the table before him. 
 
 Richard retired, wild, trembling and confused at his good fortune. Hur- 
 rying his men together, he notified them of his arrangements, bade them 
 be in the saddle at the door of the Palmetto half an hour before dawn of the 
 following day, and then mounting his horse, drove home as if racing with a 
 thunder cloud. 
 
 Mr. Winter received the announcement of Colonel Tarleton's promised 
 visit first with surprise, and then with pride. The latter feeling, however, 
 was somewhat lessened as he heard of Richard's intended departure. This 
 was a blow for which he was scarcely prepared. Mr. Winter's fondness for 
 his son had degenerated into a weakness. With all his faults, Richard was 
 to him the apple of his eye. To look upon his " darling boy," was to him 
 the acme of human felicity. Not to have the privilege of seeing him at least 
 onoe a day, was unutterable misery. And now that he was going away, and 
 for an indefinite time the bare thought was frightful ! And while Richard
 
 142 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 hurried to his room, to make the necessary preparations for his journey, his : 
 father retired to his chamber to weep. Let us respect a weakness founded 
 on love ! 
 
 To Amy, the intelligence of Tarleton's coming was far from gratifying. At 
 first, it struck her like the announcement of an approaching misfortune. As 
 she reflected upon it, however, as she recalled Tarleton's libidinous manner, 
 his brazen effrontery, and the insulting proposal he had had the impudence 
 to make to her at the ball, as she weighed his intriguing character, his self- 
 imposed visit his pretext for getting Richard out of the way a suspicion, 
 faint at first, but gradually becoming clearer and bolder and stronger, of the 
 truth, stole over and appalled her. She shuddered as she thought of her 
 utter defencelessness in case her suspicions should become realities. To lay 
 her fears before Richard, would, she was aware, only be to subject herself to 
 ridicule and insult ; to explain them to her father, in the hope that he would 
 hearken to her with respect, would be utterly futile. In this position, what 
 was she to do ? A thought struck her. She would call on Mrs. Brunton, 
 tell her of her fears, invite her to spend the evening with her, and give -her, 
 at the same time, a delicate hint to bring a male friend or two with her. 
 This resource appeared to Amy her only one. She spent the remainder of 
 the day, the evening and the night, in trying to discover another or a better 
 one, but failed. 
 
 When she arose, Richard had already taken his departure. When she 
 descended to the breakfast room, she found her father in tears. Swallowed 
 up in fondness for his son, Mr. Winter had nothing for his daughter but 
 harshness, frowns and monosyllables. 
 
 As the morning wore away, hmyever, the old gentleman's severe manner 
 relaxed, and he became somewjit conversible. Taking advantage of this 
 calm, Amy proposed and obtained his consent to her inviting Mrs. Brunton, to 
 help her do the honors of the evening. Overjoyed at this permission, she 
 ordered the carriage, rode up to Kingstree, called upon her friend, and in a 
 few hurried words laid everything before her. 
 
 Mrs. Brunton heard her quietly to the end, and declined } She was sorry, 
 very sorry ; but her aversion to Colonel Tarleton was such, that nothing in 
 the world would induce he? to be seen for a moment in his society. As for 
 Amy's fears, she considered them, if she must speak plainly, weak, and with- 
 out foundation. Colonel Tarleton, though an unprincipled libertine, would 
 not dare to take any forcible steps for the accomplishment of his designs 
 upon a lady's honor. The idea was preposterous ! 
 
 Airiy was stupified at this unexpected refusal. She surveyed the widow 
 for a few moments with a mingled expression of astonishment and despair ; 
 then rising, she stammered confusedly her regrets at having disturbed her, . 
 and with a trembling air took her leave. 
 
 As she threw herself into the carriage, a sense of desolation crept over her. 
 The observations of Mrs. Brunton, far from reassuring, filled her with still 
 deeper alarm. As though it had been a whisper from her guardian angel, the 
 conviction now rose up before her that the widow, instead of being a friend, 
 was an abiding enemy. But for what? Amy tried in vain to solve the 
 enigma. Still, she was none the less satisfied that Mrs Brunton was an ad- 
 versary of whom she should beware. 
 
 But she had half thought the same of Richard and of her father ! But 
 were THEY her foes ? They were cruel, harsh, unsympathizing ; but did they, 
 could they, really hate her? No: it w&s impossible: for was she not allied 
 to them by blood the sister of the one, the daughter of the other ? The 
 idea was ridiculous. Why, then, might not her suspicion of the widow, 
 founded as it was on no juster basis, be equally as erroneous and unjust? 
 
 And yet, poor girl! she felt that everything was crumbling and giving way 
 beneath her ; that her old, best, and only friends were one by one deserting
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERKY MEN. 143 
 
 her ; that Richard cared nothing for her, and only regarded her as a target 
 for his all humors, and as a ladder by which he might mount to wealth, influ- 
 ence and power ; and that her father, carried away by his insensate love for 
 Richard, by whom he was guided in all things, even in his hatreds and affec- 
 tions, looked upon her, only as a thing to be used for his son's advancement, 
 and not as a legitimate claimant on his confidence or sympathy. 
 
 And why was all this ? Because of her acknowledged love for Somers ? It 
 must be so. For previous to that, she had had a small share in her father's 
 affections, but not a shadow of it since. Richard, too, was rough but kind ; 
 but since his discovery of her partiality for Neil, his heart seemed turned 
 against her. And now an old friend and confidant, Mrs Brunton, had also 
 for some inexplicable cause, joined in the chase to worry and run her down. 
 
 While striving to analyze the reason of this conduct on the part of her 
 fair friend, a thought, wild, fierce and burningly intense, came up from one 
 of the long-locked cells of her memory, and flashed across her startled brain 
 like a line of fire. 
 
 She remembered having heard it hinted that Mrs. Brunton was herself in 
 love with the handsome planter, and had resolved to win him ! 
 
 Could this be true? If so, then it was not a friend she had hi the accom- 
 plished widow, but a rival ! 
 
 This, then, explained the cause of Mrs. Brunton's coldness, of her waning 
 friendship, of her refusal ! This, then, was the key to her conviction that the 
 widow was her enemy ! 
 
 As these thoughts beset her, Amy gave way for a moment to a feeling of 
 despair. 
 
 Meanwhile, the carriage wa? slowly conveying her homeward. 
 
 Suddenly, in the midst of her heart's gloom, a star appeared Somers. 
 
 As the image of her lover passed before her mental vision, despair sprang 
 from her breast and slunk away ; the pearly tears which had been coursing 
 icily down her pale cheeks became a warm, gushing shower ; her heart, but 
 now heavy and oppressed, bounded with elasticity, fullness and hope Somers 
 was hers hers only ! 
 
 To console her for her brother's cruelty, had she not Somers' gentleness ; 
 to sooth her for her father's neglect, had she not Somers' fondness ; to pay 
 her for the sufferings she endured at the hands f her relatives and friends, 
 had she not Somers' constant love ? 
 
 What need then of fear, of anxiety, for the pretensions of her designing 
 rival? Away with them! She would think of them no more she would 
 forget all, everything that might render her unhappy ; she would remember 
 only the unfaltering love of Somers her Somers hers only ! 
 
 " But Tarleton ?" And as this sentence crossed her, her brow once again 
 grew dark.' " This hated Tarleton !" Were Somers near, she would not 
 tremble for fifty Tarletons ! If she but had a father that cared for her ! If 
 she but had a friend in whom she could trust a male friend, a friend who 
 wore a sword and had a noble heart ! 
 
 And with the rising of this thought, she unconsciously put her head 
 through the carriage window, and glanced down the road. 
 
 Had heaven heard her wish, and sympathizing with her grief, kindly sent 
 her what she so earnestly desired. 
 
 Scarcely twenty paces off she beheld one of the bravest,' cleverest, and 
 most generous minded gentlemen of Carolina, leisurely approaching 1 . 
 
 It was our old acquaintance, the exquisite, mounted on a small, beautifully 
 shaped roan, on his way to Kingstree. 
 
 Their eyes met, and Crampton, with that quiet ease for which he was so 
 remarkable, calmly lifted his hat and saluted her with a graceful bow. 
 
 Amy bade the driver pause, and the exquisite comprehending by this that 
 she desired to speak with him. quietly reined up beside the carriage window.
 
 144 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 " Weally, Miss Wintah," he began, " this is an unexpected pleasah ! How- 
 did you enjoy yourself at the ball ? Do you know I have a compliment for 
 you? But I musn't tell it, I suppose," he added drawlingly ; "it would 
 make you vain. Where is Wichard ?" 
 
 Then perceiving an air of sadness upon Amy's countenance, he said 
 
 " I'm afwaid, Miss Wintah, something twoubles you ! You have had some 
 bad news ? Can I be of any service to you ?" he added, in a more subdued 
 tone. " Ah ! you have something to tell me ? Nothing gone wrong with 
 Somahs, I hope ?" he continued bringing his ear close to her, and considerate- 
 ly throwing his eyes upon the ground. 
 
 The exquisite, as the reader is already aware, was the mutual friend and 
 confidant of the lovers, and Amy made no scruple of laying before him the 
 secret of her troubles. When she had concluded, Crampton observed : 
 
 " I am vewy much obliged to you, Miss Wintah, for this expwession of 
 your confidence. As to the individual under consideration, if he attempts 
 anything ungentlemanly, let him look out. Make yourself easy. I will see a 
 friend or two, with your permission, and make such awangements as will se- 
 cure you from injuwy." 
 
 "I expected nothing less from you my friend!" said Amy, with emotion. 
 " How shall I ever be able to evince my gratitude ?" 
 
 " Ah ! don't mention it," replied the exquisite. " It gives me the gweatest 
 pleasure imaginable to have the ability to show the high wespect I entertain 
 for you. Keep up your heart, Miss Wintah evewything will go well, depend 
 upon it. Au revoir /" 
 
 He lifted his hat gracefully, and bidding the driver proceed, pasted on, 
 leaving his fair friend with a lighter heart than he had found her. 
 
 As he rode into Kingstree, he directed his horse to the house of young 
 Sprague, with whom he was on a familiar footing. 
 
 The latter was about to leave the house, as the exquisite drew up at tha 
 garden gate. 
 
 "Ah! Crampton," cried Sprague, "well met Do you know I was just 
 going in search of you ?" 
 
 " Thank fortune ! my de-ah felloAv, you didn't have to go far. Lead the 
 way to your woom. I want your advice on a matter of sewious intewest." 
 
 " This way, then," returned Sprague. 
 
 They entered a small two story cottage in the centre of the lawn, passed 
 up to the second floor, and turned into the front chamber. 
 
 " Take a seat," said Sprague, handing his visitor a chair, and throwing him- 
 self upon another. " It appears that we were in quest of each other?" 
 
 " Ah yes," returned Crampton. " I have just had an interview with a 
 young lady fwiend in whom I feel a stwong intewest. She has some weason 
 to suppose herself in danger, and as I should nevah forgive myself if any ac- 
 cident should befell her when it was in my powah to pwevent it, I have come 
 to ask your assistance for a few hours after dark." 
 
 Sprague looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments, and then observed : 
 
 " This is very singular ! I was about to hunt after you, to make the same 
 request." 
 
 " You ?" said the exquisite, with an expression of surprise. " Are you not 
 quizzing me now ?" 
 
 " Not in the least. But who is your lady ?" 
 
 " Miss Wintah ! And yours, my deah fellow ?" 
 
 " Miss Winter." 
 
 "Now, Spwague, you curs quizzing me !" 
 
 "Not at all"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 146 
 
 What twap ?" 
 
 " The plan for her abduction." 
 
 " There is a twap, then," exclaimed Crampton, staring at him. " A twap 
 to carry her off?" 
 
 " Certainly, you know that, as well as Miss Winter do you not ?" 
 
 The exquisite quietly shook his head. 
 
 " Then how is it you are telling me of it?" asked Sprague, in astonishment. 
 
 " I ?" returned the exquisite, somewhat confused. 
 
 "You!" repeated Sprague. 
 
 "I," said Crampton, staring at his interlocutor, am telling you only of 
 Miss Wintah's suspicions." 
 
 " Ah ! that indeed ?" muttered Sprague, thoughtfully. " She suspects it, 
 then ?" 
 
 "That is all, my deah fellow! But you you! What is it you are talk- 
 ing about?" 
 
 " I am speaking of a fact!" 
 
 " Ah ! wait a moment, my deah fellow wait a moment !" returned the ex- 
 quisite, dropping his eyes upon the carpet with a puzzled air. At length his 
 brow cleared up, and raising his head, he added : " I see it now, Spwague ; 
 you know to be twue what she only suspects ?" 
 
 " I presume it is so," returned the other. " But let us compare notes, and 
 then we will be sure." 
 
 He then related what he had heard from the officers at the Palmetto. 
 
 The exquisite was both astonished and indignant at the recital Amd in 
 his turn he gave the details of his conversation with Miss Winter. 
 
 " It appears then," said Sprague, " that the young lady is far more saga- 
 cious than either her father, who innocently fancies himself a personage of 
 superior discernment, or her brother, who has suffered himself to be sent on 
 & wild goose chase. But, no matter. We must look to Miss Winter's safety, 
 at all hazards. What sort of a sword do you carry ?" 
 
 " None at pwesent," replied Crampton, laughingly. " But to-night I shall 
 be accompanied by as fine a wapier as there is in the pwovince." 
 
 " As there may be half a dozen of Tarleton's red-coats with him," said 
 Sprague, " and but two of us, I think it would be advisable to slip a pair of 
 baiters in your belt, as well. Why do you look so studious ?" 
 
 " I'm thinking,'" returned the exquisite, " what excuse I shall make to my 
 mother in case she detects me going out, armed, like a moving magazine." 
 
 " Tell her," said Sprague, ingenuously, " that a lady's honor is in danger, and 
 that she has selected you for her champion." 
 
 "Thevewy thing!" cried the exquisite, rapturously. "She would not 
 twy to keep me a moment after that ! I am vewy much obliged to you for 
 the suggestion ! But there's one thing, Spwague," he added, falteringly. 
 
 " Name it," said Sprague, who perfectly understood the noble character of 
 the man before him. 
 
 " There may be such a thing," said the exquisite, " as my being killed " 
 
 "Don't think of it " 
 
 " But I do" said Crampton, firmly ; " not for my own sake, but," he ad- 
 ded, touchingly, "my mother's ! My death would kill her. If I fall, pwom- 
 ise to break it to her gently. For, indeed, Spwague, her's is a delicate heart !" 
 
 " Fear not trust me ! JI ejaculated Sprague, in a broken voice. 
 
 " I wear her portwait on my heart," continued Crampton ; " if the chances 
 should be against me, take it to her and tell her I died with it and her name 
 on my lips. Pwomise me !" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " Enough !" said Crampton, at once assuming his usual quiet manner, 
 " We understand each other. Now, let us concert our plan of battle !" 
 
 19
 
 146 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE BATS 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 EARLY in the evening, that is to say, between eight and nine o'clock, Colo- 
 nel Tarleton, accompanied by Lieutenant Bascom, appeared at the door of 
 the Winters, and was shown at once into the drawing room. 
 
 Mr, Winter received him with an obsequious politeness which, while it 
 disgusted Tarleton, compelled Bascom to bite his lips till they bled, to pre- 
 vent him from bursting into laughter. 
 
 As Amy entered, Tarleton and his companion, struck with her dignified 
 air, brilliant beauty and winning gracefulness, involuntarily rose to do her 
 homage. 
 
 Amy's was of that rare loveliness which shines to greater advantage in the 
 drawing than in the ball room. Her movements were easy, her manner 
 quiet' and subdued, and her voice low, musical and clear. 
 
 The contrast between father and daughter was very striking. The former 
 was servile, pretentious, and unmistakably vulgar ; the latter was calm, self- 
 possessed, modest, and in her person, as in her bearing, bore herself like one 
 accustomed to move in good society. 
 
 Tarleton, with admirable tact, opened the conversation in such a manner as 
 to make it general ; and when he had succeeded in placing all parties at their 
 ease, gradually and imperceptibly drew Mr. Winter and the lieutenant into a 
 discussion, in which he left them, and then turned his attention to Arriy. 
 
 The latter, deeming it her best policy to be courteous and agreeable, re- 
 ceived him pleasantly, and they whiletl away an hour in charming converse 
 upon the ball, Kingstree, the province, the country, England, science, litera- 
 ture, art, and (it was the colonel who broached it) love ! 
 
 Here they paused, Amy. because the colonel set her the example : and Tarle- 
 ton, because love was his chief hobby, and because he wished to gather in his 
 forces, or, in other words, to collect his thoughts which the previous topics 
 had sent rambling, for a grand charge : for, be it understood, the introduction 
 of love into a conversation with a pretty woman, was with Tarleton, equivalent 
 to making her an offer of his heart without his hand. 
 
 " Love, Miss Winter," he began, " is the hope, the dream, of youth. It 
 ennobles man, and augelizes woman. It is, at once, the source of bliss and 
 misery ; bliss, if responded to, misery, if unreturned. Ah !" he added, with a 
 sigh, " no misery like that of unrequited love !" 
 
 Amy at once comprehended that Tarleton was merely acting, and she 
 guaged her reply accordingly. 
 
 " It appears to me," she said, "that love is oftener professed, than experi- 
 enced. People talk of love as they talk of nobleness, as they talk of glory : 
 without ever experiencing either." 
 
 "That," returned Tarleton, understanding her, "is unfortunately true. 
 But are we, therefore, to discredit that there are some hearts, honest, fervid 
 and faithful in their attachments, even when they express them ?" 
 
 "Humanity forbid!" returned Amy. " But they are rare." 
 
 " I'll not dispute that," said Tarleton, laughingly. " But if rare, should 
 they not, like other rarities, be treasured?" 
 
 ' By whom ?" asked Amy. 
 
 Tarleton was nonplussed. This was not the kind of answer he had expected. 
 Nevertheless, he proceeded. 
 
 "Say by her to whom he makes confession of his love?" 
 
 '' What if she desired it not ?" replied Amy, calmly. 
 
 " It is not in woman to live without loving," returned Tarleton, "as it is 
 not in man.'
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 147 
 
 "But his love may not please her," observed Amy, with a freezing smile. 
 " In that case, must she perforce receive it?" 
 
 " Perforce, no ! Love knows not force; it requires passions only that are 
 spontaneous." 
 
 " Say." continued Amy, "that she has a prior love already ? Of what in- 
 terest then to her is the newer rarity ?" 
 
 " But she can sympathise with him who offers it she can at least respect 
 it and him." 
 
 " No," returned Amy, coldly. 
 
 Tarleton looked at her with an expression of surprise. 
 
 " You amaze me," he said. 
 
 " Possibly," rejoined Amy. " I have no faith in ungenerous attachments." 
 
 " What do you mean by ungenerous attachments ?" asked Tarleton. 
 
 " Attachments selfishly formed to supplant another." 
 
 "But all attachments are selfish," said Tarleton. 
 
 " A genuine one must be so, if it would be pure," returned Amy, quietly- 
 ' : But it is also generous: for it provides for the happiness of the two parties 
 embraced in it. An ungenerous attachment, on the contrary, is simply and 
 purely selfish. It looks for its own happiness alone, and meanly strives to 
 attain it, first, at the expense of her to whom it is offered, who does not de- 
 sire it, and who is already happy in the possession of another, and secondly, 
 at the expense of him who loves, and trusting in her truth and honor, has re- 
 posed his love and faith in her keeping." 
 
 " And yet," said Tarleton, with an affectation of deep feeling, " such an 
 attachment may be honest, and spring from a free and generous soul. Man 
 is not the arbiter of his own feelings. . He cannot say to his heart, love this 
 maiden, or that His heart is free and independent of his will. It wanders 
 when and where it pleases, and happy, thrice happy he, whose heart and 
 mind fall on the same fair form ! But say they alight on one already chosen ? 
 What then ? Shall he have from her not one sweet smile ? not one glance of 
 pity? Is it fair that his loving heart, meeting with no response, should 
 wither and decay, and his bright mind, sympathizing with his stricken breast, 
 be plunged into eternal darkness ?" 
 
 " Woman," replied Amy, " is answerable for the consequence of such pas- 
 sions only as she intentionally creates. It would be ungenerous to charge 
 her with any others, or to expect her to pay the price of them." 
 
 "What not one sweet smile," said Tarleton, reproachfully, "not one 
 kindly glance, for so much misery ?" 
 
 Amy shook her head quietly. 
 
 "No," she said. 
 
 ' Ah ! Miss Winter, you are pitiless !" 
 
 " No," repeated Amy, "I am just. Her smiles, her kindly glances, are not 
 her own, but his to whom she is wedded, or affianced. She cannot giv^ what 
 does not belong to her, without committing a crime." 
 
 Tarleton bit his lip. He felt that, in Miss Winter, he had found, not a soft, 
 credulous country girl, whom he could twist around his finger with a word, 
 but one equal to the city's keenest witted belles, one who, in intellectual 
 warfare, was his superier far. 
 
 Nevertheless, he determined she should be his; he had made up his mind, 
 as well as his preparations, to this effect. Accustomed to triumph, his pride 
 instinctively revolted at the idea of defeat. Passion also influenced him to 
 this decision. His first glimpse of Amy at the- ball, had aroused desire, and de- 
 termined him upon making her his victim. From that moment to the pres- 
 ent, in his thoughts and his dreams, her image had been constantly before 
 him, firing his senses and inciting him to her conquest. 
 
 Even while she spoke, his roving eyes wandered insolently over her slender 
 yet symmetrical form, guessing at the charms hidden beneath the folds of her
 
 J48 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 I 
 
 pearl colored dress, and glittering with joy at the anticipation of approach- 
 ing dalliance. 
 
 Meanwhile, Bascom, prepared beforehand, performed his part to admira- 
 tion. In the discussion between himself and Mr. Winter, he spoke so loud, 
 fast and energetically, and kept up such a running fire of words as to effect- 
 ually succeed in the object for which it had been begun, viz : to enchain the old 
 gentleman's attention, and thus give Tarleton full play in the prosecution of 
 his designs upon the daughter. 
 
 In this the lieutenant was unconsciously assisted by the ambitious old tory 
 himself, who had not forgotten the instructions of his son, and who innocently 
 deluded himself with the fancy, that the colonel might, after all, fall a victim 
 to his daughter's wit and beauty, and, in due season, make her an offer of his 
 hand. 
 
 Tarleton resumed. 
 
 " I do not regard affairs of the heart in that light," he said, with a pleasant 
 air. " Love is too important to my happiness to be thus easily set aside. 
 Let us look at it in its true light. Man was made to love, woman to be 
 loved. Now, if " He paused suddenly, placed his hand to his brow, aad ap- 
 peared to be suffering. " Why," he said abruptly, " how oppressive ia the 
 atmosphere ! I'm afraid it will give me a vertigo. Suppose we take a walk 
 in the garden ? The air is freer and purer there !" 
 
 Amy hesitated, and appeared embarrassed. 
 
 "My father " she began, timidly. 
 
 " Oh," said Tarleton, interrup'ting her, " he will go with us, certainly." 
 
 And he addressed Mr. Winter to that effect 
 
 The latter replied, " he would be but too happy ;" and Bascom, previously 
 drilled, answering in the same strain, Amy, seeing there was no help for it, 
 took the proffered arm of Tarleton, and they entered the garden. 
 
 The night was calm, pleasant and beautiful ; the sky of a clear, pure blue, 
 and gemmed with myriads of stars ; and the moon bathed the garden, the 
 high road, the adjoining fields, the neighboring woods and hills and moun- 
 tains in a rich flood of silver. 
 
 The parties had scarcely descended the steps of the piazza, however, when 
 Mr. Winter received a stunning blow from some invisible hand, and fell with 
 a low groan, upon the gravelled walk. Amy started, and screamed, for a 
 sense of the reality of her danger was now manifest ; but ere she could turn to 
 retreat, Tarleton's arm had encircled her waist, and lifted her from off her 
 feet She struggled to free herself, uttering at the same moment, a prolong- 
 ed and piercing scream. 
 
 " Silence !" cried Tarleton, sternly, and placing his hand hastily over her 
 mouth ; " silence ! or, I'll strangle you !" 
 
 " Away with her," said Bascom, " or the slaves will be- upon us." 
 
 " Follow me," returned Tarleton, lifting his victim in his arms, and hurry- 
 ing to the road. But in raising the resisting girl, he was compelled to use 
 both hands ; and taking advantage of this, Amy again rent the air with loud 
 shrieks for help. 
 
 They were by this time on the highway. 
 
 " Where are the horses ?" cried Tarleton. 
 
 " Here," said a voice, under a tree, on the roadside, which he recognized as 
 that of Griswold. 
 
 " Hold her till I mount," said Tarleton, giving the screaming girl into the 
 hands of Bascom. 
 
 The next moment he was in the saddle. Congregated around Him were 
 three officers, viz: Bascom, Griswold and Lester. He had scarcely taken his 
 seat, however, when a hissing sound rang in his ear, then a sharp, benumbing 
 pain seized him in the right shoulder, and the next instant there were two 
 quick, echoing reports.
 
 OF MARION AND HI8 MERRY MEN. 149 
 
 A low groan broke from Griswold, whose hand was upon Tarleton's bridle. 
 He tottered back a step or two, threw up his arms with a gesture of surprise 
 and affright, uttered a faint sigh, and fell back upon the road dead. 
 
 " I am shot in the arm !" exclaimed Tarletou, with a cry of rage. " Hand 
 her up here, Bascom, and then to horse. We are beset!" 
 
 As these words passed his lips as Bascomb was in the act of lifting Amy 
 to the saddle as Lester, trembling with terror, was hastily placing his foot 
 in the stirrup, two mounted horsemen darted, sword in hand, from behind 
 the shadow of a knoll, about ten yards off, to attack them. 
 
 At the same instant a hurried patter of hoofe was heard upon the road as 
 if approaching with lightning speed. 
 
 "Yield, cowards, villains!" cried the nearest horseman. 
 
 "Ha! I know that voice!" exclaimed Bascom, forcing Amy across Tarle- 
 ton's saddle, stepping back a few paces, boldly unsheathing his blade, and 
 shouting " Fly, colonel fly ! Lester and I will cover your retreat !" 
 
 By this time Lester was in his saddle, and his weapon unsheathed. 
 
 " Enough !" answered Tarleton, wheeling his horse. " I would remain, but 
 my sword-arm is useless!" 
 
 "Look to him, Fred," cried the chivalrous Sprague, "I'll take care of these 
 rascals !" 
 
 " Take care of yourself, traitor !" shouted Bascom, rushing on him. " I'll 
 pin you to your horse !" 
 
 "Aye," answered Sprague, jerking his rein, " if you can !" As he spoke 
 his horse suddenly glided off, and Bascom's uplifted weapon descended upou 
 the ground. 
 
 " Where are you, Fred ?" cried Sprague, taking a momentary glance up 
 the road. 
 
 " Here," answered that gentlema, " twying to persuade this individual to 
 say his pwayers ! I feel an in te west in him !" 
 
 The exquisite and Lester were testing each other's skill at blood letting. 
 Instead of following Sprague's order, and pushing after Tarleton, he had turn- 
 ed in self-defence upon the officer, who had intercepted him. For this piece 
 of impertinence, as Cramp ton termed it, Lester had already paid in part the 
 price, in the shape of three dangerous wounds. 
 
 Sprague pressed hard upon his opponent the lieutenant, who defended him, 
 self bravely as well as with great skill, striving at the same time with all his 
 power to mount his horse, whose bridle he held in his left hand. 
 
 " Bascom," said Sprague, taking pity at length upon the lieutenant's infe- 
 rior position, " your share in this rascally abduction, renders you unworthy 
 of an honest man's notice. Nevertheless, you are courageous ; and as that 
 ie a redeeming quality, I will forego my superior advantage, and meet you on 
 foot !" 
 
 With these words, he leapt from his saddle, and the next moment their 
 blades were closed hi a more equal form of combat 
 
 Of the two, Bascom was perhaps the better swordsman, but this advantage 
 was neutralized to a considerable degree by the blindness of his rage. Sprague, 
 on tie contrary, was wholly self-possessed ; he parried the fierce thrusts of 
 his adversary, and lunged in return, with a coolness and energy which in- 
 creased the lieutenant's passion, while it compelled his admiration. The 
 combat was sharp, brief and decisive. Enraged at his adversary's sangfroid, 
 Bascom attempted to drive him from the firm position which he had main- 
 tained from the first ; failing in this, he next made an effort, by entwining his 
 sword with that of his enemy, throwing all his strength into his wrist, and all 
 his elasticity into his muscles, to disarm him. But Sprague's sinews were 
 wiry and supple, and successfully resisted the movement. 
 
 In his turn, Sprague now pressed upon the lieutenant. The latter, after an 
 ineffectual struggle to hold himself, was at length compelled to give ground.
 
 150 THE SWAHP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 While stepping backward, his foot struck against Gris wold's body, which was 
 lying across the road. The shock was so sudden and unexpected, that he 
 lost for a moment at once his guard, his equilibrium, and his presence of 
 mind. 
 
 That instant was taken advantage of by his adversary, whose blade imme- 
 diately made for itself a passage through hi? breast and worked its way with 
 the speed of light through the heart and liesh, coming out. reeking with blood, 
 at his back. 
 
 The lieutenant fell, with a deep groan, and as his head touched the ground, 
 his eyes glared for a moment up at his conqueror, who stood over him with 
 an expression which had in it more of grief than triumph. 
 
 " The game is with you," he cried, faintly. " That was a kme pierce !" 
 
 "I never shed blood before," said Sprague ; " and believe me I regret the 
 chance which brought me into collision with so brave a man as yourself. Too 
 are dying, sir, I fear." 
 
 "Never mind," said the lieutenant, faintly. "It's all right, I suppose. 
 You have only done by me, as I should have done by you." 
 
 " Can I do anything" for you ?" said Sprague. stooping down beside him, 
 and taking his listless hand in his own. 
 
 " No you are a good fellow !" returned the lieutenant, the glare passing 
 away from his eyes, and its place usurped by a pleasant light. " it's too late. 
 I haven't got breath enough to hold out two minutes. When you see Miss 
 Whiter, ask her to pardon me for this this G-od have mercy I I re- 
 pentI " 
 
 His lips ceased to move. There was a thick, gurgling sound a quivering 
 of the body a faint sigh, and Sprague felt that another soul had gone that 
 night to give its account to God. 
 
 Meanwhile, Frederick Crampton, determined to return home with a sound 
 skin, as well as to teach his antagonist a lesson he would not soon forget, was 
 energetically engaged in making marks, as he termed them, upon captain 
 Lester, whose efforts to return the favor were more remarkable for their 
 earnestness and number than their success. 
 
 "My deah fellow," observed the exquisite, with the utmost nonchalance, 
 " your skill is not equal to your desi-ah. I find you engaged in a vewy 
 shocking and ungentlemanly business. Ah ! see." he added, as he touched 
 him with the point of his rapier in the left breast, making the seventh wound 
 he had given him, ' your vewy body blushes at your meanness ! What 
 would your mother say if she should see you "! Ah! you are a pitiful fellow ! 
 Take care, don't slip from your saddle, "or you will inevitably bweak your 
 neck ! What it is wet, is it '? Then pweserve yourself in your seat, and 
 don't give the fear-sweat an opportunity to creep between the leather of your 
 saddle, and the cloth of your bweeches. What it is not sweat, but the blood 
 of your seven wounds ? Ah ! that alters the case. But, my deah fellow, in 
 order that you may not fall in consequence of your seven wounds, I will do 
 you the honor to give you another ; so that, if you dwop, it will be under the 
 cwushing influence of eight, which is a vewy good number, and quite enough 
 to dwive a man from his cours-ah, and compel him to say his pwayers. I 
 can't do it? Ah ! my deah fellow, you shouldn't say that. It isn't gentle- 
 manly in the society that I move in, to fib. You are aware of the fact that I 
 can mark you when, where, and as fwequently as I please. I am a d d 
 puppy, am I ? Well, if I am, my deah fellow, I know how to bark, don't I 
 and to bite eh?" This latter clause was put at the same moment with 
 his rapier, the first taking effect upon the captain's ear, the second npon his 
 shoulder blade, which was pierced to the bone, making his eighth wound. 
 " Ah !" continued the exquisite, in the same tantalizing tone. " that makes 
 you squeal, don't it? You see now, that if I am a puppy, I can bite most 
 iiiwiously. You'll make me sweat for that? No, you won't, my deah f^
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 151 
 
 low. I never sweat. I wear flannel, which you know absorbs moisture. 
 Ah ! that was a well aimed lunge, and if your hand were not so outwageous- 
 ly unsteady, it might have touched me. What ? it did touch me ? Non- 
 sense, my deah fellow your head, like your body, is getting light ; you wock 
 in your saddle, like a dwunken man your optics, like jour hand, can no 
 longer be depended upon ! Ah ! vewy good vewy good indeed that was 
 an excellent stwoke, but it didn't quite come home !" he tauntingly exclaim- 
 ed, as he evaded a thrust which just graced his side. " Half an inch more, 
 my deah fellow, and yon would have drawn your first blood. I'll show yen 
 how these things are done by those who understand it. It's a vewy bewful 
 pwocess. I assure you !" So saying, he drew back his nimble-footed charger 
 a few paces ; touched him lightly in the flanks, and started him on full run 
 towards the captain ; but instead of proceeding directly at him, he quietly 
 guided the fleet animal off to the left, and within three or four yards of his 
 antagonist, who, unable to divine his intentions, wheeled to meet him. This 
 being exactly what the exquisite wished and expected, he at this moment 
 pulled in his rein, and with such sudden fierceness as to almost throw the 
 spirited animal upon his haunches ; his forelegs, shod with bright new irons, 
 oscillated for an instant in the air, when the exquisite rising in his saddle 
 and throwing out his weapon touching him in the flanks, they fell forward 
 upon the hips of the captain's horse, which they tore fearfully down to the 
 very fetlocks, just as the exquisite's rapier penetrated the captain's neck. 
 
 " That's the ninth and last!" he tauntingly observed. "Nine is a bewful 
 number ! You will never want anothah never !" 
 
 Shrieking with pain, Lester's horse bounded forward a few steps, when it 
 reared, shook off its bleeding rider, quivered, again fell on its feet, and then 
 as if stricken with madness, darted off, screaming with agony and terror, 
 and was quickly oilt of sight 
 
 The exquisite new dismounted, and holding the bridle in his hand, ap- 
 proached his antagonist, who from the moment of his fall had made no sign. 
 
 " Are you alive, sir ?" demanded Crampton. 
 
 The captain made no reply. His face was turned upward ; the eyes open, 
 and staring ; the neck and left cheek crimsoned, while around him the dusty 
 earth was saturated with blood. 
 
 Crampton bent down and laid his hand upon the officer's breast. There 
 was no action of the heart in response. 
 
 Mis fall and the loss of blood had killed him. 
 
 The exquisite sighed. His heart was firm and pitiless while in the combat 
 Now that it was over, and his adversary dead, he could scarcely refrain from 
 weeping. 
 
 " Ah !" he murmured, " how his mother will weep when she hears of 
 this!" 
 
 " I see you have killed your man, Fred !" exclaimed a voice near him, which 
 he instantly recognized. 
 
 "Yes. Spwague," returned the exquisite, mournfully. "But it's vewy 
 shocking. I can't bear to think of it Where's that other fellow Bascom?" 
 
 " Where (rriswold is, where Lester is where the villain Tarleton should 
 be!" 
 
 " In eternity ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 The exquisite shuddered. 
 
 " How their mothers will weep when they hear of it!" he observed with a 
 sigh. 
 
 "You have a brave, considerate, and gentle heart, Fred!" exclaimed 
 Sprague, with an expression of admiration. " But come, to horse Miss 
 Winter is still in danger. Hark !" 
 
 He paused, as did his companion, and listened.
 
 152 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 There was a din, as if of conflict ; a low murmuring roar, made up of shouts 
 and of screams, and of sudden and irregular discharges of guns, and of heavy 
 tramping of feet as of many men rushing wildly to and fro, and of the quick 
 echoing patter of hoofs. 
 
 The two young men exchanged glances. 
 
 " 'Tis a battle ?" said the exquisite, inquiringly. 
 
 "Say rather 'tis a surprise, which will soon terminate in a rout !" returned 
 Sprague, with the air of a man who knows more than he tells. 
 
 " Led on "by whom ?" asked the exquisite. 
 
 " By whom but by him the fear of whose night surprises, ever keeps the 
 knag's troops in a state of constant alarm." 
 
 " By him?" demanded Crampton, his eyes sparkling with a feverish anxi- 
 ety to be gone. "Bwavo ! We have fwends, then, and Miss Win tab. may 
 yet be saved. As for me, I should like to help punish her abductor." 
 
 " And as for me," said Sprague, with animation, "I should like to help drive 
 him and his scarlet pack from Kingstree." 
 
 " Do you say so, Spwague ? To horse, then !" 
 
 " Aye, to horse !" 
 
 With these words, they sprang into their saddles and darted forward- as if 
 life and death hung on the footsteps of their steeds. 
 
 While these incidents were transpiring, Tarleton urged on his charger with 
 its double burden towards the village, between himself and which stretched 
 a winding highroad of one and a half miles. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, the accomplishment of this distance would 
 have been an easy as well a pleasant feat But in the present instance Tarle- 
 ton found it both difficult and painful. This arose from two causes : the 
 screams and unceasing struggles of Miss Winter to release herself from his 
 grasp and precipitate herself to the earth ; and the agony of his wounded arm 
 which hung like a useless appendage by his side. 
 
 He was therefore compelled to restrain the efforts of his fair prisoner with 
 his remaining arm, and to guide his steed with one hand. But as this arm, 
 thanks to Amy's energetic struggles, was continually moving every which 
 way, and as each movement correspondingly jerked his hand, and his hand the 
 bridle which it held, the consequence was his horse, turning now to the right 
 now to the left, then in a half circle, now in a whole one, then bunting up 
 against a fence or tree on the roadside, and then, following still the preed 
 and jerked bit, slewing around and proceeding back in the direction from 
 whence he came, it will easily be understood that he made but little progress, 
 and that his one and a half miles were more difficult to get over than he had* 
 had any idea of when starting. 
 
 Tarleton spared neither roughness of language nor of manner to persuade 
 his captive to cease her screams and abandon her struggles. But Amy closed 
 her ears to his threats, and renewed with greater intensity than ever her cries 
 for help and her efforts to free herself from the grasp of her abductor. 
 
 Tarleton had proceeded about three hundred yards, when he heard, grow- 
 ing more and more distinct each moment, the hurried tramp of an advancing 
 horseman. It was the same which had greeted his ear at the commencement 
 of his journey, but which the excitement of the moment and the agony of 
 his arm had caused him to forget. Could it be a friend ? He had no reason 
 to hope so. If an enemy with this thought, a sense of the reality ef his 
 danger burst upon him. If in a position to defend himself that is to say, 
 if his wound had not rendered his sword arm useless he would have cared 
 little for a dozen foes ; he would have fought his way through them all, 
 with a light heart and a careless laugh. But now, incapable of wielding a 
 blade, his captive struggling every moment to free herself, and thereby pre- 
 venting him from guiding and trusting to the fleetness of his horse to save 
 mm, he felt that resistance would be worse than idle.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 153 
 
 Meanwhile, the unknown horseman approached nearer and more near. 
 A moment, and he would be in sight, from which only a bend in the road 
 preserved him. Meanwhile, Amy's piercing cries for help startled both 
 horse and rider, maddening the first, and arousing all the black blood of the 
 second. 
 
 " Curse you !" hissed Tarleton, through his set-teeth. " Be silent, or I'll 
 violate you here on the open road ! Be silent, I say !" 
 
 Amy heeded him not. She, too, had heard tbe quick tread of the ad- 
 vancing horseman, and hope uprose before her. 
 
 At length the bend was passed, and in the clear moonlight Tarleton be- 
 held, some twenty yards ahead, what appeared to his disturbed fancy, a gi- 
 gantic spectre, mounted on a large coal-black steed of matchless symmetry, 
 and approaching him in a straight line with incredible swiftness. 
 
 The horseman, standing in his stirrups, held in his right hand a long, naked 
 Wade, and, so straight, firm and motionless was his bearing, appeared more 
 like an avenging spirit, than a thing of flesh and blood. 
 
 His horse, too, was worthy of its strange rider. With the exception of the 
 pattering of its hoofs, there was nothing to stamp it of earthly origin. It ap- 
 proached with the speed of lightning, and the silence of death. It did not 
 appear to breathe, and there was none of that energetic movement of the 
 muscles, which marks each spring of a genuine courser. 
 
 For a few moments, Tarleton, naturally superstitious, was seized with a 
 feeling of terror. Thanks to the bend in the road, he did not perceive the 
 mysterious horseman in time to wheel and flee, or to avoid the collision 
 which his captive's struggling movements and their corresponding pre&sure 
 upon his arm and bridle, now rendered inevitable. 
 
 In his terror, his courage and presence of mind vanished. He beheld the 
 spectral horseman approach closer and more close ; as the latter drew near, 
 he fancied he could detect the sulphurous odor which is said to accompany 
 visitants from the shadowy world. He closed his eyes to shut out the 
 frightful vision, and imagining his death hour had come, yielded himself up 
 for lost. 
 
 At this instant, the horseman glided by, and perceiving no show of resist- 
 ance, changed his sword from his right to his left hand, stretched out his 
 disengaged arm, transferred the fair captive from the colonel's saddle to his 
 own, whispered a word into her ear, which recalled her affrighted senses, 
 caused her to utter a cry of joy and to throw her arms in rapturous emotion 
 arownd the neck of her deliverer, and then passed on in his flying course with 
 apparently the same statue-like imperturbability which had marked his ap- 
 proach. 
 
 When Tarleton re-opened his eyes, he was solemnly impressed with the 
 conviction that he had seen an inhabitant of the spirit world. He lived in 
 an age when superstition counted its votaries by millions, when spectral ap- 
 pearances were supposed to be not infrequent, and when all classes, from the 
 ermined monarch down to the rough clad peasant, were more or less in- 
 fluenced by an unshaken belief in visitants from the phantom world. 
 
 "It is a warning!" he muttered, moodily. "The presence of an appari- 
 tion is at all times the precursor of calamity. Something fearful is about to 
 happen. Why did I engage in this rash adventure? Fool, dolt, idiot that! 
 am, I am always rushing into follies, that bring with them, for me and mine, 
 a terrible ending ! But they will shortly have an end else why the appear- 
 ance of this spectre. Hark!'' 
 
 He raised himself in his stirrup, strained his eyes in the direction of Kings- 
 tree, and listened. 
 
 A low, confused din, rising gradually into a roar, fell on his ear. He was 
 too familiar with such sounds to mistake them. 
 
 " Did I not say so?" he muttered, smiting his forehead passionately. " Did 
 20
 
 154 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 I not say so ? A surprise, and I absent ! I am ruined Lo ! my calamity is 
 begun!" 
 
 Plunging his spurs into his charger's flanks, he dashed forward, foaming 
 with passionate self-reproach. 
 
 He had proceeded about a quarter of a mile, when he discovered two 
 horsemen rapidly approaching him. By the peculiarity of their costume, he 
 recognized them as friends. 
 
 " Well ?" he demanded, as they came within hearing. 
 
 " Colonel," said the foremost, " I have been despatched in search of you. 
 We are beset, and a large number of our men are cut to pieces, and " 
 
 "Silence!" thundered Tarleton, foaming with passion. "Who is in com- 
 mand?" 
 
 ' Lieutenant Davidson." 
 
 " Back, and tell him I am coming. Who is that with you '?'' 
 
 " Adjutant Benedict" 
 
 " Enough. Let him accompany me. As for you, back and tell Lieutenant 
 Davidson I will be with him in five minutes after your arrival. Begone !" 
 
 " I will so report, sir !" replied the young officer, wheeling his horse and 
 returning in the direction whence he came. 
 
 " Adjutant Benedict," said Tarleton, as the other approached, "ride down 
 the road till you come to the next house. You will there find three of your 
 superior officers engaged in a combat. Call them off in my name, and bid 
 them hurry to the rescue. Despatch, sir !" 
 
 He waived his hand, and then resumed his route. 
 
 The young adjutant, marvelling at the colonel's desertion of his men under 
 such circumstances, hurried off to obey his order. But he scarcely proceeded 
 a hundred yards, when, at a bend in the road, he suddenly found himself face 
 to face with two armed horsemen. 
 
 "Loyalists or rebels?" he demanded as he unsheathed his weapon, in no 
 wise daunted by the odds against him. 
 
 "Rebels to the king, loyalists to the American Congress!" shouted the 
 foremost rider in a tone that made the officer start 
 
 "Ha! I know that voice," he exclaimed, somewhat disturbed; "but I 
 was not aware before that it belonged to a rebel As for me, I am a servant 
 of the king. Come on!" 
 
 "Thank you!" returned the other. "I accept your invitation. Stand 
 back, Fred. One against one is quite enough !" 
 
 '' Vewy good," returned his companion quietly. 
 
 Sprague the reader has already guessed it pressed energetically upon 
 the young officer, and after a few passes disarmed him. 
 
 " You are my prisoner !" he exclaimed. " Come, sir turn your horse's 
 head. There is not' a moment to lose. Fall in, Fred. We are wanted at 
 Kingstree." 
 
 The adjutant, confused at the suddenness, and humiliated at the result of 
 the incident, complied with this order, uttering at the same time a deep sigh. 
 In another moment, the trio were moving 'at a brisk pace toward the vil- 
 lage, 
 
 "You look dejected, sir," observed Sprague, kindly. "But cheer up 
 your position is only one of the chances of war." 
 
 "I am not thinking of myself," returned the adjutant, " but of the effect 
 my capture may have upon those whom I was ordered to look up." 
 
 "If you allude to the three accomplices whom Colonel Tarleton left be- 
 hind him, I can ease your mind at once. They, have rant the fate their 
 crime provoked." 
 
 " Their crime, sir ?" returned the adjutant, drawing himself up. 
 
 " Yes, their crime ! Is it too harsh a term to apply to men who volunta-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 155 
 
 rfly engage in the forcible abduction of a young lady, to gratify the lust of a 
 heartless libertine ?" 
 
 " Pardon me," said the adjutant. ' I was not aware of that This, then, 
 was Colonel Tarleton's errand down here to-night ?" 
 
 " That, and no other, as I am a Christian !" answered Sprague. 
 
 " Then shame upon him !" exclaimed the young officer, indignantly. " Oh, 
 I shall never be able to treat him with the respect due to my commander, 
 again ! I blush for him I blush for our army, which has such men for its 
 leaders I blush at myself, for my connexion with such a man for my supe- 
 rior. It is humiliating ! And his accomplices, you say " 
 
 " Are now in the presence of their God !" said Sprague, solemnly. 
 
 The adjutant shuddered. 
 
 " Their names ?" he asked. 
 
 " Bascomb, Lester and Griswold." 
 
 " What ! the best officers of our regiment ! Oh, Tarleton Tarleton ! 
 what excuse can you offer for the ignoble end to which your brutal lust has 
 consigned these brave men. Shame upon you shame upon you !" 
 
 " You are an honest man, sir !" said Sprague, warmly, " and as such I now 
 restore you to liberty. Take back your sword, sir !" 
 
 The officer received it with a low bow, and in a voice agitated with emo- 
 tion, returned his thanks. 
 
 They were now within a short distance of the village, which was in a 
 stormy commotion. 
 
 '' Here let us part, sir !" said Sprague, extending his hand to the adjutant. 
 " You have a better heart than I supposed to be in the British army. It 
 would give me great pleasure to see you engaged in a nobler service." 
 
 " Do not," he said, with a quivering lip, " wound me with an insult which 
 gratitude forbids me to resent ! I am an Englishman, and regard the king's 
 service as the highest on earth." 
 
 " I respect your opinion, sir, and bow to the justness of your reproof," re- 
 turned Sprague, tranquilly. " Shak,e hands, sir. " Adieu !" 
 
 And they parted. 
 
 They were soon at the head of the road. They paused for a few moments 
 to survey the scene before them. 
 
 Riot, terror, uproar and confusion reigned throughout the village. Squads 
 of half-dressed soldiery, some with .and many without arms, were flying in 
 every direction ; some making for the green, some for -the dwellings and 
 fences, and others for the roads and fields. 
 
 Scattered over the ground, 'solitarily and in heaps, lay scores shrieking with 
 agonizing wounds, or stark and pale in death. 
 
 The air, thick with smoke, rang with the roar of musketry and the din of 
 steel. 
 
 Here was a brawny woodsman coolly aiming at a flying trooper ; there 
 another, with clubbed weapon, braining one after another three or four 
 panic stricken wretches who were flying confusedly before him. At another 
 point might be seen three or four horsemen pursuing, with raised blades, 
 half a score or more, and sternly cleaving to the shoulder all with whom 
 they came in contact ; at another, thirty or forty riflemen pouring in 
 a deadly fire upon a body of troops flying pell mell before them ; at still an- 
 other, a hundred or more of fierce<-browed rangers, led on by the tall, stal- 
 wart form of our old friend the scalp hunter, charging with resistless impetu- 
 osity a scattered mass of troops who vainly strove to hold their ground 
 against their fierce assailants ; while upon the green could be discerned, de- 
 spite the smoke of conflict, the small, slender but wiry form of Marion 
 mounted on a bold, powerful roau. and directing the fierce onsets and sweep- 
 ing charges of two hundred iron willed riflemen against a force double his 
 own, commanded by the dashing and impetuous Tarleton.
 
 156 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 While Sprague' and the exquisite were thus taking a hurried survey of the 
 exciting scene before them, they were suddedly startled by a loud voice 
 with the inquiry : 
 
 "Gentlemen, America needs the help of all her friends to-night! Are ye 
 for her with your swords, as with your hearts?" 
 
 It was the voice of Somers. 
 
 " Lead on, sir !" responded Sprague. 
 
 "Lead on, sir I am weady!" answered the exquisite. 
 
 " Ho, there, hold up !" shouted the planter, in a clear, ringing tone, to a 
 body of rangers in pursuit of a panic stricken party of troops flying towards 
 the town house ; ^' ye are wanted on the green. Follow me !" 
 
 And setting himself at their head, he rushed forward with a loud shoutj 
 gallantly followed by his men. 
 
 By this time the scalp hunter had succeeded in scattering the troops with 
 whom he had been engaged, and calling off his rangers from the pursuit, he 
 reformed them, and marched forward to the relief of Marion. 
 
 The latter was already on the point of victory, and this reinforcement, 
 coupled with that of the planter, quickly decided it. 
 
 Tarleton, unable longer to hold out, gave the order for retreat, and in a 
 few minutes the royal troops were flying with all speed from the Tillage, and 
 by the same road by which they had entered it but three days before. 
 
 The surprise was triumphant and complete. Calling off his men from the 
 pursuit, gathering together the prisoners, arms, ammunition and stores which 
 had fallen into his hands, Marion encamped on the green for the remainder 
 of the night ; and at day break of the following morning quietly returned to 
 his head-quarters at Snow's Island, as much for the purpose of security as to 
 indulge his exhausted followers in a day or two of tranquil repose. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SNOW'S ISLAND, better known by its traditionary name of the camp of 
 Marion, lay at the confluence of Lynch's Creek and the Pedee River. Though 
 of no great magnitude, Snow's Island was yet spacious, romantic, pictur- 
 esque and imposing. It was surrounded by a deep swamp, leading to a vast 
 and almost impenetrable cane brake, through which an army would find it 
 extremely difficult and dangerous to pass. Beyond the canes, on the rising 
 grounds, loomed up a thick forest of massive pines, towering cypress and 
 stately laurel, whose contiguous trunks and interlacing limbs formed a con- 
 tinuous natural belt, guarding the approaches to the interior of the island like 
 an immense wall. Here and there the forest border was broken by deep 
 gullies and dark ravines, whose jagged sides were covered by thick mosses 
 and creeping briars, and in the shadows of whose broken and cavernous 
 ledges lay sleepless sentinels, the long, black tubes of whose unerring rifles 
 might be seen peeping through the clambering vines. 
 
 On the tops of the skirting trees, and concealed amid the branches, look- 
 outs were stationed, to give warning of the approach of friend or enemy. 
 
 Breaking through, the wood and underbrush, for a distance of about a 
 hundred yards, you fall suddenly into a large, level plain, marked here and 
 there with small patches of Indian corn, beds of sweet potatoes, and now and 
 then a solitary and majestic cypress. Guarding it on all sides, rise one above 
 the other, continuous lines of towering timber, giving to the long, broad plain, 
 the aspect of a vast natural amphitheatre. 
 
 Scattered here and there are rude tents, formed of saplings and beechen 
 bark. Lying at the foot of R shady tree behold a ragged, bare foot, gaunt^
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 167 
 
 but active and vigorous borderer, his hand upon the barrel of his rifle even in 
 his moments of slumber. A short distance from this tired and worn-out 
 sleeper are a group of six or eight, ragged and gaunt as himself, seated around 
 a ground fire, roasting corn and potatoes, their only food, and talking over 
 their latest adventures. Not far off from these, behold some forty or fifty 
 men, in the rough, uncouth garb of borderers, ploughmen and woodsmen, in- 
 dulging in rude sports and trials of muscle, suppleness and speed. Afar oflj 
 we find old warriors drilling and exercising squads of new recruits. Others 
 are hoeing the corn and potato patches with assiduous care. Rifles are lean- 
 ing against the straggling trees, sabres and rapiers depending from their 
 boughs. Here and there is a rough, powerful woodsman cleaning the lock, 
 and otherwise overhauling his trusty weapon and preparing it for future use. 
 Steeds are browsing in the shade, their bits loosened, and the saddle still on 
 their backs, ready to be strapped at a moment's warning, and to start at the 
 first shrill peal of the bugle. Through the openings of the rude tents may be 
 seen here a borderer sewing up the rent made in the last sortie, there a rag- 
 ged, half naked ploughman rivetting the crazy handle of his hacked sabre, 
 and joking with another who is vainly laboring to peg up the uppers of his 
 worn-out shoes which let in daylight as well as water on his toes. At the 
 foot of a tree, wrapped up in his blanket, we see a poor, miserable, squalid, 
 half famished wretch, striving to forget his country's sufferings and his 
 own in the lethe of, repose. 
 
 This was the camp of Marion. 
 
 About three weeks after the incidents related in the preceding chapter, 
 three persons were seated before a small oblong table in the beechen tent of 
 Marion, which had nothing to distinguish it from those around, except a rag- 
 ged flag floating above its top. 
 
 The parties in the tent, were General Marion, Somers, and Nat, the scalp 
 hunter. 
 
 " I have sent for you, gentlemen," began the general, throwing his deep, 
 thoughtful eyes upon his auditors with an impressive air, " to lay before you 
 a few important facts, and to get your views upon them." 
 
 The planter and scalp hunter bowed. 
 
 " That you may better understand, gentlemen, what I am about to ask 
 your counsel upon, I will first state my position. I am, as you are aware, a 
 mere partisan, battling with such humble energies as I can call into action, 
 for the benefit of my poor, bleeding country. I am in the field, not for fame, 
 nor yet for money, but for the cause of humanity. Nominally in the service 
 of Congress, in reality I am in my own. Not a man in my regiment, looks 
 for any other reward for his services, except that which arises from the con- 
 sciousness of having performed his duty in his efforts to emancipate his 
 country from the unscrupulous rule of a brutal and unscrupulous tyrant I 
 am more in the service of Carolina than in that of Congress ; and I prefer the 
 service of our province, as it leaves me at perfect liberty to choose my own 
 men, my own mode of fighting, and my own battle grounds. Still, as the 
 success of Congress is our success, as its failure is also our failure, I owe a 
 certain allegiance to Congress, which, as an American soldier battling for 
 America, I cannot shake off, and would not if I could." 
 
 He paused, bowed his pale brow for a moment or two upon his hands, and 
 then resumed. 
 
 " The struggle between the colonies and the mother country, has been a 
 long and trying one ; and there is every prospect of its continuance till one 
 of two things shall happen the destruction of the small army of Congress, or 
 that of the greater one of the king. The chances are unquestionably with 
 the royal party, which outnumbers ours five to one ; and which instead of 
 decreasing, notwithstanding its numerous defeats, is continually being 
 strengthened and invigorated by tories from our own shores, and by fresh
 
 158 THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 accessions from abroad. Ours, on the contrary, grows smaller and smaller 
 day by day, partly through desertion, partly through battle, but more through 
 want of arms, ammunition, clothing, provisions and money, which the enemy 
 has in abundance." 
 
 " "We must snake 'em from him, gineral !" answered the scalp hunter, im- 
 patiently. 
 
 Marion smiled. 
 
 " We'll come to that by and bye," he said, quietly. " To prevent, then, 
 the cause, in which we all hare an abiding interest, from falling to the 
 ground, we must give it a fresh interest by fresh victories, and these victo- 
 ries must be decisive ; to save our small army in the South from being cut 
 up and destroyed in detail, our scattered forces must be united, and our bat- 
 tles, triumphs ; to re-invigorate the hopes and hearts of our troops, who are 
 now sunk in mental despondency because their feet are without shoes, their 
 stomachs scarcely ever filled, and their bodies clad in rags, we must feed and 
 clothe them, so their hopes and hearts and their wandering, wavering con- 
 fidence, may come back to them. Then, and not till then, will the cloud that 
 so long has hovered over us, pass away." 
 
 The planter bowed his head thoughtfully in the palms of his raised hands. 
 The scalp hunter, unconsciously to himself, began to play with the horned 
 handle of his long knife, and to examine, with a critical eye and feel, the edge 
 and temper of its blade. 
 
 Marion observed them both, quietly. 
 
 "My own men," he continued, "are very, very poor! They fight neither 
 for money nor fame but for their country. They are keen, brave, patient, 
 tried and enduring men. Privation and suffering they heed not ; danger, 
 affliction, death, touches them not, so long as hope clings to THE CAUSE. They 
 are able and willing to go on, but they are poor. They cannot be always 
 with me, they cannot be always in the field ; their farms, or rather I should 
 say their families, require them during the planting and harvesting seasons 
 of the year. It was but yesterday, as you know, when fifty of our best ran- 
 gers were compelled to leave us for a time, to attend to the wants of their 
 families ; and thirty more obtained leave for the same purpose to-day. They 
 are poor, their wives and children suffering for food and raiment, and they 
 had to go and provide for them ; to earn bread and garments for them as 
 well as for themselves ; and forty others, our best, bravest and trustiest men, 
 desire to start to-morrow. Their families need them their families that are 
 suffering, famishing, dying with want !" 
 
 Tears were trickling through the planter's fingers, though all unknown to 
 him. 
 
 The scalp hunter's eyes were moist, and his coarse, rough hands trembled 
 as they toyed with the long, sharp knife. 
 
 " These men, at least the most of them," continued Marion, '' will all come 
 back when they have made a temporary provision for thier families and them- 
 selves their poverty will not permit them to return before. Meanwhile, 
 through their absence, what chances to drive the British squadrons from our 
 province, will be lost, what opportunities for cutting off provisions, arms and 
 ammunition from reaching the foe. will have to pass unheeded ; what de- 
 feats will the few who remain with us have to endure, for want of sufficient 
 companions to convert them into triumphs? My heart, gentlemen my 
 heart bleeds to think of it!'' 
 
 " You have not told us all, general '?" said the planter, looking up ; his eyes 
 red with weeping, his cheeks pale with anguish. 
 
 "No," said Marion, with an air of deep agony. ; 'I have not told you all 
 The worst is yet to come. Listen. As we have gone on for years, as 'we 
 are going on now, so we will go on for years to come, unless some thing de- 
 cisive be done to relieve the sufferings of our men, and to preserve them
 
 m 
 
 from the necessity of leaving us se frequently to attend to the wants of their 
 families. General Green requests me to form a junction with him and Sump- 
 ter, so that our united forces may this year drive the British from Carolina 
 and the South. But what junction can I form with him, even for so essen- 
 tial and important a step, when my rangers are scattered the plough in 
 their hand instead of the rifle ! And yet, as you see, gentlemen, something 
 like this must be done, or our struggles in the past and in the present, as weD 
 as those which are to come, will be for naught. And yet again, gentlemen," 
 he added, in a voice which trembled with emotion, " to do this, to prepare 
 for this, we must have money !" 
 
 " You have a plan ?" said the planter, inquiringly. 
 
 " Ef yew hev, gineral," added the scalp hunter, in a tone of deep feeling, 
 "put us on the trail, an' we'll run down the varmint quicker n chain 
 lightnin' !" 
 
 "I have a plan," returned Marion, slowly, "but it is attended with the 
 deepest danger." 
 
 " We ain't of the skeery breed, gineral!" observed the scalp hunter. "An' 
 ef it's in keepin' with your idee to let us inter it, the camp wun't long be 
 without a full compliment of rangers." 
 
 " I was sure of your co-operation in my design, gentlemen," returned Ma- 
 rion, " or I had not asked you to this conference. To prove the unlimited 
 confidence I repose in you, I despatched a note to General Geeen ten min- 
 utes after I received his letter, informing him of my acceptance of his pro- 
 posal to unite our forces, and pledging myself to bring with me every man of 
 my brigade." 
 
 "That was doin' the hanusvun thing, gineral!" observed the scalp hunter, 
 with an animated smile. 
 
 " It was trusting your honor in our humble hands !" exclaimed the planter, 
 with emotion. 
 
 " Ah ! gentlemen," returned Marion with an air of confidence which was 
 wholly sublime, " have you not had it, together with my life, in your pos- 
 session, from the first hour of our struggle ? And should I meanly with- 
 draw it from you now ?" 
 
 The planter and his comrade burst into tears. 
 " Command us!'' they cried, simultaneously. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Marion, In a broken voice, " I will confess that this 
 new evidence of your heroic devotion, does not surprise me. Knowing the 
 purity of your 'patriotism, the unfaltering character of your courage, the fer- 
 vency of your friendship, your elevating sense of honor, I looked lor it, and 
 thought myself prepared for it. But yet, now that it is here, now that it is 
 no longer an anticipation but a reality, I must acknowledge, and I do it free- 
 ly, that it makes me tremble, that it shakes my soul. For it is danger great 
 danger, to which I am about to expose It. It may be that death do you 
 hear me, my friends death ? shall be the reward of it death V' 
 
 "Ef it be fifty," cried the scalp hunter, "let 'em cum! I'm in the cause 
 to the last hair in my scalp. An' ef I cave in, the red coat varmint will 
 smell pisin afore I drop !" 
 
 "As for me, General," said the planter, with an air of solemn grandeur, " I 
 have already consecrated my arm, my sword, my energies, my life if it need 
 be, to my country. I am ready to redeem my pledge 1 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Marion, with a trembling lip, " I will no longer keep 
 from you the secret mission which our suffering country calls upon you to 
 take up. Listen, gentlemen." 
 " We listen." 
 
 " Gentlemen, the city of Charleston is in the hands of the enemy that 
 enemy who shows no mercy to rebels, who has for every American that 
 falls into his hands nothing but a bullet or a cord 1"
 
 160 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 " We care not for the bullet," said the planter, firmly, for himself and his 
 companion, " we care not for the cord !" 
 
 " Gentlemen, in Charleston, there are spies at every hand, to watch and 
 give up every rebel who dares to show himself within the city's ward." 
 
 " We care not for the spies we will baffle them !" 
 
 " Within the city's ward are framed the plans for the subjugation of Caroli- 
 nia and the south. It is necessary that you go to Charleston, incur the risk 
 of detection and of death, learn the strength of the British force as well as 
 their designs, and transmit it on to me, that I may again despatch it to Gen- 
 eral Green, who will take his measures accordingly." 
 
 " We will go to Charleston!" 
 
 " Gentlemen, it is at Charleston where lie the resources which we so much 
 need, and which enable the enemy to continue this harrassing and ruinous 
 war." 
 
 "You shall have a portion of those resources, general, I promise it !" 
 
 "And I, gineral," said the scalp hunter, " I gurantee that the British wunt 
 do much with what's left The varmint hev had 'em long enuff a cussed 
 sight longer than they'll ever hev 'em agin!" 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Marion, with emotion, " I accept your promise. And 
 now, remember two things, all important secresy and despatch!' 1 
 
 " We shall not forget" 
 
 " The destiny of our country hangs, perhaps, in your hands remember 
 that. Go now, my friends, my companions ! and make ready for your jour- 
 ney !'' 
 
 " A word, general," said the planter. 
 
 " Speak, my friend." 
 
 "I received to-day a letter from my tender parent She is nervous and 
 unhappy. Her loneliness is killing her." 
 
 " In view of which," said Marion, sympathizingly, " you have a favor to 
 
 "Yes, general." 
 
 " Name it, my friend." 
 
 " The privilege of conveying her where she will be lonely no longer, and 
 of leaving her with those who will console her for my absence." 
 
 "'Tis granted, sir," returned Marion; "for well I know you will not let 
 it interfere unnecessarily with the important mission in your hands." 
 
 " Be assured of that, general !" 
 
 " I am assured of it And now, gentlemen, adieu ! 'The God of freedom 
 and humanity watch over and protect you !" 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 LET us now, reader, step across the country, ascend one of the high, forest 
 crowned hills on the margin of the Santee, and look in upon the small plan- 
 tation of the twin brothers. 
 
 It was at the close of a fine summer's day ; the twins, having finished 
 their day's labor, and partaken of their evening meal, were resting tranquilly 
 from their toil, inhaling the cool, reviving air, and conversing with their 
 friendly purveyor, instructor and companion, Ned Mowizon, to whom they 
 cad long since become most tenderly attached. 1 - 
 
 A pleasing change was visible in their appearance, Though not much 
 taller than when we last beheld them, they had yet a more manly air ; they 
 were broader in the shoulder, and deeper in the chest ; and though still some- 
 what slender in figure, there was an aspect of suppleness and muscle in their
 
 OP MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 161 
 
 wiry frames which would make even a burly borderer pause and reflect ere 
 he decided to measure strength with them. Their former freshness of com- 
 plexion had given place to a fine, healthy bronze. Their large, blue eyes were 
 clear, steady and bold as an eagle's. Their general appearance was that of 
 brave, vigorous, healthy, modest, clear-headed mountaineers. 
 
 Like their companion, Ned Mowizon, they were dressed in blue cloth vest 
 and breeches, cut in the quaker fashion of that day, and each was seated 
 upon a rustic chair on the small lawn facing their cosy lodge. 
 
 "Ned," began Frederick, surveying the field before them, with an air of 
 satisfaction, " the rice looks up as if it appreciated our labors. Our brother 
 will be pleased when he arrives!" 
 
 " Unquestionably," answered Ned. " He could not be otherwise. I say 
 H, and I'll stick to it." 
 
 " You really think so, Ned ?" asked the twins, eagerly. 
 
 " I do, boys," returned Mowizon, " and I'll stand to it. And what is more, 
 I'm not the only man of that opinion. When he was here, last " 
 ' " He !" interrupted the twins reproachfully. " Oh, Ned !" 
 
 " Mr. Somers, I mean he said it was equal to the best on his plantation." 
 
 "He said that!" cried Frederick, with an expression of joyous pride. 
 
 "He paid us that compliment?" inquired George, as if he could scarcely 
 credit his senses. 
 
 "He did," answered Mowizon. gravely. '-'And that isn't all, either. He 
 added that it was snperior." 
 
 " Oh, Ned Ned !" cried the twins, incredulously. 
 
 " I mean it !" observed Mowizon, with an air of firmness, " and I'll stand to 
 HI" 
 
 ' You do ?" 
 
 " I do ! Every word of it !'' 
 
 The twins were ready to weep 'for joy. 
 
 " Now, boys," pursued Mowizon, gravely, " when a man like him " 
 
 " Him !" interrupted the twins, reproachfully. 
 
 " Like Neil Somers, I mean delivers an opinion like that, there must be 
 good grounds for it." 
 
 " Exactly !" cried Frederick. 
 
 " Precisely 1" observed George. 
 
 "And for two reasons, boys," continued Mowizon. "In the first place, 
 Mr. Somers never asserts anything that is not unqualifiedly true ; and in the 
 second place, I say it, and I'll stand to it, he is the finest planter as well as 
 most accurate judge in such matters, there is in the province." 
 
 "There can be no doubt of that!" observed Frederick, wh had the most 
 unlimited faith in his brother. 
 
 " None at all ! ' added George, who regarded Neil with an affection bor- 
 dering on idolatry. " Have we not seen his fields?" 
 
 " That is true, boys," said Mowizon, " but then it was in the night time, 
 and when, accompanied by your elder brother, you had previously been look- 
 ing upon your tender hearted parent" 
 
 "Who," observed Frederick, with a sigh, "unconscious we were so near, 
 was, doubtless, dreaming of us." 
 
 " As we, in our slumbers, never fail to dream of her !" added George, rev- 
 erently. 
 
 " Exactly," remarked Ned, with an approving nod. " As I was saying, 
 boys, you have seen Neil Somers' fields, but then it was by moonlight only, 
 and after your eyes had first been brought to take a generous view of every 
 thing by the pleasing sight of your dear mother's face. Then, all things would 
 naturally appear fair and lovely. But it is in the day time that you should 
 look upon Neil Somers' rice fields; in the day time," he repeated, impres- 
 sively, " when the light is clear, and no extraneous circumstaaces interfere to 
 21
 
 162 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 warp your judgment, or lend a pair of golden spectacles to your eyes. Then, 
 boys, you would, indeed, be amazed at the universal evidences of care, 
 watchfulness, industry and, I might add, genius bestowed on every foot of 
 his plantation, which, with the exception of our little one up here, hasn't got 
 its equal any where. I say it, and I'll stand to it" 
 
 "But, Ned," ventured Frederick, with a sigh, "we shall not be able to 
 have the pleasure of looking on our brother's fields in the daylight, for a good 
 long while to come !" 
 
 " Not till he is satisfied of our thorough reform, as well as of our love of 
 industry," added George. 
 
 i' Exactly," rejoined Ned. " But, between ourselves, boys, I've a notion it 
 won't be so very long a time, either!" 
 
 " Oh, Ned I are you not playing with us, now ?" asked Frederick, with an 
 imploring air. 
 
 "Do tell us that, Ned!" added George, drawing his chair, as did his 
 brother, nearer to him. 
 
 " Not a bit," answered Mowizon, gravely. "lam not the man- to trifle 
 with my friends. What I say, I stand to, because what I say, I mean." 
 
 "We have always found you true, Ned!" said Frederick, affectionately. 
 
 " Always, Ned !" added George. 
 
 " And you ever will, boys,'' said Mowizon, " because you see I've learned 
 to look on you as brothers. We've been together here a long time, working 
 on the same grounds, eating at the lame table, reading from the same books, 
 singing the same songs and hymns, and sleeping under the same roof. What 
 wonder then, I should love you like brothers, what wonder I should be true ! 
 Boys," he added, with emotion, " Neil Somers has been a good and noble 
 friend to me and mine, although he is not the man to brag of it. When my 
 poor old parents were burned out of house and home by the Indians, he was 
 the man who stepped forward of his own free will and set 'em on their legs ; 
 and when, afterwards, by the failure of their crops, they again fell into dis- 
 tress, he, and he only, gave them the lifting hand which enabled 'em to wade 
 through misfortune's sea, and come out with a smile. Is it to be wondered 
 at, then, that I should regard him with feelings of gratitude and respect ; or, 
 that I should be true and good to you, who, besides being my pupils, as I 
 may call you, are, at the same time, the blood-born brothers of him who has 
 done so much for me and mine. Boys, I say it, and I'll stand to it, you will 
 always find Ned Mowizon true to you as steel!" 
 
 "We believe that, Ned !" said Frederick. 
 
 " Firmly !" added George. 
 
 " And you may count on it," said Ned, returning the pressure of their 
 hands. "But, as I was saying, boys, I don't think it will be very, very long, 
 before you are permitted to look on Neil's plantation by the light of day. In 
 fact," he added, in a lower voice than he had yet used, " I've understood as 
 much." 
 
 " Tell us all about it, Ned !" cried the twins, in a breath. 
 
 "You see, boys," said Mowizon, confidentially, "but it is a secret, mind " 
 
 "Oh! yes." 
 
 " Neil is now satisfied, and has been for some time, that you have lost all 
 desire for your old, wicked habits " 
 
 The twins blushed and dropped their eyes upon the ground. 
 
 "And become pure and honest minded men." 
 
 The brothers lookecl up tearfully, gratefully. 
 
 " He sees that the good reports I have given of you are borne out by the 
 testimony of our .little model plantation, as well as by the simple and high 
 moral tone which marks your letters, conversation and general bearing. He 
 sees that your acquired habits of industry sit easily and gracefully upon you, 
 without the least shadow of restraint. He sees and feels that you have learned
 
 OP MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 163 
 
 
 
 the wisdom of throwing ofi^ through choice, all vicious thoughts and unnymly 
 hankerings ; that you are no longer mere idle, pleasure-loving worldlings, but 
 MEN men of pure souls and honest hearts men, who perceive first the ne- 
 cessity and then the justice of each individual member of the great family of 
 man, willingly and honestly performing his share of work in his passage 
 through the world. He sees that you have a clear and vivid conception of 
 what man wes first, to himself, secondly, to his fellow-man, and then to his 
 God; he sees that you live up to this conception, and that, knowing the 
 meanness and beastiality of vice, you prefer the nobler and purer course of 
 virtue ; that, having imbibed deeply from the fount of error, you are deter- 
 mined to drink, henceforth, only from the well of truth !" 
 
 " As He may help us !" said Frederick, reverently lifting up his eyes 
 which were bedewed with tears from a contrite and grateful heart 
 
 " As He may sustain us !" added George, trembling with devout joy. 
 
 " As He WILL!" observed Mowizon, solemnly, " as He DOES all who trust 
 in Him !" 
 
 " We repose our faith in Him!" exclaimed Frederick. 
 
 ' We confide in Him !" added George. 
 
 "And he will desert you never!" returned Mowizon, encouragingly, and 
 looking around as if expecting somebody. " As I was saying, boys, Neil 
 sees that from the test to which you so cheerfully submitted, you have come 
 out pure and true ; that from the lessons which you sat down to learn, you 
 have risen ripe and healthy scholars ; and that from mere worthless world- 
 lings, you have become upright and useful men." 
 
 " Oh, Ned," cried Frederick, in a trembling voice, " is this true that you 
 are telling us?" 
 
 "Tell us, Ned," added George a " shall we at length have the heavenly pri- 
 vilege of receiving our brother's confidence, of walking, conversing and liv- 
 ing with him familiarly, constantly ; and of being re-united to the love, bless- 
 ing and elevating companionship of our pure and tender mother ?" 
 
 " Shall we again, Ned," demanded Frederick. " take our seats together at 
 the family table, kneel together at the family altar, sit together around the 
 family hearth, and sleep once more like a happy family under the roof of the 
 old homestead ?" 
 
 " Receive," asked George, ''' our brother's unchanging friendship, our moth- 
 er's constant smile ?" 
 
 " Oh!" cried Frederick, trembling, "that would be more than an Eden, it 
 >vould be heaven !" 
 
 " Is it this, Ned," asked George, in a voice broken with emotion, and 
 with a mingled look of fear and hope, " that you are promising us?" 
 
 "Boys," returned Mowizon, slowly, "it is this which I promise you, but 
 not on the instant." 
 
 "Oh, no !" exclaimed Frederick, with a burst of gratitude, " not on the in- 
 stant, for the suddenness of so great a joy would kill us. But soon ?" 
 
 " Yes, it will be soon, Ned, will it not?" asked George. 
 
 " Yes, boys soon !" added Mowizon, again looking around, and answer- 
 ing with a movement of his finger a sign made to him by some party or par- 
 ties in the wood. 
 
 " Oh !" cried the twins, throwing themselves upon his neck, " bless you, 
 Ned bless you !" 
 
 " And Him ?" said Mowizon, pointing upward, in a tone of mingled re- 
 proof and reverence. 
 
 "'Ah! yes," they exclaimed, "you are right. "Pis' to Him we Should re- 
 turn thanks for this unmerited happiness. To Him !" 
 
 There was a silence of some moments. 
 
 "As I was saying, boys," resumed Mowizon, at length, "Neil is satisfied 
 that the change which has come over your minds is both pure and penna-
 
 ing 
 
 164 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 .nent, and now deems you fit, morally and mentally, to enter the hallowed 
 presence of your mother." 
 
 "Oh! happiness happiness !" 
 
 " For this hour," continued Mowizon, raising his voice to a slightly higher 
 key, and making, unnoticed by the twins, a sign to the parties he had de- 
 tected in the wood, "for this hour, he has prayed long and fervently ; for this 
 hour " 
 
 "For this hour," repeated a ripe, rich, pleasant voice which caused the 
 twins to spring from their seats with a cry of exultant joy, " that he might 
 say, Come to my heart, my brothers! For this hour," added the planter, for 
 it was he, as the twins threw themselves upon his breast, " that I might 
 say, Ye have not longer yearned for this moment than I." 
 
 " Oh, my brother my brother !" exclaimed the twins, pressing him with 
 indescribable delight in their arms. 
 
 " For this hour," continued the planter, waving his hand, unseen by the 
 twins, at which sign the tall, manly figure of the scalp hunter emerged from 
 the wood into the lawn, accompanied by a lady, whose small, slender form 
 was attired in a dress of Quaker like make, neatness and simplicity, and 
 whose trembling steps bespoke her mental and physical agitation, "for this 
 kour, that I might say, Brothers behold your mother,! For this hour, that I 
 might say, Mother, thy lost ones have returned, pure as when they left thee, 
 for thy blessing!" 
 
 ' My Frederick my George ! my children !" sobbed Mrs. Somers, open- 
 her arms. 
 
 Mother! Oh, heaven! mother receive us, bless us!" gasped the twins, 
 throwing themselves at her feet 
 
 " For this hour," continued the planter, extending one hand over those he 
 so fervently loved, and lifting the other reverently to heaven, " that I might 
 say, Lo ! we are again united our hearth stone that was broken, is whole 
 again our joy that was imperfect, is complete thanks, thanks to THEB!" 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Two days subsequent to the events narrated in the preceding chapter, co- 
 lotiel Balfour^the commandant of the city of Charleston, was seated in the 
 drawing room of his head-quarters, perusing a despatch from Lord Rawdon, 
 then in command of the British forces in South Carolina. Before him, on a 
 large circular table, lay a number of maps, papers, letters, and the necessary 
 appliances for epistolary correspondence. 
 
 Colonel Balfour, was a tall, portly personage, with bold Saxon features, of 
 a lordly aristocrat cast, and was dressed in the uniform of his office. 
 
 He was interrupted in the perusal of the despatch by the entrance of an 
 aid-de-camp, who appeared to have something to communicate. 
 
 " What is it, Hudson ?" said the commandant, familiarly. 
 
 *' There is a gentleman without," replied the aid-de-camp, " who desires an 
 interview." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 A Mr. Brofield, from Kingstree." 
 
 "His business?" 
 
 " He did not inform me of that, colonel ; but judging from his manner, I 
 should say it was of importance." 
 
 Colonel Balfour reflected a moment, and then observed 
 
 " Admit him." 
 
 The aid-de-camp bowed aud retired, and in a few moments the stranger
 
 OP MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 165 
 
 made his appearance, anp saluted the commandant with an air which satisfied 
 the latter that his visitor was of a superior order in the ranks of social intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 The stranger was dressed in a tight fitting body coat of blue cloth, lined 
 with pale silk ; a white vest, buff breeches, silk hose, and pumps with silver 
 buckles. In his right hand, he held a black chapeau, which ho had taken 
 from his head as he crossed the threshold of the apartment. 
 
 " Mr. Brofield, I presume ?" said the commandant, waving him courteously 
 to a chair. " To what, sir, do I owe the honor of this visit ?" he continued, 
 as the stranger seated himself. 
 
 " My object in calling upon you, sir," said the stranger, with an air of 
 ease and graceful dignity which struck colonel Balfour with surprise and ad- 
 miration, " is to obtain from you, if possible, the necessary means to enable 
 me to check . the movements of the rebels in the neighborhood in which I 
 reside." 
 
 " Oblige me with an explanation, Mr. Brofield?" said the commandant, 
 strongly impressed by the noble bearing of his visitor. 
 
 " Certainly, sir," returned the stranger. " It cannot but be known to you, 
 colonel Balfour, that the operations of the rebels in the interior are directed 
 with great fierceness against the friends of His Majesty ?" 
 
 " I am aware of that, Mr. Brofield." 
 
 " Of late," continued the stranger, '' they have been unusually troublesome 
 and particularly so in the section in which I reside. Our dwellings have been 
 fired, our fields destroyed, our people butchered. Day after day witnesses 
 some new calamity, some fresh outrage, equally as appalling, if not more 
 frightful, than any which preceded it And what renders our position the 
 more aggravating is that, notwithstanding the heavy and almost oppressive 
 assessments to which we are subjected by the crown, we are yet left to the 
 rapacity of these rebels, who, aware of our utter defencelessness, fall upon us 
 without fear, and without mercy." 
 
 " And you endure this tamely ?" said Colonel Balfour, in a mingled tone of 
 sympathy and reproach. 
 
 " We endure it," returned the stranger, with an air of tranquil grandeur, 
 "because the king, by leaving us without protection, bids us submit to it!" 
 ./'This is a superior personage!" murmured the commandant to himself. 
 
 " But we would not put up with it, not passively at least," added the 
 stranger, "if the crown, by giving us the means of defence, should bid us re- 
 taliate upon the mauraders. Then, for every blow inflicted upon us, we 
 should return two ; for every step they made upon our borders, they would 
 pay the price with a life." 
 
 This was said with a native modesty and earnestness which left no doubt 
 of the stranger's meaning or sincerity. 
 
 "It is to obtain at your hands the means and permission to punish 
 these rebels," resumed the stranger, " that I am here, at the desire of my 
 friends." 
 
 "The permission, I can easily grant you, Mr. Brofield," said the com- 
 mandant ; " but I must confess that the means are not so freely at my dis- 
 posal. Our troops are not so numerous as I could wish, and the operations 
 of Lord Rawdon in the northern part of the province, by his continual drafts 
 upon me for men, are daily still further reducing the number in my hands. 
 It was but yesterday I sent him four hundred troops, and to-day I received 
 another despatch ordering an additional three hundred. You see, therefore, 
 Mr.^ Brofield, that my hands are tied in this matter, and that, however much 
 di8p"osed I might be to preserve you from the aggressions of the rebels, the 
 ability to do so is not in my keeping." 
 
 " Will you pardon me, colonel," said the stranger, with an air of impressive 
 ddgnity ; " but I fear I did not expres? myself with sufficient clearness."
 
 166 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 " WeO, sir ?" returned the commandant, courteously. 
 
 " It was not men for which I intended to ask you, colonel, but arms, am- 
 munition and clothing, with which to equip a legion out of our own dis- 
 trict." 
 
 "Ah! indeed?" returned the commandant. "That alters the case, ma- 
 terially. How large a force could you bring into the field ?" he added, after 
 a brief pause. 
 
 " We have obtained the signatures of five hundred trusty men," returned 
 the stranger. 
 
 The commandant's eyes sparkled. 
 
 " That is a goodly number," he observed, thoughtfully. " At how short a 
 notice could they be collected ?" 
 
 " Twenty-four hours." 
 
 The commandant reflected. At length, 
 
 " Say I could furnish you with the means to equip that number of men," 
 he asked, " what would be the result?" 
 
 " This,"answered the stranger, calmly. " You would have one great en- 
 emy the less to disturb your plans one partisan the less to hang on your 
 footsteps and annoy you." 
 
 "You speak very confidently, Mr. Brodfield!" returned the commandant 
 with a smile. " Why, sir, there are but two men of that importance in the 
 whole province !" 
 
 " Nevertheless," returned the stranger, " I repeat it. You will have one 
 great enemy the less." 
 
 " Are you aware of the two of whom I speak?" asked the commandant, in 
 surprise. 
 
 " I think I could name them, colonel" 
 
 " Reflect, Mr. Brofield," said the commandant. "The individuals to whom 
 I allude are not ordinary men." 
 
 " I do not refer to ordinary men, colonel," returned the stranger, tran- 
 
 ae persons to whom I refer," continued the commandant, "are men of 
 power, of talent, nay of genius." 
 
 " 'Tis of such men I am thinking, colonel." 
 
 " Then, sir," said the commandant, shifting nervously in his chair, " name 
 the parties, and thus prove to me that you have not unduly estimated their 
 importance?" 
 
 " Sumpter and Marion," was the reply. 
 
 The features of the commandant sparkled with joy. 
 
 " And which of these partisans," he said, half springing from his seat, "will 
 you, with your legion, answer for ?" 
 
 "The latter." 
 
 "Marion?" 
 
 " Marion." 
 
 " You will answer for his capture ?" 
 
 "I will answer," said the stranger, " that he shall no longer hang on the 
 footsteps of your army that he shall no more cut off your reinforcements!" 
 
 " That is not enough, sir !" 
 
 " Then I will promise," added the stranger, " to have him in Charleston in 
 less than a vear." 
 
 " A year is a long time, Mr. Brofield !" 
 " In which to take 
 
 a. common enemy, yes but not a wily one like Ma- 
 rion. It is now more than six years since he threw down the gaunliet of 
 defiance to the whole force of the British orown, and he is still untaken !" 
 
 " True !" returned the commandant. " I see, sir, that you fully compre- 
 aend the character of the rebel whom you propose to take in hand." 
 
 'He has, himself, furnished us with the means of comprehending it," ob-
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 167 
 
 served the stranger. " Has he not been before, around and upon us ever since 
 the opening of this war ? driven us from point to point, cut off our people 
 and our resurces, deprived us of our arms, taken from us every means of 
 defence, and then compelled us to remain passive while he swept off our pro- 
 visions? Ah! have we not cause to understand birn ? And now, if you will 
 furnish us with arms, ammunition and clothing, shall we not hunt him as he 
 has hunted us ? Shall we not make him rue the hour when he took up arms 
 against men whose principle was loyalty, and whose desire was peace ? 
 Shall we give him an hour of rest who has so long disturbed the serenity of 
 our repose ? Shall we spare him who never displayed mercy to us ? Shall 
 we give over our pursuit, once we have begun it, till he is in the toils, and 
 his band crushed every one ? No let him look to it the game he plays 
 draws towards it close ; the hunters are upon his track, and will not pause 
 till they have run him down !" 
 
 This was uttered in the calm, deep, earnest voice of a long patient, but at 
 length aroused and sternly determined man. 
 
 "Enough, Mr. Brofield," said the commandant, who had been attentively 
 regarding him, "you shall have the appliances necessary to enable you to 
 carry this plan into execution." 
 
 "Accept my most fervent acknowledgments, colonel!" exclaimed the 
 stranger, with the first expression of pleasure he had yet evinced. " And 
 when ?" 
 
 " This hour, if you say so. What arms do you prefer ?" 
 
 " Those which will place us on a level with our enemy rifles." 
 
 " We have but a scant supply of them nevertheless, your plan is impor- 
 tant : you shall have them." 
 
 The stranger's eyes sparkled as he bowed his thanks. 
 
 " Of ammunition, we have plenty," continued the commandant, pening a 
 memorandum of the articles under consideration ; " so there will be no 
 trouble in that quarter. How are your friends off for shoes ?" 
 
 " Poorly." 
 
 " We'll throw in a pair for each man, then. We have an ample supply. 
 Clothing, blankets, and such matters, will, you say, also be required?" 
 
 "Yes, colonel?" 
 
 "To convey these things, you will require six baggage wagons, with two 
 stout horses to each. I can furnish you the teams, but not the men. As I 
 said before, I have not a soldier to spare, scarcely enough to protect the 
 city." 
 
 " I have a friend with me," said the stranger. " He has a keen eye, a 
 stout heart, and a brave hand. He carries a rifle, and understands the use 
 of it!" 
 
 "But, with all that,' 1 observed the commandant with a smile, "he wifl 
 not be able to protect six waggons !" 
 
 " He is equal to ten ordinary men," returned the stranger, with a calm 
 confidence which struck the colonel with admiration and surprise, " and will 
 securely protect the rear.' 1 
 
 "But the front?" 
 
 " As for the front," returned the strange:, witn a modest, yet manly dig- 
 nity, " I shall be there." 
 
 " True !" observed the commandant, surveying with an admiration -which 
 he could not wholly repress the man who scarcely appeared to comprehend 
 the meaning of the word danger. " But there is one thing which you appear 
 to forget in connection with this your commendable design." 
 * ' "Ah! colonel?" returned the stranger, with an inquiring glance. 
 
 "Reflect!" said the colonel, with a smile. 
 
 "On what, colonel?" asked the stranger, tranquilly. 
 
 " Reflect," repeated the commandant, " on the leading essential to carry
 
 168 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 on the operations of a war wanting which, men, arms, ammunition and 
 clothing are as noughj, !" 
 
 " Money !" answered the stranger. 
 
 " Exactly ! And that you have forgotten ?" 
 
 " No, colonel. I have not forgotten it !" 
 
 " But you have not asked for it?" 
 
 " True, colonel. But it is because I had not the courage, having asked and 
 obtained so much of you already !" 
 
 " Mr. Brofield," said the commandant, rising and advancing towards him, 
 with an air of surprise and unmixed pleasure, ' ' your hand ! You are a gen- 
 tleman, sir, and one whom I feel honored in taking to my acquaintance !" 
 
 The stranger blushed. 
 
 " You overrate an humble country planter, I'm afraid, colonel !" he said, 
 modestly. 
 
 " Not in the least, Mr. Brofield not in the least !" returned the command- 
 ant, shaking him warmly by the hand. " As for the money you require, air," 
 he added, resuming his seat, " the king's exchequer is ever open to his friends ; 
 and although it is not over-heaped at present " 
 
 "My dear colonel," interrupted the stranger, "I cannot permit the king's 
 chest to suffer, persuaded as I am that it is the princely generosity of his 
 almoner, and not His Majesty's strong box, which would in reality be the 
 loser." 
 
 "Not altogether, Mr. Brofield," replied the commandant "But since 
 you have discovered it, I will confess it was my intention, knowing his ma- 
 jesty's treasury to be rather weak, to have made up out of my own purse, the 
 major part of the sum necessary for your design." 
 
 " And to that colonel," said the stranger, " I most assuredly would not 
 consent" 
 
 " Why not, Mr. Brofield ?" asked the commandant, in surprise. 
 
 " Because, colonel, it would be a drain upon your private fortune, for which 
 you would never be reimbursed; and because," he added, ingenuously, "it 
 is not in my nature to take advantage of a friend's kindly feelings ; and be- 
 cause,'' he concluded, " there are others, doubtlessly, who comprehend the 
 importance of the capture of so active an enemy as Marion, and would will- 
 aigly subscribe of their means to secure its accomplishment" 
 
 " Mr. Brofield," said the commandant, in a tone of deep admiration, " you 
 have a considerate and noble heart. Your plan for raising the needful has 
 my warmest approbation, and I will head the list with five hundred pounds 
 in his majesty's name, and an equal amount in my own." 
 
 " You overwhelm me with kindness, colonel " 
 
 "Pray, don't mention it!" said the commandant "Here," he added, 
 handing the stranger a paper, " is the order for the rifles, ammunition, and 
 baggage wagons, and here," giving him a second paper, " the order for the 
 blankets, clothing, and shoes. Have you your subscription paper ready ?" 
 
 " No, colonel, but I can soon prepare it" 
 
 " Take a seat at the table then, and do so. The sooner these matters are 
 got over, the better." 
 
 The subscription paper was speedily written out, in a clear, bold hand, and 
 submitted to the commandant, who after running his eyes over it, took up a 
 pen and wrote the king's name and his own for the promised sums, observing 
 at the same time 
 
 "There will be a party here to-night, Mr. Brofield, to which I hereby in- 
 Tite you. The guests will consist of the leading loyalists of Charleston, who 
 will, no doubt be happy, at my suggestion, to fill up this paper liberally." 
 
 "How shall I express my gratitude, colonel, for this magnanimous gene- 
 *osity ?" asked the stranger, taking the paper which was now returned to
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 169 
 
 him, and adding his own name to it for a sum equal to that subscribed by 
 colonel Balfour. 
 
 "By not saying another word upon the subject!" returned the command- 
 ant, pleasantly. " Go now. and look after your claims upon my commissa- 
 ries. At ten to-morrow, the crown's subscription, together with my own, 
 will be subject to your order. Good day !" 
 
 They shook hands, with the air of men entertaining the highest regard for 
 one another, and the stranger took his leave, murmuring 
 
 " My country my country ! thy foes, thy foes are paying, equally with 
 thy friends, the price of thy freedom!" 
 
 The day wore away, without any further incident worthy of notice. The 
 night came, and with it the ball. The head-quarters of the commandant pre- 
 sented a scene at once animating and picturesque. The long wide hall was 
 lined on either side by young and active officers, in scarlet uniforms covered 
 with gold lace, who had volunteered to act the part of ushers for the compa- 
 ratively small but select company that had been honored by colonel Balfour 
 with an invitation. 
 
 The vast drawing rooms were thrown open, and both sides were lined with 
 the youth, wealth and beauty of the city. The orchestra, composed of the 
 band of colonel Balfoar's own regiment of fusileers, was of a superior charac- 
 ter. Its enlivening music gave additional animation to the guests, who, when 
 the icy manner which ever pervades the earlier stages of all social assemblies 
 had thawed and melted into bon hommie, abandoned themselves to the spirit 
 of the occasion with the liveliest satisfaction. 
 
 The stranger did not arrive till late, that is to say, about ten o'clock, and 
 pon entering the drawing room, found himself " the observed of all obser- 
 vers." Independent of the attentions lavished upon him by his host, he was 
 received and treated by the British officers with the most flattering conside- 
 ration, and by them turned and introduced from one to another, .till he had 
 run the gauntlet of the company. 
 
 Wherever he moved, all eyes were directed at him like a battery ; what- 
 ever he said was re-whispered and repeated, as if it had been a gem of wit or 
 wisdom. His calm, majestic and superbly chiselled features, the faultless 
 symmetry of his manly figure, and the ease, grace and tranquil finish of his 
 every movement and expression, combined to render him, in the estimation 
 of the host and guests, the handsomest and noblest looking gentleman at the 
 ball. . 
 
 In conversational power he was found to be equally as fascinating and 
 Superior. As colonel Balfour observed to one of his lady guests, " he charms 
 you with a word, he charms you with a look ; he has but to move, and you 
 aa nire him : he has but to speak, and you are ready to fall at his feet" His 
 obsv rvations were those of a ripe, generous, acute and richly laden mind ; 
 and his manner of delivering them but here again we must let the corn- 
 man' -lant express his opinion, which was that of the company in general 
 "JT.e speaks as if he were the mouth piece only of your thoughts, which he 
 'Kndly takes upon himself to express for you, and not for the purpose of pa- 
 Jading his own intellect" 
 
 He danced, too, with an ease and grace which, while elegant was at the 
 same time manly ; every movement harmonizing with the music, of which 
 it appeared to be a part, and replete with the mingled air of utter abandon 
 and complete self-possession which constitute} the faultless dancer. 
 
 As the evening wore on, colonel Balfour approached the stranger, and 
 taking him aside, whispered 
 
 " My dear Mr. Broneld, I have spoken to my guests, and confidentially 
 prepared them for your subscription paper. I think we had better at them 
 at once." 
 
 22
 
 170 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 " With pleasure, colonel," returned the stranger, " if such is your opinion. 
 But " 
 
 " Speak on, my friend," said the commandant, kindly. 
 
 " Now that the moment is come, I find my courage oozing from mo like 
 blood from a wounded soldier. I have not the confidence necessary to ask it 
 of them I " 
 
 " Pooh pooh never mind that ! I'll do the talking part, and save you 
 the mortification of blushing at every step. Having already paved the way, 
 I can go through it without wincing. Come along!" 
 
 And taking him by the arm, the commandant led him from one to another 
 of the guests, each of whom subscribed liberally, till he had completed the 
 tour of the saloon, and filled up the desired amount 
 
 " Now, my dear friend," said colonel Balfour, " now this little matter is got 
 through, let us retire to the ante-room, and drink success to your noble en- 
 terprise over a bottle of wine." 
 
 " Ah ! colonel," returned the stranger " I must beg you to excuse me. " I 
 never drink anything but water. My poor head will stand nothing stronger !" 
 
 "Nothing stronger than water?" returned the commandant with a good 
 natured smile. " That accounts, then, for the sinewy slenderness of your 
 frame. You should grow portly portly, like me, which you will never do 
 till you take to wine, or at all events to something better than water ! But 
 who is this ?" he added, turning to an elderly gentleman who .was approach- 
 ing them. 
 
 " My dear colonel," said the latter, with an air of playfulness, " do you not 
 know that you are drawing upon yourself the severe displeasure of the fairer 
 portion of your guests ?" 
 
 "How so, Mr. Wilton?" asked the colonel^ in the same lively tone. 
 
 " By monopolising our friend here, Mr. Brofield ?" 
 
 " Ah ! Mr. Wilton," said the stranger, with that ready tact which had al- 
 ready won for him the warmest admiration of the commandant, " you are in 
 error. It is not colonel Balfour who is monopolising me, but I who am mo- 
 nopolising him." 
 
 " There, take him aloag, Mr. Wilton, take him along !" exclaimed the com- 
 mandant, laughing, "or he will persuade, us next that I, and not himself, am 
 the hero of the night. Take him along, Mr. Wilton take him along !" 
 
 Giving the stranger his arm, the old gentleman led the way to 
 the drawing room, observing, as they proceeded 
 
 " Pardon my rudeness, Mr. "Brofield, for breaking in upon you] 
 with the colonel You must lay the blame to my niece, who is, 
 townswoman of yours, and, if I mistake not, an acquaintance!" 
 
 " I was not aware, Mr. Wilton," answered the stranger, with a i 
 ' that there was anybody here from my neighborhood !" 
 
 " Oh, yes, my niece. She has been in the city over a fortnight. 
 we are," he added, pausing in front of the lady in question. "M 
 permit me to introduce you to my niece Mrs. Brunton !" 
 
 Upon hearing this name, the stranger colored to his temples, b 
 losing his self-possession. He bowed gracefully to the fair widow, 
 lingly stretched out her small gloved hand, and exclaimed, as 
 met 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Brofield ! Really, this is a pleasure ! ' 
 you leave home ?'' 
 
 " on coming hither that I should have the happiness of meeting wit! 
 ly treasured a friend !" 
 
 " Ah ! uncle !" said the widow, looking up at Mr. Wilton before 1
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRV MEN. 171 
 
 you still here, when I've got ever so many things to say to Mr. Brofield? 
 Do have mercy there's a good soul, and take yourself away 1" 
 
 "If you say so, my dear certainly !" returned Mr. Wilton, moving off, 
 and the stranger and his charming companion were left to their tete-a-tete. 
 
 "How is this Neil?" said the widow, in a low whisper. "For the first 
 time in my life, I find you shrouded in mystery!" 
 
 " Receive, first, my gratitude," returned the planter, as the reader has long 
 since suspected, " for not betraying me !" 
 
 "Betray you death first!" replied Mrs. Brunton, dropping her eyes, 
 while a flush, deep as scarlet, suddenly mantled her features, as she became 
 conscious that she had been guilty of a faux pas. Then recovering herself 
 with a powerful effort, she added in the same low murmuring tone 
 " Would I betray my schoolfellow, Neil ?" 
 
 "Thanks, Laura thanks, nevertheless," said the planter, pressing her hand ; 
 " for had you been less guarded, less watchful of your manner, my secret 
 might have been discovered." 
 
 " But tell me, Neil, about this Mr. Brofield," returned the widow, glancing 
 at him, archly. "A pretty trick this, you are playing upon the officers of the 
 crown. It is nothing less than a romance !" 
 
 " I will do myself the honor of calling upon you to-morrow, and giving 
 you an explanation," said the planter. "Meanwhile, you must bear with 
 me. Your uncle " 
 
 " Oh, the dear old soul knows nothing beyond what everybody else 
 knows," smilingly returned Mr. Brunton. " I have been very naughtily en- 
 gaged all the evening in explaining to him the pedigree of the Brofields ! At 
 what hour shall I expect you to-morrow ?" 
 
 " Say at four ?" 
 
 " Be careful. I shall look for you as the clock strikes !" 
 
 " Do so, Laura. But how is it you are in Charleston ?" 
 
 " Oh, I got so frightened on the night of Marion's attack upon Colonel Tar- 
 leton, and so nervous afterward, that I thought a trip to the city would do 
 me good. When do you leave town ?" 
 
 " To-morrow evening, if possible." 
 
 " So soon ?" asked his companion, with a sigh. 
 
 " I grieve to say it yes. Every hour now is of priceless value. But 
 shall I not have the honor of a minuet with you ? They are re-forming upon 
 the floor!" 
 
 " When do you go ?" inquired Mrs. Brunton, as they rose to take their 
 place in the dance. 
 
 " As soon as this measure is over," he replied. " I have many, many 
 things to do ere I retire." 
 
 Mrs. Brunton sighed, and gave him her hand, which trembled as it came 
 in contact with his. 
 
 We shall not pause to describe the grace, beauty and ease with which 
 they passed through the minuet, but fancy it finished, and the fair widow 
 re-conveyed to her seat 
 
 " I must now take my leave," said Somers, in a low voice. 
 
 " You will be with me at four ?" asked Mrs. Brunton, earnestly. 
 
 " At four. Good night, and happy dreams !" 
 
 He bowed, and moving off, went in search of Colonel Balfour. 
 
 The widow followed him with her eyes till he disappeared, and then yield- 
 ed herself up to one of those delicious reveries in which the heart may be said 
 to take a larger share than the mind. 
 
 To a woman there is no prouder triumph than the consciousness that the 
 merits of the object of her heart's worship, are generally conceded and ad- 
 mired. It is to her the most convincing and at the same time the most
 
 172 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DATS 
 
 gratifying evidence, that she has not bowed the knee in love's temple to an 
 idol unworthy of her homage. 
 
 It was then to Mrs. Brunton one of the swefetest reflections that the ms\n 
 whom she loved with a passion which perilled her very soul, had created so 
 great a sensation and achieved so brilliant a triumph at the ball. Never be- 
 ibre had he, even in her eyes, appeared to such striking advantage. The su- 
 perb symmetry of his figure, set off by a dress which fitted him as though 
 both had come together from nature's unequalled mould the quiet ease, 
 grace and manly dignity which attended his every movement the tranquil 
 grandeur of his general appearance, and the exceeding richness of his finely 
 balanced mind, impressed her by their vividness with a force she had never 
 previously experienced, and added to the intensity of the love-fire which had 
 for years been burning in her breast. 
 
 But as she remembered the fearful part he was playing the calmness 
 with which he walked into the very midst of his enemies, who, did they but 
 suspect the real nature of his errand, would at once rend him piecemeal, a 
 sense of his danger uprose before her, and she trembled for his safety. 
 
 She was interrupted in her thoughts by the voice of her host, Colonel Bal- 
 four, who had quietly approached. 
 
 " You have had the pleasure, Mrs. Brunton, of meeting with a towns- 
 man?" he asked, as he seated himself beside her. 
 
 " In Mr. Brofield ? Yes, colonel He is one of my oldest friends. I lit- 
 tle suspected, when coming here, to encounter one in whose acquaintance I 
 take so deep an interest !" 
 
 "A very near interest, I fear, fair lady!" said the colonel, gallantly. 
 " Else why that tell-tale blush ? Do you know," he added, drawing nearer 
 to her, " that he has taken off with him two- thirds of the hearts of my fair 
 guests ?" 
 
 " Two-thirds !" repeated Mrs. Brunton. with a smile of playful disappoint- 
 ment " No more ? At Eangstree he is accustomed to take all !" 
 
 " Shocking ! But their lovers what do they say to such conduct ?" 
 
 " Oh ! he takes their he*arts with him also !" 
 
 " He is, then, universally loved ?" 
 
 " Universally, colonel ! As with the ladies, so with the gentlemen. He 
 has but to wish it, and they will all lay down their lives for him without a 
 murmur." 
 
 " Indeed! He must be very popular ?" 
 
 " He is so. Those who know him regard him with an affection bordering 
 upon reverence. His sense of justice is understood to be so clear and deli- 
 cate, that the people bring their differences to him for adjustment, and con- 
 fide implicitly in his decision ! In courage, honor and wisdom he is regard- 
 ed as without an equal in the province." 
 
 " And his political principles " 
 
 Quick as lightning the conviction flashed across the widow's mental vision 
 that these questions were put by her interrogator to dispel a doubt or fear 
 which had crossed him, and she answered without pausing an instant or be- 
 traying the least sign of embarrassment : 
 
 " A sound, unfaltering loyalist !" 
 
 A slight shade which had settled upon the commandant's brow now dis- 
 appeared, and Mrs. Brunton, who had observed it, felt satisfied that she had 
 done the planter a service by this timely reply. 
 
 " His devotion, then," said Colonel Balfour, -'if one might judge by your 
 enthusiastic description, fair lady, may be relied upon ?" 
 
 ' I would trust him with my life ]"' returned liie widow. 
 
 " I have no doubt of it. my fair friend !" observed the commandant, with a 
 smile; "and so would many another K-iM tx;u I wot of, in this goodly com- 
 pany!"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN 173 
 
 u Ah ! you are too cruel, colonel !" returned the widow, playfully, without 
 manifesting the slightest shade of confusion. 
 
 " You do not love him, then ?" asked the commandant 
 
 " Who I ?" laughed his fair auditor, with well acted indifference and vi- 
 vacity. " Why, the gentleman is engaged to another !" 
 
 "How apt we are to be deceived by appearances!" murmured the com- 
 mandant to himself. " I took this woman for a creature of passion. Like 
 the majority of her sex, she has not even a heart She can be indifferent to 
 such a man as Brofield, because he is engaged to another ! Pah ! Well, my 
 fair friend," he said, rising and clothing his features with a smile, " Til tease 
 you no longer, on one condition !" 
 
 " Name it, colonel ! I do so love conditioms !" returned the lady, archly. 
 
 " That you tell me the nature of the reverie in which I surprised you ?" 
 said the commandant, with a forced smile. 
 
 " And will you promise not to tell ?" 
 
 "Most sacredly* 
 
 " Give me your ear, then. I was thinking at the moment," she whisper- 
 ed, wefl aware of the impression she had made, "of what kind of wine I 
 should taste at supper !" 
 
 " Ah ! you have a merry heart !" said the colonel, retiring hastily. " Pah !" 
 he murmured, as he passed along. " A heartless creature ! Cold, selfish and 
 impressionless ! No wonder Brofield vanished so quickly after conversing 
 with her. She's enough to disgust a man of a refined nature. Thinking of 
 what wine she should drink ! Pah !" . 
 
 "He thought to pump me !" muttered Mrs. Brunton, with a quiet smile, 
 as her host left her. " He ! But I think I have changed his opinion of his 
 penetrating powers, as well as of myself. But, no matter, I have done Neil 
 a favor perhaps saved him !" 
 
 " Well, Stuart," said the commandant, approaching one of his officers, " it's 
 all right. Although we had not heard of this Brofield before, there appears 
 to be no reason for suspecting him. Mrs. Brunton, that dashing young wid- 
 ow on the ottoman, knows all about him. She is a townswoman of his, has 
 known him from childhood, and has given me a very interesting account of 
 his standing in Kingstree, where he is regarded as an extraordinary young 
 man, and a devoted loyalist. Some other time I will tell you of his charac- 
 ter in his native village. It is a very high one, I assure you !" 
 
 " If you, colonel, feel easy upon that point, I have, of course, nothing more 
 to say !" answered the officer, bowing, and moving off. 
 
 " See what it is to be jealous !" muttered the commandant, to himself. " If 
 the lieutenant's mistress had not spoken so warmly of young Brofield, who 
 has evidently dazzled her young mind by the splendor of his appearance, he 
 would never have dreampt of suspecting him ! 
 
 Although silenced by the observations of the commandant, Lieutenant 
 Stuart was yet far from satisfied. Conscious that he had no good grounds 
 for his supposition that the planter was other than what he represented him- 
 self to be, he nevertheless could not get rid of an impression to that effect, 
 and quietly determined to keep an eye upon hi. 
 
 Upon reaching his lodgings, Somers found the scalp hunter patiently await- 
 ing him. 
 
 " Wall, Neil," said the latter, as the planter made his appearance, " yew 
 look as ef the Britishers had kum down sorter handsum !" 
 
 "Everything has gone well, Nat," replied Somers. "Colonel Balfour, un- 
 suspecting as ever, helped me along generously. The guests subscribed with 
 ready grace, and we have four thousand pounds upon the paper." 
 
 "Je-ru-shal Wnnt that give the gineral a lift, and wunt his men put into 
 the inimy with fresh grit ? Oh, no of course not by no manner of means I 
 And then the idee that we should larrup the British Tarmint with their own
 
 174 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 powder an' lead ef it aint enuff to make a feller larf his grinders out! 
 Praps they wunt git riled nor nuthin* when they kum to hear n't. Oh, 
 Je-ru-sha!" 
 
 "How about the wagons, Nat?" asked the planter. 
 
 " They're bunkum every thing's packed, and ready. I made the Kom- 
 missary chuck in about two dozen extra suits to rectify a mistake ! The 
 rifles are prime, and my 'pinion ar' they'll tell the right sorter story. As for 
 the ammunition, there's plenty on't, an' of the first chop. 'Twould do your 
 eyes good to look at it it lays so nice in the wagin. But yew musn't mind 
 my larfin', Neil; the truth is, the joke is so rich, ef I didn't giggle it off, I'd 
 fall to pieces. When shall we start?" 
 
 " To-morrow, at dusk." 
 
 " Will yew be able to kurlect the prescriptions by that time ?" 
 
 " I think so. The subscribers understand the necessity of my getting off 
 without delay ; and as they are anxious to retain the good opinion or the 
 commandant, they will, doubjJess, cash up at sight. But why do you 
 smile?" 
 
 " I kant help it, Neil. Th<* hull affair is so rich ! It wun't bear tellin' OH ! 
 But it's gettin' late, and as we must be up early, I'll squat Good night!" 
 
 And quitting the apartment of the planter, the scalp hunter sought his own 
 room, and threw himself upon his bed. 
 
 But in vain did he court repose. Accustomed to seek his slumbers in the 
 woods, where he could " feel the air" and have what he termed " breathing 
 room," he found his horizontal position upon the bed and the circum- 
 scribed dimensions of his chamber more than he could endure ; and after 
 tossing restlessly about for an hour or more, and endeavoring without suc- 
 cess to resist the suffocating sensation which oppressed him, he rose, caught 
 up his blanket, and descending the staircase, quitted the house, and seated 
 himself at the base of a large cypress which rose majestically from the brink 
 of the sidewalk facing the tavern. 
 
 As he dropped, he heard the low roar of the waters in the bay, slightly 
 shaken by the freshening wind. 
 
 "Ah!" he murmured, as he felt the air sweeping past and fanning his 
 heated temples, " this is some'n like !" 
 
 And crossing his arms, bracing his back against the trunk of the cypress, 
 he slightly bowed his head, and was, in a few minutes, in a sound, snoring 
 sleep. 
 
 The night wore on ; the darkness gave place to a deep gray, the herald of 
 the approaching dawn, and footsteps resounded on the pavement. 
 
 The sharp ear of the scalp hunter, trained to detect the slightest sound, 
 was instantly erect ; one after another of his senses became unlocked, and 
 finally his eyes opened. 
 
 He put his ear to the ground and listened. 
 
 " Some'n 's coming!" he muttered. " I must hide." 
 
 And with movements soft and light as those of a fox, he moved his large, 
 heavy body around to the rear of the cypress, and, rising slowly to his feet, 
 leaned against it for concealment. 
 
 " What's goin' on !" he muttered. " Some'n wrong, I suspect." 
 
 The footsteps approached, and at length paused in front of the inn. 
 
 The scalp hunter bent forward quietly, and beheld two men with their 
 backs toward him. One of them wore the costume of an officer, the other, 
 that of a common soldier. 
 
 " Red coat varmint !" muttered the scalp hunter. " What are they dewin' 
 here ? Praps they've found us out. TJgh 1" he added, shuddering at the 
 idea. 
 
 " This is the house, Dawson," observed the officer, in a low voice to his 
 companion. " Hang around and watch for him. I have some reasons to
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 175 
 
 suppose he is a rebel in disguise. You will recognize him by the description 
 I have given you." 
 
 " I know him without it, lieutenant," said the sofdier. " I was at the 
 commissary's when he came with the order from the commandant" 
 
 " Here's a pretty mess!" muttered the scalp hunter. 
 
 " So much the better," observed the officer, encouragingly ; " you will, 
 therefore, have no difficulty in identifying him. When he comes out, which 
 will not be long after daylight, for these country knaves are early risers, fol- 
 low him. In case you perceive or learn any thing suspicious, hasten to my 
 quarters, and let me know, and he shall be immediately arrested. I'd give a 
 hundred guineas to be able to prove him a rebel !" 
 
 "You can rely upon my faithfulness, lieutenant," said the private. " I'll 
 hang on his footsteps like his shadow." 
 
 "We'll see about that !" murmured the scalp hunter. 
 
 " Enough," said the officer. " I shall depend upon you." 
 
 "How long shall I watch him, lieutenant? 'Tis said that he intends to 
 leave town in the evening?" 
 
 " Follow him till nightfall, then, if necessary ; and the instant you discover 
 anything' likely to implicate him, fly with speed to me. I would annoy him, 
 if I can do nothing more !" 
 
 " Very well, lieutenant. But I shall want money to get a meal or two 
 with, in case I may have to be on the watch all day." 
 
 " Of course. Here is a guinea. Now," said the officer, moving off, " look 
 sharp !" 
 
 " I'll do my best, lieutenant," returned the private, who now approached 
 the tree, and leaning ajrair.^t it, threw his eyes up at the tavern, as if trying'to 
 guess the window of the planter's room. 
 
 "Youwunt he v to remain in that persition long, you espying varmint, 
 yew !" muttered the scalp hunter, stealing a quiet glance around the trunk of 
 the cypress, and observing the soldier's attitude. " Yew wunt go traih'n' 
 after Neil Somers nor any other feller this day, not ef I reckon right. Jest 
 stand thar tu minits, and I'll settle your corn so your mammy wunt know 
 yew !" 
 
 And taking out his long knife from under his vest, the scalp hunter quietly 
 ran it through his blanket which, aided by the moaning waters of the con- 
 tiguous bay that drowned the sound of his blade, he cut into strips, one of 
 which he rolled up into a small, thick ball. This done, he returned his knife 
 to its resting place betwen his shirt and vest, muttering 
 
 " Nuthin' on. airth must interfere with our gittin safely out of the city. 
 The ginerel's only hope is in it, and we must dew it. Ef we should be dis- 
 kivered afore we get outer reach of the kurnel, he'd hang us quicker 'n chain 
 lightnin' ! I'll save him the trouble, by making fish meat of one of his sogers. 
 How's the varmint now, I wonder!'' 
 
 With this mental interrogatory, he peered cautiously around the tree, and 
 finding the private in the same watchful attitude as before, he gathered up 
 the blanket strips, threw them across his arm, and taking the crumpled ball 
 in his left hand, and doubling his right, he quietly sidled around the cypress, 
 and raising his arm dealt the soldier a blow on the left temple which would 
 have felled an ox. 
 
 The man uttered a low moan, and fell, stunned and bleeding, to the earth. 
 Without losing a moment, the scalp hunter forced the crumpled ball into his 
 mouth, and then, with the blanket strips, bound him hand and foot 
 
 " This is kinder cruel !" muttered the scalp hunter, raising the body and 
 thowing it over his shoulder as if it was a feather ; '' but it's no more'n the 
 espying varmint deserves. The Britishers make nuthin' of burnin' hull fami- 
 lies of rebels why should we spare those who show no mercy to us ? Thia 
 feller is a spy ef I let him free, the chances are agin ua ; ef we don't git off
 
 176 THE SWAMP STEED j OR THE DAYS 
 
 with our spiles, it is possible we may hang, the gineral will be without mea?is 
 to jine Greene, and the cause will suffer. No," he added, with emotion, ' I 
 don't like to du it for it aint so kumfurtable a feelin to take a feller crie- 
 teer's life in this way but there's tew much risk in lettin' him off. He must 
 go!" 
 
 The scalp hunter had by this time reached the river. Daylight was slowly 
 approaching, and the waters in the bay, faintly visible through the gradually 
 departing gloom, were tossing to and fro with a stern roar. 
 
 Lowering the bound soldier to the ground, the scalp hunter groped around 
 the shore for a few large stones, having found which, he returned, and affix- 
 ing them to the body, drew it toward the edge of the dock, and, steppiag 
 back, gave it a slight push. A splash followed, and all was over. 
 
 The woodsman now, with a deep sigh, retraced his steps and returned to 
 his lodgings. 
 
 " One inimy the less !" he muttered. But it was not in the tone, nor with 
 the feeling of a man who had killed his foe in fair, honorable combat. 
 
 He returned to his room, which he entered just as dawn was breaking. By 
 the faint light, as he approached the window, he perceived blood upon his 
 hands. He shuddered. 
 
 "Freedom is bought with all sorts of blood!" he muttered, staggering to 
 a chair and bowing his pale face in hi^ hands. 
 
 When he again looked up, his eyes were bloodshot. 
 
 " Wo !" he exclaimed through his pent teeth, in a voice like that of a half 
 famished wolf, " wo to the varmint that crosses .me now!" 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE planter rose early, and on descending to the breakfast room, found the 
 scalp hunter, pale and gloomy, seajpd near a window, and looking out upon 
 the street. 
 
 "Good morning, Nat," he said, approaching him. " You look disturbed. 
 Has any thing happened?" 
 
 " Yes," answered the woodsman ; " but I'll not venter on the perticlers 
 now." 
 
 Somers bowed, and regarded him silently. 
 
 "The sum total of it, Neil," continued the .woodsman hoarsely, "is this. 
 Yew made an inimy last night at the ball a lieutenant somebody, who sus- 
 pects you, though the varmint don't appear to hev any reason for it. So be 
 keerful in your movements to-day, and let's be off as soon as possible." 
 
 " How did you learn this, Nat?" 
 
 " I'm too upsot in my feelins to give yew the perticklers jest now," re- 
 turned the scalp hunter, with visible agitation, "and I hope you wunt urge 
 it. When we reach the camp, yew shiU knw all." 
 
 "Let it pass let it pass," said the planter, kindly. "This lieutenant, you 
 say, only suspects me ?" 
 
 " That is all," answered the woodsman. 
 
 " Then we have nothing to fear, Nat. And we'll go on, calmly as ever, 
 and not alter our plans unless something new should arise. Have you seen 
 the horses the commandant gave us, this morning?" 
 
 " No ; but I'll go and look to 'em now," said the woodsman, rising, 
 " WiH you come along ?" 
 
 " No. I'll out and see which way the land lies," returned the planter, signi- 
 ficantly. "By the way," he added, lowering his yoice, "I may not be able 
 to see you again till nightfall. In which case, you will have the team at the
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 177 
 
 forked road, as we have already agreed. You haven't forgot the counter- 
 sign, by which we are to pass the city ?" 
 
 " ' The king's seal,' " answered the woodsman, in a whisper. 
 
 " Exactly. Should it be varied to-day, the commandant will of course no- 
 tify me of the change, in which case I shall return hither. In case I do not 
 come back, you will understand it to mean that my business will not permit 
 it, and that the password remains unaltered. Adieu !" 
 
 Nothing further, of any moment, transpired through the morning, and at 
 ten o'clock, the planter presented himself before Colonel Balfour, who re- 
 ceived him warmly. 
 
 " You propose starting at dusk, I think you said, Mr. Brofield ?" 
 
 " Yes, colonel ; the better to elude the rebels, who would scarcely con- 
 sider it worth while to attack what will appear in the moonlight common 
 country wagons." 
 
 " You are going to give them that appearance, then ?" 
 
 " Yes, colonel My companion is engaged upon them now for that pur- 
 pose." 
 
 '"The idea is capital, and I wish I could spare you a guard. But I scarce- 
 ly regret my inability to do so, as I have the most unlimited confidence in 
 your skill to conduct the affair safely. Have you called upon your sub- 
 scribers yet?" 
 
 " No, colonel," returned the planter, with a blush. " I feared it might be 
 too early. There would scarcely be any hope of finding them up." 
 
 to their 
 
 " And yet," said Colonel Balfour, " it will not do to trust to their sluggish 
 natures to rise in time for your purpose. Let me see ! I have it," he added 
 with a smile. " The very thing ! Where is your subscription paper ?" 
 
 " Hero," said the planter, taking it from his pocket 
 
 Colonel Balfour ran it over hastily, and then wrote out an order for the 
 gross amount. Then ringing in an aid-de-camp 
 
 " Take this, Hudson, and get it cashed. Come, despatch 1" 
 
 The officer Vanished, and the commandant smiling upon the somewhat 
 confused planter, observed 
 
 " We'll head off the sluggards, Mr. Brofield. I'll send one of my officers 
 to-morrow to collect their subscriptions, with the accompanying fact that I 
 have cashed their several amounts, in order to enable you to get off prompt- 
 ly. They will not refuse to pay me. You will be saved the mortifi- 
 cation of calling upon the greasy rogues, and have so much more time in 
 which to complete your arrangements." 
 
 " My deal- colonel, you are overwhelming me with kindness !" 
 
 " Pooh ! pooh ! Don't mention it ! I esteem it a pleasure to have the 
 ability to serve a delicate and superior mind like yours, Mr. Brofield, from 
 the petty anxieties of common humanity. Where do you wish the money 
 sent? Its bulk will prevent you from carrying it yourself!" 
 
 "It will have to be placed in one of the wagons; and I presume it would 
 be best to have it conveyed to them at once." 
 
 " By all means," observed the commandant " They are in the stable yard 
 of your hotel ?" 
 
 "Yes, colonel." 
 
 "Very well. The bags had better proceed thither." 
 
 The aid-de-camp returned in a few minutes, with the intelligence that the 
 money was in four bags on a cart at the door. 
 
 " Will you see it conducted yourself, Mr. Brofield?" asked the commandant 
 
 " Yes, colonel," answered the planter, rising from his chair. " But before 
 I take my leave, I will bid you farewell 1" 
 
 And he extended his hand, which colonel Balfour pressed warmly. 
 
 " What ! Shall I not see you again, Mr. Brofield," demanded the latter. 
 
 23
 
 178 THE SWAMP STEED | OR THE DAYS 
 
 " I fear not," returned the planter. " Notwithstanding the vast amount of 
 labor you have so kindly taken off my hands, I have yet much to do." 
 
 " I doubt it not, Mr. Brofield. Farewell, then ! I need not say that I shall 
 be happy, most happy ! to hear from you as frequently as your plans will 
 consistently admit. Farewell, sir. My best wishes attend you !" 
 
 The planter expressed his gratitude, again bade him adieu, and with a bow 
 of calm dignity, took his leave. 
 
 At the appointed hour Somers called upon Mrs. Brunton.' He found the 
 widow alone, and anxiously awaiting his arrival 
 
 "You cannot imagine, Neil," she said, "how delighted I am to see you!" 
 
 " The pleasure is not all on one side, fair lady," answered the planter, gal- 
 lantly. 
 
 The widow raised her forefinger archly. " Have you forgotten our com- 
 pact ?" she wud. " You were to call me, Laura." 
 
 " I stand corrected," replied the planter ; " but my poor brow is so crowd- 
 ed with every day matters that it scarcely has sufficient room to retain more 
 special memories." 
 
 " But Neil, how comes it that in Mr. Brofield, of Charleston, I find my 
 old playfellow, Neil Sorners ?" 
 
 " Ah!" returned the planter pleasantly, "that is a secret which I may re- 
 veal without fe&r that either my country or myself will, suffer by confiding it 
 to your ear." He then detailed to her all with which the reader is already 
 familiar. 
 
 Mrs. Brunton heard him to the end without once breaking in upon his 
 narrative. She then observed 
 
 " Oh, Neil ! is this true that you are telling me ? Is the tide of our poor 
 county's cause at so critical an ebb ?" 
 
 " Alas, Laura, I have not told you the half," returned the planter, mourn- 
 fully. " I would not pain your womanly ear with horrors which appal the 
 stoutest hearted of our army." 
 
 " It is poverty, then, with which the cause has most to struggle, and not 
 the enemy?" 
 
 " Yes, Laura ; but poverty in its Inost trying shades ; poverty in men, po- 
 verty in arms, in food, in raiment, and almost in courage. Gloom and dark- 
 ness are upon u^. Woe meets us at every baud. Despondency, save in a 
 few isolated hearts, has settled upon our troops." 
 
 "I can understand it all, Neil," replied Mrs. Brunton, feelingly; "for I 
 have watched our country's every step. I have sympathized with her in her 
 reverses, I have rejoiced with her in her triumphs. If I were a man my 
 hand should be with her ; but as I am a woman, I can but give her my sym- 
 pathies. Heaven has blessed me with means, and if I cannot give her my 
 own aid, I can at least give that which will ensure her the services of others. 
 How comes it, Neil," she added with playful reproach, " you did not 
 allow me the honor, last night, to add my mite to the fund you were raising 
 for the cause ?" 
 
 "Laura," returned the planter, " I knew not you were there till Mr. Wil- 
 ton so kindly introduced me. I might say that I had neither eyes nor ears 
 for any that were there, since they enabled me not, of their own instinct, to 
 discover a friend so dear to me as my old playfellow." 
 
 "A very lame excuse !" returned the widow witli charming vivacity. 
 "You were not so very, very confused, either! for did I not perceive your 
 eyes wandering among the commandant's fairer guests as if in search of the 
 loveliest flower there T 
 
 " Had I seen my old playfellow. I could not have been long in doubt upon 
 that point !" returned the planter, gallantly. 
 
 " Ah ! flatterer, you would not have said that at the ball, where our city's 
 beauties shone like so many queens !"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 179 
 
 " Not only there, but before all the world I would say it, and maintain it" 
 
 The widow blushed. Her eyes sparkled. " Oh, Neil," she exclaimed, sur- 
 veying him with a mingled expression of joy and sadness, " could I but be- 
 lieve your heart and not your lips spoke thus !" 
 
 " Both, Laura," returned the planter. " Why should you doubt it?" 
 
 " Because," said the widow, dropping her eyes with artful coquetry, " that 
 would be the sentiment of a lover !" 
 
 "A lover !" repeated the planter, with a slight start. " Oh! no not if it 
 came from me !" he added in a tone which informed the widow that her 
 secret was understood. She raised her eyes and stole a glance at her com- 
 panion. There was a shadow on his brow, at sight of which her counte- 
 nance changed to the hue of marble. 
 
 "I am lost!" she murmured, inaudibly. "He loves me not. Amy still 
 holds his heart. There is no no hope for me !'' 
 
 The planter reflected a moment He could mistake neither the words, the 
 tone, the look, nor the manner of his companion. He comprehended intui- 
 tively the secret which it must be confessed, the firr widow took but little 
 pains to conceal. 
 
 " I stand upon slippery ground !" he ejaculated, mentally. " Hers is too 
 noble a heart to trifle with, or deceive. I have but one course to take that 
 of honor. I owe it to her, to myself! Laura," he began, aloud, "it appears 
 I have, without meaning it, beguiled you into a snare that I have given you 
 cause for believing sentiments which were those of friendship only, to be 
 those of a tenderer nature. If I have done this, it has, believe me, been un- 
 wittingly. My troth already given to one, it would be the height of pre- 
 sumption in me to offer, or to in any wise convey the impression that I could 
 offer it to another. I should grieve to learn that I had done this, and should 
 it reach her ears, she Avould, and justly, deem me false, treacherous and un- 
 manly. But perhaps," he added, surveying his companion with a confused 
 smile, " I have spofen too fast perhaps my vanity has led me too far. I 
 may have no grounds for this. If so, Oh Laura, how you must despise me." 
 
 " Despise you, Neil !" cried Mrs. Brunton. " Oh, dared I but tell you 
 but no you would laugh at me, and you yes, you would despise me. I I 
 " She paused. Her lip trembled, and dropping her eyes, she burst into 
 tears. 
 
 " Laura !" cried the planter. 
 
 "No no!" she exclaimed, interrupting him, " not that word not Laura! 
 Call me," she added with a heroic effort, " what the world calls me !" 
 
 " Mrs. Brunton ?" said the planter, interrogatively. 
 
 "Yes Mrs. Brunton!" she added shiveringly. She paused awhile to 
 recover herself, and then resumed, in a voice broken with emotion, " The 
 fault is mine, not yours ! I had hoped fondly, prayerfully, that our desti- 
 nies might not always be divided that heaven might one day give me the 
 joyous privilege of saying : Neil, for years, in silence and in suffering, I have 
 loved you will love you ever !" 
 
 The planter staggered to a chair, and buried his face in his hands. " I did 
 not dream of this I did not look for it !" he cried " Oh, why did I ever 
 cross your path, to create for you this misery !" 
 
 " Think of it not, Neil !" returned Mrs. "Brunton. " The fault is wholly 
 mine. I should have resisted in its beginning a passion which never could 
 have had for me a happy termination. Oh!" she added, giving way to her 
 feelings, " I knew that you could never love me that your heart was fixed 
 upon another and yet I fondly hoped against hope, and, following the dic- 
 tates of my soul's frenzy, rashly, madly nourished a passion which consumed 
 me ! Oh Neil ! for this for this, forgive me !" 
 
 With these words, and overcome by the emotion which they had inspired, .
 
 180 THE SWAMT STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 she sank back on the sofa, on which she had been sitting, pale, tremulous and 
 cold. 
 
 The planter rose and approached her. Gently taking her hand, he said, 
 in a voice that was far from firm 
 
 "Let us forget this, Laura. Let us forget everything, the remembrance of 
 which might render us unhappy. We have not love to exchange but we 
 have friendship, the friendship of hearts that have known each other from 
 childhood until now. Let us cherish that, for it is pure ; let us forget the 
 other, for it is unholy. Heaven and Honor smile on the one, while they 
 fro-wTn mournfully upon the other. Let us be friends, my old schoolfellow 
 let us be friends !" 
 
 The hand he held pressed his spasmodically. Though Mrs. Brunton was 
 pale and apparently bereft ot every sense, the planter yet felt that he was 
 both heard and understood. He was also conscious that it was indelicate, if 
 not absolutely cruel to prolong a scene which must have for his companion 
 so much of mental misery. He determined therefore to take his departure, 
 and thus leave her to a free indulgence in emotions which he was aware 
 his presence alone restrained. 
 
 " It is better that we now part," he added, tenderly. " When we meet 
 again it will be, as in our earlier years, like friends ! What has transpired 
 between us shall never again be alluded to, in word or look, by me. Let us 
 mutually forget it, and look forward with hopeful hearts to the bright and 
 glorious future when each shall be supremely happy you, Laura, in your 
 destiny, I in mine !" 
 
 He raised her cold hand respectfully to his lips, bowed, and gracefully and 
 quietly withdrew. 
 
 Mrs. Bruntou followed his retreating form with her eyes till he disappeared. 
 She heard his footsteps echoing through the hall she heard the door open 
 and shut upon him and hope disappeared for ever. 
 
 She placed one hand upon her breast and the other upon her brow, with 
 an expression of intense agony. 
 
 " It is over !" she murmured. " The hope, the dream of years, is at an 
 end ! He is gone. I have looked upon him for the last time ! He is 
 another's. I am lost lost lost ! A long, a last farewell to hope to hap- 
 piness !" 
 
 As if all the agony of her heart had been concentrated in these words as 
 if they were the last sigh of her wounded soul the widow fell back upon the 
 sofa like one upon whose brow death had set its eternal seal. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 DUSK came, and the planter, in the guise of a common country farmer, and 
 mounted on his faithful swamp steed, issued from the stable yard of the St 
 George Inn, followed by a train of twelve horses dragging six large, country 
 looking wagons, behind which, on the back of his favorite cream colored 
 mare, rode the gigantic form of the scalp hunter, wrapped in the rough garb 
 of a country laborer. 
 
 The train passed slowly out of the city, and turning off into one of the 
 forked roads, pursued its way undisturbed till it reached the brinks of the 
 Wando, where a flat boat plied between either shore, and where the planter 
 was suddenly greeted by an outpost, with 
 
 "Who goes there?" 
 
 " Friends to the king.*' 
 
 " Advance and give the countersign !"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY KEN. 181 
 
 " ' The king's seal !' " 
 
 " Pass on," said the outpost 
 
 On reaching the opposite shore, the planter struck into a highroad, but had 
 not advanced more than a mile or two when he fancied he heard the sound 
 of hoofs. Presently, the scalp hunter, quitting his post in the rear, rode up 
 and whispered 
 
 " The varmint are on our trail !" 
 
 " What makes you think so, Nat ?" 
 
 " There's a peculiar ring in hoofs when they're chasin' on yew, which, when 
 yew've once heera it, yew never forgit 1" 
 
 " We must hurry the horses, then ! How many of them are there, think 
 you ?" 
 
 " Not more'n a dozen, I reckin !" returned the scalp hunter. 
 
 " Well," said the planter, tranquilly, " we must make the best of it. What 
 do you propose ?" 
 
 " I think, Neil, yew had better 'tend to the team, and let me manage the 
 varmint I think I kin give 'em enuff. More p'raps than they'd fike to. 
 swaller!" 
 
 " If such is your opinion " 
 
 " Wall ! I think it ar !" 
 
 "So be it then!" returned the planter, hurriedly. "To your post, Nat! 
 They are nearing us !" 
 
 With these words, he raised a long rawhide and lightly touching the flanks 
 of one after another of the animals attached to the train, started them into a 
 run, while the scalp hunter returned to the rear, and throwing off the cover- 
 ing of the kust^ wagon, disclosed a large number of rifles whose long black 
 tubes were resting in the hollows of a series of cross boards, that ran from 
 side to side of the vehicle, and were purposely indented to receive them. 
 
 In anticipation of trouble on their route, the crafty woodsman had, during 
 the day, loaded each of these weapons, and placed them in then- present po- 
 sition, to have them ready in case of need. 
 
 Springing from his mare into the wagon, he permitted the intelligent ani- 
 mal to wander unfettered, with the words 
 
 " Now, old gal, show yer trainin' and don't shame yer breed. The inimy 
 are comin ; be keerful the varmint don't tetch yew. Keep on the side of the 
 wagin, Nell ; the old man wants a clear field !" 
 
 The mare obeyed her master's injunction to the letter, and while she sprang 
 forward between the vehicle and the road side, keeping her eye observantly 
 upon her owner, the latter, standing between the back board and the serried 
 weapons, seized a rifle, primed it, and then quietly awaited the approach and 
 action of the foe. 
 
 The moon shining in all its regal splendor in an unclouded sky, rendered 
 the road almost as light as day, and enabled the woodsman to perceive dis- 
 tinctly the forms of the pursuers who, to the number of some twelve or fif- 
 teen, and mounted on tall, powerful horses, were now rapidly advancing. 
 
 Meanwhile the train, urged on by the energetic efforts of the planter, con- 
 tinued its flight with gradually increasing speed. 
 
 li We're 'goin at a slick rate," muttered the scalp hunter, "but not quite 
 fast enuff to escape the blood thirsty varmint behind us. They're gainin' on 
 us every minit, and will soon be round our ears like a swarm of bees. But 
 there's one on 'em a lee tie ahead of his friends. He wunt be thar' long tho, 1 
 ef this creeter kin hold its head any weres near old Sal. I'll jest see what 
 metal she's made on !" 
 
 He raised the weapon to his shoulder, ran his eye along the tube, and 
 pulled the trigger. 
 
 The report had scarcely followed, when the advancing horseman alluded to
 
 182 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR. THE DAYS 
 
 relaxed his hold of the bridle, and slipped like a drunken man from his sad- 
 dle. 
 
 The party paused a few moments in some confusion ; a few leapt to the 
 earth and surrounded the fallen man. 
 
 "Yew needn't give yourselves any anxiety on that sarpint's account," 
 muttered the woodsman, replacing the weapon and taking up another, which 
 he quietly primed. " I aimed for his for'ard, and ef it aint split, then there's 
 no vertu in lead !" 
 
 The pursuers, having no doubt discovered this to be the case, now shook 
 their sabres threateningly at the scalp hunter, and resumed the chase. 
 
 As they approached, the latter raised his weapon, and singling out the 
 nearest rider, fired. The poor wretch dropped from- his saddle, and again for 
 a brief season there was a temporary and confused halt. 
 
 " There's two on 'em gone to kingdum cum !" ejaculated the woodsman, 
 catching up another rifle, and priming it. " They make pretty good marks, 
 considerin' !" he added, bringing the weapon to his shoulder. " The varmint 
 air kinder skeered. They don't 'pear to like the barkin' of these pieces. Ah ! 
 they air goin' to try it agin ! There's one on 'em about to spring into hia 
 saddle. I reckin he wunt du it so easy as he thinks fer !" 
 
 He pulled the trigger of his gun, and the man threw up his hands, his foot 
 fell from the stirrup, and he fell back upon the road. 
 
 "That's number three!" said the planter as he exchanged his weapon. 
 " They'll all hev some'n tu tell on by the time they git back to Charles' on ! 
 There they cum, like so menny hungry wolves. I must give that tall 'un a 
 pill, jest to keep him from shakin' that arm of his' n, in that air onsightly way. 
 There he goes!" he added, with a quiet grin, and taking up another piece, as 
 the individual in question sprang with a gesture of affright from his horse 
 and fell to the earth, the hoofs of those behind treading over his body as 
 they passed. 
 
 " There's four on 'em for the crows !" muttered the woodsman, " and the 
 tarnal fools 'will keep cumin' on, blast 'em ! Wall, I'll jest tetch that critter 
 with the eperlets he looks mighty sassy rale officer like. His fall will make 
 'em halt agin, or there ain't no more respeck for the cloth!" 
 
 There was a sharp report, and the officer glided from his saddle. 
 
 " I knew it !" exclaimed the scalp hunter, hastily changing his piece, as 
 the pursuers held up and gathered around their fellow officer. " Nuthin' 
 brings 'em tu so quick as the fall of an eperlette. Had it bin a common so- 
 ger now, the sarpints wouldn't a minded it a bit. But an eperlette kinder 
 tetehes 'em ! Now, then, if Neil only keeps the team agoin' at this rate, we'll 
 hold the blasted cusses at a markin' distance ! Ah ! the varmint are shakin' 
 their fists this way. They don't approve of lead, I 'spose. I wouldn't, ef I 
 war in their place ! But that slinky standin' beside the body needn't menace 
 a critter in that onchristian way. There's no pertickler need on't, that I kin 
 make out! But seein' as he don't know manners, I'll teach him some! 
 There !" he added, with a loud laugh, as the personage to whom he referred 
 fell forward on the body of the officer, " the sarpint 's oncivil to the last ! 
 Strikin' his superior officer in that way would ensure him a court-marshill, ef 
 he warn't already beyond the reach of punishment ! Ha!" he continued, re- 
 placing his gun and taking up another, " the critters air resolved on havin' 
 more lead ! They're fond of it, I reckin', or else the smell of blood has 
 worked their feelins up. That sarpint a leadin' on 'em flourishes his weepon 
 kinder fierce, as ef he didn't mind a drop of lead the least mite. I'll jest try 
 what he's made on. 'Twunt du enny harm !" 
 
 He pulled the trigger, and the man reined up with such suddenness as to 
 almost throw his horse upon his haunches. When the animal had again 
 righted, the saddle was empty. 
 
 " He kinder backs down to them air licks spills himself clean !'' exclaimed
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN 183 
 
 the scalp hunter, with a quiet chuckle 1 "I suspected as much. Lead has 
 the persuadinest way of bringin' a sarpint to terms tliat ever was heered on, 
 perticklerly ef it's in the hands of a critter who knows how to handle it. Go 
 it, Neil go it, boy tetch up the animals give 'em the hide, the varmint 
 air rippin' up to us like painters! There's a sarpint, now he's a leetle too 
 near for comfort. There's good grit in him, for I kin see the fire flashin' from 
 his eyes ; but he must drop. He'd give me too much trouble, ef I 'lowed him 
 to bekum familiar with this wagin, and he must slide to kingdom cum !" 
 
 He levelled his piece, and the soldier, a tall, handsomely made man, reeled 
 for a moment in his saddle, and then fell over on one side, his head and right 
 foot striking the earth, and his left hanging yet in the stirrup, and his spur 
 goading the flanks of his horse. The animal at first disturbed, then angered, 
 and finally frenzied by this position of ite owner, as well as by the tearing 
 operation of the spur upon its flesh, wheeled violently, first to the right and 
 then to the left, in wild efforts to shake off the body, staggering the horse- 
 men on either side and throwing the whole party into the utmost confusion. 
 
 " There's eight on em !" cried the scalp hunter, exultantly, seizing and another 
 gun. " The varmint hev the onohristianest idees ; they will cum tearin' on 
 as ef they liked it ! Wall, ef they want take warnin' by what they've al- 
 ready seen ef they du like to leave their meat upon the road, they shan't be 
 disappinted. They're gittin altogether tu near for me to be pertickler!" He 
 levelled his piece, pulled the trigger, and the foremost rider fell from his sad- 
 dle. " Chain lightnin' couldn't have spilled him quicker !" observed the 
 woodsman, quietly returning his piece and taking up another. " The other 
 varmint are comin' on at a tearin rate, though ! I wonder who in thunder 
 that puke is in -the dark coat in the, rear ? Ef he would only step out a little 
 I'd give him a salute he 'pears to be shy on ! That strapper on the white 
 horse looks as ef made by natur' to measure his length han'sum ! The sar- 
 pint seems anxious. He leans for'ard as ef he'd like a pill, orful. Well, I'm 
 willin' !" He fired, and the man fell back on the hind quarters of his steed 
 as though stricken by a thunderbolt ; a moment or two later, his feet became 
 free from the stirrups, and he pitched head first to the earth. '' That wern't 
 bad !" observed the deadly marksman, with a chuckle, as he changed his gun. 
 " Old Sal herself couldn't hev done it better ! There aint but four on 'em 
 left, and I kinder reckin I'll take it easy. Ef they had any thing but sabres 
 now, what a prime mark the varmint would hev. There aint more'n forty 
 yards atween us ! Cuss that puke in the dark coat ! Ef he would but step 
 a leetle, jest a leetle, out from the rear of his friends, he would do me such a 
 favor ! But the cussed sarpint knows better, blast him ! He 'pears to be 
 nrgin' the others on, or else his horse meat aint equal to the rest it's one or 
 the tother, I'll swan to it! There he goes, bobbin' behind the other varmint 
 as ef he knew the vallee of lus hide. The cussed puke ! I'd take a pill of 
 lead myself for a fair shot at him ! I'll rip that sarpint before him, p'raps it'll 
 clear the way !" As he spoke, he lifted up his piece, and the personage al- 
 mded to slipped quietly from his steed, reeled a moment, and then fell, out- 
 stretched upon the road. 
 
 " There's only three on 'em left !" muttered the scalp hunter. <; and tliat 
 cussed puke still skulks behind ! Wall," he added cheerfully, taking up an- 
 other rifle, ''grumblin' wunt mend matters. Another shot will cut off one of 
 his guards, and then he'll Jiev to show himself! And then jest let him look 
 out for spiders ! I'll drop that sarpint on the left !" 
 
 He raised his rifle, and was about to pull the trigger when a quick, sudden" 
 jolt of the wagon pitched him out upon the road. 
 
 This was perceived by his pursuers, who now with loud cries of exulting 
 triumph plunged their spurs into the flanks of their steeds, and dashed for- 
 ward with renewed energy to cut him down. The woodsman made a hur- 
 ried but futile attempt to regain his position : failing in which, he calmly
 
 184 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DAYS 
 
 awaited the advance of the three pursuers, determined to make the most of 
 his last shot upon one, and to try the effect of his clubbed weapon with the 
 remaining two. 
 
 The foremost horseman, some twenty yards ahead of Ms companions, ad- 
 vanced with uplifted weapon, pent teeth, and blazing eyes. 
 
 "Yield, rebel!" he cried. 
 
 " I don't know the word !" returned the woodsman, quietly raising his rifle 
 and pulling the trigger. 
 
 The trooper uttered a quick groan, and slid from his saddle just as his un- 
 checked horse dashed up to his destroyer. Quick as thought, the latter seized 
 the animal by the bridle, and with one bound was upon his back. 
 
 The two remaining pursuers were now hard upon him. Scarcely ten 
 yards intervened between them. Clubbing his weapon, the burly woods- 
 man, rising in his stirrups, intrepidly awaited their approach. 
 
 A moment, and the last soldier of the party was upon him ; but an instant 
 later, and he fell to the earth, his head almost battered from his shoulders, by 
 a rude, crushing blow from the scalp hunter's rifle. 
 
 The contest was at length decided. The destruction of the last trooper 
 was a warning which the personage in the dark coat appeared far from dis- 
 inclined to profit by. Without waiting to follow in his turn with an attack 
 upon the invincible woodsman, he wheeled his horse, when within about five 
 yards of the doughty hero, and drove off with swiftest speed ; but not till 
 the latter had recognised in his bold and haughty lineaments the well known 
 features of Richard Winter ! 
 
 " The cussed puke !" exclaimed the scalp hunter, with a cry of rage. " He 
 of all varmint in the world ! Oh, ef this rifle war but loaded ! Twas he 
 who brought the troup arter us! 'Twas he the pizin sarpint! who 0! 
 I see it aU, clear as day ! reachin' the city jest after our departure, and 
 hearin' on our description, blabbed the hull affair ! And I I, like a big fool, 
 'lowed him him, of all the party to escape ! Wall, cryin' won't mend mat- 
 ters. But the nest time he comes within reach of gun-shot, jest let him look 
 out for spiders !" 
 
 He wheeled his horse about, to 'follow the train, whose rumbling roar, as it 
 sped safely over the road, restored, in some degree, his native humor. As 
 he turned, he beheld a face more familiar to him than his own, and two 
 large eyes surveying him 'with a half joyous, half reproachful expression. 
 
 They were those of his cream colored mare. 
 
 "Ah! old gal! "he cried, "yew thought I'd forgotten yew eh? It 
 makes yew jealous to see me on this critter's back, does it? Wall, old lady !" 
 he continued, dismounting from the captured horse, and springing into his 
 own saddle, " I'm reasonable, yew see ! I've no idee of makin' yew uneasy 
 not the least mite ! We'll take this gentleman along yew needn't shake 
 yer head, old gal ! he is a genteel creeter and tackle him to the train. Ah ! 
 that tickles yew, does it ? Wall, then, show yer gratitude and trainin' ! 
 Now, Nell now, old gal now !" 
 
 In an instant the old lady stretched herself in another, she was dashing 
 along the road with a speed which gave the '' genteel creeter" a very high 
 opinion of her fleet qualities, and a very low idea of his own. 
 
 The scalp hunter was in a short time beside the planter, to whom he gave 
 a brief account of his combat with their pursuers, of the discovery he had 
 made in the shape of Richard Winter, and of his earnest determination to 
 give that personage " a pill " if he should ever come within reaching dis- 
 tance of his rifle. 
 
 "His time will come soon, Nat!" observed Somers, tranquilly. "The 
 measure of his iniquity is full And I do you hear it Nat ? I I feel it ! 
 shall be the instrument to inflict upon him the wrath of Divine Justice ! M
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 185 
 
 The train reached its destination without further interruption, and its two 
 conductors were received by Marion and his officers with every mark of 
 honor and applause. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 MARION now called in his men, gave them money for their families, and 
 clothing for themselves ; and having thus inspired them with new courage, 
 distributed ameng them the fresh supply of arms, broke up hi? camp, and 
 struck for the high hilld of San tee, where General Greene was impatiently 
 awaiting him. 
 
 Upon the arrival of the intrepid partisan, General Greene instantly set his 
 forces in motion for Eutaw Springs, where Colonel Stuart, with a British 
 force of about three thousand men, had entrenched himself for the purpose of 
 over-aweing the rebels in that section of the province. 
 
 Colonel Stuart, on learning the approach of the Americans, hurriedly 
 drew up his army to give them battle. One detachment was posted on the 
 right about two hundred yards from the Springs : a second occupied the cen- 
 tre ; a third was planted on the left. The right was flanked by three hun- 
 dred choice troops, sheltered by a dense wood ; the left was sustained by a 
 large force of cavalry and a body of infantry. 
 
 In the rear of the central troops was a large, strong two story brick dwell- 
 ing, together with a palisaded garden, once entrenched in which a small 
 party of well armed men could maintain themselves against a host. 
 
 The British leader saw at once the advantages of the house and garden, 
 and instructed one of his officers to take possession of them in the event of 
 an unfavorable issue, and from the windows of the building, which command- 
 ed the whole field, and the palisades of the garden, which afforded at once 
 a shelter and a view, to pour down a fire which would cover his troops in 
 their retreat. 
 
 General Greene advanced steadily with his forces, but as the country 
 around was woody in its character, his progress was necessarily slow. When 
 without about two miles of the Springs, he came upon a detachment sent out 
 by the British commander to arrest his march, to give the latter time to form 
 his hastily formed squadron.-; into a better order of battle. 
 
 The British advance troop* after a brief contest with the superior divisions 
 of General Greene, turned on their heels and fled with all speed back to th'e 
 general line, under whoso guns they took shelter, while the pursuing column, 
 under the command of Marion, suddenly found itself, on emerging from the 
 wood, face to face with the entire British force. 
 
 Without pausing, however, the intrepid partisan instantly formed his mus- 
 keteers into two divisions, and his riflemen into a third. The first he took 
 under his own charge, the latter he consigned to the planter. Then giving 
 the word, he advanced upon the foe, and opened the conflict. In an instant 
 the front ranks of the Britteh went down before his unerring fire, while the 
 ah-, thick with smoke, rang with the cries of the wounded and the wails of 
 the dying. 
 
 The entire line of the enemy brought its guns to bear upon the heroic 
 band, who, disregarding the lAil of bullets thus poured upon them, con- 
 tinued to advance with a calm, intrepid step, closer and more close, till they 
 were almost under the very guns of the foe, who now rushed forward in 
 squadrons to surround them. Seeing the peril of their position, General 
 Greene ordered up another column to protect them, which latter was met 
 
 24
 
 I8fj THE SWAMP STEED ; OR. THE DAYS 
 
 by the British troops on the left, and the action now raged with intense 
 rhry. 
 
 Before the deadly fire of Marion's musketeers and the planter's riflemen, 
 the enemy dropped like leaves before the winds of autumn. The British colo- 
 nel perceiving the necessity of crushing a column which was mowing down 
 his best men in heaps, threw forward a division thrice its own size, to crush 
 it ; but in vain the division reeled before its murderous hail, which no hu- 
 man endurance could resist and fell back, shorn of its strength, while the he- 
 roic column continued its calm, intrepid advance upon the line on the 
 right. 
 
 At the same time, General Greene hurled another squadron upon the ene- 
 my's centre, a third to the support of the dauntless Marion, and launching ano- 
 ther through the wood to the right, for the purpose of falling on the ene- 
 my's left flank. 
 
 Attacked thus on all sides, the British commander scarcely knew which 
 way to turn. He at length brought up his reserve legion, which had been 
 concealed in a piece of wood behind his right line, and threw it with great 
 impetuosity upon the squadron ordered to the relief of Marion. But this 
 movement was perceived in time by General Greene, who hurried up a bat- 
 tallion of musketeers to meet and drive it back. The two forces met with a 
 shock which for a moment made either party stagger. The next instant, the 
 
 n 1 ter's riflemen resumed their deadly fire upon the immense mass of human 
 thus presented by the enemy ; the musketeers following their example, 
 , the British squadrons, reeling under the frightful severity of a fire which they 
 could not equal nor withstand, and perceiving their companions falling 
 around them like leaves in autumn, became panic stricken, fell back, turned 
 upon their heels in the direction of the central line, and fled. 
 
 The British centre, thus invaded by the fugitives, and pressed upon by the 
 columns hurled previously upon it by General Greene, trembled before the 
 combined shock, and scarcely knew whether to stand or fly. The American 
 squadrons, taking advantage of their confusion, poured in half-a-dozen fierce 
 discharges, which speedily brought it to a decision. It broke in every direc- 
 tion, wheeled, and the men throwing down their weapons, took to flight. 
 
 The officer instructed by colonel Stuart, conceiving that now was the time 
 to take possession of the house and palisaded garden, gave his troops an order 
 to that effect, and being some distance ahead of the fugitives, threw himself 
 into the building with three hundred men, and flinging up the windows, 
 poured down a sudden and murderous fire upon the pursuers, who reeled 
 before it for a moment, and then, while a part of their number continued the 
 pursuit, returned the fire. The windows of the house were speedily filled 
 with dead and wounded, but the latter were quickly replaced by fresh 
 troops, before whose terrible fire nothing human could long stand and 
 live. 
 
 The Americans rained their bullets upon the building without making any 
 impression upon its thick, stout walls. At length four pieces of cannon, cap- 
 tured during the action from the enemy, were drawn up before the dwelling 
 and brought to bear upon it But even this was of no avail. The massive 
 front laughed equally to scorn the puny bullet and the iron ball ; while one 
 after another of the artillery men went down before the raking shower hurled 
 by the troops from every window and loophole of the pile. 
 
 After satisfying himself that all further Attempts to dislodge the British 
 from their impregnable position would only end in a useless slaughter of his 
 men without extending his chances of ultimate success, the American gene- 
 ral called off his troops, collected his wounded, caught up his prisoners, 
 amounting to five hundred, and, with the determination to renew the battle 
 on the following morning, retired to a distance of about seven miles, there 
 being no water neare* to refresh his fainting columns.
 
 0V MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 187 
 
 The British slept upon the field on the night succeeding the battle. But 
 they had suffered most disastrously in the conflict. Their best troopg, their 
 bravest officers were among the slain, who covered the ground in heaps. 
 Colonel Stuart was in despair ; and well he might be, for well he knew 
 that the British power in Carolina was exterminated, root and branch, by 
 this fierce battle. He was himself badly wounded, and on learning that it 
 was General Greene's intention to resume the combat on the following morn- 
 ing, he resolved to prevent it, by making a precipitate retreat. He allowed 
 his men to sleep till about two o'clock, when he summoned them from their 
 tents, broke up a thousand stand of arm?, destroyed his stores, and leaving 
 his dead unburied, and his wounded to the enemy, commenced a rapid and 
 circuitous flight. 
 
 This was the last battle of any moment in the southern province?. A few- 
 petty skirmishes followed, but none of sufficient consequence to claim a place 
 in history. 
 
 The capture and capitulation, a few weeks later, of the British commander- 
 in-chief was received by the colonies with every demonstration of rejoicing. 
 On the receipt of the intelligence at Charleston, the enemy made instant pre- 
 parations to evacuate the city. The soldiers of freedom congratulated each 
 other upon this happy result of their long and trying labors, and looked for- 
 ward with joy to the hour of the departure of the foe, when they should be 
 honorably released from the harness of battle, and permitted to return once 
 again to their business pursuits and the peaceful enjoyment of their fire- 
 sides. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE announcement of the intended evacuation of Charleston by the Brit- 
 ish troops, flew like wildfire through every nook and corner of the province, 
 and was received by the people with demonstrations of patriotic joy. 
 
 Old men, who, worn out by age, labor and affliction, had not left their 
 rooms for years, became suddenly imbued with a spirit of youth on hearing 
 the glad tidings. Matrons, gray-haired with age, trial and sorrow, and who 
 had mourned over brave sons cut down in freedom's stormiest conflicts, were 
 inspired with joy that their sons had not fallen in vain, and with pride that 
 they who had robbed them of their loved ones were at length compelled to 
 bend their haughty necks and retreat in shame from the land they had sought 
 to enslave. Middle aged men who had grown old before their time, amid 
 privation at the fireside, and in the camp who had toiled in disheartening 
 fields for bread, and who had fought through long years of gloom in fields 
 still more disheartening for freedom that freedom which was at length to 
 rear its banner over them on the mountain and the plain, shook off their 
 sternness at the gratifying news, and smiled with proud joy as in their sunny 
 youth. Young men. who had, almost from boyhood, been reared amid bat- 
 tJe's thickest smoke, and fought bravely as older warriors amidst its wildest 
 din, bounded at the cheering news, and rent the air with enthusiastic cries. 
 Widows forgot, for a momont, the gallant husbands that they mourned, and 
 wreathed their faces in glad smiles a? they heard the happy tidings. Maidens 
 weeping for lovers slain, dried for a time their tears, and became radiant once 
 again with smiles, as the inspiring news broke softly on their ears. Children 
 danced, shouted, capered and screamed with wild delight, and shared equally 
 with their parents in the enthusiasm of the hour. 
 
 The proud, the happy, the solemn day at length came round, and Charles- 
 tok presented an animating sight All ages, ranks, professions and occupa-
 
 188 THE SWAMP STEED J OR THE DATS 
 
 tions, from every quarter of the province, crowded the avenues, thorough- 
 fares, by ways, fences, windows, steeples and housetops, with exulting joy, 
 to witness the departure of the enemy. 
 
 Every countenance in the crowd was alive with pride and triumph. Bach 
 man looked at his neighbor with gratulatioa and unspeakable joy ; for they 
 whose name was, in that day, the synonyme of all that was dark, cruel, 
 treacherous and false the British! were about to leave forever the shores 
 they had disgraced, were about to bid an eternal adieu to the land they had 
 incarnadined with blood ! 
 
 When it was announced that the hour had come for the hated enemy to 
 take up their march for the ships awaiting them in the bay, a thrill of inspirit- 
 ingjoy pervaded every heart; and when at length the object of this univer- 
 sal execration appeared in lineal procession, on their way to the vessels 
 which were to transport them back to their own land, there uprose from the 
 hearts to the lips, of the multitude, and from their lips to the earth's great 
 dome, a shout of gratitude to the Ruler of the Universe, for that He had 
 shora their enemy of his strength, and lifted them from the darkness and 
 the gyves of suffering and bondage to the light and happiness of unfettered 
 freedom. 
 
 And they, the enemy, looked meek, lowly and abashed, as they passed 
 down to their ships. Their foreheads were bowed with a consciousness of 
 their deep shame ; their steps faltering with a sense of their humiliation and 
 abasement ; their eyes cast down by the knowledge that of the ten thousand 
 beings gazing at them from every hand, not one looked down upon them 
 with . sympathy not one of all that vast throng but regarded them with 
 fierce unmeasured scorn : not one of that heterogenous assemblage but ex- 
 ecrated them for their crimes, their wanton crueltiesr-reprobating them as 
 wretches, whose infamous atrocities had sunk them below the level of hu- 
 manity. For they could not cast up their eyes without beholding widows 
 whom they had widowed, orphans whom they had orphaned, childless parents 
 whom they had made childless, and not in fair, manly, honorable fight, either : 
 but in reckless, beastly, wanton cruelty. They could not listen without 
 hearing some lone widow sigh for barbarities they had committed; without 
 hearing some poor mother say, to her babe, " My child, behold the asvSassin 
 of your father ;" without hearing some gray haired sire say, "Murderer, give 
 me back my gallant boys ; " without hearing some friendless orphan sigh, 
 "Wretches, give me back my father whom you slaughtered, my mother 
 whom you burned;" without hearing some poor matron shriek, "Fiends, 
 where are my brave sons that you murdered in their sleep ;" without hearing 
 some poor, pale maiden cry, " Where is my lover, whom, savage-like, you 
 shot down in his chains;" without hearing some aged, childless, harmless 
 couple groan, " Oh, monsters ! give us back our daughter whom you rav- 
 ished, our homestead that you pillaged and then consigned to fire, our fields 
 that gave us bread, which you destroyed ;" without hearing from every lip, 
 from the fair haired, lisping child, to the veteran of four score, the frightful 
 execration " Go, men who have forfeited your manhood ; go, wretches who 
 have forfeited your humanity ; go ye, who, though wrapt in human guise, are 
 yet not human; go ye, who though in the uniform of soldiery, arc yetnot soldiers; 
 back to your own clime, and take with ye the knowledge that the wives ye 
 have widowed, the children ye have orphaned, the parents ye have made child- 
 less, the hearthstones ye have violated, the women ye have ravished, the home- 
 steads ye have fired, the fields ye have reddened, the towns ye have laid 
 waste, will be attesting witnesses of your infamy, your perfidy, your worth- 
 lessness, your guile, and will rise up in judgment against you and yours, now 
 and forever, here and hereafter!" 
 
 The British passed down to their ships with execrations like these ; and as 
 they ascended their vessels' sides, loud groans sainted them from every lip.
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 189 
 
 The groans were followed a moment later by a shrill, prolonged shout of en- 
 thusiastic triumph. 
 
 " What is the cause of this loud roar !" asked a British officer, leaning over 
 the tarn-ail of his vessel, and addressing a burly woodsman, who had just 
 reached the pier, and was surveying the evacuating party with a smile. 
 
 "It means," replied the woodsman, "that the American columns air en- 
 terin' the city jest as yew varmint air in the act of slidin'I The stars and 
 stripes air now takin' the place of the British lion, and the people air so 
 tickled at the change that they can't hold in ! P'raps, kernel," he added, 
 with a quiet leer, " yew'd like to jine 'em ?" 
 
 The officer hastily retired from the vessel's side, without deigning a reply. 
 The woodsman hung around the pier till the British ships had hauled out into 
 the stream, thrown out their sails, and turned their bows England- ward. 
 
 " It's all right now !" he murmured, " I hev seed sum pleasin' sights in my 
 day, but this," and he smiled at the retreating fleet, " takes the shine out t 
 em all!" 
 
 The woodsman lingered on the pier till the last sail had dwindled into a 
 speck, and till the speck became lost in air, and then turned upon his heel, 
 murmuring 
 
 " Now that the streaked varmint air gone, I kin breathe agin ! The cusses 
 wer a dead weight on the country, which now, relieved of their consumin* 
 presence, will go ahead like chain lightnin'. There's now nuthin more fer 
 me ter du, 'cept to say. Good bye, to Marion and Neil. That done, I'll back 
 to the lodge,*fix up my traps, and then re-open accounts with the yaller 
 bellies!" 
 
 With these words, thr .'p hunter passed slowly up to the leading thor- 
 oughfares, to behold the American columns as they paraded in triumph through 
 the city. 
 
 The continental troops, marching six abreast, in their three cornered hats, 
 blue coats, yellow breeches and top boots, presented a showy and imposing 
 appearance, and were received with hearty acclamations. 
 
 Behind them, last, though by no means least, as was evidenced by the en- 
 thusiastic shouts which greeted them at almost every step, came the hardy 
 eons of the borders and the wilderness, in their wild and picturesque attire, 
 and bearing most indubitable marks of the terrible struggle through which 
 they had passed. Here might be seen a lean, sinewy and gigantic woods- 
 man, in deerskin shirt and leggins, and carrying his rifle with a hand which 
 some one of his numerous battles had robbed of the major part of its fingers. 
 Near him a sturdy yeoman, whose scarred brow and powder-burned cheeks 
 bore witness of the conflicts in which their owner had been engaged. In the 
 next line, might be seen a rough, stalwart ploughman, whose torn, patched 
 and greasy garments would have provoked a smile, were it not restrained by 
 admiration for the patience, unequalled endurance and lofty heroism written 
 on his calm, manly brow. Beside him walked one who had lost an arm, his 
 remaining member carrying, with true border pride, the trusty rifle which 
 had been his constant companion through the long years of gloom, suffering 
 and struggle amid which he had passed, brave and unfaltering as the bravest. 
 Next him, might be seen a ragged, half-starved stripling of eighteen, with a 
 wooden leg, having parted with the original in some fierce fought field, where 
 cannon balls and hissing bullets swept all around like a storm of hail Be- 
 hind him a tall, lean, cadaverous planter, who had lost an eye, his cheeks 
 and brows distorted by many a frightful scar, and looking proud and enthu- 
 siastic with his remaining orb. 
 
 These were the men of the borders and the wilderness, who had fought 
 their country's bravest and most trying battles. These were the men who, 
 regardless of cold, hunger, privation and fatigue, grappled with the enemy oa 
 the mountain and plain, sprang upon him from the swamp and ravine, sur-
 
 190 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 prised and broke up his camps, and drove him from the borders to the 
 fields, from the fields to the city, from the city to the sea. These were the 
 men who, in their own rude way, had hampered, checked, annoyed and 
 routed the cruel, imperious and self-sufficient foe. These were the men who, 
 when the regular continental troops had withdrawn from the province, car- 
 ried on the war alone with the enemy, drove him from point to point, 
 encouraged the troops to return, and in the darkest hours of the struggle re- 
 stored by their gallant deeds the hopes of the people. These were the men 
 whom sternest suffering could not crush, whom fiercest danger could not 
 daunt, whom neither hunger, nakedness, cold, privation nor the gloom of 
 ten thousand reverses could intimidate or appal These were the men who, 
 nobly forgetful of their own trials, remembered only the afflictions of their 
 country. These were the men of the borders and the wilderness. These 
 were the merry men of Marion. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE parting between Marion and his gallant band was solemn, tender and 
 affecting ; and not less so the separation between the brave partisan and his 
 two attached friends, the intrepid scalp hunter and the chivalrous planter. At 
 length, the parting grasp was given, the last adieu falterin^y uttered, and 
 with humid eyes and saddened hearts they sprang upon their horses and re- 
 turned to their several homes. 
 
 The planter rode along thoughtfully, that is to say, slowly. 
 
 :; Ah!" he murmured, as he reflected upon the result of the long and try- 
 ing contest, ;1 God never deserts those who trust in Him never regards with 
 indifference those who are true to themselves. He lias led us out of 
 bondage, up to freedom ; out of weakness, up to strength ; out of suffering, 
 up to happiness; out of darkness, up to light Glory, glory to His name!" 
 
 He passed, in a flat boat, over the Santee, and took the high road to the 
 Black River. 
 
 The sun was shining pleasantly. The high hills bordering the Santee wore, 
 to the planter's eye. an unusually cheerful aspect ; the shadowy woods look- 
 ed far less sombre than ever before ; the scattered fields presented a lively 
 appearance ; the birds sang, from trees along the way side, with sweeter 
 melody than usual. 
 
 'Ah!" murmured Somers, ;1 never before did nature wear to me so bridal 
 like a dress ; never before on my ear fell the music of her choristers so 
 genially. The era of suffering is over that of happiness, begun !" 
 
 He was interrupted in his meditations by the whistling of a bullet, and the 
 falling of his hat, which glided suddenly from his head to the road, as if 
 knocked off" by an invisible hand. A moment later, there was a loud, sharp 
 report, and the planter was aware that an attempt had been made, by some 
 ambushed foe. upon his life. 
 
 He turned in the direction of the sound, and beheld a human figure break- 
 ing through the underbrush of a wood upon the roadside, and making to- 
 wards him with a clubbed rifle. 
 
 One glance was sufficient to enable Somers to recognise the would-be 
 
 It was his relentless enemy Richard Winter. 
 The brow of the planter darkened, as he unsh< 
 "Coward!" he exclained, springing from his s 
 asay in the art of an assassin. It shall be your last!" 
 
 "It shall!" thundered Richar* Winter, rushing towards him with clubbed 
 
 The brow of the planter darkened, as he unsheathed his rapie/. 
 "Coward!" he exclained, springing from his saddle, "this is your second
 
 OF MARION AND HIS AI2IIRV MEN. 191 
 
 v> '. i;>n, " because you the cause will, in a few moments, have ceased to 
 exist !" 
 
 "You think that? Come on, then!" cried the planter. 
 
 :: I do not think it only I know it !" returned the tory, falling furiously 
 upon him. 
 
 Somers slipped lightly aside to avoid the intended blow, and the descend- 
 ing weapon fell upon the earth. 
 
 In another instant, the planter sprang forward and pierced his adversary 
 in the side. 
 
 As the rapier was withdrawn, the tory felt a line of hot liquid coursing 
 down his body between the garments and the skin. 
 
 Without a moment's pause, he dropped his heavy rifle, and precipitated 
 himself upon the planter. The latter, throwing aside his reeking blade, 
 closed in with him, and found himself compelled to call up all his strength to 
 force from off his throat the fingers of his adversary, who. with the ferocity 
 of a tiger, was straining every nerve to throttle him. 
 
 Throwing up his left hand, he caught and grasped with a vice -like firm- 
 ness the right wrist of his malignant foe ; then bringing around his right 
 hand, he twined his fingers in the tory's long dark hair, and summoning all 
 the rigid force of his hardy muscles to his aid, he braced himself, and pulled 
 on the encoiled locks retaining at the same time a strong hold of the im- 
 prisoned wrist, which he suddenly forced aside as he strained with his right 
 upon the hair. 
 
 Unable tf> Desist this attack upon his muscular forces, the tory's head bent 
 back, his fingers relaxed their hold, and he could do nothing but glare, with 
 eyes glittering with passionate hatred, up at his adversary, who continued to 
 pull upon his strained locks till his bent body, losing its balance, fell heavily, 
 drawing the planter after and upon him. 
 
 As he fell, the tory uttered a low, agonising groan, and then became in- 
 sensible. 
 
 Somers sprang to his feet, in astonishment. ' 
 
 " He must have fallen on something besides earth," he exclaimed, " or he 
 would not have moaned like that !" 
 
 He stooped, and taking the tory by the collar, moved him slightly aside. 
 
 The mystery was explained. 
 
 Richard Winter had fallen upon a sharp, ragged piece of rock, of a rough, 
 pyramidal shape, the point of which, striking him in the centre of the back, 
 had penetrated and bruised his spine. 
 
 " Merciful heaven !" muttered the planter. " What indescribable agony 
 he must have suffered in that moment!" 
 
 The tory's pale, upturned features were distorted with the anguish which 
 had wrung him to the soul ere he yielded to its intensity. 
 
 Somers shuddered, as he gazed upon the body, which, but for the bleeding 
 wound in its side, scarcely evinced a single sign of life. 
 
 " He must be got home as soon as possible," murmured the planter, with 
 a sigh. " Alas ! what a sight for his over-fond father !" 
 
 He stayed with his handkerchief the welling of the wound, and calling up 
 his horse, bade him fall upon his knees. 
 
 Arrow complied, and the planter succeeded, after some difficulty, in pla- 
 cing and strapping the tory in the saddle, with his head resting forward on 
 the animal's neck. Then taking the, latter by the bridle, he walked him slow- 
 ly to the Black River, across which he was ferried in a flat boat, and shortly 
 after entered Kingstree. 
 
 On entering the village, he passed up the main street, and halted at the 
 house of young Sprague, who soon made his appearance at the gate, and to 
 whom he related the part ; culars of the occurrence.
 
 192 THE SWAMP STEED; OR THE DAYS 
 
 A litter was shortly prepared, the wounded tory placed within it, and thei 
 borne by four stout negroes to his home. 
 
 " Have you heard the news ?" asked Sprague, who accompanied the plan- 
 ter on his painful errand to the Winters. 
 
 "What news?" 
 
 " Mrs. Brunton and Fred. Crampton were married this morning !" 
 
 " Indeed !" returned Somers, thoughtfully. " I was not aware Mr. Cramp- 
 ton paid court in that quarter." 
 
 " Oh, yes. They have been engaged for some time almost from the day 
 of the widow's, return from her last visit to Charleston." 
 
 " I rejoice to hear it," said the planter, after a moment's reflection. " Mrs. 
 Brunton is a very charming lady, Mr. Crampton a very worthy gentleman, 
 and from my heart I wish them every happiness !" 
 
 A few minutes more brought them to the house of the wounded and still 
 unconscious tory. 
 
 Mr. Winter was plunged into the utmost consternation and distress on 
 perceiving the condition of his erring but idolized son. Without waiting to 
 hear the particulars of the unhappy event, he overwhelmed the planter with 
 threats and violent reproaches, and wound up by ordering him from the 
 plantation. 
 
 " Mr. Winter," returned the planter, with an air of tranquil grandeur, 
 "you are doing yourself a wrong and me an injustice, by condemning me 
 unheard. Nevertheless, I pardon you, and will do myself the honor of wait- 
 ing upon you in a calmer hour, and of laying before you the* details of this 
 melancholy affair, which, sir, you cannot regard with deeper regret than 
 myself!" 
 
 He lifted his hat respectfully, aiid, exchanging a mournful glance with Amy, 
 who stood over her brother in tears, took his leave. 
 
 On reaching his own plantation, Somers was received by his parent and 
 brothers with indescribable joy and affection. 
 
 " Ah! Neil, my beloved/' cried his mother, tenderly embracing him, " the 
 war over, we shall never part again !" 
 
 " Never, mother dear mother, never !" 
 
 " But, my son," said Mrs. Somers, detecting with a mother's delicate in- 
 stinct, a slight shade upon his brow, " something has happened ?" 
 
 " You have been attacked by some one, brother ?" observed Frederick, 
 anxiously. 
 
 "Your collar is torn, brother!" added George, in a tone of solicitude. 
 
 "My son my good, my brave boy!" continued Mrs. Somers, tenderly, 
 ' there are scratches upon your neck ! Frederick is right George has di- 
 vined truly you have been attacked? Is it not so, Neil?" 
 
 " It is true, mother it is true, my brothers!" returned the planter. "Lis- 
 ten, beloved ones." 
 
 And he gave the particulars of the affair. 
 
 " My son," said Mrs. Somers. as Neil concluded his recital, " Mr. Winter 
 did you great injustice by his reproaches. He should have thanked you for 
 not leaving his wicked boy upon the road !" 
 
 " I could not do that, mother !" 
 
 " No, my good, my brave son," returned his parent, throwing her arm* 
 around him fondly, "you could not. You are the soul of magnanimity and 
 honor !" 
 
 At this moment, a servant entered, with a note. 
 
 The planter blushed as he glanced at the superscription. He had recog 
 nked the handwriting. He opened the missive, and on running his eye ovei 
 its contents, his countenance brightened. 
 
 "He lives, mother he will not die!" he exclaimed. " Thank heaven! h 
 will have time to repent!"
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 193 
 
 "Tis from Miss Winter?" said Mrs. Somers, tenderly. 
 " It is," replied the planter, respectfully handing her the note. ' Read it!" 
 Mrs. Somers glanced it over, and then perused it aloud. It was couched 
 as follows : 
 
 " Dear Neil, I hasten to relieve your heart of the load which oppresses it. 
 The physician is here, and he assures us Richard, who is now conscious, will 
 yet recover. Remember me to my dear Mrs. Somers, and your beloved 
 brothers. AMT." 
 
 " It is very kind and considerate in Miss Winter, to send you this welcome 
 intelligence, brother !" observed Frederick. 
 
 "She is worthy of Neil's and our dear mother's friendship," continued 
 George. 
 
 "She is a good creature!" said Mrs. Somers, glancing gratefully at the 
 twins. " But talking of letters, my dear," she added, turning to Neil, " there 
 was one brought here yesterday from the village. It was marked ' private,' 
 of which there was not the least necessity ; for I am sure, my dear, I should 
 be wanting in self-respect to open a'letter addressed to any one but myself." 
 
 "The writer of it evidently did not know you, dear mother!" said NeU, 
 raising her hand with a mingled air of tenderness and respect to his lips. 
 ''Where is it?" 
 
 " On the table in your room, my dear. I'll run up and bring it down." 
 
 "No, dear mother. I will go and get it, myself. It may, perhaps, require 
 an immediate reply." 
 
 So saying, he ascended to his chamber that chamber which he had not 
 been in before for years. 
 
 He paused with emotion, as he crossed the threshold. 
 
 Everything was as he had left it when he first buckled on his rapier to bat- 
 tle for Carolina, humanity and freedom. There stood the bed, with its snowy 
 curtains, in which he had slept from childhood. Between the two windows, 
 his small library, and under it his writing table. There was his old easy 
 chair, with its homely, yet comfortable, cushioned seat and back. In one 
 corner, his small chest of drawers, which had been made and presented to 
 him as a birth-day present, by one of his negroes, long years before. In 
 another corner stood the old clothes press, also the make and gift of one of 
 his attached slaves. Over the broad mantle hung his fowling piece, belt, 
 pouch, powder horn and shot bag, with, which he used to roam the woods 
 hills and meadows, in quest of game, in his youth. 
 
 Yes, everything, as he had left it ; everything to call up pleasant memories 
 of days long gone, of years long fled ; everything clean, bright and spotless, 
 evidencing his mother's kindly care, watching eye, and attentive hand. 
 
 The planter brushed away a tear, and then, glancing at the table, perceived 
 the letter, or rather package, for it was a large one. 
 
 He took it up, broke the seal of the envelope, and found a note lying upon 
 a large folded document. 
 
 The superscription on the note was penned in a fine, delicate, womanly 
 style. His face flushed as he glanced at it, for his heart guessed the name of 
 its writer. He opened the missive with a trembling hand, and read with 
 humid eyes, the following words : 
 
 " NEIL, my friend, to-day I am free, to-morrow I shall be another's. But 
 ere I relinquish my liberty, I desire to say to you Neil, I have loved you 
 for years, as I never loved before, as I can never love again. I hoped so 
 selfish, my friend, is the thing called love to meet with a return of my pas- 
 sion, even though I was aware that your faith was pledged to another ; but 
 it was not to be, and I bow to the decree of my destiny. I can say this to 
 you now, my friend, without a blush, because you are yet free, because you 
 
 25
 
 194 THE SWAMP STEED ; OR THE DAYS 
 
 already suspect it, and because I know that the knowledge of it will never pass 
 from your keeping. To-morrow, I shall be another's, and then I shall forget 
 that I have ever regarded you in any other light than that of a generous and 
 noble-minded friend. I say this to vindicate my honor. Henceforth, I shall 
 look upon you as one of the nearest and dearest friends of myself and hus- 
 -band. Enclosed please find a deed of the property which you honored me 
 by selling to me some years ago. Accept it, Neil, as a gift from your old 
 school fellow accept it as a legacy of that love which honor and duty now 
 bid resolve into mere esteem. Accept it, Neil, in the same generous spirit 
 with which, on discovering my love, you promised me your friendship. Ac- 
 cept it, as a gift from a sister to a brother, whom she loves. Accept it as a 
 .gift from her whose heart, now whole, will break, if you refuse it. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 LAURA BRUNTON." 
 
 The planter shaded his eyes with his hands, thoughtfully, for some minutes, 
 after perusing this letter. At length, he drew out his table drawer, and 
 taking forth the necessary implements, penned the following reply : 
 
 " DEAR FRIEND, To refuse your generous offer would be a cruelty which 
 I have not the courage to inflict I accept it as souvenir of one whose 
 great soul has ever been dear to me of one in whose pure friendship I es- 
 teem myself blessed. The announcement of your union fills me with pleas- 
 ure ; and the more so, as the object of your choice is a gentleman whom I 
 .have long known and honored for his merits as a friend, a patriot and a man. 
 He is worthy of your noble heart ; and will, I am confident, spare nothing to 
 render the fair partner of his name and love, the happiest of her sex. That 
 your days may be long and your path one of flowers, shall ever be the prayer, 
 dear lady, of your old playfellow and friend, 
 
 NEIL SOMKBS." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 WEEKS glided away, and Richard Winter still retained his chamber. Gloom 
 and quiet reigned throughout the household: for it was known and felt that, 
 although the sword wound in the tory's side had healed, yet the internal in- 
 jury produced by the hurt in his spine had placed him beyond the surgeon's 
 reach. 
 
 Day after day rolled on, and, instead of mending, the invalid grew visibly 
 worse. His bold and manly frame wasted slowly but unerringly till it was 
 a mere shadow. His cheeks became hollow, his lips boodless, his neck lean, 
 and feminine ; while his facial bones shone through his thin and livid skin, 
 with painful prominence. His eye alone was unsubdued. Through its bold 
 clear pupil gleamed, bright as ever, the fires of his proud, untamed spirit. 
 
 He had not exchanged a word, except with the nurse or surgeon, since 
 the hour of his return to consciousness. It was in vain that his father ad- 
 dressed him in vain that Amy attempted to draw him into conversation. 
 If he noticed them at all, it was to frowningly point them to the door nomore. 
 
 He appeared wrapt in some long spell of musing. Surrounded and propped 
 up by innumerable pillows, he would sit for hours, with his clasped hands 
 half sustaining his slightly bowed chin, and looking thoughtfully across the 
 room at a portrait of his mother hanging from the wall 
 
 Any interruption of these fits was sure to bring down upon the unlucky 
 offender a flash of angry lightning from his bold and somewhat brilliant eyes, 
 which had a world of meaning in them, terrifying e ven to the surgeon. 
 
 At length, Amy, perceiving that her presence was more of an annoyance
 
 1% THE SWAMP STKKD J OH Till: m\ 
 
 " iTo/ .he returned, " it will not be ao. My heart tells me I shall speedily 
 be on my way to my long home. Ere sunset I shall have ceased to eatiat 
 I feel it!" He paused, to recover his thoughts and strength, and tb 
 Burned -" Hut to tli.' matter before us. I have called y<> 
 cans. I know that I am a dying man, and partly from a sincere desire to 
 make some atonement for the hatred with which I have pursued you and 
 yours. It is now about eight years, sir, since my motto 
 pcarod to love me, called me to her bedside. She was then, as I am now, on 
 the eve of her departure (Ur another world. She, too, had then, as I have 
 now, cleared the ,'h.Muber of Mr. Winter and Amy, that none save her invi- 
 ted auditor should hear what she had to say." 
 
 II, >ays of Mr. Winter and Amy 1 he does not say of his father andga- 
 terl" muttered the planter to himself, in surprise. 
 
 " What my mother said to me then," continued Richard, faintly, "I now 
 repeat to you, and in her very words. Listen, Mr. Somers you will (hid 
 in it the key to my bitterness and hatred." 
 "I listen, Mr. Winter," said the planter. 
 
 " ' M v son, in my youth I was vain and giddy, and in an evil 
 
 hour forgot what was due to honor and my husband, by yielding to the em- 
 braces of a stranger. I have no excuse to ofl<v for my shame. Guilt raw 
 have none. Enough that 1 fell through the, persuasion of one skilled in the 
 arts of n pr< >f< -or. Yon. Richard, are the issue of that guilty pas- 
 
 sion, and your lather is not my husband, Mr. Winter, but Lionel Bomers, 
 who, year- ago. abandoned his wife, taking with him las two twin boys, 
 with whom he tied to England !' " 
 The planter started and turned pale. 
 
 " ' You will find,' .'ontinued my mother, 'in a p.-. my pillow, 
 
 the particulars of my sham.-. I "leave it to yourjudgme.nt. my son, wi.. 
 
 aled to your father. T tell it to you that you may 
 
 no Ion- .iml cruelty towards you. From your birth 
 
 till now, yo'n rer been a living witness of my guilt I could not 
 
 look UJKJU you without thinking of my shame. Pardon me. Oh! m\ 
 pardon your erring mother. She implores it of you on her dying bed!' " 
 Richard paused a moment, to recover himself, and then contn 
 " Though shocked at this recital, I ne< ive her the pardon si 
 
 desired, and then, at her re-|uest, called in Mr. Winter and Amy, who were- 
 weeping, as they are now. m an adjoining room. A tew minutes, and 
 she died a*/' '""' si'ldi-u, with an effort, "in a few minutes I shall die! But 
 let me conclude, for I li-.-l I -hull hold out but a little while. As the earth 
 was thrown upon my guilty parent's corpse, I swore undying hosti 
 Lionel Somers and all of his issue for the dishonor he had heaped upon my 
 head. I had a friend in London, and him I wrote to privately look up Lio- 
 nel Some:- and inform me of his abode. It was my intention t 
 England and l>"gin on him my work of vengeanee. A reply came back that 
 he had died a year or two previously, but that he had !;' 'wins, 
 
 whom he had educated tor th- army, and who shortly expected to go to 
 America, to push their fortunes in 'the contest which was anticipated be- 
 tween the home government and the colonies. My next letter brought me 
 inU'Higenee that the twin brothers were about to embark for Charleston, 
 where I might look for th-m within a few months. On the i 
 information, 1 determined to meet them, ami lead them on, step by ?l 
 to intamy and then death. Pending their arrival, I commenced a systematic 
 attack upon th- honor and destruction of their and your sister, with what 
 success, Mr. Somers, you are unfortunately too well aware. The poor, weak 
 hearted girl was laid in her grave on the morning of the arrival of her twin 
 brothers'at Charleston. That was my first step in veu|eance."
 
 195 
 
 - 
 
 rayas^ass 
 
 " Yon^Ll 7 aod '" L shricked ^ old DIM, springing from his chmii 
 
 ^^KWaaiW! ;.-e-5,v;,'Sr 
 
 
 
 iD to - th * 1 . divining too weO what 
 
 tentio 8ir '" Said ch *^ f ^%- " d now Jet M have your at- 
 
 ^ Say on, Mr. Winter."
 
 OF MARION AND HIS MERRY MEN. 197 
 
 He paused again to recover his strength, and then resumed, while his pale, 
 ainiddering auditor trembled in his chair as if smitten with an ague. 
 
 "On learning the arrival of the twin brothers at Charleston, I proceeded 
 fjbither at once to meet them. I succeeded in obtaining an introduction, and 
 followed il up by a systematic attack upon their honor. I inveigled them 
 to the gambling table, where, however, I failed to persuade them into deep 
 play. I beguiled them into houses of bad repute, and into dissipations of 
 7ery nature for the purpose of brutalizing their naturally refined minds, de- 
 stroying their constitutions and blasting their reputations. In this fiendish 
 coarse I was interrupted by the sudden breaking out of the revolution, and 
 an order from the British governor to bear a despatch concerning the Battle 
 of Lexington to the sheriff of Kingstree. This separated me from the twins, 
 and preserved them from my malevolence. Their appearance in the village a 
 day or two after, gave me new hope that I might yet succeed in destroying 
 them. Of their capture by yourself, and their ultimate disappearance, I need 
 toy nothing other than that it increased with tenfold bitterness the hatred I 
 lad previously entertained against you as one of the stock of Lionel Somers. 
 
 " To be brief. From that hour, seeing their destiny had rescued the twins 
 from my hands, I directed all my hostility to you as the only one of Lionel 
 Somers' issue within my reach. I knew that you loved my sister, and I de- 
 termined* to wound yoni first through your love, and then slay you in cold 
 Mood. Amy's unfaltering affection and the lofty sense of honor of Frederick 
 Crampton, the man I had designed and whom I strove to force upon her, 
 preserved you from the first ; yur own sagacity and courage saved you from 
 tiae second. I need not repeat here the details of my designs upon your hap- 
 piness and life. You are already familiar with them. Enough that I now, 
 ia this my dying hour, pronounce them base, dishonorable and unmanly 
 that I rejoice in my inmost soul at their failure, and that I repent of them 
 wish a fervency as genuine as my former hatred was solemn. I say it as a 
 4ying man, who wOl shortly stand in the presence of his God !" 
 
 "I believe you, sir," said the planter, t"and here extend you my hand in 
 ftokec of my full forgiveness !" 
 
 "Call them in, Mr. Somers," said Richard, impassively. "I cannot take 
 your hand till I have in some measure made restitution for the agonies 
 I have caused you and Amy ! Be quick ! My strength is giving out. My 
 body is already gone it is MY WILL alone which now sustains me ! 
 
 "Father," he continued, as Mr. Winter and Amy re-entered the room, "it 
 SB my dying wish that you extend your hand to Mr. Somers, in pledge of 
 wnoerest amity. He is a brave and noble gentleman, and worthy of your 
 jnost exalted regards all that I have ever before said to the contrary, notr 
 withstanding. Nay," he added, seeing Mr. Winter's hesitation and conra- 
 aioo, " do not pause, do not reflect. I WISH it !" 
 
 This was said in a tone which the weak old man was accustomed to obey ; 
 and without a word, without delaying an instant, he gave his hand to the 
 planter. 
 
 " In the hand you hold, my father, put now that of my sister!" continued 
 Richard, with the same commanding air. 
 
 Mr. Winter, in perplexity and distress, complied, and the planter and hia 
 beloved, both of whom were pale, tremulous and tearful, found themselves 
 aft length made happy by him who had spent the beat years of his life in 
 overwhelming them with misery. 
 
 "Bless them now, my father !" added Richard, in a faint and solemn 
 voice it was impossible to resist 
 
 Mr. Whiter raised his hands over the heads of the lovers, but was too 
 ' agitated to speak, 
 jr father," said Richard, reproachfully, " I hav,e not heard you bless
 
 198 THE SWAMP STEE, kC. 
 
 "Bless you, my children!" gasped the agitated old man. 
 
 "Father," said Richard, in a tone faint yet firm, "I have caused you many 
 a tear, many a heart-ache, many a suffering hour. Pardon me!" 
 
 "Oh! Richard my son my son!" sobbed the doting parent, falling upon 
 his knees beside the bed, and pressing to his lips, with agonizing affection, 
 the frail, wan hand of the idol of his heart. 
 
 "You have not pardoned me, my father!" persisted Richard, gently. 
 
 " I forgive you, Richard Oh ! my brave, brave boy, bless you bless 
 you I" 
 
 " Amy," continued Richard, " I have caused you years of tears, of suffer- 
 ing, of woe. Pardon, pardon !" 
 
 "Richard, I forgive, forgive you all!" cried the poor, trembling girl, falling 
 on her knees beside her father, and sharing with him the pale, attenuated hand 
 which was already growing cold. 
 
 "Mr. Somers, added Richard, in the same faint yet firm voice, "I have 
 wronged you, injured you, and meanly falsified you, times without number. 
 But I repent it all. Forgive forgive !" 
 
 "I do, Richard I do, from the bottom of my heart!" said the planter, ad- 
 vancing and taking his remaining hand. 
 
 " Father," resumed Richard, faintly, " rise and let me feel that -you are 
 here. My eyes are growing dim. Amy, stand up and give one hand to 
 Somers, who holds my left, the other to father, who has my right. Ah ! I 
 can control my will no longer it is leaving me ! Loose not your hold I 
 would feel you to the last. Bless me bless me all for I am going ! Bless 
 me ! Say you forgive, as you hope to be forgiven !" 
 
 His voice, reduced to a whisper, ceased. 
 
 "I pardon I bless you, Oh! Richard, my son!" sobbed the doating 
 father. 
 
 "I pardon I bless you, Oh! Richard!" cried the weeping sister. 
 
 " I pardon I bless you, Oh ! Richard, my brother /" exclaimed the gene- 
 rous planter. And a slight pressure of the hand he held in his, told him 
 he was understood and appreciated by the dying man. 
 
 "Bless ydu bless you all!" he murmured, in a tone .Thich was not a 
 whisper but a sigh. 
 
 And as they heard these words, his auditors knew th* V> tpirit which 
 had uttered them was already far away.
 
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