He tried to throw himself on his knees, but Ben held him erect, and he stood trembling in every limb, and holding out his hands to me in a cowardly fright, that excited no feeling but disgust. When he appealed to the past, I remembered that Carlotta had made the same appeal to him only to receive an insult, and I had almost stricken him down with my own hand, when mother’s voice again whispered in my ear, ”Forgive, as ye would be forgiven.”
My arm was scarcely lowered when the sound of horses’ feet was heard, and, looking up, we saw a half dozen Federal cavalry coming down the avenue at a fast trot.
Frank’s face lighted up with an expression of fiendish malice and triumph as he saw them, and, pointing to them, he said, with a sudden change from an abject to an authoritative air:
”Take your hands off, sir! Surrender, or I will have you both shot. You dare not harm me now,” he added, with a sneer.
”We don’t?” said Ben, with a hiss in his voice and a redder light in his eyes. Then, giving Frank’s throat a grip that made his face livid, he pointed with his revolver to the ashes, and said through is teeth: ”Look there, villain! is that your work?”
”Yes, by Heaven! it is;” exclaimed Frank, with a gesture of defiance, for the troopers were almost on us.
”Then, infernal dog, take your pay!”
Before I could speak there was a levelled brown barrel, a deadly report, and a red oozing spot in Frank’s white forehead. He stood motionless a second, and then fell limp and doubling up to the ground.
”Now less scatter ’em yonder, and break for old Joe’s camp;” said Ben, as he sprang upon his horse.
The Yankees halted with astonishment as they saw an awkward country lad and an old woman charging upon them.