"Ah, dis nigger run all de way," cried the boy, "right troo de woods--neber stop for noting."
"Then you must need something, my good boy," I replied. "Come into the town with me, and I'll see if I can get you some breakfast."
"O no, mas'r," answered the boy. "Had good drink out there," and he pointed to the river. "But mind you now, you wait till Hercules come. He can want you in a minute, he say. He am very fierce about someting, and get half de nigger together and went away again, so soon he sent me off." I tried to get some further information from the boy, but it was in vain. He evidently knew nothing more than the message with which he had been charged; and giving him some pieces of silver for his trouble, with which he seemed mightily delighted, I let him go. On returning to the inn, I found the dining-hall occupied by a party of gentlemen arranging their plans for a very melancholy duty. This was to divide the district in which the massacre had taken place into sections, and in parties of sufficient force, to visit the houses which had suffered, in order to take the necessary steps to dispose decently of the bodies of the victims. A good-looking military man was in the chair, with a calm and intelligent countenance. I found afterwards it was General Eppes, the commandant of the district. He was just addressing a few words of advice and exhortation to those who were about to set out.
"I believe, gentlemen," he said, "that all danger may be considered over. The insurrection may be said to be at an end, though several of the leaders have escaped as yet. I would advise you, however, to go well armed, and five or six in a body, lest you should fall in with any scattered party of these unfortunate people. I would beseech you, however, should you meet with any of them, to be calm, and to forbear from anything like violence or cruelty. Let them be brought in to await the action of the law; but do not permit indignation and anger to move you to acts as barbarous as their own. You may think it strange, and perhaps improper, that I should address such advice to you at all; but I have just received intelligence of a most brutal outrage committed upon some unoffending negroes by persons who should know better. My good friend, the sheriff, has just set out to inquire into the whole matter, and I trust will bring the offenders to punishment. For it is dangerous and intolerable, on an occasion like this, when the restoration of tranquillity depends as much upon justice and forbearance as upon courage and activity, that the peaceable and well-disposed should be treated like the malcontent and the guilty, especially," he added, in a very marked tone, "where private malevolence may be suspected as the motive for a cruel and unjustifiable act. This is all I wish to say; but I think it is worth your attention, for I know that many who hear me must set forth with feelings highly irritated, which will be naturally increased by the sad spectacles they will have to witness." His tone was calm, firm, and dignified, and he was listened to with evident attention and respect. Some, indeed, wished that he would give farther explanations in regard to the particular case of outrage to which he had alluded. But he replied, after a moment's thought,--
"Gentlemen, my information is vague, and I do not like to give circulation to rumours affecting the character and conduct of any gentleman in the neighbourhood. We have had too many rumours already, and, until the particulars are well ascertained, I shall say no more. The matter is in the hands of the sheriff, whose energy and activity you all know, and it will be thoroughly investigated." The meeting then began to break up, organizing itself into different parties to perform the mournful duty they had undertaken. Each selected its particular little district to act in, and each chose a leader for itself to direct its proceedings. This spirit of organization is one of the most peculiar and serviceable traits of the American character. In other countries, a mob is a mob; every one strives for the lead; every one tries to cram his own opinion down the throats of others. But no sooner do a number of Americans meet for any purpose whatsoever, than the first thing they do is to organize; they choose their leaders and their officers, and thus, very often, the most disorderly acts are performed in the most orderly manner. This is one of the ancient characteristics of the Anglo-Saxons, showing itself amongst their remote descendants. Our pagan, piratical, barbarous, bloodthirsty ancestors, had no sooner taken possession of Great Britain, than they devised, and carried out, one of the most beautiful systems of organization ever conceived; and if both Englishmen and Americans have, as I am afraid is the case, inherited some of the piratical propensities of our worthy forefathers, they have come in for their share of the better qualities also. Mr. Henry Thornton was placed at the head of one party, Billy Byles of another, and I think about seven little bodies of men were formed to visit the different houses where massacres had been committed. I was asked by Mr. Thornton to join his party; but I explained to him that I wished to remain in the town till Colonel Halliday made his appearance, and I besought him, if he obtained any intelligence of Bessy, to let me know at once.
"Halliday's absence is very strange," said Mr. Thornton; "but let me advise you, Sir Richard, if I may do so without seeming impertinent, to deal with him calmly when he does come in. There are various circumstances which may make him irritable in regard to any matter where Bessy is concerned, and I think we have had pistols and bullets enough for some time to come." Thus closed our conversation, and when the various parties had set out on their way, I betook myself to the open space before the inn, not alone to be ready for whatever might occur, but to dissipate my impatience, as it were, in a way that could not be annoying to others. I ought, perhaps, in politeness, to have gone to sit with Mrs. Thornton and her daughters in the balcony; but I felt that I was not fit for society, and that my company could not be very desirable to any one in the mood which was then upon me.
[CHAPTER XXXII.]
About half an hour had passed, during which I had walked up and down, exchanging a few words, from time to time, with different gentlemen in the street, when I saw a negro-lad coming at a quick pace from the side of the bridge. I thought I recollected his face, though I have always found it very difficult to distinguish one of his race from another, by the features, when there is no mixture of the white. I accordingly advanced to meet him, and saw at once that it was of me he was in search.
"Come along as quick as possible, mas'r," he said, "you is wanted down dar very much. Mas'r sheriff gone down; but you wanted too. I met mas'r sheriff on the road. Poor Hercules and two other is shot. Dey tink him die, and he want to see you."
"Shot!" I exclaimed. "Good Heaven! by whom?" The boy had been speaking low; but he now dropped his voice to a whisper, while he replied--