"There they come, father; but they are mighty slow about it."
"You had better put out the lights on this floor, Dr. Blunt," I said.--"they will only serve to direct the enemy's fire, and lose us the advantage which the position of the moon gives. We are in shadow here; but you perceive we can see almost every pebble of the ground out there."
"To be sure! to be sure! Well thought of! Put out all the lights," said Doctor Blunt.
"Now, will you go round, doctor," I continued, "and see that every man has his ammunition close at hand? I wonder if these bullets will fit my gun."
"They are quite small," said the doctor, moving away; "you had better put two or three in." When he was gone, I approached the window at which the boy was still standing, and leaning out, took a general survey of the moonlight scene which presented itself before the house. It was one which, at other times, or on any ordinary occasion, would have presented no single point of interest. The ground was very nearly flat, slightly undulating, indeed, towards the eastward, with a small lawn or field in front of the house, and an orchard of what seemed peach and plum trees, at about a hundred and fifty yards' distance. Sweeping all round the horizon, was a dense belt of forest-ground, dark in the shadowy moonlight, like evening clouds upon the edge of the sky, and the space within this barrier of wood was lighted up by the full, clear beams of the rising planet. It was one of those nights which, on this continent, are peculiarly beautiful; when the moon drowns, in her own effulgence, all the stars immediately round herself, but leaves the rest of the sky full of bright luminaries, which, large and full, seem to vie the one with the other in aiding her to make up for the absence of the sun. Fields which had been cultivated, and from most of which the crops had been reaped, to the extent of five or six hundred acres, lay around me within the belt of forest, and on the right extended, first, the stubble field, fifty or sixty acres in extent, and then the wide field of Indian corn not yet gathered in. The maize presents a somewhat curious appearance in the calm moonlight--an appearance, at least, to which we are unaccustomed in Europe, especially when it is ripe. It looks almost white, yet something tells you--I know not well what--that it is not snow which covers the land. Often is it so tall, that a man of full height could pass through it unperceived; but the spring this year had been backward, little rain had fallen, and the corn was considered stunted and deficient. Thus, when I had passed through that field, the long reed-like stalks, with their broad leaves, had not reached higher than my shoulder, and I could now plainly perceive a thick group of dark objects making its way towards the house, still at the distance of a quarter of a mile. All in external nature was very calm and still and pleasant; and the flat and somewhat monotonous scene acquired an aspect almost picturesque, from the accessories of light and shade, and the resplendent heaven above it. But there was that moving group of black objects, which, sometimes pausing for an instant, and always proceeding very slowly and cautiously, kept still advancing towards the house, and added a different sort of interest to the scene. While I was making my survey I continued to charge my gun, and endeavoured, to the best of my power, to calculate the number of the enemy. I could only make out twenty-four; and I do not think I was wrong by more than one or two on either side. In the meantime the boy stood beside me, apparently calm and tranquil, without saying a word. There was an heroic sort of quietude in his demeanour which struck me very much. I knew that through the whole of the south of the United States the idea of a revolt of the slaves is one of those fearful phantoms of the imagination which is present to the minds of all men, although, in the affairs of business, or the excitement of pleasure, they may, from custom, forget it, and take no notice of the shadow of Nemesis which is cast upon the festal board--the sword suspended by a hair, which hangs over the head even of the lord of the feast. They are like people inhabiting a volcanic region, who trim their vines, and sing and dance in their harvests, forgetting altogether the proximity of danger and death, till the first tremulous motion of the earth announces the coming earthquake, and then they start up confused and alarmed by the coming of events which they might have foreseen in the due course of nature. That boy's coolness and tranquillity, in the circumstances in which we were placed, struck me very much. None of us at that time could tell how all these things were to end: no one was aware how far the conspiracy had extended, or what preparations had been made to insure its success. All that we knew was, that the blacks were infinitely superior in number to the whites; that they had risen with merciless fury against their masters; and that they had not yet met with any decisive check: that every house they had attacked they had taken without difficulty, and massacred the inhabitants without consideration of age or sex. Such was our position; yet that boy stood there beside me as cool and quiet as if there was no risk or danger in the coming contest.
"Now, my good lad," I said, after I had taken my survey, "you and I are to defend this window, I suppose."
"I suppose so, sir," he said; "my father told me to stay here."
"Are you not a little nervous?" I asked, with a smile.
"Yes, sir," he answered frankly; "but I always do what father tells me."
"Well," I answered, "there is no great danger, and you are a good, brave fellow. I have seen a good many of these affairs; and it is such hearts as yours that always carry victory with them. Now, I am an old soldier and an officer, so you must obey orders. Go and get a pillow from the bed, and place it on the window-sill. Now, kneel down there; rest your gun quietly over; fix upon the man you intend to shoot, keeping him always under cover of the muzzle, and do not fire until I tell you. I'll bet you a dollar you'll bring him down."