"You had better postpone your journey till to-morrow morning," answered the doctor, walking with me towards the door. "Don't you think it will be dangerous to go alone at this time of night?"
"Oh, no," I replied. "These people will not rally; and you may be sure they brought up their whole force. If I am not mistaken, you may look upon the insurrection as at an end. They have met with a check which they will not soon recover; and your neighbours will have much to thank you for, Doctor Blunt."
"Well, sir," replied the doctor, evidently much gratified, "I trust we have done our duty; and if every one will do his duty in such circumstances, the state will have nothing to fear."
"Your gallant young son, sir, has done his duty too, nobly," I replied; "I am quite sure he brought down his man; he was as steady as an old soldier."
"I am delighted to hear you say so, Sir Richard," answered the father, doubtless with a proud heart. "He has been brought up to obey orders, without hesitation, and I trust he has a right--a hereditary right--to courage. His family has not produced a coward, sir, and I trust it never will; but you had better come in and finish your supper, Sir Richard, while they get a horse for you. Will it not be better to have one saddled for your man Zed likewise? He knows the roads more thoroughly than you do, I suspect, and might be of assistance to you in case of danger." I gladly embraced the offer and was not sorry, to say sooth, for some more food. Nor did I altogether refrain from Doctor Blunt's good wine; for I felt that night, more than I ever did in my life, those sensations which doubtless lead many a man to drunkenness--the need of something to keep up my spirits, to enable me to cast off the load of thought, and pursue my course amidst whatever painful circumstances might surround me. I did not drink much, it is true; for out of the bottle of Madeira, set by my side, several of my companions in the late affray came in and helped themselves very liberally. In fact, for the next half-hour, as may be well supposed, the house of Doctor Blunt presented a scene of excitement and confusion sufficient to banish everything like sober thought. Every one was talking; every one was moving about; every one was asking questions, and nobody answering them. Some were examining where the balls had struck; many were describing their own deeds, and telling how they had picked off their man: and certainly if all had been done which they asserted, a dozen negroes must have fallen instead of six. All were talking; some were laughing loudly; and, strange to say, even the captured and wounded negroes were joining in the merriment, almost as if they had been of the victorious, instead of the defeated, party. I saw one fellow sitting in the hall, just opposite the door, with a bullet through his shoulder, and his hands tied behind him, show his white teeth from one end of the range to the other, exclaiming, with a laugh,--
"I wish somebody would tie my hands afore instead of behind. My golly, how hot dat hole feel! I tink dey must shoot wid red-hot shot." At length it was announced that the horses were ready, and I rose to depart.
"What, going, Sir Richard!" exclaimed Billy Byles, coming in. "Hang it, you have stolen a march upon them. I shall go in to-night. Blunt, you had better march the prisoners in. There's no use of keeping them here all night. Hadn't you better wait for us, Sir Richard?"
"No, my good friend," I answered; "I cannot rest satisfied till I hear more of Miss Davenport." Billy Byles was of that sanguine and immovable disposition, which from one success infers that everything else must go right, and he answered,--
"Oh, she is quite safe, depend upon it." Although not an hour before, on hearing of the situation in which she had been left, he had exclaimed, "Poor Bessy!" in tones of melancholy augury, which still rang in my ears. I declined to delay my departure, however; and, shaking hands with young Blunt as I passed, I walked forward to the door, where the horses stood. Zed crept after me slowly, with much the air of an offending dog, who expects, as he follows his master's heels, to have a kick every minute, and keeps himself prepared to jump back and avoid the blow. Much shaking of hands took place on the steps of the house; but at length I mounted, and took my way on.