What no man can take away;
And, oh Sabbath! bringing gladness
Unto hearts of weary sadness,
Still thou art an holy day.”
Whittier.
Under cover of the morning fog Captain Doc descended from the verandah of the Postmaster’s residence. As he slid down a pillar of the open piazza of the lower story, a black face stared from one of the lower windows, with an expression of mingled terror and surprise. Reassured by a smile upon Doc’s face, he raised the sash cautiously, and whispered, “Does you want to come in?”
“No, no, Dick!” was the reply, “this town isn’t a safe enough place to hold me when the day comes. The hounds will be back again, when they have fed and slept a little. Have you been there all night?”
“Yes; and all alone too. The family knowed it wa’n’t safe for ’em here, pertic’lar Mr. Rouse. And so dey left me to see after tings. Gen. Baker, nor none of ’em’ dar’n’t touch dis house, cause the Post Office is yere, and dat’s dee United States—they are ’afeared o’ de Yankees you see. But, oh my! Ha’n’t it been a long night, and a awful one! ’Pears like I’m a hundred yeah old. How many’s been killed?”
“I don’t know. Enough, anyhow.”
“Dey didn’t git yo’? I’m surprised, Doc.”
“No, nor they won’t;” and waving an adieu to Dick, the Captain walked noiselessly to the back part of the garden, and leaped the fence into Mercer street.
There, stiff and stark lay the body of John Carr, the Town Marshal; and further up, close beside the fence, a shapeless heap, as it appeared, which Doc knew must be the body of Moses Parker, whom the slave-catcher had “got” on the previous evening.
Keeping on towards the hills and near the railroad, he escaped unobserved; till, when ascending the hill, he heard his name spoken, quite near him. Though startled for an instant, he was immediately joined by Ned O’Bran, who came out from a clump of bushes where he had spent the night in terror; and, in company, the two men walked to the county seat, distant nearly twenty miles. There they found an excited people, and several refugees from the scene of massacre, among whom was Elder Jackson.