I strove in vain to give some warning to my comrades so they might make their escape even though I was doomed; but he who held me seemingly understood that which was in my mind, for he forced me onward lest Pierre and Saul should over-run us, and thus for mayhap a distance of an hundred yards we advanced, I, a prisoner, forced to lead my comrades into what I felt certain was a shameful death.
Because the night was so black they could not see that there were two persons in advance of them instead of one, therefore did they follow blindly, and all unconscious of the sickly, deathly terror in my heart, until we were come to the rise of the land on our way toward the Pigeon Quarter, where the outlines of him who held me, and my own body, were marked against the lighter sky.
Then I heard a muffled exclamation from Pierre, whereupon my captor suddenly wheeled me about until we were facing the two lads and their prisoner, when he whispered softly, yet sharply:
"Continue on as you were going, and as you value your lives make no outcry or delay!"
Having thus spoken, one can well fancy that I was nigh to being paralyzed with mingled astonishment and bewilderment, because the tone was friendly and the words indicated that he would aid us. He released his grasp on my throat, and involuntarily I stretched out my hands, when they came in contact with my captor, and by the sense of touch I understood that he wore a uniform.
"You are a British soldier!" I stammered, terror once more taking firm hold upon me.
"Ay, that I am for the time being; but now move on if you would continue that which you have begun, else are you like to fall into the hands of other soldiers in this encampment who will have less care for your safety."
I wish it might be possible for me to set down in words, so that he who reads could understand, the frame of mind into which I was plunged by this remark. When he first seized me I had no doubt but that I had begun my journey on the road which leads to the gallows, and on learning that he was a British soldier my fears were not lessened, yet was his behavior and his words so unaccountable, taking into consideration who he appeared to be, that I became numbed, like one who has received a blow which deprives him of a portion of his senses.
How my comrades were affected I had no means of knowing; but understood that they were obeying the commands of this man who had captured us, because they continued on close at my heels, and from the stranger's movements now and then I knew he was making certain they did not attempt to deviate from the straight course which led to old Mary's cabin.
Never did a journey seem so long, or a way so strange, as that over which I walked like one in a dream in the darkness, surrounded on every hand by the enemy, and knowing as I did that the king's officers set little value on the life of those whom they call rebels.