It was the speech of a braggart, but yet under such circumstances the words gave my uncle more confidence in our courage than almost anything else could have done, and an expression, which for the moment I took to be affection, came over his face as he replied in a ringing tone:
"God bless the sister who gave to me such nephews!" Then, waving his saber and shouting at the full strength of his lungs as if he had a thousand men behind him, he cried, "Here they are, boys! Here they are! Come on!"
I believe of a verity that the Tories fancied he was calling to a large force, rather than to two lads who were practically weaponless, for their panic increased, if that could be possible, and they crowded upon each other's heels until the advance was impeded.
With fifty well-armed men at that time I venture to say we might have wiped out Major Gainey's entire force, and that officer himself was nigh to being taken prisoner when my uncle, spurring his horse into the very midst of the fugitives, singled out the leader as if challenging him to mortal combat.
Major Gainey, although he was a Tory, had never been called a coward; but on this morning he absolutely refused the challenge, and instead of halting to meet the foe as he would have done had his cause been just, he forced aside the weaker of his following, and succeeded in making good an escape.
"It was shame enough that one from Williamsburg should be a Tory," my uncle cried, brandishing his saber in impotent rage; "but that a Gainey would show himself a coward as well, I have never believed until this hour."
It was strange indeed that of all the enemy we pursued so hotly and so closely, none turned upon us.
It would have been a simple task for a dozen of them, armed as we knew they were, to have allowed us to come into their midst, and then, closing, taken all three prisoners, or shot us down as might best have suited their fancy.
The fever of fear, however, was upon them until there was no thought in the minds of any save of individual safety, and during ten minutes or more we rode upon the heels of that retreating rabble, taunting them with such words as should have turned the faintest-hearted at bay.
There were seconds during that chase when I trembled with what was like unto a fear, realizing all which it was possible for them to do, and then that sensation would pass away while rage took possession of me because of my inability to do other than lash the miserable Tories with my tongue.