"My horse," interrupted the sergeant, "would have broken clean off if it hadn't a been for your honor: they say he belonged to a muster in Verginny, and I was warned that he was apt to get rampagious when there was anything like a set of sodgers nigh him, and that is about the reason, I expect, why he took it into his head to fall into your company."
"Get on your beast," said the officer impatiently, "you must go with us. If upon further acquaintance I form a better opinion of you, you may go about your business."
"I am somewhat in a hurry to get back to the lady."
"Silence! Mount your horse, fall to the rear. Gilbert, attend to this fellow, he musn't leave us," said the officer, as he delivered Horse Shoe into the charge of one of the leaders of a platoon, and then put spurs to his steed and moved to the head of the column.
It was in the afternoon when this incident occurred; and Robinson found himself, during the remainder of the day, compelled to follow the troop through a series of by-ways across the country, in a direction of which he was wholly ignorant,—being also in the same degree unacquainted with the object of the march. When the day closed they arrived at a farm-house, where it seemed to be their purpose to pass the night; and here the sergeant, towards whom no unnecessary rigor had been exercised, was freely allowed to participate in the cheer provided for the party. This rest was of short duration; for, before the coming of the allotted bed-hour, a courier arrived, bringing a despatch to the leader of the detachment, which produced an instant order to saddle and resume the march.
Once more upon the road, the sergeant became aware, as well as he was able to determine in the dark, that the party during the night were retracing their steps, and returning upon the same route which they had before travelled.
A half hour before the dawn found the troop ascending a long hill, the summit of which, as Robinson perceived from the rustling of the blades in the morning wind, was covered by a field of standing corn; and he was enabled to descry, moving athwart the starlit sky, the figures of men on horseback approaching the column. The customary challenge was given; a momentary halt ensued, and he could hear the patrole—for such they described themselves,—informing the officer of the detachment that Colonel Tarleton was close at hand expecting their arrival. This intelligence induced an increase of speed which, after a short interval, brought the night-worn squadron into the presence of nearly a whole regiment of cavalry.
The troops, thus encountered, were stationed upon the high-road where it crossed an open and uncultivated plain, the nearer extremity of which was bordered by the cornfield of which I have spoken. It was apparent that the regiment had passed the night at this place, as a number of horses were yet attached to the fence that guarded the field, and were feeding on the blades of corn that had been gathered and thrown before them. The greater part, however, were now drawn up in column of march, as if but recently arrayed to prepare for the toil of the coming day.
Robinson was conducted along the flank of the column, and thence to a spot in the neighborhood, where a party of officers assembled by a sylvan tent, constructed of the boughs of trees, showed him that he was at the head-quarters of the commander of the corps. This tent was pitched upon a piece of high ground that afforded a view of the distant horizon in the east, where a faint streak of daylight lay like the traces of a far-off town in flames, against which the forms of men and horses were relieved, in bold profile, as they now moved about in the early preparations for their march.
A single faggot gleamed within the tent, and, by its ray, Horse Shoe was enabled to discern the well known figure of Tarleton, as he conferred with a company of officers around him. After the sergeant had waited a few moments, he was ordered into the presence of the group within: