“We have timed our going just right, Star,” she told the little mare as she made an early start the next morning. “Lord Cornwallis will not reach Richmond until the last of the week, and the Marquis hath just passed on. I could not have chosen better.”
Filled anew with hope as the prospects seemed more and more favorable Peggy rode briskly toward Hanover Court House, for she planned to reach this place by noon. The road wound along the banks of the Pamunkey, under large tulip trees so big and handsome that she was lost in wonder at their magnificence.
In this happy frame of mind she proceeded, marveling often at the fact that she seemed to be the only one on the road. It was the second day, and she had met no one nor had any one passed her. ’Twas strange, but fortunate too, she told herself.
The morning passed. The road, which had been for the greater part of the way shaded by the great trees, now suddenly left the woods and stretched before her in a flood of sunshine. A lane branched off to the right, running under a double row of beech trees to a large dwelling standing in the midst of a clover field not more than half a mile distant. The country was thinly settled throughout this section, the houses so scattering that this one seemed to beckon invitingly to the tired maiden.
“Methinks ’twould be the part of wisdom to bait ourselves there, Star,” she said musingly. “I think we will take an hour’s rest.”
With that she turned into the shady lane, and soon drew rein in front of the house.
“Friend,” she said as an elderly, pleasant-looking woman came to the door, “would thee kindly let me have refreshment for myself and horse; refreshment and rest also, friend?”
“Light, and come right in,” spoke the woman heartily. “A girl like you shouldn’t be riding about alone when the British are abroad in the land.”
“But the British have not yet crossed the James,” answered Peggy cheerfully.
“Why, a detachment passed here not an hour ago, bound for Hanover Court House,” spoke the woman abruptly. “Didn’t you know that Cornwallis was following the Marquis de Lafayette trying to keep him from meeting General Wayne?”