“I don’t wonder that you were amused,” observed the good woman, laughing in turn as Peggy related the youth’s speech. “Those same batteries have brought low many a brave fellow. ’Tis as well to be afraid of them. He is wise who is ware in time. Yet those same bashful fellows are ofttimes the bravest. Methinks I have heard that General Washington was afflicted with the same malady in his youth. And now let us hope that we will have a breathing spell long enough to become acquainted with each other.”
Four days later a weary, drooping youth astride a limping little mare came slowly down the shady lane just at sunset. Peggy was the first to see them, and flew to the horse-block.
“Oh, thee is back, Friend Fairfax! Thee is back!” she cried delightedly. “And did thee succeed? How tired thee looks! And Star also!”
“We are both tired,” he said dismounting and sinking heavily against the horse-block. “But we got there in time. Governor Jefferson and his family escaped over the mountains. Mr. Henry and others scattered to places of safety. They captured seven, because they heeded not the alarm, and lingered over breakfast. But not—not Patrick Henry nor Thomas Jefferson.”
He swayed as though about to fall, then roused himself.
“Look to the mare! She, she needs attention,” he cried, and fell in an unconscious heap.
“And somebody else does too, I reckon,” spoke the mistress of the dwelling, running out in answer to Peggy’s call. “Jimmy, do you begin rubbing down that little mare. I’ll be out to look after her as soon as Peggy and I get this boy attended to. Poor fellow! he has gone to the full limit of his strength.”
CHAPTER XXIV—AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER
| “Then each at once his falchion drew, Each on the ground his scabbard threw, Each look’d to sun, and stream, and plain, As what they ne’er might see again; Then foot, and point, and eye opposed, In dubious strife they darkly closed.” —“Lady of the Lake,” Scott. |
There followed some days of quiet at the farmhouse. Their peacefulness was gladly welcomed by the inmates after the turmoil caused by passing troops, and Peggy and her hostess, Mrs. Weston, hoped for a continuance of the boon. But if the days were tranquil they were far from idle.