You remember, when you left me, I promised, if anything should make me quit the spot, to strew some pieces of paper or fragments of my handkerchief upon the ground as I went, to give you some indication of the way I had taken. For about a quarter of an hour--it could not be more (though it seemed to me more at the time)--all was quiet and still; and I and Jenny and the girl Minerva sat and talked, listening every now and then for your return. At length one of the other mulatto women came from the place where they had lighted a fire, to say that their cooking was ready; and, seeing me and Jenny, asked us to come and partake. We declined, however; and Minerva went away and left us. But a minute or two had passed, when we heard a distant noise of horses' feet; and then the sound of people talking loud not far off. I started up and prepared to fly, but Jenny's sharp ears had distinguished the voices better than I had, and she said,--

"Those are white men's tongues!" I listened, and convinced myself she was right; and after a good deal of conversation had gone on, apparently between the new comers and the mulatto women, we saw seven or eight while men coming up, guided by the girl Minerva. They were headed by a person whom I knew, though I cannot say I ever much liked him, and would rather perhaps have had any other escort. On this occasion, however, he behaved quietly and like a gentleman, telling me that his party would convey me to a place of safety: that they had several spare horses with them and women's saddles; but that, as it was growing late, it would be necessary for me to come with him directly. I informed him, in return, that you had gone to see if the way were clear to Jerusalem, and that I did not think I ought to go, till you came back. He said he could not wait that time, as he had several other young ladies to take up at different houses on the road; but that he must insist upon my not remaining there exposed to danger from any of the lawless ruffians who were roaming about; at the same time, to satisfy me that you would have information of my departure and safety, he said he would leave one or two of his men on the spot. I heard him give the order myself, and I do believe he was at this time acting in good faith, though he did not behave rightly afterwards. If I acted wrongly, dear Richard, forgive me; though I have hardly forgiven myself since, knowing and feeling what you must have suffered. Is not that a vain speech, Richard? But you see how I count upon your love, and I don't mind your seeing it. Well, I was satisfied that you would soon know, and your mind be put at ease; and I and Jenny went with Colonel Halliday and his party to the path on the right, where we found all the horses and half a dozen more men. Once there, we were mounted immediately; but the men continued on foot talking together for some minutes, arguing, it seemed to me, upon some arrangements. At length they jumped on their horses; and Halliday, and five of the men, rode off in one direction while the rest pushed to the right, taking me and Jenny with them. We had not gone a quarter of a mile, when who should ride up to my side from behind, but old William Thornton, Robert's father. "Well, cousin Bessy," he said, "we will take good care of you. We will put you in a place of safety. What a lucky thing, you escaped out of Beavors! Why they have murdered all the rest."

"I understood Colonel Halliday, he was going to take me to Jerusalem;" I replied; "and this is quite a contrary direction, Mr. Thornton."

"Oh, you mistook him," replied the old man; "you can't get to Jerusalem nor he either. The road is in possession of the niggers. There's full four hundred of 'em." At first, Richard, I was frightened, and thought of you, and how you would get through. But the next moment, something in my own breast, told me the statement was all false. I knew the man. I knew what a knave he was, and what efforts he had made to get me into his hands when I was a child; then a selfish fear, a fear for myself took possession of me. I was now in his power. I doubted not the people who were with him were all his own creatures; and, after a minute or two of wild consideration, confused and inconsequent enough, I thought it would be best to let him take me where he would, believing that in this country of law, he dare not use any violence or do me any injury. At all events, I had got the pistol you had given me, and at that moment, I looked upon it as a treasure indeed. Well, he carried me to his own house, and took me there to a nice room enough, where he said he would send me up some supper. He was exceedingly polite and civil all the time, and excused himself for not taking me into the parlour, because his son Robert was there, who was not quite recovered. Presently a negro girl brought me some lights; for by this time it was quite dark. Then came some supper, and some wine, of which I partook heartily, confess; for I was weak and faint, and I felt the necessity of some adventitious courage. My supper was hardly over when William Thornton and his son both came in. The old man carried some papers in his hand; and the son, after speaking a few civil words, sat himself down right between me and the door.

"Well, Cousin Bessy," said the father, "I dare say, after all your fatigue and fright, you will sleep well to-night. You are quite safe here; for we have got three white men in the house, Irishmen, who will shoot down any one I order them to destroy; so you need not be in the least alarmed."

"I am not alarmed at all," I answered; though I am afraid, Richard, it was a great fib. "Don't you know, Mr. Thornton, it takes a great deal to alarm me?" The old man looked a little confounded at my reply; but he said,--

"Well, well, we will soon leave you to go to sleep; only there are some old accounts and things between you and me, Cousin Bessy, in regard to matters that occurred when I had the management of your property, which I think we had better settle now. I only just want you to sign these receipts and acquittances. They are all right, as you can see. Give me down the ink; here's a pen." Robert Thornton brought the ink from the mantel-piece, and his father put the papers before me. I did not pay much attention to them; but I just caught in one part, some words which I think were, "For, and in consideration, of the sum of thirty thousand dollars, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged." I pushed them away at once to the other side of the table, saying,--

"Mr. Thornton, I will sign no papers whatever except in the presence of Mr. Hubbard, and Mr. Henry Thornton; and if these papers are fair and right, I cannot understand your pressing them upon me at such a moment, and in such circumstances."

"The reason of their being pressed upon you, Miss Davenport," said Robert Thornton, with one of his cold sneers, "and the reason why I shall insist upon their being signed at once, lies in the very circumstances to which you do not choose to allude; namely, that you are about to be married to a man whose father deprived you of your father, and who himself nearly deprived me of life. Unless these are signed before your marriage, difficulties must and will arise which I am determined----"

"Stay, stay, Bessy!" I cried, interrupting her narrative; "let me hear that again."

"Not now, Richard, not now," she said, eagerly. "He alluded to your father, Sir Richard Conway; but the very allusion drove me half wild; and I am afraid that I showed myself such a dragon that you would never wish to marry me, if you had seen me then." I took up the papers, and tore them into a thousand pieces, and then said, with as big a look as I could put on--I can hardly think of it without smiling--"Leave the room, sirs! and do not venture to come back again!" The old man got up and drew back; but the younger kept his chair, saying coldly,--

"The papers are soon re-written; and, though sorry to prevent you from sleeping, we shall bring them back in about a quarter of an hour."

"Then mark me, Mr. Robert Thornton," I answered, taking out the pistol; "the first man who attempts to intrude into this room again, I will shoot before his foot crosses the threshold, and these fragments will show the reason why. Leave the room, sirs, instantly." They did leave the room--the elder gentleman with a considerable degree of trepidation. But, my dear Richard, I was a mere bully all the time; and although, I am sure, I looked twice as tall as I really am, and talked twice as loud as I ever did in my life before, I was frightened out of my wits all the time. The next unpleasant thing was to hear them lock the door; but, thank Heaven, there was a great bolt in the inside; and if they kept me in, I was determined to keep them out, or I believed that help must come soon, as too many people knew that I was there for concealment to be long kept up. I need not tell you all the little incidents of that night. I would let nobody into the room but the servant-girl, and made quite sure that only one step had come up the stairs, before I would open the door to her. But the discomforts of that evening were nothing to the horrors of the next morning. What the hour was, I do not know; for my watch was left behind at poor Mr. Stringer's; but I suppose it must have been about nine or ten o'clock; when, seated behind the blind at the open window, I saw five or six negro-men coming up towards the house. When they came near, I recognized several of them at once as poor Aunt Bab's servants, and I saw a great tall man, whom I knew very well, come forward and knock at the door, after which he retreated five or six steps from the house; and I heard old William Thornton's voice speaking to him out of a window on the same floor as the room in which I was.

"Go away, go away this instant," cried the old man; "go away, or I'll shoot you. Not one of you ruffians shall get into my house. Here, Pat Macrea, bring me my gun, and get your own. Bob, Bob," he continued, calling across the passage; "here are a whole heap of the Beavors niggers come to rescue her."

"Fire into them--fire into them!" cried my worthy Cousin Robert, with an oath. "You can say you thought they came to attack the house. I'll be with you in a minute." You may judge how terrified I was, Richard; but, putting my head out, I saw old Mr. Thornton and one of his Irishmen leaning forth from two of the windows with guns in their hands. Just at the same moment, poor Hercules exclaimed,--

"For Heaven's sake, don't shoot us, Mas'r Thornton! We only want to speak with Miss Bessy."

"Go along!" cried the old man. "She's not here, I tell you."

"Why I see her there now," cried the negro. At the same moment, Robert Thornton came to the window, crying,--

"March off, you scoundrels!" Then, adding something in a low voice to his father, he put a gun to his shoulder.

"For shame, Mr. Thornton--for shame!" I cried, as loud as I could speak. But it had no effect. All the guns went off almost together, and three of the poor negroes fell. Two started up again immediately; but poor Hercules remained upon the ground till the rest carried him off. I thought I should have fainted; and the dreadful deed they had done seemed to have awed and terrified the other people in the house. I heard them talking loudly and eagerly; and, from fragments of their conversation which I caught, I easily comprehended that what terrified them most was the fact of my having witnessed their proceedings.

"Oh, the old devil can do no harm," said Robert Thornton. "She's a nigger and a slave, and can't testify. As to this girl, you must send her across the line, and keep her there till the matter is settled. The court sits next Thursday week."

"But how shall we get her to go?" asked old Mr. Thornton.

"I will make her go, or serve her the same," said Robert Thornton, bitterly. "Here, Pat," continued he, "you and Dan won't be afraid to follow me into the girl's room, though she has got a pistol. I will go in first, and she can but shoot one of us."

"Afraid! not a bit," answered the man. "We'll soon master her, whatever devil there may be in her. But you won't hurt her, Master Thornton; I can't see a woman hurt." All this conversation was carried on very close to my door; and I will own, Richard, I was completely cowed.

"Mr. Thornton," I cried; "Mr. Thornton--speak to me through the door. I know what you are afraid of, and what you want; and I am willing to go peaceably where you wish me; for I do not want to have a cousin's blood upon my head."

"Well, undraw the bolt, then," said Robert Thornton, "and let us come in."

"No, no," I answered, "I will make my conditions. Nobody shall come in, and nobody shall touch me. Bring the horses round before the house, and I will come down the stairs quietly and mount, if you will promise that nobody shall come within two yards of me. Do you all promise?"

"Yes," answered Robert Thornton, "nobody wants to come near you, Miss Bessy, or to do you any harm."

"Very well," I answered; "I will trust to your promise. But mind, if any one comes near, I will shoot him as sure as my name is Davenport; and the consequences be upon your own heads. Now bring round the horses and keep away from the door." Three horses were brought round almost immediately, and some one came and unlocked the door. I heard him go down stairs again, and then, opening the door, I went down with the pistol in my hand. I tried not to shake, Richard; and I don't think any of them saw how terrified I was; for I heard the old man say when I got out before the house,--

"What a devil she is!" He little knew how my heart was sinking at that moment. As I approached the side of the horse on which the woman's saddle had been put, Robert Thornton offered to help me; but I was still afraid he would get the pistol from me, and I told him to stand off. Without farther parley, we set out as soon as I had mounted, one negro man going on horseback before, and another following closely. None of the white men accompanied us; but I heard old Mr. Thornton giving as strict directions to the man who followed, as if I were to be imprisoned for some criminal offence. He ended by saying,--

"Now, mind, if she gets away, I will cut you to pieces; so see to it." In this manner I was brought over to the house where you found me, and there locked in that miserable room by the old man Samuel, and another younger negro whom I have not seen since.

"And now, dear Richard," said Bessy, having finished her story, "don't you think me a terrible termagant? When I think of all I said and did, I feel almost ashamed of myself, and I dare say, hereafter, I shall blush whenever I think of it."

"Why, dearest Bessy," I answered, drawing her closer to me, "what could you do? The gentlest hearts are not always those most devoid of spirit."

"But have you not sometimes thought mine a cold heart, Richard?" asked Bessy; "so cold as to give you pain without cause. Oh, you know not when I have given you pain what agony I have inflicted on myself!" Closer and closer I drew her to my bosom; kiss after kiss I pressed upon her lips, till she became almost frightened, and exclaimed,--

"O Richard, remember, nothing is changed!"

"Yes, dearest," I answered, "everything is changed. One little word you have spoken insures that you shall never have need, or fancy you have need, to inflict pain upon me or yourself again." I was going on, but such an awful clap of thunder burst over our heads, that she started from my arms like a guilty thing, and event after event came fast to stay further explanation.