s 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:

"You were found yesterday," said Tarleton, "in suspicious
circumstances--what is your name, fellow?"

"I am called Stephen Foster by name," replied the sergeant, "being a
stranger in these parts. At home I'm a kind of a gardener to a gentleman
in Virginia; and it isn't long since I set out with his daughter to come
here into Carolina. She fell sick by the way, and yesterday, whilst