mind, and
ordered a lieutenant of cavalry into his presence.

"Take six of your best appointed men," he said, "and send one half of
them up this road towards the mountains--the other half southwards--and
command them not to stop until they bring me some news of this
night-hawk, Clarke. Let them be trusty men that you can depend upon. I
will wait but twenty-four hours for them. Meantime," he added, turning
to another officer present, "I will send a courier after Cruger, who
shall find him if he is above ground."

The following day--which brings us to the third of October--a decisive
change took place in the aspect of affairs. Before either of the scouts
that had been lately despatched had returned, a countryman was brought
into Ferguson's camp, who, being submitted to the usual minute
examination, informed the questioners, that some thirty miles, in the
direction of Fort Ninety-Six, he had met upon the road a large party of
cavalry under the command of Colonel Williams--and that that officer had
shown great anxiety to learn whether certain Whig troops had been seen
near Gilbert-town. The informant added, that "Williams appeared to him
to be strangely particular in his inquiries about Ferguson."

This intelligence seemed suddenly to awaken the British partisan from a
dream. He was now one hundred miles south of Cornwallis; and, both east
and west of the line of communication between them, it was apparent that
hostile parties were assembling, with a view to some united action
against him. It struck him now, for the first time, that an enemy might
be thrown between the main army at Charlotte and his detachment, and
thus cause him some embarrassment in his retreat--but it was still with
the scorn of a presumptuous soldier that he recurred to the possibility
of his being forced to fight his way.

"They are for turning the tables on me," he said, in a tone of
derision, "and hope to pounce upon my back while I am taken up with this
half-starved and long-legged fellow of the mountains, But I will show
them who is master yet!"

In this temper he commenced his retreat, which was conducted slowly and
obstinately; and it may be supposed that Butler, as he involuntarily
followed the fortunes of his enemy, contemplated these movements with an
anxious interest. The common report of the camp made him acquainted with
the circumstances which had recommended the retreat, and he, therefore,
watched the course of events in momentary ex