e him some assurance that the sergeant was in
the diligent prosecution of his purpose to seek Sumpter, or some other
of the partisan Whig corps in their hiding-places, and to try the
hazardous experiment of his (Butler's) rescue from his present thraldom,
by a vigorous incursion into the district where he was now confined.
With this calculation of the course of events, he was prepared to hear,
at every hour of the day, of some sudden alarm; and ready to co-operate,
by seizing the first moment of confusion to snatch up a weapon, and
force his way through the ranks of his guard. It was with such
anticipations that now, whilst seemingly engrossed with the satisfaction
of his physical wants at the table, he lent an attentive ear to the
conversation which passed in the house between Curry and the company who
were clustered around him. The dragoon, at first, in a light and merry
vein of narrative, recounted to his hearers the singular visitation he
had experienced before daybreak; and he contrived to fling over his
story an additional hue of mystery, by the occasional reflections with
which he seasoned it, tending to inculcate the belief to which he
himself partly inclined, that the incident was brought about through the
agency of some pranking and mischievous spirit,--a conclusion which, at
that period, and amongst the persons to whom the adventure was related,
did not require any great stretch of faith to sustain it. Some of his
auditors fortified this prevailing inclination of opinion, by expressing
their own conviction of the interference of malignant and supernatural
influences in the concerns of mankind, and gave their personal
experience of instances in which these powers were active. The
conversation by degrees changed its tone from that of levity and
laughter into one of grave and somewhat fearful interest, according to
the increasing marvel which the several stories that were told excited
in the superstitious minds of the circle; and in the same proportion
that this sentiment took possession of the thoughts of the company, they
became more unreserved in their language, and louder in the utterance of
it, thus giving Butler the full benefit of all that was said.

"But, after all," said one of the men, "mightn't you have been asleep on
your horse, James Curry, and had a sort of jogging dream, when a limb of
a tree across the road, for it was a dark morning, might have caught you
under the throat and flung you out of you