of my comrades, I might assure myself that I
acted on the clearest proofs. These have been rendered.

"My order, therefore, is, in accordance with the clear decision of the
court,--and, speaking to a soldier, I use no unnecessary phrase of
condolence,--that you be shot to death. Time presses on us and forbids
delay. You will be conducted to immediate execution. Major Frazer," he
said, turning to one of his officers, "to your discretion I commit this
unpleasant duty." Then, in a tone of private direction, he added, "Let
it be done without delay; pomp and ceremony are out of place in such a
matter. I wish to have it despatched at once."

"I would speak," said Butler, repressing the agitation of his feelings,
and addressing Innis with a stern solemnity, "not to implore your mercy,
nor to deprecate your sentence: even if I could stoop to such an act of
submission, I know my appeal would reach your ears like the idle wind:
but I have private affairs to speak of."

"They were better untold, sir," interrupted Innis with an affected air
of indifference. "I can listen to nothing now. We have other business to
think of. These last requests and settlements of private affairs are
always troublesome," he muttered in a tone just audible to the officers
standing near him; "they conjure up useless sympathies."

"I pray you, sir," interposed St. Jermyn.

"It is in vain, I cannot hear it," exclaimed the commander, evidently
struggling to shake from his mind an uncomfortable weight. "These are
woman's requests! God's mercy! How does this differ from death upon the
field of battle? a soldier is always ready. Ha! What have we here?" he
exclaimed, as a trooper rode up to the group. "Where are you from? What
news?"

"A vidette from Rocky Mount," answered the horseman. "I am sent to
inform you that, yesterday, Sumpter defeated three hundred of our people
on the Catawba, and has made all that were alive, prisoners, besides
capturing fifty or sixty wagons of stores which the detachment had under
convoy for Camden."

The first inquiries that followed this communication related to
Sumpter's position, and especially whether he was advancing towards this
camp.

"He is still upon Catawba, tending northwards," replied the vidette.

"Then we are free from danger," interrupted Innis. "I am stripping the
feathers from a bird to-day that is worth half of Sumpter's prize," he
added, with a revengeful smile, to an officer who stood by him.

Dur