terests of the meditated campaign; and
they had only tarried to take a part in the engagement from a natural
concern for the fate of their intended comrade, Butler. Having no
further motive for remaining with Williams, they were both intent upon
returning to their respective duties, and, accordingly, during the
retreat of the following day, they took their leave.

The vigilance with which these partisans were watched by their enemies,
almost forbade the present hope of successful combination. From a
consciousness of the hazard of attempting to concentrate their forces at
this juncture, they had determined still to pursue their separate
schemes of annoyance, until a more favorable moment for joint action
should arise; and, in the interval, to hide themselves as much as
possible in the forest. It was consequently in the hope of preserving
his independence at least, if not of aiding Clarke, that Williams now
moved with so much despatch to the mountains.

His course lay towards the head waters of the Fair Forest river, in the
present region of Spartanburg. This district was inhabited only by a few
hunters, and some scattered Indians of an inoffensive character; it
abounded in game, and promised to afford an easy subsistence to men
whose habits were simple, and who were accustomed to rely upon the chase
for support. The second day brought our hardy soldiers into the sojourn
they sought. It was a wilderness broken by mountains, and intersected by
streams of surpassing transparency; whilst its elevated position and
southern latitude conferred upon it a climate that was then, as well as
now, remarked for its delicious temperature in summer, and its exemption
from the rigors of winter.

The spot at which Williams rested was a sequestered valley deep hidden
in the original woods, and watered by the Fair Forest, whose stream, so
near its fountain, scarcely exceeded the dimensions of a little brook.
Here he determined to form a camp, to which in times of emergency he
might safely retreat. With a view to render it easy of access as a
rendezvous, he caused landmarks to be made, by cutting notches on the
trees--or _blazing_ them, in the woodman's phrase--in several
directions, leading towards the principal highways that penetrated the
country. The retreat thus established is familiar to the history of the
war, under the name of the Fair Forest camp.

These arrangements being completed in the course of the first day after
his arriv