This here dew falls to-night like frost, and
chills me to the heart, which it wouldn't do if it didn't freshen up the
smell of dead men. And there's the hogs, busy as so many sextons among
Innis's Tories: you may hear them grunt over their suppers. Well, there
is one man among them that I'll make bold to say these swine hav'n't got
the stomach to touch--that's Hugh Habershaw: he sleeps in the mud in
yonder fence-corner."

"If you had done nothing else in the fight, Horse Shoe, but cleave that
fellow's skull," said Ramsay, "the ride we took would have been well
paid for--it was worth the trouble."

"And the rapscallionly fellow to think," added Horse Shoe, "that I was a
going to save him from the devil's clutches, when I had a broadsword in
my hand, and his bald, greasy pate in reach. His brain had nothing in it
but deceit and lies, and all sorts of cruel thoughts, enough to poison
the air when I let them out. I have made an observation, John, all my
life on them foul-mouthed, swilling braggers--that when there's so much
cunning and blood-thirstiness, there's no room for a thimbleful of
courage: their heart's in their belly, which is as much as to signify
that the man's a most beastly coward. But now, it is my opinion that we
had best choose a spot along upon the river here, and leave our horses.
I think we can manoeuvre better on foot: the miller's house is short
of two miles, and we mought be noticed if we were to go nearer on
horseback."

This proposal was adopted, and the two friends, when they had ridden a
short distance below the battle ground, halted in a thicket, where they
fastened their horses, and proceeded towards the mill on foot. After
following the course of the stream for near half an hour, they
perceived, at a distance, a light glimmering through the window of Allen
Musgrove's dwelling. This induced a second pause in their march, when
Ramsay suggested the propriety of his advancing alone to reconnoitre the
house, and attempting to gain some speech with the inmates. He
accordingly left the sergeant to amuse himself with his own thoughts.

Horse Shoe took his seat beneath a sycamore, where he waited a long time
in anxious expectation of the return of his comrade. Growing uneasy, at
last, at John's delay, he arose, and stole cautiously forward until he
reached the mill, where he posted himself in a position from which he
was able to see and hear what was going on at the miller's house. The
porch was oc