might thereby maintain his
identity, in the event of a close investigation. Horse Shoe was but an
awkward scholar in this school of disguise, and gave Henry sufficient
employment to keep him in the path of probability; and, indeed, the
young teacher himself found it difficult to maintain an exact
verisimilitude in the part which it was his own province to play in this
deception.

On the evening to which we have alluded, the sergeant, finding himself
within a short distance of the district of country in which he was
almost certain to encounter parties of both friends and foes, adopted a
greater degree of circumspection than he had hitherto deemed it
necessary to observe. His purpose was to halt upon the borders of the
forest, and endeavor to obtain accurate information of the state of
affairs along the river, before he entered upon this dangerous ground.
Like a soldier who had a rich treasure to guard, he was determined to
run no hazard that might be avoided, in the safe conduct of the lady in
whose service he was enlisted. In accordance with this caution, he
directed the cavalcade to move onward at a moderate walk, in order that
they might not reach the limit of the woodland before the dusk of the
evening; and also in the hope of finding there some habitation where
they might pass the night. They had not advanced far in this manner
before the sergeant descried, at some distance ahead, a small log hut
standing by the road side, which, by the smoke that issued from the
chimney, he perceived to be inhabited. Upon this discovery, he ordered
the party to stop and await his return. Then giving spurs to his horse
he galloped forward, and, after a short interval of absence, returned,
made a favorable report of his reconnoissance, and conducted his
companions to the house.

The little cabin to which Mildred was thus introduced was the homestead
of an honest Whig soldier, by the name of Wingate, who was now in
service, under the command of one of the most gallant partisans that any
country ever produced, Francis Marion, then recently promoted to the
rank of a brigadier. The inmates were the soldier's family, consisting
of a young woman and a number of small children, all demonstrating by
their appearance a condition of exceedingly limited comfort. The hut
contained no more than two rooms, which exhibited but a scanty supply of
the meanest furniture. The forest had been cleared for the space of a
few acres around the dwelling,