almost equally to defy the
search of friend and foe. Peyton and Wingate were both expected; and the
trooper who remained behind only waited to conduct them to the
commanding officer, who had, since the disappearance of daylight, formed
a bivouac in this neighborhood. Marion's custom was to order his
reconnoitring parties to return to him by designated roads, where
videttes were directed to repair in order to inform them of his
position,--a fact which, as his movements were accomplished with
wonderful celerity and secresy, they were generally unable to ascertain
in any other way.

At length, emerging from the thicket, and crossing what seemed, by the
plash of the horse's feet, a morass, the party, under the guidance of
the scout, came upon a piece of thinly-timbered woodland, which, rising
by a gentle slope, furnished what might be called an island of dry
ground, that seemed to be only accessible by crossing the circumjacent
swamp. Upon this spot were encamped, in the rudest form of the bivouac,
a party of cavalry, which might have amounted to two hundred men.
Several fires, whose ruddy glare had been discerned for the last half
mile of the journey, were blazing forth from different quarters of the
wood, and threw a bold and sharp light upon the figures of men and
horses, imparting a feature of lively, picturesque beauty to the scene.
The greater portion of the soldiers were stretched beneath the trees,
with no other covering than the leafy bowers above them. The horses were
picketed in the neighborhood of their riders; and the confused array of
saddles, sabres, muskets, rifles, and other warlike instruments, that
were hung upon projecting boughs, or leant against the trunks, as they
caught the flashes of the frequent fires, seemed to be magnified in
number equal to the furniture of thrice the force. Sentinels were seen
pacing their limits on the outskirts of this company, and small bodies
of patroles on horseback moved across the encampment with the regularity
of military discipline. Here and there, as if regardless of rest, or
awaiting some soon-expected tour of duty, small knots of men sat
together amusing themselves, by torch-light, at cards; and, more
appropriately, others had extended their torpid frames in sleep upon
their grassy pallets and knapsack pillows.

"We have seen war in its horrors," exclaimed Mildred, with an
involuntary vivacity; "and here it is in all its romance!"

"Sister, I wish you were at hom