n a messenger came from Mrs. Rayner herself. He
referred her to his assistant, Dr. Grimes. Hayne had regained
consciousness, but was sorely shaken. He had been floored by a blow from
the butt of a musket; but the report that he was shot proved happily
untrue. His right hand still lay near the hilt of his light sword: there
was little question that he had raised his weapon against a superior
officer and would have used it with telling effect.

Few people slept that night along officers' row. Never had Warrener
heard of such excitement. Buxton knew not what to do. He paced the floor
in agony of mind, for he well understood that there was no shirking the
responsibility. From beginning to end he was the cause of the whole
catastrophe. He had gone so far as to order his corporal to fire, and he
knew it could be proved against him. Thank God, the perplexed corporal
had shot high, and the other men, barring the one who had saved Rayner
from a furious lunge of the lieutenant's sword, had used their weapons
as gingerly and reluctantly as possible. At the very least, he knew, an
investigation and fearful scandal must come of it. Night though it was,
he sent for the acting adjutant and several of his brother captains,
and, setting refreshments before them, besought their advice. He was
still commanding officer _de jure_, but he had lost all stomach for its
functions. He would have been glad to send for Blake and beg his pardon
for submitting to his insubordinate and abusive language, if that course
could have stopped inquiry; but he well knew that the whole thing would
be noised abroad in less than no time. At first he thought to give
orders against the telegraph-operator's sending any messages concerning
the matter; but that would have been only a temporary hinderance: he
could not control the instruments and operators in town, only three
miles away. He almost wished he had been knocked down, shot, or stabbed
in the _melee_; but he had kept in the rear when the skirmish began, and
Rayner and the corporal were the sufferers. They had been knocked
"endwise" by Mr. Hurley's practised fists after Hayne was struck down by
the corporal's musket. It was the universal sentiment among the officers
of the ----th as they scattered to their homes that Buxton had "wound
himself up this time, anyhow;" and no one had any sympathy for him,--not
one. The very best light in which he could tell the story only showed
the affair as a flagrant and inex