, and, if our men stand to it, and I see not why they
shouldn't, Fullam can't touch us with his squad of fifty, ay, and a
hundred to the back of 'em."

The plan was feasible enough in the eyes of men to whom ulterior
consequences were as nothing in comparison with the excitement of the
strife; and even the most scrupulous among them were satisfied, in a
little time, and with few arguments, that they had nothing to gain and
everything to lose by retiring from the possessions in which they had
toiled so long. There was nothing popular in the idea of a state
expelling them from a soil of which it made no use itself; and few among
the persons composing the array had ever given themselves much if any
trouble, in ascertaining the nice, and with them entirely metaphysical
distinction, between the _mine_ and _thine_ of the matter. The
proposition, therefore, startled none, and prudence having long since
withdrawn from their counsels, not a dissenting voice was heard to the
suggestion of a union between the two parties for the purpose of common
defence. The terms, recognising all of both sides, as upon an equal
footing in the profits of the soil, were soon arranged and completed;
and in the space of a few moments, and before the arrival of the
new-comers, the hostile forces, side by side, stood up for the new
contest as if there had never been any other than a community of
interest and feeling between them. A few words of encouragement and
cheer, given to their several commands by Munro and Dexter, were
scarcely necessary, for what risk had their adherents to run--what to
fear--what to lose? The courage of the desperado invariably increases in
proportion to his irresponsibility. In fortune, as utterly destitute as
in character, they had, in most respects, already forfeited the shelter,
as in numberless instances they had not merely gone beyond the sanction,
but had violated and defied the express interdict, of the laws; and now,
looking, as such men are apt most usually to do, only to the immediate
issue, and to nothing beyond it, the banditti--for such they were--with
due deliberation and such a calm of disposition as might well comport
with a life of continued excitement, proceeded again, most desperately,
to set them at defiance.

The military came on in handsome style. They were all fine-looking men;
natives generally of a state, the great body of whose population are
well-formed, and distinguished by features of clear, ope