uting
party of horse, a troop sent out for intelligence,--such as the British
Colonel represents his several parties to have been, when his force was
broken up in detail, to beguile the partisan,--would be likely to commit
such excesses as to draw the eye of the country suddenly upon them, at
a time, too, when a wary adversary was within two miles with a force of
five hundred men.

Tarleton proceeds: "A pursuit was immediately commenced, and continued
for seven hours, through swamps and defiles. Some prisoners fell into
the possession of the legion dragoons, who gained ground very fast, and
must soon have brought the enemy to action, when an express from Earl
Cornwallis, who had followed the tracks of the march, recalled Lt.-Col.
Tarleton."

Such is the British narrative. We have reason to think it faulty in
several respects. We doubt that it was the express of Earl Cornwallis
that arrested the pursuit of our Legionary Colonel. We are disposed to
ascribe it to his own weariness of the game. The dispatch of Cornwallis
to which he refers, was dated at Winnsboro' on the 9th of the month.
It was on the night of the 10th, as we see by Tarleton's own statement,
that he commenced the close and earnest pursuit of Marion. The distance
from Winnsboro' to the 'wood-yard', even allowing that the instincts and
information of the express should bring him directly upon the trail of
the Legion, would have employed him fully two days to overcome. These
two days would have brought him to the close of the twelfth, up to which
period, had Tarleton continued the chase, he might have enjoyed the
satisfaction of shaking hands with his antagonist in his defences at
Benbow's Ferry. There, at the first proper position in which he might,
with any hopes of success, oppose his adversary, had Marion taken
his stand. There, having entrenched himself, he was busy in bringing
together his forces. "Had Tarleton," says Judge James, "proceeded with
his jaded horses to Benbow's, he would have exposed his force to such
sharp shooting as he had not yet experienced, and that in a place where
he could not have acted with either his artillery or cavalry."

But Tarleton had tired of the adventure. After a pursuit of twenty-five
miles, he found his progress arrested by a swamp, wide and deep,
through which his eye could discern no beaten road. But this should have
discouraged no resolute commander, having his enemy before him. Marion
had already preceded him i