all dressed for the
journey, and the gentlemen, with their heavy spurs, long, clanging
swords, and each with a pair of horseman's pistols, issued from the
house into the yard. The old lady, declaring that they were too late,
and that, if her advice had been taken, they would have been half way to
Jamestown, was the first to get into the carriage, armed with a huge
basket of bread, beef's tongue, cold ham and jerked venison, which was
to supply the place of dinner on the road. Virginia, pale and sad, but
almost happy at any change from scenes where every object brought up
some recollection of the banished Hansford, followed her mother; and the
large trunk having been strapped securely behind the carriage, and the
band-box, containing the old lady's tire for the ball and other light
articles of dress, having been secured, the little party were soon in
motion.

The hope and joy with which Virginia had looked forward to this trip to
Jamestown had been much enhanced by the certainty that Hansford would be
there. With the joyousness of her girlish heart, she had pictured to
herself the scene of pleasure and festivity which awaited her. The Lady
Frances' birth-day, always celebrated at the palace with the voice of
music and the graceful dance--with the presence of the noblest cavaliers
from all parts of the colony, and the smiles of the fairest damsels who
lighted the society of the Old Dominion--was this year to be celebrated
with unusual festivities. But, alas! how changed were the feelings of
Virginia now!--how blighted were the hopes which had blossomed in her
heart!

Their road lay for the most part through a beautiful forest, where the
tall poplar, the hickory, the oak and the chestnut were all indigenous,
and formed an avenue shaded by their broad branches from the intense
rays of the summer sun. Now and then the horses were startled at the
sudden appearance of some fairy-footed deer, as it bounded lightly but
swiftly through the woods; or at the sudden whirring of the startled
pheasant, as she flew from their approach; or the jealous gobble of the
stately turkey, as he led his strutting dames into his thicket-harem.
The nimble grey squirrel, too, chattered away saucily in his high leafy
nest, secure from attack from his very insignificance. Birds innumerable
were seen flitting from branch to branch, and tuning their mellow voices
as choristers in this forest-temple of Nature. The song of the thrush
and the red-bird c