sisting an enemy;
and, pardon me, I think it will be madness to attempt to hold out here,
when you have their house in which you can take refuge."

"Doctor, you are right," exclaimed my father. "They can but burn this
down; and they will not have time to destroy the plantations. I am
grateful to you for your counsel. We will carry it out."

Entering the house, my father communicated to my mother and Norah the
intelligence I had brought, and desired them to prepare with the
children for instant flight, while he went out to call in the blacks
whom he could trust.

I meantime, having found Tim, hastened off to the village, where there
were nearly a score of men who would be ready, Tim assured me, to fight
in our cause. The news we brought spread consternation among the
people: some immediately began to pack up their property, with the
intention of flying into the woods to conceal themselves; while the
braver portion--many of them young men who had already served with the
insurgent forces--hurried to get their arms and ammunition, and to
follow us. The village was so open that it could not be effectually
protected, unless with a far larger force than the inhabitants could
muster; and they knew, therefore, that they must abandon their own
houses to pillage if they would preserve their lives. It was a hard
fate, but it had been the lot of so many others of late years that they
did not repine.

I was thankful to find, in the course of a few minutes, twenty stout,
hardy-looking fellows, chiefly Creoles and mulattoes, pretty well-armed
either with guns, blunderbusses, pistols, swords, or spears. All had
one or two weapons, which they knew how to use; and were thoroughly
imbued with a true hatred of the Gothos, as they called the Spaniards,
and all those who sided with them. The bandit Aqualonga they especially
detested, from the numberless atrocities he had committed, and for which
he had been rewarded by the King of Spain with a colonel's commission, a
handsome uniform, and occasional pay. These signal marks of favour had
encouraged him to continue his career. Bermudez and other patriot
chiefs had hitherto in vain attempted to hunt him down. He was active
and intelligent; and, supported by his band of cut-throats,--Spaniards,
mulattoes, Indians, and blacks,--had long evaded pursuit, and had
appeared now in one part of the country, now in the other, where he had
committed fresh outrages on the unfortunate inhabita