Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory AscendencyKennedy, John Pendleton
History
Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency
Kennedy, John Pendleton
South Carolina -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
Colonel Innis himself was seen upon the parade, directing the movements
of divisions that, under their proper officers, were practising the
customary lessons of discipline. He was a tall, thin man, of an
emaciated complexion, with a countenance of thoughtful severity. A keen
black eye seemed almost to burn within its orb, and to give an
expression of petulant and peevish excitability, like the querulousness
of a sick man. A rather awkward and ungainly person, arrayed in a
scarlet uniform that did but little credit to the tailor-craft employed
in its fabrication, conveyed to the spectator the idea of a man unused
to the pride of appearance that belongs to a soldier by profession; and
would have suggested the conclusion, which the fact itself sustained,
that the individual before him had but recently left the walks of civil
life to assume a military office. His demeanour, however, showed him to
be a zealous if not a skilful officer. He gave close attention to the
duties of his command, and busied himself with scrupulous exactitude in
enforcing the observances necessary to a rigorous system of tactics.
This officer, as we have before hinted, had been an active participator
in the proceedings of the new court of sequestrations at Charleston; and
had rendered himself conspicuous by the fierce and unsparing industry
with which he had brought to the judgment of that tribunal, the imputed
delinquencies of some of the most opulent and patriotic citizens of the
province.
Amongst the cases upon which he had been called into consultation was
that of Arthur Butler, whose possessions being ample, and whose
position, as a rebellious belligerent, being one of "flagrant delict,"
there was but little repugnance, on the part of the judges and their
adviser, to subject him to the severest law of confiscation. The
proceedings, however, had been delayed, not from any tenderness to the
proprietor, but, as it was whispered in the scandal of the day, on
account of certain dissensions, amongst a few prominent servants of the
British crown, as to which of them the privilege of a cheap purchase
should be extended. The matter was still in suspense, with a view (as
that busybody, common rumor, alleged) to reward a particular favorite of
the higher powers with the rich guerdon of these good lands, in
compensation for private and valuable secret services, rendered in a
matter of great delicacy and hazard--no less a service than that of
seducing into the arena of politics and intrigue, an opulent and
authoritative gentleman of Virginia, Mr. Philip Lindsay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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