It took not long to tell them all, nor to learn that which had befallen all the other houses and manors around. Some, we learnt, were burnt to the ground; some were spared simply because they were so well defended that the Indians had drawn off at daybreak without achieving any victory; at some every inhabitant had been killed even to the women and children; at others every creature had escaped. Many, too, were the deeds of daring that had been done on this night of horror. Women had stoutly helped their husbands, brothers, and sons in fighting for their homes, one woman having killed near a score of the Indians with her own musket. Another, who was alone in her house--her husband being away at the newly re-constructed town of Richmond--having none about her but her babes and some worthless negroes, also defended her house both skilfully and valorously. She appeared at different windows dressed in her husband's clothes, changing the wig, or the coat, or other garments as she passed from one room to another, so that the savages were led to think that the house was full of men. She shouted orders to imaginary servants and friends as though they were there to assist her, and every time she fired she brought down her man so that, by daybreak, her little house was of those saved. And this was but one of the many gallant actions performed that night which I cannot here stop to narrate. All who had now ridden into the courtyard of my dear one's house were there with but one impulse to stir them. That impulse was revenge and the rescue of the many prisoners whom they knew to have been carried off. Yet, when they heard that Joice was gone--who amongst all the girls in that part of the colony was, perhaps, the most beloved--and, with her, Miss Mills, that impulse was stirred more deeply still, so that when Gregory, addressing them, said: "Gentlemen, she is my cousin, as you know, and, with Miss Mills, is the only woman captured; therefore must I beg that the leadership of this party is given to me," they willingly accorded him his desire. But this I could not permit, so I, too, made a speech to them, saying: "Yet must I put in my claim against Mr. Haller. Mistress Bampfyld is, indeed, his cousin, but to me she is more--she is my promised wife. Therefore, no matter who heads this party, I alone must go as the chief seeker after her. I would have saved her with my life last night had it been granted me to do so; I must claim the right to rescue her now, or to die in attempting it." "Your promised wife!" poor Gregory said, looking mournfully at me. "Oh, Joice! Oh, Joice!" But he alone was the one who did not heartily receive my statement, all the others shouting lustily "for the future Lady St. Amande," and saying that none was so worthy of such an honour as she. "Nay," I said, "nay. 'Tis she who honours me by giving me her love, and therefore must I be the first to risk my life for her."