I am willing now, as I was then, to confess freely that I was afraid to step outside old Mary's cabin for any purpose whatsoever. The struggle with Abel Hunt, and the departure of the Jerseyman when it seemed certain he had gone out only to be killed, had brought to the surface all my cowardice; but when I said as much in plain words, little Frenchie laughed me to scorn, declaring he knew me better than I knew myself, and that it needed only for me to stand face to face with imminent danger in order to give token of bravery. "Then surely now should be the time when I showed myself a hero," I replied with a laugh that had in it little of mirth, "for verily are we face to face with as many dangers as the most gluttonous swash-buckler could desire." "Come with me and we will find more," Pierre said with a laugh as he opened the door, and for the life of me I could not have refused to follow the lad, even my knees bent beneath me as I crossed the threshold. CHAPTER XV FORAGING Sorely afraid though I was to go out of the cabin lest I find myself a prisoner on the charge of being a spy, no danger however great could have prevented me from following little Frenchie when he thus led the way. I was so timorous at that moment as to be irritated, and it would have done me a world of good could I have taken the little lad by the shoulders and shaken him severely, because of thus venturing forth when he might have remained in hiding a few hours longer without suffering overly much from lack of food. Once in the open air, however, I the same as forgot that I was faint-hearted, because of the scene which was presented. Looking northward we could see closely surrounding us, hardly more than a cannon-shot away, our people who had come to capture Cornwallis and his men, and in so doing were preparing a way for our escape, if so be we lived long enough to take advantage of the opportunity which they were counting on offering. It was a sight well calculated to warm even the most timorous heart, that vast army pressing forward as if certain of victory, and holding the enemy on this peninsula from whence he could not escape even by water, for at Lynn Haven bay lay the French ships ready to intercept any flight. We of Virginia had remained so long under the heel of the invader, with only now and then a glimpse of small detachments of our soldiers, that it seemed for the moment almost incredible that there could be so many men ready to sacrifice their lives in the effort to free the colonies from the yoke of oppression which bore so heavily upon them.