"No," she answered, faintly; and then added, "I would rather go with you, Richard; but I will not embarrass you, and perhaps you judge best; only do not be long, dear Richard; for I shall be fearful for you till you return." I took a step or two forward; but then my heart smote me for a piece of selfish forgetfulness; and, returning, I inquired of Jenny whether she had seen anything of my poor servant Zed. "No, I have not, sir," replied the woman. "Poor old man, I don't think they would hurt him: he was as black as any of them. Oh, he must certainly be safe; for I should have found him somewhere lying about if they had killed him. Besides, what should they kill him for?" I explained to her how he had devoted himself to give Bessy and myself time to escape. But she still retained the same opinion; asserting that he must have got away before the door into Bessy's room from the corridor had been broken down. Thus she forced me to be satisfied. I walked away again towards the south-west. CHAPTER XXII. My progress was somewhat slower than I had anticipated; for, in many places, the bushes grew very thick, and tangled underwood sometimes prevented the possibility of advancing in a straight line. Occasionally, too, a piece of swampy ground retarded me sadly; but after having once caught sight of the wider part, or rather wood-road, on the right, I always returned to within a few yards of it whenever any impediment forced me to make a circuit, knowing that it must necessarily lead into the high-road to Jerusalem. I thus exposed myself, it is true, to some danger of being seen. But we are all, I suppose, curious creatures in one respect. Whatever may be said of man's selfishness, and by whatsoever strange cause a sort of transposition of self into another may be supposed to be brought about, certain it is that he who is the least careful, perhaps reckless, of his own life, becomes wonderfully cautious, and even timid, when one whom he loves is involved in the same peril with himself. I am fully of opinion, from the difference of my feelings that day, when Bessy was with me and when I was alone, that no military or naval man should have his wife with him in camp or on shipboard. I felt, as I walked on, as if I could have routed a whole troop of those insurgent negroes. I had a double-barrelled gun, well charged; a pistol and a sword; and I thought I could answer for the lives of four at least. Besides, the conviction grew upon me that these men would be easily disheartened. The murder of women and children, I thought, could be no very exhilarating remembrance; and whatever may be said of the courage of despair, I am certain that the man who fights with a rope round his neck is sure to fight ill.