That gentleman, however, was no longer to be seen in any of the various groups immediately in front of the house. I just caught a glance of Billy Byles as I passed out of the inn; but he was speaking to some lady up in the balcony above, and I passed on without interrupting him. From one little knot of people to another I went; and perhaps at any other moment, with a disembarrassed mind, the strange medley of men of wealth and men of none; of men of education and men without; of men of refined habits and men of the coarsest manners; and the perfect familiarity which existed between them all--would have given occasion for much speculation in my mind as an Englishman. But I was too much occupied with the one predominant idea to think of anything else, and I exhausted nearly half an hour in searching for the sheriff in vain. I was just turning back to the inn, when some one called me. "Sir Richard, Sir Richard," said a voice. And, looking round, I perceived Mr. Byles coming up from the side of the marketplace I had just left. "I have been looking for you everywhere," he said. "Louisa Thornton wishes to speak to you. They are all here, except Mr. Henry Thornton himself. He determined, like Doctor Blunt, to stay in his own house and stand it out, with some friends he has got there. Mrs. Thornton is frightened out of her wits, and gone to bed, but Lou said she would remain in the balcony till I brought you." I explained to him briefly, as we walked along, the anxiety of my mind in regard to Bessy Davenport, and the obstinate refusal of the landlady to let me pass upstairs in search of her. "Oh, the old jade!" said Billy Byles, "she's a perfect Turk. They should call _her_ the colonel instead of her husband, who is as meek as Moses, poor man! She would not let me pass either, though I coaxed and bullied, and did all sorts of things. But it is about Bessy Davenport that Louisa wants to speak to you. She says she is certainly not in the inn." My heart sank again; but I hurried on, and soon stood under the place where Miss Thornton was leaning over the balcony. "I wanted to tell you, Sir Richard," said Miss Thornton, after a few words of ordinary courtesy, "that Bessy is certainly not here. Where did you leave her?" I explained to her all that had occurred, and the reasons I had for supposing she might have been brought into the town by Colonel Halliday and his party. "Perhaps she may be in some of the other houses," said Miss Thornton, "for they are all full; and everybody, all over the place, seems to be searching for some one lost in the confusion of this terrible day. But I hope and trust that no harm has happened to her, as you left old Jenny with her."