"He won't find out anything to-night," said Billy Byles, as soon as the man was gone; "for, most probably, nobody in the place knows anything about the matter. But he'll go and talk to all the coloured people, and then they'll all begin jabbering, and chattering, and inquiring. The question will go, heaven knows how, down all the high-roads and by-ways, and to-morrow we shall have a whole budget of intelligence. Halloo! that sounds like cannon coming in." And, going to the window, he added,-- "So it is, by Jove! Two brass pieces, and a squad of artillerymen. We'll pound them to-morrow, if they take the field. Let us come and see what is going on." I accompanied him to the door; but we had scarcely reached the threshold, when we were met by Mr. Henry Thornton, his fine, tall figure looking very imposing in the garb of a colonel of militia. He shook me warmly by the hand; but I could see that a good deal of grave anxiety was upon his countenance. "I did not think of coming into town to-night," he said, "but I heard of your fight at Dr. Blunt's, and that the poor devils had been dispersed with great loss. One serious check is enough to discourage them altogether. I think we shall have no more of it; and, at all events, it is over for to-night. But what is this I hear about poor Bessy Davenport?" I related to him everything that had occurred, and watched his countenance eagerly as I did so, in order to divine, if possible, what were the conclusions at which his mind arrived. He looked very grave, especially when he found we had ascertained that Bessy had not been brought in by Colonel Halliday's party? "Not that he is the man," said Mr. Thornton, after expressing some painful disappointment at the breaking down of that hope of her safety--"not that he is a man whom any of us would choose to act as her escort under ordinary circumstances. But he dare not--no, he dare not," added Mr. Thornton, somewhat sternly--"take any advantage of his position." "Who is this Colonel Halliday?" I asked. "You all seem to have some doubt of him." "Why, don't you know?" cried Billy Byles. "He was Bob Thornton's second in the duel with you." "He acted in a very gentlemanly manner there," I said. "Ay, that might be," answered Mr. Thornton. "But he's a wild, unscrupulous fellow, notwithstanding. He certainly was colleaguing with Robert Thornton when that worthy tried to cheat her out of her whole property. Perhaps you do not know that he proposed to marry her, when she was not sixteen, and we had afterwards every reason to believe that there was an understanding between him and Robert, that they should share the spoils between them.