"So angry was he," continued Mr. Thornton, "that I thought it necessary to exact a promise from him, before we suffered him to go with us, that he would not proceed to any act of violence against Robert Thornton, if we met with him; for he asserted, what was very true, that Robert ruled his father completely." Almost all that occurred after they set out we already knew; for we had learned from the sheriff that neither he nor any of his party had the slightest idea that there was a cabin in the neighbourhood of the road they passed; and that it was only the sight of Matthew Leary watching them, and the report of two or three guns, which had brought them up to the spot where William Thornton and his son had fallen. "I, Byles, and Halliday," resumed Mr. Thornton, "here quitted the sheriff and the rest about a mile from the spot where we afterwards found you, and rode on to the old place, which Mr. William Thornton and his son had quitted but a few minutes before. An old negro, called Samuel, on Halliday assuring him he would skin him alive if he did not tell us the truth, informed us that you had been there the night before, with five or six men, and carried Bessy away with you. His two masters, he said, had gone to look for you; but it was with the greatest difficulty that we got him to admit that one of the old women about the place knew of a small hut, which had been built upon the line, and had watched you go in that direction. We forced her to give some explanation where the place lay; and soon after, passing the sheriff's men on the road, got further directions. "When we saw the body of Robert Thornton lying dead on the ground, we very naturally concluded, my dear Sir Richard, that a conflict had taken place, and you had shot him. I am indeed glad that it was not so, for this has been a sad business altogether." "It has indeed," said Bessy Davenport; "the saddest week that Virginia has ever known." "Well, my love, we must submit to what God appoints," responded Mr. Thornton. "And the first thing you have to do, Madam Bessy, is to take care of yourself, for you are looking quite haggard and old, and you will never get a husband if you don't put on better looks than that." Bessy gazed quietly up in my face, and a faint smile played about her lips; but Mr. Henry Thornton went on without noticing it, saying,-- "You must come home to-morrow, Bessy; and, under your good aunt's nursing, you will soon get as plump as a little partridge again." "There, don't you take dat road, Mas'r Thornton," cried aunt Jenny, who was toiling along after us. "T'other is not quarter of a mile out of de way, and I do want to see what's become of poor 'Ercles." "Well bethought, aunty," said Mr. Thornton; "you are a good, kind old woman; but really we must contrive to get you upon the horse, or we shall not reach home to-night. I must get to my own house this evening, Jenny, or the mistress will think we were all lost together."