The next instant we heard somebody in the same direction whistling "Kate of Coleraine;" and Billy remarked,-- "That is that ruffian, Matthew Leary. He is always in any dirty job. He would sell his own father if anybody would buy him. Now then, let us push on and turn sharp to the left, when we get upon the main road, spreading out so that we shall head them and they can't pass." We rode on accordingly, and in two minutes more, we entered a good, wide, sandy road, from which we had only been separated for the last mile by an acute angle of the wood. CHAPTER X. The sight which now presented itself, as we wheeled to the left, was not without its interest to one who had never seen such a thing before. The road, as I have said, was broad, and bordered on each side by thick wood, probably part of the primeval forest; but it was straight, and at the distance of about a third of a mile I could see an open space, only encumbered by what seemed to me a sort of ruinous stockade; in fact, the remains of an ancient Indian settlement of the Nottoway tribe. Between us and the stockade was a curious sort of cavalcade, the head of the line not being more than a hundred yards from us. It consisted principally of four-wheeled carts or waggons, apparently hired from farmers, and drawn by horses of various degrees of fatness and size. The waggons were, I think, five in number; and each was loaded as full as it could hold with families of poor negroes, in every attitude of grief and dejection. They sat on a little straw, thrown down in the bottom of the vehicle; and some, especially among the women, had their heads bent down on their knees as they sat, whilst others gazed around with a vacant, listless look of despair. Several children were amongst them; and, in fact, almost every age, from the white-headed old man to the infant at the breast; for Mr. Lewis, as he afterwards expressed himself, liked to buy a whole lot at once, and not to separate people. Each waggon had its driver on foot, all white men, and I think most of them Irishmen; but at the head of the procession came three very well-mounted men, the centre figure being that of Mr. Lewis himself, as gaudily dressed as usual. "That's young Thornton on the right," said Billy Byles to me, in a low tone, "Robert Thornton, the d--d rascally attorney who makes so much mischief in the place; and that's Matthew Leary over on the other side; but who the devil that is in the middle, I don't know." "That's Lewis the trader," I answered; "I came in the boat with him." "Oh, ho!" ejaculated Mr. Byles. "Now let's ride slowly on, and have a chat with them, to give the others time to come up. Keep spread out, so that none of them can pass; and let me manage it, Sir Richard, for we may as well begin quietly, so that when the fight comes we may have help near at hand, for you see, all mustered, they are two to one."