rogress of more than a
hundred human beings towards the long sighed for land of promise should
be delayed a moment on his account; and for this reason he exhorted his
nominal superior to hasten the preparations for departure, without
thinking of him. His first resolution in relation to his own course,
was to proceed with the company, leaving his horse to be sent after him,
when recovered. He was loath, however, to leave the highly-prized and
long-tried charger behind; and Colonel Bruce, taking advantage of the
feeling, and representing the openness and safety of the road, the
shortness of the day's journey (for the next Station at which the exiles
intended lodging was scarce twenty miles distant), and above all,
promising, if he remained, to escort him thither with a band of his young
men, to whom the excursion would be but an agreeable frolic, the soldier
changed his mind, and, in an evil hour, as it afterwards appeared,
consented to remain until Brown Briareus was brought in,--provided this
should happen before mid-day; at which time, if the horse did not appear,
it was agreed he should set out, trusting to his good fortune and the
friendly zeal of his host, for the future recovery and restoration of his
charger. Later than mid-day he was resolved not to remain; for however
secure the road, it was wiser to pursue it in company than alone; nor
would he have consented to remain a moment, had there appeared the least
impediment to his joining the companions of his exile before nightfall.

His measures were taken accordingly. His baggage-horses, under the charge
of the younger of the two negroes, were sent on with the band; the other,
an old and faithful slave of his father, being retained as a useful
appendage to a party containing his kinswoman, from whom he, of course,
saw no reason to be separated. To Edith herself, the delay was far from
being disagreable. It promised a gay and cheerful gallop through the
forest, instead of the dull, plodding, funeral-like march to which she
had been day after day monotonously accustomed. She assented, therefore,
to the arrangement, and, like her kinsman, beheld, in the fresh light of
sun-rise, without a sigh, without even a single foreboding of evil, the
departure of the train of emigrants, with whom she had journeyed in
safety so many long and weary leagues through the desert.

They set out in high spirits, after shaking hands with their hosts at the
gates, and saluting them with c