nd chatted with our guard and with their friends
inside and out. Now and then a volley was fired in the streets of the
village below us, and we would all go to a line fence where we could see
its effects: generally it was only riotous noise, but occasionally it
was directed against the engine-house or on some one moving through the
armory-yard.

As the militia in and out of uniform, and the men from far and near,
armed in all sorts of ways, began to come into the village in squads,
their strength seemed to give them increased confidence, and especially
in the perfectly safe place where I sat with half a dozen others under a
heavy guard. Now and then an ugly-looking fowling-piece or an awkwardly
handled pistol was threateningly pointed at us, with a half-laughing and
half-drunken threat of keeping us safe. Toward afternoon we were ordered
for the night to Charlestown, and to the jail there that has grown so
famous by its hospitality to our successors. The journey across was
particularly enlivening. My special guard was a gentlemanly young
lawyer, one of the Kennedys of that ilk; and to his cleverness I think I
owed my safe arrival at the end of our journey. Every turn in the road
brought us face to face with an angry crowd, gathering from far and
near, armed and ready to do instant justice on a helpless victim.
Kennedy, however, gracefully waived them back to the wagons behind us,
where other prisoners, in less skilful hands, were pretty badly used.
The houses on the road were utterly deserted; on the first news of an
outbreak by the slaves, the women and children were hurried off to the
larger towns,--the men coming slowly back in squads and arming as best
they could, and the negroes keeping themselves hid out of sight on all
sides.

The eight miles' distance to Charlestown was lengthened out by the rain
and mud, and the various hindrances of the way, so that the day was
closing as we came into the main street of the straggling little town.
The first odd sight was a procession of black and white children playing
soldiers, led by a chubby black boy, full of a sense of authority, and
evidently readily accepted by his white and black comrades in childlike
faith. The next was a fine, handsome house, where a large number of
ladies from the country round had been gathered together, and as we were
greeted in going by, my guide stopped, and introducing me, I explained
my position. They were all ready with their sympathy, and a