so through a tolerably open country we
reached a thick wood, extending so far before us on either side that it
was in vain to hope to pass round it. Whether or not it was full of
lurking enemies we could not tell. There was nothing to be done but to
penetrate through it. There was something solemn and rather depressing
in the deep silence of that gloomy forest, with the tall gaunt trees
towering above our heads and shutting out the sky itself from view. In
some places it was so dark that we could scarcely discover our way, and
as we marched on we went stumbling into holes and over fallen trunks of
trees and branches, and more than once I found myself up to my middle in
the rotten stem of some ancient monarch of the forest long recumbent on
the ground. Some of the men declared that the wood was full of
rattle-snakes, and that they heard them rattling away their tails as
they went gliding and wriggling along over the ground, rather surprised
at having their haunts invaded by the tramping of so many hundred feet.
Others asserted that there were ghosts and hobgoblins and evil spirits
of all sorts infesting the locality; indeed, I suspect that there was
scarcely a man among them who would not more willingly have met a whole
army of mortal enemies rather than have remained much longer in that
melancholy solitude. Every moment I expected to hear the sharp crack of
the enemy's rifles and to see the wood lighted up with the flashes, for
I could scarcely suppose that they would allow us to pass through a
place, where, without much risk to themselves, they might so easily
molest us and probably escape scot-free. On we marched, or rather
stumbled and groped our way, till at length we emerged from the wood
into the clear light which the starry sky and pure atmosphere afforded
us. We were now among fields and fences, which gave us intimation that
some human habitations were not far-off. In a short time we saw before
us a good-sized mansion standing in the middle of a farm, with various
out-houses. Our first care was to draw up our men closely round it.
Hawthorne and I, with about twenty followers, then approached the front
door and knocked humbly for admission. Soon we heard the voice of a
negro inquiring who was there.

"Some gentlemen who wish to see your master on important business," I
answered.

"Ki! at this hour! Come again to-morrow, den; massa no see nobody
to-night."

"It is business which cannot be put off,"