the mystery of the transaction would burst upon the senses
of the latter. Rivers had the faculty, however, of never exhibiting too
much of himself; and when hurried on by a passion seemingly too fierce
and furious for restraint, he would suddenly curb himself in, while a
sharp and scornful smile would curl his lips, as if he felt a
consciousness, not only of his own powers of command, but of his
impenetrability to all analysis.

The horses being now ready, the outlaw, buckling on his pistols, and
hiding his dirk in his bosom, threw a huge cloak over his shoulders,
which fully concealed his person; and, in company with his lieutenant,
and two stout men of his band, all admirably and freshly mounted, they
proceeded to the abode of the sheriff.

This man, connected, though secretly, with Rivers and Munro, was
indebted to them and the votes which in that region they could throw
into the boxes, for his elevation to the office which he held, and was,
as might reasonably have been expected, a mere creature under their
management. Maxson, of late days, however, whether from a reasonable
apprehension, increasing duly with increasing years, that he might
become at last so involved in the meshes of those crimes of his
colleagues, from which, while he was compelled to share the risk, he was
denied in great part the profit, had grown scrupulous--had avoided as
much as possible their connexion; and, the better to strengthen himself
in the increasing favor of public opinion, had taken advantage of all
those externals of morality and virtue which, unhappily, too frequently
conceal qualities at deadly hostility with them. He had, in the popular
phrase of the country, "got religion;" and, like the worthy reformers of
the Cromwell era, everything which he did, and everything which he said,
had Scripture for its authority. Psalm-singing commenced and ended the
day in his house, and graces before meat and graces before sleep,
prayers and ablutions, thanksgivings and fastings, had so much thinned
the animal necessities of his household, that a domestic war was the
consequence, and the sheriff and the sheriff's lady held separate sway,
having equally divided the dwelling between them, and ruling each their
respective sovereignties with a most jealous watchfulness. All rights,
not expressly delegated in the distribution of powers originally, were
insisted on even to blood; and the arbitration of the sword, or rather
the poker, once appealed