he state, from the pale and consideration of society; and their
anxieties were now entirely addressed to the new object which the
recital they had just heard had suggested to them. They had gathered
from the narrative of the dying man some idea of the place in which
they would most probably find the outlaw; and, though without a guide
to the spot, and altogether ignorant of its localities, they
determined--without reference to others, who might only subtract from
their own share of the promised reward, without contributing much, if
any, aid, which they might not easily dispense with--at once to attempt
his capture. This was the joint understanding of the whole party, Ralph
Colleton excepted.

In substance, the youth was now free. The evidence furnished by Munro
only needed the recognition of the proper authorities to make him so;
yet, until this had been effected, he remained in a sort of understood
restraint, but without any actual limitations. Pledging himself that
they should suffer nothing from the indulgence given him, he mounted the
horse of Munro, whose body was cared for, and took his course back to
the village; while, following the directions given them, the guard and
jailer pursued their way to the Wolf's Neck in their search after Guy
Rivers.

The outlaw had been deserted by nearly all his followers. The note of
preparation and pursuit, sounded by the state authorities, had inspired
the depredators with a degree of terror, which the near approximation of
the guard, in strong numbers, to their most secluded places, had not a
little tended to increase; and accordingly, at the period of which we
now speak, the outlaw, deserted by all but one or two of the most daring
of his followers--who were, however, careful enough of themselves to
keep in no one place long, and cautiously to avoid their accustomed
haunts--remained in his rock, in a state of gloomy despondency, not
usually his characteristic. Had he been less stubborn, less ready to
defy all chances and all persons, it is not improbable that Rivers would
have taken counsel by their flight, and removed himself, for a time at
least, from the scene of danger. But his native obstinacy, and that
madness of heart which, as we are told, seizes first upon him whom God
seeks to destroy, determined him, against the judgment of others, and in
part against his own, to remain where he was; probably in the fallacious
hope that the storm would pass over, as on so many prev