le of Tony Lumpkin, "fidgeted and
spit about like a Catherine wheel."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

"It is the cry of women, good, my lord."
_Macbeth._

Agreeably with the promise of Bacon, the captured ladies were treated
with a respect and deference which allayed in a great degree their many
apprehensions. Still they could not refrain from expressions of the
strongest indignation at an act so unusual, so violent, and so entirely
at war with the established notions of chivalry at the time. As the
reader will readily conjecture, our good friend, Mrs. Temple, was by no
means the most patient under the wrongs she had endured, and resisting
the kind attentions of those around her, she was vehement in her
denunciations of her captors, and in her apprehensions of a thousand
imaginary dangers.

"Oh my God!" she cried, "I know that they intend to murder us. To think
of leaving a quiet home, and being exposed to such treatment as this.
Oh, my precious husband, if he only knew what a situation his poor
Betsey was in at this moment; but never mind, as sure as I am a living
woman, he shall know it, and then we will see."

"My dear Mrs. Temple," said Mrs. Ballard, another of the captives, "do
not give way to your feelings thus. It is useless, and will only serve
to irritate these men."

"Men! they are not men!" returned the excited old lady, refusing to be
comforted. "Men never would have treated ladies so. They are base,
cruel, inhuman wretches, and, as I said before, if I live, to get to
Jamestown, Colonel Temple shall know of it too--so he shall."

"But reflect, my dear friend, that our present condition is not
affected by this very natural resolution which you have made, to inform
your husband of your wrongs. But whatever may be the object of these
persons, I feel assured that they intend no personal injury to us."

"No personal injury, forsooth; and have we not sustained it already.
Look at my head-tire, all done up nicely just before I left the hall,
and now scarcely fit to be seen. And is it nothing to be hauled all over
the country with a party of ruffians, that I would be ashamed to be
caught in company with; and who knows what they intend?"

"I admit with you, my dear madam," said Mrs. Ballard, "that such conduct
is unmanly and inexcusable, and I care not who hears me say so. But
still," she added in a low voice, "we have the authority of scripture to
make friends even