"
"We are not disposed, sir, to deny you the glory of having achieved your
victory single-handed," said Griffith, glancing his eyes uneasily in the
direction of the approaching sounds, expecting to see the Pilot issue
from the thicket in which he seemed to be entangled, instead of any
detachment of his enemies.
"Clear the way, Caesar!" cried a voice at no great distance from them;
"break through the accursed vines on my right, Pompey!--press forward,
my fine fellows, or we may be too late to smell even the smoke of the
fight."
"Hum!" ejaculated the captain, with his philosophic indifference of
manner entirely re-established, "this must be a Roman legion just awoke
from a trance of some seventeen centuries, and that the voice of a
centurion. We will halt, Mister Drill, and view the manner of an ancient
march!"
While the captain was yet speaking, a violent effort disengaged the
advancing party from the thicket of brambles in which they had been
entangled, when two blacks, each bending under a load of firearms,
preceded Colonel Howard, into the clear space where Borroughcliffe had
halted his detachment. Some little time was necessary to enable the
veteran to arrange his disordered dress, and to remove the perspiring
effects of the unusual toil from his features, before he could observe
the addition to the captain's numbers.
"We heard you fire," cried the old soldier, making, at the same time,
the most diligent application of his bandana, "and I determined to aid
you with a sortie, which, when judiciously timed, has been the means of
raising many a siege; though, had Montcalm rested quietly within his
walls, the plains of Abr'am might never have drunk his blood.
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