twilight, moving, with slow and apparently hesitating steps, across a
new-mown field, towards a neat and commodious dwelling, situated on
the main road leading from the town just named, to the south, and near
where it entered the then fast increasing little village of
Bennington. Though he wore no regular military uniform, or arms that
were visible, yet there was that in his gait, manner, and general
appearance, which indicated the recent occupation of a soldier, while
the natural cast of his bold, manly features, and the clear, calm, and
steady expression of his fine countenance, all combined to show him a
man of coolness and courage; and that, consequently, the seeming
timidity and indecision of his present movements were attributable to
some passing doubts respecting the issue of the business on hand, or
other causes of a similar character, rather than any general want of
firmness and resolution. After advancing within a stone's throw of the
house, he turned into a clump of small trees, which, extending along
the outer border of an unenclosed garden to the north of the
establishment, had concealed his approach; and here taking a position
that commanded a view of the front and rear entrances of the house, he
seemed to await some expected event, with manifestations of
considerable uneasiness and solicitude. In a few moments, a slight
stir, as of company taking leave, was heard in the front part of the
house; and very soon a fashionably-dressed personage of a somewhat
swaggering deportment, accompanied with many of those supercilious
airs with which the colonial loyalists of the times often thought to
dignify their carriage among despised republicans, made his appearance
in the yard, where, equipped for riding, stood a stout,
well-conditioned horse, which he approached and led out some distance
into the road, preparatory to mounting. He then paused, and, with a
hasty glance around him, covertly drew forth, from a concealed girdle
apparently, a pair of good-sized pistols, and carefully examined their