"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet
dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the
drum and fife."

"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing
pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half
pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife.
Yes, they are coming!"

He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young
person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way
that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's
fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to
see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories.

"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without
danger,--you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and
good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an
errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not
fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm."

They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb,
and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets;
and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with
drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular
order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed
somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters,
covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks.
Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that