Perez threw himself from his horse.

"We are all going to the jail," he said. "You shall come with us, and
ride upon my horse. Men, she shall lead us."

The men, whose discipline was not as yet very rigid, had halted and
crowded around to listen to the dialogue, and received this
proposition with a cheer. Prudence would far rather had them go on,
and leave her to make her own way, but she was quite too much scared
to resist as Perez lifted her upon his saddle. He shortened one of the
stirrups, to support her foot, and then the column took up its march
under the new captain, Perez walking by her side and leading the
horse.

Had he arranged this stroke beforehand, he could not have hit on a
more effective device for toning up the morals of the men. Those in
whose minds the old misgivings as to their course had succeeded the
sudden inspiration of Little Pete's drum, now felt that the child
riding ahead lent a new and sacred sanction to their cause. They all
knew her story, and to their eyes she seemed, at this moment, an
embodiment of the spirit of suffering and outraged humanity, which had
nerved them for this day's work. A more fitting emblem, a more inspiring
standard, could not have been borne before them. But it must not be
supposed that even this prevented, now and then, a conscience-stricken
individual from stopping to drink at some brook crossing the road,
until the column had passed the next bend in the road, and then slinking
home cross-lots, taking an early opportunity after arriving to pass the
store, so as to be seen and noted as not among the rioters. But
whatever was lost in this way, if the defection of such material can
be called a loss, was more than made up by the recruits which swelled