Once only, as he
wheeled his horse to ride over the ground in front, did Dunwoodie trust
himself with a look at the cottage, and his heart beat with unusual
rapidity as he saw a female figure standing, with clasped hands, at a
window of the room in which he had met Frances. The distance was too
great to distinguish her features, but the soldier could not doubt that
it was his mistress. The paleness of his cheek and the languor of his
eye endured but for a moment longer. As he rode towards the intended
battle ground, a flush of ardor began to show itself on his sunburnt
features; and his dragoons, who studied the face of their leader, as the
best index to their own fate, saw again the wonted flashing of the eyes,
and the cheerful animation, which they had so often witnessed on the eve
of battle. By the additions of the videttes and parties that had been
out, and which now had all joined, the whole number of the horse was
increased to nearly two hundred. There was also a small body of men,
whose ordinary duties were those of guides, but who, in cases of
emergency, were embodied and did duty as foot soldiers; these were
dismounted, and proceeded, by the order of Dunwoodie, to level the few
fences which might interfere with the intended movements of the cavalry.
The neglect of husbandry, which had been occasioned by the war, left
this task comparatively easy.
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