He wore
spectacles--was unarmed, had dismounted, and seemed to be dividing his
attention between a cigar, a book, and the incidents of the field before
him. To this party Frances determined to send a note, directed to
Dunwoodie. She wrote hastily, with a pencil, "Come to me, Peyton, if it
be but for a moment"; and Caesar emerged from the cellar kitchen, taking
the precaution to go by the rear of the building, to avoid the sentinel
on the piazza, who had very cavalierly ordered all the family to remain
housed. The black delivered the note to the gentleman, with a request
that it might be forwarded to Major Dunwoodie. It was the surgeon of the
horse to whom Caesar addressed himself; and the teeth of the African
chattered, as he saw displayed upon the ground the several instruments
which were in preparation for the anticipated operations. The doctor
himself seemed to view the arrangement with great satisfaction, as he
deliberately raised his eyes from his book to order the boy to convey
the note to his commanding officer, and then dropping them quietly on
the page he continued his occupation. Caesar was slowly retiring, as the
third personage, who by his dress might be an inferior assistant of the
surgical department, coolly inquired "if he would have a leg taken off?"
This question seemed to remind the black of the existence of those
limbs, for he made such use of them as to reach the piazza at the same
instant that Major Dunwoodie rode up, at half speed.
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