And, lastly, as he must have had friends and confederates on the frontier, to aid him in his concealment, and to screen him from the pursuit of the government officers, and, moreover, had made himself acceptable to the Indians, to whose power he had committed himself, we may conclude that he possessed some winning points of character; and I therefore assume him to have been of a brave, frank, and generous nature, capable of attracting partisans and enlisting the sympathies and service of bold men for his personal defence.

So, with the help of a little obvious speculation, founded upon the circumstantial evidence, we weave the network of quite a natural story of Talbot; and our meagre tradition takes on the form, and something of the substance, of an intelligible incident.

CHAPTER II.

STRANGE REVELATIONS.

At this point I leave the hero of my narrative for a while, in order that I may open another chapter.

Many years elapsed, during which the tradition remained in this unsatisfactory state, and I had given up all hope of further elucidation of it, when an accidental discovery brought me once more upon the track of inquiry.

There was published in the city of Baltimore, in the year 1808, a book whose title was certainly as little adapted to awaken the attention of one in quest of a picturesque legend as a treatise on Algebra.  It was called “The Landholder’s Assistant,” and was intended, as its name imported, to assist that lucky portion of mankind who possessed the soil of Maryland in their pursuit of knowledge touching the mysteries of patents, warrants, surveys, and such like learning, necessary to getting land or keeping what they had.  The character and style of this book, in its exterior aspect, were as unpromising as it’s title.  It was printed by Messrs. Dobbin & Murphy, on rather dark paper, in a muddy type,—­such as no Mr. Dobbin nor Mr. Murphy of this day would allow to bear his imprimatur,—­though in 1808, I doubt not, it was considered a very creditable piece of Baltimore typography.  This unpretending volume was compiled by Chancellor Kilty.  It is a very instructive book, containing much curious matter, is worthy of better adornment in the form of its presentation to the world, and ought to have a title more suggestive of its antiquarian lore.  I should call it “Fossil Remains of Old Maryland Law, with Notes by an Antiquary.”

It fell into my hands by a purchase at auction, some twenty years after I had abandoned the Legend of the Cave and the Hawks as a hopeless quest.  In running over its contents, I found that a Colonel George Talbot was once the Surveyor-General of Maryland; and in two short marginal notes (the substance of which I afterwards found in Chalmers’s “Annals”) it was said that “he was noted in the Province for the murder committed by him on Christopher Rousby, Collector of the Customs,”—­the second note adding that this was done on board a vessel in Patuxent River, and that Talbot “was conveyed for trial to Virginia, from whence he made his escape; and after being retaken, and” (as the author expresses his belief) “tried and convicted, was finally pardoned by King James the Second.”