“Be careful, Miss Du Plessis, I beg of you!” implored the dominie; “heavy firing is going on not far off, and a stray bullet might easily find its way hither.  Permit me to conduct you to a place of safety.”  So he led her with grave courtesy within the gate, and placed her on a garden seat in front of two trees large of bole, and interceptive of possible missiles.  Of course, his own safety was a matter of no moment; he went out of the gate and to the utmost limit of his watch to gain, by eye and ear, tidings of the progress of the skirmish, which he returned every minute or two to report to the anxious young lady.  Thus it was that, when the colonel came to inspect the posts, he found two sentinels at each, pertaining to different sexes.  Returning to his sister-in-law on the verandah, he explained to that lady the peculiar difficulty of his position.

“You see, my deah sistah, that this is altogetheh contyahy to militahy discipline, and I ought to ordeh all undeh ahhest, but, were I to do so, madam, where would my sentinels come from?” Miss Du Plessis perceived the difficulty, as she handled the colonel’s silver-mounted revolver, with an air of old practice; and proceeded to ask what her brother-in-law knew of the young gentleman who was furnishing Cecile with information of the fight.  Thereupon the colonel launched out into a panegyric of the dominie’s noble qualities, imputing to him all that Coristine had done on his behalf, and a chivalrous Southern exaggeration of the school-master’s learning and expressions of sympathy.  “Marjorie appears to think more highly of the other pedestrian,” remarked Mrs. Du Plessis, to which Colonel Morton replied that Mr. Coristine was indeed a handsome and excellent young man, but lacked the correct bearing and dignified courtesy of his friend, and, he should judge, was much his inferior in point of education.  When the tide of battle rolled away to the right, altogether out of sight and almost out of hearing, the double sentries were still at their posts, no doubt conversing with all propriety, but of what, they only individually knew.  Even Miss Halbert did not confide to others the substance of a favourable criticism on Mr. Perrowne to which she treated her worthy father.

It was between one and two in the morning when the victorious army returned, and was received with open arms, literally in the case of the Squire and the veteran, and of Mr. Hill and Rufus in the kitchen, metaphorically in that of the remaining combatants.  Mr. Carruthers released the doctor, and took him to visit the wounded at the post office.  The minister and the dominie were also relieved, and Mr. Hill and the Sesayder, at their own request, put in their vacant places; while Maguffin dismounted, and, being armed with a gun and set in the doctor’s post, constituted a guardian trio with his late captors.  Of course, the warriors and past sentries had to eat and drink in guard room and kitchen, the latter apartment being more hilarious than it would have been had the seniors on duty formed part of its company.  There was no old Bourbon for the colonel, but he managed to find a fair substitute for it, and informed Coristine, in answer to that gentleman’s enquiry, how he happened to arrive so speedily at Bridesdale.