She at once ran in among the bushes and
crouched there, as she heard the rush of men into the room she had
just left. She heard them searching for her, but they were looking
for a white dress, and her dark rug saved her. What she must have
suffered in the five minutes between the firing of the first shots
and my arrival, she only knows. May had spoken but very little
since we started. I believe that she was certain that her father
was dead, although I had given an evasive answer when she asked me;
and her terrible sense of loss, added to the horror of that time
of suspense in the garden, had completely stunned her. We waited
in the tope until the afternoon, and then set out again.
"We had gone but a short distance when we saw a body of the rebel
cavalry in pursuit. They had no doubt been scouring the country
generally, and the discovery was accidental. For a short time we
kept away from them, but this could not be for long, as our horse
was carrying double. I made for a sort of ruin I saw at the foot of
a hill half a mile away. I did so with no idea of the possibility
of concealment. My intention was simply to get my back to a rock
and to sell my life as dearly as I could, keeping the last two
barrels of the revolver for ourselves.
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