Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/107

Rh door; "and what's more, I have brought home a young sodger that's worth his weight in gold.

"Heaven bless my child! my brave boy!" cried the mother, seizing the lad in her arms, unheeding anything else in the present perturbation of her feelings. "I feared ill would come of it; but Heaven has preserved him. Did he behave handsomely, Mr. Robinson? But I am sure he did."

"A little more venturesome, ma'am, than I wanted him to be," replied Horseshoe; "but he did excellent service. These are his prisoners, Mistress Ramsay; I should never have got them if it hadn't been for Andy. In these drumming and fifing times the babies suck in quarrel with their mother's milk. Show me another boy in America that's made more prisoners than there was men to fight them with, that's all!" [This capture of the British ensign Horseshoe Robinson was able to turn to good account as a means of saving Butler. He exacted from the ensign a letter to his British companions telling them of his capture and begging them to be lenient with their prisoner, Major Butler, in order that his life might not be forfeit for any harsh treatment to Butler. This letter reached the British just in time to stay a sentence of death from being pronounced upon Butler. The next day brought the news of a decisive defeat of the Americans under General Gates, and this led the British to think that they might carry out the sentence against Butler without endangering the life of Ensign Jermyn. Accordingly Butler was notified that he would be executed two days hence. Horseshoe, however, brought up a small force of Americans to attack the British camp just in time to save Butler's life, but after the defeat of the British Butler could not be found. James Curry had succeeded in conducting him from the camp at the beginning of the engagement and eventually carried him to Allen Musgrove's mill. Through the aid of