Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-05-27


been disturbed at SO unreasonable an
hour.
AYE, aye, sir-it's only Patrick after
coming to tell yer honor that Miss Knox's
darlint pony has gone out through the
key (kay) hole of the stable. bridled and
saddled himself, and set out on race
with the wild winds, if ye judge by the
wide apart prints of his hoofs that he was
afther havin' beEint him, sir, and Miss
Knox herself, sir, must have fashioned
herself in the bonnet box in her room, for
sure Piddy, the girl, and Sally. the nagur,
watched time about, both at once, after
seeing her to retire, and she didn't got
out, and she's rot in there, sir, and
Silence ? roefcd the colonel.
'Yis, yis, yoar sarysnt. cried Pat, pla-
cling his ear to the key-hole.
Can you tell me, Patrick said tho
colonel, whether Lieutenant Davis's horse
is in his stall ? the colonel at the same
time stepping to the door.
He is not, sir, and his sarvint protists
its red skin has rode him away. Sure
there's not another rider this side the ould
dart would get such jumps from horse
as the lieutcnant's made when he was la
vim, and that ye can know be measuring
the space 'twixt his tracks.
Away went the anxious Hibernian in ca
ger search for further light touching the
mysterious occurrences of the nigh. The
faithful Patrick, wild with excitement, and
trembling with apprehension regarding
the safety of the 'darlint, Miss knox, as
we'll as for the well-being of his favorite
lieutenant, passed hurriedly from place to
place, and by his highly agitated manner
spreading serious alarm, as contagion to
the tropics; SO that when the colonel,
little later, reached his front door, citizens
were approaching from every direction,
and his practical eye discovered that the
garrison was in commotion, as if momen-
tarily expecting to be led forth by him to
the rescue of his beloved daughter and
the young lieutenant, who were supposed
TO have been captured by the hated red
skins The general excitement was great
ly augmented, half an hour afterwards, by
the discovery that Lieutenant George Will
son (brother of Hon. Thomas S. Wilson,
of Dubuque, Iowa., and Miss Street,
daughter Of General Street, were also
among the missing. The opinion pre-
walls generally that the four young friends
had been captured and scalped, as it was
not to be supposed that even the courage
of those gallant and chivalrous young
officers could permit them to pass, espe-
cially with ladies, beyond the picket lines.
Hence, at an early hour, the good French
pioneers of the prairie came from every
direction, mounted on their feetest ponies,
and armed with guns, pistols, butcher
knives, etc, while the women wept, In
anguish over the loss of their favorites of
the fort In the midst of all this confu-
sion, and before Colonel Taylor had quite
decided upon the precise course proper to
be pursued, an old pioneer, moro calm and
self-possessed than the great mass about
him, deserted. far over the prairie, two
gentlemen and two ladies on horseback,
approaching the fort with apparently, all
possible speed. Attention being called to
the Joyous sight, and all divining that
they were the missing lieutenants and Ia
dies who. by special interposition of Pro-
violence, must have escaped, but were
hotly pursued by their merciless captors'
the whole body Of impetuous and brave
hearted Frenchmen were rushed with
headlong speed to the rescue, and were
soon face to face with the late lost ones
whom they greeted with such shouts of
joy, it was averred, as had never before
come from the lips and hearts of men on
that beautiful Prairie of the Dogs
To say that the two lieutenants and their
fair companions were greatly as well as
most agreeably surprised at these unex-
pected greetings and cordial coDgratula-
tons, would be but to convey faint idea
of their establishment. They indeed had
no conception of the real cause of all this
tumultuous rejoicing until the old pioneer,
before mentioned, rode forward, and in
accents of broken, almost sobbing elo-
quence, depicted the intense excitement
and grief which the discovery of the cap
ture of the lieutenants and ladies, by the
ruthless savages had occasioned through
out the village. Lieutenant Wilson essay
ed an explanation, but the old man mo-
tioning the lieutenant to be silent, gave
his order, and away dashed the whole
party toward the gillage--the 'rescuers'
filled with JOY over the fortunate turn of
events and happy results of the morning,
while the sides of the rescued were split
ting with laughter at the ludicrous mis-
take of their friends.
Arriving at the village, the lieutenants
and ladies, without being permitted
word in explanation, were rapturously