Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-09-29

an unsual commotlon down stairs,
and the voice of the farmers wife
loudlp ordering the maids and men
about.
"tGet out the covered wagon, Peter.
You, Caroline, collect all the pro-
visions you can and put them into it.
I will see that the lady upstairs is got
ready Then footsteps sounded on
the stairs, and next moment grand
mothers door was opened without
ceremony, and the farmers wife ap-
peared, pale and excited.
Madame she said, there is q
party of ruffians bent OH plunder COM
ing up the road. They have robbed
aud burned the Aliens house, three
miles nom here, and are driving be-
fore them the horses and cattle they
have stolen. 1t is not safe for Ms to
remain here While she spoke the
good woman helped grandmother to
dress. Then they gathered together
what small articles of value they
could, and, wrapping the baby in q
shawl, descended into the yard where
the wagon stood. Scarcely had grand
mother been helped into it than loud
shouts and yells announced the ap-
proach OF the pillagers. The Dutch
woman and her maids clambered into
the wagon beside my grandmother
and her baby. Then the farmer
cracked his whip and the whole party
were jolted swiftly down steep hill
and across the fields to the welcome
shelter of the woods, into whose depths
they drove for some distance.
"Half IN hour later the farmer,
who had been accommodating, re-
turned to the fugitives in state
of great agitation and excitement to
say that his house was in flames.
"How dreadful" exclaimed Sophia.
"And were these British soldiers?"
"No, my dear; they were not SOL
diers at all. Tories, they called them
selves when plundering Americans.
But they really belonged to neither
side, and veered from party to party,
as it suited their wicked ends. Well,
the marauders remained in the vicin-
ity several days, during which time
our little party was afraid to leave its
hiding place and seek protection in
the neighboring village, some ten
miles away. At last, on til, morning
of the third or fourth day, while they
were making miserable breakfast off
the remainder of their provisions,
they were startled by the appearance
of half a dozen horsemen coming
toward them through the woods. AS
they drew nearer, grandmother saw, to
her r>great relief, that they were Ameri-
can soldiers, and furthermore, one, OF
the group looked uncommonly like her
brother Harry; and, sure enough, it
was he, and next moment he had
sprung down from his horse and was
clasping his sister and her baby in his
arms.
"Some hours later, when the poor
fugitives were comfortably settled in
house in the village, Captain Day
ton told how he Lad come to find
them.
"'You know that blessed mahog-
any table of yours, Bess,' said he,
that Uncle Henry sent yon from Eng
land?'
"tOh, yes, Harry; it was burned
with all the poor farmers posses
sions.'
"'No it wasn't, he replied; it's
safe and sound, and was the means
of my finding you. Then he went
on to tell how that news of
party of Tories, who were
making raids upon the country
round about had reached his COM
mander, who had sent him out
with small party to put al end to
their depredations. And while they
were galloping along in hot haste, his
horse cast shoe. But presently, as
luck would have it, they came upon a
blacksmith's forge, and while his horse
was being shod, Captain Dayton en-
tered the shed and found heap of
furniture piled up in q correr, and
among it this table. which he recog-
nized at once Us his sisters, though
how it had come there he could not
for his life conjecture, for. you see, he
knew nothing of her departure from
New York. Upon inquiry he learned
that the table and the other things had
been left by the party of freebooters
he was in search of, who had insisted
upon making the poor blacksmith s
forge temporary storehouse for their
booty. Further inquiry revealed that
the latest scene of their depredations
was farmhouse some five miles dis
tant, where it was rumored a rich and
beautiful New York lady was living in
seclusion, placed there by her hus-
band, an officer in the American army.
The farmer and his family were sup
posed to have escaped unharmed, but
the house was ransacked and burned.
Captain Dayton waited for no
more; but detailing half of his men to
stay and watch the forge, he galloped
away, followed by the remainder. On
reaching the farm he found nothing
but a heap of blackened ruins left to
mark the place where the house had
stood. Whatever the pillagers were
unable to carry away they had burned
or destroyed. And it was not until
after long search that the Captain
and his men discoveredmy grandmother
and the good Dutch people in their
hiding-place in the woods.
''Years passed before my grand.
mother returned to her house on Pearl
street; but she did 60 back. And af-
ter awhile grandfather bought house
fronting on the Battery, and here the
old table stood, in the centre of my
grandmother's boudoir, and round it