Noontide came, and found the little band, of some score aged men,
intent upon their midday meal. This accomplished, they reclined in
various easy positions, around the battlements, or on the
greensward without, while some had even penetrated into the forest
in their eagerness to hear the first news of the extermination of
the English, which none doubted was close at hand.
Towards the evening, one of them, who lay reclining on a mossy bank
beneath a spreading beech, on a slight eminence, observed a great
smoke rising above the tree tops in the distance.
"Doubtless," thought he, "they are smoking the vermin out, or
burning the houses and barns--of which we have heard--within the
circle of the Deadly Swamp."
But as the smoke increased more and more, a certain vague feeling
of anxiety gained possession of him, and he longed for more
accurate means of observation.
"Would I were not so old!
"Oh, young Tristam," he cried, as he observed a Norman boy, son of
one of the men-at-arms--a lad of about twelve years of age--"come
here!"
"What does all that smoke mean?" cried the lad; "are they burning
the encampment of the rebels, or has the forest caught fire? it is
dry enough."
"No doubt they are burning the huts of those rebels and outlaws in
the Swamp; but, Tristam, thou art young; canst thou not run over
through the woods? The hill, whereon the pine lately struck by
lightning stands, will command a distant view of the Swamp; then
return, and tell me all.
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