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Updated: June 9, 2025
The change in the girl had begun to be apparent directly after Christmas. Elsie hadn't been herself since that time, which proved beyond peradventure that Miss Pritchard's suspicion was correct. The joyous, sparkling little creature whom she had found in her room on the day after Christmas, bubbling over with excitement, eager to share her good news, had become thin and wan.
"What's the matter, Jack? Anything wrong at the office or on the River?" Mr. Orde sighed deeply. "Oh, no. Everything's snug as a bug in a rug, sweetheart," said he. "But I'm bothered a lot. A dreadful thing happened to-day. You know that popple thicket out at Pritchard's place?" Both boys froze into horrified attention. "Yes."
The Confederate infantry, about 2000 all told, although moving in mass, and delayed by fences and marshy ground, passed unscathed under the storm of shell, and in twenty minutes the advanced guard had seized the wooded ridge. Finding a rocky clearing on the crest, about a mile distant from Pritchard's Hill, Jackson sent back for the artillery.
To seize the wooded ridge, while the cavalry held the Federals fast in front; to pass beyond Pritchard's Hill, and to cut the line of retreat on Winchester, seemed no difficult task. The only danger was the possibility of a counterstroke while the Confederates were executing their turning movement. But the enemy, so far as Jackson's information went, was rapidly withdrawing from the Valley.
Still, the boys could hear plainly what was going on, and could see into the room on an upward slant. Evidently the legal processes had been fulfilled, and the first witness was giving his testimony. "I was working in my field, throwing out manure, when I saw the prisoner come out of the popple thicket on Pritchard's place." "How far were you from the thicket?"
Tavernake," she asked, "don't you feel that you have stepped into a sort of modern Arabian Nights?" "Why?" "Oh, I know Mr. Pritchard's weakness," she continued. "He loves to throw a glamour around everything he says or does. Because he honors me by interesting himself in my concerns, he has probably told you all sorts of wonderful things about me and my friends. A very ingenious romancer, Mr.
Pritchard took me to his own tent, and placed me with his wife and family. There I felt that if there existed any chance of an escape at all I would be able to take advantage of it. I fully trusted to Pritchard's manliness and good character, and I was not deceived.
"Ought I not rather to go to some public-house, frequented by captains of fishing smacks, and be put in a bed a foot too short for me," said I, as I reflected on my last night's couch at Mr Pritchard's. "No, that won't do I shall go to the hotel, I have money in my pocket, and a person with money in his pocket has surely a right to be inconsistent if he pleases."
I told her last night, that apprehending delay from Pritchard's slowness, I was determined to leave it to my Lord to make his compliments in his own way; and had actually that afternoon put my writings into the hands of a very eminent lawyer, Counsellor Willians, with directions for him to draw up settlements from my own estate, and conformably to those of my mother! which I put into his hands at the same time.
She gazed at Miss Pritchard through reproachful tears, but when she saw tears streaming down Miss Pritchard's plain, staunch face, she ran to her arms. "My dear, it's only because I love you so, because you are the very apple of my eye, that I talk so," the latter declared, and the warm words went straight to the girl's sore heart.
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