But first a negro
spy knocked on the door, and a loop was thrown over his neck, and two of
the black boys gagged him. Then the attack was made, and, at my order,
all the lights were put out."
"Oh, Jedge," Levin Dennis broke in, "it was short and dreadful! Captain
Van Dorn had got to the bottom of the stairs, when the niggers half-way
up fired over his head and shot mos' everything down. The Quaker man yer
then pinioned the captain an' dropped him, wounded, out of the high
window. I pity Van Dorn, but _he_ says that he's in a bad business. I
hope he ain't dead."
"Who is this Van Dorn?" asked Judge Custis. "I've heard of such a
dare-devil, but he has never pestered Princess Anne."
"I ran and hid in the deep eaves of the garret story," Levin continued,
"which is built in like closets, and the wasps there, coming in to suck
the blossoms on the vines that has growed up through the eaves from
outside, flew around in the dark among the yaller gals that was a-hidin'
and a-prayin', and never feelin' the wasps sting em', thinkin' about
them kidnappers. I reckon, gen'lemen, the kidnappers will never come to
Dover no more."
"Two things surprise me," Clayton said; "that Joe Johnson would venture
to raid Dover itself after the licking I got him; and that free darkeys
could make such a defence."
"Ah! John Clayton," spoke Jonathan Hunn, "there was a white witness
there, to affirm that they only defended their lives.
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