1. While Cornwallis was virtually master of the Carolinas, raids were made in all directions to prevent the patriots from assembling, and to break up the bands of Sumter and Marion, which had proved to be very annoying to the British commander. The most noted commander of these raids was Colonel Tarleton, who displayed great activity in plundering and burning the homes of the patriots. Some of the planters were Tories, and eagerly welcomed the British troops.
2. While Tarleton was out on one of his raids, Macdonald, a young Scotchman, one of Marion's men, played a curious trick on an old Tory, who lived in the neighborhood. As soon as he heard that Colonel Tarleton had encamped, he dressed himself in the British uniform, and early in the morning called upon the Tory, and said to him:
3. "Colonel Tarleton sends his compliments, and, knowing you to be a good friend of the king, begs you will send him one of your best horses for a charger, to help drive the rebels out of the country."
4. "Send him one of my finest horses!" cried the old Tory, his eyes sparkling with joy. "Yes, Mr. Sergeant, that I will. A good friend of the king did he call me? Yes, God save his sacred majesty, a good friend I am, indeed, and true! And faith I am glad, too, that the colonel knows it. Here, Dick, run, jump, fly, you rascal, to the stable, and bring me out Selim. Young Selim! Do you hear?"
5. Then, turning to Macdonald, he went on: "Well, Mr. Sergeant, you have made me confounded glad this morning, you may depend! And now, suppose you take a glass of peach—of good old peach, Mr. Sergeant? Do you think it would do you any harm?" "Why, they say it is good on a rainy morning, sir," replied Macdonald. "Oh, yes, famous of a rainy morning, Mr. Sergeant—a mighty antifogmatic. It prevents the ague, Mr. Sergeant, and clears the throat of the cob webs, sir."
6. "Your honor's health!" said Macdonald, as he turned off a bumper of the strong cordial. But scarcely had he smacked his lips, before Dick paraded Selim, a proud, full-blooded steed, that stepped as though he disdained the earth he walked upon.
7. Here the old fellow broke out again: "There, Mr. Sergeant, there is a horse for you! A charger fit for a king. Well, my compliments to Colonel Tarleton. Tell him I have sent him my young Selim—my Grand Turk. Say to him that he is too noble for me, and that the only work fit for him is to drive the rebels out of the country." And, to send Selim off in high style, he ordered Dick to bring down his new saddle and holsters, with his silver-mounted pistols. Then, giving Macdonald a hot breakfast, and lending him a great-coat, as it was raining, he let him go.
8. The next morning he waited upon Colonel Tarleton, and told his name, with the smiling countenance of one who expected to be eaten up with fondness. But Tarleton treated him as an entire stranger. After recovering a little, he bluntly asked Colonel Tarleton how he liked his charger. "Charger, sir!" replied Tarleton. "Yes, sir, the elegant horse I sent you yesterday by your sergeant." "An elegant horse by my sergeant? I really don't understand this!"
9. The looks and voice of Colonel Tarleton too sadly convinced the old traitor that he had been bit, and that young Selim was gone. To have been outwitted in this manner by a rebel—to have lost his peach-brandy, his hot breakfast, his great-coat, his new saddle, his silver-mounted pistols, and, worse than all, his darling horse, his young, full-blooded, bounding Selim—the sense of all these losses came crowding upon him so suddenly that the old sinner liked to have suffocated on the spot. He grew black in the face, and as soon as he could recover breath he broke out into a torrent of curses against the rebels generally, and Macdonald in particular.
10. And Selim! a noble horse he was indeed! Full sixteen hands high, with the eye of a hawk, the spirit of a king-eagle, the chest of a lion, swifter than a roebuck, and strong as a buffalo! Macdonald kept Selim up lustily to the top of his mettle. The horse soon learned his master's ways, and at the first glimpse of the red-coats he would paw and champ his bit with rage; and the moment he heard the word "Go!" off he was among them like a thunderbolt.