signal was given, he was observed by the Tories, but taken for their leader, for there was a striking personal resemblance between the two men.
Corley's furious assault, himself foremost in the charge, was the first intimation to the Tories that their exasperated foes were at hand. Cunningham was promptly at his post, but, taken by surprise and attacked by superior numbers, thought only of safety. Having no time to saddle his horse, but with partizan quickness seizing his holsters sprand to his seat, while Butler, singling him out, dashed in pursuit. Both men were remarkably fine riders and tradition has preserved the names of the horses they rode. Cunningham was mounted on a mare which had become celebrated in the service as "Silver Heels," while Butler rode a horse called "Ranter." As Butler carried only a sabre and Cunningham only pistols that had been rendered useless by the rain of the night before, for he snapped them repeatedly over his shoulders at his adversary as he fled, life or death hung upon the speed of the horses. As long as the chase was in the woods "Ranter" maintained his own, but when he struck an open trail in which the superior strides of Cunningham's thoroughbred could tell, turning in his seat and patting with triumph and confidence the noble animal that bore him, he tauntingly exclaimed, "I am safe,"
