Only the outline of passing events was reported to Susannah in her haven of peace.

The elder man took her into his courtly care, and made a point of explaining to her what he thought she needed to know.

The newspapers were sedulously kept from her, and so reticent were the other members of the household on the subject of their contents that her heart constantly sickened at the thought of what she was not allowed to hear.
"You see, madam," the old man explained, "it was Major-General Atchison that called out the militia in first defence of your people against Gilliam's mob.

Gilliam had about three hundred men, and they started in the north of the State.

Well, Parks and Doniphan, commanding the militia called out by Atchison, seem to have set about fighting the mob sincerely enough." The old man pushed back his spectacles and rubbed his hair.