Shortly after Belle Boyd was rendered unconscious by the pistol thrown at her, two of the men who had been on the fox hunt earlier in the evening and a pair of Negroes clad in attire suggesting that they were field hands rather than members of the mansion’s domestic staff dashed into the room. Already from below the sounds of fighting had died away from the ground floor, although there were other indications that activity of a hostile nature was continuing in the grounds. Furthermore, originating from somewhere on the ground floor, there were other noises suggesting that efforts were being made to put out the fires that had been started in various parts of the mansion. These had been started, using kerosene, by the members of the mob holding a grudge against the owner of Baton Royale plantation for his part in curtailing some of their unsavory activities. Therefore, although Belle and the others on the upper floor were unaware of the problem, because of the highly inflammable nature of much of their surroundings as well as the fluid employed to set each blaze going and the primitive means that were being employed in an attempt to douse the resulting blazes, the men fighting the fires were finding great difficulty in achieving anything against the ever-growing flames.
