1 of the suffering colonists. In this temper the troops reached a point whenc the modest spire and roofs of Concord became visible. A small body of the colonists retired through the place as the English advanced, and the detachment entered the town. without the least resistance, and with the appearance of conquerors. Lionel was not long in discovering from such of the inhabitants as remained, that, notwithstanding their approach had been known for some time, the events of that morning were yet a secret from the people of the village. Detachments from the light corps were immediately sent in various directions; some to search for the ammunition and provisions, and some to guard the approaches to the place. One in particular followed the retreating footsteps of the Americans, and took post at a bridge, at some little distance, which cut off the communication with the country to the northward. In the meantime, the work of destruction was commenced in the town, chiefly under the superintendence of the veteran officer of the marines. The few male inhabitants who remained in their dwellings, were of necessity peaceable, though Lionel could read, in their flushed checks and gleaming eyes, the secret indignation of men who, accustomed to the protection of the law, now found themselves subjected to the insults and wanton abuses of a military inroad. Every dor was flung open, and no place was held sacred from the rude scrutiny of the licentious soldiery. Taunts and execrations soon mingled with the seeming moderation with which the search had commenced, and loud exultation was betrayed, even among the officers, as the scanty provisions of the colonists were gradually Americans armed for the cause of liberty. brought to light. It was not a moment to respect private rights, and the freedom and ribaldry of the men were on the point of becoming something more serious, when the report of fire-arms was heard suddenly to issue from the post held by the light-infantry, at the bridge. A few scattering shot were succeeded by a volley, which was answered by another, with the quickness of lightning, and then the air became filled with the incessant rattling of a sharp conflict. Every arm was suspended, and cach tongue became mute with astonishment, and the men abandoned their occupations as these unexpected sounds of war broke on their ears. The chiefs of the party were seen in consultation, and horsemen rode furiously into the place, to communicate the nature of this new conflict. The rank of Major Lincoln soon obtained for him a knowledge that it was thought impolitic to communicate to the whole detachment. Notwithstanding it was apparent that they who brought the intelligence were anxious to give it the most favourable aspect, he soon discovered that the same body of Americans which had retired at their approach, having attempted to return to their homes in the town, had been fired on at the bridge, and in the skirmish which succeeded, the troops had been compelled to give way with loss. The effect of this prompt and spirited conduct on the part of the provincials produced a sudden alteration, not only in the aspect, but also in the proceedings of the troops. The detachments were recalled, and the drums beat to arms, and, for the first time, both officers and men seemed to recollect that they had six leagues to march through a country that hardly contained a friend. Stiil few or no enemies were visible, with the exception of those men of Concord, who had already drawn blood freely from the invaders of their domestic sanctuaries. The dead, and all the common "You perceive, Major Lincoln," he added, "that these provincials have got the first elements of the art, for the rascals fire with exceeding accuracy, when the distance is considered; and six months or a year of close drilling would make them good for something in a regular charge. They have got a smart crack to their p'aces, and a pretty whiz to their lead already; if they could but learn to deliver their fire in platoons, the lads might make some impression on the light-infantry even now; and in a year or two, Sir, they would not be unworthy of the favours of the grenadiers." Lionel listened to this, and much other similar discourse, with a vacant car; but as the combat thickened, the blood of the young man began to course more swiftly through his veins; and at length, excited by the noise and the danger which was pressing more closely around them, he mounted, and, riding to the commander of the detachment, tendered his assistance as a volunteer aid, having lost every other sensation in youthful blood, and the pride of arms. He was immediately charged with orders for the advance, and driving his spurs into his steed, he dashed through the scattered line of fighting and jaded troops, and galloped to its head. Here he found several companies, diligently employed in clearing the way for their comrades, as new foes appeared at every few rods that they advanced. Even as Lionel approached, a heavy sheet of fire flashed from a close barnyard, full in the faces of the leading files, sending the swift engines of death into the very centre of the party. "Wheel a company of the light-infantry, Captain Polwarth," cried the old major of marines, who battled stoutly in the van, "and drive the skulking scoundrels from their ambush." "Oh! by the sweets of ease, and the hopes of a halt but here is another tribe of these white savages!" responded the unfortunate captain. "Look out my brave men! blaze away over the walls on your left-give no quarter to the annoying rascals-get the first shot-give them a foot of your steel." While venting such terrible denunciations and commands, which were drawn from the peaceable captain by the force of circumstances, Lionel beheld his friend disappear amid the buildings of the farm-yard in a cloud of smoke, followed by his troops. In a few minutes afterwards, as the line toiled its way up the hill on which this scene occurred, l'olwarth reappeared, issuing from the fray with his face blackened and grimmed with powder, while a sheet of flame arose from the spot, which soon laid the devoted buildings of the unfortunate husbandmen in ruins. "Ha! Major Lincoln," he cried, as he approached the other, "do you call these light-infantry movements? To me they are the torments of the damned! Go, you who have influence, and, what is better, a horse, go to Smith, and tell him if he will call a halt, I will engage with my single company, to seat ourselves in any field he may select, and keep these bloodsuckers at bay for an hour, while the detachment can rest and satisfy their hunger-trusting that he will then allow time for his defenders to perform the same necessary operations. A night march, no breakfast-a burning sunmile after mile-no halt, and nothing but fire-fire-'tis opposed to every principle in physics, and even to the anatomy of man, to think he au endure it!' Lionel endeavoured to encourage his friend to new exertions, and, turning away from their leader, spoke cheeringly and with a martial tone to his troops. The men cheered as they passed, and dashed forward to new encounters; the Americans yielding sullenly, but necessarily, to the constant charges of the Layonet, to which the regulars resorted to dislodge tnem. As the advance moved on again, Lionel turned to contemplate the scene in the rear. They had now been marching and fighting for twe hours, with little or no cessation; and it was but too evident that the force of the assailants was increasing, both in numbers and in daring, at each step they took. On either side of the highway, along the skirts of every wood or orchard, in the open fi lds, and from every house, barn, or cover in sight, the flash of fire-arms was to be seen, while the shouts of the English grew, at each instant, feebler and less inspiriting. Heavy clouds of smoke arose above the valley, into which he looked, and mingled with the dust of the march, drawing an impenetrable veil before the view; but, as the wind at moments shoved it aside, he caught glimpses of the worried and faltering platoons of the party, sometimes breasting and repulsing an attack with spirit, and at others shrinking from the contest, with an illconcealed desire to urge their retreat to the verge of an absolute flight. Young as he was, Major Lincoln knew enough of his profession to understand that nothing but the want of concert, and of a unity of command among the Americans, saved the detachment from total destruction. The attacks were growing extremely spirited, and not unfrequently close and bloody, though the discipline of the troops enabled them still to bear up against this desultory and divided warfare, when Lionel heard with a pleasure he could not conceal, the loud shouts that arose from the van, as the cheering intelligence was proclaimed through the ranks, that the cloud of dust in their front was raised by a chosen brigade of their comrades, which had come most timely to their succour, with the heir of Northumberland at its head. The Americans gave way as the two detachments joined, and the artillery of the succours opened upon their flying parties, giving a few minutes of stolen rest to those who needed it so much. Polwarth threw himself flat on the earth, as Lionel dismounted at his side, and his example was followed by the whole party, who lay panting under the heat and fatigue, like worried deer that had succeeded in throwing the hounds from their scent. "As I am a gentleman of simple habits, and a man innocent of all this bloodshed, Major Lincoln," said the captain, "I pronounce this march to be a most unjust draft on the resources of human nature. I have journeyed at least five leagues between this spot and that place of discord that they falsely call Concord, within two hours, amidst dust, smoke, groans, and other infernal cries, that would cause the best trained racer in England to bolt; and breathing an air all the time that would boil an egg in two minutes and a-quarter, if fairly exposed to it." "You overrate the distance-'tis but two leagues by the stones" "Stones!" interrupted Polwarth. "I scorn their lies-I have a leg here that is a better index for miles, feet, or even inches, than was ever chiselled in stone." "We must not contest this idle point," returned Lionel, "for I see the troops are about to dine; and we have need of every moment to reach Boston before the night closes around us." "Eat! Boston! night!" slowly repeated Polwarth, raising himself on one arm, and staring wildly about him. "Surely no man among us is so mad as to talk of moving from this spot short of a week. It would take half that time to receive the internal refreshment necessary to our systems, and the remainder to restore us healthy appetites!" "Such, however, are the orders of the Earl Percy, from whom I learn that the whole country is rising in our front." "Ay, but they are fellows who slept peacefully in their beds the past night; and I dare say that every dog among them ate his half-pound of pork, together with additions suitable for a breakfast, before he crossed his threshold this morning. But with us the case is different. It is incumbent on 2,000 British troops to move with deliberation, if it should be only for the credit of his majesty's arms. No, no; the gallant Percy too highly respects his princely lineage and name, to assume the appearance of flight before a mob of base-born hinds." The intelligence of Lionel was nevertheless true; for, after a short halt, allowing barely time enough to the troops to eat a hasty meal, the drums again beat the signal to march, and Polwarth, as well as many hundred others, was reluctantly compelled to resume his feet, under the penalty of being abandoned to the fury of the exasperated Americans. While the troops were in a state of rest, the field-pieces of the reinforement kept their foes at a distance; but the instant the guns were limbered, and the files had once more opened for room, the attacks were renewed from every quarter, with redoubled fury. The excesses of the troops, who had begun to vent their anger by plundering and firing the dwellings that they passed, added to the bitterness of the attacks; and the march had not been renewed many minutes, before a fiercer conflict raged along its skirt. than had been before witnessed on that day. "Would to God that the great Northumbrian would form us in order of battle, and make a fair field with the Yankees," groaned Polwarth, as he toiled his way once more with the advance-"half-an-hour would settle the matter, and a man would then possess the gratification of seeing himself a victor, or at least of knowing that he was comfortably and quietly dead." "Few of us would ever arrive in the morning, if we left the Americans a night to gather in; and a halt of an hour would lose us the advantage of the whole march," returned Lionel. "Cheer up, my old comrade, and you will establish your reputation for activity for ever. Here comes a par y of the provincials over the crest of the hill to keep you in employment." Polwarth cast a look of despair at Lionel, as he muttered in reply"Employment! God knows that there has not been a single muscle, sinew, or joint, in my body in a state of wholesome rest for four-andtwenty hours!" Then turning to his men, he cried, with tones so cheerful and animated that they seemed to proceed from a final and closing exertion, as he led them gallantly into the approaching fray-"Scatter the dogs, my brave friends-away with them like gnats, like moschetoes, like leeches, as they are-give it them-lead and steel by handfuls." "On-push on with the advance!" shouted the old major of marines, who observed the leading platoons to stagger. The voice of Polwarth was once more heard in the din, ana ther irregular assailants sullenly yielded before the charge. "On-on with the advance!" cried fifty voices out of a cloud of smoke and dust that was moving up the hill, on whose side this encounter occurred. In this manner the war continued to roll slowly onward, following the weary and heavy footsteps of the soldiery, who had now toiled for many the close and bitter attacks of the provincials rendering it no longer safe for an officer to be seen riding on the flanks of the detachment. Lionel, though he valued his steed highly, had also received so many intimations of the dangerous notice he had attracted, that he was soon obliged to follow this example; and he saw, with deep regret, the noble animal scouring across the fields with a loose rein, snorting and snuffing the tainted air. He now joined a party of the combatants on foot, and continued to animate them to new exertions during the remainder of the tedious way. From the moment the spires of Boston met the view of the troops, the struggle became intensely interesting. New vigour was imparted to their weary frames by the cheering sight, and, assuming once more the air of high martial training, they bore up against the assaults of their enemies with renewed spirit. On the other hand, the Americans secmed aware that the moments of vengeance were passing swiftly away, and boys, and grey-headed men, the wounded and the active, crowded around their invaders, as if eager to obtain a take the field on that memorable occasion, and, mingling with their parishioners, to brave every danger in a cause which they believed in consonance with their holy calling. The sun was sinking over the land, and the situation of the detachment had become nearly desperate, when Percy abandoned the idea of reaching the Neck, across which he had proudly marched that morning from Boston, and strained every nerve to get the remainder of his command within the peninsula of Charlestown. The crests and the sides of the heights were alive with men, and, as the shades of evening closed about the combatants, the bosoms of the Americans beat high with hope, while they witnessed the faltering steps and slackened fire of the troops. But high discipline finally so far prevailed as to snatch the English from the very grasp of destruction, and enabled them to gain the narrow entrance to the desired shelter, just as night had come apparently to seal their doom. miles, surrounded by the din of battle, and leaving in their path the bloody impressions of their footsteps. Lionel was enabled to trace their route, far towards the north, by the bright red spots which lay scattered in alarming numbers along the highway, and in the fields, through which the troops occasionally moved. He even found time, in the intervals of rest, to note the difference in the characters of the combatants. Whenever the ground or the circumstances admitted of a regular attack, the dying confidence of the troops would seem restored; and they moved up to the charge with a bold carriage which high discipline inspires, rending the air with shouts, while their enemies melted before their power in sullen silence, never ceasing to use their weapons, however, with an expertness that rendered them doubly dangerous. The direction of the columns frequently brought the troops over ground that had been sharply contested in front, and the victims of these short struggles came under the eyes of the detachment. It was necessary to turn a deaf ear to the cries and prayers of many wounded soldiers, who, with horror and abject fear written on every feature of their countenances, were the helpless wit-parting blow. Even the peaceful ministers of God were known to nesses of the retreating files of their comrades. On the other hand, the American lay in his blood, regarding the passing detachment with a stern and indignant eye, that appeared to look far beyond his individual suffering. Over one body Lionel pulled the reins of his horse, and he paused a moment to consider the spectacle. It was the lifeless form of a man whose white locks, hollow cheeks, and emaciated frame denoted that the bullet which had stricken him to the earth had anticipated the irresistible decrees of time but a very few days. He had fallen on his back, and his glazed eye expressed, even in death, the honest resentment he had felt while living; and his palsied hand continued to grasp the fire-lock, old and time-worn, like its owner, with which he had taken the field in behalf of his country. "Where can a contest end which calls such champions to its aid!" exclaimed Lionel, observing that the shadow of another spectator fell across the wan features of the dead-" who can tell where this torrent of blood can be stayed, or how many are to be its victims?" Receiving no answer, he raised his eyes and discovered that he had unwittingly put this searching question to the very man whose rashness had precipitated the war. It was the major of marines, who sat looking at the sight for a minute, with an eye as vacant as the one that seemed to throw back his wild gaze, and then, rousing from his trance, he buried his rowels in the flanks of his horse, and disappeared in the smoke that enveloped a body of the grenadiers, waving his sword on high, and shouting "On-push on with the advance!" Major Lincoln slowly followed, musing on the scene he had witnessed, when, to his surprise, he encountered Polwarth, seated on a rock by the roadside, looking with a listless and dull eye at the retreating columns. Checking his charger, he inquired of his friend if he were hurt. "Only melted," returned the captain; "I have outdone the speed of man this day, Major Lincoln, and can do no more. If you see any of my friends in dear England, tell them that I met my fate as a soldier should, stationary; though I am actually melting away in rivulets, like the snows of April.' "Good God! you will not remain here to be slain by the provincials, by whom you see we are completely enveloped?" Lionel stood leaning against a fence, as this fine body of men, which a few hours before had thought themselves equal to march through the colonies, defiled slow and heavily by him, dragging their weary and exhausted limbs up the toilsome ascent of Bunkerhill. The haughty eyes of most of the officers were bent to the earth in shame, and the common herd, even in that place of security, cast many an anxious glance behind them, to assure themselves that the despised inhabitants of the province were no longer pressing on their footsteps. Platoon after platoon passed, each man compelled to depend on his own wearied limbs for support, until Lionel at last saw a solitary horseman slowly ascending among the crowd. To his utter amazement and great joy, as this officer approached, he beheld Polwarth, mounted on his own steed, riding towards him, with a face of the utmost complacency and composure. The dress of the captain was torn in many places, and the housings of the saddle were cut into ribands, while here and there a spot of clotted blood, on the sides of the beast, served to announce the particular notice the rider had received from the Americans. The truth was soon extorted from the honest soldier. The love of life had returned with the sight of the abandoned charger. He acknowledged it had cost him his watch to have the beast caught; but, once established in the saddle, no danger, nor any remonstrances, could induce him to relinquish a seat which he found so consoling after all the fatigue and motion of that evil day, in which he had been compelled to share in the calamibattle of Lexington. "I am preparing a speech for the first Yankee who may approach. If he be a truc man he will melt into tears at my sufferings this day-ties of those who fought on the side of the crown, in the memorable if a savage, my heirs will be spared the charges of my funeral." Lienel would have continued his remonstrances, but a fierce encounter between a flanking party of the troops and a body of Americans, drove the former close upon him; and, leaping the wall, he rallied his comrades, and turned the tide of battle in their favour. He was drawn far from the spot by the vicissitudes of the combat, and there was a moment, while passing from one body of the troops to another, that he found himself unexpectedly alone, in a most dangerous vicinity to a small wood. The hurried call of "Pick off that officer!" first aroused him to his extreme danger, and he had mechanically bowed himself on the neck of his charger, in expectation of the fatal messengers, when a voice was heard among the Americans, crying, in tones that caused every nerve in his body to thrill-- 66 Spare him! for the love of that God you worship, spare him!" The overwhelming sensations of the moment prevented flight, and the young man beheld Ralph, running with frantic gestures along the skirts of the cover, beating up the fire-arms of twenty Americans, and repeating his crics in a voice that did not seem to belong to a human being-then, in the confusion which whirled through his brain, Lionel thought himself a prisoner, as a man, armed with a long rifle, glided from the wood, and laid his hand on the rein of his bridle, saying earnestly ""Tis a bloody day, and God will remember it; but if Major Lincoln will ride straight down the hill, the people won't fire for fear of hitting Job --and when Job fires, he'll shoot that granny who's getting over the wall, and there'll never be a stir about it in Funnel Hall." Lionel wheeled away quicker than thought, and, as his charger took long and desperate leaps down the slight declivity, he heard the shouts of the Americans behind him, the crack of Job's rifle, and the whizzing of the bullet which the changeling sent, as he had promised, in a direction to do him no harm. On gaining a place of comparative safety, he found Pitcairn in the act of abandoning his bleeding horse, CHAPTER XI. WHILE a strong party of the royal troops took post on the height which commanded the approach to their position, the remainder penetrated deeper into the peninsula, or were transported by the boats of the fleet to the town of Boston. Lionel and Polwarth passed the strait with the first division of the wounded, the former having no duty to detain him any longer with the detachment, and the latter stoutly maintaining that his corporeal sufferings gave him an undoubted claim to include his case among the casualties of the day. Perhaps no officer in the army of the king felt less chagrin at the result of this inroad than Major Lincoln; for, notwithstanding his attachment to his prince and adopted country, he was keenly sensitive on the subject of the reputation of his real countrymen; a sentiment that is honourable to our nature, and which never deserts any that do not become disloyal to its purest and noblest impulses. Even while he regretted the price at which his comrades had been taught to appreciate the characters of those whose long and mild forbearance had been misconstrued into pusillanimity, he rejoiced that the eyes of the more aged would now be opened to the truth, and that the mouths of the young and thoughtless were to be for ever closed in shame. Although the actual losses of the two detachments were probably concealed from motives of policy, it was early acknowledged to amount to about one-sixth of the whole number employed. On the wharf, Lionel and Polwarth separated; the latter agreeing to repair speedily to the private quarters of his friend, where he promised himself a solace for the compulsory abstinence and privations of his long march, and the former taking his way towards Tremontstreet, with a view to allay the uncasiness which the secret and flattering whisperings of hope taught him to believe his fair young kins women would feel in his behalf. At every corner he encountered groups of earnest townsmen, listening with greedy cars to the particulars of the contest, a few walking away dejected at the spirit exhibited by that country they had vilified to its oppressors; but most of them regarding the passing form of one whose disordered dress announced his participation in the affair, with glances of stern satisfaction. As Lionel tapped at the door of Mrs. Lechmere, he forgot his fatigue; and when it opened, and he beheld Cecil standing in the all, with every lineament of her fine countenance expressing the ower of her emotions, he no longer remembered those trying dangers ne had so lately escaped. "Lionel!" exclaimed the young lady, clasping her hands with joy -"himself and unhurt!" The blood rushed from her heart across her face to her forehead, and burying her shame in her hands, she burst into a flood of tears, and fled his presence. Agnes Danforth received him with undisguised pleasure, nor would she indulge in a single question to appease her burning curiosity, until thoroughly assured of his perfect safety. Then, indeed, she remarked, with a smile of triumph seated on her arch features"Your march has been well attended, Major Lincoln; from the upper windows I have seen some of the honours which the good people of Massachusetts have paid to their visitors." "On my soul, if it were not for the dreadful consequences which must follow, I rejoice, as well as yourself, in the events of the day," said Lincoln; "for a people are never certain of their rights until they are respected." "Tell me then all, cousin Lincoln, that I may know how to boast of my parentage." The young man gave her a short, but distinct and impartial account of all that had occurred, to which his fair listener attended with undisguised interest. "Now, then,' she exclaimed, as he ended, "there is an end for ever of those biting taunts that have so long insulted our ears! But you know," she added with a slight blush, and a smile most comically arch, "I had a double stake in the fortunes of the day-my country and my true love!" "Oh! be at ease; your worshipper has returned, whole in body, and suffering in mind only through your cruelty-he performed the route with wonderful address, and really showed himself a soldier in danger." "Nay, Major Lincoln," returned Agnes, still blushing, though she laughed; "you do not mean to insinuate that Peter Polwarth has walked forty miles between the rising and setting of the sun." "Between two sun-sets he has done the deed, if you except a trifling promenade à cheval on my own steed, whom Jonathan compelled me to abandon, and of whom he took, and maintained the possession too, in spite of dangers of every kind." "Really," exclaimed the wilful girl, clasping her hands in affected astonishment, though Lionel thought he could read inward satisfaction at his intelligence-"the prodigies of the man exceed belief! one wants the faith of father Abraham to credit such marvels! though after the repulse of two thousand British soldiers by a body of husbandmen, I am prepared for an exceeding use of my credulity." "The moment is then auspicious for my friend," whispered Lionel, rising to follow the flitting form of Cecil Dynevor, which he saw gliding into the opposite room, as Polwarth himself entered the apartment. "Credulity is said to be the great weakness of your sex, and I must leave you a moment exposed to the failing, and that too, in the dangerous company of the subject of our discourse." "Now would you give half your hopes of promotion, and all your hopes of a war, Captain Polwarth, to know in what manner your character has been treated in your absence!" cried Agnes, blushing slightly. "I shall not, however, satisfy the cravings of your curiosity, but let it serve as a stimulant to better deeds than have employed you since we met lust." "I trust Lincoln has done justice to my service," returned the good-humoured captain, "and that he has not neglected to mention the matter in which I rescued his steed from the rebels." "The what, sir?" interrupted Agnes, with a frown-"how did you style the good people of Massachusetts-Bay?" "I should have said the excited dwellers in the land, I believe. Ah! Miss Agnes, I have suffered this day as man never suffered before; and all on your behalf-—” "On my behalf! Your words require explanation, Captain Polwarth." ""Tis impossible," returned the captain-"there are feeling and actions connected with the heart that will admit of no explanation. All I know is, that I have suffered unutterably on your account, today; and what is unutterable is in a great degree inexplicable. "I shall set this down for what I understand occurs regularly in a description of tête-à-têtes--the expression of an utterable thing! Surely, Major Lincoln had some reason to believe he left me at the mercy of my credulity!" You slander your own character, fair Agnes," said Polwarth, endeavouring to look piteously; "you are neither merciful nor credulous, or you would long since have believed my tale, and taken pity on my misery." "Is not sympathy a sort-a kind-in short, is not sympathy a drea ful symptom in a certain disease?" asked Agnes, resting her eyes on the floor, and affecting a girlish embarrassment. "Who can gainsay it!" cried the captain; "'tis the infallible way for a young lady to discover the bent of her inclinations. Thousands have lived in ignorance of their own affections until their sympathies have been awakened. But what means the question, my fair tormentor? May I dare to flatter myself that you at length feel for my pains?" "I am sadly afraid 'tis but too true, Polwarth," returned Agnes, shaking her head, and continuing to look exceedingly grave. Polwarth moved, with something like animation again, nigher to the amused girl; and attempted to take her hand, as he said— "You restore me to life with your sweet acknowledgments-I have lived for six months like a dog under your frowns, but one kind word acts like a healing balm, and restores me to myself again!" "Then my sympathy is evaporated!" returned Agnes. "Throughout this long and anxious day have I fancied myself older than my good, staid, great-aunt; and whenever certain thoughts have crossed my mind, I have even imagined a thousand of the ailings of age had encircled me-rheumatisms, gout, asthmas, and numberless other aches and pains, exceedingly unbecoming to a young lady of nineteen. But you have enlightened me, and given vast relief to my apprehensions, by explaining it to be more than sympathy. You see, Polwarth, what a wife you will obtain, should I ever, in a weak moment, accept you; for I have already sustained one half your burthens!" "A man is not made to be in constant motion like the pendulum of that clock, Miss Danforth, and yet to feel no fatigue," said Polwarth, more vexed than he would permit himself to betray; "yet I flatter myself there is no officer in the light-infantry-you understand me to say the light-infantry-who has passed over more ground, within fourand-twenty hours, than the man who hastens, notwithstanding his exploits, to throw himself at your feet, even before he thinks of his ordinary rest.” "Captain Polwarth," said Agnes, rising, "for the compliment, if compliment it be, I thank you; but," she added, losing her affected gravity in a strong natural feeling that shone in her dark eye, and illuminated the whole of her fine countenance, as she laid her hand impressively on her heart-" the man who will supplant the feelings which nature has impressed here must not come to my feet, as you call it, from a field of battle, where he has been contending with my kinsmen, and helping to enslave my country. You will excuse me, sir, but as Major Lincoln is at home here, permit me, for a few minutes, to leave you to his hospitality." She withdrew as Lionel re-entered, passing him on the threshold. "I would rather be a leader in a stage-coach, or a running footman, than in love!" cried Polwarth-"'tis a dog's life, Leo, and this girl treats me like a cart-horse! But what an eye she has! I could have lighted my segar by it-my heart is a heap of cinders. Why, Leo, what aileth thee? throughout the whole of this damnable day I have not before seen thee bear such a troubled look!" Let us withdraw to my private quarters," muttered the young man, whose aspect and air expressed the marks of extreme disturbance-"'tis time to repair the disasters of our march." "All that has been already looked to," said Polwarth, rising and limping, with sundry grimaces, in the best manner he was able, in a vain effort to equal the rapid strides of his companion. 'My first business on leaving you was to borrow a conveyance of a friend, in which I rode to your place; and my next was to write to little Jimmy Craig, to offer an exchange of my company for his-for from this hour henceforth I denounce all light-infantry movements, and shall take the first opportunity to get back again into the dragoons; as soon as I have effected which, Major Lincoln, I propose to treat with you for the purchase of that horse. After that duty was performed,—for, if self-preservation be commendable, it became a duty,-I made out a bill of fare for Meriton, in order that nothing might be forgotten; after which, like yourself, Lionel, I hastened to the feet of my mistress. Ah! Major Lincoln, you are a happy man; for you there is no reception but smiles-and charms so "Talk not to me, sir, of smiles," interrupted Lionel, impatiently, "nor of the charms of woman. They are all alike, capricious and unaccountable." "Bless me!" exclaimed Polwarth, staring about him in wonder; "there is then favour for none, in this place, who battle for the king! There is a strange connection between Cupid and Mars, love and war; for here did I, after fighting all day like a Saracen, a Turk, Jenghis Khan, or, in short, anything but a good Christian, come with full intent to make a serious offer of my hand, commission, and of Polwarth Hall, to that treasonable vixen, when she repulses me with a frown and a sarcasm as biting as the salutation of a hungry man. But what an eye the girl has, and what a bloom, when she is a little more seasoned than common! Then you, too, Lionel, have been treated like a dog!" "Like a fool as I am," said Lionel, pacing haughtily over the ground at a rate that soon threw his companion too far in the rear to admit of further discourse until they reached the place of their destination. Here, to the no small surprise of both gentlemen, they found a company collected that neither was prepared to meet. At a sidetable sat M'Fuse, discussing with singular relish some of the cold viands of the previous night's repast, and washing down his morsels with deep potations of the best wine of his host. In one corner of the room Seth Sage was posted, with the appearance of a man in duresse, his hands being tied before him, from which depended a long -cord, that might, on emergency, be made to serve the purpose of a halter. Opposite to the prisoner, for such in truth he was, stood Job, imitating the example of the captain of grenadiers, who now and then tossed some frag nent of his meal into the hat of the simpleton. Meriton and several of the menials of the establishment were in waiting. "What have we here!" cried Lionel, regarding the scene with a curious eye. "Of what offence has Mr. Sage been guilty, that he bears those bonds?" "Of the small crimes of tr'ason and homicide," returned M'Fuse, "if shooting at a man, with a hearty mind to kill him, can make a murder." "It can't," said Seth, raising his eyes from the floor, where he had hitherto kept them in demure silence; "a man must kill with wicked intent to commit murder-" "Hear to the blackguard, detailing the law as if he were my lord chief justice of the King's Bench!" interrupted the grenadier; "and what was your own wicked intention, ye skulking vagabond, but to kill me! I'll have you tried and hung for the same act." "It's ag'in reason to believe that any jury will convict one man for the murder of another that an't dead," said Seth; "there's no jury to be found in the Bay colony to do it." "Bay colony,' ye murdering thief and rebel!" cried the captain; "I'll have ye transported to England; ye shall be both transported and hung. By the Lord, I'll carry ye back to Ireland with me, and I'll hang ye up in the green Island itself, and bury ye, in the heart of winter, in a bog-" "But what is the offence," demanded Lionel, "that calls forth these severe threats?" "The scoundrel has been out--" "Out!" 'Ay, out! Damn it, sir, has not the whole country been like so many bees in search of a hive? Is your memory so short that ye forget, already, Major, Lincoln, the tramp the blackguards have given you over hill and dale, through thick and thin?" "And was Mr. Sage, then, found among our enemics to-day?" "Didn't I see him pull trigger on my own stature three times within as many minutes?" returned the angry captain; and did'nt he break the handle of my sword and have not I a bit of lead he calls a buck-shot in my shoulder as a present from the thief?" 46 'Its ag'in all law to call a man a thief," said Job, "unless you can prove it upon him; but it an't ag'in law to go in and out of Boston as often as you choose." Do you hear the rascals! They know every angle of the law as well, or better than I do myself, who am the son of a Cork counsellor. I dare to say, you were among them too, and that ye deserve the gallows as well as your commendable companion, there." "How is this!" said Lionel, turning quickly away from Job, with a view to prevent a reply that might endanger the safety of the changeling; did you not only mingle in this rebellion, Mr. Sage, but also attempt the life of a gentleman, who may be said, almost, to be an inmate of your own house :" "I conclude," returned Seth, "it's best not to talk too much, seeing that no one can foretel what may happen.' "Hear to the cunning reprobate! he has not the grace to acknowledge his own sins, like an honest man," interrupted M'Fuse; "but I can save him that small trouble-I got tired, you must know, Major Lincoln, of being shot at like noxious vermin, from morning till night, without making some return to the compliments of those gentlemen who are out on the hills; and I took advantage of a turn, ye see, to double on a party of the uncivilized demons; this lad, here, got three good pulls at me, before we closed and made an end of them with the steel, all but this fellow, who, having a becoming look for a gallows, I brought him in, as you see, for an exchange, intending to hang him the first favourable opportunity." "If this be true, we must give him into the hands of the proper authorities," said Lionel, smiling at the confused account of the angry captain-" for it remains to be seen yet what course will be adopted with the prisoners in this singular contest." "I should think nothing of the matter," returned M'Fuse, "if the reprobate had not tr'ated me like a beast of the field, with his buckshot, and taking his aim cach time, as though I had been a mad dog. Ye villain, do you call yourself a man, and aim at a fellow-creature as you would at a brute?" "Why," said Seth sullenly, "when a man has pretty much made up his mind to fight, I conclude it's best to take aim, in order to save .ammunition and time." "The captain is hasty andrash!" said the deliberate prisoner-" but being there, I went out of the town with some company that I happened in with; and after a time we concluded to return and so, as we came to a bridge about a mile beyond the place, we received considerable rough treatment from some of the king's troops, who were standing there- " "What did they?" "They fired at us, and killed two of our company, besides other threatening doings. There were some among us that took the matter up in considerable earnest, and there was a sharp toss about it for a few minutes; though finally the law prevailed." "The law!" "Certain 'tis ag'in all law, I believe the major will own, to shoot peaceable men on the public highway." "Proceed with your tale in your own way." "That is pretty much the whole of it," said Seth, warily. "The people rather took that, and some other things that happened at Lexington, to heart, and I suppose the major knows the rest. "But what has all this to do with your attempt to murder me, you hypocrite?" demanded M'Fuse; "confess the whole, ye thief, that I may hang you with an easy conscience." Enough," said Lionel; "the man has acknowledged sufficient already to justify us in transferring him to the custody of others; let him be taken to the main guard, and delivered as a prisoner of this day." "I hope the major will look to the things," said Seth, who instantly prepared to depart, but stopped on the threshold to speak— "I shall hold him accountable for all." 66 Your property shall be protected, and I hope your life may not be in jeopardy," returned Lionel, waving his hand for those who guarded him to proceed. Seth turned, and left his own dwelling with the same quiet air which had distinguished him throughout the day; though there were occasional flashes from his quick, dark eyes, that looked like the glimmerings of a fading fire. Notwithstanding the threatening denunciation he had encountered, he left the house with a perfect conviction that if his case were to be tried by those principles of justice which every man in the colony so well understood, it would be found that both he and his fellows had kept thoroughly on the windy side of the law. During this singular and characteristic discourse, Polwarth, with the solitary exception we have recorded, had employed his time in forwarding the preparations for the banquet. As Seth and his train disappeared, Lionel cast a furtive look at Job, who was a quiet, and apparently undisturbed spectator of the scene, and then turned his attention suddenly to his guests, as if fearful the folly of the changeling might betray his agency also in the deeds of the day. The simplicity of the lad, however, defeated the kind intentions of the major, for he immediately observed, without the least indication of fear "The king can't hang Seth Sage for firing back when the rakehelly soldiers began first." "Perhaps you were out, too, Master Solomon," cried M'Fus "amusing yourself at Concord, with a small party of select friends? "Job didn't go any further than Lexington," returned the lad, "and he hasn't got any friend, except old Nab." "The devil has possessed the minds of the people!" continued the grenadier-"lawyers and doctors-praists and sinners-old and young-big and little, beset us in our march, and here is a fool to be added to the number! I dare say that fellow, now, has attempted murder in his day too." "Job scorns such wickedness," returned the unmoved simpleton; "he only shot one granny, and hit an officer in the arm." "D'ye hear that, Major Lincoln" cried M'Fuse, jumping from the seat, which, notwithstanding the bitterness of his language, he had hitherto perseveringly maintained; "d'ye hear that shell of a man, that effigy, boasting of having killed a grenadier!" "Hold!" interrupted Lionel, arresting his excited companion by the arm; "remember we are soldiers, and that the boy is not a responsible being. No tribunal would ever sentence such an unfortunate creature to a gibbet; and in general he is as harmless as a babe." "The devil burn such babes-a pretty fellow is he to kill a man of six feet! and with a ducking gun, I'll engage. I'll not hang the rascal, Major Lincoln, since it is your particular wish-I'll only have him buried alive." Job continued perfectly unmoved in his chair; and the captain, ashamed of his resentment against such unconscious imbecility, was soon persuaded to abandon his intentions of revenge, though he continued muttering his threats against the provincials, and his denunciations against such "an unmanly spacies of warfare," until the much-needed repast was ended. Polwarth, having restored the eqilibrium of his system by a hearty meal, hobbled to his bed, and M'Fuse, without any ceremony, took possession of another of the apartments in the tenement of Mr. Sage. The servants withdrew to their own entertainment; and Lionel, who had been sitting for the last half hour in melancholy silence, now unexpectedly found himself alone with the changeling. Job had waited for this moment with exceeding patience, but when the door closed on Meriton, who was the last to retire, he made a movement that indicated some communication of more than usual importance, and succeeded in attracting the attention of his companion. |