Part 28 (2/2)
The joke was followed by a general laugh from the party, who marched on in performance of their duty. At this instant the door of the prison was opened, and Betty reappeared, staggering back again toward her former quarters.
”Stop,” said the sentinel, catching her by her clothes; ”are you sure the spy is not in your pocket?”
”Can't you hear the rascal snoring in my room, you dirty blackguard?” sputtered Betty, her whole frame shaking with rage. ”And is it so ye would sarve a dacent famale, that a man must be put to sleep in the room wid her, ye rapscallion?”
”Pooh! Do you mind a fellow who's to be hanged in the morning? You see he sleeps already; to-morrow he'll take a longer nap.”
”Hands off, ye villain,” cried the washerwoman, relinquis.h.i.+ng a small bottle that the trooper had succeeded in wresting from her. ”But I'll go to Captain Jack, and know if it's orders to put a hang-gallows spy in my room; aye, even in my widowed bed, you tief!”
”Silence, old Jezebel!” said the fellow with a laugh, taking the bottle from his mouth to breathe, ”or you will wake the gentleman. Would you disturb a man in his last sleep?”
”I'll awake Captain Jack, you reprobate villain, and bring him here to see me righted; he will punish ye all, for imposing on a dacent widowed body, you marauder!”
With these words, which only extorted a laugh from the sentinel, Betty staggered round the end of the building, and made the best of her way towards the quarters of her favorite, Captain John Lawton, in search of redress. Neither the officer nor the woman, however, appeared during the night, and nothing further occurred to disturb the repose of the peddler, who, to the astonishment of the different sentinels, continued by his breathing to manifest how little the gallows could affect his slumbers.
CHAPTER XVIII
A Daniel come to judgment; yea, a Daniel!
O wise young judge, how I do honor thee!
-Merchant of Venice.
The Skinners followed Captain Lawton with alacrity, towards the quarters occupied by the troop of that gentleman. The captain of dragoons had on all occasions manifested so much zeal for the cause in which he was engaged, was so regardless of personal danger when opposed to the enemy, and his stature and stern countenance contributed so much to render him terrific, that these qualities had, in some measure, procured him a reputation distinct from the corps in which he served. His intrepidity was mistaken for ferocity; and his hasty zeal, for the natural love of cruelty. On the other hand, a few acts of clemency, or, more properly speaking, of discriminating justice, had, with one portion of the community, acquired for Dunwoodie the character of undue forbearance. It is seldom that either popular condemnation or popular applause falls, exactly in the quant.i.ties earned, where it is merited.
While in the presence of the major the leader of the gang had felt himself under that restraint which vice must ever experience in the company of acknowledged virtue; but having left the house, he at once conceived that he was under the protection of a congenial spirit. There was a gravity in the manner of Lawton that deceived most of those who did not know him intimately; and it was a common saying in his troop, that ”when the captain laughed, he was sure to punish.” Drawing near his conductor, therefore, the leader commenced a confidential dialogue.
”'Tis always well for a man to know his friends from his enemies,” said the half-licensed freebooter.
To this prefatory observation the captain made no other reply than a sound which the other interpreted into a.s.sent.
”I suppose Major Dunwoodie has the good opinion of Was.h.i.+ngton?” continued the Skinner, in a tone that rather expressed a doubt than asked a question.
”There are some who think so.”
”Many of the friends of Congress in this county,” the man proceeded, ”wish the horse was led by some other officer. For my part, if I could only be covered by a troop now and then, I could do many an important piece of service to the cause, to which this capture of the peddler would be a trifle.”
”Indeed! such as what?”
”For the matter of that, it could be made as profitable to the officer as it would be to us who did it,” said the Skinner, with a look of the most significant meaning.
”But how?” asked Lawton, a little impatiently, and quickening his step to get out of the hearing of the rest of the party.
”Why, near the royal lines, even under the very guns of the heights, might be good picking if we had a force to guard us from De Lancey's [Footnote: The partisan corps called Cowboys in the parlance of the country, was commanded by Colonel De Lancey. This gentleman, for such he was by birth and education, rendered himself very odious to the Americans by his fancied cruelty, though there is no evidence of his being guilty of any acts unusual in this species of warfare. Colonel De Lancey belonged to a family of the highest consequence in the American colonies, his uncle having died in the administration of the government of that of New York. He should not be confounded with other gentlemen of his name and family, many of whom served in the royal army. His cousin, Colonel Oliver De Lancey, was, at the time of our tale, adjutant general of the British forces in America, having succeeded to the unfortunate Andre. The Cowboys were sometimes called Refugees, in consequence of their having taken refuge under the protection of the crown.] men, and to cover our retreat from being cut off by the way of King's Bridge.”
”I thought the Refugees took all that game to themselves.”
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