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Page 41
"Captain Headley," said the ensign, quickly and almost
beseechingly, "let me pick out a dozen men from the
company, and I pledge myself to restore the party before
mid-day to-morrow. Nay, sir," seeing strong surprise and
disapproval on the countenance of the commandant, "I am
ready to forfeit my commission if I fail--"
"Are you mad, Mr. Ronayne, or do you suppose that I am
mad enough to entertain such a proposition, and thus
weaken my force still more? Forfeit your commission if
you fail! Why, sir, you would deserve to forfeit your
commission, if you even succeeded in any thing so wholly
at variance with military prudence. Gentlemen, recollect
what I have said--I expect you to use the utmost vigilance
to-night, and, Mr. Elmsley, fail not instantly to report
the fishing-boat." Thus enjoining, he passed slowly on
to his quarters.
"D--n your military prudence, and d--n your pompous
cold-bloodedness!" muttered the fiery ensign between his
teeth--scarcely waiting until his captain was out of
hearing.
"Hush," interrupted Elmsley in a whisper. "He will hear
you. Ha!" he continued after a short pause, during which
they moved on towards the mess-room, "you begin to find
out his amiable military qualities, do you! But tell
me, Ronayne, what the deuce has put this Quixotic expedition
into your head? What great interest do you take in these
fishermen, that you should volunteer to break your shins
in the wood, this dark night, for the purpose of seeking
them, and that on the very day when your ladye faire
honors these walls, if I may so dignify our stockade,
with her presence for the first time. Come, come, thank
Headley for his refusal. When you sit down to-morrow
morning, as I intend you shall, to a luxurious breakfast
of tea, coffee, fried venison, and buckwheat-cakes, you
will find no reason to complain of his adherence to
military prudence."
"Elmsley," returned his friend, seriously, "I can have
no disguise from you at such a moment. You know my regard
for Maria Heywood, although you cannot divine its depth,
and could I but be the means of saving her father, you
can well understand the joy I should feel."
"Certainly, my dear fellow, but you know as well as
myself, that there exists not the shadow of a hope of
this. That scarecrow, Giles, half-witted as he is, tells
too straightforward a story."
"Elmsley," persisted his friend, "there is every hope--
every reasonable expectation that he may yet survive.
Maria herself first opened my eyes to the possibility,
for, until then, I had thought as you do; and deeply did
her words sink in my heart, when she said, reproachfully,
that, instead of sending a party to escort her, it would
have been far better to dispatch them to the farm, where
her father might, at that moment, be sustaining a siege--
the house being strong enough to admit of a temporary
defence, by even a couple of persons."
"And what said you to that?"
"What could I say? I looked like a fool, and felt like
a school-boy under the iron rod of a pedagogue--but I
resolved."
"And what did you resolve, my enterprising KNIGHT errant?"
"You have just heard my proposal to the gentleman who
piques himself upon his military prudence." returned the
youth, with bitter irony.
"Yes, and he refused you. What then?"
"True, and what then," and he nodded his head impatiently.
"You will sleep upon it, my dear fellow, after we have
had a glass of the Monongahela, and the pipe. Thus
refreshed, you will think better of it in the morning."
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