"
"I beg it may not be mentioned; you leave an excellent representative
behind you, sir," cried the soldier, taking in the lank figure of Mr.
Dillon in a sweeping glance, that terminated with a settled gaze on his
decanter. "Make my devoirs to the recluses, and say all that your own
excellent wit shall suggest as an apology for my impatience, Mr. Dillon,
I meet you in a bumper to their healths and in their honor."
The challenge was coldly accepted; and while these gentlemen still held
their glasses to their lips, Colonel Howard left the apartment, bowing
low, and uttering a thousand excuses to his guest, as he proceeded, and
even offering a very unnecessary apology of the same effect to his
habitual inmate, Mr. Dillon.
"Is fear so very powerful within these old walls," said the soldier,
when the door closed behind their host, "that your ladies deem it
necessary to conceal themselves before even an enemy is known to have
landed?"
Dillon coldly replied:
"The name of Paul Jones is terrific to all on this coast, I believe; nor
are the ladies of St. Ruth singular in their apprehensions."
"Ah! the pirate has bought himself a desperate name since the affair of
Flamborough Head. But let him look to't, if he trusts himself in another
Whitehaven expedition, while there is a detachment of the ----th in the
neighborhood, though the men should be nothing better than recruits."
"Our last accounts leave him safe in the court of Louis," returned his
companion; "but there are men as desperate as himself, who sail the
ocean under the rebel flag, and from one or two of them we have had much
reason to apprehend the vengeance of disappointed men.
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