"
"Nay, say not the last, dear sir," cried Katherine; "for there is not a
syllable you have ever said to me on that foolish subject, that I have
forgotten. Will you resume your seat again? Cecilia, Colonel Howard
consents to take his coffee with us."
"But you forget the three men, honest Kit there, and our respectable
guest, Captain Borroughcliffe."
"Let honest Kit stay there, if he please; you may send a request to
Captain Borroughcliffe to join our party; I have a woman's curiosity to
see the soldier; and as for the three men--" she paused, and affected to
muse a moment, when she continued, as if struck by an obvious thought--
"yes, and the men can be brought in and examined here; who knows but
they may have been wrecked in the gale, and need our pity and
assistance, rather than deserve your suspicions."
"There is a solemn warning in Miss Plowden's conjecture, that should
come home to the breasts of all who live on this wild coast," said Alice
Dunscombe; "I have known many a sad wreck among the hidden shoals, and
when the wind has blown but a gentle gale, compared to last night's
tempest. The wars, and the uncertainties of the times, together with
man's own wicked passions, have made great havoc with those who knew
well the windings of the channels among the 'Ripples.' Some there were
who could pass, as I have often heard, within a fearful distance of the
'Devil's Grip,' the darkest night that ever shadowed England; but all
are now gone of that daring set, either by the hand of death, or, what
is even as mournful, by unnatural banishment from the land of their
fathers.
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