"
"This war has then probably drawn off most of them, for your
recollections must be quite recent, Miss Alice," said the veteran; "as
many of them were engaged in the business of robbing his majesty's
revenue, the country is in some measure requited for the former
depredations, by their present services, and at the same time it is
happily rid of their presence. Ah! madam, ours is a glorious
constitution, where things are so nicely balanced, that, as in the
physical organization of a healthy, vigorous man, the baser parts are
purified in the course of things, by its own wholesome struggles."
The pale features of Alice Dunscombe became slightly tinged with red, as
the colonel proceeded, nor did the faint glow entirely leave her pallid
face, until she had said:
"There might have been some who knew not how to respect the laws of the
land, for such are never wanting: but there were others, who, however
guilty they might be in many respects, need not charge themselves with
that mean crime, and yet who could find the passages that lie hid from
common eyes, beneath the rude waves, as well as you could find the way
through the halls and galleries of the Abbey, with a noonday sun shining
upon its vanes and high chimneys."
"Is it your pleasure, Colonel Howard, that we examine the three men, and
ascertain whether they belong to the number of these gifted pilots?"
said Christopher Dillon, who was growing uneasy at his awkward
situation, and who hardly deemed it necessary to conceal the look of
contempt which he cast at the mild Alice, while he spoke; "perhaps we
may gather information enough from them, to draw a chart of the coast
that may gain us credit with my lords of the Admiralty.
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