With this solemn asseveration, which is not lightly made, but
which is the result of sixty years' experience, I leave you. Miss
Plowden; let it be a subject of deep reflection with you, for I too well
understand your treacherous feelings not to know that your political
errors encourage your personal foibles; reflect, for your own sake, if
you love not only your own happiness, but your respectability and
standing in the world. As for the black hounds that you spoke of, they
are a set of rebellious, mutinous, ungrateful rascals; and if ever I
meet one of the damned----"
The colonel had so far controlled his feelings, as to leave the presence
of the lady before he broke out into the bitter invectives we have
recorded, and Katherine stood a minute, pressing her forefinger on her
lips, listening to his voice as it grumbled along the gallery, until the
sounds were finally excluded by the closing of a distant door. The
willful girl then shook her dark locks, and a smile of arch mischief
blended with an expression of regret in her countenance, as she spoke to
herself, while with hurried hands she threw her tea equipage aside in a
confused pile:
"It was perhaps a cruel experiment, but it has succeeded. Though
prisoners ourselves, we are at least left free for the remainder of this
night. These mysterious sailors must be examined more closely. If the
proud eye of Edward Griffith was not glaring under the black wig of one
of them, I am no judge of features; and where has Master Barnstable
concealed his charming visage? for neither of the others could be he.
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