"Certainly not to your perseverance in the project to assist my enemies,
madam," returned the soldier, with affected humility; "nor to your zeal
for their success, or your consummate coolness at the supper-table! But
I find it is time that I should be superannuated--I can no longer serve
my king with credit, and should take to serving my God, like all other
worn-out men of the world! My hearing is surely defective, or a paddock-
wall has a most magical effect in determining sounds!"
Katherine waited not to hear the close of this sentence, but walked to a
distant part of the room to conceal the burning blushes that covered her
countenance. The manner in which the plans of Barnstable had become
known to his foe was no longer a mystery. Her conscience also reproached
her a little with some unnecessary coquetry, as she remembered that
quite one-half of the dialogue between her lover and herself, under the
shadow of that very wall to which Borroughcliffe alluded, had been on a
subject altogether foreign to contention and tumults. As the feelings of
Barnstable were by no means so sensitive as those of his mistress, and
his thoughts much occupied with the means of attaining his object, he
did not so readily comprehend the indirect allusion of the soldier, but
turned abruptly away to Griffith, and observed with a serious air:
"I feel it my duty, Mr. Griffith, to suggest that we have standing
instructions to secure all the enemies of America, wherever they may be
found, and to remind you that the States have not hesitated to make
prisoners of females in many instances.
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