A twelvemonth had not yet elapsed, since Birch had been seen lingering
near the headquarters of the commander in chief, and at a time when
important movements were expected hourly to occur. So soon as the
information of this fact was communicated to the officer whose duty it
was to guard the avenues of the American camp, he dispatched Captain
Lawton in pursuit of the peddler.
Acquainted with all the passes of the hills, and indefatigable in the
discharge of his duty, the trooper had, with much trouble and toil,
succeeded in effecting his object. The party had halted at a farmhouse
for the purposes of refreshment, and the prisoner was placed in a room
by himself, but under the keeping of the two men before mentioned; all
that was known subsequently is, that a woman was seen busily engaged in
the employments of the household near the sentinels, and was
particularly attentive to the wants of the captain, until he was deeply
engaged in the employments of the supper table.
Afterwards, neither woman nor peddler was to be found. The pack, indeed,
was discovered open, and nearly empty, and a small door, communicating
with a room adjoining to the one in which the peddler had been
secured, was ajar.
Captain Lawton never could forgive the deception; his antipathies to his
enemies were not very moderate, but this was adding an insult to his
penetration that rankled deeply.
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