" While speaking, the surgeon raised the
limbs in question to a nearly horizontal position, an attitude which
really appeared to bid defiance to anything like a passage for himself
through the defile; but the trooper, disregarding this ocular proof of
the impossibility of the movement, cried hastily,--
"Here was nothing to stop you, man; I could leap a platoon through, boot
and thigh, without pricking with a single spur. Pshaw! I have often
charged upon the bayonets of infantry, over greater difficulties
than this."
"You will please to remember, Captain John Lawton, that I am not the
riding master of the regiment--nor a drill sergeant--nor a crazy cornet;
no, sir--and I speak it with a due respect for the commission of the
Continental Congress--nor an inconsiderate captain, who regards his own
life as little as that of his enemies. I am only, sir, a poor humble man
of letters, a mere doctor of medicine, an unworthy graduate of
Edinburgh, and a surgeon of dragoons; nothing more, I do assure you,
Captain John Lawton." So saying, he turned his horse's head towards the
cottage, and recommenced his ride.
"Aye, you speak the truth," muttered the dragoon. "Had I but the meanest
rider of my troop with me, I should have taken the scoundrel, and given
at least one victim to the laws.
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