A short half hour will
bring down that canting sergeant and the guard upon us. 'Twill be lucky
if the guns don't turn them out. Quick, to your posts, and fire the
house in the chambers; smoking ruins are good to cover evil deeds."
"What is to be done with this lump of earth?" cried another, pushing the
body that yet lay insensible, where it had been hurled by the arm of
Lawton; "a little rubbing would bring him to."
"Let him lie," said the leader, fiercely. "Had he been half a man, that
dragooning rascal would have been in my power; enter the house, I say,
and fire the chambers. We can't go amiss here; there is plate and money
enough to make you all gentlemen--and revenge too."
The idea of silver in any way was not to be resisted; and, leaving their
companion, who began to show faint signs of life, they rushed
tumultuously towards the dwelling. Wellmere availed himself of the
opportunity, and, stealing from the stable with his own charger, he was
able to gain the highway unnoticed. For an instant he hesitated, whether
to ride towards the point where he knew the guard was stationed, and
endeavor to rescue the family, or, profiting by his liberty and the
exchange that had been effected by the divine, to seek the royal army.
Shame, and a consciousness of guilt, determined him to take the latter
course, and he rode towards New York, stung with the reflection of his
own baseness, and harassed with the apprehension of meeting with an
enraged woman, that he had married during his late visit to England,
but whose claims, as soon as his passion was sated, he had resolved
never willingly to admit.
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