"
The trooper averted his face as he replied, "None ever receive a ball
there, and survive."
"I have no dread of death, Lawton," returned Isabella. "I thank you for
not doubting me; I felt it from the first."
"These are not scenes for a form like yours," added the trooper. "'Tis
enough that Britain calls our youth to the field; but when such
loveliness becomes the victim of war, I sicken of my trade."
"Hear me, Captain Lawton," said Isabella, raising herself with
difficulty, but rejecting aid. "From early womanhood to the present hour
have I been an inmate of camps and garrisons. I have lived to cheer the
leisure of an aged father, and think you I would change those days of
danger and privation for any ease? No! I have the consolation of
knowing, in my dying moments, that what woman could do in such a cause,
I have done."
"Who could prove a recreant, and witness such a spirit! Hundreds of
warriors have I witnessed in their blood, but never a firmer soul among
them all."
"'Tis the soul only," said Isabella. "My sex and strength have denied me
the dearest of privileges. But to you, Captain Lawton, nature has been
more bountiful; you have an arm and a heart to devote to the cause; and
I know they are in arm and a heart that will prove true to the last.
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