"Oh! the very first," exclaimed the eager girl. "His first offense, I do
assure you, if offense it be."
"But you wrote him--you urged the visit; surely, young lady, you wished
to see your brother?" added the impatient colonel.
"That we wished it, and prayed for it,--oh, how fervently we prayed for
it!--is true; but to have held communion with the royal army would have
endangered our father, and we dared not."
"Did he leave the house until taken, or had he intercourse with any out
of your own dwelling?"
"With none--no one, excepting our neighbor, the peddler Birch."
"With whom!" exclaimed the colonel, turning pale, and shrinking as from
the sting of an adder.
Dunwoodie groaned aloud, and striking his head with his hand, cried in
piercing tones, "He is lost!" and rushed from the apartment.
"But Harvey Birch," repeated Frances, gazing wildly at the door through
which her lover had disappeared.
"Harvey Birch!" echoed all the judges. The two immovable members of the
court exchanged looks, and threw an inquisitive glance at the prisoner.
"To you, gentlemen, it can be no new intelligence to hear that Harvey
Birch is suspected of favoring the royal cause," said Henry, again
advancing before the judges; "for he has already been condemned by your
tribunals to the fate that I now see awaits myself.
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