The interruption that we
mentioned in our preceding chapter was occasioned by the entrance of the
landlady. At the intercession of Dunwoodie, orders had been given to the
sentinel who guarded the door of Henry's room, that the members of the
prisoner's family should, at all times, have free access to his
apartment. Caesar was included in this arrangement, as a matter of
convenience, by the officer in command; but strict inquiry and
examination was made into the errand of every other applicant for
admission. The major had, however, included himself among the relatives
of the British officer; and one pledge, that no rescue should be
attempted, was given in his name, for them all. A short conversation was
passing between the woman of the house and the corporal of the guard,
before the door that the sentinel had already opened in anticipation of
the decision of his noncommissioned commandant.
"Would you refuse the consolations of religion to a fellow creature
about to suffer death?" said the matron, with earnest zeal. "Would you
plunge a soul into the fiery furnace, and a minister at hand to point
out the straight and narrow path?"
"I'll tell you what, good woman," returned the corporal, gently pushing
her away; "I've no notion of my back being a highway for any man to walk
to heaven upon.
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