t or traitor, Mistress Jean, I
have already won one 'Thank you,' and I hope some day to win another."

"Won one 'Thank you'--when and where?" and she looked at me with wide
open eyes.

Now every Marylander will admit that there are no more gallant fellows
in the world than we are, and if any one chooses to dispute it, well
and good, we are willing to cross swords with him any day, and so
reprove him for his recklessness. Indeed, we have been called with
truth the Gascons of the South, and, like those gallant gentlemen of
old France, we have never hidden our light under a bushel, to use a
homely phrase; and so when I saw Mistress Jean's air of surprise, the
spirit of my race came over me.

"Yes," I replied, "it was the sweetest 'Thank you' I ever heard."

Again the mystified look.

"But where?" said she again.

"It was rather dark," I replied, "and the clouds were drifting across
the sky, and you, I am afraid, did not know who it was who received
that soft 'Thank you.'"

"Were you the Lieutenant?"

I bowed.

"Oh," she said, and she stamped her tiny foot, "if you were only not a
rebel!"

"But even rebels have their uses."

Thus it was we became good friends in spite of the traitor stamped
upon my brow. Ere I knew it, the time approached when I had to mount
and ride. But before I left, her soft hand rested for a moment in
mine.

"We march in a few days," said I, "to the North, to the Leaguer of
Boston. There will be fighting there and bloody work. Can I not carry
a single token?"

Her nimble fingers flew to her hair, and took from thence a blood-red
rose, and pinned it to my coat.

"There," said she, "my red cockade;" and turning quickly, she ran into
the house.

CHAPTER V

SIR SQUIRE OF TORY DAMES

"Well, Sir Squire of Tory Dames, did she smile on you?" The voice was
harsh and rasping; looking across the table, I saw the sneer upon his
lips. I had but entered a moment before the dining-room of the inn,
after my long ride, and was about to take my seat, when Rodolph's
sneering question made me pause.

"That is more than you could ever win, my Mighty Lord from Nowhere," I
retorted. At this there was a laugh from those about. An angry flush
showed through even his dark and swarthy skin; for, being a burly
bully of the border, he liked not being bearded thus by a youth.

"You damned impudent puppy!" he cried, rising.

But there stood a glass at my right hand, full to the brim, and ere he