lady; were I free, and you had ten
thousand foes--horse, foot, and dragoons--how like a friend I could
fight for you! Come, you have robbed me of my hair; let me rob your
dainty hand of its price. What, afraid again?"

"No, not that; but--"

"I see, lady; I may do it, by your leave, but not by your word; the
wonted way of ladies. There, it is done. Sweeter that kiss, than the
bitter heart of a cherry."

When at length this lady left, no small talk was had by her with her
companions about someway relieving the hard lot of so knightly an
unfortunate. Whereupon a worthy, judicious gentleman, of middle-age, in
attendance, suggested a bottle of good wine every day, and clean linen
once every week. And these the gentle Englishwoman--too polite and too
good to be fastidious--did indeed actually send to Ethan Allen, so long
as he tarried a captive in her land.

The withdrawal of this company was followed by a different scene.

A perspiring man in top-boots, a riding-whip in his hand, and having the
air of a prosperous farmer, brushed in, like a stray bullock, among the
rest, for a peep at the giant; having just entered through the arch, as
the ladies passed out.

"Hearing that the man who took Ticonderoga was here in Pendennis Castle,
I've ridden twenty-five miles to see him; and to-morrow my brother will
ride forty for the same purpose. So let me have first look. Sir," he
continued, addressing the captive, "will you let me ask you a few plain
questions, and be free with you?"

"Be free with me? With all my heart. I love freedom of all things. I'm
ready to die for freedom; I expect to. So be free as you please. What is
it?"

"Then, sir, permit me to ask what is your occupation in life--in time of
peace, I mean?"

"You talk like a tax-gatherer," rejoined Allen, squinting diabolically
at him; "what is my occupation in life? Why, in my younger days I
studied divinity, but at present I am a conjurer by profession."

Hereupon everybody laughed, equally at the manner as the words, and the
nettled farmer retorted:

"Conjurer, eh? well, you conjured wrong that time you were taken."

"Not so wrong, though, as you British did, that time I took Ticonderoga,
my friend."

At this juncture the servant came with the punch, when his master bade
him present it to the captive.

"No!--give it me, sir, with your own hands, and pledge me as gentleman
to gentleman."

"I cannot pledge a state-prisoner, Colonel Allen; but I will h