erlasting torments,
John Ireton, for your cold-hearted caution that made us lose when we had
good hope to win!" he cried. "One little hour I begged for, and that
hour had fought her battle and set her free. But now--"

He broke off in the midst, choking with what miserable despair I knew,
and shared as well; and throwing himself down in the wet grass, he would
eke out the bitter words with such ravings and sobbings as bubble up in
sheer abandonment of rage and misery.

XXIII

HOW WE KEPT THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS

You may be sure that Richard Jennifer's bitter reproachings came home to
me in sharpest fashion, the more since now I saw how we had lost our
chance by neglecting the commonest precautions. Having determined to
attack, the merest novice of a general would have moved his forces to
the nearest point; would have had his scouts search out the ford
beforehand; and, above all, would never have delayed the blow beyond the
earliest moment of the enemy's unwatchfulness.

So now, when all was lost, I fell to kneading out this sodden dough of
afterwit with Ephraim Yeates; but when I sought to carry off the blame
as mine by right, the old borderer would not give me leave.

"Fair and easy, Cap'n John; fair _and_ easy," he protested. "Let's give
that old sarpent, which is the devil and Satan, his dues. Ez I allow,
there was the whole enduring passel of us to ricollact all them things.
To be sure, we had our warnings, mistrusting all along that this here
dad-blame' hoss-captain had his finger in the pie. But, lawzee! we had
ne'er a man o' God 'mongst us to rise up and prophesy what was a-going
to happen if we didn't get up and scratch gravel immejitly, _if_ not
sooner; though I won't deny that Cap'n Dick did try his hand that-away."

"True; and I would now we had listened to him," said I, gloomily enough.
"We have lost our chance, and God knows if we shall ever have another.
Falconnet must have half a hundred men, red and white, in the powder
train; and by this time he has learned from the Indian who reconnoitered
us on the mountain that we are within striking distance. With the enemy
forewarned, as he is, we might as well try to cut the women out of my
Lord Cornwallis's headquarters."

The old man chuckled his dry little laugh, though what food for
merriment he could find in the hopeless prospect was more than I could
understand.

"Ho! ho! Cap'n John; I reckon ez how ye're a-taking that word from
yonder d