e are perfectly safe here. I know all the hackneyed
declamations about wrongs and slavery that are in vogue; and I know,
too, how timidly they shrink from every enterprise by which their cause
might be honorably, boldly asserted. I am myself another victim to the
assumed patriotism of this party. I came over here two years since to
take the command. A command,--but in what an army! An undisciplined
rabble, without arms, without officers, without even clothes; their only
notion of warfare, a midnight murder, or a reckless and indiscriminate
slaughter. The result could not be doubtful,--utter defeat and
discomfiture. My countrymen, disgusted at the scenes they witnessed, and
ashamed of such _confrerie_; accepted the amnesty, and returned to France.
I--"

Here he hesitated, and blushed slightly; after which he resumed:--

"I yielded to a credulity for which there was neither reason nor excuse:
I remained. Promises were made me, oaths were sworn, statements were
produced to show how complete the organization of the insurgents really
was, and to what purpose it might be turned. I drew up a plan of a
campaign; corresponded with the different leaders; encouraged the
wavering; restrained the headstrong; confirmed the hesitating; and, in
fact, for fourteen months held them together, not only against their
opponents, but their own more dangerous disunion. And the end is,--what
think you? I only learned it yesterday, on my return from an excursion
in the West which nearly cost me my life. I was concealed in a cabin in
woman's clothes--"

"At Malone's, in the Glen?"

"Yes; how did you know that?"

"I was there. I saw you captured and witnessed your escape."

"_Diantre_! How near it was!"

He paused for a second, and I took the opportunity to recount to him
the dreadful issue of the scene, with the burning of the cabin. He grew
sickly pale as I related the circumstance; then flushing as quickly, he
exclaimed,--

"We must look to this; these people must be taken care of, I 'll speak
to Dalton; you know him?"

"No; I know not one here."

"It was he who met you last night; he is a noble fellow. But stay; there
's a knock at the door."

He approached the fireplace, and taking down the pistols which hung
beside it, walked slowly towards the door.

"'Tis Darby, sir,--Darby the Blast, coming to speak a word to Mister
Burke," said a voice from without.

The door was opened at once, and Darby entered. Making a deep reverence