h the gentlemanly leisure its pretended
unimportance allowed--was Lieutenant Hugh Campbell, one of several
officers of that name who served in the Highland regiment that had
been stationed earlier at Valentine's Hill; he therefore knew the
debatable country beyond Kingsbridge as well as I. He was a mere
youth, a serious-minded Scot, and of a different sort from Captain
Falconer: 'twas one of the elegant captain's ways, and evidence of his
breadth of mind, to make friends of men of other kinds than his own.
Young Campbell and I, comparing our recollections of the country,
found that we both knew of a little open hollow hidden by thickets,
quite near the Kingsbridge tavern, which would serve the purpose.
Captain Falconer's duties made a daylight meeting difficult to
contrive without exposing his movements to curiosity, and other
considerations of secrecy likewise preferred a nocturnal affair. We
therefore planned that the four of us, and an Irish surgeon named
McLaughlin, should appear at the Kingsbridge tavern at ten o'clock on
a certain night for which the almanac promised moonlight, and should
repair to the meeting-place when the moon should be high enough to
illumine the hollow. The weapons were to be rapiers. The preliminary
appearance at the tavern was to save a useless cold wait in case one
of the participants should, by some freak of duty, be hindered from
the appointment; in which event, or in that of a cloudy sky, the
matter should be postponed to the next night, and so on.

The duel was to occur upon a Wednesday night. On that afternoon I was
in the town, having carried some despatches from our outpost to
General De Lancey, and thence to General Knyphausen; and I was free
for a few minutes to go home and see my mother.

"What do you think?" she began, handing me a cup of tea as soon as I
had strode to the parlour fire-place.

"I think this hot tea is mighty welcome," said I, "and that my left
ear is nigh frozen. What else?"

"Margaret has gone," she replied, beginning to rub my ear vigorously.

"Gone! Where?" I looked around as if to make sure there was no sign of
her in the room.

"With Ned--on the _Phoebe_."

"The deuce! How could you let her do it--you, and her mother, and
Fanny?"

"We didn't know. I took some jelly over to old Miss Watts--she's very
feeble--and Madge and Ned went while I was out; they had their trunks
carted off at the same time. 'Twasn't for an hour or two I became
curious why s