"To you, then, your brother previously communicated his intention of
paying your family a secret visit?"

"No, no!" said Frances, pressing her hand to her head, as if to
collect her thoughts; "he told me nothing--we knew not of the visit
until he arrived. But can it be necessary to explain to gallant men
that a child would incur hazard to meet his only parent, and that in
times like these, and in a situation like ours?"

"But was this the first time? Did he never even talk of doing so
before?" inquired the colonel, leaning towards her with paternal
interest.

"Certainly, certainly," cried Frances, catching the expression of his
own benevolent countenance. "This is but the fourth of his visits."

"I knew it!" exclaimed the veteran, rubbing his hands with delight;
"an adventurous, warm-hearted son--I warrant me, gentlemen--a fiery
soldier in the field! In what disguises did he come?"

"In none, for none were then necessary; the royal troops covered the
country and gave him safe passage."

"And was this the first of his visits out of the uniform of his
regiment?" asked the colonel, in a suppressed voice, avoiding the
penetrating looks of his companions.

"Oh, the very first!" exclaimed the eager girl; "his first offence, I
do assure you, if offence it be."

"But you wrote him--you urged the visit; surely, young lady, you
wished to see your brother?" added the impatient colonel.

"That we wished for it, and prayed for it--oh, how fervently we prayed
for it!--is true; but to have communion with the royal army would have
endangered our father, and we dared not."

"Did he leave the house until taken, or had he intercourse with any
out of your own dwelling?"

"With no one excepting our neighbor, the peddler Birch."

"With whom?" exclaimed the colonel, turning pale, and shrinking as
from the sting of an adder.

Dunwoodie groaned aloud, and, striking his head with his hand, cried
out in piercing tones, "He is lost!" and rushed from the apartment.

"But Harvey Birch," repeated Frances, gazing wildly at the door
through which her lover had disappeared.

"Harvey Birch!" echoed all the judges. The two immovable members of
the court exchanged looks, and threw an inquisitive glance at the
prisoner.

"To you, gentlemen, it can be no new intelligence to hear that Harvey
Birch is suspected of favoring the royal cause," said Henry, again
advancing before the judges, "for he has already been condemned by
your tribun