then
it was, and there, that this enthusiastic girl again pledged her
unalterable devotion to the man of her waking thoughts and nightly
dreams, come weal, come woe, whatever might betide; and the soldier paid
back the pledge with new ardor and endearment, in the strong language
that came unstudied from the heart, meaning all that he said, and rife
with a feeling beyond the reach of words. And, after "mony a locked and
fond embrace," full tearfully, and lingeringly, and, in phrase oft
repeated, the two bade "farewell," and invoked God's blessing each upon
the other, and then, not without looking back, and breathing a fresh
prayer of blessings, they separated on their dreary way, Mildred
retiring, as she had come, on the arm of her brother, and Butler,
springing hurriedly into the skiff and directing its swift passage to
the middle of the stream, where, after a pause to enable him to discern
the last footsteps of his mistress, as her form glided into the obscure
distance, he sighed a low "God bless her," then resumed his oar, and
sturdily drove his boat against the "opponent bank."

CHAPTER V.

A COMFORTABLE INN, AND A GOOD LANDLADY----THE MISFORTUNES OF HEROES DO
NOT ALWAYS DESTROY THE APPETITE.

As soon as Butler landed from the skiff, he threw his cloak into the
hands of the sergeant; then, with a disturbed haste, sprang upon his
horse, and, commanding Robinson to follow, galloped along the road down
the river as fast as the nature of the ground and the obscurity of the
hour would allow. A brief space brought them to the spot where the road
crossed the stream, immediately in the vicinity of the widow Dimock's
little inn, which might here be discerned ensconced beneath the cover of
the opposite hill. The low-browed wooden building, quietly stationed
some thirty paces off the road, was so adumbrated in the shelter of a
huge willow, that the journeyer, at such an hour as this, might
perchance pass the spot unconsciously by, were it not for an insulated
and somewhat haggard sign-post that, like a hospitable seeker of
strangers, stood hard by the road side, and there displayed a shattered
emblem in the guise of a large blue ball, a little decayed by wind and
weather, which said Blue Ball, without superscription or device, was
universally interpreted to mean "entertainment for man and horse, by the
widow Dimock." The moonlight fell with a broad lustre upon the sign post
and its pendent globe; and our travellers,