ses afforded him, open upon his view nothing but death in its
most frightful forms; and if to these are added, by far the bitterest of
its qualities, the anxieties, cares, and pains of a devoted, plighted
lover, separated from the heart that loves him, we may well conjecture
that the most gallant spirit may find in it, even amidst occasional
gleams of sunshine, that sinking of hope which the philosophic king of
Israel has described as making "the heart sick,"--that chafing of the
soul that, like the encaged eaglet, wearies and tears its wing against
the bars of its prison. Even so fared it with Arthur Butler, who now
found himself growing more and more into the shadow of a melancholy
temper.

It was soon ascertained that Williams had abandoned the field he had
won, and had retreated beyond the reach of immediate pursuit. And as the
post at Musgrove's mill afforded many advantages, in reference to the
means of communicating with the garrisons of the middle section of the
province, and was more secure against the hazard of molestation from
such parties of Whigs as might still be out-lying, an order was sent to
Macdonald to remove with his prisoner to the habitation of the miller,
and there to detain him until some final step should be taken in his
case.

In pursuance of this requisition, Butler was conducted, after the
interval of the few days we have mentioned, to Allen Musgrove's. The old
man received his guest with that submission to the domination of the
military masters of the province, which he had prescribed to himself
throughout the contest,--secretly rejoicing that the selection made of
his house for this purpose, might put it in his power to alleviate the
sufferings of a soldier, towards whose cause he felt a decided though
unavowed attachment. This selection furnished evidence to the miller,
that nothing had transpired to arouse the distrust of the British
authorities in the loyalty of any part of his family,--and to Butler, it
inferred the consolatory fact, that the zealous devotion of Mary
Musgrove to his service had as yet passed without notice; whilst to the
maiden herself, it was proof that her agency in the delivery of the
letter, which she had so adroitly put within the reach of the officers
of the court, had not even excited a suspicion against her.

The best room in the house was allotted to the prisoner; and the most
sedulous attention on the part of the family, so far as it could be
administered w