pillow, and exclaiming to Mr. Sinclair, "Follow
me, sir," hurried to the scene of action, the room of Captain Percy. Mr.
Sinclair followed with rapid steps.

In one respect the conspirators had been disappointed--they had not
obtained the key of Captain Percy's room, for being now a prisoner on
parole, he was subject to no confinement. He had, however, locked the
door of his room himself, to guard against the incursion of curiosity
rather than of hostility; but the lock was none of the strongest--a
single vigorous application of Major Scott's foot to the door started
the screws which held it, and a second burst it off and threw the
entrance open before him. As Mr. Sinclair glanced forward, "Thank God!"
burst from his lips, to the no small surprise of Major Scott, who saw
little cause for gratitude in finding the object of his solicitude
retreating, sword in hand, towards the door, while several athletic men,
their faces dark with hate, were already pressing dangerously upon him,
and others were crowding in at the opened window. The impetuous rush of
his friends freed Captain Percy for a moment from his assailants, but
they returned fiercely to the charge, too furious now to postpone their
revenge even to their deference for Major Scott. Vain were Mr.
Sinclair's entreaties to be heard, till their advance was stayed by the
sight of Major Scott's firearms--weapons with which they had not
furnished themselves, considering them useless in an enterprise to whose
complete success silence was essential. Then first they listened to him
as he exclaimed, "This man is innocent, and if you shed his blood it
will call to Heaven for vengeance. I saw him myself this day oppose
himself to two of his own countrymen to save a defenceless woman from
injury. That woman was my daughter--some of you know her well--ah,
Thompson! you may well hang your head--would you slay the deliverer of
her whose good nursing saved the life of your motherless child?--Wilson,
it was but last week that she sat beside your dying mother, and soothed
and comforted her--but for this good and brave man she would now have
been with her in heaven."

It was only necessary to gain a hearing for such words to produce an
influence on the rash, but not cruel men whom Mr. Sinclair addressed,
and scarcely half an hour had passed since their entrance into the room,
when they offered their hands in pledge of amity to him whose life they
had come to seek. As a proof of their