the roof," he said, "father, mother, and
Berinthia. There's a man with a white wig,--Mr. Newville, I guess; and
there's a girl talking with Berinthia--Ruth Newville."

With quickened pulse Robert adjusted the glass to his vision. Others
than those mentioned by Tom were upon the roof, but one figure alone
engaged his attention. Oh, if he could but know how she regarded the
impending battle! Possibly since the events on Lexington Green and at
Concord bridge her sympathies had been with the king. No, he could not
think it. The instincts of one so noble, good, and large-hearted must
ever be opposed to tyranny and oppression. Whether favoring or
opposing the course of the Colonies, what matter to him? What
probability of their ever meeting again? If meeting, would she ever be
other than an old acquaintance? Never had he opened his heart to her;
never by word or deed informed her that she was all the world to him.
To her he would be only a friend of other days.

He could see a tall man in a general's uniform walking along the
British lines. He halted, took off his cocked hat, stood erect, and
said something to the soldiers. He concluded it was General Howe,
telling them they were a noble body of men, and he did not doubt they
would show themselves valiant soldiers. He should not ask them to go
any farther than he himself was willing to go. Robert and Tom could
hear the cheer which the soldiers gave him.

The columns began to march,--that commanded by General Howe along the
bank of the Mystic; that by General Pigot straight up the hill
towards the redoubt.

Robert ran to the spot where he had left his horse, but it was not
there. He hastened down the slope, past the Connecticut troops under
Colonel Knowlton, and reported to Colonel Stark, who was directing his
soldiers to take up a rail fence in front of his line and reset it by
the low stone wall, and fill the space between the fences with hay
from the windrows.

"It will serve as a screen," he said.

Stepping in front a short distance, he drove a stake in the ground.

"Don't fire till the redcoats are up to it," was his order.

The sun was shining from a cloudless sky. They upon the roof of the
Brandon home saw the scarlet columns of the British moving along the
Mystic and towards the redoubt, the sunlight gleaming from their
muskets and bayonets, the flags waving above them, the men keeping
step to the drumbeat; the great guns of the fleet and those on Copp's
Hil