plied.

General Howe entertained them with an account of his boyhood days, his
service with General Wolfe at Quebec, how the troops climbed the steep
river bank at night and won the battle on the Plains of Abraham.
Captain Coffin laughed with Berinthia and Ruth over good times he had
enjoyed with them. Yet all were conscious that spectres unseen had
come to the banquet. The ghost confronting General Howe was whispering
of starvation, of possible humiliation through forced evacuation; the
one glaring at Mr. and Mrs. Newville told of a possible departure from
their home, to become aliens in a foreign land.

"May I ask Miss Newville to favor us with music?" said General Howe,
when they were once more in the parlor.

"With pleasure, your excellency," said Ruth, seating herself at the
harpsichord and singing "The Frog he would a-wooing go," "The Fine Old
English Gentleman," and then with a pathos that brought tears to the
eyes of the commander-in-chief, "True Love can ne'er forget."

During the dinner, and while Ruth was singing, they could hear the
deep reverberations of the cannonade. The provincials in Roxbury were
sending their shot at General Howe's fortifications on the Neck, and
his cannon in reply were thundering towards the works at Cobble Hill.

"Miss Newville," said General Howe, "I cannot express my thanks to you
for your entertainment. While listening to your charming melodies I
have been thinking of the strange, incongruous accompaniment, the
uproar of the cannonade, but I have, in a measure, been able to forget
for the moment the worries and perplexities that surround me. I trust
I may be able to do something to add to your happiness some day." He
rose to take his departure.

"Thank you, your excellency; I am glad if I have been able in any way
to make it a pleasant hour to you and General Ruggles, and my old
acquaintance, Captain Coffin. Your excellency can add much to my
happiness and that of Miss Brandon. One of your subordinate officers,
who I think has not been long here, Colonel Hardman, has notified Miss
Brandon that he is going to take possession of her home to-morrow and
turn her and her invalid parents out of doors. Berinthia, you have the
colonel's order, I think?"[76]

[Footnote 76: "I am by a cruel necessity turned out of my home; must
leave my books and all I possess, perhaps to be destroyed by a
licentious soldiery." Andrew Eliot to Thomas Hollis, _Proceedings
Mass. Hist. Society_, vol.