rode up the
lane, and having reached the house, threw his bridle to a servant, and
entered without ceremony. As he had anticipated, he found Mrs. Williams
in an indescribable state of grief; her health was delicate, and this
unexpected calamity had prostrated her. After offering a few encouraging
words, which produced but a very slight effect, he remounted his horse
and rode to the place of rendezvous. Here he met Lieutenant Brown, a
sergeant, corporal, and ten privates, all finely armed and equipped, and
prepared to brave any danger and incur any hazard, in the service of a
commander in whom they had the most unbounded confidence. He instantly
placed himself at their head, and proceeded on his expedition.

"It was now dark. Their road lay along the margin of a small stream,
bounded on the one side by half cultivated fields, and on the other by
a thick gloomy forest, in which the death-like stillness of its dark
bosom was only broken by the occasional howl of wild beasts.

"After pursuing their course for some distance along the bank of this
rivulet, now traversing the ground on its very margin, and then again
carried by the windings of the path miles from the stream, they came to
a sharp angle in the road, on turning which, the captain, being a short
distance in advance of his troops, discovered a figure slightly defined,
but yet bearing some resemblance to the human species, stealing along
the side of the path, apparently wishing to avoid observation.

"Striking his spurs into his horse, and drawing his sword at the same
time, the captain had the person completely in his power before the
other had time to offer either flight or resistance.

"'For whom are you?' was demanded by Captain Edwards, in no gentle
accents.

"'I'm nae just free to say,' replied the stranger, thus rudely
interrogated, with the true Scotch evasion.

"'Answer me at once,' returned the captain; 'which party do you favor?'

"'Ye might have the civility to give me a gentle hint which side ye
belang to,' said Sawney.

"'No circumlocution,' rejoined the soldier, sternly. 'Inform me
immediately: Are you a mercenary of the tyrant of England, or a friend
to liberty? your life depends on your answer.'

"'Aweel, then,' said the Scotchman firmly, 'sin ye will have it, by
my saul, I won't go to heaven with a lie in my mouth--I'm whig to the
back-bone, ye carline; now do your warst, and be hanged till ye!'"

"He might still have been a foe," remar