Chapter 26

_Mercury_. "I permit thee to be Sosia again."
_Dryden,_

We must leave the two adventurers winding their way among the broken
piles, and venturing boldly beneath the tottering arches of the ruin, to
accompany the reader, at the same hour, within the more comfortable
walls of the abbey; where, it will be remembered, Borroughcliffe was
left in a condition of very equivocal ease. As the earth had, however,
in the interval, nearly run its daily round, circumstances had
intervened to release the soldier from his confinement--and no one,
ignorant of the fact, would suppose that the gentleman who was now
seated at the hospitable board of Colonel Howard, directing, with so
much discretion, the energies of his masticators to the delicacies of
the feast, could read, in his careless air and smiling visage, that
those foragers of nature had been so recently condemned, for four long
hours, to the mortification of discussing the barren subject of his own
sword-hilt. Borroughcliffe, however, maintained not only his usual post,
but his well-earned reputation at the table, with his ordinary coolness
of demeanor; though at times there were fleeting smiles that crossed his
military aspect, which sufficiently indicated that he considered the
matter of his reflection to be of a particularly ludicrous character. In
the young man who sat by his side, dressed in the deep-blue jacket of a
seaman, with the fine white linen of his collar contrasting strongly
with the black silk handkerchief that was tied with studied negligence
around his neck, and whose easy air and manner contrasted still more
strongly with this attire, the reader will discover Griffith. The
captive paid much less devotion to the viands than his neighbor, though
he affected more attention to the business of the table than he actually
be stowed, with a sort of consciousness that it would relieve the
blushing maiden who presided. The laughing eyes of Katherine Plowden
were glittering by the side of the mild countenance of Alice Dunscombe,
and, at times, were fastened in droll interest on the rigid and upright
exterior that Captain Manual maintained, directly opposite to where she
was seated. A chair had, also, been placed for Dillon--of course it was
vacant.

"And so, Borroughcliffe," cried Colonel Howard, with a freedom of voice,
and a vivacity in his air, that announced the increasing harmony of the
repast, "the sea-dog left you nothing to chew but the cud of your
resentment!"

"That and my sword-hilt," returned the immovable recruiting officer.
"Gentlemen, I know not how your Congress rewards military achievements;
but if that worthy fellow were in my company, he should have a halberd
within a week--spurs