Chapter 31

"His only plot was this--that, much provoked.
He raised his vengeful arm against his country."
_Thomson_.

Alice Duncombe remained on the sands, watching the dark spot that was
soon hid amid the waves in the obscurity of night, and listening, with
melancholy interest, to the regulated sounds of the oars, which were
audible long after the boat had been blended with the gloomy outline of
the eastern horizon. When all traces of her departed friends were to be
found only in her own recollections, she slowly turned from the sea, and
hastening to quit the bustling throng that were preparing for the
embarkation of the rest of the party, she ascended the path that
conducted her once more to the summit of those cliffs along which she
had so often roved, gazing at the boundless element that washed their
base, with sensations that might have been peculiar to her own
situation.

The soldiers of Borroughcliffe, who were stationed at the head of the
pass, respectfully made way; nor did any of the sentinels of Manual heed
her retiring figure, until she approached the rear guard of the marines,
who were commanded by their vigilant captain in person.

"Who goes there?" cried Manual, advancing without the dusky group of
soldiers, as she approached them.

"One who possesses neither the power nor the inclination to do ye harm,"
answered the solitary female; "'tis Alice Dunscombe, returning, by
permission of your leader, to the place of her birth."

"Ay," muttered Manual, "this is one of Griffith's unmilitary exhibitions
of his politeness! Does the man think that there was ever a woman who
had no tongue! Have you the countersign, madam, that I may know you bear
a sufficient warrant to pass?"

"I have no other warrant besides my sex and weakness, unless Mr.
Griffith's knowledge that I have left him can be so considered."

"The two former are enough," said a voice, that proceeded from a figure
which had hitherto stood unseen, shaded by the trunk of an oak that
spread its wide but naked arms above the spot where the guard was
paraded.

"Who have we here!" Manual again cried; "come in; yield, or you will be
fired at."

"What, will the gallant Captain Manual fire on his own rescuer!" said
the Pilot, with cool disdain, as he advanced from the shadow of the
tree. "He had better reserve his bullets for his enemies, than waste
them on his friends."

"You have done a dangerous deed, sir, in approaching, clandestinely, a
guard of marines! I wonder that a man who has already discovered, to-
night, that he has some knowledge of tactics, by so ably conducting a