Chapter 1 - Page 2

countrymen,
while, in secret, he has been the useful agent of the leaders of the
Revolution; and, on the other hand, could the hidden repositories of
divers flaming patriots have been opened to the light of day, royal
protections would have been discovered concealed under piles of
British gold.

At the sound of the tread of the noble horse ridden by the traveler, the
mistress of the farmhouse he was passing at the time might be seen
cautiously opening the door of the building to examine the stranger; and
perhaps, with an averted face communicating the result of her
observations to her husband, who, in the rear of the building, was
prepared to seek, if necessary, his ordinary place of concealment in the
adjacent woods. The valley was situated about midway in the length of
the county, and was sufficiently near to both armies to make the
restitution of stolen goods no uncommon occurrence in that vicinity. It
is true, the same articles were not always regained; but a summary
substitute was generally resorted to, in the absence of legal justice,
which restored to the loser the amount of his loss, and frequently with
no inconsiderable addition for the temporary use of his property. In
short, the law was momentarily extinct in that particular district, and
justice was administered subject to the bias of personal interests and
the passions of the strongest.

The passage of a stranger, with an appearance of somewhat doubtful
character, and mounted on an animal which, although unfurnished with any
of the ordinary trappings of war, partook largely of the bold and
upright carriage that distinguished his rider, gave rise to many
surmises among the gazing inmates of the different habitations; and in
some instances, where conscience was more than ordinarily awake, to no
little alarm.

Tired with the exercise of a day of unusual fatigue, and anxious to
obtain a speedy shelter from the increasing violence of the storm, that
now began to change its character to large drops of driving rain, the
traveler determined, as a matter of necessity, to make an application
for admission to the next dwelling that offered. An opportunity was not
long wanting; and, riding through a pair of neglected bars, he knocked
loudly at the outer door of a building of a very humble exterior,
without quitting his saddle. A female of middle age, with an outward
bearing but little more prepossessing than that of her dwelling,
appeared to answer the summons. The startled woman half closed her door
again in affright, as she saw, by the glare of a large wood fire, a
mounted man so unexpectedly near its threshold; and an expression of
terror mingled with her natural curiosity, as she required his pleasure.

Although the door was