Chapter 23 - Page 2

woe!" cried Frances, in a
manner but little less frantic than that of her sister. "Oh! may heaven
restore you to us--to yourself!"

"Peace, foolish young woman," said Sarah, with a smile of affected pity;
"all cannot be happy at the same moment; perhaps you have no brother, or
husband, to console you. You look beautiful, and you will yet find one;
but," she continued, dropping her voice to a whisper, "see that he has
no other wife--'tis dreadful to think what might happen, should he be
twice married."

"The shock has destroyed her mind," cried Miss Peyton; "my child, my
beauteous Sarah is a maniac!"

"No, no, no," cried Frances, "it is fever; she is lightheaded--she must
recover--she shall recover."

The aunt caught joyfully at the hope conveyed in this suggestion, and
dispatched Katy to request the immediate aid and advice of Dr.
Sitgreaves. The surgeon was found inquiring among the men for
professional employment, and inquisitively examining every bruise and
scratch that he could induce the sturdy warriors to acknowledge they had
received. A summons, of the sort conveyed by Katy, was instantly obeyed,
and not a minute elapsed before he was by the side of Miss Peyton.

"This is a melancholy termination to so joyful a commencement of the
night, madam," he observed, in a soothing manner. "But war must bring
its attendant miseries; though doubtless it often supports the cause of
liberty, and improves the knowledge of surgical science."

Miss Peyton could make no reply, but pointed to her niece.

"'Tis fever," answered Frances; "see how glassy is her eye, and look at
her cheek, how flushed."

The surgeon stood for a moment, deeply studying the outward symptoms of
his patient, and then he silently took her hand in his own. It was
seldom that the hard and abstracted features of Sitgreaves discovered
any violent emotion; all his passions seemed schooled, and his
countenance did not often betray what, indeed, his heart frequently
felt. In the present instance, however, the eager gaze of the aunt and
sister quickly detected his emotions. After laying his fingers for a
minute on the beautiful arm, which, bared to the elbow and glittering
with jewels, Sarah suffered him to retain, he dropped it, and dashing a
hand over his eyes, turned sorrowfully away.

"Here is no fever to excite--'tis a case, my dear madam, for time and
care only; these, with the blessing of God, may effect a cure."

"And where is the wretch who has caused this ruin?" exclaimed
Singleton, rejecting the support of his man, and making an effort to
rise from the chair to