Chapter 27

Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
But he must die to-morrow?
_--Measure for Measure._

A few hours were passed by the prisoner, after his sentence was
received, in the bosom of his family. Mr. Wharton wept in hopeless
despondency over the untimely fate of his son; and Frances, after
recovering from her insensibility, experienced an anguish of feeling to
which the bitterness of death itself would have been comparatively
light. Miss Peyton alone retained a vestige of hope, or presence of mind
to suggest what might be proper to be done under their circumstances.
The comparative composure of the good aunt arose in no degree from any
want of interest in the welfare of her nephew, but it was founded in a
kind of instinctive dependence on the character of Washington. He was a
native of the same colony with herself; and although his early military
services, and her frequent visits to the family of her sister, and
subsequent establishment at its head, had prevented their ever meeting,
still she was familiar with his domestic virtues, and well knew that the
rigid inflexibility for which his public acts were distinguished formed
no part of his reputation in private life. He was known in Virginia as a
consistent but just and lenient master; and she felt a kind of pride in
associating in her mind her countryman with the man who led the armies,
and in a great measure controlled the destinies, of America. She knew
that Henry was innocent of the crime for which he was condemned to
suffer, and, with that kind of simple faith that is ever to be found in
the most ingenuous characters, could not conceive of those constructions
and interpretations of law that inflicted punishment without the actual
existence of crime. But even her confiding hopes were doomed to meet
with a speedy termination. Towards noon, a regiment of militia, that
were quartered on the banks of the river, moved to the ground in front
of the house that held our heroine and her family, and deliberately
pitched their tents, with the avowed intention of remaining until the
following morning, to give solemnity and effect to the execution of a
British spy.

Dunwoodie had performed all that was required of him by his orders, and
was at liberty to retrace his steps to his expectant squadron, which was
impatiently waiting his return to be led against a detachment of the
enemy that was known to be slowly moving up the banks of the river, in
order to cover a party of foragers in its rear. He was accompanied by a
small party of Lawton's troop, under the expectation that their
testimony might be required to convict the prisoner; and Mason, the
lieutenant, was in command. But the confession of Captain Wharton had
removed the necessity of examining any