Chapter 28 - Page 2

British officer; and one pledge, that no rescue should be
attempted, was given in his name, for them all. A short conversation was
passing between the woman of the house and the corporal of the guard,
before the door that the sentinel had already opened in anticipation of
the decision of his noncommissioned commandant.

"Would you refuse the consolations of religion to a fellow creature
about to suffer death?" said the matron, with earnest zeal. "Would you
plunge a soul into the fiery furnace, and a minister at hand to point
out the straight and narrow path?"

"I'll tell you what, good woman," returned the corporal, gently pushing
her away; "I've no notion of my back being a highway for any man to walk
to heaven upon. A pretty figure I should make at the pickets, for
disobeying orders. Just step down and ask Lieutenant Mason, and you may
bring in a whole congregation. We have not taken the guard from the foot
soldiers, but an hour, and I shouldn't like to have it said that we know
less than the militia."

"Admit the woman," said Dunwoodie, sternly, observing, for the first
time, that one of his own corps was on post.

The corporal raised his hand to his cap, and fell back in silence; the
soldier stood to his arms, and the matron entered.

"Here is a reverend gentleman below, come to soothe the parting soul, in
the place of our own divine, who is engaged with an appointment that
could not be put aside; 'tis to bury old Mr.---"

"Show him in at once," said Henry, with feverish impatience.

"But will the sentinel let him pass? I would not wish a friend of
Mr.--to be rudely stopped on the threshold, and he a stranger."

All eyes were now turned on Dunwoodie, who, looking at his watch, spoke
a few words with Henry, in an undertone, and hastened from the
apartment, followed by Frances. The subject of their conversation was a
wish expressed by the prisoner for a clergyman of his own persuasion,
and a promise from the major, that one should be sent from Fishkill
town, through which he was about to pass, on his way to the ferry to
intercept the expected return of Harper. Mason soon made his bow at the
door, and willingly complied with the wishes of the landlady; and the
divine was invited to make his appearance accordingly.

The person who was ushered into the apartment, preceded by Caesar, and
followed by the matron, was a man beyond the middle age, or who might
rather be said to approach the downhill of life. In stature he was above
the size of ordinary men, though his excessive leanness might
contribute in deceiving as to his height; his countenance was sharp and
unbending, and every muscle seemed set in