ctly; I shall be tried by a court-martial and shot.
I've made up my mind to it--at all events, it's better than being hung
like a dog, or being flogged to death like a nigger. I shall die like a
gentleman, if I have never been one before, that's some comfort. Nay, I
shall go out of the world with as much noise as if a battle had been
fought, or a great man had died."

"How do you mean?"

"Why there'll be more than one _bullet-in_."

"This is no time for jesting, Tom."

"Not for you, Jacob, as a sincere friend, I grant; not for poor Mary, as
a devoted girl; not for my poor father and mother--no, no," continued
Tom. "I feel for them, but for myself I neither fear nor care. I have
not done wrong--I was pressed against the law and Act of Parliament, and
I deserted. I was enlisted when I was drunk and mad, and I deserted.
There is no disgrace to me; the disgrace is to the government which
suffers such acts. If I am to be a victim, well and good--we can only
die once."

"Very true, Tom; but you are young to die, and we must hope for the
best."

"I have given up all hope, Jacob. I know the law will be put in force.
I shall die and go to another and a better world, as the parson says,
where, at all events, there will be no muskets to clean, no drill, and
none of your confounded pipe-clay, which has almost driven me mad. I
should like to die in a blue jacket--in a red coat I will not, so I
presume I shall go out of the world in my shirt, and that's more than I
had when I came in."

"Mary and her father are coming down to you, Tom."

"I'm sorry for that, Jacob; it would be cruel not to see her--but she
blames herself so much that I cannot bear to read her letters. But,
Jacob, I will see her, to try if I can comfort her--but she must not
stay; she must go back again till after the court-martial, and the
sentence, and then--if she wishes to take her farewell, I suppose I must
not refuse." A few tears dropped from his eyes as he said this.
"Jacob, will you wait and take her back to town?--she must not stay
here--and I will not see my father and mother until the last. Let us
make one job of it, and then all will be over."

As Tom said this the door of the cell again opened, and Stapleton
supported in his daughter. Mary tottered to where Tom stood, and fell
into his arms in a fit of convulsions. It was necessary to remove her,
and she was carried out. "Let her not come in again, I beseech you,
Jacob; take her