account; but women can be exported and imported without duty,
and when and where one pleases, and therefore the less necessity for
running them out of their old uncle's habitation, in so secret a manner."

"An undeniable position, and a feeling conclusion! I admit the demand to
be made in all form, and I suppose these two gentlemen are to be
considered as witnesses of its legality."

"We have come to aid a wronged and distressed relative and guardian, in
searching for his misguided ward," Ludlow answered.

The free-trader turned his eyes on the Patroon, who signified his assent
by a silent bow.

"'Tis well, gentlemen; I also admit the testimony. But though in common
believed so worthy a subject for justice, I have hitherto had but little
direct communication with the blind deity. Do the authorities usually give
credit to these charges, without some evidence of their truth?"

"Is it denied?"

"You are still in possession of your senses, Captain Ludlow and may freely
use them. But this is an artifice to divert pursuit. There are other
vessels beside the brigantine, and a capricious fair may have sought a
protector, even under a pennant of Queen Anne!"

"This is a truth that has been but too obvious to my mind, Mr. Van
Beverout," observed the sententious Patroon. "It would have been well to
have ascertained whether she we seek has not taken some less exceptionable
course than this, before we hastily believe that your niece would so
easily become the wife of a stranger."

"Has Mr. Van Staats any hidden meaning in his words, that he speaks
ambiguously?" demanded Ludlow.

"A man, conscious of his good intentions, has little occasion to speak
equivocally. I believe, with this reputed smuggler, that la belle Barberie
would be more likely to fly with one she has long known, and whom I fear
she has but too well esteemed, than with an utter stranger, over whose
life there is cast a shade of so dark mystery."

"If the impression that the lady could yield her esteem with too little
discretion, be any excuse for suspicions, then may I advise a search in
the manor of Kinderhook!"

"Consent and joy! The girl need not have stolen to church to become the
bride of Oloff Van Staats!" interrupted the Alderman. "She should have had
my benediction on the match, and a fat gift to give it unction."

"These suspicions are but natural, between men bent on the same object,"
resumed the free-trader. "The officer of the Queen thinks a