, and in its very
entrance he was met by a man supporting the insensible form of Sarah.
There was but barely time to reach the lawn again before the fire
broke through the windows and wrapped the whole building in a sheet of
flame.

"God be praised!" ejaculated[97] the preserver of Sarah; "it would
have been a dreadful death to die."

[Footnote 97: exclaimed.]

The trooper turned from gazing at the edifice to the speaker, and, to
his astonishment, he beheld the peddler.

"Captain Lawton," said Birch, leaning in momentary exhaustion against
the fence to which they had retired from the heat, "I am again in your
power, for I can neither flee nor resist."

"The cause of America is as dear to me as life," said the trooper;
"but she cannot require her children to forget gratitude and honor.
Fly, unhappy man, while yet you are unseen, or it will exceed my power
to save you."

"May God prosper you, and make you victorious over your enemies!" said
Birch, grasping the hand of the dragoon with iron strength that his
meagre figure did not indicate.

"Hold!" said Lawton; "but a word--are you what you seem?--can you--are
you?----"

"A royal spy," interrupted Birch, averting his face, and endeavoring
to release his hand.

"Then go, miserable wretch," said the trooper, relinquishing his
grasp; "either avarice or delusion has led a noble heart astray!"

The bright light from the flames reached a great distance around the
ruins, but the words were hardly past the lips of Lawton, before the
gaunt form of the peddler had glided over the visible space, and had
plunged into the darkness beyond.

The walls of the cottage were all that was left of the building; and
these, blackened by smoke, and stripped of their piazzas and
ornaments, were but dreary memorials of the content and security that
had so lately reigned within. The roof, together with the rest of the
wood-work, had tumbled into the cellars, and pale and flitting light,
ascending from their embers, shone faintly through the windows. The
early flight of the Skinners left the dragoons at liberty to exert
themselves in saving much of the furniture which lay scattered in
heaps on the lawn, giving the finishing touch of desolation to the
scene.

"Come," said the surgeon, "the night air can do no service to these
ladies, and it is incumbent on us to remove them where they can find
surgical attendance and refreshment."

To this rational proposition no objection coul