ent to load my horse as well as
Rockets and our guides, which they thought might prove useful.

They had heard, I found, nothing of my expedition up the Nansimond
river, and as no one could know that I was one of those engaged in it, I
considered it prudent to say nothing about the matter, and I trusted
that Madeline would remember that, unless she betrayed her secret, none
of her friends were likely to discover it. In the course of
conversation her cousins spoke frequently of her, and I sent her several
messages. I hoped by their tenor that she would understand that I had
not mentioned our having met. My great hope was that Mrs Langton,
guessing how things stood, would invite her to come to Hampton, and that
I might thus have the opportunity of meeting her, should I again be sent
on shore with a flag of truce. None but those who have been knocking
about for months and years together at sea among rough uncivilised men
can fully appreciate the satisfaction which a sailor feels in spending a
few brief hours under the soothing influence of refined female society.

It was with a feeling of undisguised annoyance that at last I received
my despatches and had to mount my horse to return. No one would have
supposed, as my friends bade me farewell, that I was serving on the side
of their enemies, and yet I am certain that no more sincere patriots
were to be found in America, only they had the sense not to confound the
individual with the cause with which circumstances compelled him to
side.

The army, with their guns, ammunition, and stores, had now safely
disembarked, and were on their march up the banks of James river. The
first lieutenant of the Charon, with a detachment of our men, had
accompanied them. I was therefore selected in his place to take command
of a party consisting of a hundred seamen and marines from the different
ships of war, and to go on shore and forage for the squadron. The
marines were commanded by a Lieutenant Brown, and I had two navy
lieutenants besides under me. No duty I could have been ordered to
perform would have been more distasteful, yet I had no choice but to
obey and carry it out to the best of my ability. Having landed at
Newportneuse, we began our march at eight o'clock in the morning into
Elizabeth County. Not having been brought up like some of my Highland
friends in the art of levying black mail on my lowland neighbours, I
could not help feeling as if I had suddenly turned in