aider.

In the cabin of the sloop Colonel Wilton was sitting on one of the
lockers, his arm around Katharine, who was leaning against him,
weeping, her hands before her face. Desborough was standing
respectfully in front of them.

"And you say he made a good fight?" asked the colonel, sadly.

"Splendid, sir. We stole up to the boat-house with muffled oars,
wishing to give no warning, and before he knew it half of us were on
the wharf. He challenged, we made a rush; he shot the first man in the
breast and brained the next with his clubbed musket, shouting words of
warning the while. The men fell back and handled their pistols. I
heard two or three shots, and then he fell, never making another sound.
But for Johnson's forethought in sending a second boat load to the
upper landing to get to the back of the house, you might have escaped
with the warning and the delay he caused. He was a brave man, and died
like a soldier," continued the young man, softly.

"He saved my life at Cartagena, and when I caught the fever there, he
nursed me at the risk of his own. He was faithfulness itself. He died
as he would have liked to die, with his face to the enemy. I loved him
in a way you can hardly understand. Yes, he was a brave man,--my poor
old friend."

On the rustic bench beside the driveway overlooking the river sat a
little woman, older by ten years in the two hours which had elapsed
since she looked after the disappearing figure of her son.

She heard the sound of wheels upon the gravel road, and recognized
Colonel Wilton's carriage and horses coming up the hill; there were her
own two horses following after, but neither of the riders was her son.
What could have happened? She rose in alarm. The carriage stopped
near her.

"What, mother, are you still here?" said Hilary, opening the door and
stepping out, his voice cold and stern.

"Yes, my son; what has happened?"

"Dunmore's men have raided the Wilton place. Katharine and her father
have been carried away by that brute Johnson, who commanded the party.
Seymour has been wounded in defending Katharine. I have brought him
here. This is the way," he went on fiercely, "his majesty the king
wages war on his beloved subjects of Virginia."

"'They that take the sword, shall perish with the sword,'" she quoted
with equal resolution.

"And Blodgett is killed too," he added.

"What else have those who rebel against their rightful monarch a right
to exp