ied the captain.

"Sir," replied the colonel, proudly, "the child who has once learned to
walk alone does not afterward go back to creeping and crawling, or
stumbling along by the aid of his mother's hand. We have tasted our
independence, enjoyed it, and now we mean to keep it."

"Splendid, sir! splendid, father!" cried the delighted Katharine.
"There speaks the spirit of Runnymede, and Naseby, too, gentlemen!"

"Hush, hush, my child!" chided the colonel, half amusedly; "it is only
the spirit of a plain man who has learned to love liberty by studying
the history of his ancestry and his people."

"Ah, but, colonel, how are you going to get that liberty without
fighting for it?" asked Beauchamp, with rash temerity. "Howe and
Cornwallis, for instance, have been pursuing Washington for six months,
and could never get near enough to fire a shot at him, so they say."

"Fight, sir, fight!" exclaimed the colonel, in astonished wrath; "why,
God bless me, sir, I am willing to stand out now and show you how they
can fight!"

But Miss Katharine sprang to her feet: "And Bunker Hill, Mr. Beauchamp,
and Long Island!" she cried impetuously.

Beauchamp backed away precipitately from before her in great confusion,
which invoked much mocking comment from the laughing officers round
about him.

"Here is one time the English forces are routed by a rebel!" said
Hollins.

"Yes," added Desborough, "but then Beauchamp is no worse off than the
rest of us would be, if Miss Wilton were opposed to us."

"Well," continued another, coming to the rescue, "we won both of those
engagements, you know, Miss Wilton, after all."

"Won! Who said anything about winning, sir? Anybody can win, if they
have men enough or strength enough and money enough--we were talking
about fighting, sir."

"But really, you know," went on Beauchamp, recovering, and returning to
the charge, "Washington's army haven't fought since those days you
speak of, and they must be wiped out of existence by now, I should
suppose."

"Not if George Washington is still alive," interrupted the colonel, his
anger at the inconsiderate officer having somewhat abated. "I know him
well. I have known him from a boy,--met him first when I used to go
shooting with Lord Fairfax out at Greenway Court. I knew his family;
his brother Lawrence too, I was with him at Cartagena,--where I met
your father, Lord Desborough, by the way,--and the world does not yet
know the quality of tha