"

"There comes my pretty Jeanie," said her old father, as he saw her
approach. "And so you found her at last, mother. Come here, dearest, we
have been waiting for you."

The sweet tones of that gentle voice, which however harsh at times to
others, were ever modulated to the sweetest music when he spoke to her,
fell upon the ears of the poor confused and mortified girl, in such
comforting accents, that the full heart could no longer restrain its
gushing feelings, and she burst into tears. With swollen eyes and with a
heavy heart she bade adieu to the several guests, and as Sir William
Berkeley, in the mistaken kindness of his heart, kissed her cheek, and
whispered that Bernard would soon return and all would be happy again,
she sobbed as if her gentle heart would break.

"I always tell the Colonel that he ruins the child," said Mrs. Temple to
the Governor, with one of her blandest smiles, on seeing this renewed
exhibition of sensibility. "It was not so in our day, Lady Frances; we
had other things to think about than crying and weeping. Tears were not
so shallow then."

Lady Frances Berkeley nodded a stately acquiescence to this tribute to
the stoicism of the past, and made some sage, original and relevant
reflection, that shallow streams ever were the most noisy--and then
kissing the weeping girl, repeated the grateful assurance that Bernard
would not be long absent, and that she herself would be present at the
happy bridal, to taste the bride's cake and quaff the knitting cup,[46]
with other like consolations well calculated to restore tranquillity and
happiness to the bosom of the disconsolate Virginia.

And so the unfortunate Berkeley commenced that fatal flight, which
contributed so largely to divert the arms of the insurgents from the
Indians to the government, and to change what else might have been a
mere unauthorized attack upon the common enemies of the country into a
protracted and bloody civil war.

Hansford did not long remain at Windsor Hall, after the departure of the
loyalists. He would indeed have been wanting in astuteness if he had not
inferred from the direct language of Mrs. Temple that he was an
unwelcome visitant at the mansion. But more important, if not more
cogent reasons urged his immediate departure. He saw at a glance the
fatal error committed by Berkeley in his flight to Accomac, and the
immense advantage it would be to the insurgents. He wished, therefore,
without loss of time to co