country."

"Miss Temple," returned Bernard, with a grave voice, "since you are
determined to treat seriously what I have said, I will change my tone.
Though you choose to doubt my sincerity, I must express the deep
sympathy which I feel in your sorrows, even though I know that these
sorrows are induced by your apprehensions for the fate of a rival."

"And that sympathy, sir, is illustrated by your present actions," said
Virginia, bitterly. "You would be at the same time the Judean robber
and the good Samaritan, and while inflicting a deadly wound upon your
victim, and stripping him of cherished hopes, you would administer the
oil and wine of your mocking sympathy."

"I might choose to misunderstand your unkind allusions, Miss Temple,"
replied Bernard, "but there is no need of concealment between us. You
have rightly judged the object of my mission, but in this I act as the
officer of government, not as the ungenerous rival of Major Hansford."

"So does the public executioner," replied Virginia, "but I am not aware
that in its civil and military departments as well as in the navy, our
government impresses men into her service against their will."

"You seem determined to misunderstand me, Virginia," said Alfred, with
some warmth; "but you shall learn that I am not capable of the want of
generosity which you attribute to me. Know then, that it was from a
desire to serve you personally through your friend, that I urged the
governor to let me come in pursuit of Major Hansford. Suppose, instead,
he should fall in the hands of Beverley. Cruel and relentless as that
officer has already shown himself to be, his prisoner would suffer every
indignity and persecution, even before he was delivered to the tender
mercies of Sir William Berkeley--while in me, as his captor, you may
rest assured that for your sake, he would meet with kindness and
indulgence, and even my warm mediation with the governor in his behalf."

"Oh, then," cried Virginia, trusting words so softly and plausibly
spoken, "if you are indeed impelled by a motive so generous and
disinterested, it is still in your power to save him. Your influence
with the Governor is known, and one word from your lips might control
the fate of a brave man, and restore happiness and peace to a
broken-hearted girl. Oh! would not this amply compensate even for the
neglect of duty? Would it not be far nobler to secure the happiness of
two grateful hearts, than to shed the blood of