Arnold's TempterComfort, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Freeman)
History
Arnold's Tempter
Comfort, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Freeman)
Arnold, Benedict, 1741-1801 -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
“My God, I am blushing again! What ails me? I tremble. Oh, that face!
that voice! those words deep in wisdom! Great God! I am in love!”
* * * * *
He paced up and down his chamber. He took off his shoes and outer
garments and lay down to sleep, but he could not. He tossed from side
to side; he jumped up and sat on the chair, but no repose could he find.
“What can I do? Shall I throw everything overboard? Shall I renounce
my mission, and ask Miss Greydon to be my wife? No, I can not do that,
for the traitor, Arnold, has me in his power. If I proceed in this
nefarious business, my life will not be right to meet this pure and
innocent soul on an equality.”
Straightening himself up and gazing out of the window, Barclugh saw
the birds carrying straws to build their nests, and the bees bringing
honey to the hive in the garden, and he mused no longer but walked to
and fro as he resolved:
“Come, Barclugh, brace thyself. Ah, I shall proceed. I shall attempt
both ends. If one fail, perhaps the other will succeed. I know which
one I most desire.
“But I must not linger here. To hear her voice again I shall be lost. I
must go very soon; yes, at once.”
Barclugh had now calmed and he lay down again and slept soundly for two
hours.
Awakening with a start, he dressed in haste, and found his host and
informed him that the urgency of this business would not let him rest
longer.
Leaving his compliments for his hostess and Miss Mollie with the
Doctor, Barclugh mounted his horse and galloped down the avenue of
hemlocks to the public road, and took the direction of Trenton on the
Delaware.
CHAPTER XIII
The dearest thought of an American patriot is the fact that, no matter
how deep and powerful the plots for aristocratic forms of government,
these ideas wither and die in embryo on the free soil of America.
The dreams of a Fairfax in Virginia, the Patroons in New York, a
Blennerhasset in the Ohio Valley, were never to be realized in the
free air of America. The principle of primogeniture found no favor
in the new land of hope and refuge. The Covenanters in Pennsylvania
and the valley of Virginia, the Puritans in New England, the Quakers
in Pennsylvania, the Catholics in Maryland, the Debtors in Georgia,
all left British soil with grievances which were to be righted in the
wilderness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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