"At Brabant, the seat of the respectable and patriotic Bishop Smith, a sergeant of Tarleton's dragoons, eager for the acquisition of plunder, followed the overseer, a man advanced in years, into the apartment where the ladies of the family were assembled, and on his refusing to discover the spot in which the plate was concealed, struck him with violence, inflicting a severe sabre wound across the shoulders. Aroused by the infamy of the act, Mrs. Shubrick, starting from her seat, and placing herself betwixt the ruffian and his victim, resolutely said, 'Place yourself behind me, Murdoch; the interposition of my body shall give you protection, or I will die:' then, addressing herself to the sergeant, exclaimed, 'O what a degradation of manhood--what departure from that gallantry which was once the characteristic of British soldiers. Human nature is degraded by your barbarity;--but should you persist, then strike at _me_, for till I die, no further injury shall be done to _him_.' The sergeant, unable to resist such commanding eloquence, retired."[69] [69] "The hope, however, of attaining the object in view, very speedily subjected the unfortunate Murdoch to new persecution. He was tied up under the very tree where the plate was buried, and threatened with immediate execution unless he would make the discovery required. But although well acquainted with the unrelenting severity of his enemy, and earnestly solicited by his wife, to save his life by a speedy confession of the place of deposit, he persisted resolutely, that a sacred trust was not to be betrayed, and actually succeeded in preserving it." KEEN RETORT OF MRS. ASHE. I have a thousand spirits in one breast, To answer twenty thousand such as you. SHAKSPEARE. While General Leslie was staying with the British troops at Halifax, North Carolina, Colonel Tarleton and other officers held their quarters at the house of Colonel Ashe, whose wife was a firm friend of liberty. Her beau ideal of the hero was Colonel William Washington; and, knowing this fact, the sarcastic Tarleton took great delight in speaking diminutively of this officer in her presence. In his jesting way, he remarked to her one time, that he should like to have an opportunity of seeing her friend, Colonel Washington, whom he had understood to be a very small man. Mrs. Ashe promptly replied, "If you had looked behind you, Colonel Tarleton, at the battle of the Cowpens, you would have had that pleasure."[70] [70] It is said that this taunt was so keenly felt that Tarleton laid his hand on the hilt of his sword. General Leslie entered the room at the moment, and seeing the agitation of Mrs. Ashe, and learning its cause, said to her, "Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe; Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in my presence." PHILANTHROPIC WIFE OF A DRUNKARD. There's in you all that we believe of heaven.