“‘How can one sympathize with such obstinate people as these rebels are? When one is in their company they are barely civil, and that is, as Jack Falstaff says, by compulsion. They seem to grow stronger by every defeat. And why do they? They seem like Antæus, of whom ’twas fabled that being a son of the goddess Tellus, or the earth, every fall he received from Hercules gave him more strength so that the hero was forced to strangle him in his arms at last. Would that our minister could send us a Hercules to conquer these rebels. “‘If you can secure my release, Harriet, do so. I am quite sure that Sir Henry Clinton, if the matter is brought to his attention, would exert himself regarding an exchange. As you are doubtless aware, an affair of this kind must be kept prominently before the notice of the great ones, else it will be shelved for some other thing that is pressed with more persistence. And yet, if nothing can be accomplished save by the connivance of that captain, lieutenant, or whatever he may be, I would rather a thousand times stay as I am. Write me, if you are still my loyal sister. “’Wilson Williams (Clifford Owen).’ “If ever,” spoke Harriet with tears of vexation filling her lovely eyes, “if ever I see that John Drayton again I will give him occasion to remember it. Clifford never wrote such a dreadful letter to me before. Peggy Owen, ’tis no laughing matter.” “No,” agreed Peggy merrily. “No, ’tis not, Harriet. And yet I cannot help but laugh. I cry thy pardon, my cousin, but, but——” Unable to finish she gave vent to another peal of laughter. ----- [3] Now Elkton, Maryland. [4] Horn ink-bottle, and powder, or sand, to dry the written page. [5] At Burgoyne’s earnest solicitation General Gates consented that the surrender at Saratoga should be styled a “convention.” This was in imitation of the famous convention of Kloster-Seven, by which the Duke of Cumberland, twenty years before, sought to save his feelings while losing his army, beleaguered by the French in Hanover. The soothing phrase has been well remembered by the British, who to this day speak of the surrender as the “Convention of Saratoga.” CHAPTER VII—HARRIET TAKES MATTERS IN HAND “I feel less anger than regret. No violence of speech, no obloquy, No accusation shall escape my lips: Need there is none, nor reason, to avoid My questions: if thou value truth, reply.” —“Count Julian,” _Walter Savage Landor_. “And if it had not been for your insisting upon it that shirt would never have been made,” went on Harriet in an aggrieved tone.