_Helen_. Has it come to this? Will you break my heart? If it were continents and oceans that you bade me cross, but those few steps--Ah, they would sever me from him for ever, and I cannot, I cannot, I can _not_ take them,--there is no motion so impossible. Yes, they are calling us. Do not stay. (_Annie enters_.) _Annie_. Mother, will you tell me what this means? _Mrs. G_. Yes, come in. We will waste no more time about it. She will stay here to meet her lover, she will forsake us for a traitor. We have nursed an enemy among us. The babe I cherished in this bosom, whose sleeping face I watched with a young mother's love, hath become my enemy. Oh my God--is it from thee? _Annie_. Helen! my sister! Helen! _Mrs. G_. Ay, look at her. Would you think that the spirit which heaves in that light frame, and glances in those soft eyes, held such cruel power? Yesterday I would have counted it a breath in the way of my lightest purpose, and now--come away, Annie--it is vain, you cannot move her. (_George enters_.) _George_. Mother, if Helen will not go now, we must leave her to her fate or share it with her. Every wagon is on the road but ours. A little more, and we shall be too late for the protection of the army. Shall I stay with her? _Mrs. G_. No, never. That were a sure and idle waste of life. Helen, perhaps, may be safe with them. Oh. yes, the refugees are safe, else desertion would grow out of fashion soon. _Annie_. Refugees! Refugee! Helen! _Mrs. G_. It sounds strange for one of us I know. You will grow used to it soon. Helen belongs to the British side, she will go over to them to-day, but she must go alone, for none of us would be safe in British hands, at least I trust so--this morning's experience might make me doubtful, but I trust we are all true here yet beside. _Annie_. Have I heard aright, Helen?--or is this all some fearful dream? You and I, who have lived together all the years of our lives, to be parted this moment, and for ever,--no, no! (_A young American Officer enters hastily_.) _Capt. Grey_. Softly, softly! What is this? Are you in this conspiracy to disgrace me, mother? Oh, very well; if you have all decided to stay here, I'll take my leave. _Annie_. Oh, Henry, stay. You can persuade her it may be. _Capt. G. Persuade_! What's all this! A goodly time for rhetoric forsooth! Who's this that's risking all our lives, waiting to be persuaded now? _Mrs. G_. That Tory, Henry! We should have thought of this. Ah, if we had gone yesterday,--that haughty Maitland,--she will stay here to meet him! She will marry him, my son. _Capt. G_. Maitland!--and stay here! _Helen_. Dear Henry, let us part in kindness. Do not look on me with that angry eye. It was I that played with you in the woods and meadows, it was I that roamed with you in those autumn twilights,--you loved me then, and we are parting for ever it may be..