"He won't be buried to-day," the sergeant said; "for the gates are not to be opened save by special order from the governor. Now, lads," he went on, turning to the men, "search the place from top to bottom. examine all the cupboards and sound the floors, turn over all the wood in the shed, and leave not a single place unsearched where a mouse could be hid."
The soldiers scattered through the house, and were soon heard knocking the scanty furniture about and sounding the floors and walls. At last they returned, saying that nothing was to be found.
"And now," the sergeant said, "I must have a look in that coffin. Who knows but what the traitor Scot may be hid in there!"
Mrs. Martin leaped to her feet.
"You shall not touch the coffin!" she said; "I will not have the remains of my husband disturbed." The sergeant pushed her roughly aside, and with the end of his pike prised up the lid of the coffin, while Mrs. Martin and the other three mourners screamed lustily and wrung their hands in the greatest grief.
A WIFE'S STRATAGEM.—VII.
Just as the sergeant opened the coffin and satisfied himself that a dead man really lay within, an officer, attracted by the screams, entered the room.
"What is this, sergeant?" he asked angrily. "The orders were to search the houses, but none were given you to trouble the inmates."
Mrs. Martin began to complain of the conduct of the soldiers in wrenching open the coffin.
"It was a necessary duty, my good woman," the officer said, "seeing that a living man might have been carried away instead of a dead one; however, I see all is right."