“And did you abstract the paper?” I inquired.
“Here it is,” says he, and gave it to me with a proud appearance.
I dismissed the honest fellow with a purse and a few compliments on his exceptional ability, which even the best of men are greedy to receive; and gave him some instructions touching their captive’s entertainment. You may take it that I never was more complacent in any battle than in the signal victory my arms had achieved in this. The Captain’s wit might be considerable, but it was indeed a satisfaction to hold the proof that my own resources were, after all, despite my foe’s unscrupulosity and keenness, good enough to thwart him. His emissary, his special messenger, his wretched tool, was under lock and key; the dread instrument he had so diligently waved above my head, and had disturbed my dreams with, had not yet reached the Government, but lay upon my writing-table, a prisoner of war. ’Twas a very triumph. I picked up this red-sealed horror and brandished it before the blaze. “The Secretary of State, Whitehall, London.” I insulted that elegant inscription in divers ways, but ere I bestowed upon it the crowning indignity of all, its committal to the flames, the whim seized me to read its precious contents once again. Tearing off the cover, I drew forth four precisely folded sheets of foolscap. But directly afterwards, I think a feather might have felled me. There was not a word of writing on them!
What could be the meaning? The packet had been sealed implicitly with a great array of wax; had been addressed in a large, fair hand to the Secretary of State; had been ravished from the custody of Flickers, yet here it was, blanker than my hand.
I was wholly staggered. Presently I plagued my wits for explanations, but no matter how diligent my mind was it could not override the fact that the letter was empty. Later I took counsel of Mrs. Emblem, but she could merely stare and wag her silly head. On her suggestion, however, I resummoned William Goodman. He swore an oath that this was the only document on the person of the Corporal. When I pressed him on the point he reluctantly admitted that as they barred the door upon the prisoner after the rape of the packet, he called out to them to this, or similar, effect:
“These dirty doings is all that ladyship o’ yours. I know; but harkee! just you tell that brazen jade o’ yours the Captain’s not a fool, the Captain’s not, but smart, downright smart, my boys, and laughs at such as her. And tell her she’s welcome to the paper, for it’s not a bit o’ use to her, nor to me, nor to the Captain, and she’s welcome to chew it to her supper if she likes; and you can tell her, boys, that the Captain’s laughing at her in his sleeve.”
Goodman then withdrew. Turning on Emblem fiercely when he had done so, I cried out in the very extremity of rage:
“Oh, the deep devil! Oh, the cunning, foxey fiend! But, remark me, girl, d’ye hear? I say, remark me, I’ll be revenged upon that Captain as I’m a female. I’m resolved upon it, I’ll be revenged. Ha, thou ancient enemy, I’ll have thee yet, and then I’ll twist thee. Ha! I see thee squirming like a lizard in the sun. Thou belly-wriggling snake, I’ll pay thee for it. Eve was not my early mamma else! I’ll correct thee of these Eden tricks, thou worm, thou abominable night-bite!”
It was the pains of disappointment, combined with the keen thought that, after all, the Captain had occasion for his mockery that whipt me to this transport. The descent from supposition to hard fact was, indeed, most cruel. My pretty schemes, that had been designed to assist young Anthony and show the crafty soldier in a foolish light, where were they now? And the Captain sitting calmly down and laughing to himself at my predicament! Mrs. Polly Emblem had wisely fled the chamber, else I would not have answered for her at that instant.
An hour passed, and I had pulled all the curls out of my hair, and had washed half the powder from my face with weeping, when the door was opened and Mr. Anthony appeared. He looked at me steadily a minute, a deal of criticism in his eye.