The fugitives were pursued by numbers of the hostile party, and in a few moments were dragged back to the lights.
"Who are you, sir?" demanded an officer, who now rode up to Butler, "that you dare to disobey a command in the name of the king? Friend or foe, you must submit to be questioned."
"We have been engaged," said Allen Musgrove, "in the peaceful and Christian duty of burying the dead. What right have you to interrupt us?"
"You take a strange hour for such a work," replied the officer, "and, by the volley fired over the grave, I doubt whether your service be so peaceful as you pretend, old man. What is he that you have laid beneath the turf to-night?"
"A soldier," replied Butler, "worthy of all the rites that belong to the sepulture of a brave man."
"And you are a comrade, I suppose?"
"I do not deny it."
"What colors do you serve?"
"Who is he that asks?"
"Captain McAlpine of the new levies," replied the officer. "Now, sir, your name and character? you must be convinced of my right to know it."