"Even so. Your lordship speaks truly."
"Your father—my friend, Philip Lindsay, is a faithful and persevering loyalist."
"To the peril of his life and fortune," replied Mildred.
"And yet Butler is his friend?"
"He would be esteemed so, if it please your lordship—and, in heart and feeling, is so."
"He is related to your family, perhaps?"
"Related in affection, my lord, and plighted love," said Mildred, blushing and casting her eyes upon the ground.
"So!—Now I apprehend. And there are bonds between you?"
"I may not answer your lordship," returned the lady. "It only imports our present business to tell your lordship, that Arthur Butler never came to the Dove Cote but with the purest purpose of good to all who lodged beneath its roof. He has never come there but that I was apprised of his intent; and never thought rose in his heart that did not breathe blessings upon all that inhabit near my father. Oh, my lord, it is a base trick of an enemy to do him harm; and they have contrived this plot to impose upon your lordship's generous zeal in my father's behalf."
"It is a strange story," said Cornwallis. "And does your father know nothing of this visit? Have you, Miss Lindsay, committed yourself to all the chances of this rude war, and undertaken this long and toilsome journey, to vindicate a rebel charged with a most heinous device of perfidy? It is a deep and painful interest that could move you to this enterprise."