CHAPTER VI—A MESSAGE OF INDIGNATION
| “Thou art a traitor: False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father; Conspirant ’gainst this high illustrous prince; And from the extremest upward of thy head, To the descent and dust beneath thy feet, A most toad-spotted traitor.” —“King Lear,” Shakespeare. |
“Mother, did thee know about the celebration?” asked Peggy, as the two girls entered the sitting-room where Mrs. Owen sat sewing.
“Yes. Friend Deering was here but now, and told me the cause of it. A post-rider hath come from the South, Harriet; there is a letter.”
“From Lieutenant Drayton?” cried Harriet, taking the missive eagerly. “Oh, I wonder if he hath found Clifford?”
“That were best known by reading it,” suggested Peggy, as her cousin stood holding the letter without breaking the seal. “Open it quickly, Harriet. I am beset with curiosity.”
Without more ado Harriet tore open the epistle. As she did so a sealed enclosure fell to the floor, but she was too intent upon what Drayton had written to notice it for the moment. The latter ran:
“Esteemed and Honored Madam: It is with great pleasure that I take up my pen to inform you that at length I have located your brother; and a lively time it gave me, too. I left Philadelphia, as you doubtless remember, on Friday, but it was not until Sunday night that I overtook the party of American horse who had your brother in charge.
“I had inquired concerning them at every inn on the highway, but they had either passed without stopping or had just left; so that I almost despaired of ever coming up with them. By great good fortune, however, I found them at The Head of the Elk[[3]] where I purposed to stay Sunday night. Supper was over, and prisoners and captors sat about the fire in the common room of The Three Lions Tavern when I entered. There were five prisoners in all, and I looked at each one carefully, hoping to recognize your brother by your description of him.
“One, the youngest of the lot, had something strangely familiar about him, and all at once it came to me that he looked like Peggy.”