This time, they hoped to escape the conquerors’ rage. But early in the morning, a party of them came back, and demanded that all the Catholics should be given up to them. Joseph replied, as he had done before: “I cannot give up my helpless and dying neighbours, whether they be Pikemen or Orangemen. I will do good to all, and harm to none, come to me what may.”
“That’s impartial, anyhow,” said the captain. He took some Orange cockades from his pocket, and added, “Wear these, and my men will do you no harm.”
“I cannot conscientiously wear one,” replied Joseph, “because they are emblems of war.”
The captain laughed half scornfully, and handing one to Alice, said, “Well, my good girl, you can wear one, and then you need not be afraid of our soldiers.”
She looked very pleasantly in his face and answered, “I should be afraid if I did not trust in something better than a cockade.”
The leader of the Orangemen was arrested by the same spell that stopped the leader of the Pikemen. But some of his followers, who had been lingering about the door, called out, “What’s the use of parleying? Isn’t the old traitor nursing Catholics, to fight us again when they get well? If he won’t serve the government by fighting for us, he will at least do to stop a bullet as well as a braver man. Bring him out, and put him in the front ranks to be shot at!” One of them seized Joseph to drag him away; but Alice laid a trembling hand on his arm, and said, beseechingly, “Before you take him, come and see the wounded Orangemen, with their wives and children, whom my father and mother have fed and tended night and day.” A pale figure, with bandaged head and one arm in a sling, came forth from an adjoining room and said, “Comrades, you surely will not harm these worthy people. They have fed our children, and buried our dead, as if we were their own brothers.” The soldiers listened, and, suddenly changing their mood, went off shouting, “Hurrah for the Quakers!”
Some days of comparative quiet followed. Colonel Campbell was buried in his own garden, with as much deference to the wishes of his widow as circumstances would permit. She returned from the funeral calmer than she had been, and quietly assisted in taking care of the wounded. But when she retired to her little room, and saw a crucifix fastened on the wall at the foot of her bed, she burst into tears and said, “Who has done this?”
Alice gently replied, “I did it. I found it in the mud, where the little chapel used to stand. I know it is a sacred emblem to thee, and I thought it would pain thee to have it there; so I have washed it carefully and placed it in thy room.”
The bereaved Catholic kissed the friendly hand that had done so kind a deed; and tears fell on it, as she murmured, “Good child! may the Holy Virgin bless thee!”
Balmy is a blessing from any human heart, whether it be given in the name of Jesus or Mary, God or Allah. Alice slept well, and guardian angels rejoiced over her in heaven.