And the murder was out—this letter of love, the sender of this sent that!

'T is an ugly job, though, all the same—a hateful, to have to deal

With a case of the kind, when a woman 's in fault: we soldiers need nerves of steel!

"So, I gave her a chance, despatched post-haste a message to Vincent Parkes

Whom she wrote to; easy to find he was, since one of the King's own clerks,

Ay, kept by the King's own gold in the town close by where the rebels camp:

A sort of a lawyer, just the man to betray our sort—the scamp!

"'If her writing is simple and honest and only the lover-like stuff it looks,

And if you yourself are a loyalist, nor down in the rebels' books,

Come quick,' said I, 'and in person prove you are each of you clear of crime,