There
resolution, courage, endurance, deep design, clear vision, dogged
will, and heroism, lived: a bright furnace of daring resolves and
hopes, which gave England her sound desire.
An officer of his staff presented me. He looked at me with
piercing intelligence, and then, presently, his long hand made
a swift motion of knowledge and greeting, and he said:
"Yes, yes, and you are welcome, Captain Moray. I have heard of
you, of much to your credit. You were for years in durance
there."
He pointed towards the town, where we could see the dome of the
cathedral shine, and the leaping smoke and flame of the roaring
batteries.
"Six years, your Excellency," said I.
"Papers of yours fell into General Braddock's hands, and they
tried you for a spy--a curious case--a curious case! Wherein were
they wrong and you justified, and why was all exchange refused?"
I told him the main, the bare facts, and how, to force certain
papers from me, I had been hounded to the edge of the grave. He
nodded, and seemed lost in study of the mud-flats at the Beauport
shore, and presently took to beating his foot upon the ground.
After a minute, as if he had come back from a distance, he said:
"Yes, yes, broken articles.
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