which the soldier gradually prevailed over the man; when he turned to the prisoner, with a searching look, as he asked

Captain Wharton, whence did you procure this paper?”

"That is a question I conceive Major Dunwoodie has no right to ask," said the other, distantly.

"Your pardon, Sir," returned the American officer, "my feelings may have led me into an impropriety."

Mr. Wharton, who had been a deeply interested auditor to the conversation, now so far conquered his feelings as to say, Surely, Major Dunwoodie, the paper cannot be material: such artifices are used daily in war."

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"This name is no counterfeit," said the dragoon, studying the characters and speaking in a low voice. "Is treason yet among us undiscovered? The confidence of Washington has been abused, for the fictitious name is in a different hand from the pass. Captain Wharton, my duty will not suffer

me to grant you a parole: you must accompany me to the Highlands."

"I did not expect otherwise, Major Dunwoodie," said the prisoner, haughtily, moving towards his father, and speaking to him in a low tone.

Dunwoodie turned slowly towards the sisters, when the figure of Frances once more arrested his gaze: she had risen from her seat, and stood again with her hands clasped before him in an attitude of intense interest. Feeling himself unable to contend longer with his feelings, he made a hurried excuse for a temporary absence, and left the room. Frances followed him; and, obedient to the direction of her eye, the soldier re-entered the apartment in which had been their first interview.

"Major Dunwoodie," said Frances, in a voice barely audible, as she beckoned to him to be seated; her cheek, which had been of a chilling whiteness, was flushed with a suffusion that crimsoned her whole countenance; she struggled with herself

for a moment, and continued, "I have already acknowledged to you my esteem; even now, when you most painfully distress me, I wish not to conceal it. Believe me, Henry is innocent of every thing but imprudence. Our country can sustain no wrong"-again she paused, and almost gasped for breath; her colour changed rapidly from red to white, until the blood rushed into her face, covering her features with the brightest vermillion, and she added hastily, in an under tone, "I have promised, Dunwoodie, when peace is restored to our country, to become your wife, give to my brother his liberty on parole, and I will this day go with you to the altar, follow you to the camp, and, in becoming a soldier's bride, learn to endure a soldier's privation."

Dunwoodie seized the hand which the blushing maid had in her ardour extended towards him, and pressed it for a moment to his bosom, then rising from his seat, paced the room in excessive agitation as he exclaimed

"Frances, say no more, I conjure you, unless you wish to break my heart."

"You then reject my offered hand?” said the maid, with an air of offended delicacy, rising with dignity, though her pale cheek and quivering lip plainly showed the conflicting passions within."

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Reject it!" cried her lover with enthusiasm; "have I not sought it with entreaties, with tears? Has it not been the goal of all my earthly wishes? But to take it under such conditions would be to dishonour us both. Yet hope for better things. Henry must be acquitted; perhaps not tried. No intercession of mine will be wanting, you must well know; and believe me, Frances, I am not without favour with Washington."

"That very paper, that abuse of his confidence to which you alluded, will steel him to my brother's sufferings. If threats or entreaties could move his stern sense of justice, would André have suffered ?" said the maid despairingly, as she flew from the room to conceal the violence of her emotions..

Dunwoodie remained for a minute nearly stupified with the distress of his mistress and the pain of his own feelings, and then followed, with a view to vindicate himself and relieve her apprehensions. On entering the hall that divided the two parlours, he was met by a small ragged boy, who looked one moment at his dress, and, placing a piece of paper in his hand in silence, immediately vanished through the outer door of the building. The bewildered state of his mind, and the suddenness of the occurrence, gave the Major barely time to observe the messenger to be a country lad, meanly attired, and that he held in his hand one of those toys which are to be bought in cities, and which he now apparently contemplated with the conscious pleasure of having fairly purchased, by the performance of the service required. The soldier turned his eyes to the subject of the note. It was written on a piece of torn and soiled paper, and in a hand barely legible; but, after some