Lights and Shadows of the South
where the tide lapped away the sand thrown over them, De Courcy wished that death instead of capture had been his lot, for, next to his love, he prized his liberty.
One day he was told off, with a handful of others, for transfer to a stockade on the Delaware, and how his heart beat when he learned that the new prison was within twenty miles of home! His flow of spirits returned, and his new jailors liked him for his frankness and laughed at his honest expletives against the king. He had the liberty of the inclosure, and was not long in finding where the wall was low, the ditch narrow, and the abatis decayed—knowledge that came useful to him sooner than he expected, for one day a captured horse was led in that made straight for him with a whinny and rubbed his nose against his breast.
"Why!" he cried, "it's Cecil! My horse, gentlemen—or, was. Not a better hunter in Maryland!"
"Yes," answered one of the officers. "We've just taken him from your brother. He's been stirring trouble with his speeches and has got to be quieted. But we'll have him to-day, for he's to be married, and a scouting party is on the road to nab him at the altar."
"Married! My brother! What! Ernest, the lawyer, the orator? Ho, ho! Ah, but its rather hard to break off a match in that style!"
"Hard for him, may be; but they say the lady
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