I thought his talk but the foolish babble of a drunken man, and turned it aside with jest and banter.
When presently the more sober arose to depart, the officer who had sat next to Colonel Forbes, and who, since the latter had waxed so confidential, had lapsed into silence, took me by the arm and asked me to go with him to a small cloak room adjoining the banqueting hall.
"Captain McElroy," he said when we were seated and alone, "Colonel Forbes has prematurely made you an offer we have been contemplating for some days, and in regard to which I was authorized to sound you. We have good reason to believe there is an officer in the rebel ranks well affected to our cause; we need some one who can freely communicate with him--if you will consent to help us, a captain's commission in the British army, with promise of speedy promotion, and any sum of ready money you may name is yours. Only sign this paper, and the compact is closed."
I took the paper he handed me, opened and read it, then rose to my feet, and slowly tore it into bits, throwing them, as I did so, into the fire.
[Illustration: "YOU HAVE EVIDENTLY MISTAKEN ME FOR A VILLAIN."]
"Captain Forsythe," I said, while my hand and my voice shook with the strain I put upon myself to control my anger, "you and others have evidently mistaken me for a villain of that low and despicable type capable of treason to his country. For the present I condone the insult for the sake of other British officers who have seemed to consider me a man of honor. I bid you good night, sir," and reaching for cloak and hat, I hastened into the street, where the freshness and purity of the early morning air and the calming message of the steadfast stars--shining on in their clear, soft beauty, whether men pray and sleep like Christians, or dice and plot, and drink like devils, on the changeful earth beneath them--cooled my fevered brow, and helped me to restrain a seething desire to take violent vengeance upon my insulter. But I realized clearly the foolhardiness of such course, and moreover the ingratitude and disrespect to my friends it would seem to imply.
The second evening after the banquet was the one set for the performance of our carefully rehearsed comedy, and all the Tory society of Philadelphia was agog with interest and curiosity to see the latest London hit, played by the belles of the city and the most popular of the British officers. I was told, moreover, that the story had gone abroad that the part of Sir Peter would be taken by a youthful Virginia mountaineer, whose giant proportions and unusual gifts of person and bearing--considering his backwoods breeding--made him the feature of the performance. I was no little annoyed by this talk, though I credited Wheaton, who retailed it to me, with a good deal of bantering exaggeration. In truth, being still sore from the insult offered me at the banquet, I wanted to throw up my part; but, after consideration of the difficulties it would entail upon my entertainers, and others who had been courteous to me, I forced myself to stick to my role cheerfully, and to do my best at it.