first,” said Stark, with a snap of his teeth.

Adrian hardly knew what to say to the eccentric brigadier, as he stood there, nodding his head as if to confirm his words.

“General,” he began, “if any unfortunate accident deprives me of credit—if you don’t believe I am properly authorized—”

“I told you I did, young man,” said Stark, with all his old abruptness. “You’re enough like Phil Schuyler to let me see you’re his cousin.”

“Then, General, what am I to understand?”

“That I’ll see them all hanged first.”

And the iron brigadier compressed his teeth like a vise.

Adrian Schuyler began to wax indignant. Without even waiting for a smith to file off his irons, he had ridden to Derryfield, turning loose the black horse, as he had been bidden. Seeking General Stark in the town, in his equivocal guise, he had been arrested by the patrol, and brought in as a prisoner, when he had told his whole story without reserve.

The presence of his gray charger—which had been captured, the night before, around the General’s quarters—confirmed the truth of part of his statement, while Stark’s clear penetration told him that the handsome, open face of Schuyler was not that of a traitor. Being so fully believed, the[Pg 50] General’s brusque answer to his message vexed and surprised him beyond measure.

[Pg 50]

“General Stark,” he began, indignantly, “do you call that a proper answer to the lawful orders of a man like General Schuyler? Are you aware—”

Stark interrupted him in his gruff, abrupt manner:

“Keep cool, young man. I know Phil better than you. He’s a good man—a sight too good to be hustled from pillar to post by those asses of Congressmen. They shan’t hustle me. I hold my commission from New-Hampshire, and intend to stay here.”

“And do you mean to say, General Stark,” asked the hussar, fiercely, “that I am to go back and report to General Schuyler that you refuse to come to his aid, when the enemy are pressing him hard, and you have three thousand men under your orders?”

Stark turned his head to the young man.

“You can tell him and any one else,” he said 

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