"
"It's not like you to give such counsel," I said sadly. "A man cannot
think whether his duty will succeed as long as it's there for him to do
it. Maybe my news would make all the differ. Maybe there would be time
to get Nicholson's militia to the point of danger. God has queer ways
of working, if we trust Him with honest hearts. Besides, a word on the
Border would save the Tidewater folk, for there are ships on the James
and the York to flee to if they hear in time. Let Virginia go down and
be delivered over to painted savages, and some day soon we will win it
back; but we cannot bring life to the dead. I want to save the lowland
manors from what befell the D'Aubignys on the Rapidan, and if I can
only do that much I will be content. Will you counsel me, Ringan, to
neglect my plain duty?"
"I gave no counsel," said Ringan hurriedly. "I was only putting the
common sense of it. It's for you to choose."
Here Grey broke in. "I protest against this craziness. Your first duty
is to your comrades and to this lady. If you desert us we lose our best
musket, and you have as little chance of reaching the Tidewater as the
moon. Arc you so madly enamoured of death, Mr. Garvald?" He spoke in
the old stiff tones of the man I had quarrelled with.
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