The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1867-08-13

around the hearth place, that the inSpeC
tor might see when he came that they
made no use of it. Ay, and maybe when
he'd torn his back the bricks would be
taken down until the fine for his next
visit. However, as luck would have l.,
Miss Sally had really no use for the fire
place | suppose it was as much as she
could do, poor lady, TO keep up fire in
the front room
And it so happened that the bricks
were well and firmly built, and even
plastcred over, and they reached within
a couple of fJet of the ceiling. There
was just room for man inside, and
down there rs the soldiers guessed, the
poor fugitive had dropped lie had only
"A few minutes notice of their coming,
and catching up hatchet that was in
tue corne- with the iire wood, he had
!jnst time to Chamber up and gain his m
porary place of refuge W hen they broke in.
With thrubhing heart he listened to
/ their threats, their cries of anger, their
onths. lIc hcarl them asking if it would
not be best TO shoot down upon him, and
All him in his lair But General Duff
/ bawlcd out, "No no mot fer hundred
thousand pounds lie must be taken
alive! lie cannot escape us; pull down
the brick work, and he is ours!' They
then set to, and worked hotly; and hat
with the knocking and hammelng, and
crushing and shouting, there was such an
| uproar as was never heard before in poor
Miss Sally Carmody's lodgings. The
bricks being solidly built AMI plastcre J, it
was not as easy aS they had anticipated
to tear them away. AMI when at last
they did effect their purpose, their sup.
posed prisoner had again banked them
how, was plainly 10 be seen.
While they were uprootng the bricks
that screened him from them, he. seeing,
or rather feeling that there was no hearth
stone under his feet, had conceived the
hope that by cutting away the floor he
might drop down in the room below, and
50 have another change of getting off.
With the hatchet he had caught up, he
felt to work, the noise he made being
completely drowned by the uproar with
out and some minutes before their object
was effected, he landed in the room be-
low.
Instantly the alarm was given by the
soldiers nearest the hearth place Some
Of their number remained above, while
the rest hurried down to get INTO the
room below. But here was another
delay, Tor the woman who occupied it
a good Protestant, rs several Of them
knew, and therefore not to be suspected
of harboring a French SPY C'or such they
declared the fugitive TO bc)-was absent.
and the door was locked. Some, who
had hurried round to the back of the
house, iounl the window of this room
fast holted on the inside, and there was
no other outl't from It.
With IA shout they announced their
certainty that the Frcnchmaa was still IN
/ the house, caught in hls own trap SO
they called Tor II crowhar to break open
the door and sciz, him at last Some
| how, none OF them vcntured to flllov him
through the hole he had made through
the floor AMI ceiling. They knew he
must he armed-ihey had abundant proof
Of his energy and desperation; and the
bravest man that ever stepped might well
be par !oned for not adopting means of
descent sure to be fatal TO himself.
But u,t rs the crowbar was about TO
be put into roqmslion. there WAS cry
of ''.Stop. stop!" from female voice
in the crowd, and presently little wo.
man, greatly h1rried and excited came
elbowing her way through the crowd
towards them. son, General, honey :"
she cried, s. sure ycu won't br,ak open
my little room have the key some.
where-only wait one mint! !" And the
little clear-starchcr fnmbled desperately
in her pockets and in the bosom of her
dress, vowing the while, as well as she
coulSspcak, that it was ''the Lord sent
her back from her errand in time to pre-
vent her little place from being sm ,shed y
| Still the poor creature was SO frightened
and confused that it was not until the
General losing all patience, Ind again
called for the crowblr, that the key at
length made its appearance in answer to
a deSparng dive INTO the depths of n
capacious side.pocket.
1t was snatched from her, the door
was flung open, and the men poured in.
In moment every crook and Granny was
ian acked, in vain! There was no trace
OF the fugitive, and they were c,mpletely
at fault. TIL wind)w shat and hofed
on the inside, precuded any idea of
escape IN Il at direction the fire cheerly
burning in the large CRATE as effectually
proved that he could not have ascended
the chimney he was nowhere in the
room, yet there was plain to the bcholders
the aperture in the ceiling by which he
Lad got down. And louder than the cries
Of the angry soldiers were those of the
little clear starcher. whose apartment had
been SO unceremoniously disfigured. The
would lie cap,ors were baflled by the devil
! himself.
Bat the Evil One had had no need.
even were lie so inclined, to interfere in
the matter. The little Protestant clear
starcher had contrived very cleverly to
outwit the soldiery That she was odd
in her ways is certain; for while every
man, woman and child, except herself,
were in commolion on the arrival of the
military, she remained mt her wash tub.
rubbing away, and lis eninT 10 the unroar