Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-15
. CHAPTER XVII.

ments, Charles said Sir Evelyn.
 CHAPTER XVII.
 which Anne returned that anx- ious fall-a Virginia whose - heart beat with the north, where Howe was weaving his famous | cord to encircle the throat of the mon ster rebellion. Pastoral life had ended l abruptly; the golden age had become one of iron. 'sAnd all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, Gladden. Hall suffered with the /rest l Colonel Tillotson was much away on affairs of the committee of safety or at l Williamsburg conferring with his ex- cellency Governor Henry, and the | looms which wove at all turned out cloth for Continental uniforms. Across the plant rows, where the negroes hood, | GrOam, the overseer, with coWhide rln- der his arm and his old Fontenoy bell mouth tower musket strapped on his back, still walked his horse, with fer ret eyes under his broad brimmed hat But there was little leaf raised, and the wharfs at the foot of the lawn were overgrown with weeds
 Inside the great house there were the same, candle lighted dining room, the high backed chairs, the tall, cumbrous
 clock, the portraits, the polished side board refiecting the slender stemmed glasses. But the meals were silent.
 Anne's trouble hung over the house hold in a shadow that was not Tighten ed by the presence of vaster ones near at hand. She had sorroWed with that
 fostering sorrow that is self accnsatory. And to know that never so few, aware of her part in that Philadelphia scene, believed her to have done heroic thing was like an added death to her, For a time she had lied for refuge to
 her old passion for the cause. But the effort failed.
 One day early in the new year, when the world was dusted with delicate frost, like seed pearl, Colonel Tillotson brought to Gladden. Hall the news of how 'sthe old fox of Mount Vernon" by a willy double across the icy Delaware, had taken the Hessians at Trenton. Anne heard it apathetically. To her despair, victory and defeat spelled the same. When the door closed upon her, the colonel looked at his wife silently. ssAnd she still believes in hiln!" #
 / 4sAs she believes in us,, replied the lady softly. Colonel" she said keenly,
 you have heard news.'"'
 'Aye'' he answered after a pause, II have. A reply came to MT. Henry's confidential inquiries today. There is no doubt that Armand is the same prisoner who escaped from the Ouch ess of Gordon off Amboy last August" :" Thank Godv' breathed Mrs Tillot- son ferventiy. .T am glad. can't help | it."
 1 ssAnne had better not know. Twill
 do her no possible good
 Colonel" said the lady decisively, 1 sin this I must have my way. II am going to- tell her just as fast as I can l She rose. laid aside her knitting, took
 up candle and left him standing dubi-
 ously before the fire.
 The light came back to Anne like the I spring sun. The great horror was gone, l and in spite of the wars gloom Glad
 den Hall grew more cheerful again. I She devoured the columns of the Ga
 zettes and read eagerly letters which I came to Henry from abroad. I These told her how the Reprisal,
 lodging the British sloops of war, had
 landed Benjamin Franklin safely at I Nantes, of his meeting there with Beau marchais and of his reception in Paris I at the little hotel in the Rue Vieille du
 Temple, where a mercantile sign of
 ''Roderique Hortalez & Co.," hid a pleas
 ant conspiracy whose object was the I ican colonists, and whose silent part
 ners were prime minister and king.
 Somewhere, she thought, there in his
 own land perhaps Armand was safe, I not believing in her, but free and un- condemned
 l The sound of war came nearer when I HoWe's fleet sailed into the Chesapeake and. when Henry, summoned in haste from Hanover, called out the militia, I She watched them march through Will l hamsburg, sixty four companies strong, ! but the fleet and the army it carried sailed on to beat back Washington at I Brandywine. to enter Philadelphia and I turn the grave town into an orgy of I Tory rejoicing. So the months passed in alternate
 hope and despair. Spring unfurled,
 summer dropped its blooms, autumn
 singed glebe and copse snow fell and purified the earth stains. And at last 1 Virginia knew that Burgoyne had been l entrapped in the northern forests; that Philadelphia had been evacuated; that I the cord which was to encircle the I throat of the rebellion had snapped;
 that France had recognized independ-
 ence and made treaty of alliance with
 the United States.
 | There followed a closer campaign l when Lord Germaine, the kings war l minister having failed to Strangle the