He pressed his teeth together,
and resolved to make that side pay as dearly as lay in him to make it,
for what he had lost of his wife's love, and for what she had lost of
her probity.
And the man himself, Falconer! 'Twas he that commanded this night's
wild attempt, if she had spoken truly. Well, Falconer should not
succeed this night, and Philip, with a kind of bitter elation, thanked
God 'twas through him that the attempt should be the more utterly
defeated. He patted his horse--a faithful beast that had known but a
short rest since it had travelled over the same road in the opposite
direction--and used all means to keep it at the best pace compatible
with its endurance. Forward it sped, in long, unvarying bounds, seeing
the road in the dark, or rather in the strange dusky light yielded by
the snow-covered earth and seeming rather to originate there than to
be reflected from the impenetrable obscurity overhead.
From the attempt which he was bent upon turning into a ridiculous
abortion, if it lay in the power of man and horse to do so, Philip's
thoughts went to the object of that attempt, Washington himself. He
was thrilled at once with a greater love and admiration for that firm
soul maintaining always its serenity against the onslaughts of men and
circumstance, that soul so unshakable as to seem in the care of Fate
itself. Capture Washington! Philip laughed at the thought.
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