both; the extremes meet always most readily: and by reducing your voice, and increasing your bulk at the same time, I shall be able to bring you to a natural and healthy condition."

"Vat you mean?" demanded Armand, with a look of mixed astonishment and indignation, as he drew away from the familiar grasp which Porgy had taken upon his shoulder.

"I'll tell you: you don't seem to have had a dinner for some time back. Your jaws are thin, your complexion mealy, and your belly-what there is of it-is gaunt as a greyhound's. I'll help to replenish it. Tom, bring out the hoecake and that bit of shoulder, boy. You'll find it in the tin box, where I left it. Now, my friend, wait for the negro; he'll be here in short order, and I shall then assist you, as I said before, to increase your body and diminish your voice: the contrast is too great between them—it is unnatural, unbecoming, and must be remedied.”

Armand, annoyed by the pertinacity, not less than by the manner of Porgy, who, once aroused, now held on to him all the while he spoke, soon ceased to laugh as he had done previously; and, not understanding onehalf of Porgy's speech, and at a loss how to take him, for the gourmand was eminently good-natured in his aspect, he repeated the question

"Vat you sall say, my friend?"

"Tom's coming with ham and hoecake-both good, I assure you, for I have tried them within the hour; you shall try them also. I mean first to feed you-and by that means increase your bulk-and then to flog you, and so diminish your voice. You have too little of the one, and quite too much of the other."

A crowd had now collected about the two, of whom, not the least ready and resolute were the men of Marion. As soon as Armand could be made to understand what was wanted of him, he drew back in unmeasured indignation and dismay.

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"I shall fight wid de gentilmans and officer, not wid you, sir," was his reply, with some show of dignity, to

the application of Porgy. A hand was quietly laid on his shoulder, and his eye turned to encounter the glance of Major Singleton.

"I am both, sir, and at your service, Colonel Armand, in this very quarrel, though, in justice, you owe the right to Mr. Porgy, who also seeks it. You waived

your rank when you ridiculed the private, and put yourself out of the protection of your epaulet. Conceding you the point, however, permit me to repeat, sir, that I am at your service."

"But, sare, vat you sall be name?”

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Singleton-Major Singleton, of the brigade of Colonel Marion, who will answer for my rank, as well as my honour."

for

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But, sare, I sall not laugh at de gentilmans."

"It matters not-will you compel me to disgrace you, sir?" was the stern reply.

The scene and disputation now grew exceedingly warm, and the uproar reaching head-quarters, soon brought out the commander-in-chief. By this time, Armand's corps had clustered about their commander, and Singleton was surrounded, in like manner, by his own little squad from the Cypress. Swords were already drawn, and Humphries, Davis, and the rest, not forgeting Lance Frampton, with rifles and sabres ready, were each facing some particular foe, when the stern voices of the general officers called for silence, and the drum rolled in obedience to their commands, calling the several squads to their appointed stations. The affray was thus prevented, which, a moment before, seemed inevitable. Such is military subordination. Gates, with the leading officers, again returned to the conference, which had been highly animated and important before this interruption.

°°

CHAPTER XX.

"The evening clouds are thick with threat of storm;
The night grows wild: the waters champ and rave,
As if they clamoured for some destined prey."

THE reader will scarcely believe, knowing as he does the great achievements of General Marion at the South throughout the revolution, that his proffer of service on this occasion was not so agreeable to General Gates. Yet so we have it, on the authority of history. That gentleman partook largely of the spirit which circulated so freely in his army; and the uncouth accoutrements, the bare feet, and the tattered garments of the motley assemblage of men and boys, half armed, which the Swamp Fox had brought with him to do the battles of liberty, provoked his risibility along with that of his troops. The personal appearance of Marion himself was as little in his favour. Diffident even

to shyness, there was little that was prepossessing in his manners. He was awkward and embarrassed in the presence of strangers: and though singularly cool and collected with the necessity and the danger, he was hardly the man to command the favourable consideration of a superficial judge-one of mediocre ability, such as General Gates undoubtedly was. The very contrast between them was enough for the latter. Built, himself, on a superb scale, the movement, the look, the deportment of Gates, all bespoke the conscious great man. Marion, on the other hand, small in person, lame of a leg, with a downcast eye, and hesitating manners, was a cipher in the estimation of the more imposing personage who looked upon him. And then the coarse clothes the odd mixture of what was once a uniform, with such portions of his dress as necessity had supplied, and which never could become so-altogether of

fended the nice taste of one rather solicitous than otherwise of the symmetries of fashion. Nothing, therefore, but a well-regulated sense of politeness, formed closely upon the models of foreign service, prevented the generalissimo from laughing outright at the new auxiliaries now proffered to his aid. But, though he forbore to offend in this manner, he did not scruple to lay before Marion his objections to the proposed junction on this very ground. The shallow mind could not see that the very poverty, the miserably clad and armed condition of Marion's men, were the best pledges that could be given for their fidelity. Why should they fight in rags for a desperate cause, without pay or promise, but that a high sense of honour and of country was the impelling principle? The truth must be spoken and the Partisan of Carolina, the very stay of its hope for so long a season-he who, more than any other man, had done so much towards keeping alive the fires of liberty and courage there, until they grew into a bright, extending, unquenchable flamewas very civilly bowed out of the army, and sent back to his swamps upon a service almost nominal.

"Our force is sufficient, my dear colonel," was the conclusion of the general-"quite sufficient; and you can give us little if any aid by direct co-operation. Something you may do, indeed-yes-by keeping to the swamps, and furnishing us occasional intelligence -picking off the foragers, and breaking up the commu

nications."

"My men are true, your excellency," was the calm reply; "they desire to serve their country. It is the general opinion that you will need all the aid that the militia of the state can afford."

"The general opinion, my dear colonel, errs in this, as it does in the majority of other cases. We shall have a force adequate to our objects quite as soon as a junction can be formed with Major-general Caswell. Could you procure arms, and the necessary equipments, and attach your force with his-"

"I understand your excellency," was the simple answer, as Gates hinted his true objections in the last sentence; but, save the slight compression of his lips, usually parted otherwise, no trace of emotion besides, followed upon the countenance of the speaker.

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My men," he continued, "are, some of them, of the very best families in the country, homeless now, and robbed of all by their enemies. They are not the men to fight less earnestly on that account, nor will their poverty and rags hinder them from striking a good blow, when occasion serves, against the invader to whom they owe them."

Gates was sufficiently a tactician to see that the pride of Marion was touched with the unjust estimate which had been made of his men, and he strove to remove the impression by a show of frankness.

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But, you see, my dear colonel, that though your men may fight like very devils, nothing can possibly keep the continentals from laughing at them. We can't supply your people; and so long as they remain as they are, so long will they be a laughing stock-so long will there be uproar and insubordination. We are quite too delicately situated now to risk any thing with the army; we are too nigh the enemy, and they have been too stinted. To deny them to laugh, is to force them to rebel; we can only remove the cause of laughter, and, in this way, defeat the insubordination which undue merriment, sternly and suddenly checked, would certainly bring about."

Gates had made the best of his case, and Marion, with few words, obeyed the opinion, from which, however, he mentally withheld all his assent. He contented himself, simply, with stating his own, and the desire of his men, to serve the country by active operation in the best possible way. Gates replied to this in a manner sufficiently annoying to his hearer, but which had subsequently its own adequate rebuke.

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Any increase of force, my dear colonel, would be perfectly unnecessary after my junction with the troops I daily look for. Caswell will bring me all the North