'No, you can't, Margaret. No one can who did not see him then. I

could hardly lift myself up to go and meet him--everything seemed

so to reel around me all at once. And when I got to him, he did

not speak, or seem surprised to see me there, more than three

miles from home, beside the Oldham beech-tree; but he put my arm

in his, and kept stroking my hand, as if he wanted to soothe me

to be very quiet under some great heavy blow; and when I trembled

so all over that I could not speak, he took me in his arms, and

stooped down his head on mine, and began to shake and to cry in a

strange muffled, groaning voice, till I, for very fright, stood

quite still, and only begged him to tell me what he had heard.

And then, with his hand jerking, as if some one else moved it

against his will, he gave me a wicked newspaper to read, calling

our Frederick a "traitor of the blackest dye," "a base,

ungrateful disgrace to his profession." Oh! I cannot tell what

bad words they did not use. I took the paper in my hands as soon

as I had read it--I tore it up to little bits--I tore it--oh! I

believe Margaret, I tore it with my teeth. I did not cry. I could

not. My cheeks were as hot as fire, and my very eyes burnt in my

head. I saw your father looking grave at me. I said it was a lie,

and so it was. Months after, this letter came, and you see what

provocation Frederick had. It was not for himself, or his own

injuries, he rebelled; but he would speak his mind to Captain

Reid, and so it went on from bad to worse; and you see, most of

the sailors stuck by Frederick.

'I think, Margaret,' she continued, after a pause, in a weak,

trembling, exhausted voice, 'I am glad of it--I am prouder of

Frederick standing up against injustice, than if he had been

simply a good officer.' 'I am sure I am,' said Margaret, in a firm, decided tone.

'Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is

still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly

used-not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more

helpless.' 'For all that, I wish I could see Frederick once more--just once.

He was my first baby, Margaret.' Mrs. Hale spoke wistfully, and

almost as if apologising for the yearning, craving wish, as

though it were a depreciation of her remaining child. But such an

idea never crossed Margaret's mind. She was thinking how her

mother's desire could be fulfilled.




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