I am white, and endivor to maintain white feelings.«
    »This is all unintelligible to me,« answered Mabel. »What is right in King
George, it would seem ought to be right in King Lewis.«
    »The King of France's real name is Caput,« observed Cap, with his mouth full
of venison. »I once carried a great scholar, as a passenger, and he told me that
these Lewises thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth were all humbugs, and that
the men's real name was Caput, which is French for foot, meaning that they ought
to be put at the foot of the ladder, until ready to go up to be hanged.«
    »Well this does look like being given to scalping, as a nat'ral gift,«
Pathfinder remarked, with the air of surprise with which one receives a novel
idea, »and I shall have less compunction than ever in sarving ag'in the
miscreants, though I can't say I ever yet felt any worth naming.«
    As all parties, Mabel excepted, seemed satisfied with the course the
discussion had taken, no one appeared to think it necessary to pursue the
subject. The trio of men, indeed, in this particular, so much resembled the
great mass of their fellow creatures, who usually judge of character equally
without knowledge and without justice, that we might not have thought it
necessary to record the discourse, had it not some bearing in its facts, on the
incidents of the legend, and in its opinions on the motives of the characters.
    Supper was no sooner ended, than the Serjeant dismissed his guests, and then
held a long and confidential dialogue with his daughter. He was little addicted
to giving way to the gentler emotions, but the novelty of his present situation
awakened feelings that he was unused to experience. The soldier, or the sailor,
so long as he acts under the immediate supervision of a superior, thinks little
of the risks he runs, but the moment he feels the responsibility of command, all
the hazards of his undertaking begin to associate themselves in his mind, with
the chances of success or failure. While he dwells less on his own personal
danger, perhaps, than when that is the principal consideration, he has more
lively general perceptions of all the risks, and submits more to the influence
of the feelings which doubt creates. Such was now the case with Serjeant Dunham,
who, instead of looking forward to victory as certain, according to his usual
habits, began to feel the possibility that he might be parting with