If thou keepest thine own counsel, the Captain
may yet praise thee for a vigilant sentinel; though Heaven forgive him the
wrong he will do the truth!
"Perhaps a little anger at unjust suspicions may have prompted more than
the matter needed, Faith, when I taxed thee with the love of backbiting,
and I do now recall that word; though I will ever deny that aught more,
than some wandering recollection concerning the hunt of this day, hath
come over my thoughts, and perhaps made me even forgetful that it was
needful to be silent at the postern; and therefore, on the truth of a
Christian man, I do forgive thee, the----"
But Faith was already out of sight and out of hearing. Dudley himself, who
began to have certain prickings of conscience concerning the ingratitude
he had manifested to one who had taken so much interest in his reputation,
now bethought him seriously of that which remained to be done. He had much
reason to suspect that there was less of the night before him than he had
at first believed, and he became in consequence more sensible of the
necessity of making some report of the events of his watch.
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