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Rh man, and hot with zeal, is this: that the easier you take things, the easier things will take you. And if you won't trust the advice of a man of my experience—why, ask the parson there, and take his."

"Gad's my life, sir; but I can take no man's advice who bids me do aught but what seems to me my duty!" cried the young lieutenant with fire. He was incensed at the laxity of morals, which he now perceived to have permeated to every class of society in the neighborhood. "I'm here, under the orders of his Majesty—the stringent orders—to put down smuggling and the wrecking connected with it. And what I'm sent to do, I'll do, please God, no matter what the difficulties in my way may be, nor what the dangers!"

His words were followed by a dead, an ominous silence.

The day was dying now, and the red fire that glowed and flickered in the wide hearth showed strange lights and shadows on the painted ceiling, the painted and paneled walls, the long spindle-legged sideboard, where more wine was waiting for the jovial band at the table.