pardoned, or even never brought to trial.


CHAPTER X.

CONCLUSION.


This is the end of my story. But, like all stories, it requires that
some satisfaction should be given to the reader in regard to the
dramatic proprieties. We have our several heroes to dispose of. Phelim
Murray and Hugh Riley, who had both been arrested by the Council to
satisfy public opinion as to their complicity in the plot for the
escape, were both honorably discharged,--I suppose being found entirely
innocent! Roger Skreene swore himself black and blue, as the phrase is,
that he had not the least suspicion of the business in which he was
engaged; and so he was acquitted! I am also glad to be able to say that
our gallant Cornet Murray, in the winding-up of this business, was
promoted by the Council to a captaincy of cavalry, and put in command of
Christiana Fort and its neighborhood, to keep that formidable Quaker,
William Penn, at a respectful distance. It would gratify me still more,
if I could find warrant to add, that the Cornet enjoyed himself, and
married the lady of his choice, with whom he has, unknown to us, been
violently in love during these adventures, and that they lived happily
together for many years. I hope this was so,--although the chronicle
does not allow one to affirm it,--it being but a proper conclusion to
such a romance as I have plucked out of our history.

And so I have traced the tradition of the Cave to the end. What I have
been able to certify furnishes the means of a shrewd estimate of the