hasn't gone with young Armstrong, to join the army.

ELSWORTH. Young Armstrong?

METCALF. To be sure, sir. He's turned out a fiery rebel, after
all--and a captain, to boot.

ELSWORTH. Heaven bless me, but this is very sad. A promising youth
to be led astray! Dear me, dear me! Rose, I am very sorry to say that
this is certainly your fault. You have filled him with your wild,
radical, and absurd heroic rhapsodies. You have made him disloyal to
his King. You have put a dagger in his hand, to stab at the heart of
his country. Alas! I see what the end will be--disgrace and death,
ignominy and the gallows.

[ROSE _walks back to the window_.

KATE. Mr. Metcalf, how are your little charges? How flourishes the
birch?

METCALF. They've all caught the spirit of the rebellion, marm, and are
as untractable as bulls. Bless you, there isn't a lad over fourteen
who hasn't abandoned his horn-book and gone off with Armstrong. And
as for the girls, they're greater rebels than the boys. What do you
think, marm? The other day they came marching in procession, and
demanded to know on which side I was. I said "God save the King;"
whereupon they fell upon me like a swarm of bees, armed with a
thousand pins, and so pinched, and pricked, and pulled me, that there
wasn't a square inch of my skin that wasn't as full of holes as a
ten-year old pin-cushion. And I do believe they never would have