The deputy and his posse, who had advanced to the assistance of their
revealed chief, met with no resistance. They had evidently, as if with
one accord, drawn away from Judge Beeswinger, leaving a cleared space
around him, and regarded their captors with sullen contemptuous silence.
It was only broken by Colonel Starbottle:--
"Your duty commands you, sir, to use all possible diligence in bringing
us before the Federal judge of this district--unless your master in
Washington has violated the Constitution so far as to remove him, too!"
"I understand you perfectly," returned Judge Beeswinger, with unchanged
composure; "and as you know that Judge Wilson unfortunately cannot be
removed except through a regular course of impeachment, I suppose you
may still count upon his Southern sympathies to befriend you. With that
I have nothing to do; my duty is complete when my deputy has brought you
before him and I have stated the circumstances of the arrest."
"I congratulate you, sir," said Captain Pinckney, with an ironical
salute, "on your prompt reward for your treachery to the South, and your
equally prompt adoption of the peculiar tactics of your friends in the
way in which you have entered this house.
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