CLEVELAND.  The wench has betrayed me.

ROSE.  You never spoke a word to Bridget.  I was the only person you saw.

CLEVELAND.  You!

ROSE.  Even I. Did I act it to the life?

CLEVELAND.  Caught!  Tricked!  Fool!  By—!  Madam, this is a farce.

ROSE.  Sir, I know it, but it has been played out, and you unwittingly have acted the clown.

ELSWORTH.  I am confounded.

CLEVELAND.  The end is not yet.  I refuse to be governed by a forced construction to a promise which I meant to apply differently.  The rebel is still my prisoner.  He is surrounded.

ROSE.  If your promise is not observed to the letter, I’ll proclaim you through the army.  I’ll degrade you in the eyes of every English officer and gentleman in the land.  You disgrace your sword, sir, by this very hesitation.  Your bitter, unsoldierly, and dishonourable hatred and persecution of an honourable prisoner, drove me to an extremity which nothing but a question of life or death could have persuaded me to undertake.  My womanly modesty I was forced to outrage.  You compelled me to stoop to things which I abhorred.  But I have a brother who is an English officer; a husband who is an American one.  Be careful, sir, in what way you use my name in connection with this night’s work, for, be assured, they will not fail to punish a ribald, a slanderous, or a libertine tongue.  Consent to Captain Armstrong’s release, and your discomfiture remains a secret; refuse, and with one word, I’ll have all our guests upon the spot and a public confession.

CLEVELAND.  It’s absurd to suppose that I’m to be bound by such figments as you have woven.  The thing is too ridiculous!

ROSE.  You acknowledged the binding nature of your promise, when you attempted, with such heartless cruelty, to entrap the Captain into a marriage with a servant.  How would that story sound, think you?  And what would be said of the sagacity and discernment of an officer who could allow such a deceit to be practised upon him as I practised upon you?  Dear me!  I think, Major, that you are in a quandary.

METCALF. [Aside.] In a ditch!

ROSE.  We await your decision.  Shall the Captain be free and this little jest go no further?

CLEVELAND.  Miss Elsworth—­

ROSE.  Excuse me if I assist your memory—­Mrs. Armstrong.

CLEVELAND.  Madam, I yield to a woman.  You fight with weapons I do not understand—­

ROSE.  With wit, eh?

CLEVELAND. [Aside.] There is no hope for me.  She has me at every point.  I may as well yield with what grace I can. [Aloud.] Miss Elsworth, I am at your mercy.  May not this night’s work be forgotten?  Captain Armstrong, I swore if ever I caught you, that you should pay dearly for that daring trick of yours—­that bold capture of a fellow-officer, sleeping by my very side—­but this lady has checkmated me.

WALTER.  Checkmated you, sir, and mated me.