He took the girl by the shoulders.

She was a pretty, golden-headed creature, with soft blue eyes that looked up entreatingly, piteously into the face of the dragoon.

He leered upon her, his eyes aglow, took her chin in his hand, and set her shuddering by his brutal kiss.
"It's an earnest," he said, smiling grimly.

"Let that quiet you, little rebel, till I've done with these rogues." And he swung away again, leaving her faint and trembling in the arms of her anguished mother.

His men stood, grinning, awaiting orders, the two prisoners now fast pinioned.
"Take them away.